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Development Education in Higher Education
When a student opens a college brochure today, development education programs are not the first item to leap off the page. The international development programs of Stanford University and American University are known worldwide, but what are other colleges and universities doing?
Dr. Joan Claffey, Director of the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development notes:
"Development education means education about international development. The term is often taken in a traditional course-like sense, and thus people can miss some of the interdisciplinary programs colleges and universities take to this field of study."
Jennifer Munro
The desire to produce students with a global outlook has resulted in stronger programs of interdisciplinary learning, research, and cooperation in international development throughout the U.S. higher education community.
A Curriculum Guide: Teaching Global Development, edited by William Savitt (University of Notre Dame Press, 1993) gives pointers to faculty members interested in designing international development curricula. Included in the book is an essay by Godfrey Roberts, who emphasizes interdisciplinary over disciplinary teaching on hunger, poverty and international development. Notre Dame's own Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies brings together students from areas in conflict around the globe to study peacemaking for a new world.
The objectives of the Institute have been not only to educate a growing number of U.S. and international experts to prevent violence and to promote peace but also to operate as a multifaceted training, research and policy institute in which activities support one another. The programs study the causes of war and intergroup violence, the building blocks of a peaceful and just world order, the promotion of human rights and economic well-being for all, and the protection of the global ecosystem.
Universities are not the only higher education institutions where international development is an area of focus. According to the president of Middlesex Community College in Bedford, Massachusetts, Dr. Carole A. Cowan:
“Community colleges today have become learning centers for the whole community. We are weaving together people and projects that reach beyond traditional educational boundaries and intend to continue to initiate innovative educational options, knowing that the tiny seeds we plant this decade will be soaring trees in the next century."
Middlesex began its involvement in international development with cooperative service programs in South Africa 10 years ago. Students and faculty now work with job market assessment and training for Armenians, conflict resolution training in Cambodia, establishing a small business assistance center and entrepreneurial training in Ethiopia, and focusing on human rights issues and non-governmental organization management in Croatia.
Many higher education institutions have collaborative efforts to educate students about development. At Michigan State University, over 115 faculty members are affiliated with the Center for Advanced Study of International Development (CASID), linking the Center with more than 50 departments and schools within the university. The Center does not offer degrees itself, but instead promotes international development education throughout the campus and beyond. One of CASID's outreach programs is the Michigan International Development Education Outreach Network (MIDEON), a consortium of 20 two- and four-year community colleges and universities seeking to increase and enhance global and international development issues and concerns within the curricula. The Center also runs a K-12 outreach program, including production of a free monthly newsletter with ideas and events in international development for basic education teachers, and professional workshops in international development. For more information on CASID's resources, see the web site http://www.isp.msu.edu/CASID/.
The programs at Middlesex Community College, the University of Notre Dame, and Michigan State University represent only a few of the ways higher education is implementing development education. Cooperative efforts with higher education institutions overseas, courses integrating global perspectives into traditional topics, and research in cutting-edge strategies for international development in fields from agriculture to peacekeeping have positioned U.S. colleges and universities at the forefront of development education for the leaders of tomorrow.
Jennifer Munro is the Communications Coordinator for the Association Liaison Office for University Cooperation in Development (ALO), which promotes partnerships between U.S. and developing country higher education institutions. Munro has a Master of Arts degree in Journalism from New York University with a specialty in education from Columbia University/Teachers College, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in communication and international development at the University of Maryland. She taught in Cameroon in the early 1990s while in the Peace Corps.
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