Global Education is an integral part of any ESL class. Respect for the different cultural perspectives that students bring to the classroom necessitates honouring multiple perspectives.  However, it isn’t enough just to include the cultural information that students bring to the class.

In a truly global classroom, the teacher may need to include perspectives that are not present in the class. It is necessary to go beyond comparing differences (and similarities) to draw out the inter-relationships between cultures and countries.  It is also important to build empowerment and hope, no matter what the age of the students, by ending discussions of problems with a look at possible solutions. Communicative and co-operative learning activities, which are favoured by global educators, are also used extensively by ESL teachers because they give students both motivation and opportunity to practice using English in an authentic context.

The content of global education can be very challenging for ESL students of any age who have limited vocabularies and reading comprehension. The other obstacle is time: lack of curriculum time in K-12 teaching and lack of student time in an adult class where busy students may desire to spend their limited study time only on everyday skills for Canadian life.  But there are many rewards when you challenge ESL students with global perspectives.  Students’ faces light up with recognition and they struggle with English to share their experiences. As well, the teacher can learn a lot!