Global Learning
with Sarah Kuhner

Fulbright TGC Participant, 2021-22 

Finland Cohort

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” 

-Nelson Mandela

Welcome to my Global Education Guide!

Before I begin, how close are you to your cell phone right now? If you are like many Americans, I bet it’s within arm’s reach. Maybe you’re even reading the site on it.

 

The iPhone just launched its 14th model, making this handheld device older than nearly every single K-12 student in the world. In addition to changing how all people connect with one another, smartphones provide a growing proportion of internet access for low-income households in the U.S., and the number of mobile phone users around in the world surpassed the five billion mark by 2019.

 

Thanks to this incredible technology literally at our fingertips, we can’t deny that the world has grown closer together.

 

But what do we DO with the wealth of information this provides? How can we use it? And how do we help our young people make sense of the content and the context?

 

Herein lies the work of global competence. The emerging world citizens in our classrooms today will be in charge of local governments and more in a few short years, and they will have to work with colleagues with diverse backgrounds. They will inherit the complex international issues currently dividing public opinion and global policy.

 

So how does this work begin in our classrooms? ASCD breaks global competence into three parts: Knowledge, Skills, and Disposition. As an educator, I know we work really hard to impart knowledge and teach skills and foster positive attitudes, but global competence takes a deeper approach. Global competence advocates that content be interdisciplinary, empathy be explicitly taught, diversity of culture and conflicting opinions is valued, and that everyone develops a sense of stewardship.


Turn on the news and there is no shortage of stories about pressing issues of access, equality, and environmental threats. But, there are also stories of optimism and collaboration that try to address these same issues on an ambitious timeline - achieving the UN Sustainable Development goals by 2030, getting New York City (where I live) to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and ensuring human rights today.

 

In short, our schools must be responsive to the world that our students already inhabit, one that is anything but isolated.

 

Aboriginal educator and activist Lilla Watson said, “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

 

That’s our task as educators: to work WITH our students so that they in turn can work with each other for the sake of creating a future world full of intersectional solutions to our most pressing global challenges.


How to Use This Guide

I designed this website as a capstone to my Teachers For Global Classrooms Fulbright Fellowship to showcase some of the curricular work I've developed and my favorite resources and instructional strategies that extend learning beyond the classroom. Click any of the links underneath the pictures to jump to a section. You may also use the navigation bar at the top of the screen. 

Study

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Teach

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Travel Blog


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Who Am I?

For over a decade, Sarah Kuhner has taught Special Education in New York City public schools, serving students with varying levels of academic and language needs across multiple class settings. Currently, she works at M.S. 324 - Patria Mirabal Middle School in the Washington Heights neighborhood, where she use her Spanish skills to collaborate with students and families. Sarah also serves as her school's Equity Coordinator, implementing restorative practices and designing professional development to help her colleagues uplift student voices. She was named a 2014 LearnZillion Dream Team teacher and a 2018 NEA Foundation Global Learning Fellow to South Africa. Sarah holds a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College, a master’s degree from The City College of New York, and is currently pursuing National Board Certification in Young Adult ELA. When not at school, you can find Sarah reading on the couch with her dog or running along the Hudson River with her husband.

This website is not an official U.S. Department of State website. The views and information presented are the participant's own and do not represent the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program, the U.S. Department of State, or IREX.