Giving Compass' Take:

• Teachers can utilize frameworks that explain the differences between global competence and cultural competence to help students understand the nuances. 

• Global competence focuses on looking outward to the world to gain further understanding, while cultural competence means looking inward at the classroom or workplace to learn how to communicate with and understand diverse cultural practices. Why are these differences significant for young people to learn? 

• Read more on how we define global and cultural competency. 

People assume that because my sons have grown up in a multilingual and multicultural home they are naturally culturally competent. They assume that because my sons have traveled with us around the U.S. and to a half-dozen foreign countries that they are naturally globally competent.

That may be partially true, but my reticence comes from the use of these terms. What do they mean?

I worked for more than two years as CEO of the Partnership for 21st Century Learning, focusing in my tenure on imbuing our Framework with new thinking around global competence.  We took a long, hard look at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) framework, which serves as the concept map for the 2018 assessment of global competence that is now part of the PISA battery.

The following global competencies comprise OECD’s four domains. Globally competent individuals:

  • Can examine local, global and intercultural issues
  • Understand and appreciate different perspectives and worldviews
  • Interact successfully and respectfully with others
  • Take responsible action toward sustainability and collective well-being.

The National Education Association (NEA) shifts the conversation to the classroom with its Diversity Toolkit: Cultural Competence for Educators. The NEA cultural competence framework is driven by a skill set that teachers can develop for the purpose of improving student success in diverse classrooms:

  • Valuing Diversity
  • Being Culturally Self-Aware
  • Dynamics of Difference
  • Knowledge of Students’ Culture
  • Institutionalizing Cultural Knowledge and Adapting to Diversity

The difference, it seems, is a matter of focus. Global competence prepares students and teachers to look outward to the world for inspiration and guidance and to bring those understandings back to the classroom or workplace. Cultural competence prepares teachers (mainly) and students to look inward toward the classroom or workplace and identify, understand, communicate and celebrate traditions, values and practices that can enrich the experiences of all.

Read the full article about global competence and cultural competence by David Ross at Getting Smart