Cultivating a Global Perspective: An Interview with Assistant Dean of Global Citizenship Sandrine Siméon

December 16, 2024

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How can earning a B.A. in liberal arts at SUA help students become global citizens who are actively engaged with issues in social justice, sustainability, and peace? At the start of this academic year, Sandrine Siméon, associate professor of French language and culture and director of the Language and Culture program, was named assistant dean of global citizenship. This new position helps align undergraduate academic offerings with the university's mission to foster a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life. Siméon discussed what global citizenship means in today's educational landscape and shared some of her plans for bolstering global learning in SUA's undergraduate academic programs.

Can you describe what the role of assistant dean of global citizenship entails?

Global citizenship is central to SUA's mission and is part of our identity. The assistant dean of global citizenship position was inspired by the realization that the concept of global citizenship is sometimes understood by faculty in different ways. We want the mission to be better represented in our curriculum and student experiences. So we asked ourselves how we could explain what the mission means to prospective students and how we could better integrate the mission into our curriculum. This position is about making the mission central to all of our curricular decisions.

Dean of Faculty Robert Hamersley and I started an exploratory phase in January 2024 to learn more about the current state of global citizenship in higher education. In his 1996 address delivered at Columbia University Teachers College, "Thoughts on Education for Global Citizenship," SUA founder Daisaku Ikeda discussed how to foster individuals' sense of respect and responsibility toward the global community through the development of wisdom, courage, and compassion. In American higher education, the concept of global citizenship education focuses on specific educational outcomes and developing specific competencies. At SUA, we want to provide students with both ethical and skills-based perspectives on global citizenship, which we view as complementary.

How does SUA's mission-driven approach impact students' educational experiences?

Alex Okuda, director of the Office of Study Abroad and International Internships, Lisa MacLeod, assistant dean of student success, Dean Hamersley, and I presented a poster on this topic in October at the American Association of Colleges and Universities 2024 Conference on Global Learning.

In our poster, we underlined the unique features of SUA: our focus on peace, sustainability, and social justice; our large population of international students; our integration of language learning and study abroad as part of a B.A. in liberal arts; and our global learning resources, such as the Global Language and Culture Center, the Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Human Rights, the Pacific Basin Research Center, and the Soka Institute for Global Solutions. All of these opportunities help our students engage with global challenges, develop a sense of social responsibility, and cultivate the skills and knowledge necessary to become effective agents of change in an interconnected world - in short, to become global citizens.

What are some of the ways that you plan to understand, articulate, and develop global citizenship education in the undergraduate curriculum at SUA?

Global citizenship at Soka consists of developing the skills that will enable students to enact the university's mission and values. Some key tenets include linguistic proficiency and cultural awareness, critical thinking and problem solving, dialogue and diversity, interdisciplinary knowledge, and a commitment to global peace and human rights.

Twenty-one percent of our courses already include learning outcomes in global citizenship, and 36% of faculty research is linked to global citizenship. However, SUA was founded 23 years ago. We have to consider the university's educational commitment to its students and ensure that the curriculum that was created at the founding of the university is still serving its purpose.

I hope to develop initiatives that encourage faculty to integrate global learning outcomes in their courses. In addition, SUA is entering the second year of a general education review. The committee chair, Associate Professor of Physics Phat Vu, is engaging our faculty in a broader conversation about what global citizenship means in higher education today. I'm looking forward to collaborating with the committee, because this review will also help us assess what can be improved.

What do you think is unique about the way SUA prepares students for studying abroad? Are there any aspects of this preparation that you would like to improve?

A fundamental aspect of global citizenship is cultural flexibility, or the ability to recognize perspectives that differ from our own, adapt to diverse cultural contexts, and navigate these as best as possible. That is the goal when we prepare our students to study abroad.

What is unique about Soka is that we have a two-year language requirement to prepare our students for a full semester abroad, immersed in their target language. Some students are already bilingual or multilingual when they come here, so they will learn yet another language. When we were at the American Association of Colleges and Universities conference, we did not encounter any other study abroad models that involved the same commitment to language and culture learning.

Our students take 12-16 language and culture credits on campus and a minimum of 12 abroad. That means that approximately 23-25% of students' academic credits are dedicated to language learning and study abroad. That's one-fourth of students' total credits - a very important part of their college experience. SUA has a uniquely strong emphasis on cultural engagement.

In terms of identifying potential areas of improvement, I am reviewing best practices for study abroad pre-departure preparation at other institutions to see how we can improve our students' preparation. We already incorporate some cultural learning as part of our language study courses, and the Office of Study Abroad and International Internships is doing a great job helping students with the practical aspects and logistics of their preparations, such as applying for a visa and deciding whether to do a homestay. Nevertheless, I would like us to be more intentional in preparing students with cultural awareness and understanding of specific issues, like how important religion is in a given country or how social hierarchies might impact students' experiences. For example, when I was in South Africa, I sat on the floor and not in a chair when there were elders present because I was a younger woman. We hope to engage SUA community members who are familiar with a specific culture to talk about things like this with students.

The Office of Study Abroad and International Internships has been collecting linguistic proficiency and qualitative data from students. I will be collaborating with their office as well as the Soka Student Union Executive Council to collect feedback from our seniors' experiences. I want to leverage their insights not only to help develop our proposed pre-departure sessions, but also to develop reentry practices that measure the impact of study abroad on cultural flexibility. I also want to help students apply their immersive experience abroad to their academic goals, career aspirations, and personal development. We always talk about pre-departure, but when students come back, how can we make these experiences sink in? We often process our experiences after the fact, when we have the time to think about them.

Are there any new programs or efforts in global citizenship education happening this year that you would like to discuss?

We will continue to educate ourselves about global citizenship by engaging with relevant literature and attending conferences to position SUA as a leader in this field. Our goal is to explore effective ways to inspire our campus community to develop a curriculum aligned with our mission, encourage faculty to integrate global citizenship into their courses, and actively contribute to the national conversation on the growing importance of global citizenship in higher education.