50 teachers from 16 countries are currently taking part in the 2022-23 Effect+ for the Classroom program – AFS’s full scholarship program for teachers who want to learn about key concepts and principles of global citizenship education, and how to foster it with their students. These educators teach a wide range of subjects such as science, language, arts, and mathematics and are the first of five planned cohorts for the 2022-23 edition of this program. By March 2023, 300 teachers from anywhere in the world will earn full scholarships to engage in this award-winning global virtual capacity building program.
Research shows that one of the most effective ways to bring Global Citizenship Education (GCED) into the classroom is for teachers to model global competence for their students. As part of the program, educators are completing the AFS Global Up Educator online learning course, which includes self-paced content modules and live facilitated dialogue sessions over Zoom, covering such topics as Culture & Identity, Empathy & Listening, and Suspending Judgement. The live dialogue sessions offer an opportunity for educators to discuss these topics with each other directly guided by trained AFS facilitators. The sessions for this first cohort are led by Vibhooti Malhdari (India), Renate Lavrinoviča (Latvia/Iceland), Félix (Chalo) Cantero Villalba (Paraguay), and Kuhan Kandiah Chelvanathan (Malaysia).
“I think we evolve as communicators. Initially we all carry our cultural baggage as communicators but slowly with experiences we develop our own style of communication depending upon culture-person-situation model.” – 2022-23 AFS Effect+ Program Participant
Teachers will take their learning experience from this first phase of the program and bring global competence education to their students using the AFS Educator Toolkit and the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a framework. Additionally, the educators join a growing virtual community of AFS Global Educators that regularly collaborate and share practices from around the globe.
The next group of teachers to join the program are currently being selected and will kick off their participation on 12 November. Applications for the next start dates in 2023 are still open. Any secondary school teacher in the world is welcomed and encouraged to apply here!