In a 2018 op-ed, I encouraged American students to seek educational and professional opportunities abroad. But now – amidst the Covid-19 pandemic – I wonder: are global experiences still advisable? Are they even feasible? And how will a global mindset serve the world that emerges from this crisis?
My previous argument was that global commerce, mobility and interdependence made personal investments in international educational and professional experiences a “safe bet.” In 2020, there are smart and authoritative voices from across the disciplines who might disagree. But in my mind, it’s no longer a game of chance for a select few to bet on: a global mindset will be an outright necessity for future generations.
The world’s wicked problems are not going away. If anything, the current crisis has laid bare the need for communication (e.g. information sharing) and collaboration (e.g. resource distribution) among global actors. It should be evident that we need globally minded and skilled individuals ready to collaborate against known and unknown risk.
While the near-term supply of internationally mobile students will drastically contract, the demand for globally savvy individuals will increase unabated. How, then, might educational institutions reinterpret what a “global” experience looks like?
Go Online to Go Global
Young Americans will obviously have limited opportunities to travel abroad in the near term. Currently, most students aren’t even leaving their homes for the classroom. In any case, most countries in the world have enacted partial or total border closures to foreign nationals. Even after such restrictions are loosened, young people (and their parents) will be wary of international travel.
While there is no substitute for in-person cross-cultural experience, institutions are already developing international learning initiatives online. There have been promising moves among US colleges and universities toward integrating virtual exchange (VE) programs. The State University of New York’s COIL Center has been a leader in this area for over a decade. There is greater potential yet in developing VE programs for secondary and primary education.
VE and telecollaboration have shown to develop linguistic and communicative competence, higher-order thinking skills, as well as digital literacies among participants. Anyone familiar with “21st Century Skills” should see the value of VE programs—not only for students, but for anyone who hopes to succeed in the modern economy.
Global Skills for a Post-C19 World
Take global supply chains for instance, a common topic of conversation these days. Some view this crisis as clear evidence for the need to bring American manufacturing back to American soil. A more likely and pragmatic move is towards redundancy, in which firms maintain multiple supply chain networks for the same (intermediate) goods across different regions. A move in this direction will mean that American Company X will need not only China experts to manage production of its widgets, but Vietnam and Mexico experts as well. More secure global operations will require more internationally and inter-culturally competent talent, not less.
One of my rules of thumb for strategic decision-making is “find the growth potential”. In 2018, I emphasized the idea of young people looking for educational and professional opportunities in South East Asia and Central and South America.
Now, almost certainly and sadly, Covid-19 is projected to hit these regions hardest. Not because they will necessarily experience the highest rates of infection or death, but because they will be least equipped to absorb the economic and societal shock.
Their road to recovery will be steep and protracted. The demand for long-term solutions will be greater and must be answered by those with a global mindset. Why? Because the more we close the development gap between countries, the stronger and more resilient our world will be in the face of future crises.
The Long View
Historical analogies for how crisis precipitates sea change (cultural, economic, technological, etc.) are not hard to find. But our current moment is also a singular one. It may be tempting to short global interconnectivity and its attendant opportunities. But I will stick to the long view, a view I encourage all students and educators to take as well.
Nested Ed 