The State of Global Education ─ Learning With the World and Its People

A battle is being waged in classrooms and capitals around the world over the goals and objectives of the future of global education. While there is growing research in the area of global education, much remains to be uncovered, challenged, and learned through sound empirical research and conceptual explorations. What type of global citizens will schools promote? What types of policies, programs and instructional practices best promote effective global citizenship? Will global education curricula advance an unwavering loyalty to neoliberal ideologies and interests over the strengthening of human rights and the environmental health of our planet? This volume presents a series of research studies and innovative instructional practices centered on advancing global learning opportunities and literacies.

The authors in this volume initiate a much needed conversation on ways students in multiple contexts can and should learn with the world and its people. Part I addresses global education intheory, with a particular focus on development, intercultural competence, and global citizenship. Part II addresses educationalprograms and practices that foster global learning and action to help build a better future for all citizens of our planet – including experiential education, university initiatives, and conceptual approaches to teaching and learning. This scholarship spans four continents in a multitude of educational contexts – primary, secondary, and tertiary - each with a focus on a different dimension of the possibilities and pitfalls in teaching about and with the world and its people.

Brad Maguth is Assistant Professor in the Department of Curricular and Instructional Studies and Director, for the H.K. Barker Center for Economic Education at The University of Akron. Dr. Maguth served as Editor of New Directions in Social Education Research: The Influence of Technology and Globalization on the Lives of Students (Information Age Press, 2012).

Jeremy Hilburn, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, his alma mater. Jeremy’s recent scholarly work includes manuscripts inUrban Review, Journal of Social Studies Research, Social Studies Research and Practice, Theory and Research in Social Studies, and the Asian American education anthology.