Global Knowledge | Knowledge

Understanding that global issues are borderless and affect everyone (31-GK)

31-GK involves students recognizing that global issues involve multiple people in multiple places. Students may mention shared conceptions of the environment or planet and describe how issues (e.g., pollution) are impacting them; express that global issues, by definition, are not confined to particular places or groups of people; talk about how similar issues affect people wherever they might live or ecosystems around the world; or write about the interconnectedness of different systems and how an action in one place might have an impact elsewhere in the world.

Define

Students might demonstrate their understanding that the global issues they study are borderless by:

  • Naming or explaining ways in which global issues are borderless and affect multiple people, places, and species.
  • Describing or analyzing how issues like pollution and plastic bags are impacting shared conceptions of environment, planet, etc.
  • Connecting effects on animal or plant life to effects on human life, explicitly or implicitly.
  • Referring to a global issue at a macro level and also talking about impacts at a micro level.

    • Teach

    Use the resources below to teach this global knowledge indicator to your students.

    This workshop, co-hosted by Global Cities, Inc. and Council on Foreign Relations Education, helps K-12 educators customize a lesson plan for teaching the issue of global migration with a focus on building students’ lifelong global competency. The workshop draws on two free educational tools:

    CFR Education's free resources make complex global issues accessible through lesson plans, articles, timelines, videos, simulations, and more.

    Global Cities' Codebook for Global Student Learning Outcomes helps educators define, teach, and measure the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors that contribute to global competency.

    Former Jacksonville, Florida (U.S.) Region Superintendent Jermaine Dawson, Ed.D., discusses the benefits of expanding students’ perspectives to help them examine their place in a borderless world.

    Measure

    Customize this tool to observe how and when students demonstrate an understanding that global issues are borderless and affect everyone.