Educating global citizens while promoting diversity, inclusion, and social justice
By Adriana Merino, Paloma Moscardó-Valles, and Sylvia Zetterstrand
Merino, Moscardó and Zetterstrand presented at the 100th Annual American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) conference, in Salamanca, Spain, during the week of June 25–28, 2018. Their talk described second language (L2) teaching and learning in today’s world as being committed to social, cultural and civic education. In their view, L2 classes must promote diversity, inclusion and social justice, and build, at all levels of proficiency, enduring knowledge, skills and dispositions sensitive to societal issues. Through project-based learning (PBL), the learners explore real-world problems and challenges, while increasing their knowledge and sensitivity for global issues that affect society. The projects are a crucial part of a curriculum in which the fundamental base is integrating content research, language and culture. PBL allows students to make decisions that impact the project outcomes, and the learning process in general. Students reflect upon their own ideas and opinions, develop critical thinking and problem solving, and gain cross-cultural understanding from different perspectives.
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