Global Education for Ontario Learners: Practical Strategies - A Summary of Research

This summary report flows from the policy outlined in Ontario’s Strategy for K–12 International Education (OME, 2015). The report highlights current knowledge about good and/or promising practices in global education1 in order to suggest practical strategies for improved teaching, learning, and achievement. The intended audience for this piece includes all education stakeholders – community members, parents, learners, system leaders, school leaders, and educators – as active agents of change in support of an education strategy designed to integrate global perspectives, cultures, and experiences in the curriculum and learning environment. The purpose is to enable students to develop the competencies they will need to thrive as citizens in an increasingly globalized world.
The discussion is organized by theme. To underline why global education is critically important for Ontario learners, we begin by outlining the significant contributions global education can make to the well-being of individuals and society as a whole. We then provide an overview synthesizing different conceptualizations of “global education” and “global citizenship education”, as well as a broad range of their overlapping sub-concepts. Next, through a review of the international literature on the subject, we present a series of challenges and opportunities for implementing global education, and list pertinent examples of good practices associated with delivering global education. A further section focuses on good practice in building system capacity and leadership for effective global education. We conclude by identifying key messages and lessons learned.