Cultivating Changemakers: Integrating Leadership & Global Citizenship into the Classroom

Jade Blue

For learners to be able to participate effectively in the workplace and fulfil their potential throughout their future careers, developing appropriate leadership practices and global citizenship skills is essential.?

One of the top skills employers seek in job applicants is leadership, and leadership skills are considered crucial for employees to be able to successfully interact with colleagues, clients and others.?Leadership is inherently about taking responsibility, and creates opportunities for individuals to initiate change. In today’s rapidly changing world, a key aspect of leadership is the concept of global citizenship. Now more than ever, organisations and businesses are looking beyond their local communities and developing an awareness of the world and a sense of their role and responsibilities within the wider global community.?

What aspects of Leadership and Global Citizenship should I teach??

A good starting point in selecting an area of leadership and global citizenship to teach in your classes is the Cambridge?Employability Skills Framework for ELT .? In this framework, we have found it useful to break leadership and global citizenship down into three core areas:?

·?Contributing to the success of an organisation?is about learners taking responsibility for their own actions and fulfilling their own responsibilities as a member of a team.? It also includes being able to understand the role and responsibilities of the team within an organisation, and to demonstrate understanding of an organisation’s values and culture.??

·?Demonstrating leadership?relates to a learner’s ability to take the initiative in addressing issues or pursuing opportunities.? Learners need to demonstrate their ability to manage groups of people effectively, take a strategic approach to their own area of work, and to be able to generate support for action through the use of effective communication strategies.???

· Contributing to an organisation’s positive role in global issues?includes supporting organisational initiatives to address global issues. Learners should be able to encourage new initiatives on global issues within an organisation, demonstrate intercultural awareness of the different beliefs, values and behaviours of other people, and demonstrate awareness of ethical issues relating to an organisation’s impact on others.?

Employability Skills: Essential soft skills for career success

If you would like to find out more about Employability Skills, you can read the?Employability Skills Framework?for ELT or find out more about the?digital modules here.

How could I integrate these skills into my classes??

There are many ways that you could integrate these aspects of leadership and global citizenship into your English language classes. You may find opportunities for these in your courses already, for example in group work, or when you are covering topics related to global issues or different cultures. You can also try these activities below. These are suitable for both face-to-face and remote learning contexts.?

The Culture Crash game?

Ask learners to think about different companies they know and like. Explain the concept of a ‘culture crush’ (a strong feeling of liking a particular society or organisation’s culture) and ask learners to choose three companies on which they have a ‘culture crush’.?Encourage learners to think about companies that people often talk about.

Emulating, and ask them to consider companies’ behaviours and values. Allow time for learners to research companies online if they want to find out more information.?

Give learners a copy of the worksheet below, or display it on the board.?Ask learners to write the names of their chosen companies in the hearts on the worksheet, and to make notes describing each company’s behaviours and values.??

Culture Crush exercise- XPLANE

Next, ask learners to think of behaviours and values that are the opposite of those demonstrated by the cultures they like.?Ask them to write notes about these behaviours and values in the drops on the worksheet.?

Finally, put learners into small groups and ask them to share their ideas.?Encourage them to justify why they consider specific behaviours and values to be important.?

Leadership Envelopes

Write a few examples of leadership principles on the board, and elicit more examples from the class.? Here are some ideas to get you started:?

·?Lead by example?

· Be human and admit mistakes?

·?Understand the value of listening?

·?Promote diversity?

·?Work together to achieve more?

· Help to develop future leaders?

Once you have lots of ideas on the board, hold a class discussion and vote to decide on the four most important principles.? Divide learners into four teams of approximately the same size and explain that in the next stage of the activity groups will need to translate these principles into practical, on-the-job behaviours.

Write each of the four chosen principles on the front of an envelope, so that you have four envelopes, and give one envelope to each team, along with four blank index cards.? If you’re teaching in an online classroom, create four different collaborative documents, with one of the principles typed at the top of each document.?

Set a time limit of three to five minutes, and ask groups to discuss the leadership principle on their envelope, and identify practical ways that the principle can be applied to on-the-job decisions and behaviours.?Ask learners to write short sentences describing their examples on an index card – or type them in the collaborative document if you’re teaching online.?At the end of the time limit, ask each group to place the card with examples inside the envelope and pass the envelope, unsealed, to the next team. If you’re working with collaborative documents, have teams insert a shape over their text to cover their examples.? Tell learners not to look at other groups’ examples.?

Repeat, repeat, repeat

Repeat this procedure a further three times, so that each group has added examples to each of the four principles.?

Next, have groups look at the four sets of examples for the first principle they started with.? Explain that they should evaluate the contributions by reviewing the individual examples and then comparing the overall merits of the cards with each other. After groups have had some time to discuss, have them present their views to the class, explaining which examples they felt were most valuable, and why.??

Finally, hold a class discussion to reflect on the activity using the following questions as prompts:?

·??What interesting patterns did you notice in the examples??

·??Are there any similarities between examples for different leadership principles??

·??What leadership principle was the most difficult to think of suitable examples for???

·??Think about your current or potential future workplace situation. Which leadership principle examples are most useful??

Gaining a deeper understanding of employability skills and how to develop them not only helps higher education students to prepare for their future careers, but also increases the chances of success and job satisfaction for people already in work.? Read more about the Cambridge?Employability Skills Framework for ELT ?and?discover more blogs in the Employability Skills series.