Modeling and cultivating critical global citizenship skills in the online space

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to the function of higher education. For community-based global learning, these barriers might have felt insurmountable. How does one create a meaningful learning experience that was originally conceptualized as a place-based, urban, project-based international experience in the online space? This was the challenge for the authors and one that, while difficult, ultimately led to a number of insights. These insights were not only helpful for sustaining us during the quarantine but have proven to be important innovations for future engagement in a changed world. One of our greatest concerns is that we as a field and movement will fall back to our old ways, forgetting that “normal” was not particularly equitable, just, or sustainable, and that what was learned in the pandemic could go a long way to reorienting our compass towards justice. In the following paper, we focus on a review of authentic learning, global learning, and pedagogical constructs that build accountability, empathy, and humility - critical global citizenship skills - in learners. We share insights from shifting a traditionally face-to-face (F2F), immersive international experience to a fully online modality. Finally, we posit some promising practices and recommendations that could shape future online global citizenship education and the opportunities it affords, especially as natural disasters, pandemics, and sustainability concerns complicate the future of these project-based global learning endeavors.