Part 1: The Beginning - Some Ideas for Global Citizenship

“A global citizen is adaptable,
open to new ideas,
able to be productive
in a variety of environments,
understands major events,
thinks globally on a daily basis,
and can converse
in foreign languages.
(Gundling, 2003, p.335).”

As an educator, you may be asking what does this “Global Citizenship” thing have to do with you? Or you may instinctively know – this means you! You know you are a Global Citizen. Then again, maybe you’re not exactly sure...?. Still at some level you must know “Global Citizenship” is important for your own education and our field of teaching and preparing students to live in a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected. Hopefully, after reading this you will start to see connections with your special teaching situation whether it’s here and now on this campus or in your home country teaching EFL.

This topic resonates across all education, K-12, universities, tech training, etc. here and around the world. However, in this paper I practically try to concentrate on my particular audience which is Adult ESL Students in Fremont, California. While my class might not be representative of all ESL classrooms, the ideas generated for this report can be changed to meet the needs of many other ESL situations.

Part of my becoming a Global Citizen is that I must communicate and be an advocate for new perspectives in ESL Education. So I am compelled to share my findings on the aforementioned topic with you. My goal here is to present my understanding of the concepts of Global Citizenship and apply it to the world of teaching English as a Second Language to Adult Immigrants in the U.S. And to show how I think this could benefit immigrants and society.

I also hope you will also begin to see how the concepts apply to you as a lifelong learner and as an educator. I believe incorporating Education for Global Citizenship concepts into your present circumstances can help remove barriers and explicitly recognize what immigrants, international students and even generation 1.5* students can bring to our educational institutions and communities. (*Generation 1.5 students are those that graduate from high school and enter college while still in the process of learning English.)

Why do educators need to know about Global Citizenship?

1. Educators need to respond to the needs of a new student-body in a globalizing world.

The speed and impact of globalizing forces is driving the need for a new lens on the world. In some sense, borders are becoming irrelevant. In another sense, borders are becoming more critical. Approximately one in eight people living in the United States are foreign born, that’s 37.5 million people nationwide. This is the highest level in 80 years. Well, interestingly, California’s entire population is 36 million. With one of the highest percentages of immigrants, more than 26% of Californians are foreign born. And some sources say that 43% speak a foreign language in California homes. (SF Chronicle, Sept 07)

2. The burden of immigrant integration is falling on education system and workplaces: English language is seen as the key. (The caveat here is that there is limited funding, support and resources for this catch-all!)

The U.S. has only “a patchwork system of immigrant integration services,” i.e. little or no formal immigrant integration policy. Such a casual policy has many risks: So is it an immigrant problem or a failure of government leadership? The government has consistently increased immigrant allowances (now 800,000 yearly), yet they don’t back up their entry allowances with positive immigration messages and support. New immigrants are not automatically eligible for Federal support, some functions related to new immigrants are “operationalized at the local level,” and there is increased spending in education (NCLB, Adult ESL, EL Civics). Programs and resources are not necessarily comprehensive, nor are they applied or available consistently. They are but small band-aids to address problems growing yearly in both depth and breadth.

3. Without some kind of integration outreach, there are unintended consequences that affect everyone.

A societal mismatch occurs. Immigrants are allowed legal (or illegal) entry but society doesn’t treat them well. In fact, we seem to be a nation of immigrants who don’t value immigrants. There’s a lot of blame on immigrants for economic and social problems. But the reality is our immigrant population is often underutilized, underserved, and undervalued. The following is just a list of risk possibilities, not necessarily the current reality. Is there something more you could add here?
Although, the USA has been “relatively successful” at integration in the past, it doesn’t mean we will be in the future. If an immigrant doesn’t become connected to the community, they will become a burden. If they are still thought of as separate and other, they will continue to think of themselves as separate and other. Recall what has been happening in the Clichy Subois area of Paris, France. If we leave integration to chance that could be us in the future. If we hope to one day avoid silos of immigrant communities connected by disenfranchisement, isolationism, and home grown terrorism, we need to do a better job of showing a constructive way forward for immigrants to exist and thrive in a new environment. We need to help them productively extend their existing skills locally, and provide them with important knowledge tools so they can affect sustainable change long term, either here or long distance, in their home countries.

Question:
Why do educators need to know about Global Citizenship?

Answer:
Education for Global Citizenship is one way to reach out to immigrants, value them, help activate ideas of civic engagement, to mitigate unintended consequences, and ensure a positive future outcome.