Teaching Abroad

EDUCATION IN A GLOBAL AGE
Letter from the Editor
Roselmina Indrisano
Diversity, Group Identity, and Citizenship Education in a Global Age
James A. Banks
Teachers’ Reflections on Education in a Global Age
Laura Kyser Callis and Daniel Osborn
Preparing Elementary Teachers as Global Citizenship Educators
Sohyun An
Preparing Globally Minded Teachers Through the Incorporation of the
International Baccalaureate
Ann Marie Ryan, Amy J. Heineke, and Caleb E. Steindam
School Gardens: Situating Students Within a Global Context
Thomas DeVere Wolsey and Diane Lapp
ESSAY BOOK REVIEWS
Academic/Professional Book
Daniel Osborn
Review of Books for Young Readers
Michelle Carney and Elizabeth Nolan
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Boston University School of Education
Journal of Education
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Volume 194 • Number 3 • 2014
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JOURNAL OF EDUCATION
volume 194, number 2, 2014
Education in a Global Age
Letter from the Editor vii
Roselmina Indrisano
Diversity, Group Identity, and Citizenship Education in a Global Age 1
James A. Banks
Teachers’ Reflections on Education in a Global Age 13
Laura Kyser Callis and Daniel Osborn
Preparing Elementary Teachers as Global Citizenship Educators 25
Sohyun An
Preparing Globally Minded Teachers Through the Incorporation of the International Baccalaureate 39
Ann Marie Ryan,Amy J. Heineke, and Caleb E. Steindam
School Gardens: Situating Students Within a Global Context 53
Thomas DeVereWolsey and Diane Lapp
ESSAY BOOK REVIEWS
academic/professional book 61
Daniel Osborn
review of books for young readers 65
Michelle Carney and Elizabeth Nolan
243066 BUJOE 194_3_Layout 1 10/9/14 3:59 PM Page v

13
ABSTRACT
In this article we present profiles of and reflections by teachers,
including the authors, who are uniquely situated to offer insights
on education in a global age. The respondents have experience
teaching overseas or have accompanied students on a visit to a sis-
ter school overseas.The group includes colleagues of the authors
and faculty members in international schools who were partici-
pants in the 2014 Boston University Poetry Institute for Educa-
tors.To gather the information for the profiles and reflections, we
interviewed our colleagues about their K–12 education, insights
into and analysis of their experiences teaching abroad, and
thoughts on education in a global age. We used e-mail to corre-
spond with the international teachers, focusing on their students,
schools, and overseas experiences.We also asked them to tell us
the most important insight gained from teaching in an interna-
tional school that they would offer to U.S. teachers who wish to
educate their students to be global citizens.The profiles and reflec-
tions are presented in this text.
INTRODUCTION
In the 21st century, the forces and trends associated with global-
ization are irreversibly altering life for people across the world.
The relative accessibility of international travel, tectonic shifts in
digital technologies and communications, geopolitical issues, and
transnational economic interdependence are among the defining
facets of life in this century. As demographic and cultural bound-
aries become more porous, these trends are altering definitions of
collective identity and the bounds of group belonging. Cultural
transmission and diffusion are producing dynamic and hybrid
forms of expression within and across communities.As a result of
intergroup connectedness, U.S. students are undertaking their
studies and coming of age enveloped in this burgeoning global
society that is rendering immediate what was previously remote.
Whereas much of the recent discourse surrounding U.S. K–12
schooling has focused on high-stakes standardized testing and
teacher accountability, individual teachers are striving to be
responsive to globalization. They are exposing their students to
world languages, cultures, and histories that foster the develop-
ment of knowledge, skills, and dispositions fundamental to navi-
gating a rapidly changing interconnected world, making
contemporary schooling relevant and congruent with the perme-
ating dynamics of a global age. Moreover, by exerting such effort
to inform their students of the diversity of world cultures and the
magnitude of global issues, teachers endeavor to elevate students’
global consciousness.
We begin by offering our own profiles, followed by a report of
conversations with colleagues about their K–12 education, their
experiences teaching abroad, and their thoughts on educating
young people in a global age.
THE AUTHORS
Laura Kyser Callis: Nanjing, China
Early in my teaching career, I taught mathematics at a Boston pub-
lic high school with a substantial population of newly arrived
immigrants. The educational experience of these students—
acquiring a new language, learning academic content in a foreign
language, and navigating a new country—seemed incomprehensi-
bly complex and multifaceted. I read literature, talked with vet-
eran teachers, and attended workshops on academic language
acquisition, but I was deeply curious about the lived experience of
my students.As a member of the dominant culture, I could listen
to my students’ stories and bear witness to the treatment of immi-
grants by someAmericans, but there was a part of me that wanted
to know what it was like to be a language learner in a completely
foreign world.Therefore, two weeks after our wedding, my hus-
band Matt and I flew to Nanjing, China, to teach Chinese students
planning to study abroad in English-speaking countries.
As a blond Caucasian American in China with language skills
that barely progressed beyond ordering food, getting directions,
and asking about jobs or children, I could not harbor the fantasy
that I could completely assimilate, as Americans often expect
immigrants to do in the United States.The majority of our friends
in China were otherWestern teachers, the significant others of our
Western colleagues, or Nanjing University students. They were
highly social, spoke English, and were immensely tolerant of our
atrocious accents and cultural faux pas.While in the United States,
immigrants may be expected to make the effort to integrate, we
found that any success we had in integrating into China, even with
our best efforts, was dependent upon those Chinese who would
interact with us. Our Chinese friends were willing to reach out;
learn something of our language; and be patient, kind, and
instructive as we learned theirs.They were curious about us, but
also eager to teach us about China and Chinese life. In some ways,
the responsibility for helping immigrants to integrate lies with
those who belong to the dominant culture.
Teachers’ Reflections on Education in a Global Age
laura kyser callis and daniel osborn, journal of education
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Though our daily social interactions were primarily with social
and well-educated young Chinese people, my husband and I sought
opportunities to come to know Chinese citizens from different
walks of life.We taught middle school students in far-flung sub-
urbs, Matt joined a basketball league with a Chinese lawyer, and
we volunteered for projects that often ended in dinner with a large
group with lively conversation facilitated by a translator. On our
travels, I made the greatest possible use of my limited Chinese.
One of our most memorable experiences was a trip to the Kubuqi
desert outside of Bao-tou in Inner Mongolia. My husband and I
were assigned to separate cars on an overnight train. In the morn-
ing, nervous I would miss our stop, at each one I asked a Chinese
passenger, “Shi Bao-tou ma?” As the man spoke no English, we
struck up a conversation in Chinese (though, with my limited
vocabulary, I had to call a desert “a place with no water”).When
we departed from the train, our fellow passenger insisted on driv-
ing us to the desert, and we spent the entire day with him, his son,
and his son’s friend,“LadyTiger.”There were many people in China
who taught me how to connect using very little language. Some-
times just enjoying one another’s company was enough.
By teaching in China, I hoped to gain an experience that would
give me an appreciation for what it is like to be a foreigner and a
language learner so I could better relate to my students.The les-
son I most remember, though, is the need to connect with people.
Natural curiosity about others is both the highest motivator and
the best reward for learning language and moving outside one’s
comfort zone. It is a lesson I brought home to Boston as a doctoral
student at Boston University and as a teacher of mathematics, a
discipline often considered individual and impersonal. I continue
to remember this lesson when working with classes of diverse stu-
dents or conducting my doctoral research on discussion-based
mathematics pedagogy.
Daniel Osborn: Jordan
In 2004, I graduated from high school, having had little academic
exposure to the Middle East, a region of particular interest,
though news media at that time were replete with reports of the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as the Second Palestinian
Intifada. As I began my undergraduate studies, I was concerned
about the lack of connection between contemporary geopolitical
realities and the curricular content of my K–12 education. It was
this sense of living within a burgeoning global society yet lacking
a global consciousness and cross-cultural sensitivities that led me
to study history, pursue a career in education, join the Peace
Corps, and teach English in Jordan.
Service in the Peace Corps as an English teacher at an all-male
secondary school afforded me the opportunity to be involved in a
social justice endeavor. Moreover, it allowed me to demystify a
complex part of the world while embedded within and actively
serving an Arab Muslim community. Living in a Bedouin village in
southern Jordan allowed me an intimate glimpse into the Arab
Middle East that afforded a more nuanced perspective of daily life
than could have been cultivated through university studies alone.
During my tenure as a volunteer between 2009 and 2010, I
actively sought a variety of cultural exchanges that immersed me
in the variegated lifestyles, traditions, and customs found among
the residents of my village. I engaged in many activities ubiquitous
to rural Jordanian society, including herding livestock and planting
and harvesting olive trees, all the while being introduced to the
social patterns of a collectivist society. I also witnessed the
dynamic and pluralistic nature of cultures as residents grappled
with globalization and the politics of identity that ensue when
ideas, institutions, and influences cross-pollinate and grow new
cultural permutations.
By participating in the society and witnessing the sometimes
subtle and often profound transformations occurring within Jor-
dan, I became familiar with aspects of Arab culture and society
that are best understood by becoming a member of the commu-
nity. In this regard, my educational relationship with my host com-
munity was reciprocal, as my colleagues, students, and friends
facilitated experiences and insights that reinforced my ongoing
intellectual and emotional attachment to the Middle East.
While intrinsically fulfilling, my teaching experiences in Jordan
were replete with numerous challenges. First, the public schools
are gender segregated, and second, Jordanian teachers often rely
on corporal punishment to discipline students.Acclimating to this
school culture entailed coming to terms with the inherent power
disparity between students and teachers prevalent in many Jordan-
ian schools. Abstaining from this form of classroom management
in favor of more discrete ways of redirecting students’ energy and
keeping them on task were often unsuccessful, as students had
become accustomed to teachers’ displays of strength. Because Jor-
danian schooling often prioritizes memorization over critical
thinking, the classroom dynamic favors a unidirectional flow of
information from teacher to students and is often devoid of prob-
lem-posing approaches.As a result, students who are obedient and
attentive without the requirement to be analytical and inquisitive
are rewarded.
While these are the most salient differences between my previ-
ous teaching experiences and my foray into Jordanian schooling,
they were by no means the only ones.While adjusting my pedagog-
ical techniques to this new context was often daunting, I was able
to better appreciate that there are neither universal “best practices”
nor universally valid approaches to teaching. Instead, teachers
must be cognizant of the conventions, practices, and expectations
of an administration, faculty, student body, and community.Teach-
ing entails situational awareness and sensitivity to the ethos and
strictures of an educational institution. In spite of this apprecia-
tion, we must also challenge the status quo, innovate, and integrate
new approaches into our teaching repertoire. Maintaining this bal-
ance between serving as a change agent and respecting the norma-
tive procedures of schooling in my community was compounded
by the need to avoid any semblance of cultural imposition. In spite
of these challenges, teaching was an extension of my service and
cultural explorations in Jordan that propelled me toward my cur-
rent academic pursuits.
14 J O U R N A L O F E D U C A T I O N • V O L U M E 1 9 4 • N U M B E R 3 • 2 0 1 4

As a doctoral candidate at Boston University, I have joined my
commitment to studying the Middle East and my teaching experi-
ences abroad in my research and scholarship in history and social
studies education. Motivated by the dearth of exposure I had to
non-Western studies during my intellectually formative years as a
student in suburban Massachusetts, I am committed to critically
evaluating the presentation of non-Western histories in secondary
curricula. Additionally, I consider making schools more inclusive
of global perspectives to be an imperative in the 21st century.
These scholarly pursuits are made relevant by the manifold trends
of globalization that have produced an increasingly interconnected
global society, bridging cultural and geographic divisions between
people. In response, I suggest that K–12 students require substan-
tive exposure to knowledge of the diverse array of communities
across the globe.
CONVERSATIONS WITH COLLEAGUES
We turn now to the profiles of our colleagues and the reflections
they offered during our conversations with them.
Torii Bottomley: CapeVerde, Haiti, and the Dominican
Republic
Torii Bottomley seamlessly integrates her interests and experi-
ences into her perspectives on education, culture, and interna-
tional issues, and these insights inform her reflections on
education in a global context. For many years, Torii was an ESL
teacher in the Boston Public Schools, working with recent immi-
grants from many different countries. Her international traveling
and teaching experiences are unique in their breadth and depth,
encompassing time in CapeVerde, Haiti, the Dominican Republic,
Cuba, Paraguay, and Puerto Rico. During any given summer,Torii
might be participating in a Creole language and culture immersion
program, working with graduate education students in Cape
Verde, or volunteering at a school near her hotel while leading an
international service program in the Dominican Republic. Because
she now works with international students in Boston, whenever
she is abroad, she seeks out her students’ family members and for-
mer teachers, bringing pictures and stories to families who have
sent their children so far away.
As a child, Torii developed a genuine interest in, curiosity
about, and caring for people from different walks of life when her
family moved back to her mother’s hometown, an immigrant com-
munity. “I had so many mothers,” she notes. “I had my Jewish
mother. I had my Polish mother. I had my Greek mother. My
friends’ mothers were my mothers.”The differences in her friends’
traditions, foods, and cultures ignited a curiosity that followed her
to Georgetown University, where she studied international rela-
tions.The University’s tradition of “social contribution” impercep-
tibly molded her, so she looked for a career that “merged the foot
soldier and the academic.”As a volunteer inWashington, DC, using
her Spanish-language skills to reach out to communities at the
beginning of the AIDS epidemic, she found such a match. That
commitment to serving people and her insatiable curiosity about
others would, 10 years later, lead her to the Peace Corps and ulti-
mately to a career teaching some of the most vulnerable young
people in the United States, from the children of migrant farm
workers in California, to low-income immigrants in inner cities,
to children who escaped from war in their home countries.
From the beginning of her career,Torii sought learning experi-
ences abroad, including studying language and culture in Mexico
and art, language, and literature in Guatemala—often living with
a family—while on break from teaching children of migrant
workers in California. Such experiences fulfilled her own hunger
and thirst for learning, but also rerooted her in the experience of
her students as language learners and foreigners. “Sometimes, it
got away from me,” she said of viscerally understanding that expe-
rience, “but whenever I came back [from abroad] I was more sen-
sitized to the culture shock they were experiencing. It really
became an integral part of who I was.” One of her students told
her, “Miss, it’s like I’m a baby again, I’m a child again. I’m 19, and
in my country that means I can go here and there, but I don’t know
the language, I don’t know where I am, or what to do if I’m in
trouble.”Torii still experiences these same anxieties when she trav-
els to a new country, so she finds a family who can help her adapt.
She serves this same role for her students in the United States:
helping them navigate Boston, for example, by taking field trips to
free sites and learning about the public transportation system.
Learning experiences abroad were also an opportunity forTorii
to reflect on her teaching. In answer to her colleagues’ question,
“Why are you here?” she answered,“On two levels. One is to learn
about the language and culture, and the other is as a teacher to
observe your pedagogy and see if there are things I can incorpo-
rate into my pedagogy.” By witnessing sometimes vastly different
models of education,Torii could analyze her own teaching.
These observations of teaching and the communities’ view of a
teacher in the countries her students called home had immediate
benefits in the United States. In CapeVerde, for example,Torii wit-
nessed how a teacher is a kind of elder in the community who is
expected to partner with parents in the upbringing of a child. One
mother requested,“Could you please talk to my daughter.You need
to tell her that education is so important or her life will be carry-
ing sticks.”Torii contrasted this with her experience in Puerto Rico,
where the role of the parent and the teacher are distinctly separate,
and there is no concept of jointly raising a child.These interactions
abroad helpedTorii to understand the responses and expectations of
the parents of her students in the United States.
In the Dominican Republic,Torii volunteered to teach English
and civics in the students’ home language and found that the prac-
tices of schooling were dramatically different.When she directed
students to work with their friends to help each other, she intro-
duced a novel though seemingly simple practice that exemplifies
a substantially different philosophy of education, a “concept of
within this class we’re going to have all these people with skills
that will complement each other, so that we’ll all kind of rise up.”
Knowing what school is like in students’ home countries can
15T E A C H E R S ’ R E F L E C T I O N S O N E D U C A T I O N I N A G L O B A L A G E

make teachers aware of the different norms and values that must
be considered.
In addition to critical, fundamental understandings,Torii devel-
oped practical skills, such as acquiring the languages of her stu-
dents, which help her to enter their inner circles and connect with
them. She also experiences the soul-nourishing moment of meet-
ing her students’ families, whom she seeks out when she travels,
often bringing her students’ work or pictures of them at school in
the United States.When a mother in Haiti showedTorii photos of
her sons when they were christened,Torii responded, “I hope it’s
ok that your children have a second mother.”“That’s what I prayed
for,” she answered,“I prayed they would go there and find a second
mother. I taught them how to make a shirt. I taught them how to
cook. I taught them how to clean.”Torii chokes up as she remem-
bers her reply: “You’re the best mother, and you taught them how
to survive. I want you to know they’re such good boys, and they’re
doing so well, and they’re in college. One is a sweet poet, and the
other is such an academic.” For both the parent and the teacher,
these are rare, powerful moments.
Elyssa Miller: Brazil
During the summer before her fourth year teaching in Marlboro,
Massachusetts, Elyssa Miller thought, “I should do the things I
want to do while I’m still young and single.” She had always
enjoyed traveling, beginning with many family trips, so when a
former high school teacher with whom she had kept in touch sug-
gested teaching at an international school, it seemed like exactly
the right opportunity, even though Elyssa had been unaware of
such institutions.
Originally applying to schools in Spanish-speaking countries,
Elyssa was surprised when a school in Brazil pursued her candi-
dacy. When she explained she was not interested because she
planned to build upon her fluency in Spanish to become fully bilin-
gual, the representative offered a challenge:“Why are you afraid of
becoming trilingual?”With the increase in the Brazilian population
in Marlboro, where she taught high school math, teaching in Brazil
began to make sense. She talked about what to expect with her
principal, who had served in Brazil while in the Peace Corps, and
with her Brazilian students.
While her principal and students could tell her what Brazil was
like, Elyssa was less prepared for working in a private school,
which was attended by children from wealthy Brazilian families.
For Elyssa, a committed public school teacher who had been edu-
cated in public schools, the idea of education for profit was more
foreign than Brazil itself. When she arrived at the school, she
learned that students came with bodyguards to protect them from
kidnapping.Although she had a transparent grading policy, it was
common for grades to be challenged, not only by parents but also
by administrators who believed that parents were paying for an
“American” education so their children could attend well
regarded colleges in the United States. As the only high school
math teacher in a small school, Elyssa faced the challenge of
teaching students with widely different abilities in the same class-
room.Yet she was supported by close relationships with her col-
leagues on the small faculty.
One benefit of teaching over traveling abroad, Elyssa noted, is
the ability to become completely immersed. Elyssa traveled exten-
sively throughout Brazil and developed a sense of place, allowing
her to connect and share her experiences with her current Brazil-
ian students in Marlboro when they talk about the places they once
lived.The sense of Brazilian culture she developed there helps her
to understand these students in important ways. For example,
while other teachers complain about how much the Brazilian stu-
dents talk in their classes, Elyssa sees this practice as an extension
of their home culture, where people frequently talk over one
another with no intention of being rude.
Moreover, living abroad gave Elyssa the experience of being a
newcomer, allowing her to put herself in the place of immigrant
students. Everyday life in a new country, particularly with a lan-
guage barrier, becomes a challenge. She described a time when the
teachers worked together to order pizza over the phone, without
the support of body language, gestures, or facial expressions. Daily
life in a foreign country can become frustrating, but it can also be
a series of rewarding puzzles to be solved and lessons to be learned
about acquiring a new language.
In her travels to Brazil and Spain, Elyssa experienced what it is
like to be a language learner, insights she brought back to her class-
room. Her host family in Brazil sometimes became frustrated with
her need for perfection when she spoke. “Listen,” they said, “if I
say, ‘I store go,’ do you know what I mean?” “Well, yeah,” she
answered. “Yeah, it’s the same thing. We’re going to understand
you.You’re never going to get any better if you don’t just say it.”
In the classroom also, insistence on perfect grammar can stunt sec-
ond language acquisition. Elyssa suggests that learning a language
is about connecting with others, and hesitating to try to use a new
language could cause a person to “miss an amazing opportunity.”
Teaching and living abroad also caused Elyssa to reflect on her-
self as anAmerican and as a citizen of the world.“Like other Latin
American cultures, if you have food and friends, life is good,” she
said, noting, as well, the value Brazilians place on family. She also
reflected on the juxtaposition of extreme wealth and extreme
poverty that “makes you think about what you take for granted.”
Yet the similarities in the human experience are just as powerful as
the differences. Elyssa related the story of a Jewish student in
Brazil who invited her to Passover Seder. Though the Seder was
conducted in Portuguese, she said, “It was exactly the same Seder
I had done every year growing up in Chicago.” She remembers
thinking,
Every Jewish person around the world is doing exactly the
same thing with the same traditions. There are so many
things that connect us. To have that experience of total
familiarity and comfort and to be in San Paulo Brazil . . .
There’s so much about us that’s the same.
As a teacher now back in Marlboro, Elyssa believes that helping
young adults to interact with people from different backgrounds is

critical. She encourages her students to study abroad in college and
believes that teachers should go abroad to serve as role models and
to move outside their comfort zone. However, she also notes that,
closer to home, many U.S. schools, including her own, have
increasingly diverse populations. She encourages her native stu-
dents to reach out to newcomers and think about what it must be
like to leave their country behind and be in a very different world.
Elyssa suggests that the teacher has a responsibility, as the adult in
the room, to provide opportunities for students from different
worlds to interact with and to learn from each other.
Liam Quinn: South Korea
Prior to teaching English in Gwangiu, South Korea, from 2009 to
2011, New Jersey resident Liam Quinn’s knowledge of East Asia
was dominated by China and Japan. His academic exposure to
Asian countries and much of the media coverage he consumed
tended to place a particular emphasis on these countries and neg-
lect South Korea. Even when the Koreas were the source of news,
Liam found that current geopolitical concerns regarding North
Korea eclipsed its southern neighbor.As a result, prior to his two
years in a private South Korean school teaching kindergarten stu-
dents, his knowledge was circumscribed to an awareness of Con-
fucian culture and the Korean norm of respecting society’s elders.
In preparing for departure, Liam sought additional information
that would better situate his teaching practices in the prevailing
cultural realities. This entailed consulting forums, reading the
recent history of North and South Korea to garner a better aware-
ness of the dynamics between the two countries, and contacting
friends who had spent time in South Korea.
In order to teach and live in South Korea, Liam explained that
it was necessary to “overhaul” his cultural sensibilities in order to
become acculturated and appreciate cultural differences.Without
doing so, his prior reservations and preconceptions would have
potentially arrested his willingness to embrace new ideas and be
receptive to aspects of Korean culture that were markedly dissim-
ilar from life at home. For instance, Liam had to adjust immedi-
ately to educators’ long hours and infrequent holidays, while in the
larger society, he grappled with a patriarchal social structure. Liam
concedes that premature judgment coupled with an inability to
come to terms with the culture would have hindered his ability to
work effectively and affected his commitment to teaching over the
long term. While cultural differences are most easily detectable,
profound changes in his understanding of South Korea occurred
when he was able to recognize similarities and apparent universal-
ities that transcend the cultural particularities that often establish
distance between people. For example, when working with
kindergarten students, Liam found that their energy level resem-
bled that of American children. He chose to focus on the similar-
ities, rather than the differences that would otherwise have divided
him from his students and colleagues.
While his time in South Korea enabled him to become more
culturally adept at navigating these cultural similarities and differ-
ences, Liam underscored his limited vantage point as a teacher in
a private school. Demographically, he was exposed primarily to
young children who came from more affluent socioeconomic seg-
ments of society, while other strata were outside his professional
experience. Additionally, because of their social standing and the
abundance of programs attracting people from English-speaking
countries to teach in South Korea, his colleagues were well
acquainted with the presence of English-speaking foreigners.This
professional experience placed him in an educational context that
was unlike the conventional for the majority of the South Korean
population living outside the more cosmopolitan urban centers of
the country.
While Liam is not currently a classroom teacher, he continues
to reflect upon his intellectually formative years as a student in
American public schools and as a teacher in South Korea. He sug-
gests that there is a need for schools to increase the cultural aware-
ness of students, particularly those who do not have direct and
immediate access to cross-cultural experiences such as travel. Still,
Liam is cognizant of the potential difficulties that may arise when
exploring cultural differences in the classroom and suggests that
unless these differences are experienced firsthand, there is the
potential to assume that personal cultural norms, values, and prac-
tices are innately and objectively superior to those of others. Bear-
ing in mind the potential for cultural exposure to result in the
clashing rather than the exchanging of ideas, Liam posits a careful
and mindful approach to educating youth about global cultures in
order to avoid fomenting misconceptions or the conclusion that
cultures are intractably different.
Liam recalls that his own K–12 education emphasized U.S. his-
tory, with little inclusion of other histories and cultures, but he
does not consider this to be misguided or ill conceived. Instead, he
recognizes the value in students becoming proficiently familiar
with the history of their own nation, but suggests that this require-
ment does not absolve the need for schools to become more inclu-
sive. He suggests that teaching U.S. history through an
international perspective that complements rather than diminishes
the content is a viable solution to ensure more cultural awareness
without relegating existing studies to the periphery of schooling.
Liam’s time teaching in South Korea facilitated his appreciation for
enhancing the schooling experience in the United States so that
students become better able to navigate cultural diversity. Even so,
he appreciates that such changes are subject to difficulty or poten-
tial missteps. His tempered advice for modifying schooling is to
encourage educators to further promote cultural awareness with-
out the loss of their central mission.
Sean Quinn: Chile
When Sean Quinn’s contract as a middle school Spanish teacher in
New Jersey ended, he began proactively searching for teaching
opportunities abroad and focused on Chile after a discussion with
colleagues who had travelled there. Interested in improving his
Spanish oral language abilities while being exposed to its
dialects—learning that serves him well today—Sean wished to
spend a prolonged period of time with native Spanish speakers in

a capacity that would allow him to participate in and contribute to
Chilean society.This intersection of career circumstances and per-
sonal pursuits resulted in Sean’s teaching English at a private
Catholic school in an affluent neighborhood in Santiago from
March to December of 2012, the duration of the Chilean aca-
demic calendar.
Sean arrived in Chile with an “open mind,” since his factual
knowledge of Chile was limited to a succinct understanding of the
country’s history and contemporary political leadership and an
appreciation of its soccer clubs. In spite of knowing that precon-
ceptions may impede understanding, Sean was sensitive to the rep-
utation of Chilean schools as being less structured than those in
the United States. Undeterred, it was with a willingness to
embrace Chilean culture devoid of prejudice that Sean embarked
on his assignment to teach English.
While initially feeling like an outsider, Sean noticed a subtle
transformation after the first month, when the novelty of teaching
abroad waned. He now felt capable of collaborating with col-
leagues and interacting with students as a professional educator
rather than an interloper on a short international jaunt.The oppor-
tunity to work with Chilean youth afforded Sean a glimpse into the
rituals and customs particular to Chile that he had not been privy
to earlier.Unlike tourism,teaching served as Sean’s vehicle for rais-
ing his cultural awareness. He cited as examples the celebration of
major and minor religious and national holidays,which enabled him
to be concurrently immersed in educational and cultural milieus.
This immersion was particularly salient during Chilean Independ-
ence Day events that lasted a full week and involved students per-
forming skits, dancing, and showcasing other forms of national
pride. Yet, in spite of the extent to which Sean was culturally
immersed, he recognizes that being employed by a private denom-
inational school entailed a degree of separateness from expressions
of Chilean culture as they were manifest in public schools attended
by students from other socioeconomic segments of society. Sean
was unable to garner insights into the functioning of these schools
and, thus, the lives of those learning and teaching in them.
In the larger society, however, Sean was a participant rather
than a guest, and his exposure was more substantive and multifac-
eted. He became acutely aware of subtle nuances that would not
have registered had he not worked in a school and established pro-
fessional and social relationships. Sean recognized the value in
accepting cultural differences even when they may potentially have
an alienating effect.Through teaching, Sean became attuned to the
complexities of life that are rarely appreciated unless one is
embedded in a locale for an extended period of time.
Having returned to teaching in the United States, Sean has
turned to technology as a vehicle that can promote, remotely, the
sort of cultural experiences that engendered and enhanced his
own cultural consciousness. Sean strives to employ technology to
expand the possibilities of classroom learning by establishing cor-
respondence between his students and their Chilean counterparts.
He considers direct interaction with youth across the world to
have more resonance and to be more captivating than conventional
academic study of language and culture. Sean recognizes the value
of having his students use Spanish in a more meaningful context
that introduces them to people across the globe.Through creative
use of technology, he seeks to enable cross-cultural connections
that serve his mission of teaching Spanish while also fostering
global awareness in his students.
MariaTrogolo: Jordan
Upon graduation fromThe College of William and Mary in 2009,
MariaTrogolo began her service as a Peace Corps volunteer in Jor-
dan, a tenure lasting over three years. Having earned degrees in
Middle Eastern studies and linguistics and spending time traveling
in Morocco, Maria began her venture as a proficient Arabic
speaker equipped with academic knowledge of the region’s history
and politics.
Maria attributes her familiarity with Islam and the ArabWorld
to her university experience, whereas in her earlier education,
only her tenth-grade social studies teacher broached the subject,
teaching a lesson on the Five Pillars of Islam that was an accurate
academic presentation of these religious tenets.Although the high
school now offers such courses, she wishes that her education, at
a time when U.S. foreign policy was focused on the Middle East,
had entailed studies of the region, its inhabitants, and other facets
of life that would have established the foundation for her future
university studies. In addition to her undergraduate coursework,
once committed to joining the Peace Corps, Maria relied upon the
organization’s literature to expand her breadth of knowledge and
to concentrate more on Jordan and the realities she would
encounter there.
Teaching in an all-female school in a Bedouin village in south-
ern Jordan, Maria established an equilibrium between being flexi-
ble and maintaining a sense of her core values. This was
particularly salient in a school environment that was typified by
gender segregation, corporal punishment, and an emphasis on rote
memorization at the expense of higher-order thinking.This tenu-
ous balance was forged through Maria’s recognition that one must
selectively acclimate to a foreign teaching environment. For
instance, Maria came to appreciate that she had to relinquish con-
trol over designing assessments, yet she could remain true to her
convictions by not resorting to common disciplinary techniques
that were inconsistent with her temperament and worldview.
Rather than merely reacting and adapting to Jordanian schooling,
Maria endeavored to comprehend her school’s culture. Because
memorization and recitation of the Qur’an is such a seminal aspect
of Muslim religious education, Maria did not dismiss the empha-
sis on memorization as poor pedagogy. Instead, she attempted to
situate memorization in the context of an Arab Islamic milieu
replete with its own oral traditions.
Maria’s emphasis on flexibility and adherence to values is not
circumscribed to teaching in Jordan. Instead, she considers these
dispositions fundamental to teaching regardless of the context.
While not absent in the United States, they became more exigent
while Maria was in Jordan. Reflecting on her time there, Maria

concluded that “patience, patience, patience” is required of practi-
tioners attempting to navigate the professional space of a school in
another country where prevailing pedagogical practices and orien-
tations may be dissimilar from what one is accustomed to in the
United States. Maria’s advice to those who teach abroad is applica-
ble to teachers in other educational contexts where students’ pre-
vious educational experiences and orientations are dissimilar from
those they encounter in a new environment. Since returning from
service in the Peace Corps, Maria Trogolo has been engaged in
doctoral study.
Christine Bodet: French-BornTeacher in the United
States
Unlike the educators who reflected on teaching outside the United
States, French-born Christine Bodet’s current post in a fourth-
grade classroom in Boston is one of her numerous experiences
teaching abroad. Christine is also distinguished from her counter-
parts among our colleagues because she is still wholly immersed in
a foreign context.Therefore, her reflections draw upon the mem-
ories and impressions formed during her initial teaching experi-
ences in Ireland and Germany, a brief tenure in the United States
10 years ago, and her ongoing academic and professional pursuits
as a doctoral student and a teacher in Boston.
Christine was born in the south of France, where she received
her K–12 education. As a secondary school student, she was not
provided with a substantive knowledge of the destinations where
she would ultimately teach. Christine recalls that history and geog-
raphy were ancillary features of the curriculum, with an hour of
class time devoted to these subjects on a weekly basis.
Prior to departing for Ireland as a preservice teacher participat-
ing in a European exchange program,Christine felt sufficiently pre-
pared to enter the classroom. She was well credentialed, having
earned both an undergraduate and a master’s degree in addition to
an elementary-level teaching license. Moreover, Christine was con-
fident,even though she would be teaching in Ireland rather than her
native France. Remaining in Europe, she harbored the presupposi-
tion that all people are the same and that she was merely using her
educational knowledge and skills in another location.
In Ireland, Christine taught French as a foreign language in a
public school and a French curriculum in a Franco-Irish institute.
For the first time, she was confronted with the limitations of the
narrow parameters of her history and geography education, and
she realized how little she understood about the relations between
Ireland and England. She remembers that a sense of history was
more palpable in Ireland, whereas in France she and her classmates
were uninterested in history because it did not seem to have
immediate implications for contemporary life. Through daily
interactions, she began to appreciate the conspicuous absence in
French curricula of any discussion of events in Irish history and
came to recognize how history can be interpreted and taught
according to a nationalistic perspective.
Christine’s travels abroad led her to understand that these
experiences afforded opportunities to gain a more nuanced
understanding of both her host countries and her native France.
During her first stay in the United States, Christine participated
in a cultural workshop with a sociologist who guided the partici-
pants to become more cognizant of culturally specific practices,
particularly those that would inform their conduct in the class-
room. She remembers how numerous and subtle these cultural
distinctions could be. For instance, in the French cultural tradi-
tion, classroom visitors knock and patiently wait to be invited
into the room, an act of respect. The casual way teachers and
administrators enter and exit classrooms in the United States
helped her to appreciate how such practices are particular to a
culture and not universally heeded or considered valid. Such
examples may appear mundane and minute, but, for Christine,
they are omnipresent reminders that certain norms are not always
transferable across cultural contexts. As is the case with many
people, Christine came to realize that the way she processed her
experiences was affected by her socialization at home. Her initial
perception of teaching abroad had been filtered through her
French identity, but by becoming attuned to the multitude of
seemingly innocuous daily observations, Christine has been able
to better register and appreciate the subtlety of cultural diversity.
Exposure to different cultures has helped her to develop a height-
ened sensitivity to facets of French life that once appeared to be
self-evident, universal, and not objects of reflection.An appreci-
ation of these nuances can inform teachers’ work in educating
their students to be global citizens.
Reflecting upon her time away, particularly her stays in Ireland
and the United States, Christine is more acutely sensitive to the
distinctiveness of the milieu in which one is situated and the bear-
ing this has on one’s teaching. Her many varied experiences in Ire-
land, Germany, and the United States have given her a newfound
humility. Currently residing and teaching in Boston, she confides
that she is not there to remain exclusively French, but rather to
“melt into America.” Much of what she finds revealing about
teaching abroad came from exposure to the everyday lives of peo-
ple and learning about their societies through meaningful interac-
tions with them. As a result, she is an advocate of using
technology, such as videoconferencing, in the classroom to allow
increased communication between students in different countries,
as she did with her first graders when completing her master’s the-
sis.While she considers her own education to have been French-
centric, as a teacher in Boston today she strives to find ways to
make the world more accessible and meaningful to her students by
considering her lessons through a global lens.
Jessica Janus, Cecilia Hilton, David Green, andTheir
Students: Xi’an, China
Elyssa’s Miller’s thoughts about students going abroad as well as
the more readily available insights they can gain from their own
international peers are realized in a program inActon-Boxborough
High School in Massachusetts.The school organized a 12-day trip
to China that integrated travel to major sites with a visit to their
sister school in Xi’an.The trip followed the eighth-grade unit on

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China, providing students opportunities to learn more about the
country’s history as well as experience daily life. The students
came from a range of backgrounds: “students who had never left
the U.S. and students who were born in China or who had lived in
China, students who spoke Chinese and students who didn’t,”
noted Jessica Janus, a math teacher who chaperoned the trip.The
project, with its monthly planning meetings, not only helped stu-
dents to come to know the Chinese students at their sister school,
but also, to know each other better. In fact, the impetus for the
program came from the demographics of Acton-Boxborough High
School itself. David Green, a history teacher and team leader of
the project, explained,
We realized as a school community that almost 30% of our
population was Asian or Asian American and that very little
of our social studies curriculum dealt with those issues.
Since the school and wider communities have long sup-
ported international travel, and since more and more com-
panies offer reasonably priced China options, it seemed
logical to initiate some kind of program.
Moreover, it was a way to extend the eighth grade unit on Chinese
culture, which included history, art, literature, and modern issues,
none of which were revisited in subsequent grades. Mr. Green
continued,
So, for extremely complex topics such as the Cultural Rev-
olution, no one [in the student body] really has more than an
eighth-grade understanding of it. Given the large number of
Chinese and Chinese American families in the community
[and given the significance of these topics in world history
and current events], it is unfortunate that further chances to
study China [and Asia] didn’t really exist.
The monthly meetings for participants included opportunities
to learn more about China and the expectations for the trip, as
well as to come to know each other and become “mindful of cul-
tural norms while abroad.” Even before the trip began, the teach-
ers who would be the chaperones helped the students to become
more globally thoughtful, aware, and sensitive people.
Their insights into history and the arts may have been power-
ful, but the students seemed most affected by learning about daily
life, particularly from talking with their peers at their sister
school, Gaoxian #1.“Our students totally hit it off,” Ms. Janus said
of the Gaoxian #1 and Acton-Boxborough students, “chatting
away in English about pop culture, study habits, home life, food,
Internet, everything! They have since become Facebook penpals
with their partners.”The Gaoxian #1 students plan to visit Acton-
Boxborough High School, and the American students are looking
forward to their visit.
Throughout the trip, the participants initiated conversations
about the similarities and differences in their lives. Gaoxian #1
School is designed for students who plan to go to college outside
of China, so international education and global citizenship are part
of the school’s culture. “It was apparent from our very first steps
in the building that this school educated their students to be high
achieving so that they will contribute to a global society,” Ms. Janus
noted, describing posters displayed in the lobby that show stu-
dents’ photographs and test scores. “Our students learned first-
hand the type of competition that goes into their counterparts’
education, and they were humbled by how much their student
partners valued their schooling and worked hard to be successful.”
Mr. Green explained,
This led to an increased appreciation for their education at
Acton-Boxborough. It led to an appreciation among the
chaperoning teachers as well. I am ever reminded that
everything is relative. Our district is often criticized for
overly burdening students with work and perpetuating
stress.Yet, our overachieving culture pales in comparison to
the expectations of many Chinese schools—especially the
one we visited in Xi’an.The students learned not only what
it is like to live in China, but some may also have gained a
greater understanding of what it is like to be their Chinese
American peers.
Mr. Green continued,
I think our travelers have a much more nuanced understand-
ing of the social, educational, and family values that define
those [Chinese and Chinese American] families [living in the
Acton-Boxborough school district]. When students discuss
returning to China to visit family over the summer, I think
our travelers have a very powerful appreciation for what that
really means and what it really looks like.
In this way, perhaps these trips also help to build stronger bonds
and understanding among the student population at Acton-
Boxborough High School.
Cecilia Hilton, a history teacher who chaperoned the trip,
believes that “all teachers grapple with” the question of how to pre-
pare students to understand and appreciate societies outside of the
United States. “I think the skills that I try to emphasize are . . .
empathy and understanding for other’s culture. The tricky part
becomes: How does one teach empathy?” Ms. Hilton integrates
activities that “encourage students to adopt different world views
and analyze others’arguments.”She also maintains a classroom with
norms that “encourage more open-minded thinking . . . [and]
empathetic responses.”
The teachers themselves benefitted from traveling abroad. Ms.
Janus noted, “I have a deeper understanding of my Chinese stu-
dents’ backgrounds.” She acknowledged that few teachers can
travel abroad with their students, so she encourages them to learn
about students’ home nations by reading books, watching docu-
mentaries, and talking to students about their home countries.
“Learning to be comfortable asking questions and talking about
these differences is one of the biggest takeaways I’ve had from this
experience.”

PERSPECTIVES OF TEACHERS IN INTERNATIONAL
SCHOOLS
In addition to conversing with our colleagues, we corresponded
with four teachers who are currently working abroad. We asked
them to tell us about their experience, whom and where they
teach, and how long they had been teaching overseas. We also
asked them to answer the following question: What is the most
important insight you have gained from teaching in an interna-
tional school that you would offer to teachers in the United States
who wish to educate their students to be global citizens?
Dectora Gander has been teaching English in Grades 8 through
12 at the International School of Geneva for 12 years. During the
past eight years, she has focused on the International Baccalaure-
ate (IB) Diploma Programme, serving eleventh and twelfth
graders. Although the students are allowed to choose French or
English as the language of instruction, some who select English do
not speak the language at home. Since the school does not have
admission requirements, there is a wide range of academic abili-
ties. While the students’ families typically come from France,
Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States,
there is little socioeconomic diversity due to the high tuition and
lack of financial aid.
With specific reference to the subject she teaches, Dectora
responded to our question by considering the ways in which the
English curriculum can contribute to “global awareness.” “There is
a huge body of literature in English, and we have a duty to go
beyond the borders of America and the U.K. and to incorporate
work from the whole Anglophone world.” Her collaboration with
colleagues from other English-speaking nations and her participa-
tion in IB professional development have allowed her to reflect on
questions that can be addressed in English classes:“Why do people
speak English in all of these different places? How did English
spread, and how does it continue to spread?Why is English some-
times called ‘the global language’?” Dectora also noted that trans-
lated works provide opportunities to learn about different cultures
and the history of places beyond the English-speaking world.
Lisa Gentry Postec has been an English teacher of middle- and
high-school students in international schools for eight years, cur-
rently in the French International School in Singapore. Her over-
seas experience began in Japan just after she graduated from
college. Then, after almost 20 years of non-teaching careers in
finance and management consulting, she “returned to my original
passion of teaching because I missed the contact with the stu-
dents.” Most of her current students are French or have some asso-
ciation with France. Many are fluent in both French and English,
and they are all working toward the French Baccalaureate, of
which English is a component.
In response to our question, Lisa noted that,
The most important insight I have gained from teaching in
an international school is the privilege of incorporating the
rich resources from my students’ personal histories into the
classroom.What is unique about my current teaching situa-
tion is that I teach English to French students in Singapore.
This convergence of three cultures gives me the opportunity
to integrate culture, geography, history but most impor-
tantly reflection on personal identity into my teaching.
Indeed, middle and high school is a time of searching, and it
is each student’s personal journey to discover his or her
sense of place, emotional and physical. However, one need
not be abroad in order to educate students to be global citi-
zens. I am sure the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of the
American classroom also allows many of my colleagues in
America to tap into their students’ personal stories as a
means of gaining global perspective.
StaceyWilkins taught for two years at the International School
of Kenya after teaching in public schools in Connecticut during
the early years of her career. In Kenya, Stacey taught IB English,
ninth-grade English, and journalism. Her students were primarily
the children of employees of the United Nations and the U.S.
Embassy, the latter primarily because the school is overseen by the
Embassy. Stacey has just relocated to London where she will teach
in the new academic year.
Stacey responded to our question by comparing her experience
teaching in Connecticut with her experience in Kenya. She recalled
that her former students had limited knowledge of the world out-
side the United States, while her students in Kenya were deeply
concerned about world events. To encourage students in U.S.
schools to become more informed about the world, Stacey encour-
ages American teachers “to integrate international components
such as world news and world literature, into the curriculum.”
For the past two years, Lori Runkle has taught AP English Lan-
guage and Composition to Chinese students at a high school in Bei-
jing. In the new academic year, she will move to the Nazarbayev
Intellectual Schools system in Kazakhstan where she will team-
teach the Cambridge Global Perspectives Curriculum in the city
of Palvodar.
Lori began her international experience as a young woman
when, encouraged by her mother, she participated in summer
exchange programs to Japan and Finland during her high school
years and received a Fulbright Fellowship to Kenya in graduate
school. Traveling and learning about other cultural perspectives
fueled her curiosity and wonder about the world.
Commenting on the insight she would offer to other teachers,
Lori suggested that there are many ways to direct students on their
journey toward enlightened global citizenship. One concrete
example from her classroom in Beijing was a current events pres-
entation each week, during which the students offered their own
views of a global news story, and the class analyzed the perspec-
tives through the lens of American or Chinese understanding.They
then discussed how the interpretations of the event varied depend-
ing upon their cultural assumptions.Although difficult to finance,
she considers travel to be important for students’ global educa-
tion.When her students were in the tenth grade, they spent five
weeks in the United States on a cultural exchange that allowed

them to move beyond a singular and narrow nationalistic view of
the world. In Beijing, she brought her students to literary festivals
where authors from other parts of the country and the world dis-
cussed their work. Lori concluded by suggesting, “Creating a
school culture of globally minded educators and students is a pow-
erful force for positive change.”
REFLECTIONS AND INSIGHTS
Today’s students are facing an increasingly globalized world.Their
present and future decisions will affect others across the globe, and
they will be affected by the decisions of others.As the United States
becomes increasingly diverse,students will need to be able to inter-
act with people from a variety of backgrounds different from their
own.What dispositions will they need to navigate this world?What
knowledge and skills? In the following section, we report the teach-
ers’ reflections on three topics: personal qualities for navigating in
a multicultural world, life abroad and changed cultural percep-
tions, and thoughts on expanding students’ global consciousness.
Personal Qualities for Navigating in a Multicultural
World
The teachers and the students who are featured in these profiles
demonstrate many characteristics that are vital for making mean-
ingful connections with others from different places and cultures.
Among these characteristics is curiosity, evident in Torii Bottom-
ley, first as a child growing up in a multicultural community and
later as a teacher of immigrants. Curiosity motivates her constant
travels to learn about her students’ and friends’ native countries,
and, once there, she works in schools and meets the families of her
students. Jessica Janus’s high school students’ curiosity about
teenage life in China was apparent in their conversations with the
Chinese students at their sister school. Christine Bodet’s first
graders were motivated to learn English and use videoconferenc-
ing technology because of their curiosity about life in Spain,
Romania, and the United Kingdom and their wish to share with
other elementary students what their life in France is like. Given
these experiences, curiosity about the languages, culture, and cus-
toms of peers of different backgrounds in a school or classroom is
a characteristic worthy of cultivation in a global age.
Curiosity often leads to courage, the trait required to move
outside one’s comfort zone to communicate with those who live in
a different culture and speak a different language. This quality is
exemplified by those who attempt to communicate with native
speakers, even if imperfectly, as Elyssa did when speaking Por-
tuguese in Brazil, or as Laura’s Chinese friends did when speaking
English in China. It is evident that both guests and hosts exhibit
courage when they attempt to speak a language other than their
own, especially when the topic is important to life and learning. It
is also evident inTorii’s classroom in Boston, where students who
are recent arrivals are learning and interacting with peers in a dif-
ferent language and an unfamiliar culture.
Neither curiosity nor courage alone is adequate, however.
Reaching out to others requires sensitivity to the customs and
courtesies of other traditions by both parties, along with the will-
ingness to forgive faux pas, which might be as minor as language
nuances or as great as prohibited topics of conversation. Elyssa
explained how the way in which one answers a question in Por-
tuguese, by restating the verb rather than saying yes or no, could
convey whether or not one was listening to the speaker, a practice
that has no equivalent in English. Laura and Matt Callis recalled an
incident in China that occurred during a conversation about poli-
tics, a common small-talk topic in their politically aware home
state of Massachusetts. Their pursuit of this topic inadvertently
caused a Chinese friend who had previously engaged in the subject
to feel he had been invited to join them only to satiateWesterners’
curiosity. Constant sensitivity and forgiveness are critical qualities
in considerate guests and hosts and are worthy qualities to nurture
in students who live in a global age.
Another quality that is evident in these teachers is their willing-
ness to recognize cultural norms as non-absolute.What might be
mistaken for rudeness in the United States may be acceptable in
another culture, and vice versa. Elyssa’s experience with the
Brazilian tendency for all speakers to talk simultaneously was
negotiated more easily with knowledge of the culture and skill in
communicating, and has affected her subsequent understanding of
her own students. Norms that are rooted in values can be more
difficult to accept. MariaTrogolo and Daniel Osborn felt this ten-
sion while working in Jordan, where their own educational expe-
riences that valued critical thinking contrasted with the local
educational communities’ value for knowledge acquisition. Liam
also experienced this challenge while working in a patriarchal
Korean culture that conflicted with his American egalitarian ideal-
ism. Balancing one’s own deeply held values and accepting
another’s culture when there is conflict is not an easy task, but
preparing students to be willing to accept such challenges, rather
than ignore differences, could prove to be a more productive
approach to educating citizens who live in a global age.
Life Abroad and Changed Cultural Perceptions
While the K–12 education of some teachers often marginalized or
neglected the places that became their host countries, they tended
to describe their experiences abroad as culturally illuminating.
Additionally, the opportunity to live abroad in the role of an edu-
cator was seen as a means to develop, challenge, and enhance their
perceptions of life elsewhere in the world. Unlike tourists whose
journeys are brief, these teachers were able to immerse them-
selves in their host societies for prolonged periods. Sean recounts
how teaching in Chile gave him “a chance to get a sense of immer-
sion within a genuine community, and after living there for almost
a year, I surely have a much more profound understanding.” Such
extended stays were incubators for forging multidimensional cul-
tural impressions. Moreover, cultural exploration occurred in the
context of living within and contributing to a school community,
making it possible for teachers to be participants rather than mere
observers in the host societies. For Maria, such active involvement
in her community was a conduit for establishing and fortifying

relationships with Jordanians that transcended the ephemeral con-
tact experienced by tourists. She noted,
When you’re teaching you have the opportunity to develop
more long-term relationships with people, your colleagues,
students, and the community members. Often people are
more comfortable to talk about private or sensitive topics
when you’re a friend and not just someone passing through.
This insight reflects Torii Bottomley’s advice that when teaching
abroad, one should be open to learning from others. Teaching is
not only a matter of transmitting information, but rather of gen-
erating trust between people of different backgrounds and life
experiences. Some teachers described a sense of cultural confine-
ment. Liam, Sean, and Elyssa recognized that teaching in private
schools had limited their exposure to different socioeconomic
strata and that participation in these host societies could not afford
them a comprehensive cultural view. Nevertheless, their experi-
ences as teachers promoted acute sensitivity to the pluralistic
nature of these societies, and they were able to discern social
cleavages, hierarchies, and diversity in places previously vaguely
understood.
Thoughts on Expanding Students’ Global Consciousness
Teaching abroad has served as the impetus for the teachers’ com-
mitment to creating learning spaces in their classrooms that are
conducive to expanding students’ global consciousness. Both Sean
and Christine are proponents of utilizing digital technologies for
giving voice to youth across the world through correspondence that
emulates the sort of cultural encounters once reserved for travel.
Sean recognizes that students do not always immediately compre-
hend the importance of cultivating cross-cultural sensibilities, but
technology can connect people who otherwise may perceive one
another as being culturally and geographically remote. Sean
explains, “When the person on the other end is a real person the
same age . . . students become interested and see real world appli-
cation with immediate payoff.” Christine harnessed this interest in
technology and educational exchanges for her master’s thesis that
matched first graders in France with their peers in Great Britain,
Romania, and Spain for authentic language acquisition through
international communication. Liam considers curricular change a
requisite task to allow U.S. schooling to be a vehicle for assisting
students’ acceptance of difference, a daunting—but surmount-
able—challenge since students may initially reject differences as
inferiority or deviance from a cultural standard. Importantly, he is
wary of curricular overhauls that would supplant the existing
emphasis on U.S. history in schools. Liam explains,
In the U.S., we spend a lot of our grade school education
learning about American history.This is not a bad thing.We
should be proud of our culture and should be capable pur-
veyors of our culture. Still, any effort to complement (not
replace) this education with an increased awareness of other
cultures would be beneficial.
Liam posits a balanced approach to globalizing the classroom that
does not negate the existing national emphasis. Instead, existing
emphasis on U.S. studies would coexist with increased attention to
peoples and places that are too often neglected.
Teachers at international schools provide detailed examples of
integrating U.S. and global history and literature. StaceyWilkins’s
most important advice to teachers in the United States is to inte-
grate world news and literature into the curriculum to giveAmer-
ican students an opportunity to develop an interest in world events
and world culture. Christine Bodet and Dectora Gander both
work to create this type of curriculum to build students’ global
awareness. Christine and her American colleague plan together in
preparation for teaching the American and French Revolutions;
their fourth graders write essays about each revolution from the
perspective of a historical figure from the other nation. Dectora
includes literature from English-speaking countries other than the
United States and the United Kingdom in her curricula, as well as
translated works. She asks her students to consider how perspec-
tive can affect the way they understand a given text when consid-
eration is given to the historical and cultural contexts.As Christine
noted, simply knowing the facts of the history of one’s own or
other countries is insufficient; one must also be cognizant of dif-
ferent perspectives on historical events. Dectora concurs, adding
that individuals must consider “through what lenses each of us is
reading and what impact might such lenses have on our reception
of the text and context?”While the school curriculum and reflec-
tion in the classroom might not lead to a complete understanding
of another’s perspective, it is a starting point, perhaps aligning
with Acton-Boxborough history teacher Cecilia Hilton’s practice
of “encouraging students to adopt different world views.”
While travel and curricular enhancements are oft-noted strate-
gies for increasing students’ global awareness, the growing diver-
sity of the United States offers opportunities to develop global
awareness at home, a thought echoed by teachers practicing both
abroad and at home. Teaching in different hemispheres, these
teachers offer another realization and concern regarding changing
definitions of citizenship.To be good citizens in a global age, stu-
dents need to connect with and learn from those who have differ-
ent backgrounds, and while this experience can happen abroad,
students’ own home cities or towns are fertile places to begin.
Given the complexities of educating in a global age, it is not
surprising that the teachers offered questions as well as insights.
Dectora noted that terms such as “global citizen” and “interna-
tional-mindedness” can be difficult to interpret. She suggested that
before considering what it means to be a “global citizen,” it is nec-
essary to think about what it means to be a citizen of one’s own
country. It is a question she “thinks quite a lot about after so much
time living away.” Her reflections lead her to think that the impor-
tant focus for schools is “good citizenship, period.” She added,
If I were building a curriculum to teach citizenship, I think
that these would be these essential questions: (1) What are
the qualities of a good American citizen, a good world citi-

zen, a good digital citizen? (2)What are the responsibilities
of our various citizenships, of a country, of the world?What
are the responsibilities of digital citizens? and (3) What
rights should citizens have in return for fulfilling these
responsibilities?
Furthermore, Dectora believes that global citizenship starts at
home, wherever that may be.
There is too little emphasis on learning about the people in
our immediate communities who are not like us. Unfortu-
nately, “global citizenship” education too often seems to be
about “helping those people” in faraway places because it is
actually easier than looking more closely at our own com-
munities and the diversity that one can find there.
Elyssa Miller,Torii Bottomley, and the teachers at Acton-Boxbor-
ough High School are living Dectora’s words in their daily teach-
ing practice.
The teachers are universally enthusiastic about integrating
global perspectives and innovative pedagogies into their class-
rooms—for many, a response to the curricula that limited the early
development of their own global awareness.The perspectives of all
the teachers have been affected by their experiences abroad where
they were or continue to be actively involved in the education of
their host countries’ and other countries’ youth. Having reflected
upon their experience in a foreign teaching context, these teachers
continue to explore ways to infuse classrooms with more culturally
diverse learning experiences for their students, whose lives will be
shaped by the prospects and challenges of globalization.
CONCLUSION
James A. Banks (this issue) notes that, “Students need to develop
the knowledge, attitudes, and skills that will enable them to func-
tion in a global society” (p. 4).These teachers, educated in the dis-
ciplines of mathematics, history, or English, have experienced
firsthand the necessity of such knowledge, attitudes, and skills by
living abroad and working with diverse student populations. Some
of them recognize the gaps in their own education, while others
reflect more on the interpersonal skills that must be fostered for
living in an increasingly diverse world. Some of them study global
issues per se, while others recognize the need for global awareness
from their daily work with students. All of them, though, are at
the forefront in considering how to best meet this need for their
students, whether by creating opportunities for students to con-
nect with their peers and learn about each other’s backgrounds,
thinking about the perspectives represented in curricula, integrat-
ing world literature, organizing trips abroad, or sharing their own
experiences teaching abroad.While these are important practices,
without exception, the teachers suggest that learning to interact
with and respect others who come from backgrounds different
from our own is fundamental to living successfully in a global age,
whatever the context.We hope that the reflections of the teachers
who contributed to this article will offer our readers a way to
begin—or to continue—to provide opportunities for their stu-
dents to “develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills that will
enable them to function in a global society” (p. 4).

Teaching Abroad

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