Journal of International Social Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2015, 83-85. Journal of International Social Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2015, 83-85. Corresponding author email: Ruth.Reynolds@newcastle.edu.au ©2008/2018 International Assembly Journal of International Social Studies Website: http://www.iajiss.org ISSN: 2327-3585 P a g e | 83 Learning About and Learning With. International Perspectives on the Future of Global Education. Book Review: Maguth, B., & Hilburn, J. (Eds.). (2015). The state of global education. Learning with the world and its people. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN-13 978-0-415-72167-7 Reviewed by Ruth Reynolds (Ruth.Reynolds@newcastle.edu.au) School of Education, The University of Newcastle, Australia This edited text comprises 10 externally reviewed chapters addressing the current situation of Global Education (GE) in teaching curriculum. The book is part of a series of books from Routledge dedicated to Citizenship, Character and Values education. As the series editors (Lee and Arthur) point out, the challenge for 21st century education is the impact of globalization on global citizenship, an imperative clearly envisaged by UNESCO in the online and readily available publications (http://en.unesco.org/gced). With this obviously in mind, the book editors (Brad Maguth and Jeremy Hilburn) have gathered chapters from authors from different countries that help to provide direction for transforming and building partnerships across and with the global community to promote “a more equitable, socially just, and sustainable planet” (p. 4). Because this is obviously the aim of the edited text the reviewer has seen to see the book as a guide for the future of GE, not simply a description of the state of play as the title would infer. The book tackles many of the key issues associated with grappling with the concept of GE in different educational sites and brings together some substantial future conceptual directions which I will address at the conclusion of this review. First a description of what it contains. The book is divided into two parts; the theory of GE and then programs and practices in GE. The latter section is envisaged as experiential education, university-based initiatives and then conceptual approaches to teaching and learning. It is difficult to scrutinize as a totality such a varied text so I will firstly try to elicit the key points of each chapter. In the section on the theory of GE, we are provided with a useful history of changes in conceptions of GE. As anyone in the area will verify, the term is contested and means different things to different educational settings, different geographies of education as well as in different periods of time. Bourne argues that many of the features of what was previously called “development education” (p. 16) inspires many teachers who work to uphold a vision of social justice and equity by reflection and dialogue while Rapaport appears more comfortable with using the term global citizenship although pointing out that for many it is really associated with national citizenship and lacks a disciplinary heritage. Lantz and Davies select one aspect of GE for scrutiny, the aspect of intercultural competency and, as they point out, it is difficult to envisage global change without meaningful global communication. Both intercultural competency and GE feature learning about ourselves and others, maintain and develop international excellence, recognize the value of diversity and promote the skills and dispositions of intercultural competence. GE and intercultural competence move education away from simple internationalization for economic reasons toward more “academically rigorous and affectively demanding approaches that will help us understand ourselves and others” (p. 54). The text then moves to ideas as how to do this, to learn with the world and its people. As a teacher educator, the reviewer is always glad to see sections like this—we do know the research but HOW to enact it is always an issue for teacher education. Patterson scrutinizes the taken-for-granted notion that international travel augmented global education, arguing that it required strong programs mailto:Ruth.Reynolds@newcastle.edu.au Journal of International Social Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2015, 83-85. Corresponding author email: Ruth.Reynolds@newcastle.edu.au ©2008/2018 International Assembly Journal of International Social Studies Website: http://www.iajiss.org ISSN: 2327-3585 P a g e | 84 before, during and after such programs (possibly by computer mediated communication) to ensure best practice and intercultural competency while Ortloff and Shonia find immersion in other cultures did tend to indicate increased strength of teachers’ views of global citizenship as an active pedagogy. Michetti, Madrid and Cofino point to the importance of international schools as models of how to build GE. They see 21st education as needing to be action-oriented, globally connected and inclusive and argue that many of the schools using the International Baccalaureate (IB) provide a useful framework for educators. Zong links globalization to the local community in order to contextualize and enable students to construct their own conceptions of globalization. All of these examples indicate the importance of experiences, conflict and problem-solving in global education. What makes teaching GE challenging is that teaching experiences must to some extent mirror a globalized 21st century world—a world where nothing seems taken-for-granted. Critical thinking, having an open mind and becoming involved are essential. Some of the university initiatives and the conceptual focuses underline these themes. Poole and Russell find that university teacher education programs have tried to increase the global content of their program but teacher education student were not substantially more globally oriented than teachers of 20 years standing. They recommend more exposure to cross-cultural experiences as well as learning about other cultures. As the title of the text indicates, there is a real need to work with others but as previously indicated this is not straightforward. Mathews and Landorf interrogate online work as an approach to building international communities and find that it was the communities and the community building that assisted international collaboration and that asynchronized Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) were less valuable in building GE perspectives. I refrain from commenting on our own group’s work on values associated with GE also in this book. I asked a colleague to rigorously comment on it and it is attached elsewhere in the journal. So, as I pointed out in the beginning of the review, we have learnt a lot for the future teaching of GE from reading these articles. GE must have an understanding of power and inequality in the world at its heart and future research should interrogate these concepts as fundamental outcomes. Teachers of GE need to have the will to assist students to augment nation and local centered citizenship by also teaching their global citizenship status and adapting their curriculum. Future research should investigate how teachers do this and what results ensue. GE should encompass multiple cultural perspectives. A non-Western view of GE would seem to be important. The classrooms and institutions purporting to develop GE should be interrogated to discover what knowledge, understanding and disposition they foster. Computer mediated communications can augment GE concepts but what way is best? The local can assist develop GE. What are some of the authentic ways in which this can happen? Pre-service teachers continue to have poorly developed cross-cultural competencies and global content knowledge. What can strongly focused programs achieve to improve this situation? Research indicates that GE encompasses the Intrapersonal Domain, the Cognitive Domain and Interpersonal Domain. What are the best activities to teach these? mailto:Ruth.Reynolds@newcastle.edu.au Journal of International Social Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2015, 83-85. Corresponding author email: Ruth.Reynolds@newcastle.edu.au ©2008/2018 International Assembly Journal of International Social Studies Website: http://www.iajiss.org ISSN: 2327-3585 P a g e | 85 Overall I think this book was an excellent contribution to the literature associated with GE and urgently required in an era when global finance, migrations and misunderstandings threaten global security and global interactions across many fields of endeavour. Our schools and education institutions must continue to advocate for the fundamentals of living together—seeking equity, social justice; learners learning about themselves; learners clarifying their own sense of place in a wider context. mailto:Ruth.Reynolds@newcastle.edu.au