Teaching Beyond Borders: Elevating Global Perspectives in the Criminal Justice Classroom

Abstract

Contemporary global events have forced a re-evaluation of how criminal justice curriculum is delivered. Recent years have seen substantial developments in the offerings of global or comparative criminology courses. However, the vast majority of engagement with scholarly work within the classroom remains U.S.-centric. This is highly problematic, as it encourages a siloed approach to the study of criminal justice and criminology. In this article, we examine the incorporation of global diversity within the pedagogical texts of criminal justice classrooms via two dimensions: (1) engagement with international scholars represented within the Journal of Criminal Justice Education, our field’s flagship journal for education, to understand how we engage with global pedagogical practices and (2) surveying of faculty members from across the world who are teaching in criminal justice and related areas to understand their salience of incorporating global scholarship into their courses, syllabi, and classrooms to reflect diversity of place. Findings reveal that the pedagogical space remains highly nationalistic with room for growth in international engagement. We address the policy implications of failing as a discipline to foster a truly global criminological discourse, while providing recommendations for building an inclusive classroom that transcends beyond borders.

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