World Class : Teaching and Learning in Global Times

Reports on and analyzes how teachers and students in three high schools have engaged in global education. Intended to help social studies educators reflect on their own thinking and practice.

How have school curricula been affected by the ripple effects of globalization?

How do teachers and students attempt to understand their complex world?


Most states require world teaching in some form, yet little is known about how teachers and students engage in this critical curricular area. World Class: Teaching and Learning in Global Times directly fills this need by providing a detailed, inside look at global education in three high schools. The data from the study, drawn from extensive interviews and observations, illustrate the daily challenges and complexities of global teaching and learning.


Comprehensive yet scholarly, this volume:

*raises thought-provoking questions for both theorists and practitioners;

*addresses controversial issues embedded in global education and throughout the social studies curriculum, such as the tension between universalism and cultural relativism, the problematic nature of identity in classroom discourse, and the apparent duality of national and global loyalties;

*connects issues particular to global education with wider scholarship in education;

*examines the interplay of theory and practice in global education and, more broadly, the social sciences; and

*provides an exploratory and provocative look at dimensions of global civics, with an analysis of the events of 9/11/01 and how they have shaped global perspectives about living as one planet.


The book is organized in three parts--contexts, problems, and alternatives. Contexts allows readers to consider global education from multiple perspectives: teacher, student, administrator, community member, and scholar. Problems focuses on pedagogical challenges associated with global education. Alternatives provides reflection points that encourage readers to consider different ways we might converse about global teaching and learning.


Written for scholars, practitioners, and students in social studies, curriculum and instruction, global/multicultural education, and related fields, World Class: Teaching and Learning in Global Times is an excellent text for preservice and graduate-level courses in these areas.