what is the importance of global education

• Current Edition
• About Kosmos
• Submit a Work
• Join | Donate
• Full Archive
• Your cart is currently empty.
• Winter 2021
• Table of Contents

Introduction

Conversations.

Staff and Advisors

• Board of Directors
• Kosmos Global Ambassadors Program
• Exclusive Serial Features
• Exploring Connection for Greater Impact
• Global Citizens Movement
• Kosmos Activities at the United Nations
• Subscribe to the Journal
• Current Issue
• Editorials of Nancy Roof
• Reader Essays
• Kosmos Writers
• Artist Portfolios
• Order Back Issues
• Other Articles
• Join Kosmos Community
• Past Editions
• Kosmos Live
• Digital Subscription
• Edit My Profile
• Edit My Address
• Kosmos Community Forums
• Digital Issues
• Available Downloads

What Is Global Education and Why Does It Matter?  

Teaching climate change.

Adapted from, Educating Students to Improve the World

Global education are both practices guided by a set of purposes and approaches intentionally created to provide opportunities for students to develop global competencies, and the theories that explain and inform those practices and their effects. Global competencies encompass the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that help students develop, understand, and function in communities which are increasingly interdependent with other communities around the world, and that provide a foundation for lifelong learning of what they need to participate, at high levels of functioning, in environments in continuous flux because of increasing global change. 

A competence encompasses more than knowledge and skills “It involves the ability to meet complex demands, by drawing on and mobilizing psychosocial resources (including skills and attitudes) in a particular context. For example, the ability to communicate effectively is a competency that may draw on an individual’s knowledge of language, practical IT skills, and attitudes towards those with whom he or she is communicating” (OECD 2005, p. 4). 

A quintessentially global topic is climate change. Global competency should enable people to understand climate change, to adapt to mitigate its impact, and hopefully to revert it. Climate Change Education, a subdomain of Education for Sustainable Development, is a modality of Global Education focused on preparing people to achieve more sustainable ways to relate to our habitat. It encompasses preparation to adopt practices that are known to be sustainable, for example slowing down population growth, consuming a diet with a smaller carbon footprint, or using renewable energies. These practices may be individual in the choices we make about our own consumption and lifestyle, or they may be collective, the result of choices we make as citizens when we participate in the democratic process in various levels of government or when we influence the behavior of corporations. Government policies are essential to slowing global warming, and they are subject to influence and preferences by citizens, educated to understand the scientific consensus on climate change and with the capacity to exercise influence as citizens. 

But Climate Change Education encompasses also the development of the innovation skills necessary to slow down climate change, which requires advancing knowledge and inventing technologies that can help us transform our interactions with the environment, in a way reinvent our way of life. As a result, educating to mitigate climate change and for sustainability involves equipping people with the necessary skills for such advancement of knowledge and invention. 

There are different intellectual traditions that influence how global education is defined and conceptualized. These perspectives draw on various intellectual traditions: globalism, nationalism, internationalism, transnationalism, cosmopolitanism, post-colonialism, and indigeneity. They are anchored in diverse core concepts: justice, equity, diversity, identity and belonging, and sustainable development. They include perspectives that accept the existing international social and economic order, along with others that are more critical (Davies et al. 2018). 

Following a cosmopolitanist and critical perspective, in my own work developing global citizenship curriculum, I have adopted the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a guiding framework because they articulate a capacious vision of sustainability and because they tie global education as a theoretical field and practice to a set of concepts that are widely shared across many fields of human endeavor, including education, but extending also into public health, work and industry, poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability, poverty reduction.

These seventeen goals are deeply rooted in multiple disciplines focused on human and social development. The Sustainable Development Goals pose also a challenge to the very notions of development and social progress, emphasizing the interdependence of inclusion, social justice, peace and environmental sustainability (Reimers et al. 2016, 2017). 

Global education encompasses the traditional disciplines in service of helping students understand the world in which they live: sciences, social sciences, and humanities. For example, to understand climate change it is necessary to understand the processes that explain how climate works, a subject of scientific study. A global education includes also opportunities for students to imagine and enact strategies to advance human well-being, which draws on the capacities of invention and ethical reasoning. This might include helping students to develop the curiosity to advance scientific understanding in a particular domain, or the desire to create products or services that advance well-being or solve problems, as with the previous example of reinventing toilets to address sanitation and advancing health. 

Global education is not necessarily an additional curriculum domain, rather, it is a set of clear purposes which can help align the entire curriculum with real world questions, challenges, and opportunities. As such, global education is a way to help teachers as well as students understand the relationship between what is learned in school and the world outside the school. Global education encompasses also a series of approaches, pedagogies, curricula, and structures to support such instruction that is explicitly designed to help build the breadth of skills that can help students function in a deeply interdependent and increasingly globally integrated world. The Australian Curriculum Corporation defines it as follows: 

Global education is defined as an approach to education which seeks to enable young people to participate in shaping a better shared future for the world through: Emphasizing the unity and interdependence of human society, Developing a sense of self an appreciation of cultural diversity, Affirming social justice and human rights, peace building and actions for a sustainable future, Emphasizing developing relationships with our global neighbors, Promoting open-mindedness and a predisposition to take action for change. (Curriculum Corporation 2008, p. 2) 

Global education includes multiple specific domains, such as environmental education and education for sustainability, understanding global affairs, understanding the process of globalization and of global interdependence, developing intercultural competency, fostering civic engagement, human rights, and peace education. Sciences and humanities are the disciplinary foundations of global education, for there is no way to understand the world without the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that result from learning to think as scientists do or reason as humanists can do. 

An effective program of global education is not the additive result of a series of isolated experiences in various curriculum silos, but the result of coherent and integrated learning opportunities that can help students understand the relationship between what they learn in various grades and subjects in service of understanding the world and of being able to act to improve it. As such, a global education helps students think about complexity and understand the systems which undergird global issues and global interdependence. 

References 

Brueck, H. (2019). A $350 toilet powered by worms may be the ingenious future of sanitation that Bill Gates has been dreaming about. Business Insider. Curriculum Corporation. (2008). Global perspectives: A framework for global education in Australian Schools. Carlton South, VC: Curriculum Corporation. 

D’Agostino, R. (2018). How does Bill Gates’s ingenious, waterless, life-saving toilet work? Popular Mechanics. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a24747871/bill-gates-lifesaving-toilet/ . 

Davies, I., Ho, L. C., Kiwan, D., Peck, C. L., Peterson, A., Sant, E., et al. (Eds.). (2018). The Palgrave handbook of global citizenship and education. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Montaigne, M. (1575). On the education of children. http://essays.quotidiana.org/montaigne/ education_of_children/. NASA. (2020). 

Global climate change. Vital signs of the planet. Retrieved from January 14, 2020, from https://climate.nasa.gov/. OECD. (2005). Definition and selection of key competencies: Executive summary. Paris: OECD. https://www.oecd.org/pisa/35070367.pdf. OECD and Asia Society. (2018). 

Teaching for global competence in a rapidly changing world. Paris: OECD. https://asiasociety.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/teaching-for-global-competence-ina-rapidly-changing-world-edu.pdf. Reimers, F., Chopra, V., Chung, C., Higdon, J., & O’Donnell, E. B. (2016). 

Empowering global citizens. Charleston, SC: CreateSpace. Reimers, F., et al. (2017). 

Empowering students to improve the world in sixty lessons. Charleston, SC: CreateSpace. UNESCO. (2017). Education for people and planet (Global education monitoring report). Paris: UNESCO. 

The free e=book, Educating Students to Improve the World, can be downloaded here: file:///Users/fbi/Downloads/2020_Book_EducatingStudentsToImproveTheW.pdf

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. 

About fernando m. reimers.

Fernando M. Reimers is Ford Foundation Professor of Practice in International Education Faculty Director,  International Education Policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He studies and teaches about innovative education policies and programs that help students develop competencies necessary for civic participation, work and life in the 21st century. He also works in the area of global citizenship education and in how to align education policies with the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals  of the United Nations.

Reimers is a member of the  Massachusetts Board of Higher Education , and a fellow of the  International Academy of Education . He chairs the board of  World Teach , and serves on the boards of  Facing History and Ourselves ,  Teach for All , and other educational organizations.

Related Reading

The earth charter.

"We stand at a critical moment in Earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny."

Global Citizenship and Universal Values

Global citizenship is a concept which intertwines our identity with the interconnected, interdependent world of today. It seeks to transcend geographical limitations and expand the definition of our personalities.

Transformative Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) as a Catalyst for Climate Action

It is imperative that schools ultimately position Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Mindfulness in service of the shift in collective consciousness that’s so needed now—a shift where we truly care for each other and our planet as we engage in active hope.

Decolonization Matters

Black Lives Matter protests in the United States and around the world are illuminating systemic racism and inequality precisely because they are so much more than symbolic.

Add comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

CAPTCHA Code *

Yes, I’d like to join for free to receive the new  Kosmos Journal  and access to the full archive.

The Four Freedoms  

The four freedoms and artificial intelligence, the rights of all beings, ‘the grab’ | conspiring to control the world’s food and water, with four freedoms, four responsibilities, the promise of liberty and the pain of separation, philanthropy as a territory of transition, fear, freedom and the queer world of quantum mechanics, a participant critique of the french mutual aid network, solaris, spotlight on hanne strong, origin | from “the story of gaia”, why beauty matters, mixed media, deep adaptation | a quartet of videos, this feature is self-generated, searching for a more beautiful world, with charles eisenstein, navigating the storm of global change, the sanctity of food, mugwort | plants rule the world, eleanor on 72nd street, exactly this spot | how air is, graffiti on the lee monument | gray, listening to the intelligence of your body, blessed community   the families we make, becoming ‘blessed community’, love, care and community, find the others | start a conscious change collective, are transition towns our key to a more beautiful future, mindful living at morningsun, prisons as monasteries, unitive narrative | a new lens for approaching the sustainable development goals, the art of life | a documentary, what i learned visiting intentional communities, crone wisdom | the soul of community, way of council | speaking and listening from the heart, desert blues | the music moves in circles, return to fixing things | the artist’s posthumous garage sale, sibling beit midrash | jacob’s gift, the rope bridge | monument, the way out | end of the egoic era, envisioning the beloved community, the eco-institute at pickards mountain | my experience as a black participant-turned-leader, a us department of peacebuilding, how to have a community conversation, chinese brush painting: a lesson | conflagration, the bridge to tomorrow is a work-in-progress, the sacred masculine  , masculine/feminine | a non-binary view, in search of the sacred masculine, the great simplification, erasure of indigenous identity, finding ben | mental health, justice, and healing, gender and peace | thoughts on the russian war in ukraine, blueprints for men, climate crisis | a problem of myth, ritual fire and sacred masculinity, trauma and healing for boys and men of color, adrift in the world, lessons from the ancient samurai, a cloud never dies | a film about the life of thích nhất hạnh, baptism of fire, the butterfly man in the house of pain, dusty and me, reflections on outliving my son, awakened life, a contemplation on resilience in ukraine, in the dream, my father reprimanded me for wearing earmuffs indoors | for my son, texas buddha | horse talk, taimu shakuhachi flute | art of emptiness, one final inning in st. louis, our spiritual commons   the inner resources we share, synthesis and the intuitive mind, our spiritual commons, waters of spirit, the soul of nations, honoring commons-based circuits of value, the value-renewed society, embodied thinking and embodied feeling, autobiography of a yogi | 75 years on, the atlas of disappearing places, the world of itō jakuchū, the hermetic revival, the moment | alan watts and the eternal now, message from haiti | inspiration between two, lord of the forest | good fences, bum’ma (because i couldn’t say grandma), text | along the willamette, calendula seed | spirit rise, the holomovement, all things are a commons, the indwelling spirit, toward a global wellbeing mindset, the potential of grassroots environmental stewardship, meeting mugwort, joanna macy | climate crisis as spiritual path, seeking “ssshhh”, humble like the earth, are you sure   the cultivation of belief, are you sure, marching orders | covid’s attention war, post-truth politics and collective gaslighting, perceptual intelligence, seeing truth in van gogh, healing wetiko, the mind-virus that plagues our world, red brain, green brain, a quest for truth as a continuous motion to reconsider, the noosphere is here, ‘great turning’ visionaries | part 1, ‘great turning’ visionaries | part 2, earthjustice | working at the brink, deep winter, watching river otters, being brave, searching for what we already know, truth that affirms and regenerates all life, the industry of us | all you cannot see, truth is an orange canary from lisbon, garbage | pedaling my bike past jefferson davis place, let’s see what happens next | mid-20th century salvation, the juniper tree, composer, david crowe, 23 million trees planted, realigning withearth wisdom    , indigenous to life, the wisdom of our ancestors, the big ocean cantata, how to be a soil keeper, to reason with a madman, how not to lose the elephant for all its parts, our animal bodies and the unitive state, the web of meaning, trauma and regeneration, emerging renaissance | the art and wisdom of leigh j mccloskey, hermetic wisdom and the attributes of our time, glacier, elder, teacher, realigning with earth wisdom, the wonder of it all, practicing the art of wonder through radical presence, between prayer mat and smoke hole, reconnecting our children to nature, seeking the honey of life, slant | vernacular, signposts and hedges | visiting my brother’s nebraska farmstead on august 30th at dusk, into the riptide | the best we can imagine together, today you are a river in my hands | once trees grew inside me, inhale exhale, the century of awakening  , century of awakening, awakening to life, global challenges are directing us toward a unity of purpose, vow of 120,000 actions, the descent to soul, gravity and allurement, the two faces of digital spirituality, sacramental conversation, the ecozoans, can we measure culture and consciousness, dismantling the patriarchy within, living communally, reclaiming spiritual wholeness, the unchaining and the unveiling, scaffolding for a thrivable planet, cultivating spiritual intelligence, the age of freedom, the joy of living and learning interconnectedly, remembering nature, prayers in the dark, ‘uncomfortable’, poems for the solar age, butterfly effect, topophilia | thicket, master sha | tao calligraphy, how quickly the light changes | before you set your table, unexpected grace | love poem with accolades, visionary spirit   transition and transformation, the role of the visionary, unlocking a fresh vision for the world, dying into the creative, a global governance paradigm shift | first principles first, vision and change | fermentation as metaphor, thoughtforms | the materialization of sustained ideas, across the creek, looking back | the visionary spirit of resilience, deschooling dialogues: on initiation, trauma and ritual with francis weller, choosing earth | with duane and coleen elgin, reilly dow | art of the scribe, new visions give hope in dire times, rough initiations, “dear darkening ground”, david berkeley | oh quiet world, death and rebirth, birdsong as a compass, the power of pausing, we are all radical, dismantling solid bricks, cinderella story, kitchened | postcard from the mother ghost, it couldn’t be clearer, a poem for my students, ocean breeze, into the morphic | reality ritual, rapids of change   our collective journey, our collective journey, what is solidarity, the tree saviors of chipko andolan | a woman-led movement in india, making the case for a small farm future, what would hagia sophia say, an evolutionary transition is coming—are you ready, what indigenous wisdom can teach us about economics, somatics, healing, and social justice, recovering the divine feminine, oppression, interconnection, and healing, humanity and the microbe: a soul agreement, crazywise | shamanic mysticism and mental wellness, venerating the sacred | art as cultural therapy, we the “peoples” | the un at 75, the sustainable development goals begin with mindset, five centuries of self-quarantine, living radical impermanence, turning our crises around from the inside out, a universal congress, horizontal governance, salmon migration as earth expression, epiphany | in the know | mapping, power colours memories identity fighting, true wealth  , the evolutionary potential of wealth, true health | what if the virus is the medicine, the treasure of our living, relational commons, soil wealth and a regenerative green new deal, the power of allurement, how we win | divestment and nonviolent direct action, advertising and trading | the markets’ problem twins, vision for a city of hope near auschwitz, bioregions and regeneration | honoring the places where we live, mystical anarchism, a spiritual biography, economic justice and ecological regeneration, wrestling with wealth and class, joy and value of connection to place and community, breakfast table revelation, safe houses | giving refuge, good fortune, two poems by joy mcdowell, two poems by diane kendig, two poems by ellen waterson, love letters from seaweed, in the hands of alchemy, greenplanet-blueplanet | sacred economy and caring, fragile gold, in the labyrinth   pathways to healing, walking the labyrinth, the labyrinth and the black madonna, rebuilding earth’s forest corridors, civility and its discontents, freedom and energy from healing white racism, howling in place, wall street to main street to world street, the science of oneness, covid-19 is a symbol of a much deeper infection, our finest hour, if we choose, hitching for hope, with ruairí mckiernan, gazing into the heart of perfection, shelterless in the time of covid-19, taking turns, weeding the labyrinth, in the garden, biracial identity | seeking to be unconditioned, a letter to herman creek canyon, mind matters most, becoming medicine, the vitality of paradox, ordinary grace, john fullerton on the qualities of a regenerative economy, leading in unknown terrain, wisdom from the flood.

Already have an account? Log in here .

Create a free account and we will share the world of Kosmos.

• Early, priority access to the freshest Quarterly
• Kosmos Newsletter, with briefings, podcasts and short videos delivered to your inbox
• Opportunities to engage online with thought leaders and affinity groups
• Invitations to our yearly retreats and other Kosmos gatherings

Create a Free Account

Possible Futures   Regeneration, Connection and Values

A story still unfolding, thomas berry and the rights of nature, ten economic insights of rudolf steiner, holding a seed for the future, from what is to what if, the unexpected journey of caring, re-imagining america, the alchemy of power, the next civilization, with jeremy lent, collective trauma and our emerging future , sacred season gathering of songs, freedom to make music, global social witnessing, a cry for help, active hope | time with joanna macy, healing the wounded mind, art in a time of catastrophe, hopeful essay penned by firelight, our scarlet blue wounds, kito mbiango | the power of art to drive action, closer looking | microscopy and aboriginal art, three poems, new spirit, wise action  , new spirit, wise action, beyond ‘sacred activism’, fourteen recommendations when facing climate tragedy, restoring the housatonic river walk, shut it down: stories from a fierce, loving resistance, thich nhat hanh’s code of global ethics, every act a ceremony, inner work makes our outer work massively more effective, the sun of darkness, white men and native america, burning man | what we’ve learned, kathy thaden | an inner fire, big lazy | music for unsettling times, kendra smith | the disappearing art of living, holacracy | an emergent order system, the practice of liminal dreaming, god becomes a hairdresser, men at the end of their strings, what you cross the street to avoid, a long convalescence, decoding the trump virus, seven practices of ‘holistic activism’, memes, mantras, and modern illusions of the eternal, including the earth in our prayers, the paradox of wise activism, living in flow, fluency in the language of stillness, values as a means to invite greater depth, summer 2019  , resonance and relationship, to all my relations, the holy grail of restoration, freeing the dragon, developing a mindful approach to earth justice work, rhino conservation, bringing reefs back to life, farming while black, selfcare freedom, the stones will cry out, sacred headwaters of the amazon, eating as if life and the planet mattered, sam lee | birdsong hits the charts, among the nightingales in berlin, reforestation in portugal, dancing with animals, cooperation with wild boars in palestine, killing us softly, where are we in the story of the universe, borders of our perception, the gift of tears, a song of pause, captives of our desire, documenting land trauma, spring 2019  , the earth is doing her best, dancing with gaia, the community awaiting us, turtles among us, resilience, the global challenge, and the human predicament, book | trees of power, paradise lost | the sequel, cultivating right livelihood, quiet places initiative, rising earth consciousness, consciousness and the combustion engine, the lie of the land | conversation and essay, rejoining the great conversation, physics and spirituality, a vision for the world, chama river revelations, rights of nature, council of the wild gods, the power of community, gallery 1 | in the realm of the world’s heart, gallery 2 | flower flourescence, gallery 3 | guardians of the sacred in tibet, emergent universe oratorio, a conversation with alanis obomsawin, three poems from reverberations from fukushima, dear reed canyon, winter 2018   global citizen, global spirit, the practice of global citizenship, we are all global citizens | seeing ourselves in the advancement of all, breaking out of the domination trance, evolving toward cooperation, on edge work, migration flows, and glocalization, returning to indigenous worldview, liquid democracy and the future of governance, book | farming for the long haul, delivering the un global goals | the consciousness perspective, the insurgent power of the commons in the war against the imagination, on elevating the human narrative, film | lifeboat, refugees adrift at sea, for love of place | reflections of an agrarian sage, sacred diplomacy in the emerging ecozoic era, globalism-nationalism, the new left-right, the economics of solidarity, spirit, and soul, global citizenship | an emerging agenda in education, caring for the soul of humanity, a pocket full of stones, the most important thing, being and becoming in a field of resonance, an overcast morning, i sit down to write, almost bethlehem, the rebel’s silhouette, xiuhtezcatl martinez | break free, playing for change, the universal declaration of human rights, toward a global ethic, statement on the unique challenge of nuclear weapons, fall 2018   all consuming, the four nutriments, un-pick-apart-able, tending the wild, making politics sacred again, from the unreal to the real, the problem with “more”, the galileo project, eager: the surprising, secret life of beavers and why they matter, do we really want to be happy, the deschooling dialogues | plant medicine and the coming transition, eldering in the age of consumption, water and the rising feminine , a tale of two pipelines, unity and the power of love, between the inner and outer worlds, wind | a letter to my daughters, healing the hunger, the selling of the soul, nourishment, are we addicted to fear, what the wind taught, the prophecy, green medicine, the fairy begs for bacon, finals time, how love builds a home, may everything flower, healing sound with jesse paris smith, consumption as the path, books in brief, climate news.

Contributors

KOSMOS Summer Quarterly, 2018

Unlearning together, awake, awakened, woke, change the worldview, change the world, presence at the edge of our practice, dynamic governance, roots and evolution of mindfulness, indigenous worldview is a source we now urgently need, the wanderer’s preparation in the death lodge, the deschooling dialogues: grief, collapse, and mysticism, social breakdown and initiation, forgive: the new practice and mantra for black men, the migrant quilt, the connection, healing into consciousness, wealth and abundance, confessions of a recovering catholic, the habits of schooling, an uncommon song, purposeful memoir as a path to alignment, being human, the night i didn’t stand up, absence presence, yorkston/thorne/khan.

What Is Global Education and Why Does It Matter?

• Open Access
• First Online: 08 April 2020

Cite this chapter

You have full access to this open access chapter

• Fernando M. Reimers 2  

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Education ((BRIEFSEDUCAT))

26k Accesses

Global education are both practices guided by a set of purposes and approaches intentionally created to provide opportunities for students to develop global competencies, and the theories that explain and inform those practices and their effects. Global competencies encompass the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that help students develop, understand, and function in communities which are increasingly interdependent with other communities around the world, and that provide a foundation for lifelong learning of what they need to participate, at high levels of functioning, in environments in continuous flux because of increasing global change.

You have full access to this open access chapter,  Download chapter PDF

A competence encompasses more than knowledge and skills “It involves the ability to meet complex demands, by drawing on and mobilizing psychosocial resources (including skills and attitudes) in a particular context. For example, the ability to communicate effectively is a competency that may draw on an individual’s knowledge of language, practical IT skills, and attitudes towards those with whom he or she is communicating” (OECD 2005 , p. 4).

A quintessentially global topic is climate change. Global competency should enable people to understand climate change, to adapt to mitigate its impact, and hopefully to revert it. Climate Change Education, a subdomain of Education for Sustainable Development, is a modality of Global Education focused on preparing people to achieve more sustainable ways to relate to our habitat. It encompasses preparation to adopt practices that are known to be sustainable, for example slowing down population growth, consuming a diet with a smaller carbon footprint, or using renewable energies. These practices may be individual in the choices we make about our own consumption and lifestyle, or they may be collective, the result of choices we make as citizens when we participate in the democratic process in various levels of government or when we influence the behavior of corporations. Government policies are essential to slowing global warming, and they are subject to influence and preferences by citizens, educated to understand the scientific consensus on climate change and with the capacity to exercise influence as citizens.

But Climate Change Education encompasses also the development of the innovation skills necessary to slow down climate change, which requires advancing knowledge and inventing technologies that can help us transform our interactions with the environment, in a way reinvent our way of life. As a result, educating to mitigate climate change and for sustainability involves equipping people with the necessary skills for such advancement of knowledge and invention.

An example from the field of sanitation will illustrate the role of inventive skills in addressing climate change. In his efforts to improve sanitation in the developing world, Bill Gates concluded that the toilets and water treatment systems developed and in use in the early industrialized world were poor fits to developing countries because they were resource-intensive and generated excessive waste. This caused him to undertake projects to stimulate innovation in the design of next-generation toilets that could operate without sewer systems (Brueck 2019 ; D’Agostino 2018 ).

The competencies gained from global education should help students understand how the communities in which they live relate to other communities around the world, how they are affected from that interaction and affect others, how their lives are shaped by topics which are global in nature, such as climate change, or trade, or scientific cooperation, and to participate in forms of global action and cooperation within their spheres of influence in ways which contribute effectively to the various communities they are a part of, and in this way improving the world.

There are different intellectual traditions that influence how global education is defined and conceptualized. These perspectives draw on various intellectual traditions: globalism, nationalism, internationalism, transnationalism, cosmopolitanism, post-colonialism, and indigeneity. They are anchored in diverse core concepts: justice, equity, diversity, identity and belonging, and sustainable development. They include perspectives that accept the existing international social and economic order, along with others that are more critical (Davies et al. 2018 ).

Following a cosmopolitanist and critical perspective, in my own work developing global citizenship curriculum, I have adopted the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a guiding framework because they articulate a capacious vision of sustainability and because they tie global education as a theoretical field and practice to a set of concepts that are widely shared across many fields of human endeavor, including education, but extending also into public health, work and industry, poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability, poverty reduction. These seventeen goals are deeply rooted in multiple disciplines focused on human and social development. The Sustainable Development Goals pose also a challenge to the very notions of development and social progress, emphasizing the interdependence of inclusion, social justice, peace and environmental sustainability (Reimers et al. 2016 , 2017 ).

Global education encompasses the traditional disciplines in service of helping students understand the world in which they live: sciences, social sciences, and humanities. For example, to understand climate change it is necessary to understand the processes that explain how climate works, a subject of scientific study. A global education includes also opportunities for students to imagine and enact strategies to advance human well-being, which draws on the capacities of invention and ethical reasoning. This might include helping students to develop the curiosity to advance scientific understanding in a particular domain, or the desire to create products or services that advance well-being or solve problems, as with the previous example of reinventing toilets to address sanitation and advancing health.

Global education is not necessarily an additional curriculum domain, rather, it is a set of clear purposes which can help align the entire curriculum with real world questions, challenges, and opportunities. As such, global education is a way to help teachers as well as students understand the relationship between what is learned in school and the world outside the school. Global education encompasses also a series of approaches, pedagogies, curricula, and structures to support such instruction that is explicitly designed to help build the breadth of skills that can help students function in a deeply interdependent and increasingly globally integrated world. The Australian Curriculum Corporation defines it as follows:

Global education is defined as an approach to education which seeks to enable young people to participate in shaping a better shared future for the world through: Emphasising the unity and interdependence of human society, Developing a sense of self an appreciation of cultural diversity, Affirming social justice and human rights, peace building and actions for a sustainable future, Emphasising developing relationships with our global neighbours, Promoting open-mindedness and a predisposition to take action for change. (Curriculum Corporation 2008 , p. 2)

Global education includes multiple specific domains, such as environmental education and education for sustainability, understanding global affairs, understanding the process of globalization and of global interdependence, developing intercultural competency, fostering civic engagement, human rights, and peace education. Sciences and humanities are the disciplinary foundations of global education, for there is no way to understand the world without the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that result from learning to think as scientists do or reason as humanists can do.

For example, in order to understand climate change, students need to know not just the scientific consensus on the causes of climate change, but the underlying processes that are the major drivers of climate change producing significant release of carbon dioxide and other bases into the atmosphere which trap heat. Scientists have identified boundaries for ten systems within which humans and other species can live: freshwater use, land use, phosphorous pollution, ocean acidification, climate change, ozone depletion, nitrogen pollution, biodiversity loss, aerosol air, and chemical pollution. These systems are: ocean acidification, climate change, ozone depletion, nitrogen pollution, and biodiversity loss. Only after they understand those systems will students be able to comprehend the metrics which demonstrate the nature and causes of climate change. For eight of those system metrics for which we have data to compare pre-industrial revolution levels to current levels, five of them exceed the boundaries representing high risk that life is not sustainable. Furthermore, the remaining three metrics: freshwater use, land use, and phosphorous pollution, have changed significantly, in the direction of the increasing risk boundary. Only two of the eight metrics (ocean acidification and ozone depletion) have current values that are lower than the values before the industrial revolution (UNESCO 2017 , p. 20). Only once they can understand those systems and metrics, will students be able to understand the scientific consensus which is that the main causes of those changes are human–environmental interactions, resulting from overpopulation, modern lifestyles and individual behavior (NASA 2020 ). But, as explained earlier, in order to contribute to the mitigation of climate change, students will need more than the scientific understanding of how climate works. They will need the capacity for systemic thinking, and the capacity to identify various criteria, value-based systems, to choose among alternatives and weigh tradeoffs among alternatives, so they can evaluate the costs and benefits involved in reducing population growth, or consumption, or in building circular economies with industries located closer to cities as a way to reduce transportation costs.

An effective program of global education is not the additive result of a series of isolated experiences in various curriculum silos, but the result of coherent and integrated learning opportunities that can help students understand the relationship between what they learn in various grades and subjects in service of understanding the world and of being able to act to improve it. As such, a global education helps students think about complexity and understand the systems which undergird global issues and global interdependence.

The Asia Society and the OECD define global competence as follows:

Both OECD and the Center for Global Education have identified four key aspects of global competence. Globally competent youth: (1) investigate the world beyond their immediate environment by examining issues of local, global, and cultural significance; (2) recognize, understand, and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others; (3) communicate ideas effectively with diverse audiences by engaging in open, appropriate, and effective interactions across cultures; and (4) take action for collective well-being and sustainable development both locally and globally. (OECD and Asia Society 2018 , p. 12)

A global education, in short, helps prepare students to live so that “nothing human is foreign to them” to quote the playwright Terence who expressed this cosmopolitan aspiration two thousand years ago, a quote that so captivated the sixteenth-century philosopher and humanist Michel de Montaigne that he engraved it in one of the beams of his study. Montaigne’s focus on understanding human nature influenced many subsequent philosophers and scientists, including Rousseau, Bacon, Pascal, Descartes, and Emerson. He translated his humanist and cosmopolitan vision into ideas about how children should be educated. He argued that the goal of education was to prepare students for life and that this required experiential learning and personalization (Montaigne 1575 ).

In the chapters that follow, I explain each of these five perspectives in greater detail, illustrating how they can help approach the design and implementation of a program of global education.

Brueck, H. (2019). A $350 toilet powered by worms may be the ingenious future of sanitation that Bill Gates has been dreaming about. Business Insider .

Google Scholar  

Curriculum Corporation. (2008). Global perspectives: A framework for global education in Australian Schools . Carlton South, VC: Curriculum Corporation.

D’Agostino, R. (2018). How does Bill Gates’s ingenious, waterless, life-saving toilet work? Popular Mechanics. https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a24747871/bill-gates-life-saving-toilet/ .

Davies, I., Ho, L. C., Kiwan, D., Peck, C. L., Peterson, A., Sant, E., et al. (Eds.). (2018). The Palgrave handbook of global citizenship and education . London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Montaigne, M. (1575). On the education of children. http://essays.quotidiana.org/montaigne/education_of_children/ .

NASA. (2020). Global climate change. Vital signs of the planet . Retrieved from January 14, 2020, from https://climate.nasa.gov/ .

OECD. (2005). Definition and selection of key competencies: Executive summary . Paris: OECD. https://www.oecd.org/pisa/35070367.pdf .

OECD and Asia Society. (2018). Teaching for global competence in a rapidly changing world. Paris: OECD. https://asiasociety.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/teaching-for-global-competence-in-a-rapidly-changing-world-edu.pdf .

Reimers, F., Chopra, V., Chung, C., Higdon, J., & O’Donnell, E. B. (2016). Empowering global citizens . Charleston, SC: CreateSpace.

Reimers, F., et al. (2017). Empowering students to improve the world in sixty lessons . Charleston, SC: CreateSpace.

UNESCO. (2017). Education for people and planet (Global education monitoring report). Paris: UNESCO.

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Harvard Graduate School Of Education, Cambridge, MA, USA

Fernando M. Reimers

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fernando M. Reimers .

Rights and permissions

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the chapter's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Reimers, F.M. (2020). What Is Global Education and Why Does It Matter?. In: Educating Students to Improve the World. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3887-2_2

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3887-2_2

Published : 08 April 2020

Publisher Name : Springer, Singapore

Print ISBN : 978-981-15-3886-5

Online ISBN : 978-981-15-3887-2

eBook Packages : Education Education (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

Global Education

By Hannah Ritchie, Veronika Samborska, Natasha Ahuja, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser

A good education offers individuals the opportunity to lead richer, more interesting lives. At a societal level, it creates opportunities for humanity to solve its pressing problems.

The world has gone through a dramatic transition over the last few centuries, from one where very few had any basic education to one where most people do. This is not only reflected in the inputs to education – enrollment and attendance – but also in outcomes, where literacy rates have greatly improved.

Getting children into school is also not enough. What they learn matters. There are large differences in educational outcomes : in low-income countries, most children cannot read by the end of primary school. These inequalities in education exacerbate poverty and existing inequalities in global incomes .

On this page, you can find all of our writing and data on global education.

Key insights on Global Education

The world has made substantial progress in increasing basic levels of education.

Access to education is now seen as a fundamental right – in many cases, it’s the government’s duty to provide it.

But formal education is a very recent phenomenon. In the chart, we see the share of the adult population – those older than 15 – that has received some basic education and those who haven’t.

In the early 1800s, fewer than 1 in 5 adults had some basic education. Education was a luxury; in all places, it was only available to a small elite.

But you can see that this share has grown dramatically, such that this ratio is now reversed. Less than 1 in 5 adults has not received any formal education.

This is reflected in literacy data , too: 200 years ago, very few could read and write. Now most adults have basic literacy skills.

What you should know about this data

• Basic education is defined as receiving some kind of formal primary, secondary, or tertiary (post-secondary) education.
• This indicator does not tell us how long a person received formal education. They could have received a full program of schooling, or may only have been in attendance for a short period. To account for such differences, researchers measure the mean years of schooling or the expected years of schooling .

Despite being in school, many children learn very little

International statistics often focus on attendance as the marker of educational progress.

However, being in school does not guarantee that a child receives high-quality education. In fact, in many countries, the data shows that children learn very little.

Just half – 48% – of the world’s children can read with comprehension by the end of primary school. It’s based on data collected over a 9-year period, with 2016 as the average year of collection.

This is shown in the chart, where we plot averages across countries with different income levels. 1

The situation in low-income countries is incredibly worrying, with 90% of children unable to read by that age.

This can be improved – even among high-income countries. The best-performing countries have rates as low as 2%. That’s more than four times lower than the average across high-income countries.

Making sure that every child gets to go to school is essential. But the world also needs to focus on what children learn once they’re in the classroom.

Millions of children learn only very little. How can the world provide a better education to the next generation?

Research suggests that many children – especially in the world’s poorest countries – learn only very little in school. What can we do to improve this?

• This data does not capture total literacy over someone’s lifetime. Many children will learn to read eventually, even if they cannot read by the end of primary school. However, this means they are in a constant state of “catching up” and will leave formal education far behind where they could be.

Children across the world receive very different amounts of quality learning

There are still significant inequalities in the amount of education children get across the world.

This can be measured as the total number of years that children spend in school. However, researchers can also adjust for the quality of education to estimate how many years of quality learning they receive. This is done using an indicator called “learning-adjusted years of schooling”.

On the map, you see vast differences across the world.

In many of the world’s poorest countries, children receive less than three years of learning-adjusted schooling. In most rich countries, this is more than 10 years.

Across most countries in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa – where the largest share of children live – the average years of quality schooling are less than 7.

• Learning-adjusted years of schooling merge the quantity and quality of education into one metric, accounting for the fact that similar durations of schooling can yield different learning outcomes.
• Learning-adjusted years is computed by adjusting the expected years of school based on the quality of learning, as measured by the harmonized test scores from various international student achievement testing programs. The adjustment involves multiplying the expected years of school by the ratio of the most recent harmonized test score to 625. Here, 625 signifies advanced attainment on the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) test, with 300 representing minimal attainment. These scores are measured in TIMSS-equivalent units.

Hundreds of millions of children worldwide do not go to school

While most children worldwide get the opportunity to go to school, hundreds of millions still don’t.

In the chart, we see the number of children who aren’t in school across primary and secondary education.

This number was around 260 million in 2019.

Many children who attend primary school drop out and do not attend secondary school. That means many more children or adolescents are missing from secondary school than primary education.

Access to basic education: almost 60 million children of primary school age are not in school

The world has made a lot of progress in recent generations, but millions of children are still not in school.

The gender gap in school attendance has closed across most of the world

Globally, until recently, boys were more likely to attend school than girls. The world has focused on closing this gap to ensure every child gets the opportunity to go to school.

Today, these gender gaps have largely disappeared. In the chart, we see the difference in the global enrollment rates for primary, secondary, and tertiary (post-secondary) education. The share of children who complete primary school is also shown.

We see these lines converging over time, and recently they met: rates between boys and girls are the same.

For tertiary education, young women are now more likely than young men to be enrolled.

While the differences are small globally, there are some countries where the differences are still large: girls in Afghanistan, for example, are much less likely to go to school than boys.

Research & Writing

Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not. We are all losing out because of this.

Access to basic education: almost 60 million children of primary school age are not in school, interactive charts on global education.

This data comes from a paper by João Pedro Azevedo et al.

João Pedro Azevedo, Diana Goldemberg, Silvia Montoya, Reema Nayar, Halsey Rogers, Jaime Saavedra, Brian William Stacy (2021) – “ Will Every Child Be Able to Read by 2030? Why Eliminating Learning Poverty Will Be Harder Than You Think, and What to Do About It .” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9588, March 2021.

Cite this work

Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. When citing this topic page, please also cite the underlying data sources. This topic page can be cited as:

BibTeX citation

Reuse this work freely

All visualizations, data, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license . You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

The data produced by third parties and made available by Our World in Data is subject to the license terms from the original third-party authors. We will always indicate the original source of the data in our documentation, so you should always check the license of any such third-party data before use and redistribution.

All of our charts can be embedded in any site.

Our World in Data is free and accessible for everyone.

Help us do this work by making a donation.

The World Bank Group is the largest financier of education in the developing world, working in 94 countries and committed to helping them reach SDG4: access to inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

Education is a human right, a powerful driver of development, and one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty and improving health, gender equality, peace, and stability. It delivers large, consistent returns in terms of income, and is the most important factor to ensure equity and inclusion.

For individuals, education promotes employment, earnings, health, and poverty reduction. Globally, there is a  9% increase in hourly earnings for every extra year of schooling . For societies, it drives long-term economic growth, spurs innovation, strengthens institutions, and fosters social cohesion.  Education is further a powerful catalyst to climate action through widespread behavior change and skilling for green transitions.

Developing countries have made tremendous progress in getting children into the classroom and more children worldwide are now in school. But learning is not guaranteed, as the  2018 World Development Report  (WDR) stressed.

Making smart and effective investments in people’s education is critical for developing the human capital that will end extreme poverty. At the core of this strategy is the need to tackle the learning crisis, put an end to  Learning Poverty , and help youth acquire the advanced cognitive, socioemotional, technical and digital skills they need to succeed in today’s world. 

In low- and middle-income countries, the share of children living in  Learning Poverty  (that is, the proportion of 10-year-old children that are unable to read and understand a short age-appropriate text) increased from 57% before the pandemic to an estimated  70%  in 2022.

However, learning is in crisis. More than 70 million more people were pushed into poverty during the COVID pandemic, a billion children lost a year of school , and three years later the learning losses suffered have not been recouped .  If a child cannot read with comprehension by age 10, they are unlikely to become fluent readers. They will fail to thrive later in school and will be unable to power their careers and economies once they leave school.

The effects of the pandemic are expected to be long-lasting. Analysis has already revealed deep losses, with international reading scores declining from 2016 to 2021 by more than a year of schooling.  These losses may translate to a 0.68 percentage point in global GDP growth.  The staggering effects of school closures reach beyond learning. This generation of children could lose a combined total of  US$21 trillion in lifetime earnings  in present value or the equivalent of 17% of today’s global GDP – a sharp rise from the 2021 estimate of a US$17 trillion loss. 

Action is urgently needed now – business as usual will not suffice to heal the scars of the pandemic and will not accelerate progress enough to meet the ambitions of SDG 4. We are urging governments to implement ambitious and aggressive Learning Acceleration Programs to get children back to school, recover lost learning, and advance progress by building better, more equitable and resilient education systems.

Last Updated: Mar 25, 2024

The World Bank’s global education strategy is centered on ensuring learning happens – for everyone, everywhere. Our vision is to ensure that everyone can achieve her or his full potential with access to a quality education and lifelong learning. To reach this, we are helping countries build foundational skills like literacy, numeracy, and socioemotional skills – the building blocks for all other learning. From early childhood to tertiary education and beyond – we help children and youth acquire the skills they need to thrive in school, the labor market and throughout their lives.

Investing in the world’s most precious resource – people – is paramount to ending poverty on a livable planet.  Our experience across more than 100 countries bears out this robust connection between human capital, quality of life, and economic growth: when countries strategically invest in people and the systems designed to protect and build human capital at scale, they unlock the wealth of nations and the potential of everyone.

Building on this, the World Bank supports resilient, equitable, and inclusive education systems that ensure learning happens for everyone. We do this by generating and disseminating evidence, ensuring alignment with policymaking processes, and bridging the gap between research and practice.

The World Bank is the largest source of external financing for education in developing countries, with a portfolio of about $26 billion in 94 countries including IBRD, IDA and Recipient-Executed Trust Funds. IDA operations comprise 62% of the education portfolio.

The investment in FCV settings has increased dramatically and now accounts for 26% of our portfolio.

World Bank projects reach at least 425 million students -one-third of students in low- and middle-income countries.

The World Bank’s Approach to Education

Five interrelated pillars of a well-functioning education system underpin the World Bank’s education policy approach:

• Learners are prepared and motivated to learn;
• Teachers are prepared, skilled, and motivated to facilitate learning and skills acquisition;
• Learning resources (including education technology) are available, relevant, and used to improve teaching and learning;
• Schools are safe and inclusive; and
• Education Systems are well-managed, with good implementation capacity and adequate financing.

The Bank is already helping governments design and implement cost-effective programs and tools to build these pillars.

Our Principles:

• We pursue systemic reform supported by political commitment to learning for all children. 
• We focus on equity and inclusion through a progressive path toward achieving universal access to quality education, including children and young adults in fragile or conflict affected areas , those in marginalized and rural communities,  girls and women , displaced populations,  students with disabilities , and other vulnerable groups.
• We focus on results and use evidence to keep improving policy by using metrics to guide improvements.   
• We want to ensure financial commitment commensurate with what is needed to provide basic services to all. 
• We invest wisely in technology so that education systems embrace and learn to harness technology to support their learning objectives.   

Laying the groundwork for the future

Country challenges vary, but there is a menu of options to build forward better, more resilient, and equitable education systems.

Countries are facing an education crisis that requires a two-pronged approach: first, supporting actions to recover lost time through remedial and accelerated learning; and, second, building on these investments for a more equitable, resilient, and effective system.

Recovering from the learning crisis must be a political priority, backed with adequate financing and the resolve to implement needed reforms.  Domestic financing for education over the last two years has not kept pace with the need to recover and accelerate learning. Across low- and lower-middle-income countries, the  average share of education in government budgets fell during the pandemic , and in 2022 it remained below 2019 levels.

The best chance for a better future is to invest in education and make sure each dollar is put toward improving learning.  In a time of fiscal pressure, protecting spending that yields long-run gains – like spending on education – will maximize impact.  We still need more and better funding for education.  Closing the learning gap will require increasing the level, efficiency, and equity of education spending—spending smarter is an imperative.

• Education technology  can be a powerful tool to implement these actions by supporting teachers, children, principals, and parents; expanding accessible digital learning platforms, including radio/ TV / Online learning resources; and using data to identify and help at-risk children, personalize learning, and improve service delivery.

Looking ahead

We must seize this opportunity  to reimagine education in bold ways. Together, we can build forward better more equitable, effective, and resilient education systems for the world’s children and youth.

Accelerating Improvements

Supporting countries in establishing time-bound learning targets and a focused education investment plan, outlining actions and investments geared to achieve these goals.

Launched in 2020, the  Accelerator Program  works with a set of countries to channel investments in education and to learn from each other. The program coordinates efforts across partners to ensure that the countries in the program show improvements in foundational skills at scale over the next three to five years. These investment plans build on the collective work of multiple partners, and leverage the latest evidence on what works, and how best to plan for implementation.  Countries such as Brazil (the state of Ceará) and Kenya have achieved dramatic reductions in learning poverty over the past decade at scale, providing useful lessons, even as they seek to build on their successes and address remaining and new challenges.  

Universalizing Foundational Literacy

Readying children for the future by supporting acquisition of foundational skills – which are the gateway to other skills and subjects.

The  Literacy Policy Package (LPP)   consists of interventions focused specifically on promoting acquisition of reading proficiency in primary school. These include assuring political and technical commitment to making all children literate; ensuring effective literacy instruction by supporting teachers; providing quality, age-appropriate books; teaching children first in the language they speak and understand best; and fostering children’s oral language abilities and love of books and reading.

Advancing skills through TVET and Tertiary

Ensuring that individuals have access to quality education and training opportunities and supporting links to employment.

Tertiary education and skills systems are a driver of major development agendas, including human capital, climate change, youth and women’s empowerment, and jobs and economic transformation. A comprehensive skill set to succeed in the 21st century labor market consists of foundational and higher order skills, socio-emotional skills, specialized skills, and digital skills. Yet most countries continue to struggle in delivering on the promise of skills development. 

The World Bank is supporting countries through efforts that address key challenges including improving access and completion, adaptability, quality, relevance, and efficiency of skills development programs. Our approach is via multiple channels including projects, global goods, as well as the Tertiary Education and Skills Program . Our recent reports including Building Better Formal TVET Systems and STEERing Tertiary Education provide a way forward for how to improve these critical systems.

Addressing Climate Change

Mainstreaming climate education and investing in green skills, research and innovation, and green infrastructure to spur climate action and foster better preparedness and resilience to climate shocks.

Our approach recognizes that education is critical for achieving effective, sustained climate action. At the same time, climate change is adversely impacting education outcomes. Investments in education can play a huge role in building climate resilience and advancing climate mitigation and adaptation. Climate change education gives young people greater awareness of climate risks and more access to tools and solutions for addressing these risks and managing related shocks. Technical and vocational education and training can also accelerate a green economic transformation by fostering green skills and innovation. Greening education infrastructure can help mitigate the impact of heat, pollution, and extreme weather on learning, while helping address climate change. 

Examples of this work are projects in Nigeria (life skills training for adolescent girls), Vietnam (fostering relevant scientific research) , and Bangladesh (constructing and retrofitting schools to serve as cyclone shelters).

Strengthening Measurement Systems

Enabling countries to gather and evaluate information on learning and its drivers more efficiently and effectively.

The World Bank supports initiatives to help countries effectively build and strengthen their measurement systems to facilitate evidence-based decision-making. Examples of this work include:

(1) The  Global Education Policy Dashboard (GEPD) : This tool offers a strong basis for identifying priorities for investment and policy reforms that are suited to each country context by focusing on the three dimensions of practices, policies, and politics.

• Highlights gaps between what the evidence suggests is effective in promoting learning and what is happening in practice in each system; and
• Allows governments to track progress as they act to close the gaps.

The GEPD has been implemented in 13 education systems already – Peru, Rwanda, Jordan, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sierra Leone, Niger, Gabon, Jordan and Chad – with more expected by the end of 2024.

(2)  Learning Assessment Platform (LeAP) : LeAP is a one-stop shop for knowledge, capacity-building tools, support for policy dialogue, and technical staff expertise to support student achievement measurement and national assessments for better learning.

Supporting Successful Teachers

Helping systems develop the right selection, incentives, and support to the professional development of teachers.

Currently, the World Bank Education Global Practice has over 160 active projects supporting over 18 million teachers worldwide, about a third of the teacher population in low- and middle-income countries. In 12 countries alone, these projects cover 16 million teachers, including all primary school teachers in Ethiopia and Turkey, and over 80% in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam.

A World Bank-developed classroom observation tool, Teach, was designed to capture the quality of teaching in low- and middle-income countries. It is now 3.6 million students.

While Teach helps identify patterns in teacher performance, Coach leverages these insights to support teachers to improve their teaching practice through hands-on in-service teacher professional development (TPD).

Our recent report on Making Teacher Policy Work proposes a practical framework to uncover the black box of effective teacher policy and discusses the factors that enable their scalability and sustainability.

 Supporting Education Finance Systems

Strengthening country financing systems to mobilize resources for education and make better use of their investments in education.

Our approach is to bring together multi-sectoral expertise to engage with ministries of education and finance and other stakeholders to develop and implement effective and efficient public financial management systems; build capacity to monitor and evaluate education spending, identify financing bottlenecks, and develop interventions to strengthen financing systems; build the evidence base on global spending patterns and the magnitude and causes of spending inefficiencies; and develop diagnostic tools as public goods to support country efforts.

Working in Fragile, Conflict, and Violent (FCV) Contexts

The massive and growing global challenge of having so many children living in conflict and violent situations requires a response at the same scale and scope. Our education engagement in the Fragility, Conflict and Violence (FCV) context, which stands at US$5.35 billion, has grown rapidly in recent years, reflecting the ever-increasing importance of the FCV agenda in education. Indeed, these projects now account for more than 25% of the World Bank education portfolio.

Education is crucial to minimizing the effects of fragility and displacement on the welfare of youth and children in the short-term and preventing the emergence of violent conflict in the long-term. 

Support to Countries Throughout the Education Cycle

Our support to countries covers the entire learning cycle, to help shape resilient, equitable, and inclusive education systems that ensure learning happens for everyone. 

The ongoing  Supporting  Egypt  Education Reform project , 2018-2025, supports transformational reforms of the Egyptian education system, by improving teaching and learning conditions in public schools. The World Bank has invested $500 million in the project focused on increasing access to quality kindergarten, enhancing the capacity of teachers and education leaders, developing a reliable student assessment system, and introducing the use of modern technology for teaching and learning. Specifically, the share of Egyptian 10-year-old students, who could read and comprehend at the global minimum proficiency level, increased to 45 percent in 2021.

In  Nigeria , the $75 million  Edo  Basic Education Sector and Skills Transformation (EdoBESST)  project, running from 2020-2024, is focused on improving teaching and learning in basic education. Under the project, which covers 97 percent of schools in the state, there is a strong focus on incorporating digital technologies for teachers. They were equipped with handheld tablets with structured lesson plans for their classes. Their coaches use classroom observation tools to provide individualized feedback. Teacher absence has reduced drastically because of the initiative. Over 16,000 teachers were trained through the project, and the introduction of technology has also benefited students.

Through the $235 million  School Sector Development Program  in  Nepal  (2017-2022), the number of children staying in school until Grade 12 nearly tripled, and the number of out-of-school children fell by almost seven percent. During the pandemic, innovative approaches were needed to continue education. Mobile phone penetration is high in the country. More than four in five households in Nepal have mobile phones. The project supported an educational service that made it possible for children with phones to connect to local radio that broadcast learning programs.

From 2017-2023, the $50 million  Strengthening of State Universities  in  Chile  project has made strides to improve quality and equity at state universities. The project helped reduce dropout: the third-year dropout rate fell by almost 10 percent from 2018-2022, keeping more students in school.

The World Bank’s first  Program-for-Results financing in education  was through a $202 million project in  Tanzania , that ran from 2013-2021. The project linked funding to results and aimed to improve education quality. It helped build capacity, and enhanced effectiveness and efficiency in the education sector. Through the project, learning outcomes significantly improved alongside an unprecedented expansion of access to education for children in Tanzania. From 2013-2019, an additional 1.8 million students enrolled in primary schools. In 2019, the average reading speed for Grade 2 students rose to 22.3 words per minute, up from 17.3 in 2017. The project laid the foundation for the ongoing $500 million  BOOST project , which supports over 12 million children to enroll early, develop strong foundational skills, and complete a quality education.

The $40 million  Cambodia  Secondary Education Improvement project , which ran from 2017-2022, focused on strengthening school-based management, upgrading teacher qualifications, and building classrooms in Cambodia, to improve learning outcomes, and reduce student dropout at the secondary school level. The project has directly benefited almost 70,000 students in 100 target schools, and approximately 2,000 teachers and 600 school administrators received training.

The World Bank is co-financing the $152.80 million  Yemen  Restoring Education and Learning Emergency project , running from 2020-2024, which is implemented through UNICEF, WFP, and Save the Children. It is helping to maintain access to basic education for many students, improve learning conditions in schools, and is working to strengthen overall education sector capacity. In the time of crisis, the project is supporting teacher payments and teacher training, school meals, school infrastructure development, and the distribution of learning materials and school supplies. To date, almost 600,000 students have benefited from these interventions.

The $87 million  Providing an Education of Quality in  Haiti  project supported approximately 380 schools in the Southern region of Haiti from 2016-2023. Despite a highly challenging context of political instability and recurrent natural disasters, the project successfully supported access to education for students. The project provided textbooks, fresh meals, and teacher training support to 70,000 students, 3,000 teachers, and 300 school directors. It gave tuition waivers to 35,000 students in 118 non-public schools. The project also repaired 19 national schools damaged by the 2021 earthquake, which gave 5,500 students safe access to their schools again.

In 2013, just 5% of the poorest households in  Uzbekistan  had children enrolled in preschools. Thanks to the  Improving Pre-Primary and General Secondary Education Project , by July 2019, around 100,000 children will have benefitted from the half-day program in 2,420 rural kindergartens, comprising around 49% of all preschool educational institutions, or over 90% of rural kindergartens in the country.

In addition to working closely with governments in our client countries, the World Bank also works at the global, regional, and local levels with a range of technical partners, including foundations, non-profit organizations, bilaterals, and other multilateral organizations. Some examples of our most recent global partnerships include:

UNICEF, UNESCO, FCDO, USAID, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:  Coalition for Foundational Learning

The World Bank is working closely with UNICEF, UNESCO, FCDO, USAID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the  Coalition for Foundational Learning  to advocate and provide technical support to ensure foundational learning.  The World Bank works with these partners to promote and endorse the  Commitment to Action on Foundational Learning , a global network of countries committed to halving the global share of children unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10 by 2030.

Australian Aid, Bernard van Leer Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Canada, Echida Giving, FCDO, German Cooperation, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Conrad Hilton Foundation, LEGO Foundation, Porticus, USAID: Early Learning Partnership

The Early Learning Partnership (ELP) is a multi-donor trust fund, housed at the World Bank.  ELP leverages World Bank strengths—a global presence, access to policymakers and strong technical analysis—to improve early learning opportunities and outcomes for young children around the world.

We help World Bank teams and countries get the information they need to make the case to invest in Early Childhood Development (ECD), design effective policies and deliver impactful programs. At the country level, ELP grants provide teams with resources for early seed investments that can generate large financial commitments through World Bank finance and government resources. At the global level, ELP research and special initiatives work to fill knowledge gaps, build capacity and generate public goods.

UNESCO, UNICEF:  Learning Data Compact

UNESCO, UNICEF, and the World Bank have joined forces to close the learning data gaps that still exist and that preclude many countries from monitoring the quality of their education systems and assessing if their students are learning. The three organizations have agreed to a  Learning Data Compact , a commitment to ensure that all countries, especially low-income countries, have at least one quality measure of learning by 2025, supporting coordinated efforts to strengthen national assessment systems.

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS):   Learning Poverty Indicator

Aimed at measuring and urging attention to foundational literacy as a prerequisite to achieve SDG4, this partnership was launched in 2019 to help countries strengthen their learning assessment systems, better monitor what students are learning in internationally comparable ways and improve the breadth and quality of global data on education.

FCDO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:  EdTech Hub

Supported by the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the EdTech Hub is aimed at improving the quality of ed-tech investments. The Hub launched a rapid response Helpdesk service to provide just-in-time advisory support to 70 low- and middle-income countries planning education technology and remote learning initiatives.

MasterCard Foundation

Our Tertiary Education and Skills  global program, launched with support from the Mastercard Foundation, aims to prepare youth and adults for the future of work and society by improving access to relevant, quality, equitable reskilling and post-secondary education opportunities.  It is designed to reframe, reform, and rebuild tertiary education and skills systems for the digital and green transformation.

Bridging the AI divide: Breaking down barriers to ensure women’s leadership and participation in the Fifth Industrial Revolution

Common challenges and tailored solutions: How policymakers are strengthening early learning systems across the world

Compulsory education boosts learning outcomes and climate action

Areas of focus.

Data & Measurement

Early Childhood Development

Financing Education

Foundational Learning

Fragile, Conflict & Violent Contexts

Girls’ Education

Inclusive Education

Skills Development

Technology (EdTech)  

Tertiary Education

Initiatives

• Show More +
• Tertiary Education and Skills Program
• Service Delivery Indicators
• Evoke: Transforming education to empower youth
• Global Education Policy Dashboard
• Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel
• Show Less -

Collapse and Recovery: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Eroded Human Capital and What to Do About It

BROCHURES & FACT SHEETS

Flyer: Education Factsheet - May 2024

Publication: Realizing Education's Promise: A World Bank Retrospective – August 2023

Flyer: Education and Climate Change - November 2022

Brochure: Learning Losses - October 2022

STAY CONNECTED

Human Development Topics

Around the bank group.

Find out what the Bank Group's branches are doing in education

Global Education Newsletter - April 2024

What's happening in the World Bank Education Global Practice? Read to learn more.

Human Capital Project

The Human Capital Project is a global effort to accelerate more and better investments in people for greater equity and economic growth.

Impact Evaluations

Research that measures the impact of education policies to improve education in low and middle income countries.

Education Videos

Watch our latest videos featuring our projects across the world

Additional Resources

Education Finance

Higher Education

Digital Technologies

Education Data & Measurement

Education in Fragile, Conflict & Violence Contexts

This site uses cookies to optimize functionality and give you the best possible experience. If you continue to navigate this website beyond this page, cookies will be placed on your browser. To learn more about cookies, click here .

Why Global Education Matters

• Student Engagement .
• College and Career Readiness.
• Social-Emotional Learning .
• Student Empowerment.

Ariel Tichnor-Wagner is an educator and researcher, committed to identifying and leveraging policies and practices that improve academic and social-emotional outcomes of culturally and linguistically diverse students and that foster global citizenship. She is lecturer at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development in Boston, Massachusetts.

As a former senior fellow of global competence at ASCD, Tichnor-Wagner advocated for, developed, and implemented innovative frameworks, tools, and professional learning experiences to support educators in fostering the knowledge, skills, and attitudes students need to succeed in a diverse, interconnected world.

ASCD is dedicated to professional growth and well-being.

Let's put your vision into action., related blogs.

Want Students to Love Science? Let Them Compete!

Rethinking Our Definition of STEM

How to Grow Strong and Passionate Writers

A Common Math Curriculum Adds Up to Better Learning

“Diverse” Curriculum Still Isn’t Getting It Right, Study Finds

To process a transaction with a purchase order please send to [email protected].

Benefits of education

Education is one of the most important investments a country can make in its future. GPE supports lower-income countries to ensure that every child receives a quality education.

Education is a powerful agent of change, and improves health and livelihoods, contributes to social stability and drives long-term economic growth. Education is also essential to the success of every one of the 17 sustainable development goals .

GPE helps partner countries transform their education systems to ensure that every girl and boy can get the quality education they need to unlock their full potential and contribute to building a better world.

A great education...

Kyrgyz Republic: Preparing children for primary school

Starts early, early childhood education prepares children for future learning.

41% of children are enrolled in pre-primary education in GPE partner countries

Means great teachers

An effective teacher is the most important factor in a student’s learning.

67 million more children have access to quality teachers since 2002

Cambodia: Better teachers produce better students

Kenya: How the private sector is supporting opportunities for girls' education

Is equal for girls and boys, keeping girls in school benefits them and their families, communities and countries.

2X the number of girls are on the path of gender equality

Leads to learning

More children than ever are in school, but too many don’t learn enough.

70% of partner countries with data improved learning outcomes between 2010-2015 and 2016-2019

Burundi: Keeping schools accessible for better learning

Kenya: Investing in education for a better future

Is based on data, without accurate data, it is impossible to know how many children are not in school or are not learning.

89% of GPE grants supported EMIS and/or learning assessment systems in 2020

Is backed by a strong system

Gpe transforms education systems to increase the number of children who are in school and learning.

160 million more children are in school in GPE partner countries

Ethiopia: A long-term commitment to education spurs results

Somalia: Giving more children the opportunity to learn during emergencies

Leaves no one behind, gpe supports countries to build equitable and inclusive education systems where all children can learn in a safe and healthy environment.

US$379M in GPE funding supported activities promoting equity, gender equality and inclusion in 2019

... and can change the world!

When access to education and learning grows, the ripple effects on communities and countries are remarkable.

• 420 million people would be lifted out of poverty with a secondary education
• A child whose mother can read is 50% more likely to live past the age of 5
• One additional year of school can increase a woman’s earnings by up to 20%

Primary Source

Educating Global Citizens

• Socially Connected, Physically Distanced
• Our Mission

What is Global Education?

• African American History is American History
• Advance Anti-racist Education with Primary Source
• Board of Directors
• Advisory & Honorary Boards

A global education is one that incorporates learning about the cultures, geographies, histories, and current issues of all the world’s regions. It emphasizes the interconnectedness and diversity of peoples and histories. Global education develops students’ skills to engage with their global peers and highlights actions students can take as citizens of the world. It is a lens that can be applied to all disciplines and all grade levels as well as the broader school community.

Global learning is essential in the 21st century as barriers between nations and people continue to fade. From the information we consume to the business we conduct to the people we meet, our lives are becoming ever more global. The diversity of our communities reflects this reality as well. It follows that students need to become more informed and compassionate citizens, and teachers are critical to making this happen.

What can you do?

All educators have a responsibility to create a globally inclusive environment for students. Schools, for example, can promote a more nuanced understanding of the multiple perspectives held by the world’s people. A global classroom can enable students to connect with other ideas and cultures as they navigate and evaluate a variety of information. Teachers of all disciplines can create meaningful learning opportunities that explore cross-cultural perspectives, draw from international examples, and encourage analytical thinking about global issues. Together, these global learning experiences prepare students to engage the larger world with greater confidence, thoughtfulness, and empathy.

All students deserve a high-quality global education. Working together with educators and schools, Primary Source seeks to make this possible.

Can you imagine a world without global collaboration? Neither can we.

Global education trends and research to follow in 2022

Subscribe to the center for universal education bulletin, emily gustafsson-wright , emily gustafsson-wright senior fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education @egwbrookings helen shwe hadani , helen shwe hadani former brookings expert @helenshadani kathy hirsh-pasek , kathy hirsh-pasek senior fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education @kathyandro1 maysa jalbout , maysa jalbout nonresident fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education @maysajalbout elizabeth m. king , elizabeth m. king nonresident senior fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education jennifer l. o’donoghue , jennifer l. o’donoghue deputy director - center for universal education , senior fellow - global economy and development @jennodjod brad olsen , brad olsen senior fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education @bradolsen_dc jordan shapiro , jordan shapiro nonresident fellow - global economy and development , center for universal education @jordosh emiliana vegas , and emiliana vegas former co-director - center for universal education , former senior fellow - global economy and development @emivegasv rebecca winthrop rebecca winthrop director - center for universal education , senior fellow - global economy and development @rebeccawinthrop.

January 24, 2022

• 12 min read

As the third calendar year of the pandemic begins, 2022 promises to be an important one—especially for education. Around the world, education systems have had to contend with sporadic closures, inequitable access to education technology and other distance learning tools, and deep challenges in maintaining both students’ and teachers’ physical and emotional health. At the same time, not all of the sudden changes precipitated by the pandemic have been bad—with some promising new innovations, allies, and increased attention on the field of global education emerging over the past three years. The key question is whether 2022 and the years ahead will lead to education transformation or will students, teachers, and families suffer long-lasting setbacks?

In the Center for Universal Education, our scholars take stock of the trends, policies, practices, and research that they’ll be closely keeping an eye on this year and likely in the many to come.

More than ever, in 2022 it will be critical to focus on strengthening the fabric of our global education system in order to achieve positive outcomes—particularly through an increased focus on data-informed decisionmaking. We have seen a renewed focus on different forms of data that are critical to enhanced education outcomes, such as real-time performance data, which allow teachers and other decisionmakers to course-adjust to the needs of learners to better support their educational journeys. Additionally, high-quality program cost data are needed for decisionmakers to plan, budget, and choose the most cost-effective interventions.

One way we are seeing these areas strengthened is through innovative financing for education, such as impact bonds , which require data to operate at full potential. This year, pooled funding through outcomes funds—a scaled version of impact bonds—should make a particularly big splash. The Education Outcomes Fund organization is slated to launch programs in Ghana and Sierra Leone, and we also expect to see the launch of country-specific outcomes funds for education such as OFFER (Outcome Fund For Education Results) in Colombia, the Back-to-School Outcomes Fund in India, and another fund in Chile. At the Center for Universal Education, we will be following these innovations closely and look forward to the insights that they will bring to the education sector.

As we look ahead to 2022, one continued challenge for many families is navigating the uncharted territory of supporting children’s learning with a growing number of school closures . But while the pandemic forced an abrupt slowdown in modern life, it also provided an opportunity to reexamine how we can prioritize learning and healthy development both in and out of school. Moreover, the cascading effects of the pandemic are disproportionally affecting families living in communities challenged by decades of discrimination and disinvestment—and are very likely to widen already existing educational inequities in worrisome ways.

One innovative approach to providing enriching learning opportunities beyond school walls that address the inequities in our current systems is Playful Learning Landscapes (PLL) —installations and programming that promote children and families’ learning through play in the public realm. A current focus for PLL at Brookings is measuring the impact of these spaces to show that PLL works and to garner greater investment in them. To that end, Brookings and its partners developed a framework and an initial set of indicators from both the learning science and placemaking perspectives to help assess the positive effects of PLL on learning outcomes , as well as its potential to enhance social interaction and public life in revitalized spaces. The framework will continue to evolve as we learn from communities that are testing the expansion and adaptation of PLL—this important work is just beginning.

The pandemic highlighted several trends in education that promise to be the focus of future policy and practice in 2022 and beyond: the importance of skills that supplement the learning of content, systemic inequities in education systems, and the role of digital technology in the education of the future. It has become increasingly clear that the memorization of content alone will not prepare children for the jobs and society of the future. As noted in a Brookings report “ A new path for education reform, ” in an automated world, manufacturing jobs and even preliminary medical diagnoses or legal contracts can be performed by computers and robots. Students who can work collaboratively—with strong communication skills, critical thinking, and creative innovation—will be highly valued. Mission statements from around the globe are starting to promote a “whole child” approach to education that will encourage the learning of a breadth of skills better aligning the education sector with needs from the business sector.

The past year also demonstrated weaknesses and inequalities inherent in remote learning that I’ll be closely tracking in the years to come. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggested that virtual learning presents risks to social-emotional learning . Further, research suggests that academic progress during the pandemic slowed such that students demonstrated only 35 to 50 percent of the gains they normally achieve in mathematics and 60 to 68 percent in reading. The losses are not experienced uniformly , with children from underresourced environments falling behind their more resourced peers.

The failure of remote learning also raises questions about the place of digital learning in the classroom. Learning will become more and more hybrid over time, and keeping an eye on advances in technology—especially regarding augmented reality and the metaverse—will be particularly important, as both have real consequences for the classrooms.

In 2022, I’ll be focusing on one group of children in particular–refugees–who are among those children who have historically had the least access to preprimary education. The pandemic has affected them disproportionally , as it pushed them and their families into poverty and deprived them from most forms of education during the school closures.

While much more investment in early childhood education research and evaluation is needed to improve evidence and channel scarce resources effectively, there are a few important efforts to watch. A report commissioned by Theirworld last year provided an overview of the sector and focused on a critical gap and opportunity to address the inequity of access to early childhood education in refugee settings by better supporting teachers and community workers. This year, Theirworld and partners will pursue two of the report’s recommendations–making the science of early childhood brain development widely accessible in refugee communities and building the evidence base on what works in supporting early childhood education teachers and the young refugee children they teach.

The report was informed by existing initiatives including Ahlan Simsim, which in 2017 received the largest known grant to early education in a humanitarian context. While the evaluation of Ahlan Simsim will not be complete until two more years, the Global Ties for Children research center, Sesame Workshop, and the International Rescue Committee will share critical insights into their learning to date in a forthcoming episode of the podcast the Impact Room .

This coming year I’ll be focused on how education systems can prepare for future disruptions, whatever the cause, with more deliberateness. The past two years of the COVID pandemic have seen education systems throughout the globe struggle to find ways to continue schooling. Additionally, there have been other public health crises, natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and severe storms, and wars and terrorism in different parts of the world that have gravely tested school systems’ ability to minimize the cost of catastrophes on students and teachers. Finding safer temporary learning places outside the school and using technologies such as radio, TV broadcasts, and online learning tools have helped, but quick fixes with little preparation are not effective approaches for sustaining and advancing learning gains.

In the age of broadcast and digital technologies, there are many more ways to meet the challenges of future emergency situations, but life- and education-saving solutions must be part of the way school systems operate—built into their structures, their staffing, their budgets, and their curricula. By preparing for the emergencies that are likely to happen, we can persevere to reach learning goals for all children.

By the close of 2021, a number of studies began to document the impact of COVID-19 on girls’ educational trajectories across the Global South. These studies point to promising trends –lower than expected dropout rates and reenrollment rates similar to (if not greater than) those of boys–while still highlighting the particular challenges faced by adolescent girls and girls living in poverty , conflict, and crisis .

In 2022, it will be critical to continue to generate more nuanced evidence—carefully considering questions such as “for which girls,” “where,” “when,” and “why.” And then we must put this knowledge to use to protect and promote girls’ and young women’s rights not just to education, but to participate and thrive in the world around them. Ensuring that marginalized girls and young women become transformative agents in improving their lives and livelihoods—as well as those of their families and communities—requires us to develop new strategies for learning and acting together.

At the Center for Universal Education, this means strengthening our work with local leaders in girls’ education: promoting gender-transformative research through the Echidna Global Scholars Program ; expanding the collective impact of our 33 Echidna alumni; and co-constructing a learning and action community to explore together how to improve beliefs, practices, programs, and policies so that marginalized adolescent girls’ can develop and exercise agency in pursuing their own pathways.

Going into year three of COVID-19, in 2022 I’m interested to see whether countries will transform their education systems or largely leave them the way they are. Will leaders of education systems tinker around the edges of change but mostly attempt a return to a prepandemic “normal,” or will they take advantage of this global rupture in the status quo to replace antiquated educational institutions and approaches with significant structural improvement?

In relation to this, one topic I’ll be watching in particular is how countries treat their teachers. How will policymakers, the media, parent councils, and others frame teachers’ work in 2022? In which locations will teachers be diminished versus where will they be defended as invaluable assets? How will countries learn from implications of out-of-school children (including social isolation and child care needs)? Will teachers remain appreciated in their communities but treated poorly in the material and political conditions of their work? Or will countries hold them dear—demanding accountability while supporting and rewarding them for quality work?

I’m interested in learning more about how pandemic lockdowns have impacted students. So far, we’ve only gotten very general data dealing with questions that are, in my opinion, too simple to be worthwhile. It’s all been about good and bad, positive and negative, learning loss and achievement. But I’ll be watching for more nuanced studies, which ask about specific ways increased time away from school has impacted social-emotional development. How do those results differ between gender, race, socioeconomic status, and geographic location? I suspect we’re going to learn some things about the relationship between home environment and school environment that will challenge a lot of our taken-for-granted assumptions.

In 2022, I’ll be tracking emerging evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 school closures on children and youth. Several researchers, including my co-authors and me , have provided estimates of the school closures’ impact on student learning losses, unemployment, future earnings, and productivity globally. But only recently are researchers analyzing actual evidence of learning losses , and an early systematic review finds that “Although robust and empirical research on COVID-19-related student learning loss is limited, learning loss itself may not be.”

Likewise, there is little rigorous reviews of remote learning tools’ and platforms’ impact on student learning during the school closures. After the pandemic, it is almost certain that remote and hybrid learning will continue—at a minimum occasionally and often periodically—in primary, secondary, and post-secondary education. It is urgent that we build the evidence base to help education decisionmakers and practitioners provide effective, tailored learning experiences for all students.

Finally, a key issue for education is how to redesign curricula so that this generation (and future generations) of students gain a key set of skills and competencies required for technologically-advancing labor markets and societies. While foundational literacy and numeracy skills continue to be essential for learning, a strong foundational knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is ever more important in the 21st century, and I look forward to contributing research this year to help make the case for curricula redesign efforts.

I will be interested to see how parent-teacher relationships progress after the pandemic has (hopefully) faded into the background. COVID-19 has had an inescapable impact on the way we deliver education globally, but none more so than on how education leaders and teachers interact with students and their families.

For the past three years, I have been studying family-school collaboration. Together with my colleagues and partners, we have surveyed nearly 25,000 parents and 6,000 teachers in 10 countries around the world and found that the vast majority of teachers, parents, and caregivers want to work together more closely. Quality family-school collaboration has the potential to significantly improve educational outcomes, spur important discussions on the overall purpose of school, and smooth the path for schools and families to navigate change together. From community schools in New Mexico  to text message updates from teachers in India , new innovations are popping up every day—in every corner of the world. I’m excited to see what the future holds for family-school collaboration!

Education Technology Global Education

Global Economy and Development

Center for Universal Education

The Brookings Institution, Washington DC

8:30 am - 4:30 pm EDT

Thinley Choden

May 3, 2024

Ghulam Omar Qargha, Rachel Dyl, Sreehari Ravindranath, Nariman Moustafa, Erika Faz de la Paz

A Curriculum for Changing the World

• Posted May 8, 2017
• By Heather Beasley Doyle

Can you build a curriculum to change the world?

In Empowering Global Citizens: A World Course , Fernando Reimers and four co-authors offer an interdisciplinary K-12 curriculum that aims for nothing less. It seeks to develop the specific cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal competencies crucial to thriving in the 21st century . Among those skills: the social and emotional ability to understand and work with people from diverse cultures; the creativity to develop sustainable solutions to complex problems; and a sense of confidence that individuals can (and are obligated to) make a difference.

A Global Curriculum

A curriculum, ideally, should give young people the knowledge they need to approach the future with a dynamic, accountable, forward-thinking mindset, says Reimers, the faculty director of international education policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The World Course is a curriculum specifically designed with the future in view — with the idea that our future will be an interconnected one, with complex challenges that demand a sense of citizenship and collaboration that expands beyond national borders .

To be globally competent, students will need traits like critical thinking, intercultural literacy, digital literacy, and cooperation, Reimers and his colleagues say. They’ll need to know how to work together on shared projects; how to use technology as a tool for learning; and how to see themselves as agents for innovation and sustainability.

Taking its lead from the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals , the curriculum — unit-based, with sample lessons that teachers can customize — is divided into two large segments, kindergarten through grade eight, and grades nine through 12.  It builds gradually, from closely guided instruction and activities to independent, project-based learning. The curriculum emphasizes pedagogy, focusing on “ how you teach, not just what you teach,” says  Connie K. Chung , associate director of HGSE’s Global Education Innovation Initiative and one of the book's co-authors. (The other co-authors are Vidur Chopra, Julia Higdon, and E. B. O'Donnell.) To that end, Empowering Global Citizens  advocates for materials and resources to  personalize learning , for schools to build partnerships with parents and communities,  and for leadership that “supports cultures of continuous improvement and learning .”

K-8: Introducing Diversity and New Perspectives

The World Course kicks off by helping kindergartners see that “our world is diverse and beautiful, and we can learn about it different ways, like counting, interviewing, describing, storytelling and viewing pictures.” A different theme undergirds each successive academic year. The themes grow with the children , providing an ever-widening, deepening view of the world, from cultures, government, and geography to the environment, entrepreneurship, and values.

The themes communicate:

• What we have in common and how we differ
• The value of social entrepreneurship
• The evolution of civilizations
• The power of ordinary citizens to improve society and the world
• The ongoing reality of population migration

Students immerse themselves in the themes through classroom activities, projects, and film and literature . Each year ends with a capstone project; students might make a book, create a documentary, or create a social enterprise.

Students learn to bring an inquisitive mind to people and experiences. They’re taught to interview and to partner with peers in other countries. Teachers emphasize the long arc of history and the importance of the values espoused in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights through activities and lessons highlighting its various components.

By the time they enter high school, students have learned “to find and make meaning in their learning ,” rather than simply master a list of skills. 

High School: Taking Control of Your Learning

Ninth-graders continue the World Course by completing two of the five semester-long courses designed specifically for the curriculum — courses on:

• The environment
• Society and public health
• Global conflicts and resolutions
• Development economics: growth and development in Latin America
• Technology, innovation, and globalization

At the end of ninth grade, students identify an issue or challenge they’d like to pursue. In tenth grade, they begin a 3-year, multi-pronged inquiry into the subject. The project includes:

• Independent research
• An internship with a mentor or organization
• The development and implementation of a plan to address the issue
• A final senior-year presentation to the school community

True to global-citizen form, students don’t carry out their projects in a vacuum. They’re placed into advisory groups based on their topics. And advisors, sometimes outside mentors, guide students for the duration of their research. Students also serve as peer coaches while working on their own projects.

Reimers hopes that the World Course will provide globally minded teachers and administrators the resources they need to educate 21st-century citizens — and also to challenge others to consider global citizen education more seriously. The book was written using a creative commons license, which allows the educators to “build on it, remix it” and create their own derivatives to infuse into their practice, Reimers says.

Additional Resources

• Listen to a podcast interview with Reimers about Empowering Global Citizens. 
• A new book offers guidance on the challenges of scaling 21st-century education in diverse contexts across the world.
• Explore the offerings of the Global Education Innovation Initiative at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
• Learn about a professional gathering of globally conscious educations, the Think Tank on Global Education.

Get Usable Knowledge — Delivered Our free monthly newsletter sends you tips, tools, and ideas from research and practice leaders at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Sign up now .

Usable Knowledge

Connecting education research to practice — with timely insights for educators, families, and communities

Related Articles

Failing Our Brightest Kids

The world course.

Greenlight to Freedom

Explore MSM Network

Why is global education important in the 21st century and beyond?

Why global education is important in 21st century.

Global education is now more important than ever. The world is facing shared problems such as the COVID19 pandemic and climate change. Higher education institutions have a big role in: 

• Ensuring students will develop a global mindset through global education.
• Providing students with accessible education.  

Education Can Lead to Better Opportunities

According to Nelson Mandela , “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Indeed, education has the power to improve a person’s chance to live a better life as well as contribute to building a better world. 

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) launched 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that can help protect the planet and improve people’s lives. Number four on the list of SDGs was Quality Education . According to the UN , education is a key to escape poverty.  Global education  both as an approach to teaching and as a network or system of educational institutions can equip students with skills to thrive and gain success in their chosen careers in an ever-changing world.

What Is Global Education and Why Is It Important to Students Wherever They Are in the World?

The most famous line from 17th century poet, John Donne , “no man is an island” still rings true today. According to ASCD, an international nonprofit organization, a global education approach enables students to:

• develop an appreciation for the world
• opens student’s eyes to the reality that they are part of a bigger system and that they can be an active actor in it
• exposes students to different cultures and disciplines

Furthermore, a global education approach makes learning active, fun and much engaging. For example, an economics class in the United States can be made interesting through a global approach. Teachers can give students an assignment to find out where their favorite coffee beans come from. Students may be surprised to find out that the beans they brew at home came from Brazil. 

This discovery may spark an interest with the student to study Brazil, its culture, politics, or tourist destinations. The student may also be interested to learn about other top coffee-producing countries such as Colombia and Ethiopia. 

On the other hand, through a global education approach, a student in Brazil may be interested to study the reason why America is one of their top coffee importers. 

Aside from being an approach, global education also refers to the network or system of educational institutions across the world. The global educational system has developed cross border and even  transnational partnerships  to facilitate learning. Through internet connectivity, students can now “study abroad” while at the comfort of their home through flexible pathway options. 

Global Education Gives Students a Better Understanding of the World

Global education as a teaching approach broadens a student’s perspective and helps them see the bigger picture. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said that learners can become active supporters of social issues if they were taught about it at any age. 

UNESCO identified inequality, poverty and human rights violations as issues that threaten the world’s peace and stability. UNESCO campaigns for global citizenship education to help close the gap.  

Global Education Encourages Students to Take on Challenges Faced by Other Countries

Global education gives students the opportunity to have an active participation in making the world a better place. According to UNESCO, technology progressed in making the world interconnected but inequality, poverty and human rights violations remain. 

Students taught through a global education approach and/ or through a global education system who consider themselves as global citizens are equipped with the mindset to help address social issues and will choose careers to find solutions for social issues. 

Differences in Global Education - 20th Century Vs 21st Century

According to 21st Century Schools, an educational consulting firm, the learning environment is divided into three areas, the Physical, Emotional and Academic environments. The most recognizable difference between the physical learning environment of the 21st century and the 20th century education is online learning. 

The importance of online learning has been highlighted during the wake of COVID-19. Delivery of classes has shifted to online. As for the emotional learning environment, 20th century education lacked the global education approach. 

The 20th century learning environment was much more focused on giving a standard cookie-cutter approach while the 21st century learning environment gives real world problems that makes it relatable to students. Lastly, the academic environment in the 21st century is focused on providing students with a mindset that can further stimulate their learning appetite rather than passive learning where students are taught just by providing facts and figures. 

The world will face more challenges in the future and by having a global mindset, one can find solutions for it. Having access to global education in the 21st century should be every student’s goal. Education is not only a tool to improve one’s self but also the world. 

• The Current Trends in Global Education Market

Works Cited:

4 Quality Education. (n.d.). Sustainable Development Goals. Retrieved from United Nations Sustainable Development Web site: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/

Agriculture, U. S. (2020, December). Coffee: World Markets and Trade. Retrieved from Foreign Agriculture Service Web site: https://apps.fas.usda.gov/psdonline/circulars/coffee.pdf

Ha, T.-H. (2016, June 24). John Donne’s solemn 400-year-old poem against isolationism is resonating today. Retrieved from Quartz Web site: https://qz.com/716088/john-donnes-solemn-400-year-old-poem-against-isolationism-is-resonating-with-brits-today/#:~:text=English%20poet%20John%20Donne%2C%20writing,of%20all%20people%20with%20God. Is your school or classroom 21st century? (n.d.). Is your school or classroom 21st century? Retrieved from 21st Century Schools: https://www.21stcenturyschools.com/20th-vs-21st-century-classroom.html Loo, C. (2018, March 18). Top Nine Nelson Mandela Quotes About Education. Retrieved from Borgen Project Web site: https://borgenproject.org/nelson-mandela-quotes-about-education/ MSM Higher Education. (n.d.). Global education and pathway options in the new normal. Retrieved from MSM Higher Education Web site: https://pathways.msmhighered.com/ MSM Higher Education. (n.d.). View from the Forest. Retrieved from MSM Higher Education Web site: https://msmhighered.com/view-from-the-forest/ Quality Education: Why it Matters. (n.d.). Quality Education: Why it Matters. Retrieved from United Nations Sustainable Development Web site: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/4_Why-It-Matters-2020.pdf

Tichnor-Wagner, A. (2018, March 8). Why Global Education Matters. Retrieved from ASDC Web site: https://inservice.ascd.org/why-global-education-matters/ UNESCO. (n.d.). Global citizenship education. Retrieved from UNESCO Web site: https://en.unesco.org/themes/gced

CONNECT WITH US

Thank you for your interest in our services. please fill out the form below and we will get in touch with you..

What you need to know about global citizenship education

For centuries, common aspirations for mutual respect, peace, and understanding were reflected in traditional concepts across cultures and civilizations – from 'ubuntu' (I am because of who we all are) in African philosophy to 'sumak kawsay' (harmony within communities, ourselves and nature) in Quechua. Although the term "global citizenship education" (GCED) was only coined in 2011, the values it represents have been central to UNESCO's mission since its founding in 1947.

By building peace through education and reminding humanity of our common ties, UNESCO has long championed the ideas now formalized as GCED. As our world grows increasingly interdependent, GCED is more vital than ever for international solidarity and inspiring learners of all ages to positively contribute to their local and global communities. But what exactly does global citizenship education entail, why it matters today, and how UNESCO is driving this movement?

What’s the idea behind global citizenship?

Unlike citizenship – special rights, privileges and responsibilities related to "belonging" to a particular nation/state, the global citizenship concept is based on the idea we are connected not just with one country but with a broader global community. So, by positively contributing to it, we can also influence change on regional, national and local levels. Global citizens don't have a special passport or official title, nor do they need to travel to other countries or speak different languages to become one. It's more about the mindset and actual actions that a person takes daily. A global citizen understands how the world works, values differences in people, and works with others to find solutions to challenges too big for any one nation.

Citizenship and global citizenship do not exclude each other. Instead, these two concepts are mutually reinforcing. 

What is global citizenship education about?

Economically, environmentally, socially and politically, we are linked to other people on the planet as never before. With the transformations that the world has gone through in the past decades – expansion of digital technology, international travel and migration, economic crises, conflicts, and environmental degradation – how we work, teach and learn has to change, too. UNESCO promotes global citizenship education to help learners understand the world around them and work together to fix the big problems that affect everyone, no matter where they're from.

GCED is about teaching and learning to become these global citizens who live together peacefully on one planet. What does it entail?

Adjusting curricula and content of the lessons to provide knowledge about the world and the interconnected nature of contemporary challenges and threats. Among other things, a deep understanding of human rights, geography, the environment, systems of inequalities, and historical events that underpinned current developments;

Nurturing cognitive, social and other skills to put the knowledge into practice and make it relevant to learners' realities. For example, thinking critically and asking questions about what's equitable and just, taking and understanding other perspectives and opinions, resolving conflicts constructively, working in teams, and interacting with people of different backgrounds, origins, cultures and perspectives; 

Instilling values that reflect the vision of the world and provide purpose, such as respect for diversity, empathy, open-mindedness, justice and fairness for everyone;

Adopting behaviours to act on their values and beliefs: participating actively in the society to solve global, national and local challenges and strive for the collective good.

What UNESCO does in global citizenship education

UNESCO works with countries to improve and rewire their education systems so that they support creativity, innovation and commitment to peace, human rights and sustainable development. 

Provides a big-picture vision for an education that learners of all ages need to survive and thrive in the 21 st century. One key priority is updating the  1974 Recommendation Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms , the document underpinning this work.   

Supports the development of curricula and learning materials on global citizenship themes tailored for diverse cultural contexts. Among many examples are the general guidance document on teaching and learning objectives of global citizenship education or recommendations on integrating social and emotional learning principles in the education process.

Studies the positive impact of learning across subjects and builds linkages between sectors and spheres . One of the key focus areas is the Framework on Culture and Arts Education, in which UNESCO highlights the positive impact learning of the arts and through the arts has on academic performance, acquisition of different skills and greater well-being, as well as broadening of the horizons.

Collaborates with partners across UNESCO programmes and the broader UN system to address contemporary threats to human rights and peace and infuse the principles of understanding, non-discrimination and respect for human dignity in education. Among others, UNESCO leads the global education efforts to counter hate speech online and offline, address antisemitism, fight racism, educate about human rights violations and violent pasts.

Monitors how the core values of global citizenship education are reflected in and supported by education policy and the curriculum to deliver it effectively. For example, by collecting global data on this indicator every four years through a survey questionnaire designed for the 1974 Recommendation.

Promotes international collaboration in education through  UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs , and  UNESCO Associated Schools Network , connecting over 12,000 educational institutions worldwide.

Why does UNESCO prioritize global citizenship education?

Quality education is among 17 Sustainable Development Goals put forth by the United Nations, where GCED is mentioned as one of the topic areas that countries must promote. While leading the global efforts to achieve this goal, UNESCO sees education as the main driver of human development that can accelerate progress in bringing about social justice, gender equality, inclusion, and other Goals. 

UNESCO believes that only an education that provides a global outlook with a deep appreciation of local perspectives can address the cross-cutting challenges of today and tomorrow. This vision is reaffirmed in the Incheon Declaration made in 2015 at the World Education Forum and further reflected in UNESCO's Futures of Education report.     

Based on the evidence that UNESCO has accumulated on GCED impact, learners who benefit from such education from early stages become less prone to conflicts and are more open to resolving them peacefully while respecting each other's differences. It has also proven successful in post-conflict transformation. For example, discussing the root causes of human rights violations that occurred in the past helps to detect alarming tendencies and avoid them in the future. 

How is GCED implemented?

GCED is not a single subject with a set curriculum but rather a framework, a prism through which education is seen. It can be delivered as an integral part of existing subjects – from geography to social studies – or independently. UNESCO supports the dissemination of GCED on different levels and in multiple areas of life beyond the classroom.

On a policy level: Governments can develop national strategies and frameworks that recognize the importance of understanding local issues from a broader global perspective and prioritize education programmes that reflect this vision. 

In the classroom: Teachers can incorporate content and materials that build awareness of global issues and intercultural understanding. For instance, in Geography, pupils can learn about climate change and the distribution of resources. In Social Sciences, they find out how environmental degradation impacts children's rights worldwide. In Science, they discover how trees soak up carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and can help tackle climate change. Teachers can also assign students a group project where they will have to devise a campaign to address climate change in their local community.

Out of school: Museums and cultural institutions can design exhibits and educational materials that inspire global citizenship. Exchange programs allow young people to broaden their horizons by visiting other communities and countries.

Related items

• Civic education

'The informal education I received truly enriched my learning experience'

5/17/2024 A&S Communications

Daniel Obaseki

Government Bronx, N.Y.

What was your favorite class and why?

Without a doubt, it is Nature Functions and Limits of Law by Professor Dawn Chutkow. She teaches with extraordinary insight, mixing humor and education in a manner that I have seldom seen from other professors. Professor Chutkow seems to have a unique talent for covering an incredible amount of dense legal material in a manner that is not only understandable to students, but in one that motivates us to learn more about the course’s contents. I was lucky that she teaches in the area that I aspire to make my career in, and would recommend all prospective law students to take both of her classes.  

What is your main extracurricular activity and why is it important to you?

I happily commit most of my time to serving as the President of the Cornell Political Union. Their diverse array of speakers and vibrant community centered on spirited debate motivated my decision to come to Cornell. I can say with absolute confidence that my years in this organization have been the most enriching and transformative I have experienced within any community. The respectful challenging of my political views has enriched my understanding and appreciation of all directions of the political spectrum. Each of the organization’s caucuses has been nothing but welcoming, and the strong ties our organization has formed with other student groups allow us to engage more widely in meaningful dialogues on campus. CPU's importance to me lies in its mission to promote good-faith dialogue on campus, especially in an environment that can become quite divisive for those politically involved, and daunting for those who wish to be. I am grateful to have been its leader and look forward to hearing great things as an alumnus.  

What are the most valuable skills you gained from your Arts & Sciences education?

Undoubtedly, they are the skills of critical thinking and articulate expression. While not as specialized as other technical proficiencies that are common in STEM, my ability to rigorously analyze texts significantly deepens my comprehension and its interconnections with the world. This has also strengthened my ability to understand the complexities of other people, allowing me to better engage and understand my peers. This improvement in my engagement is further improved by the skills of articulating my words, both vocally and in writing, which are invaluable for building and maintaining the various relationships I have with my peers and faculty. Because of these skills, I have not only grown academically but also as an effective communicator.

Who or what influenced your Cornell education the most?

The many political discussions and debates that I had with my friends and speaking guests in CPU, and within its caucuses, certainly impacted my education the most. From these discussions, I learned a myriad of concepts that I never came across in the classroom, intriguing me enough to research them later. These experiences, and the knowledge gained from them, often complimented what I learned in the classroom, and sometimes informed the assignments I would submit to these classes. Ultimately, the informal education that I received beyond my formal one truly enriched my learning experience.

If you were to offer advice to an incoming first year student, what would you say?

Explore. Explore as much as possible during to discover your niche. Of course, you may not find it at first, or you may grow beyond it, but the experiences and connections that can be made from the breadth of your opportunities at Cornell will always yield dividends. You may never again be in an environment similar to that of Cornell for such a long time, so take advantage of these opportunities while you can.

Every year, our faculty nominate graduating Arts & Sciences students to be featured as part of our Extraordinary Journeys series.  Read more about the Class of 202 4.

Reynolds Foundation commits $1.25M to fund Brooks School initiatives

BTPI will research relationship between Bitcoin and financial freedom

New research initiative tackles pressing global development issues

Ghosh to lead Cornell’s Society for the Humanities

• Recommended

Generation Z and implications for medical education

Many Baby Boomers have been quick to point out that 2024 is not 1968. When students  occupied buildings at Columbia University 56 years ago, at least their objectives were clear – to put an end to the Vietnam War. Do students today who have camped out at Columbia, and a multitude of universities across the U.S. and disrupted graduation ceremonies want to end the war between Israel and Hamas, or are they advocating for antisemitic policies and the destruction of Israel?

Student protestors need much more clarity about their goals. They seem to have forgotten that the war started after the Hamas-led attack on Israel killed some 1200 people, most of them civilians. Perhaps they do not understand that you can be an ally to Palestinians while continuing to advocate for peace, security, and self-determination without dehumanizing or stereotyping Israelis and Jews. Likewise, it is possible to be an ally to Israelis while continuing to advocate for peace, security, and self-determination without dehumanizing or stereotyping Palestinians, Muslims, and Arabs.

The differences between ethnicities and races and, equally important, between generations – the Baby Boomers and Generation Z – extend far beyond politics and ideology. Most college students and many graduate students are Gen Zers – individuals born between 1997 and the early 2010s (there is some debate as to where to place the cutoff – 2010, 2011, or 2012). Many will not be able to remember a time before smartphones and social media; hence, Gen Zers have also been dubbed the iGeneration. (Generation Alpha, born between the early 2010s and 2024, is the first to fully access technological advancements.)

Generation Z makes up  a fifth of the U.S. population. It is the most diverse generation in history in terms of race, gender, and sexual orientation. Environmental, social, and governance practices with a focus on sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are critically important to this generation, colloquially known as “Zoomers.” Gen Z individuals undoubtedly bring unique challenges and opportunities to the domain of education and medical education in particular.

As digital natives, Gen Z students have an inherent understanding of technology, using it for learning, information gathering, and communication from a young age. This familiarity with technology suggests that traditional lecture-based teaching may not be as effective. Instead, a shift towards more interactive, technology-driven educational methods, such as online platforms, virtual simulations, and digital anatomy tools, may be required.

Research shows that Generation Z’s attention span is considerably shorter than that of their predecessors – even compared to  goldfish  – possibly due to their regular interaction with quick, concise information through social media and other digital platforms. These findings imply that medical education may need to adopt more engaging, brief, and interactive teaching methods.

Generation Z tends to be visual learners, preferring images, videos, and infographics over traditional text-heavy materials. Medical educators should consider incorporating visual aids and multimedia resources to enhance learning retention and comprehension.

Authenticity and transparency in all matters, especially education, are highly valued by Gen Zers. They seek real-world relevance in their learning experiences. Medical educators should emphasize the practical application of knowledge, provide opportunities for clinical exposure and hands-on skills training, and foster open communication and collaboration between students and faculty.

Because Generation Z is the most diverse generation yet, a strong emphasis on inclusivity and social justice is welcomed in the teaching curriculum. Medical education should reflect this diversity and promote cultural competence, empathy, and awareness of social determinants of health to prepare future health care professionals to serve diverse patient populations effectively.

Generation Z is entrepreneurial and values creativity, innovation, and autonomy. Medical education can encourage entrepreneurial thinking by integrating courses on health care innovation, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills development, empowering students to drive positive change in health care delivery and research. Medical schools should strive to build partnerships with humanities and business departments in their parent universities and incorporate selective courses to complement basic science classes.

Generation Z students place a high value on personalization and expect their educational experiences to be tailored to their individual interests and career aspirations. This desire for customization further challenges the traditional structure and standardization of medical education. Therefore, medical schools might need to consider more flexible curricula and individualized learning pathways. The importance of extracurricular and community-building activities cannot be understated.

Another notable characteristic of Generation Z is their  higher levels of stress and anxiety compared to previous generations. Factors such as academic pressure, social media use, and contemporary global uncertainties could contribute to these mental health issues. Indeed, the unsettling war in the Middle East is perhaps a harbinger of the way future ethnic conflicts will play out and is all the more reason to make mental health resources available to students.

The stark reality, however, is that Generation Z has already faced stressors such as 9/11, school shootings, climate change, and a global pandemic. Thus, they are  more open about mental health issues  and seek support to address mental well-being. Medical education should prioritize the promotion of student wellness, resilience, and self-care practices, while also providing education on mental health assessment, intervention, and de-stigmatization.

As the Israel-Hamas war has demonstrated, growing up in a connected world means Generation Z has taken on a global perspective and special interest in global health issues. Medical education should, therefore, incorporate global health perspectives, cultural competency training, and opportunities for international experiences to prepare students for the realities of practicing medicine in an interconnected world. Residency programs should prepare doctors for locum tenens assignments to fill staffing gaps in underserved and war-torn areas.

As important as politics is to today’s current events, the debates and events that will ultimately shape Generation Z are likely yet to be known. What does seem clear, however, is that significant educational adjustments are required to meet the unique challenges of this generation as they consider a career in medicine. These can also be seen as opportunities for innovation and progress.

In summary, adapting medical education to meet the needs and preferences of Generation Z requires innovative approaches that leverage technology, active learning strategies, visual content, authenticity, diversity, and inclusion. By recognizing and responding to the learning preferences and needs of Generation Z, medical schools can enhance their educational curricula and better equip future physicians for the evolving health care landscape. However, if the issues leading to career dissatisfaction among current physicians are not resolved, it may be difficult to attract and retain the top performers from Generation Z.

Arthur Lazarus  is a former  Doximity Fellow , a member of the editorial board of the American Association for Physician Leadership, and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. He is the author of several books on narrative medicine, including  Medicine on Fire: A Narrative Travelogue  and  Narrative Medicine: Harnessing the Power of Storytelling through Essays .

From primary care to Team USA

TV medical school: where doctors don't need nurses and bullets heal themselves

Tagged as: Medical school

More by Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Why patient stories matter in medical decision-making

The impact of war trauma, the challenge of objectivity, and the power of therapy and storytelling in healing

The greatest story you never tell: It’s yours

Related posts.

The role of income in medical school acceptance

End medical school grades

Medical school gap year: Why working as a medical assistant is perfect

My high school was harder than my first year of medical school

Professionalism or depersonalization in medical school?

Promote a culture of medical school peer education

More in education, is it ever too late to attend medical school a nontraditional student shares her thoughts..

Honoring humanity: lessons from a medical encounter

Supporting migrant adolescents

Tips and tricks for presenting research at a medical conference as a premed, navigating post-match disappointment: what to do if you did not match.

Practicing patience with patients

Most popular.

Once a pillar, now in ruins: the state of primary care

911 call turned deadly: It’s time we invest in our community

The backboard bully: the roles we see can be all the difference in who we become

TV medical school: where doctors don’t need nurses and bullets heal themselves

The hidden dangers of mislabeling pain patients: a medical crisis

Big pharma ignores low-cost migraine solution

Past 6 months.

Health care in turmoil: costs, shortages, and pandemic strains

We are all concierge doctors now

Venture-backed telemental health care companies are creating a new opioid epidemic

Your A+ in anatomy and physiology won’t improve the American health care system 

Medicine’s struggle for inclusivity

Gender bias is pervasive within state medical board official documents and websites

Recent posts.

Rethinking postpartum mental health [PODCAST]

Breaking the stigma with science

Mastering prompt engineering to elevate AI in clinical practice

Clean drug paraphernalia in harm reduction [PODCAST]

Health insurers are ignoring price transparency rules at the expense of private practice

Subscribe to kevinmd and never miss a story.

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.

Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

CME Spotlights

Leave a Comment

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy .

Microsoft and OpenAI launch Societal Resilience Fund

May 7, 2024 | Teresa Hutson - Corporate Vice President, Technology for Fundamental Rights

• Share on Facebook (opens new window)
• Share on LinkedIn (opens new window)
• Share on Twitter (opens new window)

Today, Microsoft and OpenAI are announcing the launch of a $2 million Societal Resilience Fund to further AI education and literacy among voters and vulnerable communities. In a year when two billion people across the globe will vote in democratic elections, it is more important than ever to provide tools and information that will help people navigate an increasingly complex digital ecosystem and find authoritative resources.

Grants delivered from the fund will help several organizations, including Older Adults Technology Services from AARP (OATS) , the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) and Partnership on AI (PAI) to deliver AI education and support their work to create better understanding of AI capabilities. Together, we will promote whole-of-society resilience against the use of deceptive AI content.

The Societal Resilience Fund is a joint effort that follows through on public commitments that Microsoft and OpenAI have made via the White House Voluntary Commitments , and the Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in the 2024 Elections , in which we have committed to engage with a diverse set of global civil society organizations and academics and committed to support efforts to foster public awareness and all-of-society resilience. Our shared goals are to combat the growing risk of bad actors using AI and deepfakes to deceive the voters and undermine democracy.

Here is how some of our featured partners intend to use their grants:

• Older Adults Technology Services from AARP (OATS) will develop and deploy a training program focused on educating American adults 50-plus on foundational aspects of AI. This program will include in person as well as virtual trainings, access to guides designed specifically for this population, as well as special programs focused on supporting older Americans as they navigate a fast-changing and AI enhanced world.

“As AI tools become part of everyday life, it is essential that older adults learn more about the risks and opportunities that are emerging.  We are pleased to work with Microsoft and OpenAI on this vital project to make sure that older adults 50+ have access to training, information, and support—both to enhance their lives with new technology, and to protect themselves against its misuse.” – Tom Kamber, Executive Director, OATS from AARP

• The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) will launch an educational campaign aimed at providing clarity and awareness of the current landscape of digital disclosure methods and best practices. This campaign will create and distribute materials that explain what options currently exist, such as content provenance and watermarking, how they interact with and complement each other, and how end users should anticipate eventually engaging with these indicators. This effort will also seek to explain and drive awareness of the availability of content credentials .

“The C2PA is excited to partner on this critical step in elevating awareness of content provenance and promoting a healthy digital media ecosystem. This campaign is being built to inform and empower people so they can make informed decisions and navigate an increasingly complex digital world.” – Ray Lansigan, Marketing & Communications Chair, C2PA

• International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) will conduct global trainings to help foster public awareness and all-of-society electoral resilience to AI. The project will focus on empowering Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs), civil society, and media actors through training and dialogue. The goal is to equip these groups with the necessary skills and understanding to navigate the opportunities and challenges presented by AI.

“Electoral Management Bodies, media, and civil society play a critical role in protecting and preserving democratic institutions. We look forward to working with these communities around the world to enhance their awareness and understanding of AI and how it will impact the vital work that they do.” – Alberto Fernandez Gibaja, Program Head for Digitalization and Democracy at International IDEA

• Partnership on AI (PAI) will build on and enhance its groundbreaking Synthetic Media Framework . This framework was established to provide transparency about generative AI to audiences, to set best practice guardrails for safe and responsible AI development, and to widen the diversity of voices charting the future of AI innovation. This effort will support the AI and Media Integrity Program by updating and refining the Synthetic Media Framework, collecting use cases, and helping the field improve policies and practices for responsible synthetic media, including emergent mitigations.

“By bringing together diverse stakeholders who are creating, using, and distributing synthetic media, Partnership on AI aims to advance knowledge, action and transparency on the responsible use of AI. We look forward to our continued partnership with OpenAI and Microsoft and promoting accountability so that AI advances benefit people and society.” – Rebecca Finlay, CEO, Partnership on AI

The launch of the Societal Resilience Fund is just one step that represents Microsoft and OpenAI’s commitment to address the challenges and needs in the AI literacy and education space. The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) will be convening members of civil society and industry, including executives from OpenAI and Microsoft, tomorrow (May 8th, 2024) to discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Microsoft and OpenAI will remain dedicated to this work, and we will continue to collaborate with organizations and initiatives that share our goals and values.

Tags: AI , Defending Democracy Program , OpenAI , Responsible AI , Societal Resilience Fund

• Check us out on RSS

'Each subset of chemistry is fascinating and intriguing in its own way'

Julian Morales: Chemistry and Chemical Biology

A&S Communications

Julian Morales

Chemistry and Chemical Biology Hackensack, N.J.

What was your favorite class and why?  

Contrary to popular belief, the chemistry lab courses on the honors track have been my favorite and most enjoyable classes by far. With a strong focus on common practical applications of chemistry techniques, I’ve found that, from organic synthesis to analytical experimentation, each subset of chemistry is fascinating and intriguing in its own way. For each lab, it’s like following a well-made recipe from a cookbook, except the cookbook says to use some corrosive or toxic ingredients with caution.

What is your main extracurricular activity and why is it important to you? 

My time as a cadet in the Cornell Army ROTC program has been demanding, but extremely worthwhile. The unique challenges and change of pace from standard academic life create an extremely tight-knit community that I’m proud to be a part of, introducing me to my closest friends and best mentors. I’ve learned to hone my leadership abilities, develop critical problem-solving skills and become resilient through some of the hardest challenges I’ve faced. From carrying more than 50 pounds of equipment for miles in freezing temperatures to intensively planning program-wide training events, I’ve realized the importance of developing and improving your own leadership style to communicate effectively with others and accomplish a well-defined goal.

What have you accomplished as a Cornell student that you are most proud of?

My research with both the Hyster Group and the Chang Group in the chemistry department has been most important in my development as a scientist. The Hyster Group introduced me to the world of photoenzymatic catalysis for new synthetic methods, while the Chang Group has shown me new chemoproteomic ways of identifying enzymes in the human gut. Each group demonstrates that the world of chemistry is massive and ever evolving, with much of the work requiring an interdisciplinary skillset from other physical and life sciences. This skillset doesn’t come in the form of one researcher, but rather multiple individuals working together as a team. As an undergraduate researcher, I have found that I am still able to make worthy contributions to further chemical research, while absorbing as much information as I can to prepare myself for later graduate studies.

Who or what influenced your Cornell education the most?   

The close friends that I’ve made at Cornell have been most influential in my education, as they have provided the main support that’s allowed me to enjoy my time here with a busy schedule. These few come from all sorts of different schools at Cornell: Arts & Sciences, CALS, Dyson, ILR to name a few. Regardless, they’ve all been the best friends I could have ever asked for, showing me that you also need to be happy to be healthy and successful in your daily life.  

What are your plans for next year? 

I will be attending graduate school at UCLA to earn my Ph.D. in organic chemistry and continue my scientific journey. It'll be my first time ever going to the West Coast, so I'm certain it'll be a captivating experience. As well, I will begin my first assignment as a newly commissioned U.S. Army transportation officer in Los Angeles.

Every year, our faculty nominate graduating Arts & Sciences students to be featured as part of our Extraordinary Journeys series.  Read more about the Class of 202 4.

More News from A&S

Committee to recommend final expressive activity policy

American Sign Language has found a growing home on the Hill

Extraordinary Journeys: The Class of 2024

BTPI will research relationship between Bitcoin and financial freedom