Unit 4.

21st Century Literacies

Learning Outcomes:

1. Discuss global and multicultural literacy

2. Illustrate the Global Competencies Framework
3. Explain the dimensions of multiculturalism

A. Globalization and Multicultural Literacy

Multicutural Literacy

Multicultural literacy consist of the skills and ability to identify the creators of knowledge and
their interests (Banks, 1996) to reveal the assumptions of knowledge, to view knowledge from
diverse ethnic and cultural perspective, and to use knowledge to guide action that will create a
humane and just world (Boutte, 2008).

Multicultural literacy then, brings attention to diversity, equity and social justice to foster cultural
awareness by addressing difficult issues like discrimination and oppression towards other
ethnicities (Boutte, 2008).

Accordingly, education for multicultural literacy should help students to develop the 21st century
skills and attitudes that are needed to become active citizens who will work toward achieving
social justice within communities. Because of the growing racial, language and ethnic diversity
in the country, multicultural literacy needs to be transformed in substantial ways to prepare
students to function effectively in the 21st Century (Boutte).

Boutte (2008) reiterated that making small changes within the classrooms can create big
changes globally. As diversity grows, there is a need for the emergence of multicultural
education that is more representative of the students in today’s classrooms. Banks (2003)
asserted that teaching students to be advocates of multiculturalism is also a matter of sending a
message of empathy and tolerance in schools to develop a deeper understanding of others and
appreciation of different cultures. Developing these attitudes and skills requires basic knowledge
prior to teaching students how to question assumptions about cultural knowledge and how to
critique and critically thing about these important cultural issues, which is what essentially
makes multicultural literacy a 21st Century (Banks, 2003).

Global Literacy

Global literacy aims to address issues of globalization, racism, diversity and social justice (Guo,
2014). It requires awareness and action, consistent with a broad understanding of humanity, the
planet, and the impact of a human decision on both. It also aims to empower students with
knowledge and take action to make a positive impact in the world and their local community
(Guo, 2014).

According to the Ontario Ministry of Education (2015), a global citizen should possess the
following characteristics: (1) respect for humans regardless of race, gender, religion or political
perspectives; (2) respect for diversity and various perspectives; (3) promote sustainable
patterns of living, consumption, and production; and (4) appreciate the natural world and
demonstrate respect on the rights of all living things.

Interconnecting multicultural and global literacy. Every classroom contains students of

different races, religions and cultural groups. Guo (2014) averred that students embrace diverse
behaviors, cultural values, patters of practice and communication, yet they all share one
commonality, which is their educational opportunity.

Therefore, teachers should teach their students that other cultures exist and that these deserve
to be acknowledged and respected. Integrating a variety of cultural context into lessons and
activities teaches students to view the world from many angles, creates respect for diversity and
enables students to learn exciting information. As classrooms become increasingly more
diverse, it is important for educators to analyse and address diversity issues and integrate
multiculturalism information into the classroom curriculum (Guo, 2014).

The OECD Global Competence Framework

The framework depicts the four dimensions of global competence encompassing the
development of knowledge, values, attitude and skills that flow along parameters of attaining
such competency.

Global Competence

The desire to participate in interconnected, complex and diverse societies has become a
pressing need. Recognizing the roles of schools in preparing the youth to participate in the
world, the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) developed a
framework to explain, foster and assess students’ global competence. This design serves as a
tool for policymakers, leaders and teachers in fostering global competence among students
worldwide.

Global competence is a multidimensional capacity. Therefore, globally competent individuals

can analyse and rationalize local, global and intercultural issues, understand and appreciate
different perspectives and worldviews, interact successfully and respectfully with others, and
take responsible action toward sustainability and collective well-being (OECD publication).

Global competence refers to skills, values and behaviours that prepare young people to thrive in
a diverse, interconnected and rapidly changing world. It is the ability to become engaged
citizens and collaborative problem solvers who are ready for the workforce.

Promoting global competence in schools. Schools play a crucial role in helping young
people to develop global competence. They can provide opportunities to critically examine
global developments that are significant to both the world and to their own lives. They can teach
students how to critically, effectively and responsibly use digital information and social media
platforms.

Schools can encourage intercultural sensitivity and respect by allowing students to engage in
experiences that foster an appreciation for diverse peoples, languages and cultures (Bennett,
1993; Sinicrope, Norris and Watanabe, 2007). Schools are also positioned to enhance students’
ability to understand their place in the community and the world and improve such ability to
make judgements and take action (Hanvey, 1975 in PISA, 2018).

The Need for Global Competence

The following are the reasons why global competence is necessary.

1. To live harmoniously in multicultural communities. Education for global competence can

promote cultural awareness and purposeful interactions in increasingly diverse societies
(Brubacker and Laitin, 1998; Kymlicka, 1995; Sen, 2007). People with diverse cultures
are able to live peacefully, respect differences, first common solutions, resolve conflicts
and learn to live together as global citizens (Delors, et. al., 1996; UNESCO, 2014b).
Thus, education can teach students the need to address cultural biases and stereotypes.

2. To thrive in a changing labor market. Education for global competence can boost
employability through effective communication and appropriate behaviour within diverse
teams using technology in accessing and connecting to the world. (British Council,
2013).
 3. To use media platforms effectively and responsibly. Radical transformations in digital
technologies have shaped young people’s outlook on the world, their interaction with
others and their perception of themselves. Online networks, social media and interactive
technologies give rise to new concepts of learning, wherein young people exercise to
take their freedom on what and how they learn (Zuckerman, 2014).

4. To support the sustainable development goals. Education for global competence can
help from new generations who care about global issues and engage in social, political,
economic and environmental discussions.

Dimensions of Global Competence: Implications to Education

Education for global competence is founded on the ideas of different models of global
education, such as intercultural education, global citizenship education and education for
democratic citizenship (UNESCO, 2014a; Council of Europe, 2016a).

Despite differences in focus and scope, these models share a common goal of promoting
students’ understanding of the world and empower them to express their views and participate
in the society. PISA proposes a new perspective on the definition and assessment of global
competence that will help policy makers and school leaders create learning resources and
curricula that integrate global competence as a multifaceted cognitive, socio-emotional and civic
learning goal (Boix Mansilla, 2016).

This definition outlines four dimensions of global competence that people need to apply in their
everyday life just like students from different cultural backgrounds are working together on
school projects.

Dimension 1: Examine issues of local, global and cultural significance

This dimension refers to globally competent people’s practices of effectively utilizing knowledge
about the world and critical reasoning in forming their own opinion about a global issue. People,
who acquire a mature level of development in this dimension, use higher-order thinking skills,
such as selecting and weighing appropriate evidence to support arguments about global
developments. Most likely, globally competent students can draw on and combine the
disciplinary knowledge and thinking styles learned in schools to ask questions, analyse data and
propositions, explain phenomena, and develop a position concerning a local, global or cultural
issue. Hence, globally competent people effectively use and create both traditional and digital
media.

Dimension 2: Understand and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others

This dimension highlights that globally competent people are willing and capable of considering
other people’s perspectives and behaviors from multiple viewpoints to examine their own
assumptions. This in turn, implies a profound respect for and interest in others with their concept
of reality and emotions. Individuals with this competence also consider and appreciate the
connections that enable them to bridge in differences and create common ground. They retain
their cultural identity while becoming aware of the cultural values and beliefs of people around
them.

Dimension 3: Engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions across cultures

This dimension describes what globally competent individuals can do when they interact with
people from different cultures. They understand the cultural norms, interactive styles and
degrees of formality of intercultural contexts, and they can flexibly adapt their behaviour and
communication manner through respectful dialog even with marginalized groups. Therefore, it
emphasizes individuals’ capacity to interact with others across differences in ways that are
open, appropriate and effective.

Dimension 4: Take action for collective well-being and sustainable development

This dimension focuses on young people’s role as active and responsible members of society
and refers to individual’s readiness to respond to a given local, global or intercultural issue or
situation. It recognizes that young people have multiple realms of influence ranging from ranging
from personal and local to digital and global. Globally competent people create opportunities to
get engaged to improve living conditions on their communities and build a just, peaceful,
inclusive and an environmentally sustainable world.

The assessment strategy for global competence

The PISA 2018 assessment of global competence contribute development, while considering
challenges and limitations. It has two components (1) a cognitive test exclusively focused on the
construct of “global understanding”; and (2) a set of questionnaire items collecting self-reported
information on students’ awareness on global issues and cultures, skills (both cognitive and
social) and attitudes, as well as information from schools and teachers on activities that promote
global competence.

Curriculum for global competence: Knowledge, skills, attitudes and values

Schools can provide opportunities for students to explore complex global issues that they
encounter through media and their own experiences. The curriculum should focus on four
knowledge domains: (1) culture and intercultural relations; (2) socio-economic development and
interdependence; (3) environmental sustainability; and (4) global institutions, conflicts and
human rights. Teaching these four domains should stress on differences in perspectives,
questioning concepts, and arguments. Students can acquire knowledge in this domain by
reflecting on their own cultural identity and that of their peers by analysing common stereotypes
toward people in their community or by analysing related cases of cultural conflict. Acquiring
knowledge in this aspect is important in developing values, such as peace, respect, non-
discrimination, equality, fairness, acceptance, justice, non-violence and tolerance (OECD,
2018).
Skills to understand the world and to take action

Global competence builds on specific cognitive, communication and socio-emotional skills.

Effective education for global competence gives students the opportunity to mobilize and use
their knowledge, attitudes, skills and values together while sharing ideas on global issues in and
outside of school or interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds.

A school community that desires to nurture global competence should focus on clear,
controllable and realizable learning goals. This means engaging all educators to reflect on
teaching topics that are globally significant, the types of skills that foster deeper understanding
of the world and facilitate respectful interactions in multicultural contexts, and the attitudes and
values the drive autonomous learning and inspire responsible action (OECD, 2018).

Knowledge about the world and other cultures

Global competence is supported by the knowledge of global issues that affect lives locally and
around the globe, as well as intercultural knowledge, or knowledge about the similarities,
differences and relations among cultures. This knowledge helps people to challenge
misinformation and stereotypes about other countries and people, and thus, results in
intolerance and oversimplified representations of the world.

This can be done through the following strategies (OECD, 2018):

Perspective-taking refers to the cognitive and social skills of understanding how other people
think and feel.

Adaptability refers to the ability to adapt systems thinking and behaviours to the prevailing
cultural environment, or to situations and contexts that can present new demands or challenges.
INDIVIDUAL QUIZ

Direction: Read and analyse each item carefully. Choose and encircle the letter of the best
answer. Send your answers in MS Team Chat.

1. Which of the following learning outcomes best reflects an integration of multicultural and
global literacies?
A. Discuss multicultural concept and relate it to your personal experience
B. Create an artwork that depicts multicultural dynamics
C. Demonstrate care, respect and acceptance of classmates belonging to indigenous
group
D. Suggest ways in promoting multiculturalism and addressing conflict issues
Answer: C

2. Which of the following is directly a contrast of the concept of multiculturalism?

A. A staff who dislikes a certain food from the other region because if does not suit his
taste bud
B. A dean who refuses a student to enroll a subject that does not adhere to prerequisite
requirement
C. A student who does not prefer to have his education in a public school
D. A teacher who ignores students who cannot understand the lesson
Answer: B

3. In discussing a lesson on international conflict, Teacher E cites the Scarborough Shoal

dispute between China and Philippines and its economic implications to the region, the
national security and foreign relations. In this case, which dimension of global
competence is being addressed?
A. Examine local, global and international issues
B. Understand and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others
C. Take action for collective well-being and sustainable development
D. Engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions across cultures
Answer: B

4. Schools have become open to the idea of borderless global society. Which among the
following educational practices support the multicultural perspective towards
globalization?
I. Cultural Exchange Program
II. International School Partnership
III. United Nations Celebration
IV. International Conference on Peace Talks for Students and Teachers

A. I and II only
B. II and IV only
C. I, II and III
D. I, II, III and IV
Answer: D

5. Which traditional paper-and-pen test can be assess multicultural skills?

A. Identification. Write what is being asked in each item about the concept of
multiculturalism
B. Matching Type. Match the tribes in column A with the cultural practices and traditions
in column B. Write letters only.
C. Enumeration. List down 10 ways in sustaining cultural diversity amidst conflict crisis.
D. Essay. How can we show respect for diversity? Cite a personal experience that
brought you to an instance of conflicts due to differences and elaborate how you
managed the incident and processed respect

Answer: D