Do all students have equal opportunities to learn global and intercultural skills at school?

 Do all students have equalopportunities to learn global andintercultural skills at school?

The PISA 2018 assessment asked students about ten learning activities related to global competence. 

The most common learning activities students reported participating in were: 

—Learning about different cultures, with 76% of students across OECD countries reporting that they engage in this activity at school. 

—Learning how to solve conflicts with other people in the classroom, with 64% of students reporting doing so. 

—Learning how people from different cultures can have different perspectives on some issues, with 62% of students reporting doing this activity at school. 

• Students reported engaging in about five learning activities related to global competence out of ten, on average across OECD countries. Students’ attitudes and dispositions are positively and significantly associated with the number of global-competence learning activities in which they are engaged at school. 

• Differences in access to global and intercultural learning opportunities at school were found between girls and boys, between students in general and vocational tracks, and between socio-economically advantaged and disadvantaged students.

The bottom line 

Students with more positive global and intercultural dispositions tended to engage more broadly in learning activities at school such as learning about other cultures, developing perspectives on global issues, understanding how to communicate with people from different backgrounds, and learning to resolve conflicts with their peers. Schools and educators could integrate several learning activities to cover a wide range of global and intercultural topics. Effective learning requires a consistent approach rather than sporadic or one-off activities, however. This, in turn, requires curricula that cover the breadth of global and intercultural topics relevant to 15-year-olds. Moreover, equitable access to those opportunities is necessary, particularly among socio-economically disadvantaged students.