Federal

Group Promotes Global Studies in Curriculum

By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo — March 01, 2005 4 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Deputy Managing Editor Karen Diegmueller contributed to this report.

While policymakers and business leaders have lamented American students’ inadequate knowledge about the world, a growing number of schools around the United States are beginning to infuse a global perspective into the curriculum and classroom activities.

Some 300 educators committed to such an approach gathered here Feb. 17-20 at the International Studies Schools Association conference. They shared ideas and resources for teaching children about other regions and countries, including their geography, history, politics, and culture.

The 4-year-old ISSA, a network of K-12 schools housed at the University of Denver, has been working to expand the number of teachers and schools that incorporate international content into the curriculum, as well as the quantity and quality of materials to help them do so.

BRIC ARCHIVE

“We want to help bolster teachers’ content knowledge … and help them to become better conduits of international education in their classrooms,” said Mark Montgomery, an associate dean at the university’s Center for Teaching International Relations and an organizer of the conference. “Many teachers [who take an international approach] are feeling alone and isolated,” he said. “Here they can connect with those teachers who are doing this.”

No Add-Ons

Much of the conference focused on the progress made by this academic approach. An increasing number of schools are adopting an international theme, experts here said, and at least 18 states have initiated policies that encourage or require greater attention to instruction in world history and culture, foreign languages, and the interactions between the United States and other countries.

But as academic standards and accountability gain greater influence over curricular decisions, and schools pay more attention to the core subjects that are tested under federal and state school improvement initiatives, such changes have proved difficult, said Michael H. Levine, the executive director of the National Campaign for International Education in the Schools. The campaign is an arm of the New York City-based Asia Society.

“The curriculum in the ‘Leave No Child Behind’ world requires that global education not be a separate subject,” Mr. Levine told the attendees. The international content in the curriculum, he said, “has to be transformative, not additive.”

Educators who have helped their schools go through that transformation said the process has been complicated, but beneficial for both teachers and students.

“Having staff integrate global awareness within their mandated content—while making time for two hours of literacy a day and 90 minutes of math a day—is a challenge,” said Myrna Meehan, the principal of the Winding Springs Elementary Center for Leadership and Global Economics, a school in Charlotte, N.C.

The effort has paid off for Winding Springs, which was set to close because of low academic performance before it was restructured as a magnet school. It now draws some 650 students from around the Charlotte-Mecklenburg district and has moved off the state list of low-performing schools.

The challenges are exacerbated, though, by the tendency of schools in this country to focus exclusively on the U.S. perspective, as well as by high-stakes standardized testing in core subjects, a lack of instructional materials, and limited classroom time, said Catherine W. Scherer, an educator and the president of Simon and Barklee Inc., a Langley, Wash.-based publisher of books that have international themes related to content in core subjects.

“But the reality is that there are 6 billion people in the world, and 95 percent of them don’t live here,” she pointed out to the more than 50 participants in a session on internationalizing the curriculum. “Our students have to have an awareness and acknowledgment of the world beyond the confines of [their own] city, state, and country.”

Beyond Food and Flags

In more than two dozen sessions, the conference offered practical advice for teachers to move beyond the tradition in many schools of simply highlighting the food, flags, and festivals of other regions and countries. Sessions on globalizing lessons in social studies, science, math, business education, physical education, language arts, and service learning were provided.

Ms. Scherer suggested that teachers “internationalize” their classrooms, using world maps, centers where students can research information about other countries, and daily routines, such as learning a foreign word each day, discussing current events around the world, or using metric measurements or currency conversions.

To do so, teachers themselves must gain greater knowledge and better understanding of the world, experts said.

“Know your subject matter,” urged Betsy Devlin-Foltz, the program director for the Longview Foundation. The Silver Spring, Md.-based organization, which was a sponsor of the conference, provides grants for teacher education and student workshops on international issues.

“Look for every opportunity,” she said, “to bring the global perspective to teaching.”

Related Tags:

Deputy Managing Editor Karen Diegmueller contributed to this report.
A version of this article appeared in the March 02, 2005 edition of Education Week as Group Promotes Global Studies in Curriculum

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Reading & Literacy Webinar
The Future of the Science of Reading
Join us for a discussion on the future of the Science of Reading and how to support every student’s path to literacy.
Content provided by HMH
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
College & Workforce Readiness Webinar
From Classrooms to Careers: How Schools and Districts Can Prepare Students for a Changing Workforce
Real careers start in school. Learn how Alton High built student-centered, job-aligned pathways.
Content provided by TNTP
Mathematics K-12 Essentials Forum Helping Students Succeed in Math

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Federal No 'Gender Ideology': Ed. Dept.'s New Focus for Mental Health Grants It Yanked
The Trump administration abruptly canceled $1 billion in mental health grants in April that it said reflected Biden-era priorities.
5 min read
Amelia, 16, sits for a portrait in a park near her home in Illinois on Friday, March 24, 2023. “We are so strong and we go through so, so much," says the teenage girl who loves to sing and wants to be a surgeon. Amelia has also faced bullying, toxic friendships, and menacing threats from a boy at school who said she “deserved to be raped."
The U.S. Department of Education has revealed new priorities for two mental health grants after it abruptly canceled awards the Biden administration made.
Erin Hooley/AP
Federal Trump Admin. Starts Moving CTE to Labor Dept. After Supreme Court Order
The Education Department put arrangements to move some of its programs on hold while court battles over downsizing played out.
4 min read
Students make measurements to wood to add to a tiny home project during their shop class at Carrick High School in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Dec. 13, 2022.
Students make measurements to wood to add to a tiny home project during their shop class at Carrick High School in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Dec. 13, 2022. The Trump administration is shifting management of career and technical education programs to the U.S. Department of Labor now that the Supreme Court have given the go-ahead to proceed with downsizing of the U.S. Department of Education.
Nate Smallwood for Education Week
Federal Hope Shattered for Laid-Off Ed. Dept. Staff After Supreme Court Order
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to proceed with 1,400 Education Department layoffs.
6 min read
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025.
Supporters hold signs and cheer Education Department employees as they leave after retrieving their personal belongings from the Education Department building in Washington on March 24, 2025. The Supreme Court on July 14, 2025, allowed the Trump administration to proceed with department layoffs that a lower-court judge had put on hold.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
Federal Trump Admin. Says Undocumented Students Can't Attend Head Start, Early College
The administration issued notices saying undocumented immigrants don't qualify for Head Start and some Education Department programs.
7 min read
Children play during aftercare for the Head Start program at Easterseals South Florida, an organization that gets about a third of its funding from the federal government, on Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami.
Children play during aftercare for the Head Start program at Easterseals South Florida, an organization that gets about a third of its funding from the federal government, on Jan. 29, 2025, in Miami. The Trump administration said Thursday that undocumented children are ineligible for Head Start and a number of other federally funded programs that the administration is classifying as similar to welfare benefits.
Rebecca Blackwell/AP