Global Student Leadership Toolkit:
Human & Environmentally-Centered Deep Learning for 2030

OVERVIEW

Developed by Inspire Citizens co-founders, Steve Sostak and Aaron Moniz, the Inspire Citizens Global Student Leadership Toolkit guides students in applying future skills, critical thinking frameworks, and global and intercultural competencies to contextualize and lead community projects for greater equity, collective wellbeing, and sustainable development.  

Built around flexible lessons for more than 50 culturally-responsive, sustainability-focused, systems-thinking tools and skills, the Global Student Leadership Toolkit can be embedded by any educator into human and environmentally-centered curricular units of study, inquiry, or project-based learning.  

The second-tiered Global Student Leadership Certificate program supports all ages of students in making an intentional commitment to the conservation of local and global environments, empowerment of diverse local and global communities, as well as personal development. The certificate is granted through evidence-based portfolios that capture deep thinking, applied learning, and compassionate action which highlight a longer-term commitment to enhance the wellbeing and sustainable development of a community.

Principles and pillars of the toolkit and certificate program are built to work in synergy with the Inspire Citizens Empathy to Impact Project Cycle (Care, Aware, Able, Impact). The toolkit and certificate supports enduring understanding in for key civic pathways:

·       Leadership and Collaboration

·       Community Engagement

·       Sustainable Development

·       Systemic Transformation

The Inspire Citizens Global Student Leadership Toolkit and Certificate is a foundational pedagogical element of the ten-pathway Inspire Citizens Global Impact School model and self-study.

GLOBAL STUDENT LEADERSHIP TOOLKIT & SKILLSET 

CARE

·       Engage with civic, global, and intercultural competence frameworks and pathways

·       Explore United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Targets that pinpoint inquiry and potential community action

·       Construct a wellness wheel and indicators for personal and collective wellbeing

·       Audit institutions, community spaces, projects, and personal habits for sustainability

·       Practice active listening skills and the art of the follow-up question for developing compassionate empathy

·       Build cognitive empathy through a simulation on income inequality

·       Justify choices in a basic needs analysis when engaging in a diverse micro-community

·       Take personal inventory on the attention economy: Toxicity of digital culture and post-truth on mental health

·       Experience and describe a connection with the natural world

·       Unlock and interpret conscious and unconscious stereotypes and prejudices

·       Discuss the Rights of the Child that pinpoint inquiry and potential community action

·       Investigate the nature of ethical concepts, values and character traits, and reasoning in assisting ethical judgement

AWARE

·       Analyze the role of creative expression as a means of sharing information, advocacy, and persuasion

·       Investigate multiple perspectives when researching issues and conducting interviews: ProCon

·       Apply the Center for Media Literacy’s five key questions and core concepts for the consumption and production of media

·       Make use of the AEIOU observation technique to document contextual inquiries during ethnographic studies

·       Think like a historian in investigative journalism or while researching people, places, or events

·       Think like a scientist when conducting experiments or collecting data and information

·       Reflect on personal worldview, biases, and perspectives

·       Construct a root cause tree or fishbone diagram for analyzing the sources or causes of an event or issue

·       Interpret data with skepticism: Distortions, dramatic instincts, and Factfulness

·       Critically examine the ethical use of photography in social media and for positive social change: PhotoVoice

·       Exemplify cultural self-awareness while learning to appreciate others

·       Scrutinize primary sources for strengths and limitations

·       Exercise steps to identify and stop the spread of fake news: On the Media

·       Value your library and justify the use of vetted, credible sources

·       Conduct surveys by practicing valid educational research basics

·       Explain the use of culturally responsive lenses to enhance research, collaboration, community engagement, and actions

·       Really know your community or audience

ABLE

·       Argue and deescalate conflict scenarios using non-violent communication and compassion

·       Multiply (don’t diminish) the strengths of teammates and community members

·       Start to mission and vision for a group or project by constructing poignant SMART goals

·       Reflect upon internal and external factors that can help guide an action project or social enterprise

·       Diagram and understand the range of positive and negative interactions among SDG Targets

·       Apply decision matrices to manage tasks and time

·       Appraise personal and group thinking about progress and actions

·       Facilitate deeper and focused conversations for a team or group

·       Devise effective drama exercises applicable to a unique team or goal

·       Demonstrate strategies to add meditation and awareness to daily routines

·       Use tools for generating ideas and questions for services, actions, projects or products

·       Practice essentialism when organizing roles, responsibilities and next steps

·       Seek and Synthesize Feedback: Critical friends in revising and editing

·       Market research through standard product testing methods

IMPACT

·       Inventory inner strengths, passions, and interests along with external local and global community needs

·       Find your vocation

·       Deduce the best plan of action to have the greatest positive impact

·       Analyze impact: Determine a causal relationship between a specific program, action, or project and its intended outcomes

·       Give a highly engaging presentation

·       Demonstrate CARP graphic design principles in marketing, advocacy or presentation

·       Explore different composition techniques for enhancing voice and message through photography

·       From fieldwork and recording techniques to narrative and ethics, explore and apply the ins-and-outs of radio storytelling

·       Share your passion: Know and explain the purpose of your vlog, blog, journal, or ePortfolio

·       Lead an event team and bring an amazing event to life

·       Express how art can change the world

·       Design and run an active-learning workshop

·       Strategically publish your work

WORKSHOP GOALS

During the hands-on workshop, we will focus on concrete ways educators can embed components of the toolkit into inquiry-driven classrooms, project-based learning opportunities, and community action. After examining the unique contexts of each classroom and school community, we will co-design innovative, enhanced, or reimagined unit plans that teach and amplify these leadership tools and competencies.

As an extension, participants can opt to continue working with Inspire Citizens in co-developing and pioneering action research in the implementation of the Inspire Citizens Student Leadership Certificate. This would include launching student participation in an on-going peer learning community, mentoring by an Inspire Citizens’ facilitator, and the creation of an evidence-based portfolio resulting in the student certification.

POTENTIAL AUDIENCE

The interactive workshop is designed for any educator that wishes for time to develop enhanced student leadership experiences that link to civics, sustainability, and intercultural competence as essential threads of applied learning.