Family Science provides a distinct interdisciplinary perspective on social life: its focus on the family realm highlights the importance of understanding interconnections with neighborhoods, communities, and the global environment. The field is often very applied in nature and includes traditional classroom pedagogies intertwined with real life experiences. This symposium will address the significance of teaching family science from an ecological perspective and highlight the importance of macro and micro and local and global perspectives. Presenters will draw attention to successful pedagogical strategies and examples of applied projects that provide students with real world experiences in their local and global communities.

Objectives

• review new innovative pedagogies that integrate global perspectives and cross-cultural research into core family science courses. • engage in a discussion about the benefits and challenges of globalizing the curriculum. • reproduce examples of hands on techniques and assignments that will incorporate information on global families, global policies and applied experiences into the classroom.