Teaching the World Forum: Highlighting New Jersey Efforts in Global Education

More than 175 educators from 33 school districts and 14 universities participated in Rutgers Graduate School of Education’s (GSE) Forth Annual Teaching the World Forum on April 24, 2015. The annual forum focuses on professional development for teachers and teacher educators working to foster global citizenship.

This year’s theme, Local-Global Connections and Equity, highlighted New Jersey efforts in global education. Presentation topics ranged PreK-16 education and multi-disciplinary content, and included global education and technology, sustainability, teaching in the Post-9/11 context, international service learning and children’s literature, and district-wide global education initiatives.

“The Fulbright Association sponsored a fascinating event, The Global Kitchen Project Gallery Walk,” notes Dr. Mary Curran, Associate Dean for Local-Global Partnerships at the GSE. “During the international buffet lunch, participants were exposed to nutritional and culinary customs from around the world.”

Each year the forum highlights a model global citizen. This year’s model global citizen was Shawn Brooks Kiehne, a singer-songwriter who grew up in a monolingual English-speaking home, learned Spanish, and developed a singing career in which he markets himself as “El Gringo,” singing songs in the norteño genre. Kiehne shared his experience learning Spanish through engaging with Spanish speakers in real-world contexts and discussed the personal and professional opportunities he has gained through being bilingual. He ended with a performance of the song Algo Sucedío.

Nominations for a featured speaker for next year’s forum, ideally someone who works outside the field of education, can be sent to kathleen.myles@gse.rutgers.edu.

Information regarding the 2016 Teaching the World Forum to be held on April 15 and the call for proposals can be found by clicking here.

To learn more about the Teaching the World Forum and view presentations from this year’s forum, please visit the program webpage.