Teaching Global Competence, Creating Global Citizens

Abstract

Developing students' global competence has become increasingly important in the face of social, economic, and environmental threats, natural disasters, and climate change. Educators who aspire to help students become globally competent change agents must first develop these attributes before fostering them in their students. This can be pedagogically challenging, and educators may lack the confidence to integrate global competence into disciplinary contexts or engage in classroom discussions about contested sustainability and social justice issues. In this chapter, the authors engage in pedagogical reflection to explore the challenges and opportunities presented by critical global citizenship education in higher education. The diverse cases draw from experiences of ethics and citizenship education at Australian universities in business schools and in enabling programs, outward mobility programs involving social work students from Australia engaging in study tours to Cambodia, and the development of a transnational global citizenship education program in Vietnam.