For every person reading this brief preview, probably 18 others quickly skipped over it, busy trying to survive in the here and now. This makes sense.

Even when it gets attention, it's often loaded with rhetoric and emotion, discussed in tones of enthusiasm (we should do this, the students deserve it!) and vague stereotypes (we had a video call with a classroom in Peru last week, if that doesn't It's global, I don't know what it is).

In high-stakes assessment environments prevalent in many formal learning institutions, the focus is on standards and mastery of standards. “Globalization” is a superb pie-in-the-sky idea that comes to mind only when watching one of the “Shift Happens” videos on YouTube or daydreaming on the way home after a challenging day at work. classroom, where there is time to reflect honestly, in solitude, on the kind of education that teachers can only dream of providing to students.

Now, more than a decade into the 21st century, there is tremendous pressure to “globalize” education. What exactly this means is not universally agreed upon.

Does Globalization influence Education?

In education, globalization is the natural macro consequence of a significant micro location.

Globalizing a curriculum is not (initially) what it might seem. To go global, start small, with yourself.

Now, more than a decade into the 21st century, there is tremendous pressure for education to “go global.” What exactly this means is not universally agreed upon. In major global markets, the business world went global decades ago, expanding beyond national markets in search of more diverse audiences and greater profits.

And while major players in the business world continue to experiment and find their way in markets whose culture and purchasing practices differ from national ones, the field of education has been slow to follow suit.

This is made even stranger because of the relationship between education and economic systems. If one of the goals of education is to prepare a “workforce,” the more parallel the education system is with the workforce, the less “waste” there might be. While industrialism, commercialism, religion and technology spread beyond political and geographical boundaries, education lags uncomfortably behind.

The most surprising thing here might be the shocking power of juxtaposition: education stakeholders everywhere are fighting for change, a significant and sustained movement in a new direction, yet overall, education has made relatively little progress in comparison. with tangent fields, including science, technology, entertainment and business.

In education, somewhere there is a bond, probably rooted in sentimentality and disconnection. The learning process has become so culturally removed from the communities it is designed to serve, that families are no longer sure what a quality education looks like, resulting in blind trust in an education system that struggles to plan, measure and remediate learning, while families remain on the sidelines, unsure of their role.

Defining Global Education

Globalization is less a singular initiative than the effect of a thousand initiatives, many of which are currently underdeveloped. In defining a “global curriculum,” one issue that must be faced is the problem of perspective: Do we all have the same definition of “global,” and do we understand the word “curriculum” on common ground?

In short, let us agree that, in this context, “global” is a word that describes anything that is truly global in its consciousness, interdependence, and application. Immediately, the scale of any such effort should seem at best intimidating and at worst impossible with any degree of intimacy. Beyond the geological and atmospheric, few things can remain truly “global.” Global implies a scale that is not only ambitious and comprehensive, but truly inclusive by definition. Things cannot be “partially global” any more than lights can be partially on.

So if “global” is totally interdependent and inclusive, what about the curriculum part? For the purposes of this text, we will say that a curriculum is intentionally designed with content and learning experiences. It can be more or less planned and structured, created from a curriculum map into units, lessons and activities, or be much more open as “learning paths”, each being a different style of curriculum. To clarify, learning standards like the Common Core are not the curriculum, but rather ingredients with which you can create your own.

So what does a “global curriculum” require and entail? And how do we get there from here?

The term “global” tends to have business, marketing and technological connotations, which is always dangerous. The ambition of business leaders, technology inventors, and scientists shows less respect for the practical than for the possible. While exciting in theory, it exhibits an arrogance that should serve as a warning to fields with much more to lose than money or shareholders.