Stringent immigration legislation in the late 19th and early 20th century limited the number of newcomers, heavily restricting those from southern and eastern Europe, China, and the rest of Asia and favoring northern European stock. It wasn't until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 that these quotas were removed and more immigrants began arriving from Asia, Africa, and South and Central America. Today, a diverse immigrant community in the United States includes representation from around the world and every continent. Spanish speakers account for almost 80 percent of all nonnative English speakers in the country; over 400 other languages and dialects represent the rest (U.S. Department of Education, as cited in Garcia, 2009).
Renewed diversity has also caused a backlash against pluralism. Far-right nationalist populism has returned to the mainstream of politics in Europe, the United States, and Latin America, fueled by anti-immigrant and anti-foreign tropes and corresponding with a rise in hate crimes against religious, racial, and ethnic minorities. Youth are coming of age at a time of two competing visions of the future: one that rejects pluralism and one that embraces and empowers indigenous, immigrant, and other cultural groups as equal contributors to a diverse democracy.
Borderless Threats
The sustainability of our planet—and all of us—depends on cooperation among nations and the ability of people across geographic, cultural, and political divides to effectively collaborate and find solutions. Take, for example, the issue of climate change—or what many circles now call the climate crisis. Scientists predict that global temperatures will reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels between 2030 and 2050 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2018). Though the impacts have been and will continue to be felt on all of Earth's ecosystems (e.g., extreme temperatures, heavy precipitation rates, extreme weather conditions, sea level change, species loss and extinction), future risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security, and economic growth can be mitigated if the warming levels out at 1.5 degrees.
Reducing the effects of climate change will involve multilevel and cross-sectoral actions; contributions of public and private funds; new government policies; and education, information, community, and technological approaches (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2018). The Paris Agreement, signed in 2016 and currently ratified by 125 nations, works on doing just that—by having nations agree to enact policy meant to limit greenhouse gas emissions and thereby curtail global temperature change (United Nations Climate Change, 2019).
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals identify 17 global challenges that countries around the world face, with ambitious targets for attaining those goals. Goals include the elimination of poverty and hunger, good health and well-being among all people, access to high-quality education, gender equality, access to clean water and sanitation, proliferation of affordable and clean energy, availability of decent work and economic growth, industrial growth, an emphasis on innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, growth of sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, protections for life below water and on land, and a strengthening of peace, justice, and institutions (United Nations, 2019).
Young people around the world are actively supporting these goals. The youth-led climate strikes in March and September of 2019, which has morphed into the weekly #FridaysforFuture movement to protest climate destruction, is but one example. Schools have an important role to play in helping students develop the skills, methods, and tools to advocate for a sustainable future.
Globally Competent Teaching and Learning: A Rigorous and Relevant Instructional Response
Against this backdrop, what outcomes should schools be striving for? Students need to develop a range of academic, social, and emotional competencies if they are to solve issues such as climate change, disease, and violent extremism that transcend national borders; live peacefully among neighbors in a culturally, politically, racially, ethnically, and religiously diverse society; and thrive in a global knowledge-based economy. Youth already know this; it's time for schools to catch up.
Instead of one-dimensional measures of student success, schools need to focus on fostering the cognitive, behavioral, and social-emotional attributes students will actually need to survive and thrive in the real world. As stated in the culminating report of the Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development (2019),
There is a remarkable confluence of experience and science on one point: Children learn best when we treat them as human beings, with social and emotional as well as academic needs…. Children require a broad array of skills, attitudes, character traits, and values to succeed in school, careers, and life…. These social, emotional, and academic capacities are increasingly demanded in the American workplace, which puts a premium on the ability to work in diverse teams, grapple with difficult problems, and adjust to rapid change. (p. 5)
Global competence is a framework that fits this bill and helps educators balance social-emotional and academic learning goals. It is the set of dispositions, knowledge, and skills needed to live and work in a diverse, global society. Multiple definitions and frameworks around global competence exist (e.g., Mansilla & Jackson, 2011; OECD, 2018; Reimers, 2009a; UNESCO, 2015), but they all coalesce around the following social-emotional, cognitive, and behavioral domains:
1 Social-emotional: Dispositions of empathy, perspective recognition, and appreciation for diverse cultures.
2 Cognitive: Understanding global issues and trends, critical thinking, and problem solving.
3 Behavioral: Intercultural communication and collaboration, communicating in multiple languages and taking action on issues of local and global importance.
Figure 1.1 provides definitions of these vital learning outcomes for students in today's interconnected world.
Figure 1.1. Global Competence Learning Outcomes
Social-Emotional
Outcome: Empathy
Definition: Identifying with others by seeing the world through their perspective.
Outcome: Perspective recognition
Definition: Recognizing that one's perspective is not universally shared and that others hold perspectives that may be vastly different. Identifying the various influences that shape these perspectives.
Outcome: Appreciation for diverse cultures
Definition: Acknowledging that the shared values, knowledge, and norms of a people or group vary and celebrating differences across an array of racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
* * *
Cognitive
Outcome: Global issues and trends
Definition: Understanding conditions and events pertinent to the lives of students, teachers, their local communities, country, and the wider world (e.g., environment, global health, human rights, economic and political development, world hunger, peace and conflict, racism, discrimination, and immigration).
Outcome: Critical thinking
Definition: Examining possibilities carefully, fairly, and constructively by using higher-order thinking skills such as applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information.
Outcome: