World Studies Extended Essay: Global Consciousness

A unique aspect of the WSEE is that it seeks to help your do more than just simply understand whatever topic of local and global significance that you have chosen to write about.

When you write in your RRS (Research's Reflection Space) you are:

• becoming more sensitive to local and global developments and interactions
• reflecting about yourself as a thinker and actor in local, national and global environments.

Writing a WSEE can help you develop your global consciousness.

In this definition, global is referring to local–global interactions and connections. These dynamics are not limited to a uniform view of the whole world. Instead, they emphasize local–global developments and the global contexts in which they take place.

The concept of global consciousness encompasses:

Global sensitivity - sensitive to local phenomena and experiences as manifestations of broader developments on the planet.

Global understanding - the capacity to think and act in flexible and informed ways about issues of global and local significance.

Global self - a perception of self as a global actor and member of a local community, a city, a nation and humanity, capable of making a positive contribution to the world.

To be globally conscious, you must:

• have information about the world, AND
• exhibit a distinctive way of being in the world—
  • be attentive to the ways in which global phenomena are manifested in local realities, as well as your own and others’ realities
  • be reflective about their own roles as participants in local, national and global contexts.

You exhibit global consciousness when you:

• are attentive to issues of global significance around you
• understand such issues in depth
• can place yourself as a thinker and actor in today’s complex and interdependent world.