Conceptualising and educating for global citizenship: the experiences of academics in an Australian university

ABSTRACT

Education for global citizenship is one of many of strategies adopted by higher education institutions. We share the findings of a qualitative study in one Australian university that examined the impact of a university goal to embed global citizenship. We found Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model to be a suitable framework to examine the process of developing global citizens at our institution. Our findings suggest that university strategies at the macro-level need better understanding of forces within the exo-system – the academic educator workforce – to achieve greater engagement and impact on academic goals. Despite apparent shortcomings with implementation, transformative educational processes were revealed.

KEYWORDS:

• global citizenship
• higher education
• action research
• transformative learning

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by a La Trobe University SOTL Grant.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a La Trobe University SOTL grant.