Keywords

The world today is constantly transforming. International borders are fading as cross-cultural communication and economic interdependence is expanding. Accordingly, a shift in the concept of community is required. Nations as individual entities remain at the forefront of economic, political , and social constructs; however, an understanding of the grander global landscape is mandated within the transformational experience of the twenty-first century world. With this colossal charge comes a need to explore the idea of globalization and how this concept impacts the education of future citizens of a more global society.

The idea of globalization is complex and layered with wide-ranging definitions and emphases. Positions of varied scholars present the concept as a catalyst for the development of global capitalism or universal consumerism (Agbaria, 2009; Friedman, 1999). Others critically illuminate the impact of an expanding global community on culture and the environment (Agbaria, 2009; Sklair, 2001); however, the most dominant narrative regarding globalization is driven from an economic perspective in which profit, competition, and efficiency steer decision making (Noddings, 2005; Pike, 2008).

Throughout history, education has mirrored the needs of society. In the current context of global community building, one might concur that the American education system reflects this economically driven doctrine. The “Space Race ” of the past has seemingly been replaced by educational policies that support a “Race to the Global Marketplace.” As such, organizations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the ExxonMobil Foundation (The Foundation Center, 2012) generously fund curricula focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics much to the detriment of the more liberal arts curricula. The quieting of social studies, fine arts, and some aspects of language arts has jeopardized the development of a fully holistic learner (Fitchett & Heafner, 2010; National Council for the Social Studies [NCSS], 2013b; Sabol, 2010). The loss of these curricular areas significantly limit the development of key components of citizenship education including, but not limited to critical thinking, interpersonal skills, and adaptability to changing environments. It is important to note that the absence of these imperative dispositions does not bode well for preparing a world population readied to face the global challenges of this age. To undertake such challenges, a deepened level of citizenship is required. Most recently, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) has generated the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards , a paradigm that encompasses disciplined inquiry, critical investigation, and the practice of informed action within communities (NCSS, 2013b).

The challenge of the time is the expansion of the role of national citizen to citizen of the world. The most logical forum in which this transformation occurs is within the social studies classroom. According to the National Council for the Social Studies [NCSS ] (2010), the foundational purpose of the social studies curricula is, “to help young people develop the ability to make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world” (p. 3). The newly adopted C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards (2013b) extends this curricular goal by affirming that,

Advocates of citizenship education cross the political spectrum, but they are bound by a common belief that our democratic republic will not sustain unless students are aware of their changing cultural and physical environments: know the past: read, write, and think deeply; and act in ways that promote the common good. (p. 5)

To date, citizenship education has been focused, appropriately, at the national level; however, the content-segregated approach to the social studies has, in most cases, presented a fragmented view of the world (McJimsey, Ross, & Young, 2001). This approach is incomplete and serves little in the preparation of members of a global society armed with the intellectual and affective qualities required in the current complex world.

To combat this challenge, the authors of this chapter advocate the urgent need to rethink current elementary teacher education programs so that they more purposefully empower the next generation. To ground the ideas presented in this chapter the authors define, globalization as the interdependence and connectedness of the human condition. This definition is expansive in nature and includes all and everything that impacts humanity, including the economic health of societies, access to human rights, and treatment of the planet. This echoes Banks (2008) assertion that, “Globalization effects every aspect of communities , including beliefs, norms, values, and behaviors, as well as business and trade” (p. 132). In the end, globalization should move beyond the mere expansion of the economic marketplace and place the conditions of humanity at the forefront.

Such an enormous undertaking requires a new mindset. McIntosh (2005) reminds us that global citizenship includes qualities that “have to do with working for and preserving a network of relationships and connections across lines of difference and distinctness, while keeping and deepening a sense of one’s own identity and integrity” (p. 23). The skills required for this balancing act between self and other are shared; however, a deep and rich “perspective consciousness” must be nurtured (Anderson, 2001; Hanvey, 1982). This is say that global citizenship necessitates interwoven, layered narratives. From this foundation, the habits of mind required of a global citizen are birthed, inspired by Hanvey’s Five Dimensions of global perspective, the authors articulate the habits of mind to be:

  • Awakedness: Heightened sense of consciousness that illuminates the existence and complexities of the interconnections across cultural boundaries and actions that impact the common good.

  • Broad-mindedness: Willingness to see and hear ideas removed from one’s personal paradigm.

  • Innate contemplation: Deep reflection as a natural, initial instinct.

  • Critical conviction: Deep-seated belief that is open to analytical exploration and possible evolution.

The construct of the ideas presented in this chapter are rooted in these dimensions; however, the belief of the authors is that this task is too complex and grandiose to accomplish within the confines of a single social studies classroom. The reality, as has been previously mentioned, is that social studies instruction continues to be marginalized within the elementary school setting. Within this reality, innovation is required. The message of this chapter asserts teacher education programs rethink current curricular frameworks and philosophies to reflect the integration of elementary content that cultivates the elements of a critically engaged global citizen of the twenty-first century. The authors advocate that an avenue toward this goal lies within in the design and implementation of a social studies/language arts integrated, elementary pedagogy founded in the essential literacies aligned with a globally conscious citizen.

Literacies Required of a Globally Conscious Citizen

Literacy is commonly defined as the basic ability to read and write (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). While current trends indicate a proliferation of the tag word “literacy” across academic fields (e.g. Digital Literacy), the authors surmise a need to articulate a new definition-one that encompasses a more critically synergistic treatment of the term. As such we define literacy as the ability to critically recognize, think, investigate, communicate, and advocate each of which are integral parts of the elements of global citizenship (Fig. 6.1).

Fig. 6.1
figure 1

Global Citizen art rendering by David Moya

Full size image

The course design explored within this chapter is grounded in the concepts of critical literacy and pedagogies that awaken teacher candidates to inequalities and injustices in curricula and schools – a task that is inseparably from the four habits of mind required of a global citizen (Cochran-Smith, 2009; Wade, 2007). Course content is built upon the following identified literacies that are explained through examples of practice within the chapter.

Literacies include:

  • Critical Literacy – The ability to read with a critical eye is the power that fuels a citizenry readied to pose hard questions, analyze problems and solutions, and unearth the need for action.

  • Civic Literacy – Democracy is based on the voice of the people. It is imperative that “we the people” are informed, participatory advocates empowered to question and right inequities.

  • Cultural Literacy – Cultural literacy is the ability to honor the voices of cultures and their interconnectedness.

  • Digital Literacy – Requires the aptitude to access, apply, evaluate, integrate and synthesize varied digital tools and resources.

  • Collaborative Literacy – Fosters participation in interactive, collaborative contexts.

  • Problem-Solving Literacy – Moves beyond seeking the right answer and seeks innovative and divergent solutions to problems.

  • Literacies in Action – Promote an inspiration to action in order to facilitate change at the local or global level.

The authors contend that collectively, these literacies provide a channel through which the ideas and concepts of both the C3 Framework (NCSS, 2013b) and the Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010) integrate to develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities required of a critically thinking citizen of action. The C3 Framework (2013b) “elevates the purpose of literacy to be in the service of academic inquiry and civic action” (p. xxiii). This aligns directly with the authors’ proposed seven literacy construct as delineated in this chapter. Further support is echoed in the need for these “essential literacies” within the Common Core State Standards in which they, “specifically encourage depth of knowledge and higher order thinking, which is sorely needed in social studies, in contrast to the current tendency to favor breadth over depth, or factual minutia over understanding” (NCSS, 2013b, p. xxi). This statement is illustrative of the authors’ underlying intent to structure an elementary methods experience in literacies that encourages the habits of mind of independent, critical, reflective, and action-driven members of society. The focus of literacy, as defined by the authors and supported within the C3 and CCSS guidelines, illuminates the expansion of the disciplinary literacy in social studies, an interdisciplinary instructional approach, and the application of knowledge in real-world settings (NCSS, 2013b).

Critical Literacy

According to Coffey (2008), “Critical literacy is the ability to read text in an active and reflective manner in order to better understand, inequality, and injustice in human relationship” (p. 1). This imperative construct impacts K-16 education by commanding the integration of innovative and more in-depth approaches to literacy instruction. From this perspective, critical literacy is not a set of teaching skills or strategies, but a mindset (Mulcahy, 2011). This approach includes four dimensions: “disrupting the commonplace, interrogating multiple viewpoints, focusing on sociopolitical issues, and taking action and promoting social justice ” (Lewison, Seely Flint, & Van Sluys, 2002, p. 382).

Critical literacy expands learners’ abilities to unearth the constructed narratives that inundate the national and global contexts. This ability requires learners to fine-tune their vision of the world of texts and language by exposing, questioning, and deconstructing the voices of the status quo. Friere and Macedo poetically state, “Reading the word entails reading the world” (in Luke, 2012, p. 5). Inseparable from this critical readership is the capacity in which learners must embrace the belief that the world is riddled with multiple layers of “truth,” challenging them to engage in deep exploration of multifarious perspectives (Lewison et al., 2002; Mulcahy, 2011). As educators guide young learners to look beyond themselves, critical literacy can be a catalyst for the discovery of the grander power structures and institutions that socialize and influence individuals within a society. In combination, these practices provide the hope that learners will be inspired to act with the intent of exposing and transforming acts of injustice. Freire (1970/1992) articulates this as praxis – the transformation of the world through critically conscious reflection and critically informed action.

Teacher Educators are challenged to dispel the common notion that such approaches are “too difficult” for elementary learners. Readying the next generation of educators to teach critical literacy requires exposure to learning experiences that incorporate these ideas in ways that are both practical and transformative. In an integrated methods course , the constructs of critical literacy may manifest in simple ways or more complex ways. Considerations for possible learning activities may include:

  • Classroom Library Study

    Teacher candidates are required to construct a classroom library that reflects the complexions, voices and experiences of a specific elementary classroom. This is accomplished by candidates’ critical analysis of an existing classroom library. This process involves examination of what is present and absent, as well as what should be included. Candidates support library selections through the construction of an annotated bibliography that justifies the inclusion of selected titles and how they might incorporate them into the social studies instruction. This activity is easily modified in contexts that are removed from actual field experience s . Instructors can pose hypothetical classroom demographics and access to public or school libraries to accomplish the same goals.

  • Active Voices

    In an attempt to model “writing with purpose” that personally connects with students’ interests, experiences, and realities, candidates will engage in the authorship of a children’s book that illuminates issues of social justice . Candidates begin by journaling about a time when they personally experienced or witnessed discrimination (Early, 2006). Using an electronic media tool such as Storybird (storybird.com), candidates will compose a 15-page picture book to be integrated into a social studies/language arts standards -based lesson. This project can be easily inspired by children’s literature focused on efforts to combat injustices and evoke change.

  • Words are Power

    Language is power. It can be inclusive or exclusive. To awaken candidates to this notion, teacher educators may create learning activities that encourage the critical interrogation of the language of commonly used school discourse, such as The Pledge of Allegiance. Walter Parker (2007) emphasizes this point by stating, “recitation without interpretation is like fishing in a dry lake” (p. 71). The dissection of the language of any document or academic vernacular with the school curriculum initiates accessibility to the language itself as well as the essence of its meaning. (An excellent example of this can be found in Mary Cowhey’s (2006) book, black ants and buddhists, pp. 219–221.)

Civic Literacy

Historically, the American education system has been the epicenter of citizenship development (NCSS 2013a, 2013b). Education in America has evolved over time. We have progressed through “eras” of philosophy that were deeply influenced by the zeitgeist of the period; however, regardless of the focus, the ultimate goal of schools was to produce Americans readied to move the country toward the dream of that age in history. In short, citizenship education parallels the national landscape in which it is occurring (Graham, 2005). In a country that depends upon an informed “we the people,” the ideal of democracy is hinged upon the education of the individual (NCSS, 2010). Holistically, the schoolhouse is ideally a place where the youth of America begin to experience democratic ways of being. More specifically, the social studies classroom can be the home of focused exploration of the ideals, practices, and skills of a civically-minded person; however within the current educational landscape the attention to this imperative has begun to erode (NCSS, 2013a; NCSS, 2013b). Teitelbaum (2011) states, “… civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions has withered in the midst of the panic for increasing reading and mathematics test scores and preparation of the workplace” (p. 16). The authors contend that within the current global landscape, critical civic literacy must be urgently taught across the disciplines because it is irrevocably intertwined with role of global citizen .

According to Westheimer and Kahne (2004) citizenship can be framed within three typologies: (1) Personally Responsible Citizen ; (2) Participatory Citizen; and (3) Justice-Oriented Citizen. The distinction of each of the roles is aligned to the scope of involvement of an individual. Personally Responsible citizens fulfill the “distant” roles of participation, to include paying taxes, voting, and supporting charities. At the next level, a participatory citizen “moves closer” to civic activities; campaigning for a candidate in a political campaign or organizing a charity event. The Justice-Oriented citizen seeks a more systemic action focused on issues of equity and justice advocating for change. At the basic level, civic literacy means being learned in the knowledge, skills and dispositions of socio-political processes, issues, and patterns. More deeply defined, a civically literate individual utilizes civic knowledge to become an actively-engaged citizen (Teitelbaum, 2011). Within this framework critical civic literacy lives through Participatory and Justice-Oriented citizens; therefore, it is our charge as teacher educators to facilitate learning experiences that cultivate these levels of citizenship. The foundational approach to achieve this endeavor in the classroom could look like:

  • Stances for Change

    To extend beyond the disposition of a Personally Responsible citizen , teacher candidates need to experience opportunities that allow them to transfer the “knowing” of civic ideals and responsibilities to the “doing” of actively-engaged citizen. The ultimate goal of such a stance is the development of a strong civic efficacy, the result of which is the empowerment of an individual who is critically convicted to enact change within the local, national, and/or global community . In a methods course , this action-oriented mindset can be expressed through the creation of issue-based projects in which teacher candidates: (1) identity an issue that compels change, as inspired by an observed learning community need; (2) research the identified need including data gathering and analysis; and (3) create an action plan to be presented to stakeholders who can impact the desired change. The design of such an activity must be grounded in what Serriere (2014) refers to as the “curriculum for life,” which centers curriculum on the passions and experiences of the learner.

Cultural Literacy

Historically, the concept of cultural literacy has been attributed to the scholar, E. D. Hirsch, who defines it as the learning of an American canon of knowledge (Hirsch, 1988). This frame is exclusive and possesses no connection to the idea of expanding the cultural awareness and interconnectedness required of a learner who is culturally literate in this global age; therefore the authors reclaim this term as the learners’ ability to be able to hear and honor the voices of all cultures, and seek out the interconnectedness, both visible and invisible, across cultural borders.

Erickson (2007) suggests that culture is a “human toolkit,” allowing the navigation of the many cultural contexts one may inhabit. It is a layered notion in which individuals can hold membership within varied cultural communities , increasing the complexity of their cultural identity . These multi-dimensional affiliations provide avenues for meaningful, cross-cultural connection and understanding. The possible blurring of cultural distinctions, coupled with the technology-rich world in which learners can be connected with the click of a button to others beyond their immediate contexts, requires a substantive approach to teaching culture. This instantaneous access to the vast array of cultural communities around the world dictates that learners’ possess a knowledge base regarding culture that moves beyond the typical, superficial cultural show and tell (Kirkwood, Shulsky, & Willis, 2013). The habits of mind compulsory for this deepened approach to cultural learning includes the abilities to: (1) zoom out from one’s personal cultural vision to incorporate larger contexts (e.g. my world to the world beyond my town, state, nation); (2) develop a perspective consciousness that enables understanding of different viewpoints as driven by cultural beliefs and norms; (3) analyze cross-cultural similarities and differences; and (4) navigate unavoidable cultural clashes with positive and productive results (Merryfield, 2010; NCSS, 2010). Learning grounded in the cultivation of these thinking routines aligns with the purpose of the National Council for the Social Studies standard on Culture which articulates, “By recognizing various cultural perspectives, learners become capable of understanding diverse perspectives, thereby acquiring the potential to foster more positive relations and interactions with diverse people within our own nation and other nations” (NCSS p. 26).

For many teacher candidates their own cultural education has been taught through a “textbook journey” of compartmentalized continents. These disjointed cultural tours often include “cultural sound bytes” of exotic and well-known facts about a country and the unique customs of the people residing there. This approach fails to make connections across cultures and dishonors the diversity of many cultures across the globe calling teacher educators to find more meaningful ways in which to model more authentic cultural experiences that shape the mindset of global citizens (Kirkwood et al., 2013). Ideas in how this can be done may include:

  • Interplanetary Intercultural Investigative Team:

    Open the classroom door to the world through Web-Cams (e.g. Earth Cam http://www.earthcam.com/). View distant locales that allow learners to observe the world in real-time. After teacher candidates explore assigned or varied locales they will, from the perspective of someone from another planet, generate queries, observations, and assumptions about the culture of the place . Research will then be done that includes a cultural and historical profile of the place. As members of the Interplanetary Investigative team, candidates will compose a narrative that incorporates the place as the setting and the profile as the inspiration for the plot, character development, etc., with the goal of teaching the children of their home planet about the culture of the place the team explored.

  • Read Aloud Podcasts:

    Build a partnership with another teacher education class removed from your state/province/region. Candidates create a podcast that integrates reading stories that present cultural insight into teacher candidates’ individual culture or the local culture in which the college resides.

Digital Literacy

Digital literacy can be defined as “…the awareness, attitude, and ability of individuals to appropriately use digital tools and facilities to identify, access, manage, integrate, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize digital resources, construct new knowledge, create media expressions, and communicate with others, in the context of specific life situations, in order to enable constructive social actions and to reflect upon this process” (Martin & Grudziecki, 2006). This complex definition clearly aligns with the global perspective of a content-integrated curriculum espoused by the authors, as they unequivocally advocate the need for strong critical, digital literacy skills required of the new generation of citizen .

The essence of digital literacy is fundamentally dependent upon one’s ability to productively traverse and interact with the ever-expanding information highway; however, closely related to and, essentially, interconnected with such digital competence is the concept of media literacy. While this latter construct was not initially the primary focus of this section of the chapter, its synchronous relationship with digital literacy forces its acknowledgement as yet another twenty-first century skill that is needed for living and working in “media- and information-rich societies” that are responsible for nurturing and shaping global citizen (Hobbs, 2010). While digital literacy encompasses more the personal, technological, and intellectual skills that are needed to live and succeed in a digital world, media literacy is more aligned with a critical investigation of the multimodal forms of mass media. While this process encompasses digital technologies, it also includes an acknowledgement of individuals as both producers and consumers of media content, with an accompanying understanding of the resulting social, political , and cultural shifts that ultimately occur (Hobbs). Since both of these constructs are still relatively new, particularly to the educational landscape, definitions and interpretations continue to evolve; nevertheless, the notion of critical literacy continues to be deeply embedded in this conjoined mindset.

When considering what digital (and media) literacies look like in the teacher education classroom, one primary consideration is the fact that today’s K – 16 classrooms tend to be populated more with “digital natives” than “digital immigrants” (Prensky, 2001). As such, the traditional forms of instruction (e.g., lecture and “skill-drill-kill”) must be replaced with more relevant, engaging, and real-world learning activities that could include:

  • Meaningful Use of Technology

    Although, a majority of teacher candidates today are digital natives, it cannot be assumed that they can identity and meaningfully integrate appropriate technology into the elementary curriculum. Candidates require exposure to activities that illuminate the vast array of web-based tools and applications that can be utilized to more successfully reach the digital native within their future classroom. To accomplish this, candidates will research and select a current educational technology application and design an electronic bulletin board using Glogster (http://edu.glogster.com/) that presents a description of the selected tool accompanied by a social studies standards -based classroom activity that utilizes language art content.

  • Dissecting Media

    The current generation is bombarded with massive amounts of media in a variety of forms. Teacher candidates must be exposed to activities that require the critical examination of this wide array of media, which includes print, visual, and digital formats (e.g. newspapers, television/film, and websites, respectively). Varied activities for each of these categories consist the analysis of a current event from varied perspectives (print media), critical exploration of hidden messages within popular children’s movies and television shows (visual media), and analysis of varied web-based content for validity and perspective of the source (digital media).

Problem-Solving Literacy

The population of the world is growing, natural resources are diminishing and technological advancements are posing grander possibilities alongside complex questions. Such global developments provide clues to the complexity of future problems. Sir Ken Robinson reminds us that challenges ahead will be “really new, and we’re going to need every ounce of ingenuity, imagination, and creativity to confront these problems (Azzam, 2009, p. 23). Accordingly, twenty-first century problem-solving will be more cognitively demanding due, in part, to the cross-curricular, multifaceted content and more complex learning contexts encountered in the new era of globalization.

Trends in some educational settings report the narrowing of curricula, which, in turn, places creative thinking at risk (Berliner, 2011). With this as a possible reality, teacher educators are called to move beyond the traditional classroom activity of merely seeking the right answer and forge ahead toward the creation of learning environments that integrate and incorporate real-world, problem-solving opportunities. The National Research Council states, “As the need for skilled problem-solvers is constantly growing, the educational capacity to prepare students for the workforce of the global society has largely remained the same” (as cited in Antonenko, Jahanzad, & Greenwood, 2014, p. 79). According to a recent report in American School and University (2013), students today require more experience in real-world problem solving—a mandatory 21st century skill—in order to effectively deal with the demands and pressures of the global age and become successful, contributing, and productive members of society. In response to this “gap” between the need for able, creative problem-solvers and existing pedagogy, the authors contend that it is the responsibility of the teacher educator to spearhead change by providing teacher candidates with the knowledge, tools, and experiences required to facilitate this demanded instructional transformation.

While multiple sources (Antonenko et al., 2014; Marzano, 2014), have proposed models designed to guide students through the problem-solving process, the essential elements of each tend to be similar: (1) assess the “lay of the land” in order to determine any imbalance; (2) identify the problem or issue to be addressed; (3) consider the possibilities toward resolution and ascertain the preferable result; (4) determine a plan of attack or course of action; (5) set the plan in motion; and (6) evaluate the outcome and determine subsequent action. One such framework that meets these requirements and goals is Project Based Learning (PBL), a student-driven, teacher-facilitated inquiry approach to education in which learners pursue knowledge by asking questions that have piqued their natural curiosity (Bell, 2010). Given the real-world focus to create independent thinkers and learners, many inquiries are science-based or originate from current social problems and include reading, writing, and/or math by nature, thus resulting in an inherent “fit” for the content-integrated classroom.

Problem solving as a literacy is innate within the more content-rich literacies (e.g. civic literacy). It is the vehicle by which learners are continuously immersed in thinking through complex issues and designing creative solutions and/or actions. As such, many, if not all of the ideas of practice explored thus far in this chapter can be viewed as exercises in developing the habit of creative problem solving. An example of an activity that builds teacher candidates’ inter-curricular problem-solving abilities is

  • Teaching Dilemma Action Plan

    Teacher candidates will: (1) identity a teaching dilemma (from the field) regarding instruction in social studies/language arts and pose a research wondering; (2) research current literature to gain knowledge and resolutions to their query; (3) create a plan of action based on the new learning and insights from literature; (4) implement the plan; (5) collect data relevant to the plan; and (6) reflect on the outcome of the plan enacted.

Collaborative Literacy

In the face of the modern workplace, the next generation will be required to work not only as effective problem-solvers, but also, and often concurrently, in teams across physical and technological boundaries. This forces a new paradigm in how work is accomplished. Jerald (2009) states, “The biggest change in the American workplace is the massive increase in horizontal collaboration” (p. 14). Such collaboration places workers in teamwork situations that are both global and virtual requiring the abilities of self-management, autonomous action and effective, creative communication skills (Jerald). This demands the need for a shift in how education cultivates the skills of rich collaboration. For K-12 classrooms, such an endeavor warrants teaching methods that cultivate collaborative dispositions as its foundational methodology.

Across disciplines, the literature supports the need for collaborative, partnership alliances as evidenced through the Digital Learning Standards for Students (International Society for Technology in Education, 2007). Prensky, in his book Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning (2010), echoes this assertion when he shares responses from nearly a thousand students representing all economic, social, intellectual, and age strata worldwide as to what they desire from their public education experiences. Among the most telling responses were: (1) the opportunity to connect with peers around the world to express and share opinions and collaborate on projects; (2) the ability to make decisions and share control; and (3) the ability to follow their own interests and passions, using the “tools of their time,” to attain an “education that is not just relevant but real” (p. 2–3).

In order to create the desired collaborative school culture, it is imperative that teachers not only provide directives to this end, but also model and facilitate the process through their own teaching. According to Minkel (2013), students tend to pay more attention to what we do that what we say, thus emphasizing this profound truth: If we want students to collaborate, innovate, and problem-solve, we must model these skills through our own teaching and across content disciplines.

This notion of collaboration is clearly evidenced in the conceptual framework of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2011) as it describes the need for a complex collection of interrelated skills and identifies critical thinking and problem-solving, in conjunction with communication and collaboration, as vital to this process. Within this structure, the development of these skills is purposefully integrated throughout core content areas in ways that help students establish real-world relevance in their work—a characteristic identified above as central to motivation and learning. It is also important to note that teachers should not view the assimilation of collaborative dispositions as an additional content or supplementary curriculum component but rather as a skill set to be integrated and developed across all content curricula.

Teaching is a collaborative endeavor. Teacher candidates will be involved in grade-level teams, content departments and other faculty committees. A current paradigm within schools is the presence of Professional Learning Communities (PLC). Eaker, DuFour, and DuFour (2002) remind us that:

Schools that function as professional learning communities are always characterized by a collaborative culture. Teacher isolation is replaced with collaborative processes that are deeply embedded into the daily life of the school. Members of a PLC are not “invited” to work with colleagues; they are called upon to be contributing members of a collective effort to improve the schools capacity to help all students learn at high levels. p. 5

Within this cooperative structure, teachers are placed in a context in which they must demonstrate the ability to self-manage, act autonomously, and practice effective communication skills. In order for teacher candidates to practice these skills, the integration of cooperative learning experiences throughout teacher education courses is vital. A specifically designed activity through which this may be emphasized is:

  • Simulated Team Meeting

    Given a scope and sequence for a specific grade level, teacher candidates will individually research and prepare possible content, activities and resources to be shared with a simulated grade-level team meeting. Within the time restrictions of an average elementary planning period (i.e. 30–45 min), candidates will collective share individual ideas and negotiate the content and design of curriculum to be taught. Final products will be a drafted outline of a collectively-designed, week-long unit of study.

The Roots: The Four Habits of Mind

Beyond the cultivation of these literacies lay the deep roots of the four habits of mind required of a critically engaged citizen . It is important to note that these habits of mind are consistently addressed within the context of the course design. The described activities in this chapter address each of the four habits in specific ways that support the C3 Framework , as well as the Common Core State Standards . These crucial elements, alongside the seven literacies, are foundational and deeply intertwined within the essence of the course and are embedded in all that we do. For transparency of thought, the authors review each of the habits of mind and briefly discuss how each habit “lives” within the course.

  • Awakedness: Heightened sense of consciousness that illuminates the existence and complexities of the interconnections across cultural boundaries and actions that impact the common good. The course is founded on this notion, making Critical Literacy the dominant literacy of the course. We spend an exorbitant amount of time exposing teacher candidates to the skills required of an “awake” reader of the world. We model language arts strategies that include close reading of text, video, and other authentic resources. Social studies curriculum is designed to seek the invisible voice in history and question the reasoning for the omission and inclusion of the participants of the mainstream social studies narrative.

  • Broad-mindedness: Willingness to see and hear ideas removed from one’s personal paradigm. To cultivate this habit of mind, we were challenged by the introspective nature of our teacher candidates. We consistently presented experiences that pushed learners to engage in discourse removed from their own experience (i.e. Dissecting Media/Digital Literacy). The selected readings of the course caused learners disequilibrium as they were forced to consider alternative interpretations of teaching, learning, and content. They were often faced with classmates that challenged their reasoning and viewpoints regarding curriculum decisions and course content. (i.e., What constitutes a controversial issue ?). Although these approaches are nothing new for teacher educators, our experience in the context of the integrated course was heightened. We surmise this was an effect of the continual focus on the literacies alongside the importance of the habits of mind that support them.

  • Innate contemplation: Deep reflection as a natural, initial instinct. The cultivation of this habit of mind was integrated through the transparency of our teaching and the rigor of our feedback on the reflective activities that are the basis of the course. Innate contemplation was inseparable from the course content and lies at the foundation of all learning experiences within the class – and difficult to authentically develop. The expectation of learners was to move beyond the trite treatment of habitual reflection and consistently pursue critical, evidence-based thinking (i.e. Teaching Dilemma Action Plan/Problem-Solving Literacy).

  • Critical conviction: Deep-seated belief that is open to analytical exploration and possible evolution. This habit serves as the oxygen of the course and is basis of learning. Teacher candidates are encouraged to step into the class readied to “try-on” the ideas and experiences of the course work. The persistent nature of relevant questioning from both instructors and fellow classmates required them to critically reason, consider and realign their beliefs and positionalities on varied topics (i.e. Reciting the Pledge and treatment of holidays). Civil discourse was modeled and demanded as a foundational skill of the course.

All of the examples of classroom practice presented in this chapter are grounded in the notion that if teacher candidates experience content-integrated courses designed around these proposed seven literacies and rooted in the four habits of mind, they can be emboldened to provide similar learning opportunities for their future students, thus cultivating the next generation of citizens readied to ardently face the complexities of the future.

It Takes a Village: Integration in the Elementary Classroom

The literacies required of global citizenship do not exist in a vacuum. That is to say that no one content discipline can, in isolation, profoundly develop the critical lens and skills required to be an actively engaged global citizen . Regrettably, this goal is threatened by the compartmentalization of content within the elementary school day. More specifically, social studies instruction, the foundational task of which is citizen development, is often sacrificed for content areas driven by standardized testing (Agarwal-Rangnath, 2013; NCSS, 2010). This practice causes the need to merge the essence of social studies content throughout other subject areas to insure the presence of the knowledge, skills and convictions of a critically literate individual. The belief of the authors is that this charge must start in the early years of the education of our children and innovative approaches must be generated in teacher education programs to this endeavor.

The marriage between social studies and language arts is a natural one as it provides rich opportunities for critical connection-building in young children (Agarwal-Rangnath, 2013; Melber & Hunter, 2010). This partnership moves beyond basic literacy instruction to empower children to critically question, think and act. In practice, this is not the mere reading of a historically based piece of literature at circle time. Likewise, it is not the regurgitation of grammatically correct responses to lower level questions. In an integrated model focused on the development of critical consciousness, literature is deeply dissected to discover inequities in voice, underlying assumptions, expressions of power and the cohesive nature of learning. The mechanics of writing are approached in real-world contexts with purpose and meaning, mirroring a more a constructivist approach that minimizes attention to the minutiae of the rules and mechanics of writing in favor of the experiential context provided by relevant writing experiences.

There is a strong case to be made for the integration of content within teacher preparation programs, specifically with respect to required instructional methods course work. Such interrelated constructs can strengthen the knowledge and skills that teacher candidates (i.e. pre-service teacher s ) learn in one content area and simultaneously allow them to practice those abilities in another content area, thus realizing the cross-curricular applications and real-world learning that takes place . More often than not, universities tend to favor a more traditional program track—one in which candidates take required courses in a more fragmented fashion and are then expected, during state-required field experience s and certification examinations, to be able to (1) apply what was learned in the university classroom to the K-12 classroom, and (2) to do so in a way that engages their students in relevant and meaningful learning experiences. Peterson et al. (1995) concluded that this type of track results in pre-service teachers’ disjointed encounters with methods instruction.

In order to provide a more integrated learning experience for elementary teacher candidates, the authors merged two independent methods course s (language arts and social studies) into one double-blocked methods class. The rationale for this non-traditional approach supports: (1) learning experiences that more meaningfully reflect the interrelated nature of the real-world; (2) inclusion of all content areas to combat restrictive curriculum mandates, especially regarding social studies; and (3) the development of complex thinking processes and requisite critical literacy skills required of a citizen of the world.

Rooting the Literacies

Roots of a global citizen grow from the development of a “perspective consciousness”—an awakening to multidimensional interpretations of the world (Hanvey, 1982). In the absence of this stance, citizens are void of the global awareness needed to take on the role of a Justice-Oriented citizen (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). The authors proposed vehicle for the development of such a consciousness occurs through the practice of the “elements of global citizenship ”—awakedness, broadmindedness, innate contemplation, and critical conviction. These roots cultivate the branches of literacy as defined in this chapter, namely Critical, Civic, Culture, Digital, Problem-Solving, and Collaborative literacies, which embody Literacies in Action.

Together and separately these literacies are irrevocably connected to the development of a consciously-aware global citizen ; however the potential impact of these literacies should prove to be more powerful when approached as a synergistic experience. Within the elementary setting, in which social studies (an often marginalized content area) is the primary platform for citizenship education , it is imperative that the next generation of educators embrace the idea of integrated curricula that include the literacies of a critically global citizen.

Literacies in Action for a Global Citizen

Treated as compartmentalized skills, the literacies explored in this chapter become nothing more than another “strategy,” thus defeating the “call to action” needed to address the complex challenges of globalization. The C3 Framework (NCSS, 2013a; NCSS, 2013b) reiterates this claim stating, “ Active and responsible citizens identify and analyze public problems; deliberate with other people about how to define and address issues; take constructive, collaborative action; reflect on their actions; create and sustain groups; and influence institutions both large and small”(p. 19). This quote embodies many of the literacies presented within the chapter, specifically critical, problem solving, collaborative, and literacies in action. The action of all of the literacies is inseparable from the four habits of mind that include an “awakedness” to problems, the broad-mindedness required of solution creation, an innate contemplation as they reflect on actions, and the critical conviction to act on their new learning.

Within the context of teacher education, the authors have presented ideas for the integration of reframed literacies as supported by the habits of mind of global citizenship . For the authors and in the context of teacher education, literacies in action is the translation of a literacies-infused methods experience into the K-6 classroom. The authors’ ultimate hope is that the manifestation of the essence of a course grounded in the literacies required of a twenty-first century global citizen inspires their students to be agents of change.