Michael Woodworth
Equinox Staff
There are three aspects to being a global citizen: awareness, responsibility and action. Put these three components together and one can be an effective global citizen.
Two professors and a handful of students reflected on their roles and responsibilities as global citizens by visiting Peru and Belize. With the experiences fresh in their mind, Prudence Cuper and Jo Beth Mullens put pen to paper and constructed a resource for faculty to teach such a course. Cuper and Mullens’ book titled “Fostering Global Citizenship Through Faculty-Led International Programs” hit shelves this past summer.
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“We found there was not a great text out there,” Mullens said. “It’s the book we wish we had when we started designing and carrying out a faculty-led study abroad course.”
“It would have helped us if we had something like this,” Cuper commented.
In 2009 and 2010, Cuper and Mullens brought a group of Honors students to Peru and Belize as part of their course “Global Engagement.”
They confessed they wished they had a book like the one they published to help them through the course.
According to Mullens, the book is split into three sections: the background of global citizenship, the nuts and bolts or design of the course and the curriculum needed to effectively teach the course.
Margaret Walsh, director of the Honors Program and professor of sociology, said she is happy this book came out.
“I think this is an incredible resource for any faculty member who is considering to travel with students,” she commented.
At the beginning of each chapter in the book, there is a travel tale, which recounts a particular memory from their travels and the courses preparing them. There were travel tales that showed the excitement at getting ready for the trip, visiting Machu Picchu and the coming end of the trip. Each travel tale let the reader experience the trip mentally rather than physically.
“The tales were most fun because we got to relive the experiences,” she said.
Mullens and Cuper both commented that it took longer than expected to complete the book. After more than a year, the book was finished and ready to be published and printed.
In putting the book together, Mullens and Cuper had to research issues in diversity and the best practices, environmentally and socially, in taking students abroad.
“I didn’t get a lot of sleep that year; I am catching up this year,” Mullens said.
She added that while they both worked full time and over the summer as well, it was very tough to put the book together. Being a global citizen is essential to this course. To have awareness, one has to have awareness of self. But, more importantly one has to step out of the self aspect and go into the awareness of others.
The second part of the equation is to have responsibility for one’s actions and how they can impact others either positively or negatively.
The last piece of the puzzle is to act by asking what one can do to foster and interact with others, according to Mullens.
“As Americans, we have to consider that [global citizenship] carefully because we are such an influence around the world,” Mullens said.
This book is here to help teach faculty to lead students globally by studying abroad and becoming a better global citizen.
It is one of a kind and will be used as a resource for years to come.
“We picked apart a variety of issues,” Mullens said. “At the end of the day, I am happy we did it.”
Michael Woodworth can be contacted at mwoodworth@keene-equinox.com