“Education gives us a profound understanding that we are tied together as citizens of the global community, and that our challenges are interconnected.” Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General
The fourth pillar of the ecosystem of the welcome and belonging framework, focuses on ensuring students feel proud of their contribution to the school community and included as global citizens responsible for creating a better future.
Educators are essential to the success of any education ecosystem and the global connection pillar asks us to reflect on how teachers feel safe, supported and connected so they can help students feel welcome.
The fourth pillar of the ecosystem of the welcome and belonging framework, focuses on ensuring students feel proud of their contribution to the school community and included as global citizens responsible for creating a better future.
Educators are essential to the success of any education ecosystem and the global connection pillar asks us to reflect on how teachers feel safe, supported and connected so they can help students feel welcome.
Global citizenship is a 21st century essential skill set
What is global citizenship?While the specific skills, aptitudes, and competencies of global citizenship can be debated, UNESCO identifies three key domains: cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioral. Cognitively students should learn about the “interconnectedness and interdependency of issues.” Being a global citizen requires students to develop empathy and an appreciation for diversity and a “sense of belonging to a common humanity.” This should translate to behaviors and plans for collaborative action “for the common good” (Putnam & Byker, 2020). Le Bourdon (2021) describes global citizenship as developing “critical thinking and self-reflexivity” and creating “feelings of belonging to a common humanity.” In Greek schools teaching this sense of interconnectedness and global responsibility is a regular practice. At Julie’s school, all grade levels engaged in an investigation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and work to develop their own plans to take action to reach these goals. In Iliana’s high school and Anna’s middle school, students discuss the challenges of sustainability and at Stella’s middle school, they incorporate sustainable practices throughout their school building.
Reflection Check-in: Is being part of a global community overwhelming or comforting for you? How does global collaboration create belonging?Focusing on global citizenship through collaboration helps students:
Future-Orientation builds Hope
Focusing on global citizenship helps create belonging by reorienting students to a perspective focused on being part of something bigger than their immediate context. In order to create belonging, ecosystem of belonging strategies should focus on setting and working towards a bigger goal. This can help develop future orientation. We know that rates of depression and anxiety are on the rise and the New York Times recently reported that suicide rates among young people are increasing. Although the Covid-19 pandemic undoubtedly exacerbated mental illness, other issues like eco-anxiety, a term the APA defined in 2017 as “a chronic fear of environmental doom,” also play a role. But how does this fit into belonging? This is a Greatest Generation moment where we can show children that taking action is the best way to fight their fear of the unknown.
According to Chang et. al “Future orientation represents a specific belief that one’s future can change for the better (e.g., one will feel better in the future, one will be able to engage in useful plans in the future, one will be able to reach desired goals in the future)" (2013). Being oriented towards the future is a protective factor against depression and suicide-related behaviors. Individuals who are future-oriented can face stressful life events and see past the environmental and social context in which they are experiencing problems. This allows them to shut down the kind of thinking that ruminates on negative circumstances (Hamilton et al., 2015). The Peer2Peer program instills a sense of future orientation into the work they do to encourage Roma children to stay in school. In marginalized communities, this strategy is of particular importance. Arcidiacono (2007) studied ways to counteract hopelessness and found that poverty, marginalization, bias, and bullying can create a negative sense of belonging. These factors can lead to youth not seeing opportunities in the future and feeling powerless and angry. With psychological empowerment, however, youth develop trust in their own capabilities. Even though their community faces economic challenges, students at Evgenia's primary school focus on recycling efforts as direct action to fight climate change. These primary school students also study the UN Declaration of Rights of a Child and feel empowered. Reflection Check-in: What is your own comfort level with being future-oriented? Compassionate Competence
Focusing on global belonging builds compassion which improves psychological safety and emotional regulation to improve students' belonging. Having compassion means we recognize suffering as part of a shared human experience and take action to alleviate that suffering. Shared experiences allow us to find common humanity and empower us to reduce the opportunity gap for marginalized groups. Social belonging builds each child's coping resources so they can deal with adversity. Biologically our “threat-related pro-inflammatory state” is reduced. Compassion towards others and ourselves requires mindfulness and reflection but can decrease stress and depression (Slavich et al., 2021).
A final argument for the value of global citizenship collaboration is the benefit for students as they become global professionals. Work in the twenty-first century is increasingly defined by changing roles to collect a portfolio of experiences. Workers must be flexible, collaborative, and multidisciplinary in the world knowledge economy (Morieson et al, 2013). Developing these skills through global connections will help us shape a future where our learners welcome many perspectives and create a sense of belonging for others. Reflection Check-in: How do you see global professionalism skills at work in your day-to-day work? How do we develop global community?Learners today crave authentic experiences. They are bombarded with the problems of the world through social media and a level of media awareness no other generation has faced. So, how can we help them feel an authentic connection to the global community? Blanchard and Markus (2002) describe four dimensions that are part of a sense of community that can easily be incorporated into any collaborative project focused on improving the school or larger community. Being explicit in explaining each element will help students reflect on each concept and recognize how it contributes to their belonging to the community.
Reflection Check-in: Pause and think about a way to connect your students beyond the classroom walls with other students. How far will you reach? Empowered Educators Empower StudentsMany of the schools I visited in Greece are involved in collaborative projects through Erasmus Plus programs. Erasmus started over thirty years ago as a way to facilitate opportunities for students to study in other EU countries. One of the Erasmus program goals is: “European citizens.. better equipped with the knowledge, skills, and competencies needed in a dynamically changing society that is increasingly mobile, multicultural and digital. Spending time in another country to study, to learn, and to work should become the standard.” Erasmus+ and eTwinning programs create collaborative projects for teachers and schools. Facilitating belonging for children requires an environment where educators feel safe and secure. Educators participating in these projects develop a sense of belonging. They learn to explore other viewpoints constructively. They learn to trust their own self-efficacy and build trusting relationships with teachers from other cultures (Putnam & Byker, 2020). With this foundation, teachers are connected to not only a sense of greater purpose but also a feeling of being at home in a global community. To make your students feel “at home” you must feel at home (Ratnam, 2018).
Reflection Check-in: Set an empowerment goal for yourself. Look at the final column of the global collaboration strategies. These strategies are focused on you connecting to a network and being empowered. Make one of them your goal. |
24th Primary Patras
At 3rd Primary School of Zogfaru reminders of global connectedness can be found throughout the school. Here Sustainable Development Goal #4 reminds learners that quality education for all is part of the common good.
Awareness of global issues at 50th Primary School
Patras Experimental Gymnasium
Students propose glocal action for a global issues as Arsekio School in Thessaloniki
Students at 5th Primary of Agia Paraskevi share messages of positivity and self confidence with their global collaborators in India.
At the Melissa Refugee Network in Athens, women feel at home and as they heal, they find belonging and empowerment.
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Applying to your education ecosystem
Greek students see their connection to the European Union as both a blessing and a necessity. As Americans we may sometimes feel this way about the complicated relationship between 50 states and one federal government. However, connecting and collaborating beyond boundaries is essential to our collective future. Greek students see the urgency of climate issues and feel the threat of war expanding across Europe. As educators, our role is to empower students will global competency so they don't have to feel reactionary but can instead be proactive. Once you've started doing the work in the classroom to equip students with collaboration skills, empower them to take action in your school. If you come across obstacles, shift your focus to partnerships outside the school. Community partnerships may be a good place to start but global connections are about making connections far from your home. International connections or even connections in another state.
sources
American Psychological Association (2017) Mental Health and our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance.
Arcidiacono, C., (2007) Youth, Community Belonging, Planning and Power. Relational Sciences.
Blanchard, A., Markus, M, (2002) Sense of Virtual Community—Maintaining the Experience of Belonging. Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii international conference on systems sciences. https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/about-erasmus/what-is-erasmus
Hamilton, J.L., Connolly, S.L., Liu, R.T. et al. (2015). It Gets Better: Future Orientation Buffers the Development of Hopelessness and Depressive Symptoms following Emotional Victimization during Early Adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 43, 465–474 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-014-9913-6
Le Bourdon, M. (2021) Feeling global belonging: Sensorial experiences in global education. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 13 (1), 32–45. https://doi.org/10.14324/IJDEGL.13.1.03
Putman, S. M., & Byker, E. J. (2020). Global Citizenship 1-2-3: Learn, Think, and Act. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 56(1), 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00228958.2020.1696088
Morieson, L., Carlin, D., Clarke, B., Lukas, K., & Wilson, R. (2013). Belonging in education: Lessons from the Belonging Project. The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 4(2). 87-96.
Ratnam, C. (2018) ‘Creating home: Intersections of memory and identity.’ Geography Compass, 12 (4), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12363.
Slavich, G., Roos, L. Zaki, J. (2021). Social belonging, compassion and kindness: Key ingredients for fostering resilience, recovery and growth from the Covid-19 pandemic. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping.
UNESCO. (2015). Global citizenship education: topics and learning objectives. Report
Arcidiacono, C., (2007) Youth, Community Belonging, Planning and Power. Relational Sciences.
Blanchard, A., Markus, M, (2002) Sense of Virtual Community—Maintaining the Experience of Belonging. Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii international conference on systems sciences. https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/about-erasmus/what-is-erasmus
Hamilton, J.L., Connolly, S.L., Liu, R.T. et al. (2015). It Gets Better: Future Orientation Buffers the Development of Hopelessness and Depressive Symptoms following Emotional Victimization during Early Adolescence. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 43, 465–474 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-014-9913-6
Le Bourdon, M. (2021) Feeling global belonging: Sensorial experiences in global education. International Journal of Development Education and Global Learning, 13 (1), 32–45. https://doi.org/10.14324/IJDEGL.13.1.03
Putman, S. M., & Byker, E. J. (2020). Global Citizenship 1-2-3: Learn, Think, and Act. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 56(1), 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/00228958.2020.1696088
Morieson, L., Carlin, D., Clarke, B., Lukas, K., & Wilson, R. (2013). Belonging in education: Lessons from the Belonging Project. The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 4(2). 87-96.
Ratnam, C. (2018) ‘Creating home: Intersections of memory and identity.’ Geography Compass, 12 (4), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12363.
Slavich, G., Roos, L. Zaki, J. (2021). Social belonging, compassion and kindness: Key ingredients for fostering resilience, recovery and growth from the Covid-19 pandemic. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping.
UNESCO. (2015). Global citizenship education: topics and learning objectives. Report