UMaine Conference Offers Global Perspective
Contact: Kay Hyatt at (207) 581-2761
ORONO– A University of Maine conference is aimed at providing K-12 educators with the ideas, curriculum and practices to explore global themes with an eye toward state and national learning standards. The Global Education Institute will be held June 22-27 at the UMaine Hutchinson in Belfast. Award-winning writer Joy Hakim is the scheduled keynote speaker for June 23.
As the world becomes more connected and interdependent, teachers are increasingly challenged to help students understand the historical, economic and cultural dynamics of today’s global society, according to Edward Jadallah, UMaine associate professor of social studies education and institute director. “This is a timely professional development experience for educators interested in teaching with a global perspective and learning how conditions and events throughout the world affect life today and in the future,” he says.
A global education curriculum involves knowledge, skills, attitudes and values relevant for participating in a culturally diverse and interdependent world society, Jadallah says. The institute will address those issues through readings, guest speakers, panel discussions, case studies, telecommunication conferences and other activities, including development of a standards-based content analysis and grade level -appropriate resource unit. For example following Hamkin’s keynote, a panel representing the social sciences, humanities and education will discuss how their disciplines contribute to student learning and provide a framework for understanding and interpreting today’s world.
A former teacher and newspaper editor, Hakim is author of the 10-volume “A History of U.S.,” which earned the James A. Michener Prize for Writing in 1997, and the recent PBS mini-series “Freedom: A History of U.S.” Hamkin’s speech is co-sponsored by the UMaine College of Education and Human Development and the Division of Cultural Affairs and Libraries.
The focus of this year’s institute is Western Europe. An optional travel study tour to Italy, Switzerland and France is planned for July 5-16.
For more information about the institute, which carries both graduate and undergraduate credit and Continuing Education Units, contact: Dr. Edward Jadallah, (207) 581-2488; e-mail ed.jadallah@umit.maine.edu, or visit the institute website at www.umit.maine.edu/global_education.