Meeting the Needs of PK-12 Educators Through Global Learning
The Center for the Study of Global Change (Global Center) had the privilege of serving Indiana and the nation through high-quality professional development activities for primary and secondary school educators and students. Through partnerships with other IU units and off-campus organizations and school districts, we used global learning to enhance other important aspects of the K-12 experience including literacy, STEAM, world language learning, and how to support our some of our most vulnerable students. Read more below and here to learn how the Global Center’s efforts fit within IU’s greater support for learners at all levels.
Global Deliberations Collaborative
After piloting both the revised model and piloting the workshop, the Global Deliberations Collaborative team was delighted to host high school educators from across Indiana in Bloomington for a multi-day workshop on implementing Global Deliberations in their classrooms in June. Global Deliberations promotes and develops open-minded, informed, and engaged citizenship. Educators learned the model by taking the role of students and working through the stages of define, investigate, deliberate, and apply. Participants also heard from IU graduate students who wrote global case studies for use in the process on topics ranging from ‘Falling Birthrates in South Korea’ to ‘Grain Trade in the Black Sea Region.’
Participants in the Global Deliberations workshop present their case study perspectives.
New Summer Program: Global Exploration for Educators
June also brought with it a pilot project between the Global Center and the nonprofit Global Exploration for Educators Organization (GEEO). Along with our funding partners at IU’s Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute and the Inner Asian & Uralic National Resource Center we provided scholarships to 9 teachers in a cohort of 13 hailing from Indiana and across the US. The Global Center’s Associate Director accompanied the teachers across Central Europe, facilitating reflective sessions, lesson planning preparations, and training on cultural differences in the six cities and five countries visited.
At the beginning of their travels through Central Europe teachers participating in the GEEO program stopped by a palace in Pławniowice, Poland.
This new program enriches teachers’ understanding of global cultures and guides them to bring these lived insights back to their classrooms. In 2025, in partnership with the same two Hamilton Lugar School (HLS) centers (IAUNRC and REEI), the Global Center will continue to support this program as selected teachers will once again be funded to travel abroad for one month, this time around central Asia.
On tour in Vienna, teachers on our GEEO tour learn from a local guide about the oldest cafe in Vienna.
Teachers Supporting Teachers and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals
The Global Center, in collaboration with the Hamilton Lugar School supported a globally reaching project thanks to our post-doctoral research associate, Daniel Shepard. "Teachers Supporting Teachers" was an ongoing collaboration throughout the spring and fall semester wherein teachers from countries across the world were connected via Zoom in an online community where they discussed specific topics on how to best support displaced and refugee students. Examples of topics discussed include the challenges of multilingual classrooms and mental health approaches for teachers as mentors. Countries involved in the project include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Ireland, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico Uganda, Ukraine and the United States. Read more about "Teachers Supporting Teachers" and Dr. Shepard’s research in this blog.
Educators from Azerbaijan present at a group Zoom meeting on May 4, 2024. Photo by Sarah DeWeese, Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies
Daniel Shephard also worked with three in-service teachers from across the U.S. to create curricular materials about each of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Each of the 17 goals has a module containing recommended links to Indiana’s high school requirements, recommended activities, resources, and more. These curricular materials will be available soon on the Access Global website.
Indiana Language Roadmap Funding
As part of the Indiana Language Roadmap Program, the Global Center provides funding to cover language exam fees for high school students across the state. In 2024 we funded fifteen schools throughout rural Indiana, in fourteen different cities and towns. Ninety-five students took language exams at no cost to them in the following six languages to assist them in obtaining a Certificate of Multilingual Proficiency: Arabic, Bulgarian, Haitian Creole, Mandarin (Chinese), Russian, Spanish. The Global Center awards these scholarships every year, giving preference to students taking proficiency exams for less commonly taught languages, with financial need, and from a variety of school districts across Indiana. More information on the Indiana Language Roadmap and additional funding, such as our Community Project Grant can be found here.
Global Literacy Invitations
Educators from across the country present their Global Literacy Invitation projects at the 2024 summer program.
Vesna Dimitrieska and Leana McClain led a cohort of teachers in the Global Literacy Invitation program in summer 2024. This year featured a GLI 2.0 group of teachers returning for a second time to advance and refine their projects. GLI educators use the Global Literacy Invitation teaching strategy to identify ways for their students to participate in an open-ended investigation that extends the themes in global picture books into other areas and subjects, including technology, science, math, music, and art.