Cultivating Global Awareness Through Online Dialogic Teaching: A Case Study

Abstract

This study examined how a dialogic approach in an online media literacy class at a university in China helped to develop college students’ global awareness when the world was disrupted by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Using writing exemplars from students’ online dialogues and reflective journals, this article demonstrates the potentialities of an online dialogic approach to guide a sense of togetherness and critical solidarity. The digital dialogical approach provides an expanded space for students to converse with multiple voices, meditate on tensions, and rethink their own stances as citizens of their country and the world. The article also underscores the role of higher education in cultivating a sense of global community among the younger generation and bridging the ideological divide in society.

Keywords

online dialogical approach / Chinese college students / global awareness / national identity / media literacy

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the editors and the two anonymous reviewers whose substantial comments helped improve and clarify this paper. We would also like to extend our thanks to students for their online coursework, without which this paper could not have come into shape.

Conflict of Interest

The data is from the first author’s archived course materials and students’ online coursework. It is available upon reasonable request. There are no financial or non-financial competing interests to declare.

Contributions

Both authors worked together on the manuscript. The first author conducted the research and wrote the manuscript. The second author provided suggestions on the analysis and revision of the research.

Data Availability Statements

The authors confirm that all data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article.

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