Global Awareness of

Students at The
University of North
Carolina
A Research Analysis
Shelby Ervin
Amanda Watson
Chris Johnson
Ashley Johnson
Miranda Freeman
Jason Nicoletta
12/13/2007
 From August to November of 2007, our team of students undertook a research project to

examine the level of global awareness among students at the University of North Carolina at

Greensboro. Our team wanted to test the hypothesis, students who have been exposed to global

experiences are more aware of global issues and concerns than those who have not been exposed

to such experiences.

This report is going to provide an analysis of the methods used for research as well as

findings from quantitative and qualitative data collections. Each team was responsible for the

analysis of the findings and testing their hypotheses. There was also a literature review to

provide our team with prior information on techniques and studies that had been used previously

in similar research projects.

The unofficial results are described in this report and a detailed description of the

methods used to collect the research is also provided. There is a literature review to provide

knowledge obtained prior to the project.

Literature Review

There were two main themes that emerge from the literature review. According to

researchers, foreign language education helps in a participant’s global awareness. Also, if a

student takes a course in a study abroad program, then their global awareness tens to be much

higher than if they only receive an education in the United States.

We found one article that stated that both Japan and the United States are concerned with

the importance of university students’ knowledge about the world and their awareness of global
problems. Research was conducted because of that concern in order to make a comparison of the

educational systems. They found that the topic has not been widely researched, and there has

been little empirical evidence presented on the topic (Cogan, John, Torney-Purta, Anderson

1988).

The results of one survey suggest that some programs falling under the general category

of global education do make a positive contribution to the global awareness and concerns of

secondary school students. The effective programs appear to be those which have been

established for several years, those which combine curricular with extra-curricular activities, and

those which have stressed teacher training. Some of the variables which predicted global

awareness confirmed common sense predictions. Brighter students did better on the test than the

less bright. The better students also being more globally concerned, it is also reasonable that

students who read the international news in the paper and watch the news on television are more

knowledgeable about global issues and more concerned. Students who have taken higher levels

of foreign language courses tend to be extremely globally concerned. (Torney-Purta 1986)

Long believes that education is the way to achieve global awareness. Long feels that in

order to fix the problem educational institutions in America we should encourage our youth to

use their education to develop their linguistic skills and have understanding and sensitivity to

people in other countries. Long feels that this is a national problem and needs to be resolved

using the help of educators, the general public and legislative representatives. A suggestion that

Long offers is that all high school students planning to go to college should take three to four

years of a foreign language so that the students has at least an elementary degree of fluency.

Long also believes that foreign language should not be restricted to just Spanish, German and

French and we need to encourage more students to become fluent in other languages like
Russian, Chinese, Arabic, and Japanese. (Long 1985). Although this was not part of our focus,

we believe that a foreign language requirement would help to promote global awareness by

giving students background knowledge of another culture and place.

Next we found an article that suggests that not only the material taught is important but

the teacher is important for promoting global awareness. “Teaching in the Dark” looks at how

many university students had difficulties understanding the events that had taken place after the

attacks on September 11, 2001. Some students appeared to have no structure for understanding

the global connections of these events. The researchers concluded that our students’ geopolitical

knowledge of the world was imprecise. However, the researchers were unsure of the extent of the

difficulty. As a response to 9/11, this study was produced (Holm, Gunilla and Farber 2002).

After doing some research we think that over the past seven years global awareness has

increased slightly and this is probably caused by the events on September 11th but there is not

empirical evidence to prove this theory.

“Teaching in the Dark” highlights how the involvement of teachers with respects to the

global awareness of students. The point that is made is that teachers are on the spot. There is a

clear and present need for teachers to respond in informed and insightful ways to situations and

issues of great complexity. The world of the classroom is increasingly affected by diverse

tendencies of globalization, as is the larger world studied in that classroom. In many ways, direct

and indirect, opportunities exist for teachers at all levels, across the curriculum and in a variety

of interpersonal exchanges, to extend student capacity for understanding and dialogue. In

response to this challenge, teachers have within their power and responsibility to nurture students

up into a vital conversation and instill in them the attitude to acquire knowledge about the far-

reaching implications of what develops in world history (Holm 2002).

 The researchers sought out other students at a similar point in time in their professional

development, in order to gain a clearer sense of the scope and parameters of their knowledge.

This study was conducted in the teacher education program of a large, public university in the

Midwestern United States. This particular teacher education program is one of the largest in the

United States. In the fall semester of 2001 there were nearly 2,000 students enrolled. I found it

particularly interesting that the students involved in this program were mainly white (94%) and

native English speakers. Most of the students considered themselves apart of the middle class

and belonged to the Christian faith. Those who were surveyed were third and fourth year

undergraduate teacher education majors. In all, 129 students responded to the questionnaire

given in one of their classes. Some interesting figures that I found in this study were that sixty-

eight percent of the students surveyed were female and eighty-one percent were under the age of

twenty-five (Holm 2002). For the most part this group of students represents the student body at

UNCG but not the survey population.

The survey was designed to focus on varieties of the individual student’s impersonal

knowledge and information. These are a few examples of the type of questions that were in the

survey. Given their propinquity to Canada, students were asked to name as many of the

provinces and territories of Canada as they could. There were a number of questions involved the

detection or identification of people and other proper names for treaties and organizations that

appear widely in international news stories today. A series of questions were designed as

indicators of global awareness of important demographic characteristics of diverse nations and

regions. This type of knowledge was what our groups’ questions were testing for. This study did

a wonderful job in pointing out the fact that many education majors were not globally aware of

what is going on in the world around them (Holm 2002).

 The next article comes from the Journal of College & Character. The article focuses its

content on how to make our students more globally aware. One is the recommendation of

befriending international students. These students are said to be “invisible” on campuses. But,

because of their cultures they tend to have a wealth of insight toward global society. This is an

aspect we tested for during our survey and we found that people who interacted with foreign

born people more often were more globally aware than those who did interact with foreign born

people frequently (Lee 2006). In our research we asked how often the person surveyed interacted

with foreign born persons and what type of relationship they had with those persons. This did

seem to make a difference in whether or the person is globally aware or not.

We found that there are many different opinions on whether or not students are globally

aware. We also found that there were many different approaches to educating our youth about

global awareness.

Methodology

Based on our review of the literature we hypothesized that UNCG students who have

been engaged in global or international experiences will be more globally aware than those who

have no had such opportunities. More importantly, we believe that the inverse will be true as

well: that UNCG students who have NOT been subjected to global experiences will be less

globally aware.

In order to test this hypothesis we first needed to operationalize the concepts “global

experiences” and “global awareness”. We determined, that following current events in the news,

traveling abroad, following news items on the radio, interacting with foreigners, related well with

both, knowledge of current events, and geographic knowledge, and would be good measures of
global experience. Specifically we developed the following questions about global awareness

and experiences to use in our interviews:

o How often do you read or watch the news in regards to global issues?

o What media sources do you use? Newspaper, TV, Magazines, Radio, Internet?

o Can you name the five countries that are highlighted on this map?

o What other name is given to the Great War?

o Can you name four countries that were involved?

o Why is Darfur in the news?

o In what country is Darfur?

o What is the conflict over and who is it between?

o What is the name of the 1997 convention or treaty in which individual countries agree to

reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

When choosing these questions, our group tried to choose a few questions that were

easier (What other name is given to the Great War? Can you name four countries that were

involved? Why is Darfur in the news? In what country is Darfur? What is the conflict over and

who is it between?), and ones that we felt that many students would have at least heard of from

watching the news, or reading magazines. In addition, it helped that there were always posters of

issues concerning Darfur on the walls in the hallway of any academic building. On the other

hand, we wanted to choose a more difficult question (What is the name of the 1997 convention

or treaty in which individual countries agree to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?) We felt that it

was imperative to ask considerably easy questions (Darfur), a question in the middle range (The

Great War), and a noticeably difficult question (Kyoto Protocol). The map questions were
provided to establish a level of geographic awareness which when analyzed would speak to a

student’s global awareness.

After our group decided on and finalized our questions, they were then compiled into

master protocol with the entire class. Each student in our Sociology 301: Introduction to

Methods and Research then chose a willing participant (UNCG Students) to answer the

questions. After the interviews were completed, each researcher created a synopsis of their

findings using direct quotes from the interviewee. It is very important to note that no direct

transcripts were used. Each interviewer created a summary of their findings that included

detailed verbatim quotes from their respective interviewee. The summary of the interviewers’

findings were assembled into a narrative format. These summaries also included information

about how each interviewer and interviewee met, how long they talked, the demographics of the

interviewee, and a discussion of their answers to the questions above.

Next, we used the classes’ interview synopsis to develop a hypothesis on the relationships

between global experience and knowledge. We posed that UNCG students who have NOT been

subjected to global experiences would be less globally aware than those who have. Our next step

in the group projects was to develop a set of survey questions from our new hypothesis. We

chose to include a map test as a result of the interesting feedback we received in the interviews.

In this test, we chose 10 countries that all fit on a scale from relatively easy to relatively difficult.

The following countries were included: Venezuela, Morocco, Norway, Iraq, China, Japan,

France, Madagascar, Brazil, and Paraguay.

The next group of questions had the following choices: several times daily, daily several

times a week, weekly, several times a month. Just like in the interviews, we wanted to establish

that foundation of global awareness on a larger scale with these questions.

o How frequently do you watch international news on TV?

o How frequently do you read international news from newspapers or magazines?

o How frequently do you read international news from the internet?

Again, because of the responses that we received from the interviews, our group decided

to include both the Kyoto Protocol and the Darfur questions. We were interested to see on a

larger scale what percentage would get these questions right and who would get them wrong.

o What is the name of the 1997 convention or treaty in which individual countries agree to

reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

o In what country is Darfur?

Surveys were then presented to students in SOC 101- Introduction to Sociology, SOC 227-

Race and Ethnic Relations, SOC 202- Social Problems Global Context, SOC 346- Population

Problems, SOC 342- Social Inequality, and another section of SOC 301- Intro to Methods &

Research. It is important to note that the sample of UNCG students obtained was a convenient

sample and does not represent a statistically reliable sample for all students at UNCG. Surveys

were then hand coded and entered into a spreadsheet followed by data verification and cleaning.

Analysis was then completed using univariate and bivariate procedures in SPSS.

It is noted that there were several limitations to the methods employed. In particular, only

Sociology classes were used. Although, there are students from different majors taking the

introductory courses; the majority of the students surveyed were sociology majors. This might

have limited the scope and variety of answers that were received.
Interview Findings

The interviews were conducted with 24 students at UNCG. They took about one hour to

complete. The data collected was qualitative in nature and allowed for a richer response than the

quantitative survey which followed. There were 6 males and 16 female with ages ranging from

18 to 45 years with the average being about 22 years old. Of the respondents 41 percent are from

NC, People from outside of North Carolina but still from the United States was 32 percent, and 2

people were from outside the United States.

From reviewing the 22 responses we found that most did not seek global awareness

though media outlets. Out of 21 responses, 14 were wrong when asked to tell what The Great

War was and to name three countries who participated in it. There were 7 correct responses

indicating World War I and naming three countries. Next we asked a question about where

Darfur is located and why it is appearing in the national news. There were 13 correct and 9

incorrect. Next we had a question testing the knowledge of global current events. The question

was to “Name the treaty that was designed to lower global greenhouse gases”. From this question

6 responses were correct. Comparing this to the previous question this was answered correctly

half as much. We think this is relevant because as you walk around campus there are flyers on

most bulletin boards making some type of reference to Darfur, but we could find nothing on The

Kyoto Protocol. The map test administered on the qualitative interview was identical to the

survey but it only asked 9 countries. There were four individuals who answered all 9 countries

correctly. There were four completely incorrect answers. Five individuals answered 5 or more

countries correctly. Brazil was the most correct answer on both the survey and the interview. In

the interview the responses indicated more correct answers to the questions on global awareness

than those on geographic awareness. The graph below shows the correct answer for the interview
and when compared to the survey there is a direct correlation between the two. In both cases

Brazil was correctly answered the most.

Our survey had 361 respondents. The average age is 20.2 years old, and the range of ages

goes from 17 to 56 years old. A majority of the respondents were non-Hispanic white/ Anglo,

followed by black/African Americans, Hispanic/ Latino, Asian/ Pacific Islander,, Native

American/American Indian, Near East Asian or Arab-America, and final a category for

individuals who classify themselves as “other ethnicity”. Most (56%) currently live on campus,

26 percent live off campus alone, 11 percent reside off campus with parents, 6 percent reside off

campus with other family, and 1 percent classify there place of living as “Other”. A majority of

our respondents, 47.5 percent were freshman, 21 percent were sophomores, 15 percent were

juniors, 14 percent were seniors and 3 percent classified themselves as “Other”. The average

number of credits is 35. Natives of North Carolina were 57.6 percent, 40.15 percent were from

another state and 2.25 percent are from another country. Over half of our respondents (55.4%)

have had the opportunity to visit another country.

Survey Findings

The first test of our hypothesis was to construct a contingency table to examine the

relationship between frequency of experiences (news, contact with foreigners, etc) and

awareness of global geography. The cross tabulation is 3 by 3; which is low, mid, and high

frequency of experience and low, mid, and high scores on the geography test. We did this by

creating a “Z” score and then assigning a value to create the high, mid, and low ranges. This test

was based on a global map with 10 countries randomly picked for identification that covered all

regions. We measured frequency of experience by asking questions that measured the amount of

global news absorbed by multiple media sources and contact with foreign born people. First,

based on the findings we can see a clear relationship that experience does have a positive impact

on the knowledge of geography. Of those having a high frequency of experience 43.4% scored in

the high range of the map test scores as compared with those of mid and low levels of

international experience. Only 15.8% of those with mid levels of international experience and

11.1% of those with low levels of international experience scored in the high category on the

map test.
 Standardize d Fre q of Exp * M apsHIM IDLO Crosstabulation

MapsHIMIDLO
Lo Mid High Total
Standardized Low Count 2 14 2 18
Freq of Exp % within Standardized
11.1% 77.8% 11.1% 100.0%
Freq of Exp
% within MapsHIMIDLO 6.3% 8.0% 3.6% 6.9%
% of Total .8% 5.4% .8% 6.9%
Mid Count 26 134 30 190
% within Standardized
13.7% 70.5% 15.8% 100.0%
Freq of Exp
% within MapsHIMIDLO 81.3% 77.0% 54.5% 72.8%
% of Total 10.0% 51.3% 11.5% 72.8%
High Count 4 26 23 53
% within Standardized
7.5% 49.1% 43.4% 100.0%
Freq of Exp
% within MapsHIMIDLO 12.5% 14.9% 41.8% 20.3%
% of Total 1.5% 10.0% 8.8% 20.3%
Total Count 32 174 55 261
% within Standardized
12.3% 66.7% 21.1% 100.0%
Freq of Exp
% within MapsHIMIDLO 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
% of Total 12.3% 66.7% 21.1% 100.0%

Again we looked at the frequency of experience but this time compared it with the

questions that dealt with awareness of global issues. We developed questions that we thought

would reflect current events. We used “What country is Darfur in, and What is the name of the

1997 convention or treaty in which individual countries agree to reduce greenhouse gas

emissions?” We then looked at how this compares to their actual answers regarding their

frequency of global interactions and experiences. Again we can identify a positive relationship

between the individuals who have a high level of experiences (traveling outside the U.S., global

media absorption, and human interaction with foreign people) and those who do not. We had 173

valid cases which equates to 47.9 percent of the surveyed. People who had the highest frequency

of experience also had the highest score of global issue awareness (answering both questions

correctly), which was 14.7 percent. This is very high when compared to the individuals with mid

experience 3.2 percent and those with low experience who scored 0. People with the lowest

frequency of experience did have the lowest awareness of global issues.

 Standardize d Fre q of Exp * Aware ne ss of global issue s Crosstabulation

Awareness of global issues

Low Mid High Total
Standardized Low Count 11 2 0 13
Freq of Exp % within Standardized
84.6% 15.4% .0% 100.0%
Freq of Exp
Mid Count 93 29 4 126
% within Standardized
73.8% 23.0% 3.2% 100.0%
Freq of Exp
High Count 9 20 5 34
% within Standardized
26.5% 58.8% 14.7% 100.0%
Freq of Exp
Total Count 113 51 9 173
% within Standardized
65.3% 29.5% 5.2% 100.0%
Freq of Exp

Looking at the maps we scan see that people who have more frequency of traveling

outside the United States answered more countries on the map correctly. have also a greater

knowledge of georgraphy. If we look at the same type of question but now based on whether you

have traveled outside the United States. People who had a higher frequency of travel scored 24.2

percent in the high score for the maps. Those who had no travel experience scored 70.8 in the

middle score of accuracy on the map quize.

How many countrie s outside of the USA hav e you v isite d? * M apsHIM IDLO Crosstabulation

MapsHIMIDLO
Lo Mid High Total
How many countries 0 Count 16 80 17 113
outside of the USA % within How many
have you visited? countries outside of the 14.2% 70.8% 15.0% 100.0%
USA have you visited?
1 Count 14 99 36 149
% within How many
countries outside of the 9.4% 66.4% 24.2% 100.0%
USA have you visited?
Total Count 30 179 53 262
% within How many
countries outside of the 11.5% 68.3% 20.2% 100.0%
USA have you visited?
 Next we had a self evaluation question asking, “How globally aware do you think you

are?” We then took these responses and compared them to the knowledge of global issues which

was determined by asking questions in regards to global current events. We had 180 valid

responses which equate to 50 percent of the surveyed. Again there appears to be a positive

relationship. 61 percent of the people who believe they have a high amount of global awareness

scored 7.3 in the high category for correct responses. Compare this to the people who thought

they had a middle range of awareness and scored 0. One person thought they had a low global

awareness and correctly answered the questions on current events. Again, looking from the

bottom up we can see that 82.9 percent of those who felt they have a low global awareness in

fact did answer the questions incorrectly.

Fe e lAware * Aware ne ss of global issue s Crosstabulation

Awareness of global issues

Low Mid High Total
FeelAware Low Count 34 6 1 41
% within FeelAware 82.9% 14.6% 2.4% 100.0%
Mid Count 25 5 0 30
% within FeelAware 83.3% 16.7% .0% 100.0%
High Count 60 41 8 109
% within FeelAware 55.0% 37.6% 7.3% 100.0%
Total Count 119 52 9 180
% within FeelAware 66.1% 28.9% 5.0% 100.0%

If we look at the same self evaluation of global awareness and apply it to how well they

did on the maps we see a relationship that shows people who think they do not have global

awareness did not do well on the test, and those who thought they had global awareness did

fairly better scoring a majority in the mid awareness category and lesser in the high knowledge

of geography,
 FeelAware * MapsHIMIDLO Crosstabulation

MapsHIMIDLO Total

Lo Mid High
FeelAwar Disagre Count 13 37 9 59
% within
e e
22.0% 62.7% 15.3% 100.0%
FeelAware

Neutral Count 4 35 4 43
% within
9.3% 81.4% 9.3% 100.0%
FeelAware
Agree Count 15 108 42 165
% within
9.1% 65.5% 25.5% 100.0%
FeelAware
Total Count 32 180 55 267
% within
12.0% 67.4% 20.6% 100.0%
FeelAware

Using the same set of questions in regards to awareness of global issues i.e. current

events, we then looked at how this compares to their actual answers regarding their frequency of

global interactions and experiences. Again we can identify a positive relationship between the

individuals who have a high level of experiences (traveling outside the U.S., global media

absorption, and human interaction with foreign people) and those who do not. We had 173 valid

cases which equates to 47.9 percent of the surveyed. People who had the highest frequency of

experience also had the highest score of global issue awareness, which was 14.7 percent. This is

very high when compared to the individuals with mid experience 3.2 percent and those with low

experience who scored 0. People with the lowest frequency of experience did have the lowest

awareness of global issues.

 Standardize d Fre q of Exp * Aware ne ss of global issue s Crosstabulation

Awareness of global issues

Low Mid High Total
Standardized Low Count 11 2 0 13
Freq of Exp % within Standardized
84.6% 15.4% .0% 100.0%
Freq of Exp
Mid Count 93 29 4 126
% within Standardized
73.8% 23.0% 3.2% 100.0%
Freq of Exp
High Count 9 20 5 34
% within Standardized
26.5% 58.8% 14.7% 100.0%
Freq of Exp
Total Count 113 51 9 173
% within Standardized
65.3% 29.5% 5.2% 100.0%
Freq of Exp

Additonal Findings

After analyzing the data some of our additional findings are that in general men are better

at the geography test. Thisd could be skewed because of the large number of men in the survey in

comparison to female respondents. This does not say much thougyh, because in general only

20.2 people answered the map correctly.

Summary and Conclusion

The findings in our study are of great importance because of they show that the level of

global experience does correlate with the global awarenes, as we defined in our research. By

testing for global experience based on exposure to the many resources we allowed for further

research into the importance of particular experiences and their contribution to a persons global

awareness. Our findings show that it is plausible to infer that if an education model focused on

geographic knowledge were to be administered the students subjected to the test will indeed be

more globally aware than those students in a general education model. Implied in that finding is

that general education models are too broad to effectively encourage global awareness. A
standing question that the group neeeds answered is how the participants arrived at the answers

that they put on the geographic knowledge section of the survey, because we are unable to

determine how the test participants figure out which country is which, whether it is through

specific knowledge of geography or whether it is general knowledge and spatial identification,

because the difference could be from their global experiences, which would further prove our

hypothesis. It would be highly beneficial for us to do a post-test interview with those participants

that completed the map section to see how they arrived at their answers.

Some of the problems with our testing method, but also our hypothesis though proven to

be correct are that the population surveyed is not representative to the general population of the

university, because the test population is majority female, much like the university population is

majority female. For a more generalizable study a more balanced test participant group is needed

because of the overwhelmingly female population of the university population. A more thorough

study may yield gender distinctions that could prove significant in further study of global

awareness in post-secondary students. The broad nature of our test questions leaves out other

factors, such as academic major, as influences of global awareness and contribution to global

experience in a participant, or because in today’s world the average age of the college student is

steadily rising because more adult students and students taking time off for various reasons,

which allows for the average participant to have more global experiences before and during their

time in college.

The findings from the cross-tabulation of frequency of experience and self-rating of

global awareness, show that although there is at face awareness of global issues, the level of

awareness of global issues is not significantly effected by a person’s global experieces, but it

does show that there is a slight relation between the two. Within this cross-tabulation we found
that it is important to ascertain, through what means do the test participants gain the majority of

their knowledge of global issues, because much like the other findings it may speak to whether

or not the resources utilized correlate with our definition of global experiences, as well as the our

ideal of acceptable resources, such as more uncommon ways of attaining information on global

issues, as well as having global experiences. These as well as others are unidentified or possibly

less available/known to the public. Factors such as these should be looked into for further study,

to measure their effectiveness in changing the level of global awareness in their users versus the

users of acceptedly more common resources.

We feel that there are many underlying factors that may contribute to a person’s level of

global awareness, and the topic warrants much deeper analysis and testing. Within the general

survey there are points that may have a influence on global experience itself, such as a

participants major, both because of the requirements of the major, but also the reasons for the

participants selection of that particular major.

While there are many untested correlations in predicting global awareness our findings

have shown that in our study the level of global experience as defined and tested through

geographic knowledge, awareness of global issues, and the participant’s own self-evaluation of

their global awareness, does prove to influence a persons overall level of global awareness. Thus,

this proves our hypothesis that individuals with higher global experience will have a higher

global awareness.
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