Students' conception of local responses to global problems for a more peaceful and sustainable world: A collaborative education project between Brazil, Canada, Qatar, and New Zealand

Background The concept of global citizenship aims to prepare learners to be able to function and be competitive within a global environment. Successful learners may effectively think globally but act locally, aiming to contribute to positive global change. Objective The goal of this project was to develop research-informed curricular content for global citizenship tailored to pharmacy students using a pre-established pedagogical framework. The intended learning outcome for the content was for students to generate local responses to global problems for a more peaceful and sustainable world. Methods This study occurred over three phases. Phase 1 consisted of semi-structured interviews with practicing pharmacists in Brazil (n = 4), Canada (n = 4), New Zealand (n = 4), and Qatar (n = 4) to identify global issues for case development. Phase 2 consisted of pilot testing developed cases from Phase 1 via individual interviews with target students in Canada (n = 2) and a focus group in New Zealand (n = 5). Phase 3 consisted of implementation of a 1.5-hours teaching event in New Zealand using the refined case material and formative assessment of final-year pharmacy students (n = 120). Results Phase 1 resulted in five case scenarios (antimicrobial resistance, drug shortages, ocean pollution, climate change, and rise of nationalism) across three categories (global health and wellbeing, climate and environment, and geopolitics and power) that were tested and refined in Phase 2. Phase 3 resulted in student groups being able to achieve the intended learning outcome on a median of 4 (range, 2-5) of the developed cases. Students' interventions included new dispensing models, use of technology, community engagement, education initiatives, and others. Conclusion Findings support the notion that when tasked to think globally, students are able to act locally by designing pharmacy practice interventions to reduce the impact of political, environmental, and health-related global problems.

Automated summary

The goal of this project was to develop research-informed curricular content for pharmacy students to raise their awareness of global citizenship. The study found that students were able to generate local responses to global problems, reducing the impact of political, environmental, and health-related issues.