Reimers, F. M. (2020). Educating students to improve the world. Springer.

Pp. 131. ISBN 978-98-15-3887 (eBook)

-Reviewed by Dammar Singh Saud
MPhil Scholar in ELE
2022 Batch, KUSOED
The book “Educating Students to Improve the World” has been written by Fernando M.
Reimers, the Ford Foundation Professor of the Practice of International Education and Director
of the Global Education Innovation Initiative and of the International Education Policy Master’s
Program of Harvard University. It is an open access book of 2020 which addresses how to
educate students to improve the world. It actually offers a comprehensive and multi-
dimensional framework for designing and implementing a global education program that
combines cultural, psychological, professional, institutional and political perspectives on
educational change.
Being the most recognized experts in the field of global education and having a long
history of collaborating with UNESCO, Reimers writes “Educating Students to Improve the
World” with the intention of bridging the gap between educational research and school
practice to face the challenge of educating global citizens.
This book has been divided into eight chapters which are highly interconnected and
equally important for understanding how to design and implement a global education for the
humanity and better future. There is a separate reference section at the end of each chapters
which will be valuable sources for further study on global education. The book starts from the
long preface where Reimers shares the background, purpose, significance and overall context
behind writing the book in detail and well justifies how the book can play great role for global
education.
The first chapter “Five Eyes to Educate Global Citizens: The Need for a Useful Theory of
Global Education” discusses the multidimensional perspectives on educational change. The
cultural dimension focuses on how social expectations, norms, and values define educational
goals and practices. The psychological dimension provides an overview of how the theories of
learning can inform global education curricula and instruction. The professional dimension
illustrates the importance of expertise to advance global education teaching and learning. The
institutional dimension focuses on the structures, norms, and organization elements which can
support global education. Finally, the political dimension illustrates the need of aligning the
interest of different stakeholders. Together, these five perspectives illuminate the complete
process of change as the partial elements highlighted by each perspective offers a perspective
that complements what other perspectives enlighten and, together, these various elements
brought to light by each perspective interact with the elements highlighted by other
perspectives (Reimers, 2020).
In chapter two “What Is Global Education and Why Does It Matter?”, Reimers elaborates
global education as the means of enhancing global competencies i.e. the knowledge, skills and
dispositions that help students develop, understand and function in communities which are
increasingly interdependent with other communities around the world (OECD, 2005). He also
justifies the significance of global education by making logical argument on how global
competencies contributes for addressing the major current global issues such as violence,
hatred, tribalism, racism, climate change and so on.
In chapter three “A Cultural Perspective and Global Education”, Reimers presents the
historical development of global education and how UNO, UNESCO, OECD and other
international organization have been promoting it for sustainable lifestyles, human rights,
gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and
appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development (UN,
2020). He also successfully shows the close relationship between the cultural perspective and
global education by providing several logical arguments for the significance of cultural
perspective in the development of intercultural competency, ethical orientation, knowledge
and skills, and work and mind habits of the students for addressing global issues. Actually, he
has given much effort to define what global citizenship education is but very little to how to
make it effective in classroom.
The chapter four, “A Psychological Perspective and Global Education” elaborates the
psychological aspects which should be judiciously incorporated in the curriculum of world
courses; and an effective global education curriculum needs good and rigorous design that
effectively relates to content as well as to the cross-cutting twenty-first-century competencies
i.e. cognitive, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Some sample units of the world course that
covers pertinent goals and objectives, skills and knowledge, and activities is really a
praiseworthy work of Reimers.
In chapter five “A Professional Perspective and Global Education” the writer argues that
a professional perspective recognizes the importance of using expert knowledge to guide
educational practice. Curriculum is not self-executing. A quality program of global education
will require teachers with the expertise to teach that curriculum. He proves his argument by
providing examples from the previous relevant studies. For example, a comparative study of
programs of teacher professional development that focused on supporting teachers in
developing the capacities to educate the whole child in Chile, China, Colombia, India, Mexico,
Singapore, and the United States identifies common features of high-quality professional
development programs can be replicated in programs to increase the level of expertise of
teachers for global education. The professional and institutional dimensions of his proposal are
particularly relevant, as they offer rich opportunities for teacher education and interesting
proposals for school organization. The professional and institutional dimensions of his proposal
are particularly relevant, as they offer rich opportunities for teacher education and interesting
proposals for school organization. (Estelles, 2020)
The chapter six “An Institutional Perspective and Global Education” advocates for
adopting an institutional perspective to advance a program of global education leads to
identifying the norms, structures, organization, and elements of the system which can support
global education. It is really convincing that seeking alignment and coherence among standards
and curriculum, instruction, assessment, teacher preparation and professional development,
governance, and funding is a key for educational change in global education. (Pellegrino and
Hilton, 2012).
In chapter seven “A Political Perspective and Global Education”, Reimers explains how
the politics of global education need not be all politics involving governments but the civil
society organizations and other stakeholders can play an important role in favor, as well as
against, global education. What his applicable and remarkable thought for global education
given in this chapter is that designing a program of global education is understanding how key
stakeholder groups are positioned vis-a-vis the program and the political strategy as well as the
collaborative negotiating strategies can implement change requires mobilizing as much support
as possible and demobilizing detractors.
The last chapter “Conclusions: Integrating the Five Perspectives” concludes that the
implementation of global education and educating the students to improve the world is only
possible through the integration of the five complementary perspective on educational change
i.e. cultural, psychological, professional, institutional and political perspectives.
At a time when the urgency of our shared global challenges calls for more
understanding and collaboration and when the rapid transformation of societies requires that
we help students develop a clear sense of relevancy and purpose, this book offers a way to
pursue deep and sustainable change in instruction and school culture, so that students learn
that nothing human is foreign and that they can find meaning in lives aligned with audacious
purposes to make the world better.
In conclusion, the book will help teachers, educators, school and leaders tackle the
change management needed in order to introduce global education, and more generally
increase the relevancy of education. In addition, the book offers a “bridge” for more productive
collaboration and communication between those who lead the process of educational change,
and those who study and theorize this important work.
References
Estelles, M. (2020). Review of Educating Students to Improve the World by F. M. Reimers.
Retrieved February 23, 2022, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345843618_Educating_students_as_global_citizens.
OECD. (2005). Definition and selection of key competencies: Executive summary. Paris: OECD.
Retrieved February 23, 2022, from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/35070367.pdf.
Pellegrino, J. W., & Hilton, M. L. (Eds.). (2012). Education for life and work: Developing
transferable knowledge and skills in the 21st century. Washington, DC: The National Academies
Press.
Reimers, F. M. (2020). Educating students to improve the world. Springer.
United Nations. (2020). Sustainable development goals. Retrieved February 23, 2022, from
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/education/.