Global Insights: 2023 K-12 Programs
By Elisheva Cohen, Deborah Hutton, and Eli Konwest
SDGs 2.0: A K-12 Summer Institute
Over the summer, Dr. Vesna Dimitrieska and Dr. Elisheva Cohen facilitated a 2-day workshop for K-12 teachers on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This workshop represented a second phase in their work supporting teachers to teach with and for the SDGs.
During the workshop, which assumed a preliminary knowledge of the SDGs, educators gained a better understanding of the SDG targets and the ways that indicators function to measure progress toward the goals. They also learned how the SDGs can be used in the classroom to facilitate systems thinking and participated in activities to practice this approach.
Presenters from across IU’s area studies centers spoke to educators about local implementation of the SDGs and specific challenges the goals address. Through these case studies, educators deepened their knowledge of particular world regions, countries, and cultures. Finally, the workshop included a discussion led by educators on how educators can use the goals in their classrooms and across their schools.
Educators at the HLS Summer Institute are engaged in activities related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Global Deliberations Collaborative
The Global Center is proud to be leading a new P-20 initiative called Global Deliberations Collaborative (GDC) with IU area studies partners African Studies Program, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Center for the Study of the Middle East, East Asian Studies Center, Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, Institute for European Studies, and the Russian and East European Institute. The GDC Leadership Team is led by Eli Konwest and IU School of Education Vesna Dimitrieska and comprised of two exemplary IU and University of Oregon education professors, three exemplary Indiana high school educators, and one deliberation specialist. Through 2023, it has created a unique, teachable deliberation model which focuses on the multiple perspectives involved in a disputed issue, and a template for original international case studies based on real disputed issues around the world, to be developed by partner centers.
The Global Deliberations Collaborative leadership team is working out updates to the Deliberations 2.0 model.
Other Support
In addition to the initiatives above, the Global Center supported work with K-12 teachers in other areas as well, including work done the the Global Employability Initiative, additional professional development for teachers, and programming directly for students. With Vesna Dimitrieska and other faculty in the IU School of Education, we supported the following professional development opportunities: Global Literacy Invitations, Dual-Language Immersion workshops, and workshops on Global STEAM. Programs directly for K-12 students included the Bridges: World, Language, Culture program for less commonly taught languages in afterschool care settings at local elementary schools. Through Bridges, the joint international and area studies centers supported the teaching of Chinese, Hindi, Russian, and more. The Global Center supported world language learning at high schools across Indiana through the Indiana Language Roadmap project by offsetting testing fees for students earning the Certificate of Multilingual Proficiency and supporting the Multil-IN-gual Celebration of Success awards at the annual Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association annual conference.