They campaign for students to learn foreign languages and to study them at earlier ages and for longer and more meaningful periods of time. They advocate student travel and teacher exchange. They encourage teachers and administrators to learn from educators all around the world and to participate in joint research and curriculum development projects. International educators work to build community service activities as a part of student's academic work, helping students see the connection between community responsibility and global citizenship. Whether in their own classrooms or in far away places, they work to help students recognize and question injustice and inequity and to understand the enormous work it takes to solve conflicts and to practice democracy actively.
Barriers are many.
As a result, teachers have not been given relevant international experiences or training, participation in programs has been limited to a tiny number of students, and instruction about global issues has remained isolated in the social studies or foreign language curriculum. Isolated from like-minded colleagues, usually without adequate time or models for collaboration, international educators in every subject area and at every grade level try to push new curriculum forward. Program standards for international education have been put forth to address pre-service and teacher training, opportunities for student and teacher travel, community and business participation, and ways to highlight numerous international and multicultural learning opportunities that already exist in and outside of schools. Program standards paint a more coherent vision to link community, business, school, and ethnic neighborhoods. They also connect children to their personal, cultural, and national histories and their complex, global futures.