TOWARD GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP: INTERNATIONALIZATION OF ADULT EDUCATION IN CANADA AND THE U.S.

Zha (2003) argues that internationalization will become increasingly important in the higher education sector because academic and professional requirements for graduates increasingly reflect the demands of the globalization of societies, economies, and labour markets, and as a result, higher education must provide adequate preparation to meet these requirements. Similarly, Ramdas (1997) suggests that adult education is uniquely positioned to make an empowering intervention on behalf of the underprivileged in every society, and to do that, adult educators must internationalize the curricula to prepare global citizens to contest the negative impact of globalization. To this end, the purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which adult education faculty and programs in Canada and the U.S. are preparing global citizens as evidenced by the internationalization of research, curricula, and pedagogy. Data were collected through analyses of Adult Education Research Conference (AERC) and Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE) conference proceedings (1995-2010) and program offerings from Internet sites of selected adult education programs. The findings suggest that adult educators of higher education must make more purposeful attempts at the internationalization of research, curricula, and pedagogy that highlights and contests the hegemonizing effects of globalization on individuals and societies, and work to prepare graduates for responsible global citizenship in a civil society.