The Queen's team that helped produce the Decolonizing Global Engagement Module at ³ÉÈË´óƬ has received the 2023 Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Excellence Award from the Canadian Bureau of International Education.
The Decolonizing Global Engagement Module exemplifies the future of mobility pre-departure programming; it goes beyond standard orientation conversations.
The idea for the Decolonizing Global Engagement Module was envisioned at Queen’s University by Stephanie Simpson, Vice-Principal of Culture, Equity, and Inclusion, with collaborative content guided under the direction of Dr. Erin Clow, Associate Director of Education and Learning, with support from Nirosha Balakumar, Justin Masakoff, Aaron St. Pierre, staff from the Office of the Vice-Provost, Global Engagement, and funding from the Global Skills Opportunity.
The team recognized that students often do not have the tools to critically engage with complex and intersectional global inequities. To remedy this, the module includes reflections on the colonial roots in Global Engagement, moving students to a place of learning where they can build their skills around cultural humility and navigating systems of oppression.
This module project was implemented to draw a connection between global citizenship education abroad and global citizenship practice at home. The important innovation of this module centres on the reflection on students’ own positionality before traveling and encourages them to consider the role of Canada as a colonial power as part of their preparation to engage with people and cultures across the world.
These elements challenge perceptions of student mobility as simply a fun, expensive activity for wealthy students, whilst simultaneously helping to foster a more inclusive student body at Queen’s and at the partner universities where our student ambassadors will travel.
The Decolonizing Global Engagement Module has had an impact throughout the University as it is open to students in all faculties, whether they be studying, volunteering or interning abroad, or even traveling to a conference outside of our home community.