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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Leadership in Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1520859
This article is part of the Research Topic Educational Leadership and Sustainable Development View all 4 articles

A Critical Approach to SDGs through Collaborative Online International Learning: Experiences from Canada and Spain

Provisionally accepted
Mari Carmen Campoy-Cubillo Mari Carmen Campoy-Cubillo 1*Vivian Jimenez-Estrada Vivian Jimenez-Estrada 2
  • 1 English Studies Department, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, University of Jaume I, Castelló de La Plana, Spain
  • 2 Department of Sociology, NORDIK Institute Research Associate, Algoma University, Algoma University, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is described as a pedagogical experience linking the classrooms of two or more higher education institutions across culturally and linguistically differentiated regions (Guth 2013). COIL intends to provide academics and students with the ability to communicate and collaborate with peers internationally through online interactions (Rubin 2015, Borger 2022, Kučerová 2023). During the Fall of 2021, this collaboration involved the Universitat Jaume I (UJI), located in the city of Castelló de la Plana in Spain and Algoma University, located on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabek Nation, as well as the homelands of the Métis Nation. The student profiles, each institutions' geographical locations, as well as the linguistic, cultural and critical approaches to teaching and learning provided ample opportunities and challenges for the development and implementation of this experience.The purpose of this paper is to provide a pedagogical reflection (Ulmer, Kuby, & Christ 2020) on the development of a 5-week module taught together during three academic years. The authors provide an account and reflection of their collaboration centered on the institutional challenges and opportunities that currently exist for courses that aim to engage Indigenous and critical/ecological thinking. The background of the collaboration leads to a detailed analysis of the context of COIL implementation and the reflections on the modules' development and improvement. Our recommendations are based on lessons learned from the substantive and technical challenges and opportunities on the complexity of teaching about contemporary ecological/social issues, as well as the tools required to inspire future activists.

    Keywords: collaborative work, Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), 21st Century Skills, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Education for sustainable development (ESD), Transformative Language for Sustainability (TLS)

    Received: 31 Oct 2024; Accepted: 27 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Campoy-Cubillo and Jimenez-Estrada. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mari Carmen Campoy-Cubillo, English Studies Department, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, University of Jaume I, Castelló de La Plana, Spain

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