Aims

The aim of Global and Cultural Awareness is to offer a multilingual, multisensory space rooted in ethical values-based approaches to internationalisation at home. Through student-led encounters following the World Café method, this module aims to empower all students to explore and engage with the social, linguistic, and material dimensions of the internationalised campus. This module underscores the importance of holistic strategies for promoting integration and intercultural understanding in higher education, aligning with the vision of creating a truly integrated body of students within the higher education landscape.

This module aims to enable present-in-person intercultural encounters across the school in order to:
- facilitate dialogue and collaboration among all students (home and international) across different disciplines for global educational experiences
- foster intercultural and multilingual awareness, collaboration and team work, and thus employability skills
- develop awareness of multiple worldviews and ways of life
- support understandings of global citizenship, reflexivity, and social responsibility

Outline Of Syllabus

Week 1: Introduction to the module and a taster session: creating a World Café menu
Week 2: Global citizenship
Week 3: Climate change
Week 4: Toxic masculinity
Week 5: Visual narratives and storytelling
Week 6: Migration
Week 7: Racial privilege
Week 8: Multilingualism
Week 9: Gender inequality
Week 10: Wellbeing
Week 11: Preparing your application for the Global and Cultural Awareness Badge

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

This non-credit bearing module will run over 11 weeks in Sem 2, 2 hours per week. Learning takes place in interaction through intercultural encounters amongst students. No other additional study hours are compulsory, yet voluntary academic reading resources are offered.

Teaching methods involve creating a number of Collaborative Intercultural Encounters, which in the case of this work can be defined as ‘an organised, multilingual space where students from diverse backgrounds engage in project-based activities and collaborative teamwork to promote mutual understanding, inclusivity, and a sense of belonging within the university community.’ The goal of such an encounter is not only enriching the educational journey but also contributing to the development of an integrated student body where diversity is celebrated, and students from various backgrounds come together to learn, grow, and thrive as a unified community.

The planning of each week’s material involves a comprehensive exploration of topics, objectives, and the underlying rationale, adopting an ethical values-based approach and recognising the importance of fostering conversations that challenge privileged perspectives and question systems of oppression on local and global scales. This approach ensures that the encounters encompass topics both relevant and intriguing to our diverse student body.

The sessions begin with icebreaker activities, followed by stimulating content, such as a video, a few statements, or an article. Ensuing conversations centre around an ethical value-based theme, drawing on conceptual frameworks such as postcolonial theory, feminist theory, decolonial thinking, and critical race theory underpinning the design of the sessions and their pedagogical focus. The methodology for the discussion part of the session is loosely based around the World Café method first designed by Brown & Isaacs in the 1990s. It is a structured and participatory group conversation process designed to facilitate meaningful dialogue and collective learning. The key principals are creating a hospitable and inclusive space, exploring meaningful questions, connecting diverse people and perspectives, fostering shared listening, making collective knowledge visible, and actively engaging participants (Brown & Issacs, 2005). The method encourages open and exploratory conversations among participants in a relaxed and informal setting using a cafe or coffeehouse metaphor. The choice of a café-style setting aims to foster a relaxed and approachable atmosphere where students can interact authentically.

Postgraduate Research (PGR) students facilitate the intercultural encounters. PGR facilitators are provided with a workbook that contains session plans outlining the tasks, activities, and materials. They also receive a dialogue facilitation training.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

As a zero-credit module, there is no assessment. Pass/Fail criteria is 80% attendance.