Reading, ‘Riting, ‘Rithemtic, and Globalization: Expanding Teacher Education Students’ Global Consciousness through Course Readings and Activities
Location
Hamilton A
Proposal Track
Practice Report
Session Format
Presentation
Abstract
U.S. public school classrooms are becoming more diverse (Cushner, 2009; Goodwin, 2010) at the same time that technology, increased global travel, and international trade has made the world into a global village. For students to become viable citizens in this increasingly connected world, they must develop multicultural literacy--that is, an ability to understand and respect the multiple sources of, and contributors to, human knowledge (Banks, 2004a). A critical source of this literacy should be U.S. public schools where teachers can contribute to students’ global awareness. To do so, however, these teachers must be strategically prepared for such a role. To create globally minded teachers capable of such work, we must make them aware of the various cultures, histories, beliefs, values, and experiences that students possess (Sharma et al., 2011). While historically Black colleges and universities have been among the top producers of teachers of color (Hembree et al, 2016), they unfortunately have lower numbers of students participating in study abroad opportunities (Fischer, 2014) that might expand students’ global awareness. This paper describes efforts to internationalize a teacher education course at an HBCU without the use of study-abroad opportunities to determine if such efforts could positively impact students’ multicultural literacies.
Keywords
internationalization, literacy, multicultural education
Recommended Citation
Pogue, Tiffany, "Reading, ‘Riting, ‘Rithemtic, and Globalization: Expanding Teacher Education Students’ Global Consciousness through Course Readings and Activities" (2017). Georgia Educational Research Association Conference. 54.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gera/2017/2017/54
Reading, ‘Riting, ‘Rithemtic, and Globalization: Expanding Teacher Education Students’ Global Consciousness through Course Readings and Activities
Hamilton A
U.S. public school classrooms are becoming more diverse (Cushner, 2009; Goodwin, 2010) at the same time that technology, increased global travel, and international trade has made the world into a global village. For students to become viable citizens in this increasingly connected world, they must develop multicultural literacy--that is, an ability to understand and respect the multiple sources of, and contributors to, human knowledge (Banks, 2004a). A critical source of this literacy should be U.S. public schools where teachers can contribute to students’ global awareness. To do so, however, these teachers must be strategically prepared for such a role. To create globally minded teachers capable of such work, we must make them aware of the various cultures, histories, beliefs, values, and experiences that students possess (Sharma et al., 2011). While historically Black colleges and universities have been among the top producers of teachers of color (Hembree et al, 2016), they unfortunately have lower numbers of students participating in study abroad opportunities (Fischer, 2014) that might expand students’ global awareness. This paper describes efforts to internationalize a teacher education course at an HBCU without the use of study-abroad opportunities to determine if such efforts could positively impact students’ multicultural literacies.
