Face to Faith: Teaching Students to be Global Citizens

Last updated on: July 29, 2014 at 9:06 am by George G. Coe

Face to Faith: Teaching Students to be Global Citizens 2014-07-29T09:06:58-05:00 George G. Coe

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In our last Face to Faith video conference for the year, my religion students considered human rights issues important to their lives. One issue they considered with particular passion was women’s rights, especially the right of young women to be treated with the same respect as men when they drink. Why, some students wondered, is it always incumbent on women to be careful?

Our facilitator challenged the students to consider what responsibility they had for human rights violations that don’t directly affect them, like the collapse of the textile factory in Bangladesh.

Our video conference was with just one other school, a Catholic school in a predominantly Mormon state, Utah. The conference facilitator, Jo Malone, skyped in from London and our technical engineer who helped us with sound and picture, Nonica Kochhar, was in India.

The conference lasted only an hour because the other school was on a 55 minute schedule but the discussion was good and could have continued for another thirty minutes. This conference was our fifth and over the course of the last few months, we tested the three different types of conferences that Faith to Faith offers.

We completed a partnered conference with another school (this one was with a school in Ukraine).
We participated in one special day conference—UN Malaria Day. Students from several schools listened to a speaker and then discussed the issues with her.
Finally, we completed two multipoint conferences with several schools, one on community and values, and the most recent one on human rights.

We prepare students for each conference with several lessons, usually provided by Face to Faith. For example, I showed a PowerPoint on malaria and several video clips on how it spreads.

My students enjoyed all the conferences and considered them a highlight. They got to discuss important global current issues like the tragedy in Bangladesh, malaria in Africa, women’s rights, wealth and philanthropy, and the significance of community and values. In some cases, they got to discuss the issues with experts or activists in the field. But what they liked the most was talking to students in other parts of the world and discovering that while culture might differentiate them, commitment to faith and community often serve as common bonds.

Next year, I plan to incorporate Face to Faith with my history classes. Religion is an important component of those classes and will allow students to incorporate their knowledge of religion with current events. The program would also work well with human geography classes.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

May 13, 2013

Catholic Population Surges Across The Global South

Next Post

May 15, 2013 How to Escape the Death Valley of Education

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2019 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 July 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price, what does the merchant do?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Buys many pearls Finds a lost coin Sells all to buy the pearl Builds a bigger barn