13 minute read
Global Engagement
Global Engagement: Creating Critical Connections
By Noreen Lidston and Meredith Bower
Our planet Earth is increasingly described as a global village as the lives of people across the world become connected in ways we never could have imagined even decades ago. Advancing technology and increasing travel opportunities allow us to see, hear, and experience how people around the world navigate their daily lives. Good communication and a deeper understanding of other cultures, combined with meaningful interactions with our global neighbors, can allow us to build respectful relationships and celebrate our similarities as well as our differences.
Through cocurricular programs and curriculum, McDonogh is dedicated to helping its students develop competencies that will enable them to not only understand the diversity and complexity of our world but to be ethical leaders in it.
McDonogh’s Director of Global Programs Hilary McDonough, who taught French and Spanish in the Upper School for 11 years, is responsible for spearheading an initiative to deepen students’ understanding of life in an interconnected world. As a result, she and a team of committed colleagues have developed the Global Engagement Program, designed to “create citizens ready to engage with people of different backgrounds, cultures, and ways of thinking” in order to prepare them to live and work in the global village that awaits them.
McDonough says, “While we can’t yet imagine all the careers our students will pursue, we do know that they will be leading in a variety of ways when they eventually enter the workforce. Having the opportunity to develop and perfect global competencies throughout their time at McDonogh will help ensure their ability to navigate the many settings in which they will find themselves.”
Dr. Kevin Costa, Director of Innovation and Learning, adds, "Global engagement is a critical component of LifeReady learning. Our students are living—and will go on to lead—in communities near and far. A McDonogh education must help them develop the ‘muscles’ needed to investigate the world, to seek a range of perspectives, to communicate effectively and nimbly across a range of domains, and to take meaningful action when the circumstances necessitate.”
While the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020 forced teaching online and paused travel plans and student exchanges, it also prompted teachers to imagine other ways of achieving the same goals. McDonough says, “Because so many of us around the world were at home, we started connecting virtually with schools abroad through language classes, clubs, and guest speakers. The pandemic taught us all how truly connected we were and are. It also shifted our overall approach and accelerated the explicitly globally-focused coursework in the Middle School and Lower School.”
McDonogh’s Global Engagement Program, which just completed its third year, is tailored to meet the needs and interests of students in prekindergarten through twelfth grade. In fact, the name of the program itself varies by division. Lower schoolers learn about Global Connections while middle schoolers examine Global Perspectives. In Upper School, students immerse themselves in Global Issues in various ways.
In each division, students learn and broaden their horizons through history, social studies, science, English, and world languages curricula. Coursework is enhanced by travel opportunities, student exchange visits, and other enriching experiences. By the end of their McDonogh journey, students have a greater perspective on the world and a better understanding of and appreciation for the people in it.
LOWER SCHOOL STUDENTS MAKE GLOBAL CONNECTIONS
Because young children often view the world as a place that is all about them, teachers in the earliest grades begin at the beginning. In a unit titled “Me on a Map,” created by Lower School Spanish and Global Connections teacher Maria Beteta, students learn more about themselves as individuals and where they are located on a world map. At the same time, they learn to respond respectfully when someone shares something unfamiliar.
Lower schoolers are also introduced to people and communities from across the world through engaging puzzles, flashcards, board games, books, videos, coloring pages, and comics. They happily participate in festive holiday celebrations, such as Lunar New Year, and cook and sample popular international dishes.
On the topic of food, a group of fourth graders describe their favorite desserts and compare them to similar treats in other countries. One student explains that sticky rice is served as a dessert in some places while another says she now knows that the chocolate in brownies comes from cocoa beans grown in Mexico.
Lower School classrooms are always on the itinerary of international visitors to McDonogh and are a place where meaningful connections are made. During the 2022-2023 school year, Lower schoolers welcomed guests from Germany and Japan as well as a surprise virtual visitor from Scotland.
As students progress through the Lower School, they are introduced to the language and the culture of Spanish-speaking countries. In their Global Connections and social studies classes, they acquire foundational geography skills as they learn to read maps, understand the Earth’s geographical features, and locate their countries of origin. Their worldview is broadened with age-appropriate lessons on the universal needs that connect all the world’s communities. “It has been gratifying to witness the excitement that engaging with the world can ignite in students of all ages,” says McDonough.
In April, Global Connections dovetailed with the character development unit on Understanding Global Citizenship. At a Lower School assembly, students shared their understanding of the most valuable lessons the Global Engagement Program has to teach—learning about the many different cultures and communities around the world; taking care of the Earth and the life on it; being a positive, inclusive, respectful, and humble leader; and listening to learn and making their voice heard for the good of all of the Earth’s communities.
MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS TAKE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
By Middle School, students have the capacity to compare and contrast their lives with those of others. They can consider how and why the lifestyles and circumstances of people—across town or across the world—differ from their own.
Specific lessons on Global Perspectives are part of the Middle School curriculum. Guided by Spanish teacher Ann Whitman, sixth graders consider how they see people in other parts of the world, how those people see us, and what commonalities they share.
Whitman aims to broaden their view by focusing on sports, a topic that tends to create unique allegiances and friendships, both locally and globally. After learning why soccer (known by most countries as football) is the most passionately loved sport around the world, they gave presentations on other popular pastimes including skiing (Switzerland), Vogelpiks or darts (Belgium), and the French sport of petanque (a form of lawn bowling) at which the students tried their hands (or feet) and found more challenging than anticipated.
The sixth-grade curriculum also focuses on food, a topic that goes beyond sampling different cuisine. Whitman explains, “Through the lenses of culture and global food issues, students learn about school lunches around the world and typical family food consumption. They examine questions of abundance, trade, resources, and climate as well.”
“It’s a big world out there,” says Whitman, “Global Perspectives helps our students prepare to find common ground, shared passions, and delightful surprises in the world that awaits them.”
Similar projects and experiences await eighth-grade students as well. Chinese teacher Xuan Weng partners with French and Spanish teacher Carly Perry to inspire students to explore the world beyond their immediate experience. Through the Global Perspectives curriculum, students conduct research and create passports with stamps representing each nation they explored as well as information about that country’s population, economy, geography, language, holidays, and sports/activities.
This year, the eighth graders communicated virtually with German students from Gymnasium Grootmoor in Hamburg, comparing and contrasting their daily lives. As they discussed their favorite sports, music, books, games, pets, and best places to travel, they discovered that, although they live on different sides of the Atlantic, their interests and activities are much the same. Dialogue such as this “empowers them and helps with relationship building—an important skill for the future,” says Weng.
Weng and Perry see numerous benefits of the Global Perspectives class from providing a place to explore and be curious about the world to understanding that people can have many different perspectives on the same topic.
Weng notes that long term, students have increased self-awareness, greater global citizenship skills, and a wider grasp of history and geography. “We also find that students strengthen their ability to advocate for the planet and the people living on it,” she says.
In addition to Global Perspectives, since 2016, seventh- and eighthgrade students studying French have had the opportunity to travel internationally to the Canadian Province of Quebec.
“One of the aims of this trip is to support the LifeReady goal of deep, collaborative, authentic learning,” says Jody Christophe, Middle School World Languages Department Chair. “We also want to encourage students to investigate the world. This trip adds to their excitement about learning an additional language, and, while in Canada during February, they develop a different perspective on weather and winter!”
UPPER SCHOOL STUDENTS EXAMINE GLOBAL ISSUES
Once students reach Upper School, they are able to grasp complex ideas and understand multiple perspectives on a single topic, make informed judgments about important issues, and take action in order to produce effective results. They are ready to tackle Global Issues.
Unlike the other divisions that have stand-alone courses, Global Issues is embedded in the Upper School experience in a variety of ways. Students may elect to enroll in coursework that will allow them to take a deeper dive into life in our interconnected world; participate in Global Dialogues with partner schools around the world; attend McDonogh’s Global Connections Conference featuring alumni studying and working internationally; or choose to join one of the school’s many global travel learning programs.
History teacher John Wood who offers the Senior Honors elective Vietnam and the Vietnam War Seminar, says that as students of history, “We want to be able to argue that we have put meaningful effort into reaching our conclusions through sound and honest use of sources while recognizing there is always more to learn. Historical evidence is contestable, and there is much more than a simple ‘two sides’ to each issue.”
English elective Memoir and Profile uses contemporary texts to explore global issues. This year, students read Elsewhere Home, a collection of short stories by Leila Aboulela, a writer who grew up in Sudan, began her literary career in Scotland, and uses her life experiences as the basis for her fiction. English teacher Rabiah Khalil enhanced the student experience by arranging a meeting with the author, collaborating with a high school in Brooklyn, New York, and ultimately visiting the United Nations with their peers.
Dozens of upper schoolers took advantage of Global Dialogues—a program that began with a connection between Hilary McDonough and alumnus Kristina delCarmen Compan ’86, an English teacher at Lycée Joseph Vallot in the South of France. Initially, their students met virtually through clubs and language classes, and over the past three years, the relationship evolved into an opportunity for students around the world to generate ideas for enacting change through online conversations. This year, more than 100 students from McDonogh and Joseph Vallot were joined virtually by a second French school as well as schools in Germany, Peru, and Senegal. They focused their conversations on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, paying particular attention to combating climate change and its impacts.
Together, the students explored and reflected on why progress on sustainable development is imperative, how they saw each goal progressing (or not) in their own experience, and how they might enact change to continue progress within their own communities.
Maggie Johnston ’25 and Elyse Scott ’25, whose interest has been piqued by the Global Dialogues Program, underwent training through the Global Education Benchmark Group (GEBG)—an international, nonprofit association of K-12 schools that researches and establishes model practices in global education—and became members of the Student Leadership Council. The two leaders also hosted “Coffee and Conversations,” an opportunity for their peers to discuss globally-oriented topics.
Maggie believes the most valuable aspect of Global Dialogues is the opportunity to “connect with people around the world and share opinions on topics that are relevant to us.” Elyse says she hopes to see the dialogues expand and eventually include in-person meet-ups. She adds, “They present a powerful opportunity for anyone interested in global relations.”
WHERE IN THE WORLD DID MCDONOGH CONNECT?
Meeting people from around the world has long been a part of McDonogh’s history. In the aftermath of the pandemic, robust travel and the opportunity to welcome visitors from around the world are rebounding. The school’s longest-running international exchange took off again in April, when a delegation of eight students and two teachers from Seijo-Gakuen High School in Tokyo, Japan, landed in Baltimore for a 12-day trip to McDonogh and the East Coast. The Japanese contingent visited classes in all three divisions, toured the region, and experienced daily life with their Upper School host families. History and social studies teacher Marilyn Boyle, who organized the exchange, calls it “life-changing,” saying, “It’s a wonderful experience all around. I know a lot of McDonogh students (from previous years) are still in contact with their Japanese friends!”
Several months later in June, under the guidance of Spanish teacher Laura Bayón and the language school MundoLengua, 17 upper schoolers, and their chaperones traveled to Cadiz, an ancient port city in the Andalucia region of southwestern Spain, where they lived with host families and attended language classes each morning. Afternoons were spent enjoying the city’s beautiful beaches and sailing on the Bay of Cadiz.
In 2024, the Japanese exchange will continue when eight students and two teachers from McDonogh stay with host families in Tokyo, visit Seijo-Gakuen High School, and sightsee. Plans are also being made for another group of upper schoolers to have their passports stamped when they visit their French friends from Lycée Joseph Vallot.
At the end of the 2022-2023 school year, before students in each division headed out for summer break, they were given the opportunity to enjoy tailormade global experiences. The schoolwide Passport to Learning featured games, music, and a global scavenger hunt. The two-week Middle School Academy included both cooking and dance classes that brought another dimension to students’ cultural understanding. Lastly, an Upper School Global Connections Conference featured a panel of McDonogh alumni who provided a snapshot of the different global career pathways that students may explore in the future—a future that is dependent on creating critical connections.
