High School Block:

World Issues 120

Building upon the knowledge, skills, and attitudes developed through the Social Studies and high school Civics course, the World Issues 120 course provides learners the opportunity to enhance their understanding of global events and issues as well as to continue to develop their collaborative, critical thinking, digital literacy and problem-solving competencies. Following a critical inquiry approach, educators and learners will explore relevant issues that will lead to a deep understanding of the processes, strategies and structures of nations, institutions, and organizations that exist to work toward peaceful and sustainable futures for all.

The overarching goal of World Issues 120 is to teach for civic competence – an informed and engaged citizen with an eye to the world, a strong sense of shared humanity and a broader understanding of the issues people in the world face. Learners will examine the global challenges of building sustainable and equitable futures, focusing on current issues that demonstrate these challenges. The course introduces a range of relevant topics within the themes of humanity, interdependence, geopolitics as well as such critical questions as “What is Canada’s role in the world? Are we living up to its ideals?” World Issues 120 will involve encounters with people and ideas across cultures, groups, systems of knowledge and ways of life, examination of own values and personal biases, and the relationship between states and the societies and people they govern.

CONTEXTS AND CONCEPTS

Humanity

  • Diversity
  • Ways of organizing economic life
  • Demographics
  • Equality, Equity, Fairness
  • Fertility and infant mortality rates
  • GDP and GNI per capita
  • Human Development Index
  • Quality of life
  • Right to Housing
  • Access to Food
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Gender and gender disparity
  • Types and experiences of violence
  • Disability
  • Literacy rate
  • Poverty
  • Life expectancy
  • Ethnicity/Ethnic Group
  • Systemic versus Systematic
  • Colonialism and Capitalism
  • United Nations
  • Sustainable Development Goals
  • Racism
  • Human Rights
  • Human Trafficking and enslavement
  • Nation, State, Nation-State
  • Migration, Immigrant, Emigrant
  • Refugee
  • Push And Pull Factors
  • INGO/ENGO/NGOs
Global information

  • Worldview and identity
  • Global citizenship and civic participation
  • Nuance: developing/appreciating Information sources (e.g., maps, news media, social media)
  • Media bias
  • Cognitive bias
  • Narrative bias
  • Data/Media/Digital literacy
  • Critical thinking:
  • Affective dispositions: open mindedness, flexibility, considering of the opinions of others, fair mindedness in assessing reasoning, willingness to change mind Propaganda/Advertising Fact/Factual Claim/Opinion/Value Claim distinction
  • Communication technologies
  • AI and deepfakes
  • Lateral reading
  • Click restraint
Interdependence

  • Interdependence
  • Human relationships with the natural world
  • Ethical perspectives on global issues
  • Climate change
  • United Nations (WHO, World Bank, Security Council, World Court, UNESCO)
  • Globalization and Economics
  • Globalization and Community
  • The Global Village
  • A Flattened World
  • Food Security and Food Distribution
  • Sustainability and Sustainable Development
  • Peace Movements (Social, Political, Economic, Environmental)
  • UN Sustainable Development Goals
Geopolitics

  • The rights and responsibilities of citizenship
  • Individual and collective rights
  • The role of governance at the local, regional, national, and global levels
  • Origins and consequences of conflict
  • Nationalism and irridentism
  • Strategies to diffuse/resolve conflict
  • Global colonialism and post- colonialism
  • Conflict and causality
  • Militarization and Securitization
  • Paramilitary
  • Rebel Repression
  • Radicalisation and Extremism
  • Sanction Embargo Diplomacy
  • Multi-national corporations (MNCs)
  • Foreign Intervention
  • Indigenous People/Aboriginal People
  • Treaties and Land Rights
  • Human Rights and Genocide
  • Nation-to-Nation relationships
  • Reconciliation
  • Cultural appreciation and appropriation
  • Indentured Servitude Civic Duty
  • Social Justice
Expand All Collapse All
GRADE 12

Strand: World Issues

Big Idea: Humanity

Skill Descriptor: Analyze factors that influence the distribution of wealth locally, nationally, and internationally.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Examine various individual, provincial and national sources of wealth
  • Explain some of the factors contributing to economic inequality locally, regionally, nationally, and globally
  • Discuss solutions to alleviate or eliminate poverty locally and globally
  • Propose solutions to counter the economic disparity within and across nations

Skill Descriptor: Investigate different conceptions of quality of life.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Determine criteria for quality of life in consideration of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • Consider disparities between and within different groups (social classes, genders, races, countries)
  • Examine patterns in demographic data that distinguish poorer nations from wealthier nations
  • Research and report on human exploitation

Skill Descriptor: Demonstrate cross-cultural understanding of identity, diversity, and unity.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Differentiate between the needs and wants of people around the world
  • Examine the importance of expressing one’s cultural identity
  • Identify the causes of tensions and issues among cultural groups
  • Discuss how all peoples of the world share a common humanity
  • Analyze various legal documents regarding rights and responsibilities, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the UN Declaration of Human Rights

Big Idea: Global Information

Skill Descriptor: Identify one’s own perspectives.

Global Competencies: CM, SASM

Achievement Indicators:

  • Identify own worldview
  • Identify own personal bias in how one consumes messaging.
  • Consider own capacity to reconsider and revise views
  • Prioritize the issues one cares about the most
  • Articulate own position on geopolitical issues.

Skill Descriptor: Investigate methods used by geopolitical actors to influence public perception and policy.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Examine the various influences on public perception of an event, individual, or idea
  • Identify bias in media and other messaging
  • Examine intended and unintended consequences of media bias
  • Evaluate reliable media sources
  • Compare the coverage of a current/global event or topic in different mass media or social media feeds

Skill Descriptor: Examine how own opinions on geopolitical issues form and change.

Global Competencies: CTPS, CM, SGC

Achievement Indicators:

  • Learn about geopolitical issues from various sources.
  • Consider the perspectives of others on geopolitical issues
  • Make reasoned, ethical judgements about geopolitical issues, decisions, and
  • Construct own sense of global citizenship
  • Assess own vision for civic participation

Big Idea: Interdependence

Skill Descriptor: Analyze issues resulting from interactions among individuals, groups, and societies.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Identify examples of problem-solving on a regional, inter-community and global scale
  • Research the history of contemporary global institutions and organisations
  • Explain how needs and wants in one region are often dependent upon other societies
  • Examine examples of exploitation

Skill Descriptor: Propose actions that support peace and sustainability.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Investigate and provide examples of sustainability individually, locally and globally
  • Examine the term and the mandate of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • Explain the importance of geographic and historical awareness in understanding and supporting peace and sustainability
  • Draw conclusions about how the UNSDGs and other agreements address the effects of climate change
  • Examine how the UNSDGs support peace in a specific country or region

Skill Descriptor: Demonstrate personal awareness of the collective responsibility for a peaceful and sustainable world.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Investigate movements seeking peace, justice, or equality
  • Discuss the importance of global citizenship and sustainability
  • Promote initiatives for peace and sustainability
  • Engage in sustainable activities
  • Propose solutions to enhance social responsibility and peace

Big Idea: Geopolitics

Skill Descriptor: Analyze local, regional, national, and/or global responses to conflicts.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Explain the origins, evolution of, key players, geographical locations, and motivations for involvement in a conflict
  • Identify attributes that conflicts have in common
  • Identify the political, environmental, social, and economic components of a geopolitical issue
  • Discuss the role of colonialism in local, regional, national, and global conflicts
  • Analyze strategies used to attempt to diffuse conflict

Skill Descriptor: Evaluate solutions to violations of a group or individual’s human rights.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Differentiate between individual and collective rights
  • Examine the causes and consequences of common human rights violations in Canada and around the world
  • Compare ways that people and/or organizations advocate for human
  • Investigate organizations and/or institutions that work to solve human rights violations

Skill Descriptor: Assess social justice initiatives, from various institutions and agencies including governments, NGOs, and individuals.

Achievement Indicators:

  • Provide examples of responsible citizenship
  • Describe a commitment to a shared humanity
  • Examine the efficacy of local, national, and international organizations working on social justice initiatives
  • Investigate how organizations are addressing discrimination and/or inequality
  • Demonstrate active engagement in addressing a specific social injustice, discrimination, and/or inequality
Expand All Collapse All