Journal of Social Studies Education Research

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www.sosyalbilgiler.org 
Journal of Social Studies Education Research 
Sosyal Bilgiler Eğitimi Araştırmaları Dergisi 
2016: 7(2), 109-136 
© 2016 Journal of Social Studies Education Research, ISSN: 1309-9108
Videoconferencing for Global Citizenship Education: Wise Practices for 
Social Studies Educators
Daniel G. Krutka
1
& 
Kenneth T. Carano
2
Abstract 
Videoconferencing activities hold particular promise for social studies educators hoping to mediate 
humanizing experiences that will help students grow as citizens of the world. In this paper, we review literature on 
videoconferencing for global citizenship education and analyze those efforts towards cosmopolitan citizenship. 
Through our analysis of scholarly, popular, and practitioner sources, we present three general, and often overlapping, 
purposes for videoconferencing -- intercultural experiences, intercultural projects, and learning about cultures -- while 
providing a variety of examples and options from elementary to higher education. Educators encourage intercultural 
experiences when the primary purpose for participants’ videoconferencing activities is to learn about the people, 
communities, and cultures with whom they engage. The primary aim of intercultural projects is for participants to 
utilize videoconferencing to complete some task together. Educators can help students learn about cultures by bringing 
in people from different countries or cultures to share their expert knowledge or perspectives. We hope educators can 
glean insights from the videoconferencing cases provided in the text so as to make decision appropriate to their unique 
students’ needs. None of these approaches is necessarily superior to the others, but they may require different time 
and energy commitments. We also share technology requirements and common problems with videoconferencing. 
Finally, we conclude with implications for educators and researchers.