Inspiring Students to Seek the Meaning of Global Citizenship in Their Lives: Lessons From Personal Pedagogy and Research

Authors

Keywords:

global citizenship education;, integrated curriculum, inspired meaning

Abstract

Inspiring students to seek the meaning of global citizenship in their personal lives is a critical responsibility of a higher education curriculum that aims to provide students with indispensable knowledge and skills to participate successfully in an increasingly pluralistic and interconnected global society. This article relates personal reflections from teaching and research to offer a view that higher education should provide all learners with a holistic global citizenship education. Both curricula and extra-
curricular activities are needed that intentionally cultivate the requisite knowledge and skills associated with global awareness, social responsibility, and engaged civic action.     

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Author Biography

  • Paul Sherman, University of Guelph-Humber

    Dr. Paul Sherman is retired Chair of the Community Social Services Program at the University of Guelph-Humber, Toronto, Canada. He is also founding director of the university’s Soka Education Research Centre on Global Citizenship (SERC-GC), which he continues to run. Dr. Sherman holds adjunct faculty status at the University of Guelph. Prior to entering higher education as a profession, Paul worked for over thirty years in various roles as a clinician and senior administrator in non-profit community mental health settings, particularly with youth and their families. He earned his undergraduate honours degree in psychology from York University (Toronto), his postgraduate diploma in child assessment and counselling from the University of Toronto, and his PhD in Education and Social Justice at the University of Lancaster, U.K. His main research interests include soka (value creating) education and global citizenship education, and his research on these and other topics has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals. Paul has taught undergraduate level courses on global citizenship at the University of Guelph-Humber and Soka University Japan, and has developed and led undergraduate level study abroad courses to Sweden, Japan, Italy, and Austria. For the past three years post-COVID-19, Paul and his research assistants in SERC-GC have collaborated with Kansai Soka High School in Osaka, Japan on a highly successful collaborative online international learning project (COIL).

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Published

2025-12-05

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How to Cite

Inspiring Students to Seek the Meaning of Global Citizenship in Their Lives: Lessons From Personal Pedagogy and Research. (2025). Journal on Excellence in College Teaching. https://celt.miamioh.edu/index.php/JECT/article/view/1242