A worldwide study, including analysis of Canadian high school students, into how to grow young people’s capacity to respectfully connect and cooperate with people in other cultures has identified volunteering and learning about different cultural perspectives as the most effective practices.

Recognising that students need new skills and attitudes to navigate an increasingly connected yet culturally divided world, last year the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) unveiled a test of “global competence,” which it defined as being open to diversity, concerned for others elsewhere in the world, respectful of other cultures, and able to understand others’ perspectives.