Abstract
This study offers an innovative pedagogical approach for students to gain greater awareness of how local stakeholders are creating solutions for global challenges including those related to the migration and/or displacement of people, goods, and services. This research presents active learning pedagogies for students to study globalization through the lens of local stakeholder-led social change. Based on survey and interview data, this project examines how students can engage in active learning for which they serve local communities responding to global challenges including but not limited to: energy transitions and sustainability, growing economic divides, and access to education as a human right. The study draws on an original data set of over two hundred students who have taken part in specialized skills training and placed in teams to serve social entrepreneurs addressing key issues in globalization in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. Student teams work with social entrepreneurs leading local solutions to complex phenomena relating to infrastructure challenges (water remediation and clean energy production etc.) and local economies (artisanal production and family farms). The research offers replicable models for community-led active learning and emphasizes how students can learn cultural humility to take a stakeholder-centered approach, which is key to respecting and preserving local cultures. By ensuring that local communities are the drivers of change rather than students or educational institutions from the Global North, the project contributes to greater understanding of the socio-cultural dimensions of globalization.
Presenters
Laura RobinsonProfessor, Sociology, SCU, California, United States Morgan Vodzak
Katia Moles
Adjunct Lecturer, Engineering, Santa Clara University, California, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Vectors of Society and Culture
KEYWORDS
Stakeholders, Local Culture, Cultural Humility, Active Learning, Pedagogy
