Title: Teaching Perspectives in Times of Conflict: Fostering Global Competency and Critical Dialogue when it Matters Most 

Dates: May 5, 8, and 12

Time: 4:30 to 6pm Colombian time (90 minutes per session) 

Description: While schools usually have robust global citizenship programs and strive to foster global and intercultural competencies in their communities, educators often find themselves avoiding topics that feel too contentious, particularly in times of war and unrest. When this happens, global learning can become superficial, looking only at cultural elements like food and fashion but ignoring critical thinking about more difficult topics like land disputes and human rights. This has been particularly true when it comes to helping young people understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and it has never been harder than it is today; this topic paralyzes even the best global educators. Global competency is about building bridges that allow us to understand each other’s experiences; it’s about exposing students to the very real complexities of war; and it’s about empowering students to grapple with the grey areas and pain points they encounter. When educators address the complexity instead of shying away, we can help students build skills for an increasingly complex, ambiguous and conflict-ridden future.

This three-session workshop will explore how to foster global competency and critical dialogue when polarization and conflict make it difficult to do so. The workshops will be grounded in Jennifer's decades-long experience bringing Palestinian voices into US classrooms and her first book, The Global Education Guidebook, exploring strategies that support critical dialogue and courageous conversations about controversial topics in general, and this war in particular (the strategies can be applied in any situation where students or their families are deeply polarized in their beliefs). Participants will leave the session with tools they can use in their classrooms, whatever the demographics of their students and school community, to promote connection over division, and to foster students' global competencies and peace building skills.

Audience: Language Arts, Social Studies and Fine and Performing Arts teachers, curricular and instructional leaders, leaders of belonging work and global/intercultural programming.

Jennifer D. Klein is a product of experiential project-based education herself, and she lives and breathes the student-centered pedagogies used to educate her. She became a teacher during graduate school in 1990, quickly finding the intersection between her love of writing and her fascination with educational transformation and its potential impact on social change. A former head of school with extensive international experience and over 30 years in education--including 19 in the classroom--Jennifer facilitates dynamic, interactive workshops for teachers, leaders and students, working to amplify student voice, to provide the tools for high-quality project-based learning in all cultural and socio-economic contexts, and to shift school culture to support such practices. Motivated by her belief that all children deserve a meaningful, relevant education like the one she experienced herself, and that giving them such an education will catalyze positive change in their communities and beyond, Jennifer strives to inspire educators to shift their practices in schools worldwide.

Jennifer’s first book, The Global Education Guidebook, was published in 2017, and her second, The Landscape Model of Learning: Designing Student-Centered Experiences for Cognitive and Cultural Inclusion, written with co-author Kapono Ciotti, was published in 2022. Her third book, on educational leaders facing resistance to initiatives they know matter for learners, will be published in 2025.

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