Enhancing Global Community Engagement through Constructivist Approaches to Education

The need for culturally competent, globally skilled students is evident (Goldberg, Pasher, & Levin-Sagi, 2006), especially given our current climate of unrest and cultural misunderstanding. Educational efforts that emphasize contradiction and indigenous knowledge to prepare students for global community engagement have the potential to lead students to complex and systemic understanding of themselves and the world in which we live. These constructivist practices can create an overarching structure that enables students to acknowledge the ambiguity inherent in complex systems, hold contradictory thoughts regarding basic beliefs and values, and thereby deepen their comprehension and critical thought while respecting the integrity of the communities with which we work. Recommendations for creating and facilitating an educational environment based on respectful inquisitiveness and acceptance of dissonance are presented through the description of a three stage, constructivist-oriented model.