CHAPTER 4 – ON BECOMING A GLOCAL TEACHER
Our world has become a “global village.” Satellite communications make possible television,
telephone and documents transmitted through fax and electronic mails across thousands of miles in
thousandths of a second. We can view happenings around the world – wars, famine, typhoons, floods,
earthquakes, elections, etc. through the worldwide web (www)of the information highway.
Global education poses a variety of goals ranging from increased knowledge about the
peoples of he world to the resolutions of global problems, from increased fluency in foreign languages
to the development of a more tolerant attitudes towards other cultures and peoples. Global education
faces today’s challenges as national borderless are opened. It paves the way for borderless education
to respond to the needs of educating children of the world they are entering. It paves the way
curricular reforms including increased use of technology in teaching and learning.
To become a global teacher, you should be equipped with wider knowledge about the
educational systems of other countries, master skills and competencies which can address global
demands, and possess attitudes and values that are acceptable to multicultural communities.
Lesson 1 – The Global and Glocal Teacher Professional: Is There a Difference?
This lesson will introduce to you the general concept of global or glocal teacher. It will give
you a clear perspective on how to become that kind of teacher.
Intended learning Outcomes
• Describe global and glocal teachers.
• Infer the demands of globalization in the 21st century on teacher professionals.
Content Focus
A. Global and Glocal Teacher Education.
Global education has been described by two definitions:
• UNESCO defines global education as a goal to develop countries worldwide an is
aimed at educating all people in accordance with world standards.
• Another definition is that global education is a curriculum that is international in
scope which prepares today’s youth around the world to function in one world
environment under teachers who are intellectually, professionally and humanistically
prepared.
UNESCO’s Education 2030 Incheon Declaration during thr World Education Forum established
a vision “Towards inclusive and equitable quality educational lifelong learning for all.” By 2030, the
seven outcome targets of Sustainable Development Goals 4 (one of the 17 goals of the UN) must have
been achieved. These are:
4.1 Universal primary and secondary education
4.2 Early childhood development and universal pre-primary education
4.3 Equal access to technical /vocational and higher education
4.4 Relevant skills for decent work
4.5 Gender equality and inclusion
4.6 Universal youth literacy
4.7 Education for sustainable development and global citizenship – ensure all learners to
acquire knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development including
among others, education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human
rights, gender equality, promote a culture of peace and nonviolence, global citizenship and
appreciation of cultural diversity and cultures contributions to sustainable development.
One of the major means to achieve these targets is yo increase the supply of qualified
teachers through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially the
least developed countries and island states.
James Becker defined global education as an effort to help individual learners to see the world
as a single and global system and to see themselves as participants in that system and this requires a
school curriculum that has a worldwide standard of teaching and learning. The school curriculum must
prepare learners in an international marketplace with a world view of international understanding,
that which provides educational experiences for each student a knowledge and empathy of cultures of
the nation and the world to help them function effectively in various cultural groups. Thus to meet the
various global challenges of the future, the 21st Century Learning Goals have been established as bases
of various curricula worldwide. These learning goals include:
• 21st century content areas such as global awareness, financial, economic, business, and
entrepreneurial literacy, civic literacy, health and environmental awareness.
• Learning and thinking skills: critical thinking and problem solving skills, communication skills,
creativity and innovation, collaboration, contextual learning, information and media literacy.
Ø ICT Literacy: using tehnology in the context of learning to help students develop their
skills in learning how to learn
Ø Life skills: leadership, ethics, accountability, personal responsibility, self-direction and
others
Ø 21st century assessments: authentic assessments that measure the areas of learning
On the other hand, glocal education is about diversity, understanding the differences and
teaching different cultural groups in their own context to achieve the goals of global education as
presented by the UN. It is preparing future teachers in all areas of the world for their roles in the 2st
century classrooms. Glocal teacher education addresses the need of the smallest schools to the largest
schools in the world. It responds to borderless education that defies distance and geographical
locations. This makes education glocal. Thus glocal education provides equal opportunity and access
to knowledge and learning tool which are the basic rights of every child in every community, locality
within the global community.
B. From Global Teacher to Glocal Teacher Professionals
Who is a glocal teacher? Is he who teaches abroad? Or is he who teaches anywhere in the
world and is able to teach the 21st century learning goals?
A glocal teacher is a global teacher who is competent and armed with enough skills,
appropriate attitude and universal values to teach learners at home or abroad but is equipped with
both
time-tested as well as modern technologies in education in any time and any place in the
world. A glocal teacher is one who thinks and acts both locally and globally with worldwide
perspectives but is teaching in the communities, localities, towns, cities, provinces and regions where
he/she is situated.
More specifically, a global Filipino is characterized by several qualities and attributes in
addition to in-depth knowledge, functioning skills and embedded values. Glocal teachers:
• Understand how this world is interconnected;
• Recognized that this world has a rich variety of ways of life;
• Have a vision of the future and sees what the future would be for himself/herelf and
the students;
• Are creative and innovative;
• Understand, respect, and tolerant of the diversity of cultures;
• Believe and take action for education that will sustain the future;
• Facilitate digitally-mediated learning; possess good communication skills
(multilingual)
• Aware of international teacher standards and framework; and
• Master the competencies of the beginning teacher in the Philippine Professional
Standards for Teachers (PPST, 2017).
The Master Plan for Teacher Education, 2017, provided additional characteristics of glocal
teachers:
• Cultural and historical rootedness by building on the culture and the history of the
learners and the place;
• Ability to contextualize teaching-learning by using local and indigenous materials,
content and pedagogy whenever appropriate;
• Excellence in personal and professional competence, leadership, research, technology,
innovation, and creativity;
• Responsiveness through social involvement and service, learner-centeredness, respect
and sensitivity for diversity and creativity;
• Accountability and integrity by being a positive role model with strong moral
character, committed and conscientious, credible, honest and loyal;
• Ecological sensitivity by being resilient and a steward of the environment for
sustainability;
• Nationalism/Filipinism by being a responsible citizen and upholding the Filipino
identity amidst globalization; and
• Faith in the Divine Providence by being humane, just, peace-loving and respectful of
human rights.
End of Lesson Activity
1. With your group, use the interview tool below. Identify two Filipino teachers. One teaches
in the Philippines; the other one outside the country. Request for an interview either on-line or face-
toface. Write a report and make a reflection on the information you have gathered.
a. c
C. Make a written report and share it with your classmates by uploading it to your FB group page.
References:
1. Bilbao et al (2015). The Teaching Profession. Lorimar Publishing, Philippines
2. __________(2018). The Teaching Profession, 4th ed. Lorimar Publishing, Philippines
3. Churchill et al (2016(3rd). Teaching: Making a difference, 3rd ed. Wiley & Sons, Australia
4. Lim, L et al (2014). The Teaching Profession. Adriana Publishing Co. Philippines
5. Pawilen (2016). Teaching Profession: Passion and Mission 1 st ed. Rex Bookstore, Manila (Note:
No. of outputs for submission – 1 group )
