Global Citizenship

Global Citizenship is an area of education recently introduced to the ORT network. ORT prepares students by giving them the skills and knowledge to thrive in their lives and giving them a positive Jewish experience. Global Citizenship bridges these two vital areas of ORT’s mission.

We understand that problems — and solutions — do not necessarily begin or end right at the city limits or national borders. Alongside a rigorous education providing students with the knowledge and skills to succeed, our challenge is now for ORT schools to inspire students to apply what they learn on a global scale, to be agents of positive change.

People naturally care first and foremost for their family, their local community and their country. But the global Jewish people have always had a sense of belonging to a larger, dispersed and diverse family as well, bringing a broader perspective to issues of identity.

ORT’s GCE program comprises an international component: training courses for teachers, youth forums, regular online events, and a local component: supporting schools with online courses, lesson plans and other learning resources. You will find further details on these below.

Overview of World ORT’s Global Citizenship Education (GCE) Program

World ORT has designed a program taking advantage of the unique nature of our global network. We are fortunate to have schools and projects located worldwide with diverse experiences and perspectives. This is invaluable and offers our teachers and students opportunities to enrich their learning through first-hand experience of and emotional connection to the core principles of GCE.

The central themes of fairness and responsibility resonate well with both the Jewish and international character of ORT’s schools. The development of students’ non-cognitive skills, to empathize with others and seek resolutions to conflict through justice, dignity, and respect, can all be integrated with Jewish religious and traditional sources.

Teachers and students will have opportunities to learn, develop, and practice skills in the following fields through training courses and activities:

World ORT’s Global Citizenship Education (GCE) program will focus on three areas of development:

Organization

Nominated lead teachers will organize committees in participating ORT network schools to support the organization and implementation of the GCE program. The program comprises the International and Local programs summarised below:

International Program

Youth-Led Forums

At its core, World ORT’s GCE program is about empowering young people to be proactive, conscientious, and balanced when engaging with global issues. The Forums are therefore the focal point of the GCE program. Committees of students from participating schools will initiate a youth-led process in the first half of 2023.

Student committees carry out research projects in their schools to investigate attitudes, awareness, and understanding about the global issues that resonate most with their peers, what values and competencies a Global Citizen should have, and what they would like to see from the program in the future.

Students will be trained in Sociocracy, a governance technique for establishing consensus, which will be at the heart of the international Youth Forums. They will discuss their findings with other students from around the globe and establish common ground through listening, reflecting, and negotiating. The output will be a World ORT Global Citizenship Manifesto, signaling the network’s commitment to global collaboration, fair representation, and open discussion.

Online Events

World ORT will coordinate events throughout the year which all schools will be free to attend. These will include documentary and movie screenings followed by discussion; talks with experts and people with lived experiences relevant to global issues, for example from ORT’s programs for Syrian refugees, those working in humanitarian aid to support girls’ education in Ghana, and youth activists from around the world. These online events aim to create a dialogue on big issues and inspire engagement and action.

Teacher Training

The successful integration of GCE principles into ORT schools relies on the teachers. We want to invest in expanding ORT network teachers’ skillsets by organizing and funding online courses in Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) with renowned global training organization Six Seconds, these will assist teachers to develop Emotional Intelligence skills for themselves as well as demonstrate how to bring them into the classroom.

International Cooperation

ORT’s International Cooperation (IC) department responds to needs and challenges with a range of development programs, community training initiatives and humanitarian aid missions.

Local Program

World ORT has curated a GCE resource bank for use by teachers across the network with resources selected according to the needs of the ORT network. Teachers will be offered support, guidance, and access to a large repository of lesson plans, online courses and resources.  Covering topics across the range of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), personal development and other GCE principles.

We encourage and will facilitate schools to propose partnerships or collaborative projects that will connect classrooms in different countries to explore GCE through collaboration, sharing or debate.