Asia Society Official: Defining Global Competence Vital for Success
By Jeff Thomas
| |  |
| | Anthony Jackson is vice president of the Asia Society
in New York City and leader of the Partnership for Global
Learning. |
Several years ago, Anthony Jackson stood looking at a sparkling new skyline in the city of Shanghai and had an emotional reaction: “We are toast!”
His reaction was of viewing a futuristic part of the city that had been agricultural fields a decade earlier. He saw China as a country that had moved from the past into the future, a city that had been built in 10 years. But then Jackson had a second reaction: “Get a grip.” As an educator, he believed opportunity to change lay before him.
During a Thought Leader presentation on Friday at the AASA national conference, Jackson, vice president of the Asia Society in New York City and leader of the Partnership for Global Learning, described the emergence of a global curriculum as part of the small network of schools aimed toward developing a modern education.
The development of these schools is predicated upon three themes: consider how the world has changed and the impact of globalism; the existence of an emerging definition of global competence as it relates to student learning; and the development of an assessment system to measure global competence.
An important part of Jackson’s presentation described the current global environment. He portrayed it as a changing world where new demands were forcing development of needed skills, where success depends on an internationally competent workforce and where the nature of business is a “24-hour, 7-days-a- week, anywhere-at-any-time work world.”
Jackson tied this reality to the demographics of global population. He said 61 percent of the world’s population lives in Asia, and only five percent lives in the United States. The importance of developing global competence is not, however, limited to business and economics, he added.
National security, according to Jackson, is a critical driving force for development of global competency. A lack of understanding of other nations and their cultures is a significant threat. Jackson believes we must address this risk by sharply raising the level of foreign language being taught from kindergarten through college.
Students in the 21st century, Jackson contends, must be ready to work in a global world where they are buying and selling and managing or being managed by other people from other countries and cultures. Jackson stated, however, that currently our students are not ready.
“Six out of 10 students don’t know where Iraq is on a map,” he claimed. Teachers are not prepared to teach about Asia.
What should students know? Jackson presented a model -- the International Study Schools Network. ISSN schools serve poor and minority students. The ISSN schools outperform other schools with similar demographics. Jackson cited a 92 percent graduation rate, with 94 percent of the graduates going on to a college or university.
In order to be relevant, Jackson suggests that schools need to define success differently. He believes “content knowledge matters.” Students truly need to develop content knowledge, think critically in a discipline, and then connect that knowledge and thinking to a global context. The connection transcends the local to the global and the global to the local.
For example, Jackson described a school in Mathis, Texas, where a local welder articulated this connection by sharing with others that his main business was in India.
For students to be successful, said Jackson, their learning depends on four pillars: (1) investigate the world; (2) recognize perspectives; (3) communicate ideas; and (4) take action. Jackson believes students become much more engaged when they see they have the power to change their world and that even the most disadvantaged students have “the right to compete and collaborate on a global stage.”
As a way to measure student success, the ISSN schools are developing a Graduate Portfolio System that will require students to demonstrate global competence and college readiness. Jackson believes that these multiple measures are the direction education is headed with initiatives such as Race to the Top. The shift is toward broader knowledge and deeper thinking, similar to models in Finland and Singapore.
The initiatives are still a work in progress. Jackson described Ed Steps, supported by the Council of State School Officers as a clearinghouse for student work demonstrating global competence. Jackson suggests that education leaders consider sharing examples of student work on the website: www.edsteps.org.
“When curriculum is exciting to students, they can make a difference,” Jackson concluded.