About the Global Education Program
As the effects of globalization bring many changes and challenges to the U.S. and the world, American educators are forced to develop a new framework. Past models of citizenship have focused primarily on the knowledge and acquisition of values necessary for participation in the American system. However, as national boundaries become more porous through immigration, technology, business and cultural exchanges, more and more individuals find themselves needing new knowledge and skills to succeed in this changing environment.
In order to move forward in the global environment, specific skills of intercultural communications are needed along with cross-cultural knowledge and a desire to collaborate with international partners. Just as democratic citizens are not born, neither are global citizens. The Center for Global Education at Seton Hall University serves as a vehicle to promote such learning and practices among a wide audience.
The Center's goal is to prepare teacher education candidates and current teachers to be ready to tackle the challenges associated with global education in their future classrooms. Pedagogical knowledge will be obtained in University classrooms and then extended through experiences in high school classrooms with students who are utilizing materials assigned by the Center. Such classroom experiences are an important step in this process, but only a step.
Believing that learning is a social process, we recognize that all learners need opportunities to discuss, critique, analyze, and reflect in the context of a community. The Center provides for numerous opportunities for such exchanges to take place. Whether it be in the university classroom, or working with high school faculty and students, or through the technological tools of our project, participants will participate in communities that exist across national borders in order to extend one's own understandings and skills.
Connecting Students Across the Globe Through the Use of Video Conferencing
