Empowering Teachers to Create a More Peaceful World Through Global Education: Simulating the United Nations

Abstract

Global education constitutes a pedagogy of peacebuilding citizenship education for the purpose of empowering teachers in building a more just and peaceful world. In this self-study, I examined simulations of the United Nations General Assembly conducted in a graduate elective course attended by 53 preservice and inservice teachers during three consecutive summer semesters. My purpose was to examine my own global teaching practice in exposing participants to pressing global issues; their concerns about the widening gap between developing and industrialized nations of the world; and participants' interpretations and integration of global issues in their lesson plans as articulated before the simulated United Nations General Assembly. Using the interpretive paradigm, I employed the constant comparative method to analyze student ambassadors' new knowledge and skills grounded in debate, deliberations, resolutions demanding change, and instructional plans focusing on human rights, global stability, and peacebuilding competence as the primary global issues confronting nations.