The Wiley Handbook of Collaborative Online Learning and Global Engagement

11 Beyond Grades: Advancing Global Learning Through Personal and Social Responsibility in A Globally-Connected Peace Journalism Course

Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob¹ and Wajiha Raza Rizvi²

¹ Dickinson College, USA

² Forman Christian College, Pakistan

In Nigeria, at almost midnight on April 14, 2014, the Islamist group, Boko Haram abducted 276 schoolgirls from their secondary school dorm in Chibok. The abduction triggered the global #BringBackOurGirls movement. About half of the girls either escaped or were later released by their captors. Many are now students of the American University of Nigeria.

In Pakistan, on October 9, 2012, a Taliban gunman opened fire on three young girls inside a bus in the Swat District. The girls were on their way from taking a school examination. The attack was intended to silence then 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai, whose activism for female education had angered the Taliban and the conservative religious hierarchy in her community. Malala went on to become the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner and a loud voice for education for women and girls.

Although located a world apart, Nigeria and Pakistan have quite a few things in common. A history of religious and ethnic crises, military interventions in politics, attacks on education by Islamic extremists, and various forms of violent cultural practices against women and girls are among the many unfortunate similarities between both countries. Taliban violence, particularly in Northwest Pakistan, and the Boko ...