One key topic that underpins global engagement in teaching and learning is developing globally engaged curriculum. To help educators across disciplines envision what a globally engaged curriculum might look like in their subject field, the Centre for Teaching & Learning (CTL) has developed the following resources for options and inspirations.
Sections:
- Working Definition of Globally Engaged Curriculum
- Developing Globally Engaged Curriculum
- Globally Engaged Curriculum Exemplar Courses
Working Definition of Globally Engaged Curriculum
In consultation with the VP International Office, the CTL has developed a working definition of globally engaged curriculum as the starting point for future evolvement.
A Globally Engaged Curriculum, at Queen’s University, reflects broader global and intercultural perspectives in content, learning outcomes, assessment, and instructional strategies. It intentionally engages students with diverse worldviews and ways of knowing to question and disrupt dominant western-centric knowledges, pedagogies, and research practices. A Globally Engaged Curriculum commits to cultural humility, anti-racism, decolonization, and accessibility in a holistic manner that holds both educators and students accountable. It advocates for the contributions of globally diverse values and practices, and inspires innovative, equitable, and impactful research.
The ultimate goal of reorienting curriculum for global engagement is to foster global understandings and experiences in Queen’s classrooms. Through this, students will not only develop competencies to work effectively across cultural contexts but also demonstrate social responsibility to contribute both locally and globally using equitable approaches.
To better understand this definition, a globally engaged curriculum is built on three pillars, four core values, and two folds as the graphics demonstrate.
| Three Pillars | Four Core Values | Two Folds | |
|---|---|---|---|
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It provides opportunities for educators and students to work together through out a course to:
- question Western (Anglo-and Euro-American) ideologies, epistemologies, and methodologies that dominate the subject
- support diverse ways of being, thinking and doing
- showcase globally diverse values and practices in the subject and/or discipline
- connect local to global in terms of solving real-world issues
Developing Globally Engaged Curriculum
There are a multitude of ways to develop globally engaged curriculum, and global engagement manifests differently in the wide spectrum of courses, programs, and disciplines at Queen’s. To help educators integrate global engagement in their curriculum, the CTL brings backward design in conversation with Leask’s (2015) approaches to Curriculum Internationalization for inspirations and options.
Backward Design
Step 1: Identify the expected learning outcomes: What should students know and/or be able to do by the end of the course?
Step 2: Determine learning evidence: What assessments will help students demonstrate whether they have achieved the learning outcomes?
Step 3: Plan learning experiences: What instructional strategies and/or learning activities will enable students to achieve the learning outcomes?
Step 4: Choose course content: what readings, materials, and resources will help students successfully achieve the learning outcomes?
Read another example of backward design.
Approaches to Globally Engaged Curriculum
Adapted from Leask (2015), there are three approaches to develop globally engaged curriculum: ‘add-on’, ‘curricular infusion’, and ‘transformation’. Add-on, compared with the other two approaches, is easier for educators to implement as it asks for no fundamental changes in course design. Through this approach, educators can add one reading or plan one activity that reflects different cultural or global perspectives in their course. Transformation, on the other hand, expects educators to shift in cultural perspectives and move among different cultures and worldviews. This approach better applies to subjects that are deeply embedded in intercultural practices and knowledges.
‘Curricular infusion’ is the approach the CTL recommends for developing globally engaged curriculum. This approach requires educators to rethink and reorient their course design through incorporating intercultural or global perspectives into the steps of backward design. The first and foremost step is to identify the overall course goals and expectations for global engagement, in which educators need to go beyond merely focusing on knowledge and content but take other essential aspects of teaching and learning into consideration. Then specify these goals and expectations into learning outcomes that drive the design of assessment, planning of learning activities, and consideration of which content to use or not use.
Holistic Framework for Globally Engaged Curriculum
To help educators further navigate the approach of curricular infusion, the CTL has created a holistic framework as a concept map to guide the process of developing globally engaged curriculum, beginning with learning outcomes.
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The holistic framework for globally engaged curriculum, developed by Yunyi Chen, (in consultation with Lindsay Brant, Educational Developer-Indigenous Curriculum and Ways of Knowing, CTL and Aaron St. Pierre, Associate Director, Office of Indigenous Initiatives) Educational Developer-Program and Curriculum Globalization Centre for Teaching & Learning, Queen’s University, is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
As Yunyi Chen comes from a cultural background where holism is valued and respected, she has a particular appreciation for Indigenous knowledges and pedagogies such as the Four Directions Teachings and the Medicine Wheel. Both guide her to practice her work in a holistic manner by incorporating emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual ways of thinking and doing. She is committed to incorporating Indigenous knowledges and pedagogies in her work to decolonize her practice of educational development. In consultation with Lindsay Brant, Educational Developer-Indigenous Curriculum and Ways of Knowing at the CTL and Aaron St. Pierre, Associate Director at OII, Yunyi developed this holistic framework to help educators create globally engaged curriculum through a holistic and decolonizing approach.
The Medicine Wheel originates from Anishinaabe culture and tradition. This Indigenous knowledge is used with respect and appreciation in this framework for educational purposes. It remains the cultural property of the Indigenous Peoples with whom they originate.
This framework is composed of four layers. At the centre lies the four core values of globally engaged curriculum defined by the working definition. Decolonization is the heart reified through practices of cultural humility, anti-racism, and accessibility.
The second layer is built around the Student Success Framework adapted from Lizzio (2006), as the primary tasks and missions of higher education are to enhance student success in both local and global contexts. This is where educators navigate their overall course goals and expectations, while taking into consideration student success factors.
The third layer is adapted from Dee Fink’s (2013) Taxonomy of Significant Learning, which highlights essential components of teaching and learning that are oftentimes overlooked in higher education, such as ‘caring’, ‘human dimension’, and ‘learning how to learn’. This layer helps educators transform their overall course goals and expectations into learning outcomes through reflecting on critical questions that challenge the dominant ideology, epistemology, and methodologies prevalent in practices of teaching and learning.
The last layer, also the foundation of this framework, is the Medicine Wheel. This layer ensures that educators cover all four important aspects of teaching and learning in their development of learning outcomes and the associated curriculum in terms of emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental ways of thinking and doing.
Following this framework, educators can focus on student success in their curriculum development that goes beyond delivering knowledge and content. In addition, they can situate their curriculum and practice of work in a decolonizing context by decentering what has been dominant in teaching and learning and instead centering diversity in rationales, strategies, approaches, and activities (Jooste & Heleta, 2017).
To learn more about the holistic framework, read ‘Developing Globally Engaged Curriculum’ (PDF, 800KB).
To apply the holistic framework in your practice of work, use this worksheet (Word, 72KB).
For any question about globally engaged curriculum, please feel free to contact CTL at ctl@queensu.ca for a consultation or conversation.
Bond, S. (2003). Engaging educators: Bringing the world into the classroom. Canadian Bureau of International Education (CBIE): Ottawa.
Chen, Y. & Brant, L. (2022 February). Framing Pedagogy of Peace in the Context of Student Success [workshop]. Centre for Teaching and Learning, Queen’s University
Chen, Y., & Fontaine, L. (2019 November) wiingashk (sweet grass): Braiding into Inclusive Education. [workshop]. Centre for the Advancement of Teaching & Learning, University of Manitoba
Fink, L. Dee. (2013). Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Leask, B. (2015). Internationalising the Curriculum. Abingdon: Routledge.
Lizzio, A. (2006). Designing an orientation and transition strategy for commencing students: Applying the five senses model. Retrieved from https://sc.edu/nrc/presentation/annual/2014/FD-128%20Going%20Global%20International%20Perspectives%20-Handout%20Facilitated%20Discussion%20Sessions_Stu%20Success.pdf
Jooste, N. & Heleta, S. (2017) Global Citizenship Versus Globally Competent Graduates: A Critical View From the South. Journal of Studies in International Education, 21 (1), 39-51.
Globally Engaged Curriculum Exemplar Courses
The CTL would like to showcase how some instructors across disciplines have creatively and innovatively integrated global engagement in their curriculum. This space is a work in progress and will be continually updated to celebrate the great work from our teaching community. We hope the exemplar courses inspire you to start making changes in your own course for global engagement, and we look forward to collaborating with individual educators and the departments at Queen’s in this exciting endeavour. Please feel free to reach out to us at ctl@queensu.ca We are here to support you.
Exemplar One: POLS 366
...the most amazing part of this journey was seeing how re-framing and re-organizing my existing structure could enhance the course development and delivery. I highly recommend my colleagues who are in teaching role here at Queen' taking on this journey to make your courses more globally engaged for student success.
Samantha Twietmeyer, Instructor for POLS 366: The United Nations
My name is Samantha Twietmeyer and I’ve been teaching in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University for about four years. I love teaching and I am committed to including a diverse set of perspectives in my courses, both in terms of diverse local perspectives as well as global sources. However, I found the courses I taught lacked intentionality in terms of delivering these diverse perspectives to the students. Although the United Nations course (POLS 366) seems to naturally lend itself to globally engaged discussions, it is just as easy to find myself stuck in the traditional discourses while trying to steer my class successfully through a semester.
I was excited to work with Yunyi Chen, an Educational Developer at the Centre for Teaching & Learning (CTL), on my syllabus of POLS 336 this year to include more intentionality around global engagement within this course. This meant, for example, reorienting my learning outcomes to focus student learning on global learning and experiences through the active simulation component and scaffolded reflections. The Holistic Framework for Globally Engaged Curriculum Yunyi developed allowed me to break apart my usual course elements and discover how they fit together more logically to produce a course which engages students in consideration of their own positionality in the subject, and responsibilities in solving real-world issues. Moreover, I am confident that the integration of globally engaged learning is now being made clearer for my students than it has been in the past. The clear intentionality of activities and learning outcomes that promote globally engaged learning allows for students to take control of their own learning experience and better understand how to take the course learning beyond the classroom into their own lives and communities.
Besides a few moments when I discarded some older course elements for new and innovative ideas, the most amazing part of this journey was seeing how re-framing and re-organizing my existing structure could enhance the course development and delivery. I highly recommend my colleagues who are in a teaching role here at Queen’s taking on this journey to make your courses more globally engaged for student success.
The graphics below demonstrate some of my process for applying the Holistic Framework for Globally Engaged Curriculum to my United Nations course wile I was preparing it for the Fall 2022 Semester.
I utilised the backwards-design strategy to work through my course elements:
- Step 1: Learning Outcomes
- Step 2: Assessment Design
- Step 3: Weekly Planning
You can use the gallery to learn about how I used Microsoft PowerPoint to apply each step of the strategy. Simply select any images to open the gallery style interaction/
You can download all three components as a PDF: POLS Engagement Planning (PDF, 163KB)
All graphics are copyright Samantha Twietmeyer, Teaching Fellow/PhD candidate at the Department of Political Studies, Queen’s University, and are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
For possibly obvious reasons, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been a core part of the United Nations course since its first delivery. At minimum, there is a lecture day dedicated to the SDG framework as it is a core piece of UN development architecture. The SDGs are also one of the course components where the class examines global financial structures, as well as the tension between global and state-level commitments and the concept of shared but differentiated responsibility. Additionally, the SDGs are part of the Simulated Negotiation component. Students are required to draft resolution clauses which reflect or otherwise cite one or more SDGs. It is a requirement of their Position Papers to demonstrate how their recommendations reflect actions on SDGs.
This year’s (2022) simulation is going to specifically reflect the priorities of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) which is one of the core UN bodies tasked with oversight on the SDGs. As a result, I have planned a pre-simulation activity on the SDGs to help my students develop a stronger grasp of the various commitments and the key actors involved before they head into the Simulation component.
POLS366 Magazine Syllabus (PDF, 1.3MB)
I also developed the Magazine-Style Syllabus to display all essential course components in a summary fashion that is more engaging than the standard long-form syllabus document. Components like the course reading lists or assessments and associated deadlines can be printed out easily on a single page for quick reference. For the purpose of multiple access, students are also provided a standard course-syllabus that provides even greater guidance and detail.
All syllabus content is provided again in onQ and students are advised that the most up-to-date syllabus content is to be found through onQ in the case of discrepancies or alterations.
Exemplar Two: BLCK 380
It was a rewarding experience to work on BLCK 380 for global engagement. As an instructor, I was inspired to think further about my approach to teaching, pedagogical development, and student mentorship… I would recommend my fellow instructors and members of Queen’s teaching community to join this collective effort to develop globally engaged curriculum to reflect the nature and scale of the challenges facing humanity and the diversity and lived experiences of our student body.
Kesha Fevrier, Instructor of BLCK 380 - Black Environmental Ecologies: A Global South Perspective
My name is Kesha Fevrier, and I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Planning. To address major global challenges, such as the climate crisis, increasing food insecurity, war, conflict and displacement, the debt burdens of poor countries, public and environmental health effects of resource extraction, and hazardous waste management, I embarked on the journey to design BLCK 380 - Black Environmental Ecologies: A Global South Perspective – as part of the Black Studies minor. While these issues are global in scale, they have an outsized impact on countries in the global South and their racialized populations.
Given the focus of this course and my intention to situate Black studies in a global context, I collaborated with Yunyi Chen, an Educational Developer at the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL), to make BLCK 380 a globally engaged course using the Holistic Framework for Globally Engaged Curriculum. Through this process, I intend to set students up to appreciate diverse perspectives (even those they don’t agree with), practice cultural humility, anti-racism, and decolonization in their interactions with peers (from all backgrounds) and engage equitably with the wider community. This collaboration also provided me with a great opportunity to rework my course syllabus to ensure better alignment between the course learning outcomes, assessments, grading rubrics, and instructions.
It was a rewarding experience to work with Yunyi on BLCK 380 for global engagement. As an instructor, I was inspired to think further about my approach to teaching, pedagogical development, and student mentorship. For students, the inclusive and engaging environment this course aims to establish, will increase their interest in the learning process and the academic fields within which their research unfolds. I would recommend my fellow instructors and members of Queen’s teaching community to join this collective effort to develop globally engaged curriculum to reflect the nature and scale of the challenges facing humanity and the diversity and lived experiences of our student body.
The graphics below demonstrate the course learning outcomes, assessments, and their alignment in light of the Holistic Framework for Globally Engaged Curriculum. I also included the course outline as I will teach this course in the Winter 2023 semester.
The graphics are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. You can download them as a PDF: BLCK 380 Planning (PDF, 168KB).
BLCK 380 Course Syllabus (PDF, 1.5MB)
This course syllabus (copyright Kesha Fevrier, Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography and Planning, Queen’s University) includes all course components for detailed information, and is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License. This syllabus can be downloaded by students in onQ where all readings required in this course can be accessed.