The global teacher

Building bridges across borders, demolishing mental walls

(by Janos Blasszauer)

Since wars begin in the mind of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be established. UNESCO epigraph

I have recently been asked by two ASEF Classroom Network project members, namely Philippine high school st!dents, to reply to their "!estions related to the concept o# the global teacher$ %ere goes my response$ 1. What are the factors that makes a global teacher? I think a global teacher is someone who incorporates the global dimension into his/her school-based activities as an integral part of his/her teaching practice. Furthermore in m! view a global teacher is aware of the fact that we live in an increasingl! globali"ed and interconnected interdependent world and thus he/she makes a great effort to get his/her students come to this reali"ation. # global teacher strives to create such a learning environment where students can get first-hand e$perience in collaborating with their international peers and where the! can e$press their perspective and views on different issues. In such a multicultural conte$t students can learn not onl! to tolerate but to appreciate cultural differences and b! getting a wider perspective on things the! can develop an attitude which can lead them to recogni"e that the! themselves can become the ambassadors of peace tolerance human values and human dignit! the! themselves can become the agents of change. # global teacher also knows that global education intercultural education human rights education and global citi"enship education are all intertwined terms and none of which can/should be dealt with in isolation. %. What are the knowledge skills and values that a global teacher should possess? # global teacher should be sensitive to and knowledgeable in the fields of sustainable development the topic of interdependence cultural identit! and diversit! human rights discrimination racism pre&udice e'ualit! and social &ustice peace conflict resolution. It goes without sa!ing that he/she should possess information about the current state of the world. This

means ade'uate geographic economic political social and environmental knowledge. # global teacher should also know how to get his/her students involved in international telecollaborative pro&ects. In order to meet that end one must have proper IT skills foreign language skills and of course proper attitude an open mindset and ade'uate sensitivit!. #lso a global teacher is value-oriented( he /she should e$ercises self-master! and the cultivation of virtues. )nowledge about the pro&ect-based method is also a must for someone who takes his/her classes on an intercultural adventure. *. What are !our e$periences that contribute a lot in !our wa! of teaching? First of all I come from a multicultural background. +! mother is from ,anama actuall! she has &ust recentl! got the -ungarian citi"enship. +! sister was born in #merica so she has a dual citi"enship. .he is #merican and -ungarian. +! father and I were born in -ungar!. +! parents lived in the .tates for almost a decade before I was born so at home I often heard of man! stories that shaped the wa! of m! thinking and perception of the world. /esides these factors I can also mention that since m! dad was a internationall! acknowledged medical ethics lecturer at the 0niversit! of ,ecs we often had foreign guests at our place. I think all these things led me to become interested in intercultural issues. #s an 1nglish teacher I soon reali"ed the potential of the Internet in language education and I knew that I had to harness it for the benefit of m! students. .o I got m! classes and school involved in different international pro&ects. +an! of them were 10-related ones such as the 2omenius school-partnership pro&ect or the pro&ects which I ran under the auspices of the 1uropean .choolnet e.g. .pring 3a! for 1urope Futur1nergia +!1urope. I also took part in a 041.25 pro&ect such as the +ura-3rava cross-border network for intercultural learning pro&ect in %667-%668. In %669 I established a :outh4et Foundation which since its foundation has given man! students opportunities to participate in international pro&ects ;see www.diakhalo.org<. #t last but not least I must add that since %667 I have been activel! involved with m! students in #.1F 2lass4et pro&ects. +! personal e$periences that is m! trips to foreign countries the friendships I have built with foreign colleagues throughout the !ears of collaborating together m! working e$perience e.g. m! one-!ear work at the 1uropean .choolnet office in /russels and m! involvement in the work of such organi"ations like the /ritish 2ouncil in -ungar! and the =egional >anguage 5ffice #.1F 2lass4et 1uropean .choolnet all these things have contributed to m! present cosmopolitan outlook on the world.