Abstract:

Our graduates face a complex international work environment. In order to fully participate, they need to be prepared as responsible global citizens who can practice within this complexity. We propose that responsible global citizenship in an increasingly diverse and complex social milieu, currently characterized by environmental and economic hardships, requires a liberal education, liquid knowing and international education that engages the concepts of global democracy, global engagement, and the global development of empathy.
In the rapidly changing global landscape, students need the grounding of a liberal education with the fluidity of learning beyond disciplines. At a time when our graduates need to be prepared for global citizenships and practice across disciplines, higher education has moved increasingly toward disciplinary education and away from liberal education. Consequently, liberal education needs to be strengthened and disciplinary boundaries broken to support the development of liquid knowing. With liquid knowing, knowledge borders are destroyed and knowledge flows freely among disciplines without disciplinary ownership. Scholars engaged within the global environment will need to transcend narrowly defined disciplinary and cultural boundaries.
Education for global citizenship requires engagement in international learning processes. Learning across international boundaries provides an opportunity for students to expand their worldviews and develop cultural empathy as they explore issues and expand knowledge from multiple perspectives. It creates the opportunity for exploring alternative worldviews, communication styles, personal assumptions, community, and cultural perceptions. As students develop relationships with students from other cultures and experience the richness of others, they are provided with an opportunity to explore their own knowledge, values, and assumptions. While all of our graduates will live and work in a global environment, not all students are able to study abroad. Therefore, alternative models for internationalizing the curriculum must be explored.
It is proposed that liberal education, based in liquid knowing, and international education will provide the framework needed to develop the concepts of global democracy, global engagement and global development of empathy. Global democracy moves toward development of positive peace based on consensus building among disparate populations is lasting and peace-centered. Democracies cannot long survive without creation of a global democracy; the alternative is to always be threatened by powerful non-democracies. Global engagement moves beyond the national in preparation for collective responses to global issues. And, global civilization will need to be characterized by global empathy. Empathic behavior allows individuals to transcend provincial boundaries and engage the world in I/Thou relationships.

Keywords:

Global citizenship, democracy, empathy, conflict transformation.