Empowering Global Citizens Empowering Global Citizens A World Course F M. R, V C, C K. C, J H, E. B. O’D Fernando M. Reimers is the Ford Foundation Professor of the Practice of International Education and the director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative and of the International Education Policy Program at Harvard University. Professor Reimers is an expert in the field of global education policy and in- novation. His research and teaching examine how education policy, leader- ship, instruction and innovation empower children and youth to develop the skills they need to thrive in the twenty-first century. He directs the Global Education Innovation Initiative, he and his colleagues recently finished a comparative study of the goals of education as reflected in the curricula in Chile, China, India, Mexico, Singapore, and the United States. These findings are presented in the book Teaching and Learning for the Twenty- first Century: Educational Goals, Policies, and Curricula from Six Nations published by the Harvard Education Press. This book is also available in Chinese, Portuguese and Spanish language editions. Another recent book, Fifteen Letters on Education in Singapore examines the lessons that can be learned from Singapore’s efforts to build a robust teaching profession, and is available in paperback and as an e-Book. He has authored, edited, or coed- ited fourteen books and ninety research articles and chapters on education. He teaches graduate courses on education policy and educational innova- tion at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. These courses are also offered online via the Harvard Extension School. He is also the faculty chair of a number of leadership development programs offered by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, including an annual program for education © 2016 Fernando M. Reimers, Vidur Chopra, Connie K. Chung, Julia Higdon, and E. B. O’Donnell. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 leaders interested in advancing global education. International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/. All rights reserved. He advises governments, international development organizations, universi- ties, public and independent schools, foundations and other educational in- stitutions. He is a member of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, where he chairs the strategic planning committee, which works with all pub- lic universities in the state to align their strategic plans with the state’s Vision Project. v Fernando M. Reimers et al. Empowering Global Citizens He is a member of the US Commission for UNESCO and advises policy toward providing a powerful, relevant, rigorous, and meaningful education makers in the United States, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. for all children that supports not only their individual growth but also the development of their communities. She is the coeditor of the book Teaching In recognition of his global education leadership, he was appointed as the CJ and Learning for the Twenty-first Century: Educational Goals, Policies, and Koh Visiting Professor to the National Institute of Education in Singapore Curricula from Six Nations. and received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Emerson College. He received a BA in psychology from the Universidad Central de In pursuing her research interest in ways in which people from diverse Venezuela, and an EdM and EdD from Harvard University. backgrounds can learn to work together and to leverage their collective power for positive change in their communities, she was involved in a Vidur Chopra is an advanced doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate multiyear, multisite study of education reform and community organiz- School of Education, where he focuses on adolescent and youth civic agency ing in the United States, the results of which were published in the book in the developing world and particularly in post-conflict countries with large A Match on Dry Grass: Community Organizing as a Catalyst for School youth bulges. He is interested in the role of formal and non-formal educa- Reform (Oxford University Press, 2011). She has worked as a staff mem- tional opportunities in young people’s imaginings of their roles in rebuilding ber, consultant, and speaker with various human-rights and civic-educa- conflict-torn societies and in the potential and promise that education holds tion organizations. She currently serves on the board of two nonprofits, for peace building. He has policy-based experience from consulting for including Aaron’s Presents, an organization that offers grants to students United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund and the Office in grades eight and below to encourage positive development in those of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and practice-based students and in their communities. A former public high school English experience from working for international organizations such as Save the teacher, she was nominated by her students for various teaching awards. Children and RET International. He has also worked on early childhood She has taught as an adjunct lecturer on the topics of nonprofit manage- development issues in the developing world and has had international work ment and multicultural education and also was a curriculum consultant experience in Bhutan, Burundi, Ethiopia, India, Lebanon, Rwanda, Syria, in the development of a kindergarten-through-twelfth grade global citi- and the United States. Vidur also has an EdM in international education zenship education curriculum. Dr. Chung received her BA in English policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an MA in inter- literature from Harvard College and her master’s degrees in teaching and national and development economics from Yale University, and a BA in curriculum (1999) and in international education policy (2007) from economics from the University of Delhi in India. the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her doctorate is also from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Connie K. Chung is the research director for the Global Education Innovation Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a re- Her greatest sense of satisfaction has come from working with young people, search-practice-policy collaborative that works with education institutions one of whom wrote the following to her at the end of a school year: “I in seven countries. Her field of research is in education for the twenty- think I learned more about life in this class than in any other part of high first century, civic education, and global citizenship education. She works school. Thank you for not only teaching us to think critically but also hu- to build the capacity of organizations and people to work collaboratively manitarianly as a citizen of this world. When I talked about my vision of a vi vii Fernando M. Reimers et al. Empowering Global Citizens mentorship program, you really listened. I feel encouraged to make it hap- in international studies and French from Washington University in Saint pen before the end of my senior year and to make things happen for the rest Louis, Missouri, and an EdM in international education policy from the of my life.” Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Julia Higdon received her doctorate from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in May 2015. In her dissertation, Julia used data from the 2009 IEA ICCS (International Civic and Citizenship Education Study) to exam- ine determinants of intercultural attitudes among adolescents (n=16,847) in seven countries across Europe—the United Kingdom (England only), Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Bulgaria, Poland, and Greece—focusing on cultural contexts and school climates. Julia established the measurement invariance of a variety of measures of intercultural attitudes to support the validity of cross-cultural comparison, using a novel approach in the Bayesian framework. Julia also examined the ways in which intergroup contact, gen- der, and school climates were associated with intergroup attitudes across these seven countries. She found limited evidence of an association between native-born and immigrant contact and positive intercultural attitudes. However, she found that positive intercultural attitudes were consistently as- sociated with positive and democratic school climates, as well as with gender and attitudes toward gender equality. Julia was working on her dissertation at the time of the writing of this book. Julia is interested in issues of measurement and promoting the use of cutting- edge statistical methods in applied educational research. Julia is currently a Senior Research Scientist on the Tiger Works Research and Development team at Avenues: The World School. E. B. O’Donnell is a doctoral student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and an education consultant. She has over ten years of experience working with nonprofit organizations, international nongovernmental orga- nizations, and schools. Her particular areas of interest and expertise include curriculum development, global education, parental beliefs, early childhood care and education, and emergent literacy and numeracy. She earned a BA viii ix Praise for Empowering Global Citizens n 2015, the international community charted a new course for people, Iplanet and prosperity, set out in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Together, they add up to a universal agenda solidly anchored in human rights that calls upon everyone’s spirit of