Creating the Global Classroom

The book examines how to begin to think like a global educator first by examining how our own histories and experiences have formed our own cultural and professional identities and second how the varied frames by which global education can be understood – pedagogical, ideological and cosmopolitan – have shaped the field. Laurence Peters connects theory and practice about global education relevant to cultivating global awareness in primary and secondary students. Rather than seeing global education as a special field separate from the other disciplines the author encourages integration of global perspectives into everything we do. Showcasing how global awareness is a developmental issue, dependent upon the student’s ability to step outside of their own place-based comfort zone, this volume lays out a roadmap of major challenges and issues around instilling this awareness in students.

This book connects theory and practice about global education relevant to cultivating global awareness in primary and secondary students. From this foundation, the book engages with the challenge of integrating global perspectives within a crowded curriculum. By convincing students and teachers alike of global education’s centrality, thinking globally becomes an integral component of learning across subject areas and grade levels, and this work encourages students to exercise empathy for the other and to develop critical skills to see through media distortions and 'fake news' so they can better resist the tendency of politicians in our increasingly multicultural countries to divide people along racial and ethnic lines.