THE AFRICAN DEMOCRACY PROJECT AT WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY: AN INTERNATIONAL, INTER-INSTITUTIONAL APPROACH TO GLOBAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

In 2009, The Forum on Contemporary Issues in Society (FOCIS) of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan (USA) initiated The African Democracy Project (ADP) in which high achieving undergraduate students from diverse academic disciplines undertook a series of courses which explored how democracy was emerging in selected countries of Mozambique, Botswana, and Liberia. Almost fifty students enrolled in this unique educational opportunity designed to facilitate students’ deeper understanding of governance in Africa, exploring theories of civil conflict, democratization and democratic institutions. Given the nature of the project purpose, ADP fits well within the conference topic area of “global issues in education and research”.

The proposed conference presentation will outline an innovative course pedagogy involving senior-junior faculty member mentoring, graduate student leadership, and content expert panelists from both the U.S. and Africa. For the past three years, ADP has worked to develop an effective model of international, inter-institutional collaboration to facilitate course planning, oversight and execution, and research. Strategies for building inter-institutional, international partnerships will be discussed.

Ongoing research activities will be presented and include student blogging, video diaries, and individual research projects. Excerpts from student research projects and video materials collected and edited by a professional media team, who traveled with the students, will be provided.

An additional layer of research will be presented. Students’ transformative experiences, including perceptions and expectations of democracy in the U.S. and governance in Africa, captured by pre- and post-travel interviews, will be discussed. The implications for future research on reflective practice and individual (intrapersonal) change through international study will be explored.