A Vision for Global Education Through Global C3 Workspace

by DA Global | Dec 23, 2021 | Articles

Posted: Thursday, December 23, 2021

By: Nada Wafa, Ph.D.  Candidate, North Carolina State University

The COVID-19 pandemic has created many challenges throughout the 2020-2021 school year for educators around the world. The Global C3 hub is a new and innovative workspace that offers educators a network to connect with others through a global community to inspire inquiry-based learning in the classroom and strengthen global education. The aim is to empower global educators to infuse inquiry, technology/digital learning, and inspire citizens to take informed action.

A research case study methodology was conducted to help develop effective models for instruction in a global education classroom. The goal of the study was to understand the teacher and students learning outcomes through the implementation of an inquiry-based unit on global issues. This research study would be a blueprint for educators to better understand the effective models for inquiry-based instruction. Overall, the findings in this research can help educators and researchers use the innovative approaches to teaching and learning through global education content in the midst of a globally, interconnected, diversified, and changing world.

Defining Global Education

Global education is a creative approach to learning about the world and the changes we can make in society. It relies on active learning environments that are enriched with universal values that create awareness of global topics, and challenge others to think about the global issues. Its primary purpose is to change attitudes through inquiry and reflection in order to create a deeper understanding of human actions in the world. Global education can instill, enrich, and empower students and thereby enable them to become active, competent, appreciative, and responsible global citizens. Global education brings out the best in every student as it helps create a sense of global appreciation that urges them to make a difference in the world.

Inquiry-based Curriculum

Inquiry is a process of seeking information by questioning a topic of interest to expand knowledge and gain a deeper understanding. Students are curious about the world around them, and inquiry-based learning is the best tool to guide students through effective and authentic question-driven learning. The Inquiry Design Model (IDM) through the C3 Framework (NCSS, 2013) aims at “organizing the curriculum around the foundations of inquiry: questions, tasks, and sources” (Swan, Lee, & Grant, 2018, p. 137). Using the IDM, teachers are able to facilitate students’ knowledge development, expand their opportunities to develop literacy skills, and find meaningful ways to express themselves through argumentation. Students are naturally curious and “curiosity drives interest and interest drives knowledge, understanding, and engagement” (Grant, 2013, p. 322). Inquiry enables higher-level thinking for students, particularly when teachers provide the appropriate types of sources.

Designing a Global Education Curriculum 

The author, a university-based educator and researcher, sought to collaborate with a global education teacher to develop an inquiry-based, technology-infused curriculum for K-6 classes. The global education class was taught as an elective class, and each grade had a specific framework that focused on a theme, for example: Traveling Around the World; Endangered Species: Research and Study; International Geography: Demographics and Culture; Financial Literacy: Budgets, Stocks, and Business; World Change: See it, Feel it, Be it.

Ultimately, the goal of this research study was to see how a global education teacher prepares students for the interconnected, diversified world and the multicultural society they are surrounded with every day. This study focused on the 1st grade classroom, and as the study was conducted, students were well acquainted with the classroom procedures for participating in student-led dialogues, discussions, and projects that focused that on the theme of Traveling Around the World.

In the curriculum, Traveling Around the World, students were introduced to world geography and cultural studies through a “monthly adventure” taken to a country in the world. The eight countries studied throughout the year were: Chad, Pakistan, Italy, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Russia, and China. This research study focused on one unit in the curriculum, Brazil.

The curriculum unit, Brazil, included five inquiry lessons that focused on one compelling question and five supporting questions.

Compelling Question How do we impact Brazil?
o   Supporting Question #1: What is Brazil?
o   Supporting Question #2: Why are rainforests important?
o   Supporting Question #3: How can technology impact the rainforest?
o   Supporting Question #4: Is the relationship between humans and the rainforest good or bad?
o   Supporting Question #5: How can we help Brazil?

The research question for this research study was: How does a 1st grade teacher implement an inquiry-based, technology-infused global education curriculum in the classroom?

Methodology 

This project mainly examined how the global education teacher helped students develop as global citizens. This case study examined in this research consisted of a global education teacher and a 1st grade classroom with 30 students. The case followed the teacher from the initial stages of the curriculum development through the teaching of a complete unit.

During the unit examined in this research, the teacher highlighted important information about the country and facilitated student learning about various facts and information from numerous sources. Each unit was framed with the intent to follow the C3 Framework by integrating a compelling question, supporting questions in each lesson, and sources.  Students were able to answer the supporting questions by completing formative assessments, such as discussions and other tasks. The units in the curriculum also included summative assessments, such as writing a few sentences to indicate what the students had learned.

The curriculum included multimedia materials that supported visual learning and innovative technologies incorporated in the lessons. An active learning environment was supported by technology and enriched by creating a strong connection among the various countries studied. Technology enhancements included one activity where the teacher provided a live online camera shot of a city in the focus country, as well as other educational videos that enriched students’ learning. The teacher also incorporated robotics (Ozobot) that enabled a focus on the geography of the country. The use of technology was designed to help students to become more actively engaged and helped them build curiosity to learn more about the world.

The collaboration between the university-based researcher and global education teacher gave the opportunity to develop a curriculum together, as well as research the implementation of teaching a unit about Brazil. There were three interviews conducted with the global education teacher. The first interview was focused on the beginning of the unit and the implementation of the curriculum. The researcher was able to receive thorough responses about what was planned versus what will be observed when the inquiry instruction is taught and technology is incorporated within the lessons observed. The second interview covered in-depth details on the implementation of two lessons from the unit observed, and this allowed the researcher to understand teaching through inquiry, as well as integrating technology in a global education classroom. The third interview focused more on the implementation of the entire unit overall, as well as understanding the global education teacher’s reflection of the inquiry-based instruction in the global education classroom. This insight allowed the researcher to reflect on the process of implementing a global education curriculum, as well as teacher’s pedagogy through inquiry-based instruction and technology integration. The interviews gave the researcher a deep insight on the beliefs and experiences of the global education on integrating inquiry-based, technology infused instruction within a global education curriculum.

Ultimately, data were collected from three sources; interviews, observations, and the curriculum. The semi-structured interviews were audio recorded and transcriptions and notes were also coded as primary data. The observations notes were carefully analyzed. The curriculum materials also were thoroughly analyzed and coding techniques were used. Following the data collection, the transcripts and data were organized into categories. As categories were developed, smaller pieces of data began to match with the categories. The findings were ultimately triangulated between observation notes, curriculum data, and interview transcriptions.

Findings

Specifically, this study focused on inquiry-based learning and technology integration in a global education unit study about Brazil and based on data analysis of the global education teacher’s implementation of the inquiry, three findings emerged:

1. The global education teacher did not fully implement all of the elements in the unit, but after partial implementation, she was considering using inquiry in the future.

2. The global education teacher was not clear or comfortable about when to ask questions. In some lessons, she did not use the inquiry questions from the unit. She believed the questions were too rigid and above the students’ level.

3. The global education teacher believed students exceeded expectations and that they responded well to the inquiry. She was happy to see that students who typically didn’t participate started to respond eagerly and enthusiastically.

While the initial implementation did not go as planned, subsequent lessons were adjusted to account for what the global education teacher was learning about inquiry implementation. Her increased agency as the person responsible for implementing the inquiry lessons also seemed to empower the global education teacher, as a curriculum designer reflected toward her actions to make changes to the instructional plans. She did use additional teacher-centered pedagogical strategies at times, but there was also a steady emphasis on student engagement during the inquiry. The inquiry exercises prompted the students to think independently and critically about content, and she noticed that the students were regularly engaged in the tasks and eagerly participating in class. Students were willing to express themselves and formed a deep understanding of the content as they communicated their knowledge through discussion during the inquiry. Students’ collaboration through inquiry also positively impacted their learning and their engagement in the learning process.

Future Global Engagement 

Future engagement with the global community can be a stepping stone to pursuing global engagement opportunities abroad. As research in the global education field expands, researchers and teachers can explore strategies to change the context of education. As educators develop these strategies, students would be able to develop the global competence and awareness needed to become global citizens. Educators who are willing to incorporate the global c3 inquiries (http://c3teachers.org/global-hub/) into their teaching would help their students explore inquiry and the world around them, as well as create a stronger understanding of various perspectives and engaging their students through meaningful learning experiences.

By collaborating with researchers and classroom teachers globally, the power of mixing research into practice would be prominent and this can positively impact classroom practice while also helping researchers develop a better understanding of the teacher’s knowledge. Through collaborative relationships with researchers and teachers around the world, improving teacher’s practices globally can also greatly provide effective approaches to integrating technological tools that are beneficial to teaching and integrating global education into the classroom.

Vision of the Global C3 Workspace

After the university-based researcher’s work with the global education teacher, there was a drive to connect and support global educators, which resulted in creating the Global C3 Hub. The Global C3 hub provides a vast amount of inquiries that are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It is designed to be a collaborative workspace for educators around the world who are interested in developing globally-relevant C3 Framework instructional inquiries.  Each inquiry focuses on a particular global knowledge through compelling questions that challenge and address a wide range of topics that allow students to think creatively, critically, and proactively.

Future research would engage more global education teachers to define their integration of inquiry-based and technology-infused curriculums into their classrooms. This will include exploring new strategies and pedagogical ways in response to the way in which education has been changed during the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, this may include creating micro-schools, expanding on virtual schooling options, small size in-person classrooms with social distancing measures, or connecting students through a world-school pod. Through collaboration with teachers and university researchers, educators will begin to develop effective strategies for helping students develop the global awareness, competency, and understanding of becoming a global citizen. Ultimately, working collaboratively with educators who are willing to incorporate the Global C3 inquiries into their teaching would help students understand our interconnected world as it will open the opportunities for perspective-taking into students’ learning journey to fundamentally take informed action in the world.

Conclusion 

The collaboration between the global education teacher and researcher provided an example of merging research into practice in a way that positively impacted classroom practice while also having a better understanding of the teacher’s knowledge. As we continue to understand the impact of Covid-19 on education, we can seek collaborative relationships between teachers and university-based researchers to improve both research and practice. This will help us understand more effective approaches to integrating global education through inquiry and technology to continue to strive for opportunities in taking informed action.

References

Grant, S. G. (2013). From inquiry arc to instructional practice: The potential of the C3 Framework. Social Education, 77(6), 322-326, 351.

National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS, 2013). The College, Career, and Civic  Life (C3) framework for the social studies state standards: Guidance for enhancing the rigor of K- 12 civics, economics, geography, and history. NCSS.

Swan, K., Lee, J., & Grant, S.G., (2018). Questions, tasks, sources: Focusing on the essence of inquiry. National Council for Social Studies, 82(3). 133-137.

What Can One Little Center Do?

by DA Global | Dec 22, 2021 | Articles

Posted: Thursday, December 23, 2021

Written by Jalyn McNeal, Kellan Robinson and Sarah Hutchison

The Center for European Studies (CES) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) is an externally-funded research hub that promotes understanding of contemporary Europe and the transatlantic relationship across diverse audiences. Our extra-curricular and curricular offerings attract minority undergraduate and graduate students who engage in international programming on a local level before venturing abroad. This text describes these initiatives with perspectives of two individuals of color who have participated in Center offerings. They explain how specific opportunities, both in and outside of the classroom, enriched their educational experience and point to ways in which CES could do more to bolster learning. The text examines the use of technology upon which CES relies to provide support to students – a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) class, a student-led working group (WRESL), and an informational web portal (CES Serves). The discussion is framed within the model of effective service-learning advanced by scholars Nuria Alonso García and Nicholas V. Longo who point to learning as a “layered action” taking place on multiple levels and in different settings during one’s time as a student.

Since its founding in the mid 1990’s, CES has raised awareness of contemporary Europe among its various target audiences. UNC undergraduates and graduate students attend Center events, receive funding for Europe-focused research and/or undertake language training in Europe, and pursue degrees by way of our Curriculum in Contemporary European Studies (EURO undergraduate major) and our TransAtlantic Master’s (TAM) Program. CES is well poised to add layers of meaning to the Europe-focused content students encounter in classes. We are guided by the work of Nuria Alonso Garcia and Nicholas V. Longo. Their research points to the ways an individual’s education can take shape in a variety of locations. We strive to expand a student’s educational experience within and outside the classroom. As the scholars assert, it is possible to think “about learning as part of an ‘ecology of education’ (Cremin, 1976), which recognizes that education takes place in multiple, interconnected settings” (115).

CES facilitates students’ connection to issues of concern in Europe. For instance, in the fall of 2020, our TAM students engaged in a COIL class focused on EU institutions and integration; several joint seminars with European students provided a terrain of diverse perspectives. An intercultural facilitator worked with students to confront challenges and assumptions. Class participant, Jalyn McNeal, attests:

A graduate student in TAM, I took part in a COIL class focused on European Institutions and Integration. Through zoom, this course allowed students and faculty from UNC and Germany’s University of Hannover to form a joint seminar. Students from the US, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Germany took part in various educational and cultural activities centered around political happenings of the US and EU. Activities included discussing the implications of the 2020 US presidential election on the transatlantic relationship, listening to guest speakers from both the US and the EU talk about different components of transatlantic affairs, and forming groups to conduct research projects on transatlantic relations. This collaboration allowed me to better understand the relevance and perception of US politics abroad as well as how the transatlantic relationship influences the policies of both the US and EU.

CES staff actively encourage students to study abroad in order to benefit from experiential learning settings in European cultures; however, we know students of color typically engage in study-abroad opportunities at lower rates than their white peers. CES’ overall student population currently fails to mirror that of  UNC’s campus where roughly a third of all students identify as racial minorities. Racial minorities make up just 25% of EURO majors. In TAM, the percentage is even lower – typically just 5-10% in a given cohort. Our students of color often feel they stand out as the sole representative of a racial minority in their classes or on study abroad trips. While we do not wish to disproportionately burden students of color by repeatedly calling upon them to bring their perspectives to the discussions, our minority students do have ways of understanding academic topics and educational experiences which often escape members of the dominant culture. We value these perspectives and think all individuals learn best when a variety of viewpoints are expressed in non-competitive environments.

CES embeds international experiences into its pre-professional programming. Students then leave the US to study abroad with a greater understanding of academic topics and co-curricular activities of specific interest to them. For the past several years, CES has housed a small working group called WRESL (Working group on Europe, Refugees, and Service Learning). By way of this club, students meet regularly to discuss and plan events focused on migration. Students author blog posts on the WRESL website and document their involvement. Kellan Robinson explains:

As an expansion of WRESL, our soon-to-launch CES Serves web portal will introduce students to additional topics of relevance to the US and Europe such as Education and Sustainability. Equipped with an understanding of each concept, students can access information about relevant classes and volunteer organizations at UNC and in Europe. Ultimately, each featured topic will have its own working group so that students can continue to layer their learning experiences. After studying abroad, students have the opportunity to share their stories through public events and blog posts. Their testimonies motivate and inspire peers who are earlier in their educational careers.

Moving forward, we, Jalyn and Kellan, recommend structural changes within CES. First, expand the curriculum so that it broadcasts a more inclusive and accurate understanding of Europe. This includes offering courses on the Roma, Muslims, as well as other populations (ex: differently abled, LGBTQI, women, Jewish, other racialized minorities, etc.). Add coursework to provide a historical context to Europe today by highlighting Europe’s colonial and imperialist history. Secondly, foster a support system for students historically marginalized in academia. For example, facilitate a program that pairs students with professors to encourage and expose them to research.

References & Footnotes

Please read more about Jalyn McNeal’s work in the class on our Medium blog here and read more about this COIL class here.

Garcia, Nuria Alonso and Nicholas V. Longo. “Going Global: Re-Framing Service-Learning in an Interconnected World.”  Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, Volume 17, Number 2, p. 111 (2013).

Cultural Conversations – Virtually Strengthening Int’l Connections

by DA Global | Dec 22, 2021 | Articles

Posted: Thursday, December 23, 2021

By: Audrey Emiko Short & Amy Leap Miller, Global Education Office (GEO), Virginia Commonwealth University

Responding to travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global Education Office of Virginia Commonwealth University has developed new ways to provide meaningful intercultural experiences to students in a virtual environment. The VCU Globe Living-Learning Program has fostered increased accessibility to international partner institutes around the world through co-curricular experiences called Cultural Conversations in which participants engage in sustained and structured interactions on-line.  This virtual programming allows for greater diversity, inclusion, and equity in global education as it provides more students opportunities to engage in ways they may not have been able to due to international mobility challenges such as cost, work or family obligations.

Thanks to technological innovations of the 2000s, virtual exchanges have demonstrated that learning can be international and collaborative without the need to physically travel. The State University of New York (SUNY) has been a leader in globally engaged interactions, often called Collaborative On-line International Learning (COIL), which are cost-effective and thus can include students of any field enrolled at an institution (SUNYCOIL, 2021).  Diversity and inclusion are furthered through these opportunities as students examine cultural lenses, analyzing “their own identities, biases and prejudices, and challeng[ing] existing perspectives and stereotypes [while] develop[ing] diverse personal relationships through negotiation of meaning” (Jie & Pearlman, 2018, p. 2 and 8).  Students participating in COIL initiatives co-create knowledge and provide information to each other that can only be shared through interpersonal connections (Gokcora, 2021). Through on-line student-to-student conversations, a greater understanding of global interconnectedness can be explored as students grasp how issues in their local communities are experienced all around the globe.

These international virtual collaborations also offer professional development and international networking for faculty members. Through COIL, educators “collaborate to bring topics to the course that would have been difficult to integrate without collaboration” (Gokcora, 2021, p. 2). While still a relatively young concept on many campuses, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the growth of these initiatives, which are on track to become permanent enhancements to university curricular and co-curricular initiatives.

Cultural Conversations with Virginia Commonwealth University

With the physical distancing requirements of COVID-19 serving as a catalyst to think of new ways to create connection, VCU Globe initiated on-line intercultural and intergenerational experiences in April of 2020 with a local learning community of adults aged 50 and “better”, at the Lifelong Learning Institute in Chesterfield. Given the rapidity with which educational institutions went on-line mid-semester, linking academic credit to these interactions did not seem feasible and thus the focus centered on non-credit bearing opportunities that would allow students of different backgrounds to interact around four accessible themes of cooking, photography, storytelling and resilience.

Noting the success of this domestic partnership, international partners were contacted in summer 2020 with some accepting invitations to VCU English Language Program virtual Tea-Time events.  With five sets of experiences to build upon from spring-summer 2020, Cultural Conversations arose in fall 2020 as intentional learning experiences to further develop the knowledge base, skills and experiences needed to communicate across personal and cultural borders.

Since September 2020, the format has included weekly one-hour meetings facilitated by VCU, international partner staff or student leaders with between 8 and 25 participants per meeting. As of spring 2021, there are partnerships with institutions in Japan, Mali, Mexico, Qatar and Vietnam, with each collaboration unique to the needs and interests of the participants.  In cases in which language exchange between students can readily occur (i.e. English, Spanish and French), students share materials (often articles from local media on predetermined topics) and prepare discussion questions to learn both linguistically and culturally.  In other cases (with Japanese and Vietnamese), the learning is focused more on intercultural communication and world Englishes, along with the content of the topic chosen by students prior to each meeting.  As the partnership with Qatar involves students who are high-level English speakers, conversations are able to reach deeper levels more quickly and collaborative efforts are possible, including a joint art show on diversity and inclusion and a reading group focusing on Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple”.

Gains from Virtual Exchange

In an attempt to measure student gains, reflections and survey responses have been  used to gather feedback. Students have responded to open-ended questions, covering the areas of community and self development, cultural agility, and future applications.
Most commonly reported have been benefits in the areas of inter- and intrapersonal well-being. Social connections have led to community building through weekly topical conversation topics that have included university life, holidays, careers, food, music, visual arts, literature, nature, sports, and social justice. Friendships have developed through finding common ground and by challenging previous ways of thought. One VCU student conversing with students in Mexico highlighted the “bonds [formed] through similarities with students from other countries.” To date, more than 150 VCU and international partner students have engaged in these conversations.

In the past year with the intense isolation experienced by many due to COVID-19, students have reported emotional benefits of meeting someone who is both familiar as a peer and new as a member of a different culture. The comfort and excitement have students consistently attending sessions at normally unpopular times (8am or 12:30am) and their willingness to share parts of themselves in ways not typical of a classroom (such as through international karaoke) has been connective and uplifting. Another student engaged with Vietnam shared their growth in “confidence in communicating with other people with different cultural backgrounds.”

Reviewing responses related to cultural agility, one major theme is diversity of perspective. Students have expressed an awareness of biases that they have observed in both themselves and their conversation partners as well as the media sources which feed into their thought processes.  They have commented on the importance of understanding history and the cultural systems in which one is raised so that they can approach divergent ways of thinking with more curiosity than judgement.   Topics such as women’s rights, colorism, and religious practices have been examined from distinct cultural contexts so that students are asked to first explore why and how a person comes to think the way they do.  Our participants have learned not only about other countries but have also reflected more on their own, commenting that it has been “really interesting to hear someone’s thoughts of America’s issues from the perspective of a person living in a different country.”

Communicative fluency is another theme that stands out as students express their thoughts on cultural agility.  From stepping out of their comfort zones to being more mindful of communicating across language barriers, students have repeatedly expressed growth in this area.  Several American students have been positively humbled by the multilingual abilities of their conversation partners and have been inspired to learn more.  They have practiced prioritizing successful communication over perfection, skillfully using the visual and text features of video conferencing platforms to assist with comprehension.

Beyond student development, engagement in these virtual international exchanges amidst current travel restrictions has maintained and strengthened partnerships around the world in a manner that is cost-effective in terms of time and money.  New relationships have also been formed.  Our partnership in Vietnam began as a result of an international student who shared her experiences with her contacts in her home country.  Cultural Conversations with Mali arose after VCU students expressed interest in an exchange with native French speakers. The partnership with the English Practice Club of Bamako stands out in that access to these educational exchanges is open to the community and not directly connected to a university, thus providing more opportunities for a more diverse population.

While the impact on the future of global learning has yet to be seen, VCU students have commented on how Cultural Conversations has impacted their thoughts about study abroad and future employment goals.  They have expressed an increased desire to travel and get to know their new friends’ cultures. One student shared, “I have limited my options in the past when it comes to travelling. [T]here are many more options to consider which might enrich my cultural experience.” With respect to professional applications, students have seen how skills learned and practiced could benefit them in the future.  From applying to the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program to bias awareness in the field of forensics, students expressed that their experiences with Cultural Conversations will “carry on to (their) professional career.

Through expanding one’s perspectives, practicing communicative fluency, building skills for the future, and developing and maintaining international community and relationships, was, as one student succinctly stated,”definitely a win-win.”

Considerations for Future Engagement

Looking to the future with a continuation of the Cultural Conversations partnerships in addition to new initiatives, several considerations are helpful to keep in mind.  It is important to set realistic expectations for all and to modify programming to meet individual partner’s goals and needs, balancing social and academic intentions.  Additionally, staff availability, time zones challenges (including differences in observing daylight savings time), and accessibility to technology for both domestic and international students as well as advertising and recruitment must be considered as we look to expand connections between faculty across disciplines.

Based on student feedback, we also hope to further explore engagement activities that begin with Cultural Conversations and include more collaborative project based learning.  While we must consider different attendance models (i.e. required commitments over time or drop in participation), we hope to build in more hands-on activities so that students across cultures can apply knowledge and skills to create collaborative representations of their learning.

Finally, as we look to expand our offerings, we realize the need to modify how we evaluate program outcomes. The Association of American Colleges & Universities (2014) has designed a Global Learning VALUE Rubric that our team would like to integrate into our existing assessment tools. The goal is to offer this assessment the first and final weeks of Cultural Conversation terms to track the growth and development of students’ cultural competence to best guide areas for our program to focus on more in the future.
How can we engage students from any discipline at any point in their college career in these meaningful and accessible Cultural Conversations around the globe?  How can we maximize student learning from these types of partnerships?  The Global Education Office of VCU will continue to work towards this goal and we welcome connections with you to further explore ways to virtually strengthen international learning.

References

Association of American Colleges & Universities. (2014). Global learning VALUE rubric. https://www.aacu.org/value/rubrics/global-learning

Gokcora, D. (2021, January). Benefits of collaborative online international learning projects. Academia Letters, Article 202.

Jie, Z. & Pearlman, A. M. G. (2018). Expanding access to international education through technology enhanced collaborative online international learning (COIL) courses. International Journal of Technology in teaching and Learning, 14(1), 1-11.

SUNYCOIL. (2021). Welcome. https://coil.suny.edu/

Structure and Outcomes of Int’l Humanitarian Engineering Program

by DA Global | Dec 22, 2021 | Articles

Posted: Thursday, December 22, 2021

By: Aaron Brown, Ph.D., Metropolitan State University of Denver and Dra Irma Livier De Regil Sanchez, Universidad del Valle de Atemajac

With travel restrictions and lockdowns due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, faculty at Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver), La Universidad del Valle de Atemajac (UNIVA), La Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB Medellin), and SRH University Heidelberg organized a virtual collaborative course in the subject of “Humanitarian Engineering” for the Spring 2021 semester. This course engaged students and faculty from all 4 partners in a virtual workshop to solve pressing issues for the vulnerable communities in the region of the universities. This paper will report on student and faculty engagement in this online program and the contribution to global diversity, equity, and inclusion as measured by a pre and post workshop survey.

The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic presented unprecedented global shut downs. Consequently, restrictions in travel and in-person interaction impacted traditional global engagement. While this scenario halted study abroad, it did allow institutions to advance and normalize technologies (such as Zoom) which connect us and allow for global interactions.

MSU Denver, a Hispanic-Serving Institute, has one of the most diverse student bodies in Colorado, with only 1% of students studying abroad. By adapting Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), a methodology of creating connection for both students and faculty across countries through online collaborative work and curriculum, we enable more students to engage in global experiences and cultural exchange in a cost-effective interaction. This model, developed by the SUNNY COIL Center (Guimarães & Finadri , 2021), provided the blueprint for faculty from MSU Denver in the US, UNIVA in Mexico, La UPB Medellin in Colombia, and SRH University Heidelberg in Germany to organize a virtual collaborative course in the subject of “Humanitarian Engineering” for the Spring 2021 semester.

By leveraging technology, COIL helps reduce barriers for students facing marginalizing circumstances which might otherwise restrict them from international educational involvement (Guimarães  & Finadri, 2021). Moreover, it allows interaction of students and faculty across distances and borders in a way that can increase global awareness and engagement.

Humanitarian Engineering (HE) is problem solving aimed at improving the capacity of underserved communities. Offering curriculum in this area has been documented to increase participation and retention of underrepresented and minority students in STEM fields (Adams, 2014).  The label, “underrepresented”, is contextual (i.e. a Latino student in Mexico would not be considered underrepresented but a Latino student in Denver would). For this paper we report on the particular experience of the MSU Denver students and how this COIL experience in HE encouraged participation by underrepresented populations and expanded global interaction.

Structure

This experience occurred completely on a virtual platform. Students from the 4 participating institutions attended synchronous lectures transmitted through Zoom, a cloud-based communication App. Over the course of 4 weeks, faculty from the collaborating institutions presented foundational content related to methodologies for implementing HE projects. After lecture material was presented, students were assigned to breakout rooms (a function within Zoom that allows separate sessions to take place within the meeting) where they could work in groups on course activities. Course material linked the development of problem analysis and applied approaches to the United Nations Development Goals (UNDP) (Gupta, Vegelin, 2016). High emphasis was placed on field methods for analyzing capacity and vulnerabilities of communities. Attention was paid to issues of social justice, equity, and environmental impact for the selection of Appropriate Technologies (Bauer, Brown 2014). Additionally, consideration was made for structure which encouraged inclusion of diverse thoughts from differing cultural perspective. Understanding student demographics was also utilize by instructors to direct the course with components that leveraged the “funds of knowledge” of participating students (Verdín, Smith, Lucena, 2019). This methodology applies experiences and backgrounds, often in a cultural context, as part of the learning activity. In this case, student groups focused on projects to address local vulnerabilities they could identify from their personal familiarity with their communities. This was particularly valuable in the community assessment and project selection where imbedded community experience of the students helped identify local issues that could be addressed through HE.

The 4-week seminar was followed by a 1-week workshop consisting of 2 hours per day activities in which students from the partnership universities worked on teams in Zoom breakout rooms to conceptualize projects that addressed problems in their communities that they identified using the methodology presented in earlier lectures. As such, the workshop facilitated a service-learning experience that connected perspectives of students from different parts of the world for projects that could assist their local communities.

Demographics of Students

Of the 22 MSU Denver students that participated in this experience 9 (40.9%) were female. Female students are generally underrepresented in engineering studies and in the case of MSU Denver engineering programs, this level of inclusion is approximately four times the overall baseline program representation. Additionally, 10 of the students involved (45.4%) identified demographically in categories considered underrepresented in the STEM fields in the US (Chen, Weko, 2009). 17 of the 22 participants identified as first-generation students. At MSU Denver there was no targeted marketing for this class. However, the course was open to all interested students with no prerequisites. This openess removed any perceived barriers to engineering and to global education. The diversity of this program reflects the general trend in HE education which has trends towards more inclusivity than the historically technocratic and masculine culture of traditional engineering education (Litchfield, K 2014)

Survey

To understand the impact of this experience, a survey was conducted pre and post workshop. The survey used a mixed methods approach to quantify outcome attributes of HE, COIL and Service projects including questions related to global engagement and participatory methods.
Students were asked to give ranked responses to questions related to these topics. The scores of the pre-course survey and post-course survey were compared using a T test methodology for two paired sample averages. 40 paired questions were asked.

Below are results from one set of paired questions that were given.Students provided ranked responses on a scale of 1-5:

Question 6. Other courses and means have helped me to understand the problems and needs faced by the community in which I live

Question 7. The International Humanitarian Engineering Workshop-Seminar (IHES) has helped me to understand the problems and needs faced by the community in which I live

Variable         responses       Median       Standard Dev        Error
———-           ——-         ————–   —————-    —————-
Other               18                         2.7778            1.0033              0.2365
IHES                  18                        3.5000            1.0981              0.2588

DIFERENCE      18                       -0.7222            1.5645              0.3688

T of responses =         -1.9585
Degrees of Freedom =    17
Significance  p  =      0.0668

Table 1: T test values for sample paired questions

The paired questions produced a mean T value of 2.934 with an average P value of .018. Thus, this survey indicated that awareness was gained by participants of the challenges faced in vulnerable communities in different global settings, of HE impacts on improving community capacity and the impact this course had on global engagement.

It is recognized that the reported results are limited by the small sample size, limited scope and theoretical nature of the projects. Additionally, only 18 of the 22 participants completed both surveys.

Closing Thoughts

This seminar and workshop showed the benefit an online platform can offer in creating opportunity for students to be involved in an international experience. This project demonstrated expansion of global awareness for participants. It attracted a significantly larger population of students categorized as underrepresented in STEM fields as compared to other engineering courses offered at the same institution.  The workshop offered an opportunity for cross-cultural learning and concepts were created that have potential to improve the capacity for low income and/or vulnerable communities in the partnership universities’ regions. Furthermore, connections were made between the students and a true international experience occurred via a virtual platform. Students have expressed that they hope to actualize some of the concepts generated in a post-pandemic setting.

References

Adams, E., & Burgoyne, M. (2014). “Integrating Humanitarian Engineering Design Projects to Increase Retention of Underrepresented Minority Students and to Achieve Interpersonal Skill Related Learning Outcomes,” Proceedings of ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Indianapolis, IN.

Aydin, H., & Cinkaya, M. (2018). “Global Citizenship Education and Diversity (GCEDS): A Measure of Students’ Attitudes Related to Social Studies Program in Higher Education.” Journal for Multicultural Education 12 (3):, 221–236.

Bauer, A.M. & Brown, A. (2014). “Quantitative Assessment of Appropriate Technology” Proc Eng. 78, 345–358. DOI:10.1016/j.proeng.2014.07.076

Chen, X., & Weko, T. (2009). Students who Study Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in Postsecondary Education. National Center for Education Statistics 2009-61

Guimarães, F. & Finardi, R. (2021). “Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in Internationalization: COIL as Alternative Thirdspace.” Globalization, Societies and Education. DOI: 10.1080/14767724.2021.1875808

Gupta, J., & Vegelin, C. (2016). Sustainable Development Goals and Inclusive Development. International Environmental Agreements 16, 433–448 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-016-9323-z

Litchfield, K. (2014). “Characterizing and Understanding the Growing Population of Socially Engaged Engineers through Engineers Without Borders-USA.” Dissertation, University of Colorado Boulder

Verdín, D., Smith, J.& Lucena, J., (2019, June), “Recognizing Engineering Students’ Funds of Knowledge: Creating and Validating Survey Measures.” ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Tampa, Florida. https://peer.asee.org/33226 

Reviving the Art of Listening as Tool for Global Engagement

by DA Global | Dec 22, 2021 | Articles

Posted:  Thursday, December 22, 2021

By: Kathryn Dwyer Navajas, University of Florida

The University of Florida is in a small college town far from the Spanish-speaking cities of south Florida. In 2012, when my department chair asked me to put together a service-learning course in Spanish, the local Spanish-speaking community was mostly affiliated with the university and not much in need of service from second language learners of Spanish or even heritage speakers, most of whom were very clear that any career in Florida would necessitate an advanced level of linguistic and cultural competence in Spanish. Pondering the options, I found an eager collaborator in Deborah Hendrix, of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, who assured me that we could launch an oral history project in Spanish. My learning objectives were for students to improve their Spanish, develop empathy by learning about their immigrant neighbors and families, get comfortable being uncomfortable, and embrace cultural humility through the art of asking questions that prompt reflection and develop the art of listening. Deborah added improved digital literacy, which students would realize through filming a 30-minute interview and then editing it down to 5 minutes and adding subtitles. The oral history project was part of a course focused on the pull and push factors of immigration from Spanish-speaking countries.

The classroom for this course is itself a microcosm of cultural and linguistic differences and insecurities. The students enrolled come from a variety of backgrounds: many are the children of immigrants and some of those are heritage speakers of Spanish; some are second-language learners of Spanish. Apart from the few for whom Spanish is their strongest language, all of them express insecurity about their linguistic competence in that language. Having to do something important in a language one feels insecure about is a way to develop empathy; students experience in the project the reality that many immigrants live every day. They realize that effective communication does not necessarily involve flawless grammar; that the heart can at times communicate more effectively than the head.

The course content challenges the official history they have learned in school as well as the explanation given in many immigrant families that begin and end with “we came to give you a better life,” both of which often have the effect of discouraging further inquiry. Students find themselves studying about the U.S. role in destabilizing their parents´ country of origin and suddenly they have more questions. Even students whose parents came on the Mayflower must come to terms with the legacy of U.S. policies in the countries whose language and cultures they have embraced.

Students thus undertake the oral history project from a place of vulnerability and uncertainty. In order to catch them before they retreat into the known, into what is comfortable, we connect them to the work that students before them have done so that they feel part of a much bigger project. They review the videos made in previous semesters and choose the topic for the video they will make from suggestions solicited from students at the end of the previous semester.  Even while they are working on their own interviews and then editing them, they have to gather six friends, acquaintances, or perfect strangers, select four 5-minute interviews from previous videos, present them and lead a discussion about what they are learning about the immigrant experience. Even though they don´t know everything, even though they may have never discussed these issues with those gathered, they go out into the world to create a space for immigrant voices to be heard and engaged.

Another challenge that students face is group work, which can be fraught, but the oral history project can´t be done alone, so we work to form teams of three that balance linguistic, technical, and people skills. Students must negotiate varying levels of commitment even as they make complex decisions that require cultural sensitivity and ethical discernment, such as how to edit down to 5 minutes what a narrator has told in 30 minutes while respecting that person´s voice and story. At times they have to decide how to handle a story that paints too rosy a picture or one that goes off the rails into a tirade tinged by loss. They have to decide how to prepare subtitles when the speaker is shifting between Spanish and English or when a mistake is made in one language or the other. The decisions they make as a group involve parsing issues of power, emotion, and history. Interviewing a Puerto Rican who arrived months after Hurricane María in 2017 or a Colombian who fled narcoviolence decades ago or a Cuban who walked from Panama to the southern border when the “wet foot-dry foot policy” ended requires empathy and historical knowledge that we strive to develop through curricular choices and classroom practices throughout the semester.

It is now easier than ever to launch an oral history project with global reach. Technology has greatly evolved, and videoconferencing in response to travel restrictions now makes it easier to focus more on the people and the stories they tell than on the challenges of how to record them: lighting, audio, dogs barking, camera angles, the rule of thirds, etc.  While there is some loss of the human warmth we experience in the presence of others, recording on Zoom is much easier than arranging a meeting of four people, hauling equipment, and dealing with so many variables, and it also allows for interviewing people in other countries.

Reviving the art of listening disrupts the drive to make the easy choices, to get the job done, to check off three more credits on the way to a college degree. Tuning in to the voices that contest the official history, that confound the national discourse about immigration, that crack open the family narrative means being willing to reframe what a student may think she knows. Listening to the voices within the team and making collective decisions means being willing to compromise. Listening to the narrators, whose accents and lexicons and difficulty with two languages reflects their own struggles and insecurities, gives students permission to transcend the fear of saying something wrong and to reach across cultural and linguistic differences to engage as global citizens. While our universities pride themselves on producing knowledge, the art of listening and the gift of attention lay the foundation for relationships, across borders, identities, and multiple categories of difference, relationships that, when harnessed to academic knowledge, may provide the horsepower necessary to pull us out of long-standing quandaries about immigration.

To view videos of some of the oral history projects we have done in this course: https://www.youtube.com/user/SPOHP111/search?query=spanish

To explore SPOHP resources for launching oral history projects: https://oral.history.ufl.edu/research/tutorials