COVID-19 Challenges to Teaching Global Mindset: A Developing Countries’ Perspective

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 pandemic has affected one and all in unison. Different sectors, including the educational sector, have been disproportionately affected in developing and the least developed nations. Against this backdrop, this paper, while considering the impact that the pandemic has had on the education sector in developing nations viz. – India, South Africa, and Bangladesh, aims to bring to light the importance of teaching global mindset as there are several unique implications, challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for these nations. Using qualitative methodology, this research adopts an exploratory approach to understand how, among other things, the education sector can catalyze the development and teaching of a global mindset in the selected three countries and can be responsive even beyond. Ten semi-structured interviews have been conducted with “institutional heads/directors” across higher educational institutions in the nations under study to answer the research question that brings out three themes: global and local problem solving, resources, and international experiential learning and exposure toward developing a global mindset. Finally, while corroborating the findings of the research, the article also proposes a new definition of a “global mindset”.

KEYWORDS:

• Global mindset
• educational institutions
• COVID-19
• hybrid format

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Pallvi Arora

Dr. Pallvi Arora is an Assistant Professor at International Centre for Cross Cultural Research and Human Resource Management (ICccR and HRM), University of Jammu, India. Her research interests revolve around cross cultural management, HRD, organisational behaviour, leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship. She has published with journals of national and international repute. She is also a Regional Mentor of Change for the Atal Tinkering Labs in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, a Government of India initiative to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. She is also an Innovation Ambassador for the Institution Innovation Council by Ministry of Education, Government of India.

Shivam Mahajan

Shivam Mahajan is a research scholar at the International Centre for Cross-Cultural Research & Human Resource Management (ICccR & HRM), University of Jammu. An international affairs buff, his interests involve researching about global dynamics of culture, social psychology, knowledge creation, and political science.

Takrar Ahmad Yattoo

Takrar Ahmad Yattoo is the co-founder of Sharda University's Yunus Social Business Center and an expert in social business. He has previously worked on several UNSDG initiatives and is particularly interested in issues relating to women's empowerment, poverty alleviation, net carbon emissions, unemployment, and high-quality education, among other things. The author has also worked with Professor Muhammad Yunus on various micro-finance and social business assignments.