This research was funded by the 2021 CILMAR Seed Grant. The link to the presentation can be found here. 

Given the current global social, political, and health climate, advocating for peace and prosperity through international, education-focused, collaborative partnerships is ever more important. The challenges presented by COVID-19 demand innovations by educational institutions to address the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; in particular, SDG 4 (Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all). In this chapter, we describe the development and implementation of Global Social Justice in Education (GSJE), a virtual, international, collaborative course for education students from six countries (China, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania, United States, Zambia) to explore global social justice issues. GSJE was designed to raise awareness of the complexities of local cultures, cultivate empathy for different lived experiences, and investigate multiple world views related to social justice issues in education. Participants engage in virtual meetings with synchronous activities including online discussions and intercultural collaborative work, as well as asynchronous experiences such as reflections and conducting country-specific inquiry. Other goals of GSJE include grappling with personal and professional positions, fostering intercultural relationships with educators in other countries, and recognizing inequities in education in both local and global contexts. GSJE is a cross-national curriculum initiative that provides opportunities to investigate how to effectively address global social justice issues. Participants complete a meta reflection to highlight their intercultural learning experiences, increased understandings of global social justice issues, and connections between local contexts and global realities. The overarching GSJE goal is to promote global solidarity by cultivating an international learning community of practice. 

If you are interested in applying for the CILMAR Seed Grant, information can be found here: https://purdue.edu/ippu/cilmar/research/seed-grants.html. Applicants should be employed and/or pursuing a course of study at Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Zhou, L., Sapkota, B. K., Mbewe, R., Newton, J. A., Phillion, J. I. (2022). Global Social Justice in Education: Developing a Virtual Intercultural Community of Practice | Seed Grant 2021.

  BibTex | EndNote

1. community of practice
2. intercultural competency
3. social justice
4. virtual learning

Citation of paper: Zhou, L., Sapkota, B., Mbewe, R., Newton, J., & Phillion, J. (in press). Global social justice in education: Developing a virtual intercultural community of practice. In T. Huber & J. G. O’Meara (Eds.), Teacher education at the edge: Expanding access & exploring frontiers. In Tonya Huber (Series Ed.), International Education Inquiries: People, Places, and Perspectives of Education 2030 (Vol. 1, pp. __-__). Information Age Publishing.

Presentation link (Citation of presentation: Sapkota, B., Mueller, K. L., Fauber, D.R., Phillion, J., & Newton, J. (2021, April 22-27). Reimagining global cross-cultural education to cultivate preservice teachers’ intercultural sensitivity. In G. Wangari (Chair), Post pandemic teaching preparation with a global focus: Re-imagining educational inequalities to embrace equity and justice. American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA.)