Background
Washington, DC is a global city, connected to the wider world though its people, institutions, organizations, and businesses. As the nation’s capital, we have embassies; international organizations, like the OAS and the World Bank; the US State Department and other federal agencies with global missions and reach; think tanks, universities, news agencies, and NGOs; museums, cultural institutions, and artists; and global companies from every sector, including the hospitality industry. The city is a magnet for international visitors and international students. And it is an increasingly diverse city with resident multilingual immigrant populations, transforming the character of our local neighborhoods and community life. This vibrant global city represents not only a huge wealth of expertise, resources, and opportunities; it also supports a range of careers and economic activity requiring language skills, global competencies, and relevant experience.
With all the advantages that these unique and extensive global assets provide, we should expect that our city’s young people would grow up global, and that many would be on a pathway to pursue globally connected careers. But this is far from the case. Washington, DC is a city sharply divided by race and class, and despite the geographic proximity, most children grow up in a hometown DC far removed from this “global capital.” While DC public school students and educators have long benefited from amazing partnerships and unique opportunities, like the Embassy Adoption Program, these have tended to be inequitably available, episodic, and discontinuous. Despite significant progress in recent decades, the state of global education and language learning in our schools remains far short of what it could be, and continues to be largely shaped by race, economics, demographics, geography, and school. What we believe is most pernicious is the stubbornly enduring and pervasive mindset that global education, language learning, study abroad, and international careers are suitable pursuits only for “some kids” and not for others.
The DC Global Learning Ecosystem Project
Globalize DC was created to bridge the gap between the local and global in this city, to think strategically and systemically about how we can all work more collaboratively and intentionally to connect our PK-12 students and schools with the city’s wealth of global assets, and to build real pathways to globally connected careers, especially for students traditionally left out. We have achieved successes, but there is so much more we can do.
Now in the wake of a global pandemic which has forced all of us to adapt and innovate, especially in the PK-12 public education sector, we find ourselves in a moment of opportunity. DC Public Schools is in the process of “reimagining” its high schools through a 5-year partnership with XQ, and local education leaders are expressing more flexibility as they work to find ways to more equitably and sustainably build pathways for DC students to prepare for college, careers, and life.
To take advantage of this unique moment, Globalize DC is now embarking on a new initiative to transform our current disparate and largely uncoordinated landscape of partners, resources, experts, and advocates into an intentional community linked by a common goal of mobilizing our city’s global assets to more strategically, aggressively, equitably, and effectively advance global education and language learning for all our city’s public school students.
We are embracing the emerging concept of “learning ecosystems,” to help guide our thinking about how we design and build our own global learning community here in DC. Globally, “learning ecosystems” offer a more learner-centered, community-based, and authentic framework for PK-12 education as an alternative to the traditional, industrial, school-based model we have all inherited.
For more on learning ecosystems, check out these sources:
A New PK-12 Education Ecosystem Framework for a New Normal
An Ecosystem Approach to Unleashing Learner-Centered Transformation
And here’s Sally Schwartz’s May 2022 Call to Action, Seizing The Moment.
OUR TASKS FOR SUMMER 2022
We are spending this summer identifying partners working in the global education/language learning/study abroad space (individuals, organizations, government agencies and institutions) as a first step in building our PK-12 global learning ecosystem here in DC.
Task 1: Who’s In?
Our first priority is to recruit old and new partner organizations (public, private, and international) and individuals who share our goal and wish to be part of this effort. This includes those with whom we’ve worked before and those who have never worked with DC public schools, students, or educators but are interested to being part of this effort. It also includes those inside school communities (educators, students, alumni, parents), other youth-serving organizations, policymakers, academics, and community members – even allies from outside DC. We’re casting a wide net.
The critical first step is for each interested person to complete a very short form that will let us know you want to learn more. There’s no commitment to do anything at this early stage.
Task 2: Who’s Doing What?
In July, we’ll begin preliminary research into the current state of global education, language learning, and study abroad – both on the supply side (global resources, expertise, and opportunities) and the demand side (what schools currently offer and need).
Task 3: Get Organized
Later this summer, we’ll create working groups/interest networks and begin to identify those who will provide guidance and leadership as we design the ecosystem’s structure and work for the coming year.