Teaching globalization globally: the experience of globalization, social justice and human rights course

Abstract

The changes introduced by the growing global connectivity represent a challenge for education systems – in particular for universities. To be in tune with the necessity of a global society, university teaching needs to transmit on to students not only contents but also the capacity to think globally, overcoming a nationalistic nation-focused perspective. In order to promote the creation of world citizens, universities have to improve students’ capacity to work in cross-cultural virtual teams. The paper aims to present the seven-year experience of teaching a course on Globalization, Social Justice, and Human Rights across international and cultural boundaries.In particular, we describe the ways in which the course attempts to go beyond the mere acquisition of new content and towards promoting dialogue among people with different languages, experiences, university backgrounds, and expectations. The paper ends with a critical assessment of our experience where we discuss the advantages and challenges that students and faculty faced.