After completing an application involving three essays and a resumé, Humanities teacher Seth Brady cinched one of 88 spots in a three-week summer program in Indonesia.
The Teachers for Global Classrooms (TGC) Program, created by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, a part of the U.S. Department of State, provides opportunities for middle school and high school teachers to experience different cultures first-hand and globalize their curriculum.
According to Brady, the TGC’s goal is to increase “global competence” in all subjects offered in American schools.
“Scholars all have their different definitions as to what [global competence] is, so it’s difficult to put it in a nutshell,” said Brady. “Some people would say that it is the ability to go to any part of the world and attain a level of comfort interacting with other people.”
Brady said that a global aspect in classrooms would teach people in the developed world how to positively impact the developing world. It would also equip students with the skills necessary to be aware of what happens around the world and allow them to attain a level of understanding that will enable them to succeed on a global scale.
Last semester, Brady was required to take an eight-week-long online training course in preparation for his trip. The course involved video conferences with various scholars, canvas-styled exchanges with other teachers and multiple reading and viewing materials. He will also be required to attend a global educational symposium in Washington, D.C. before he experiences Indonesia.
“I wasn’t sure how [training] was going to be, but it was really enriching,” said Brady. “I always thought that Central did a pretty solid job in terms of global competence, but when they explained what global competence actually means, it made me realize that there’s a whole new horizon to reach.”
Brady hopes to observe how people in Indonesia view Americans, how they approach similar topics, what their Social Studies programs look like, where they see themselves in the context of the rest of the world and where religion stands in their society.
“I feel like the best way to learn and the best way to overcome stereotypes is to put yourself in an awkward position and be the person that is the minority,” Brady said.
The Cultures of the World classes at Central do not currently cover Indonesian culture, so Brady he plans on using what he learns this summer in his class in order to enrich the curriculum.
“Some of the contacts I make through the program will be able to […] put a human face on these areas we’re studying,” Brady said.
A real-life perspective is an important part of the Cultures of the World class that is sometimes hard to find in an American classroom.
“For Comparative Religions it’s a different ballgame because you have Hindus in class, you have Muslims in class and you get that phenomenological angle,” said Brady. “You don’t necessarily get it with Cultures, so […] how can you build bridges to gain a deeper understanding of the subject you’re studying?”
Brady plans on finding this and other questions through TGC.
“The idea of global competence isn’t to change what we’re talking about, but to integrate it with a global perspective,” said Brady. “All of these opportunities where you could go the extra mile and you could make people more aware and could build those bridges are really fairly simple to do; it’s just a matter of gaining that perspective. It would be nice to see a whole group of teachers from Central end up doing this.”