On teaching Global Issues

Miguel Sosa

　

1. Introduction

When Chie sensei asked me to write this paper, I began to think about a good way to introduce the topic of Global Issues. As I thought about it, I realized that many people are talking about this, and everyone has a different idea about what can be done and how it should be done. So, I decided that the best thing to do here is to tell you my story, hoping that you will have many questions we can talk about when we meet. Let me start by asking you to do something special. Please think about your favorite word about teaching. Write it in this box

　

Now we can start. When I think about teaching, my favorite word is ﾒconnessione.ﾓ It is NOT an English word. I learned this word when I read the diaries of Leonardo Da Vinci. He wrote about seven principles, seven ideas to make life interesting. Connessione is the last one. Leonardo Da Vinci was a man interested in many things. If you take a look at it, the word ﾒconnessioneﾓ looks a lot like ﾒconnection.ﾓ Actually, that is the equivalent in English. Da Vinci wrote that making connections between things is one important way of learning. You might ask, ﾒwhyﾓ do I like that word so much? Well, the answer is both, simple and long.

The experience of having lived in five countries has taught me that strong English-language ability is invaluable these days, especially if we consider the increase in international traveling.

In a recent publication, the Ministry of Education outlined a series of guidelines aimed at preparing students to ﾒbecome communicatively functional in Englishﾓ (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2002). The idea of teaching people to develop speaking skills is good, but I like to think that besides being able to speak other languages, people need to understand the relationship that exists between the languages they study and the cultures where those languages are spoken. This means understanding WHY people thing the way they do and HOW that can help us understand the kinds of problems their societies have. In my opinion, that is one goal of teaching Global Issues: to help students understand the mentality, customs and traditions that (quite often) are behind a particular problem. This is something I would like to talk about when we meet.

　

2. The classroom environment

What is your ideal classroom? What happens in your ideal classroom? These are two questions I often ask other teachers. One interesting thing about life in many parts of Latin America and Europe is the local market. Once a week, every week of the year, people from the countryside visit the town and bring the goods they have grown in their farms. I would like you to imagine the following scene: you walk into a market, you can smell vegetables and fruits, and you can see food of every color. Also, as you go from one food stall to another, you can touch many kinds of food. This is my ideal classroom.

I believe that the goal of the classroom is to set the stage for the development of socio-cultural and linguistic literacy. These are two important things that people need in order to survive in a world that becomes more and more international. I believe that socio-cultural and linguistic literacy set the basis for self-growth and skills development.

　

3. Teaching people to motivate themselves

Carl Rogers was a strong believer in the positive aspects of human behavior. He believed that individuals who recognize their potential can do great things. Rogers believed that people behave in a productive manner when there is an environment that encourages personal growth (1983). If we apply this idea to classrooms, it means that the classroom becomes an environment where motivation to develop oneﾕs talents is experienced first hand, EVERY DAY.

How can this be done? Well, as teachers, we can think of every class as an opportunity to expose our students to a variety of information at many levels. In this way, students are constantly encouraged to make connections between their academic goals, their school experience and their daily life. In this way, I believe the classroom has the potential to become a marketplace where students find space to recognize and nurture their individual and intellectual potential.

　

4. Every year we learn something new.

At the initial stage of building an environment in which students feel comfortable developing awareness of their interests as well as learning styles, the classroom should provide opportunities to see Global Issues as the entry points for other fields of study. In this way, students can be encouraged to develop their intellectual potential, foster literacy in and outside the classroom, while gaining the practical knowledge that will help them overcome the fears about other people and cultures.

Throughout my teaching career, I have become aware of several things which I feel are important regarding the teaching of Global Issues:

　

1. The need to make an impact. Young people have a tremendous amount of energy and they want to use it. Also, young people want to be regarded and respected as young adults. I have learned to bank on that energy by encouraging my students to search for the information that will help them find what they want to do. I teach them that we cannot change the world everyday, but we can have an impact on someone elseﾕs life. That is a small but attainable goal.

　

2. The need to do something special. Most people you will meet feel a desire to be special. We want to make a lasting impression on others at one time or another. Educational psychology teaches us that most of the values that determine the course of our lives are usually acquired during our first years. The classroom can provide young people with some of these values and providing opportunities to ﾒmake a differenceﾓ is the key between ﾒknowing about something, and having experienced it.ﾓ

　

3. The need to care for others. Some of us have experienced situations in which we had to make decisions for others, thus being required to act as guides and/or helpers. Think about being a ﾒSempai.ﾓ When young people are given the opportunity to care for other human beings or a good cause in a different part of the world, they see the practical applications, and the value of investing time and energy in learning foreign languages.

　

5. Conclusion

The constant changes we experience teach us that the relationship between what we see and how we learn is never settled. For the student, this means learning to make connections between words, images, ideas and action. For the teacher, it means helping student to realize their potential and set the basis for further personal development.

As a result of the social changes that we have experienced in the past decade, many students are realizing that learning foreign languages is INDEED an extension of their faculties.

For a long time, I have felt that teaching languages is more than passing information about word usage. After being a teacher in Japan for eight years, I have confirmed that besides learning foreign languages, students are interested in learning to find their identity in an international world, as they exchange thoughts with people from other cultures.

I have learned that when students become aware of how background knowledge influences their ability to think and communicate in subtle ways, they begin to experiment with, and expand their usage language in creative ways. In this way, many of the existing obstacles to understanding and appreciation of our cultural diversities can be overcome.

In my view, there needs to be an integration of what we know, what we can do, and the kind of teachers we want to be. Mere knowledge of facts is not sufficient, yet without knowledge we can never be effective facilitators. True, the tremendous demands imposed on teachers, the reality of an educational system that focuses on grades, requirements, course preparation and evaluations is monumental. However, I believe that our ability to use the skills and knowledge we have is very much a function of being sensitive to the interactive processes involved in teaching.

Exercising balance between our job demands and restrictions and our personal education and intellectual development means embracing responsibility for doing what we can do, rather than focusing on the things we cannot do. That is why we become teachers.

　

As children,

We question, we read;

As youngsters,

We read, we talk;

As adults,

We talk, we reflect;

As teachers,

We reflect, and we write;

We think more, and sometimes we even cry.

But always, our job demands that

We think and talk about the ways in which things are:

Connected.

That is the question we have been asking ourselves since we wereﾉ

Children.

　

Finally, by expressing an appropriate degree of warmth and communication, we can guide our students to see that we are trying to understand their world as they experience it. By doing so, we can provide a combination of support and challenge that are essential for their development. If you reassure your students that they have your support, you will be setting the stage for them to learn to embrace and accept greater challenges.

In this way, we can help students to cultivate their inner resources for conscious change, and thereby help them take the specific steps to develop their abilities to a degree that matches their potential as human beings.

I look forward to talking with you on May 31st.

Best wishes,

Miguel Sosa.