“Education is the point at which we decide if we love the world enough to take responsibility for it.”    – Hannah Arendt

Less than a decade ago, words like global, diverse, interdependent and inclusive were used freely and frequently to describe the world we were living in and the kind of education we wanted for our students. What a difference a decade can make. Now, depending on where we live, we can no longer even utter these words without fear of negative repercussions, let alone lead programmes and teach courses in which these concepts are key.

At this time of deep divisions in the world and serious attacks on international education, is global learning still possible? Are our efforts to lead, teach, research and commit service to global learning a waste of our time, the state’s resources and our political, social and cultural capital?

Our answer is a resounding NO! Global learning is more essential now than ever, and in our view, it is our best hope for saving the ailing heart of international education.

Words matter. They have meaning, gleaned from context and their use in the public sphere. What is global learning? At its core, global learning is a learning process. We subscribe to the philosopher John Dewey’s definition of learning as a process of active engagement with experience, what people do to make sense of the world.

Learning may entail increasing a person’s knowledge, skills and-or capacity for reflection and is a continual, lifelong process. As for global, the word carries two distinct meanings – encompassing the entire world and relating to the whole of something, holistic.

In his recent commentary article in University World News, “Internationalisation: Under assault but worth fighting for”, John K Hudzik makes a compelling case for fighting for international education by focusing on its essential outcomes, or ‘end goals’.

As international education leaders at separate large public research universities in the United States with award-winning global learning initiatives, we appreciate Hudzik’s focus on ends instead of means but need to call out a concept that Hudzik does not mention in his summary of the evolution of internationalisation, and that is global learning.

What is global learning?

The term global learning originated with the United Nations University (UNU), a virtual university of networked research and teaching faculty around the world devoted to solving the world’s most pressing problems.

The first time the term global learning was used was in the UNU’s 1982 to 1987 strategic plan, in which the university was divided into three divisions, one of which was called Global Learning.

The Global Learning Division focused on defining the nature of global problems and determining learning processes that would help people of all ages to develop solutions.

Part of the reason for initially using global learning and for its subsequent expansion was to move away from the narrower concept of ‘international’, which pertains to relations between and among nations and is usually confined to discussions related to interactions between nations.

Taking their cues from the origin of the term and their own institutional context, in 2023 Hilary Landorf and Stephanie Doscher defined global learning as the process of learning with diverse others to analyse and address complex problems that transcend borders and take actions that promote individual and collective well-being.

The bedrock principles in this definition are complex problem-solving, collaboration, diversity and collective well-being.

Students’ engagement in understanding, analysing and addressing problems and challenges that make up the world in which they will live and work after graduation is the ‘why’ of global learning. Collaboration is tied to problem-solving.

Complex problems cannot be understood, much less analysed or addressed, by any single person, group, perspective or discipline. It is through collaboration with others that students have the opportunity to combine parts of their unique ideas, strategies and actions to create workable solutions.

And just as collaboration is connected to problem-solving, it is important to recognise the diversity of knowledge, skills and experiences that students bring to the fore in collaborating with others. This diversity ensures that the solutions they create are encompassing, powerful and relevant.

The ultimate goal of global learning is to increase the quality of life for people and the planet. To do this, it’s our responsibility as global educators to facilitate global learning for our students that prepares them to recognise and act on their responsibility for themselves and for others, and in so doing, to give students the channels to contribute to individual and collective well-being.

The primacy of global learning

Many universities, educational associations, and even governments throughout the world have moved from using the limited framework of internationalisation to the more holistic framework of global learning in their strategic plans, operational strategies and curriculum.

Underpinning each of the principles of global learning is interdependence, the idea that people, entities and systems need each other for support, functioning and survival.

Interdependence is foundational in addressing the great challenges of the world, is at the root of collaboration and diversity and goes hand in hand with collective well-being.

Interdependence is at play in a simple act, such as one person helping another lift a heavy suitcase into an overhead compartment in an aeroplane so that everyone can board quickly and safely and ensure that the plane takes off on time, and in the complexities of tackling the wicked problems of the world, like food insecurity, sea-level rise and forced migration. In short, interdependence must be present for the survival of our well-being and the planet.

The fact that governments throughout the world are advocating for isolationism and ultra-nationalism and rejecting the very notion of interdependence is at once absurd, because this rejection is antithetical to everything we know about how the world functions today, and terrifying, in that the results of these movements are creating greater inequality and more suffering.

At the same time, the trumpeting of isolationism presents an opportunity to recognize and elevate the critical role of global learning in higher education.

Dr Hilary Landorf is assistant vice-president, Global Learning Initiatives, and associate professor of international higher education at Florida International University in the United States. Dr Joanna Regulska is vice-provost and dean of Global Affairs and distinguished professor of gender, sexuality and women’s studies at the University of California, Davis, in the US. Both Drs Landorf and Regulska are members of the National Academy for International Education.

This article is a commentary. Commentary articles are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of University World News.

Originally published on University World News