Young People Communicating Global Values
A Project Funded by the Shinnyo-En Foundation
The Project at a Glance
The Young People Communicating Global Values project began in February 2001, piloting an approach to building international dialogue among teenage youth by engaging them in cross-cultural research and communication around ethics, values, and service.
Over the last several years, the project:
- Researched and designed a survey on ethics, values, and service, appropriate for administration by teenagers in Canada, Guatemala, and Thailand
- Organized teams of approximately 10 students in each of three different schools, each representing a distinct culture, to administer the survey to roughly 700 of their peers
- Designed and tested follow-on activities to connect those same student teams and develop a cross-cultural community of learners focusing on ethical issues, ethical decision making, and service
- Tested the hypothesis that young people will discover that, despite some profound differences among cultures, on the level of core moral values there is a great deal of commonality across cultures
- Engaged young people as leaders and intellectuals as they built their multicultural communication skills and understanding, and as they learned to appreciate the role of ethics in a global society, the challenges encountered, and the differences and commonalities between cultures
The Players
Canada
York School, Toronto, Ontario
Guatemala
Colegio Americano de Guatemala,
Guatemala City
The Findings
A Guatemalan Student:
"[I will remember:] how much fun I had during the discussions, when the members of our group opened up and expressed their true thoughts on the subject; knowing I was part of something big that could make a difference both in my country and the ethics of the world; being part of a group of people that feel the same way I do and that want to make a difference."
Student Survey
In the autumn of 2001, questionnaires were distributed by teenage students to their peers attending schools in Thailand, Guatemala, and Canada. The surveys were in English, and based on studies of values and ethical decision making the Institute had performed in a variety of settings since the early 1990s. The innovation in this survey was the opportunity to almost simultaneously gain responses to the same questionnaire from students around the globe, gauging whether they view their ethical environment differently.
The report on the results of the survey is called 
Values and Teen Volunteerism Around the World.
Follow-On Activities
Based on the survey results, students in each team were asked to carry out the two activities below and then share the results, via email, with each of the other teams.
Gauging the Moral Barometer: Students were asked to assess the moral barometer in their communities and determine if they think it is rising or falling? By reading their local newspapers, watching the community at work, and talking to people in the community, they were asked to gather evidence that shows where the barometer is rising and where it is falling. Then they were asked to explain what indications they had for each? Finally, using the values--honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness, and compassion--the students were asked to indicate which value was demonstrated, or not demonstrated, next to each piece of evidence they had written on the rising and falling barometers.
What Can We Do?: Based on the Moral Barometer activity results from each country, students were asked to identify the items on the falling and rising barometer that all of the sites (Toronto, Guatemala City, and Bangkok) had in common. They were then asked to suggest what, as students, they felt they could do about the common items found on the falling barometer list. What could they personally do, what could their community do, and what could the government do? And finally, what items from the rising barometer list would help them to improve the ideas they had suggested?
Next Steps
The Education Program is working on Phase II of the Young People Communicating Global Values Project which will maintain and develop the work already accomplished in the three current sites, with hopes of adding two additional sites.
For more information, contact Paula Mirk, vice president for education.
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