Building global studies topics into your teaching can promote global awareness and encourage students to consider global issues. The University Library collection includes materials that can help. If you are not a member of the University of Illinois community, you can still find many free online resources linked from this page.
Books and Journals
Library catalogs are used for two purposes. First, if you know exactly what you are looking for – an exact title or author – you can use the catalog to locate your material. This works for book titles and journal titles. Second, you can use library catalogs to discover material that might be helpful to you by doing subject and keyword searching. Here is a list of library catalogs you may want to use to find information about globalizing the curriculum and global studies. If you are not a member of the Illinois campus community, contact your local school or public library to see if they can help you obtain the material you need.
Some of the subject terms you might want to search for include:
A more in-depth guide to print resources in education can be found at the Social Sciences, Health, and Education Library.
Databases and Articles
ERIC
A national education database sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Presently the largest education database in the world, ERIC contains over 1,000,000 citations covering research documents, journal articles, technical reports, program descriptions and evaluations, and curricular materials in the field of education. In addition to ERIC subject descriptors and extensive abstracts, limited full-text to selected items is available. Covers 1966-present.
Education Full Text
If you are not a member of our campus community, please check with your nearest academic library for availability.
Indexes and abstracts articles from English-language journals and yearbooks published in the U.S. and elsewhere. English-language books relating to education published in 1995 or later are also indexed. Abstracting coverage begins with January 1994. Abstracts describe the content and scope of the source documents. Full-text coverage begins in January 1996.
EBSCO Professional Development Collection
If you are not a member of our campus community, please check with your nearest academic library for availability.
Identifies articles about education and related fields for professional educators. Indexes over 600 full text journals, including nearly 350 peer-reviewed titles. Professional Development Collection is designed for professional educators. It provides a highly specialized collection of education journals (including peer-reviewed titles), and educational reports. Examples of titles offered in Professional Development Collection include: Booklist, Curriculum Administrator, Education, Education Digest, Educational Leadership, High School Journal, Journal of Education, Journal of Educational Research, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Phi Delta Kappan, Reading Teacher, School Library Journal, and many others. The majority of full text titles included in the database are available in native (searchable) PDF, or scanned-in-color. Full text information in the Professional Development Collection dates as far back as 1965.
Lesson Plans and Curriculum Materials
Awesome Library
Awesome Library covers material from arts to technology. This site provides lesson plans for most subject areas and includes links to other informational sources that can be drawn upon to create original lesson plans. The extensive listings about multicultural holidays and current events are especially useful.
Calendars Through the Ages
Provides calendars from different cultures and historical periods, along with explanations of different cultures’ measurements of time.
Carolina Navigators
Provides lesson plans and hosts bi-annual Virtual Cultural Festivals. Physical curriculum packs (“Culture Kits”) are available to educators in North Carolina for free.
Choices Program
Hosts a variety of brief videos touching on a variety of issues, and sells curriculum units about international issues. Resources from this site are prepared by the Choices for the 21st Century Education Program at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies.
Facing the Future
Provides educational materials for teaching about global and sustainability issues such as environment, population, conflict, poverty, consumption, health, and climate change.
Gapminder
Uses interactive bubble graphs and photos of families around the world to challenge preconceived ideas about how the contemporary world looks. Excellent for secondary school social studies, Gap minder graphs can be used to stimulate an interest in using statistics to understand world history, geography, and society.
International Children’s Digital Library
Aimed to make the best in children’s literature from around the world available free on the web. It includes nearly 5,000 books in over 50 languages in a child-friendly format for reading online. Search books by language, award winning titles, and more.
New York Times Learning Network
Regularly publishes new teaching resources for grades 6-12 based on content reported in the New York Times. All resources are free, except lesson lessons plans, which are capped at five free per month for non-suscribers.
Oxfam Education
The educational arm of Oxfam, an international charitable organization. Provides educational resources about gloabl citizenship.
Peace Corps for Educators
Provides lesson plans about cultures and countries around the world, free cross-cultural publications, videos, stories, folk tales, and access to classroom speakers.
UNHCR Lesson Modules
Provides refugee theme units for art, geography, human rights, history, civic education and literature, all prepared by the UN Refugee Agency. Lesson plans are available for 9-11, 12-14, and 15-18 year olds.
Women in World History
Includes over 200 primary sources, case studies by teachers, lesson plans, and document-based questions.
World Factbook
Provides in-depth country profiles with information on geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues. Includes maps of major regions and links to other geopolitical and geographical information.
World History Matters
Provides guides and strategies for analyzing images, maps, newspapers, and other primary sources. Includes case studies (written by teachers) for topics ranging from Hammurabi’s Code to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Videos
Thought Leaders Forum
Hosts short videos featuring leading thinkers discussing international ethics issues.
Networking and Collaborative Opportunities
Caretakers of the Environment International
According to the mission statement, CEI tries to establish a worldwide network of secondary school teachers and students who are actively concerned about environmental issues and who are willing to do something about these issues through their education and their action-taking.
GlobalSchoolNet
From the website: “Global SchoolNet’s mission is to support 21st century learning. We engage teachers and students in meaningful project learning exchanges with people around the world to develop literacy and communication skills, foster teamwork and collaboration, encourage workforce preparedness and create multi-cultural understanding.”
iEARN
Unites over 6000 schools from 92 countries working on joint classroom projects via Internet (see the Collaborations section).
News Sources
A great way to develop understanding about other cultures and countries, newspapers provide us with the ability to compare and contrast what is being said by and about children around the world.
The Globalist
Although targeted at an advanced audience, much of the information from *The Globalist* might find its way into your teaching.
New Internationalist
A magazine that offers a radical, activist, campaigning stance on a range of world issues.
For the full range of global studies news sources available through the University Library, please see our News Sources page.