Fostering a global public sphere in real time: transpacific Skype seminars as a teaching strategy with implications for citizenship and identity

Abstract

Citizenship and identity can be viewed as dynamic and transformative rather than as fixed or static, especially in an era in which the public sphere for contestation and deliberation has expanded beyond the limits of nation-states and into the global realm. It can be difficult, though, within the confines of conventional classrooms to create an atmosphere that gives students, even in culturally diverse university settings, a sense that they are taking part in a meaningful global conversation. New digital media platforms and videoconferencing technology are rendering this goal less elusive than before, and this article works across the theory and practice of global citizenship education to explain how faculty members in Los Angeles, California, and Seoul, South Korea, have team-taught their respective undergraduate courses via live Skype seminars. We review, in concrete and practical terms, the planning and logistics that went into this teaching strategy, including an extensive discussion on how we evaluated the initiative and how we modified the strategy to add team assignments that brought the students together for collaboration beyond the weekly class meetings. We then reflect upon how our shared endeavor of bringing students together for mutual learning across national borders carries implications for the ways in which our students think about their roles and identities as citizens.