Teaching Global Issues in an Undergraduate Program

Autor: Erik Wingrove-Haugland, Elizabeth Rivero, Alina M. Zapalska, Christopher LaMonica
Rok vydání: 2013
Předmět:
Zdroj: Universal Journal of Educational Research. 1:10-19
ISSN: 2332-3213
2332-3205
DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2013.010102
Popis: In preparing cadets to be officers, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (CGA) is committed to developing "the whole person." CGA has increasingly developed program-specific ways to achieve educational goals and learning outcomes. While character development and ethical education have long been important learning outcomes, today's CGA curriculum has incorporated multicultural concepts and inter-cultural perspectives to encompass learning about problems and issues that cut across national boundaries. This paper discusses how student learning, growth, and development can be achieved in an undergraduate program to ensure that graduates are prepared to meet the many challenges they will face throughout their professional careers and lives in an increasingly global environment. non-academic program which focuses on universal human values and how they apply to current global issues, conflicts, and problems. The paper then presents some examples of academic courses and activities that provide students with knowledge of the world beyond their country's borders and help them understand how their actions can affect this world positively or negatively, and to develop an appreciation of cultural differences and similarities crucial to their ability to function in an interdependent world. These examples show how curriculum design and class activities can help students to appreciate the diversities and commonalties of human values and interests, and to see the world through the eyes of others. The last section provides conclusions on international undergraduate education, arguing that it must be proactive and must include learning experiences that advocate the understanding of both universal human values and the diversity of human cultures.
Databáze: OpenAIRE