“World-ready educators have the ability to understand and act on issues of global significance. They possess and apply knowledge, skills and dispositions to learn about and engage with the world and foster these capacities in their students.” (adapted from www.worldsavvy.org definition of global education).
Are
you a world-ready educator? Education faculty at Radford University’s School of Teacher Education and Leadership are deeply engaged with work to groom world-ready teachers and leaders who are capable of guiding schools and classrooms to prepare graduates ready to work for positive change in their own communities and beyond. The “RU World Ready?” Global Education Conference is part of this comprehensive effort for preservice and practicing educators charged with teaching for a rapidly changing world greatly in need of serious commitment and innovation. By bringing teachers from RU’s rural community in Virginia together with teachers across the nation and around the world, STEL is providing rich opportunities for participants to build networks of support for their world-ready efforts.
Participants at the RU World Ready conference have had increasing exposure to practical strategies that foster global competencies in themselves and their students. This year’s keynote speaker, Sandra Lima Argo, brought special guests from Brazil to help participants consider the many ways we move, and are moved by, the individuals and groups with whom we interact on a day to day basis. Argo challenged the audience to move out of their comfort zones and work across boundaries to solve the world’s most challenging problems.
For these reasons, this year’s conference focused on teaching for the fulfillment of the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/. While the goals may seem lofty and ambitious in scope, when educators around the world commit to acting on Goal #4 “Quality Education” and guide their students in real work for the real world on each of the other 16, the established 2030 completion date becomes much less daunting.
FIRST FREE FORUM FOR NEW TEACHERS NEXT WEEK IN AUGUSTA COUNTY
VASCD and the Va. Teacher of the Year Network are encouraging and supporting new teachers across the state. Our first forum will be October 11 in Stuarts Draft. Additional forums and locations are scheduled.
