Introduction to Global Urban Education
February 11th - April 14th, 2013
May 6th (For credit students)
Syllabus
Instructors
Eric Rice, PhD.
Education Building, Office 307D
410-516-4528
ericrice@jhu.edu
Fred Mednick, EdD
Teachers Without Borders
206-356-4731
fred@twb.org
Course Sites

Course Site

Teachers Without Borders (free)
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TWB Global Network (free)
Continuing Education Credits
The Johns Hopkins University School of Education has approved 2 JHU/SOE CEUs for this noncredit course. CEUs cannot be used towards School of Education academic programs, nor can JHU
guarantee that course participants will receive recognition of these Johns Hopkins University School of
Education CEU units from their respective institutions or districts. Please submit the syllabus of this
course to your district or regional authorities in order for them to determine whether this course meets
eligibility requirements.
Commitment of Professors to You
This may be an online course, but it is our goal to create a warm, safe, and incredibly responsive
environment in which we can tackle some of the most seemingly persistent and intractable issues of our
time. As you turn in your assignments and respond to each other, we will summarize what we have
learned from you. We’ll be in touch with each one of you, ready to answer questions and help you all
along the way
Social Expectations
We can only create a fabulous course if we build a climate of support for each other. To that end, this
course expects that students will treat each other’s cultures and ideas with respect. We encourage
strong opinions, but discourage (and have the right to remove access without refunding course fees) for
those who abuse this privilege.
Grading Criteria (What factors in a letter of recommendation)
This is a credit course (for Hopkins students) and a non-credit course designed for Continuing Education
Units. For the non-credit students, a passing grade will also be accompanied by a letter (upon request)
written by one of the two professors, upon request—a valuable asset in a teacher’s portfolio. The degree
to which you commit to the course content (and each other) determines the quality of that letter.

All written assignments must be completed. Professors may require that students make edits
before determining the completion of any assignment. Should there be any issue about making
the weekly deadline, any of the professors must be contacted in advance.

“Attendance” is determined by student engagement with the classroom tools, with other
students, and with the instructor. In addition completing the required written assignments,
students are required to respond to the readings and to each other throughout each week by
posing or responding to issues or the comments of each other. This cannot be saved up until the
end.
Course Description
This personalized course, team-taught by a Johns Hopkins University School of Education professor and
the Founder of Teachers Without Borders, examines some of the persistent questions in International
Education, with a particular focus on how they connect to urban areas. How has the international
community looked at the goals of education, and how does American education measure up? How have
international comparisons been used in debates about school reform here in the United States? What are
the implications of the growth of global networks for curriculum? What is the role of a large research
institution like Johns Hopkins in education, both globally and here at home? Who are the other important
actors in international education? How have educators dealt with education in emergency situations,
both throughout the world and as refugees settle in urban settings?
While the course will focus on these large questions, students who are practicing educators will be
encouraged to use these issues as points of entry into their own practice, through learning more about
their own students and about international projects at Johns Hopkins, thinking through teaching about
international issues, and connecting to international teachers through organizations such as Teachers
without Borders. By the end of the course, students will understand the major issues facing international
educators, be able to critique the use of international comparisons in policy debates, connect to an
international network of teachers, and incorporate international content into their own practice.
Assignment 1. Welcome! Outside My Window
Written Assignment 1: Due February 17
This assignment has three parts: (1) a survey about you and global education (2) a personal introduction
and (3) your response to an unusual question.
Part 1: Click here for a survey designed to help us learn about you and focus on themes and issues about
which you feel particularly passionate.
Part 2: Please introduce yourself so that we can all know each other better: your name, where you live
and work, your setting (K-12, urban, rural, private, public), what you teach and what level, what you wish
to gain from taking this course.
Part 3: Choose ONE
1. What do you see outside your window? This question requires some background. In 1999 (well
before the social media explosion), one of your instructors asked a seemingly innocent question
of teachers around the world, via email: What do you see outside your window? Hardly a
research question at first, the question was an innocent-enough effort to think about the world
by connecting with people around the world. Whether we're in a globally collaborative team or
playing World of Warcraft, these kinds of connections are commonplace, seamless, and
expected, but the answers back then inspired the launching of Teachers Without Borders.
In 2013, dozen-plus years later, we want to ask that question again — this time, of students
taking this course. Describe the view from outside your window. Think both literally and
figuratively. From where you teach, what does your classroom look like? What do the desks look
like? How do students travel to get to your classroom? What are the obstacles along the
way? What are your daily rituals? What do you worry about? What are students' biggest
worries? We hope your view will stimulate some thoughts about your "views" and perspective
on education today, whether you are discussing the challenges you face or your questions and
thoughts about education, worldwide. Post your description to the designated course discussion
forum by Feb. 17.
2. Your ideal for global education. Thinking back about your education, first describe your ideal
global education. Would it be about place? Subject? Theme? Be as specific as you can. Then,
imagine that you had the power (even a magic wand) to change education, globally, to meet your
ideal. What would you do? Would you work at the level of the school, the district, and the
government? Would you focus on policy? Pedagogy?
NOTE: We encourage you to post this assignment in written form and (optional) add an image or video
message. All images and video message will be contained inside the course. You own all the rights to the
videos or images you create and are the sole decision maker about whether they remain within this
course (private) or are made available publicly. If you are taking this course in a part of the world where
posting images can compromise your safety, please don’t take the risk.
MODULE 1: COMPARATIVE EDUCATION
Assignment 2. Education Today—Worldwide
Introduction
Comparative Education is loosely defined as the transnational analysis, lending, borrowing, and sharing of
what and how one learns, thereby influencing the creation and development of each nation’s educational
systems and policies. Today, Comparative Education has become a global conversation, a political
football, a global development agenda, an economic yardstick, and a cultural trophy. We will also
explore education in a comparative context in order to determine when and if such comparisons are
either not useful or misleading.
As deep as curiosity itself, educational ideas began their travels via campfire tales, Biblical stories, oral
traditional wisdom, Silk Road narratives, Bedouin scrolls, and missionary journals. They appear on 14th
century plates of moveable type, 17th century archives of “grand tours” (for European men of means
only), and on postcards, letters, and aerograms with interesting stamps. Edutours, the global spider web
of international flights, and global student exchange programs have accelerated the frequency and speed
first-hand experiences with education around the world.
The internet has played a dramatic role in bringing the issues of comparative educational systems, global
achievement testing, and global educational development: public data reports, micro blogs, texts,
games, videos with multilingual subtitling, maps, open educational resources, library repositories,
interoperable platforms, Skype, infographics, and news feeds.
In this module we help you explore the field of comparative education (its origins, orientations,
complexities) as a subject that can illuminate our practice as teachers, with students identifying an area
of focus that grows out of their own perspective and passions. The goals include working through what
can be learned by comparing education in different contexts, but also thinking through when such
comparisons are either not useful or misleading.
Readings
The readings are snapshots of the field: an overview of the field from the African Virtual University, a
folksy introduction to the value of portable ideas, a United Nations document connecting education and
the rights of children, an inspiring TED Talk, a UNESCO vision for educational reform, a focus on the
power (though missing) of teachers' voices in policy and development, the Khan Academy’s do-it-yourself
website, and a corporate commitment to the leveling the global educational playing field through
technology.

Comparative Education. Emmy H. Mbozi, African Virtual University Word | PDF

United Nations: Convention on the Rights of the Child

World Bank Database on Education and Learning for All: World Bank Strategy 2020
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Education Innovation in the Slums. Charles Leadbeater. TED Talk, April 2010)
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Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century, Cisco
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Learning: The Treasure Within. Jacques Delors (UNESCO). 1994.
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Where are 60 Million Teachers? The Missing Voice in Educational Reforms Around the World. Eleonora
Villegas-Reimers and Fernando Reimers. Prospects, vol 1, Sept. 1996, pp. 469-492.

The Khan Academy: self-taught lessons with rubrics for feedback
Writing Assignment (2 Parts)
PART 1 (Informal): Post your immediate reaction in order to initiate a global conversation amongst your
colleagues. Don't spend a lot of time editing. After reviewing the readings for this week, what stands
out? What surprises, challenges, angers, or thrills you? What’s missing? Have these readings influenced
your interests and passions? You may simply have a question that requires clarity. This course includes
colleagues from many countries, so feel free to create a thread that helps you gain perspective from
cultures or countries other than your own.
PART II (Formal submission): Extend your informal reaction into a formal written piece around an issue
in comparative education or educational development that you feel passionate about. From outside
your window, for example, you might wish to tie in these readings to your particular interest in the
weight of community issues bearing down on children as you follow a typical child's path to school each
day. What does s/he experience in her community? What, metaphorically, might she carry in her school
pack or outside her/his window — violence, poverty, uneven distribution of opportunity or skills for
achievement? You may want to connect these readings to the challenges and opportunities you are
facing as an educator. On a more macro level, you might be struck by, or introduced to, various pressing
themes you would like to explore, like: access to water or technology, education to increase
international STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) competitiveness; the education of girls;
preventable diseases; refugees; global educational policy; the world inside your classroom; or how
educational systems can prepare for and respond to a disaster such as an earthquake. The field is deep
and wide. You choose. Demonstrate your ability to connect the readings to your response.
Write it as if it were a blog post or an article about the field of comparative education for a public
newspaper or magazine-reading public. Please demonstrate that you have read these articles. You don’t
have to site each one, but you should validate the themes and approaches these articles represent. This
assignment is designed both to clarify perspectives on comparative education and lead toward its role in
guiding you as a practitioner (in your own backyard or around the world). Possibilities:
1. You could take a position and argue your point of view. You might want to advocate for your
passion, use these articles as evidence, and seek to convince the public to do something.
2. After reading these articles, you might be inspired by an entirely new idea. Introduce that idea to
the public.
Assignment 3. Global Educational Comparisons
Central Questions
What is the purpose of education comparisons? Is the data instructive? Destructive? For example, is
America losing its capacity to educate future scientists? Why do some countries always find themselves
at the top of the TIMMS and PISA tests? What can we learn from Finland, where they teach far fewer
hours, don’t assign much homework, and their textbooks are thin? What might the measurable results of
other countries tell you about how to approach your passion? Is education about winning or losing on the
global stage? Human welfare? Economic growth? Competition? Image? If information is so readily
available, will education be defined as the technologically literate and technologically illiterate? And
with the world’s growing capacity to access and afford technology (on the one hand), and accept, adapt,
and adopt new ideas, on the other, will borders disappear or walls get higher? What are the obstacles to
education at home and around the world? What, in the end, does any of this mean to me, personally and
professionally and/or to my classroom and my students’ lives?
Required Reading, Reviewing, and Media

PISA 2009 Results and PISA – Measuring Student Success Around the World (video)
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Public Defender and RE: Public Defender: David Denby, The New Yorker

Yong Zhao: No Child Left Behind and Global Competitiveness? Part of a film series produced by
the Mobile Learning Institute’s called “A 21st Century Education”

Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization. Keynote at Asia
Society’s A World Class Education conference on July 11, 2009, DC.
Online Discussion (post by 2/28, respond to colleagues by 3/3/13)
Read the PISA 2009 Results, Part 1 – skim the actual results, looking for areas of interest to you, but
definitely read the final section on policy implications. Post a reaction to the report by Thursday, February
28th, at 5 p.m. What conclusions do you draw about how public education in the US is doing when
compared to the rest of the world? Given the issue that you identified last week, can you form a hypothesis
about how to deal with that issue? What are countries that show success in that area doing? By Sunday,
March 3rd at 5 pm, post at least two responses to your colleagues. These responses should incorporate
additional investigation you have done into the causes and consequences of the PISA results.
Assignment 4. International Comparisons: A Critique
This week we pause to consider what the international comparisons really show. For example, do less
successful educational systems also use the strategies identified last week? Are there different
approaches that seem to work, depending upon the culture and goals of the countries in question? For
example, Finland and South Korea both score near the top of the PISA, yet they have radically different
approaches to homework. When we dig deeper, what is revealed about the efficacy of different
approaches to education?
Readings and Review
Read Standing on the Shoulders of Giants, by Marc Tucker (2011), the 2012 Brown Center Report by T.
Loveless, and a piece in The New York Review of Books by education reformer, Diane Ravitch. Consider
the potential and pitfalls of basing one country’s policies on international results. Use Voice Thread to
post a verbal discussion of how you think these comparisons should be used.
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Mark Tucker, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
T. Loveless, 2012 Brown Center Report
Diane Ravitch, Schools We Can Envy
Written Assignment 4
Please post by Thursday, March 7 at 5 p.m. Respond at least once to a colleague by Sunday, March 10 at
5 p.m. Extra credit for responding more than once.
Assignment 5. Millennium Development Goals and Global Agencies
Short Survey on Education and Emergencies
Click HERE for the survey about prioritizing the goals, based upon your interests and experience (Not created yet)
Readings and Viewings

Education Strategy: Improving Lives Through Learning (USAID)

Time for School Series (video series from WBGH); PDF of complete transcript

Millennium Development Goals (UN)

Issues in Basic Education in Developing Countries: An Exploration of Policy Options for Improved
Delivery, Joseph P. G. Chimombo. Centre for Educational Research and Training, University of
Malawi

“To Build a Nation, Build a Schoolhouse” New York Times interview with (Amartya Sen) and video
MODULE 2: EDUCATION AND GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
According to the UN, “The 8 Millennium Development Goals …form a blueprint agreed to by all
the world’s countries and all the world’s leading development institutions. They have galvanized
unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world’s poorest.” Access to high-quality education is
widely recognised as a universal human right.
The optimistic vision centers around greater self-reliance, sustainability, educational access, global
transparency. Technology gets particular high marks; social networks, micro-blogs, viral videos, and
mobile-phone transactions have enabled or stimulated an unprecedented level of scale for creative and
sustainable solutions to vexing problems. E-government and e-health, micro-credit, information access,
and the communications engine behind the Arab Spring. More children than ever are attending
school; MOOCs (massive open online courses) are not only free, but the students who have signed up
are diverse and engaged. Though global diseases have become more difficult to identify and treat, public
health successes in areas such as hygiene and immunization campaigns have benefited from publicprivate partnerships and individual philanthropy (Bono, Gates).
But in many poor countries, a quality basic education is hardly universal. And the voice of those critical
of development and aid are growing louder.
Written Assignment 5
Due March 17
Review the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as you prepare your response to ONE
of the following:
1. Choose one Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and one country of interest to you. Research
and identify the metrics used for measurement (1 page) and consider (in 2 pages) the “standing”
of that country in comparison to others; the role the government has played in reaching the
targets set; the role of local and NGOs, as well as their level of cooperation with the government;
successes that can be shared with other countries; setbacks or failures that should be
avoided. What might be the single biggest impediment, for that country, in reaching its target for
the Goal you have chosen?
2. Choose one Millennium Development Goal (MDG). Research and identify what curriculum (web
resources, documents, analytic reports, and other content such as podcasts, games, interactive
maps, infographics, video, games) to teach that Goal for your students. List, post, annotate, and
tag your resources on the course site. In your response, identify the grade level and the country
where you live and work so that others can get a better sense of context. What do you find
valuable? What is missing?
3. How have outside agencies addressed educational issues in your community? What negative
consequences has development had for your area? Or, how have development agencies avoided
totally screwing up your area? Be certain to cite references that support your position AND those
you seek to refute.
Assignment 6: Education, Global Aid, and Development: A Critique
Fifty-plus years on in the field of education and development, how are we doing? What are the
indicators of success? What failures have taken place? Who are the new players? What role has
technology played (or is expected to play) in creating awareness of the gap between the MDGs and
today’s reality? Pause and take a step back … what might be complicating the comparison you are
making? Do countries that are less successful also use similar strategies? How might culture and local
goals of education impact the appropriateness of the strategy?
The field of education and global aid has some very strident critics. Examples: poverty pornographers
who descend upon a country devastated by war, famine, and disease. In Haiti, few NGOs are registered,
though thousands claim they work there; alas, what has been done? Three years after the earthquake,
there's enough rubble clogging the streets of Port au Prince to build a four-lane highway to Los Angeles
and back again. Many analysts claim that the world would benefit from humanitarianism without
"humanitarians."
Palagunmi Sainath’s Everybody Loves a Good Drought; Stories from India’s Poorest Districts is particularly
withering. “development-is-its-own-disaster” genre in a single paragraph: “Development is the strategy
of evasion. When you can’t give people land reform, give them hybrid cows. When you can’t send
children to school, try non-formal education. When you can’t provide basic health to people, talk of
health insurance. Can’t give them jobs? Not to worry, just redefine the words “employment
opportunities." Don’t want to do away with using children as a form of slave labor? Never mind. Talk of
‘improving the conditions of child labor!’ It sounds good. You can even make money out of it.”[i]
Readings: Web Scans
Scan the web for reviews or videos that critique global development, particularly education. Some books
on the subject should give you the keywords you need for your exploration:
1. “The Road to Hell: Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity”
2. “The Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business”
3. “White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done so Much Ill and so Little
Good.”
4. “Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa”
5. “Condemned to Repeat?: The Paradox of Humanitarian Action”
6. “The Crisis Caravan: What’s Wrong with International Aid?”
7. “Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace - or War”
8. “A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis”
9. “Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How There is a Better Way for Africa”
10. “The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid is Not Working”
11. “Tropical Gangsters: One Man’s Experience with Development and Decadence in Deepest Africa”
12. “The Dark Side of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism”
13. "Farewell, Fred Voodoo: A Letter from Haiti"
Written Assignment 6: Due March 24
Taking into consideration what you've read thus far in this course, write a three-page letter to anyone
passionate about starting or working in an organization designed to help education around the world. (a)
Focus on an issue for which you feel passionate: K-12? Girls? Water? Policy? A particular country? (b)
Give research-driven advice about not replicating failures of the past, i.e., prove (and cite) your point. (c)
End with a strategy for going forward.
For those of you who have personally experienced the efforts of aid and development agencies, describe
your experience in light of having read both positive and negative perspectives. Illustrate with images or
video, children's drawings, if need be, or tell a story and tie it back to the issues discussed by the
readings. End with asking a (non-rhetorical) question of your colleagues to see what their reaction might
be. For instance, in discussing global aid, you might show a room full of broken desks and quote a set of
promises made to provide them. Or, in discussing global capacity building, development, and
sustainability, discuss a regional example of it working or not working in your community.
MODULE 3: EMERGENCY EDUCATION
Introduction
Michael J. Gibbons of American University asks four questions for anyone studying Emergency Education:
1.
What happens to education when an emergency occurs?
2.
What policies exist to guide official, humanitarian and community education preparedness, response and
recovery actions?
3.
What practices and resources have been developed to support education in emergencies?
4.
Who and what are the key players, structures and institutions re education in emergencies and what roles
do and should they play?
Introduction: Professor Dana Burde of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University
writes, “borders in post-conflict regions are notoriously porous, allowing a continuation of the organized crime that
accompanies conflict. This, in turn, continues to destabilize fledging states, hampering the efforts of national and
foreign administrators alike to reconstruct and revitalize education systems.”
In short, the field of emergency education is enormous and complex. Click on the video from Human Rights Watch
to get a sense of the challenge. Institutions, worldwide, must cope with new intra- or international thugs, human
trafficking, dwindling resources, youth-targeted para-military recruitment campaigns, war, and a capricious
susceptibility to the ravages of climate change. Fragile states cannot maintain their schools and protect
education. The refugee population, worldwide, is growing alongside a youth bulge. Teachers, students, and schools
are often unable to establish normalcy, no less participate in an information age. In several cases, well-intentioned
NGOs, well-resourced individuals, and global agencies attempting to fill the gaps end up absolving governments
from the responsibility of taking care of their own people.
Even “natural” disasters (earthquakes, floods) are preventable “national disasters” (poorly-constructed buildings, no
prevention or planning for emergencies). And though they represent the clearest connection to a healthy future,
the voice of teachers is rarely heard.
But there’s hope, and working across borders can make a difference. Seemingly insurmountable challenges have
been addressed effectively and creatively by global teacher networks, free Open Educational Resources (OER),
technology, and both public-private and global-local partnerships.
In this emergency education module, comprised of three class sessions, students we will survey the field of
emergency education and address two issues: (1) refugees: a national disaster and (2) earthquakes: a natural and
national disaster. Students will have an opportunity to connect with global colleagues taking this course as well as
with colleagues working in the field. Students will also be asked to share their points of view in the public forum
(sites to be made available), document the conversation, and extend curriculum used by development workers so
that one’s work in this course results in a contribution to enhancing teacher professional development around the
world.
Assignment 7. Introduction to Education in Emergencies
Short Survey on Education and Emergencies
Click HERE for the survey about prioritizing the goals, based upon your interests and experience.
Readings and Viewing

INEE: Minimum Standards English

INEE Toolkit (review all, choose one – see assignment)

Education Under Attack

Schools as Battlegrounds: Human Rights Watch

Center for Refugee and Disaster Response

Protecting Education (review media clips)

UNICEF: Education in Emergencies: A Resource Toolkit (review)

Beyond the Fire – Teen experiences of war (review)

The Sphere Project: key documents that form the Humanitarian Charter (review)
Written Assignment 7: Due March 31
In two pages, what did you notice or learn from these readings that you have not considered
before? Please cite the work you to which you are making a reference. (b) Respond with care to your
colleagues' points (c) Each reading refers to areas for further exploration.
Assignment 8: A Case Study of Education in Emergencies
Written Assignment 8: Due April 7th
Select one training module from several listed on the INEE Toolkit website in order to gain insights into the work
done in emergency education by practitioners. Considering both the readings and the training module you’ve
chosen, brainstorm and write a plan (750 words maximum) on how you might integrate this particular issue of
emergency education into your ongoing work as an educator. Might the module you’ve chosen dovetail with a unit
you are currently teaching? If so, how would you change it or introduce it to your classroom or community
agency? How would you enhance the module with more specificity…or add standards or activities, films, blogs,
other media, articles, or lessons plans? Remember, it’s just a start and the plan, not the finished product. Please
name the training module you have chosen and summarize it in 25 words or fewer.
We hope by now that you feel comfortable enough posting your response in order to strengthen the areas you feel
are week or gain the kind of feedback that you had not noticed. We believe that a global teacher embraces such a
critique in the affectionate spirit for which it is intended.
Assignment 9: Global and Glocal Education
We’ve explored comparative education (at 30,000 feet); national education comparisons (achievement testing);
education and development (teacher training, policy, national priorities); emergency education (global aid,
national and natural disasters affecting education); glocal education (intersection of global and local and the world
in your classroom – the needs of refugees students and families); and global education (the world for your
classroom).
Short Survey: Due April 10th
Please complete this very short survey before completing the next assignment (below).
Writing Assignment: Due April 14th
Choose ONE of the following opportunities to work on a guide, policy, or project that reflects your
interests. Make certain to include a technology component (click here for details)
1. Comparative Education (30,000 feet): Consult the readings and sites you’ve encountered (and
add 5 others you discover and post to the course bookmarking site), then create, amend, or a
evaluate global education policy for your school (3 pages minimum), your regional community, or
your nation
2. National Education Comparisons (achievement testing): Consult the sites referenced above
(and add 5 others you discover and post to the course bookmarking site), then create the ideal
design for a global education policy for your school (3 pages minimum)
3. Education and Development (teacher training, national priorities, policy): Consult the sites
referenced above (and add 5 others you discover and post to the course bookmarking site), then
create the ideal design for a global education policy for your school (3 pages minimum)
4. Emergency Education (national and natural disasters affecting education). Continue to expand
the modules you chose from the INEE Toolkit. Share your work on the course site and get with
INEE (International Network for Education in Emergencies).
5. Glocal Education (the world IN your classroom): Assemble and brainstorm resources to address
one global issue affecting your classroom by scanning resources beginning with your community
and expanding from there (and add 5 others you discover and post to the course bookmarking
site). Then create a guide for teachers similar to you so that they may benefit from your research
and experience. Examples: (a) You may want to focus on differentiated instruction or services
for integrating refugees into your classroom by reaching out to local immigration agencies, civilsociety organizations, or the faith-based community, or - at Hopkins - the Center for
Refugees (b) Or, you might consider what is happening where you are that could or should have
an impact globally. Examples might be the Baltimore teacher contract, Race to the Top, the
Common Core, or the way refugees in Baltimore are being incorporated into the educational
system.
6. Global Education (the world FOR your classroom): Below, we have listed approaches you can
take. It’s up to you. The goal is to find a project or set of resources that will enhance the subject
you teach (and how you teach it) through global education and connections. Review the
curriculum/lessons at Journeys in Film. Implement one of the lesson plans and share how it
went. If there is room for improvement, describe what you would do differently or how you
would enhance the lesson OR create a new lesson plan based upon the films they list or any
others you know of. We’ll share your lesson with Journeys in Film. For more information here is
a list of global education resources for your classroom.
Technology Requirement
Use one or more of the technology tools below (or any others that you discover) to add vitality, visibility, and
credibility to this assignment. These tools are also easy to learn and can be incorporated into your classroom. For
the comparative education policy piece, interactive maps and infographics work well. For choices involving guides
or projects, maps, infographics, photographs, and video work well. As for output, that is up to you. Could be a PDF
with embedded links and visuals; a website, an instructional video. If you use Macs, iBook is easy to use and exports
to PDF for broader use.
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For Credit Students Only
Assignment 10: Peer-Reviewed Paper, Presentation or Panel; or Practical
Application
FINAL PROJECT: during the week of April 29th-May 3rd. The final project will include a peer reviewed
paper OR a practical application. All students will be responsible for an individual or group presentation
(ten minutes) about your project during the week of April 29th-May 3rd.
Choose ONE of the following:
Peer-Reviewed Paper -- This might take any or all of the following forms: the traditional route would be
to a substantial research paper, which is one option. However, you should feel free to use your
imagination and creativity to design a writing project that is useful to you in your work. This might
include the creation of a unit plan for introducing some of this content to your students, or to help them
create global competencies; a grant proposal for the implementation of a project based on your readings
of the international comparisons; or even a policy proposal for how Baltimore could better prepare its
educational system for emergencies. The length and format are variable, but it must be substantive, well
researched and written, and supported by readings and research.
Practical Application (3 options)
1. Implement a lesson (spanning more than 3 hours) and document your role in the practical
application with images and/or video, as well as a written reflection. With your permission (not
mandatory), we would like to make publish this lesson online, for free, and governed under a
Creative Commons 3.0 share-alike license, allowing for adaptation of your work with full
attribution to you
2. Provide step-by-step details for a unit you plan to teach, with an eye toward content and lesson
portability - i.e., the capacity for that idea to be taught somewhere else in the world. These stepby-step details will be made available publicly, for free, and governed under a Creative Commons
3.0 share-alike license, allowing for adaptation of your work with full attribution to you
3. Participate in an ongoing project in your community that addresses many of the issues we have
discussed and about which you have developed a strong interest. Here, too, document your
work in writing and with visual artifacts that can range from photography and video to a blog
dedicated to the organization and the project
All students taking the class for credit can expect feedback from both instructors on their work, but they must also
provide written feedback to one another based on the presentations in the last week of class.