Teaching Globally, Learning Locally

Demographic pressures, natural resource demands, environmental challenges, rapid technological change, economic integration, new security threats, and other transnational issues invite global engagement on the part of colleges and universities. As educators and citizens, faculty and administrators should want their graduates to possess the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to effectively communicate and collaborate across cultures in an effort to address pressing global issues.

This special issue of the eJournal of Public Affairs focuses on how colleges and universities are preparing students to effectively engage in global issues and how they can educate globally competent citizens. A large and increasing number of campuses include global engagement and/or educating globally competent citizens as integral elements in their mission and vision statements. Many campuses also have “pockets of excellence” related to global and international activities but lack coordinated and comprehensive strategies for global engagement and global-competence education.