Global Citizens Are Made, Not Born: Multiclass Role-Playing Simulation of Global Decision Making

Abstract

Globalization, global citizenship, and political engagement have become such buzzwords and clichés that we often lose the sense of their meaning. Global citizenship in particular is an elusive concept to operationalize. This article proposes to look at three dimensions of global citizenship: legal (rights and obligations), psychological identification with the global community, and political ones. Heeding the calls to wed traditional liberal education with the experiential learning in pursuit of developing students' global values and competencies, we devised and implemented a simulation called the Global Summit on Sustainability, an active learning assignment we run in large, general education survey classes (Global Politics and Introduction to American Government & Politics) populated by mostly nonpolitical science majors. The total number of students involved in the summit range from 225 to 360 each semester. But how does having a Global Summit influence the development of global citizenship and its three dimensions in large general education undergraduate political science classes? By using (1) instructor observations at the summit; (2) statistical analyses of pre- and postsummit surveys; and (3) a qualitative review of students' written assignments, we find that the Global Summit influences the development of global citizenship skills.

Keywords:

• active learning
• global citizenship
• political engagement
• role-playing simulation

Acknowledgments

Thank you to our teaching assistants: Dana Breske, Aaron Frailing, Will Johnson, Jessica Krejcarek, Corey Livieri, Ryan Mach, Emily Scholz, Andy Teale, and Christy Tesch for helping run the Summit during three semesters and entering survey data. We also would like to thank UW Lesson Study Project and UWGB Teaching Scholars program for financial support of this project and useful suggestions on earlier drafts of this article.

Notes

^a Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test for multiple independent samples. Bold are statistically significant at p < .10.

^b Mean score based on 5-point Likert scale where 1 = Strongly Disagree and 5 = Strong Agree.

^a Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test for multiple independent samples. Bold are statistically significant at p < .10.

^b Mean score based on 5-point Likert scale where 1 = Strongly Disagree and 5 = Strong Agree.

^a Global Empathy: Combination of four statements (Cronbach's alpha reliability = .699): (1) I enjoy having discussions with people whose ideas and values are different from my own; (2) Learning about people from different cultures is an important part of my college education; (3) I am confident I can communicate with people of a different culture or ethnicity; (4) I feel that I can contribute to the global community.

^a Global Democracy: Combination of two statements (Cronbach's alpha reliability = .813): (1) Democracy requires citizens to regularly participate in government; (2) Democracy requires citizens to be knowledgeable about their government.

^a Global Knowledge: Combination of two statements (Cronbach's alpha reliability = .704): (1) I consider myself informed about global politics; (2) I feel comfortable discussing foreign policy.

^a Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test for multiple independent samples. Bold are statistically significant at p < .10.

^b Mean score based on 5-point Likert scale where 1 = Strongly Disagree and 5 = Strong Agree.

^c Global Empathy: Combination of four statements (Cronbach's alpha reliability = .699): (1) I enjoy having discussions with people whose ideas and values are different from my own; (2) Learning about people from different cultures is an important part of my college education; (3) I am confident I can communicate with people of a different culture or ethnicity; (4) I feel that I can contribute to the global community.

^d Global Democracy: Combination of two statements (Cronbach's alpha reliability = .813): (1) Democracy requires citizens to regularly participate in government; (2) Democracy requires citizens to be knowledgeable about their government.

^e Global Knowledge: Combination of two statements (Cronbach's alpha reliability = .704): (1) I consider myself informed about global politics; (2) I feel comfortable discussing foreign policy.

^a Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test for multiple independent samples. Bold are statistically significant at p < .10.

^b Mean score based on 5-point Likert scale where 1 = Strongly Disagree and 5 = Strong Agree.

^a Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test for multiple independent samples. Bold are statistically significant at p < .10.

^b Mean score based on 5-point Likert scale where 1 = Strongly Disagree and 5 = Strong Agree.

^a Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric test for multiple independent samples. Bold are statistically significant at p < .10.

^b Mean score based on 5-point Likert scale where 1 = Strongly Disagree and 5 = Strong Agree.

DeCaprariis, Barman, and Magee (2001), citing Vygotsky (1962), Piaget (1977), and Gallager and Reid (1981), insist on the importance of peer instruction as an educational benefit. Indeed, we too can see significant effects of peer instruction on citizenship, since the processes of peer instruction and democratic deliberations look very similar and require the same basic skills of listening, explanation, and persuasion.

See http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/files/elibrary/educating_for_democracy/docs/index.html#IV, “Research/Action Projects and Simulations” for existing examples of democratic governance simulations and other active learning projects.

Among impressive examples of transforming the traditional political science classroom into more innovative, action-driven learning environment are Model UN and Model Arab League exercises adopted for regular classes (Chasek 2005; Dunn 2002; McIntosh 2001; Shaw 2004); simulations of the European Union functioning (Switky 2004; Van Dyke, Declair, and Loedel; Zeff 2003); Bosnian War Crimes Tribunal (Jefferson 1999); coalition-building before and after mock German elections (Shellman 2001); General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Lowry 1999); Global Problems Summits dealing with security, human rights, or economic development issues (Boyer 2000; Lantis 1998, 1996; Lantis, Kuzma, and Boehrer 2000); simulations of global policy making to prevent international drug trafficking (Flynn 2000); negotiations of new international human rights treaty (Kille 2002); and international communication and negotiation simulation in general (ICONS; Boyer et al. 2007). For the comprehensive discussion of the status of active learning in international studies, see Lantis, Kille & Krain (n.d.).

Some of the questions on the Global Summit survey questionnaire originally came from Texas A&M University's survey of students completing study-abroad programs.

Unlike several other researchers, we eschew control groups in our research design, given that we each teach just one section of American Government and Global Politics classes per semester and often there are no additional sections to serve as controls. Given that we teach predominantly nonpolitical science majors (and very apolitical students in general), the changes in global citizenship attitudes, if at all, can likely be attributed to the content of the classes, and especially to a comprehensive and time-consuming assignment like the Global Summit that students take very seriously.

We had fewer students in Fall 2008, and beginning that semester all members of the delegation came from one class, not three classes, as before (Spring 2008). Delegations were smaller, we required the resolution be posted on D2L before negotiations could even start, and we were successful in involving everyone during the summit itself by holding concurrent activities and adding extra responsibilities to previously tangential members of the country delegations. These suggested improvements came from both student participants and instructor observers.

For example, the Global Politics class was modified after the instructor added more group discussions, quiz bowls, and in-class demonstrations in the Fall 2009. The American Politics class had different instructors in Spring 2008 and Fall 2008/Spring 2009.

For instructions and handouts on how to run the simulation, please contact the corresponding author.

Even though our research data come from the first three semesters of running the Global Summit, we continued to improve this exercise, based in part of students' suggestions. To date, the Global Summit has been run in five consecutive semesters.

It should be noted that none of the improvements made would have been possible without anonymous reactions from students, reflection papers, and in-class debriefings. We believe these “qualitative” sources greatly enhanced the effectiveness of the Global Summit.

While not produced here, content analysis is being conducted and will be presented in the future.