Chapter 3: Global Social Justice in Education: Developing a Virtual Intercultural Community of Practice

Given the current global social, political, and health climate, advocating for peace and prosperity through international, education-focused, collaborative partnerships is ever more important. The challenges presented by COVID-19 demand innovations by educational institutions to address the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development; in particular, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 (Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all). In this chapter, we describe the development and implementation of Global Social Justice in Education (GSJE), a virtual, international, collaborative course for education students from six countries (China, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania, United States, and Zambia) to explore global social justice issues. The GSJE course was designed to raise awareness of the complexities of local cultures, cultivate empathy for different lived experiences, and investigate multiple worldviews related to social justice issues in education. Participants engage in virtual meetings with synchronous activities including online discussions and intercultural collaborative work, as well as asynchronous experiences such as reflections and conducting country-specific inquiry. Other goals of GSJE include grappling with personal and professional positions, fostering intercultural relationships with educators in other countries, and recognizing inequities in education in both local and global contexts. GSJE is a cross-national curriculum initiative that provides opportunities to investigate how to effectively address global social justice issues. Participants complete a meta reflection to highlight their intercultural learning experiences, increased understandings of global social justice issues, and connections between local contexts and global realities. The overarching GSJE goal is to promote global solidarity by cultivating an international learning community of practice.