Cultivating Global Governance Talents through Integrating the SDGs into Education in the Post-COVID World

• Author: Xirong Liu
• Position: Ph.D., Assistant Professor of School of Foreign Studies at East China University of Political Science and Law
• Pages: 107-135

Cultivating Global Governance Talents through Integrating

the SDGs into Education in the Post-COVID World

Xirong Liu1

Abstract: The outbreak of COVID-19 has engendered tremendous impacts on

the world, putting current global governance system into question in the global

context of re-globalization. Fair and square international economic rules, robust

universal healthcare, social protection systems and closer multilateral cooperation are

needed to improve global governance capabilities for a sustainable future which

requires actions and operations from all levels, globally, regionally, nationally, locally

and personally. As the youth are an important driving force to shape the future world,

educators should play their roles in cultivating future global governance talents. One

effective way of nurturing prospective global governance leaders is to integrate the

United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs) into curricula to improve

youngsters’ sense of global citizenship, foster their sustainability competencies, and

motivate them to take actions to create a better tomorrow with more possibilities. The

SDGs seek to achieve sustainable development in economic, social and environmental

dimensions. The COVID-19 pandemic has retarded the progress of SDGs, and yet

demonstrated precisely the necessities of sustainability or sustainable development in

all aspects for present and future generations. To make SDGs a reality, every

individual must have access to quality education as it is not only an end in itself but

also a pathway to sustainability. Solid achievements have been made to integrate the

SDGs into curricula. However, there are still many difficulties needed to be resolved.

Some possible strategies are proposed to address the challenges, namely, following a

pathway of “objectives alignment—system design of content—innovative pedagogies

application—monitoring and evaluation” with “faculty capacity building” and “whole

institution support”. Moreover, a case study of A History of Western Civilization and

SDGs is presented to show how to systematically and scientifically embed the SDGs

into curricula and help nurture future global governance leaders.

Keywords: Post-COVID; Globalization; Global Governance; SDGs; Education

1. Introduction

The COVID-19 outbreak has engendered tremendous impacts on people’s daily

life, international finance, trade and politics. By the time of this writing, there have

been 104,370,550 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 2,271,180 deaths globally

reported to World Health Organization.2The stock market’s confidence sapped to the

degree that it fused four times in a single month in 2020. The total merchandise

exports of the first three quarters in 2020 are 12,476,159 Million USD, decreasing by

10.81% compared with the same period in 2019.3The global real Gross Domestic

Product (hereinafter referred to as GDP) has contracted by 3.5% in 2020.4While

1Xirong Liu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of School of Foreign Studie s at East China University of

Political Science and Law. This article is sponsored by Shanghai Young University Teachers Training

and Sponsoring Program in 2021.

2See WHO, WHO Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Dashboard, https://covid19.who.int/ (a ccessed

on February 6, 2021).

3See WTO, WTO Metadata, https://data.wto.org/en (accessed on Feb ruary 6, 2021).

4See International Moneta ry Fond, 2021 World Economic Outlook, htt ps://www.imf.org/en/Publi

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China takes quick and effective actions to make the virus under control and goes back

to the normal track of life and development, the confirmed cases of COVID-19 are

still increasing rapidly in other countries, notably in the United States. The pandemic

has disrupted the global supply chain, dragging the world economy and trade into

deep mires, putting the current global governance system into question. The

coronavirus also provides an excuse for trade protectionism, unilateralism and

deglobalization.5As globalization increases mobility among countries and regions, it

is held as the direct culprit for the outbreak and widespread of the pandemic.6The

destructive pandemic has been said to be the last straw of terminating globalization.

So, what is the global context or trend in the post-coronavirus era? Is it heading to

deglobalization or reglobalization? What lessons can humans learn from the pandemic?

What actions can be taken to improve global governance capabilities? As the younger

generation is the shaping power of the future world, what can educators do to

cultivate future global governance talents for a sustainable world?

This article proposes that multilateral cooperation is needed to improve global

governance in the context of reglobalization after the pandemic and educators can

integrate the United Nations sustainable development goals (hereinafter referred to as

SDGs) into curricula to cultivate future global governance talents by improving

youngsters’ sense of global citizenship, fostering their sustainability competencies,

and motivating them to take actions to create a sustainable future. The article is

composed of sixth parts. The first part is a literature review of global governance and

global education governance, pointing out the academic and realistic necessities of

rethinking global governance and education in the Post-COVID era. The second part

looks into the global context after the pandemic, pointing out that multilateral

collaboration is needed to improve global governance capabilities in the wave of

reglobalization. The third part focuses on the necessities of integrating the SDGs into

education through an analysis of the origins, development and difficulties of the

SDGs, education as a fundamental human right, and education as a catalyst for

sustainable development goals. The fourth part examines the difficulties and

challenges in practicing the SDGs in classes in the process of course reorientation.

The fifth part explores the possible strategies to better integrate the SDGs into

curricula, suggesting to follow a pathway of “objectives alignment—system design of

content —innovative pedagogies application —monitoring and evaluation” with

“faculty capacity building” and “whole institution support”. The sixth part is a case

study of the course of A History of Western Civilization and the SDGs. This article

cations/WEO/Iss ues/2021/01/26/ 2021-world-econ omic-outlook-up date (assessed on Fe bruary 6, 20

21).

5See Hag-Min Kim & Ping Li et al., Observations of Deglo balization Against Globalization and

Impacts on Global Business, 4(2) Internatio nal Trade, Politics and Development 83, 103 (2020). Kim

and her peers quote Bello Walden’s Deglobalization: Ideas for a New World Economy (2004) to

illustrate the 14 features of deglobalization: (1) production for the domestic market; (2) subsidies at the

national level; (3) strong trade policy; (4) industrial policy including subsidies, tariffs and trade to

strengthen the manufacturing sector; (5) long postponed measures of equitable income redistribution;

(6) deemphasizing growth but emphasizing upgradin g the quality of life; (7) power and transportation

systems transformed into decentralized systems based on re newable sources; (8) healthy balance

maintained between the country’s carrying capacity and the size of its population; (9) environmentally

congenial technology; (10) a gender lens to ensure gender equity; (11) strategic economic decisions to

the market or to technocrats; (12) civil society monitoring and supervising the p rivate sector and the

state and a process that should be institutionalized; (13) the property complex transformed into a mixed

economy; and (14) centralized global institutions replaced with regional institutions.

6See Yunling Zhang, COVID-19 Accelerates the Fourth Wave of Globalization, 142(3) Beijing

Cultural Review 45, 52 (2020).

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