national standards for psychological literacy and global citizenship

Strengths and Challenges of the Project Management Process
A review of Professor Cranney’s report indicates an impressive vision for the
Fellowship and a challenging (but largely achieved) set of outcomes pointing to success. Her
vision was a broad and sweeping one. I believe it is clear that this project would not have
come to fruition (especially in a relatively short time frame for something of this magnitude)
without funding from the Fellowship award and accompanying time off from some of her
normal duties as a faculty member. That so much was accomplished—literally on both a
national and a global scale—attests to the project’s success. As Professor Cranney notes, one
of the chief challenges of managing the project and moving it forward was gaining interest
and cooperation from various stakeholders in addition to the Fellowship team. Professional
bodies and educators and education networks all had to become engaged and convinced that
relevant activities (e.g., considering changes to accreditation standards) were worthy pursuits,
that the ideas and constructs (i.e., PL, global citizenship) were worthy, and so on. What is
clear is that Professor Cranney and her colleagues (both in Australia and beyond) managed to
achieve a high degree of what in the US is called “buy in”—that is, where disparate
constituencies with often competing visions and values are able to agree on a core set of ideas
as a means to further them. Generally speaking, that appears to be what happened as a result
of efforts based in or developing from the project management process. The key issue is—
and will remain—sustaining interest and enthusiasm at all levels for the goals of the
Fellowship. Based on Professor Cranney’s evaluative report, I believe there is good reason
for optimism on this front, as the next section of this report indicates.
Success of the Dissemination Strategies as of August 2012
The scope of the activities resulting from the Fellowship—formal and informal,
meetings, presentations, discussions, publications, committee works, among other efforts—is
nothing less than dramatic. The number of people who have become interested in or involved
in works promoting PL and global citizenship in Australia and around the world is quite
remarkable (see also the discussion of issues of sustainability and impact in the Fellowship
evaluation report). Noteworthy outcomes include the creation of web sites dedicated to PL
and global citizenship, networking via email, and through scholarly publications (e.g.,
Cranney & Dunn, 2011) and myriad professional talks and presentations. Naturally, an ongoing
goal is that the dissemination strategies (for a full list, see Professor Cranney’s report)
should lead to new, related initiatives. Arguably, any initiatives resulting from the Fellowship
efforts can be counted as a success, but those that deal with serious, sustained changes in
curricula, departmental or program planning, or organizational educational philosophy are
those that are likely to have the greatest long term impact. My own hope is that Professor
Cranney will write and publish a review article (with appropriate dissemination links posted
on the web sites and via email networks) on the successful outcome of the Fellowship’s
efforts to promote PL and global citizenship five years after the formal end of the project.
Utility of the Project’s Deliverables for Relevant Stakeholders
Any innovative pedagogy, especially one with a novel philosophy with broad goals,
must ultimately be useful. The issue of utility or applicability is important because educators
and academic programs will not adopt new initiatives if they do not prove to be helpful.
Relevant stakeholders here include those listed in Appendix C from Australia as well as
interested international colleagues (see, for example, authors of chapters in Cranney & Dunn
[2011], as well as Halpern [2010]). All of the project’s deliverables will help interested and
motivated stakeholders to focus on issues of accreditation, the place and role of PL and
scientific literacy, global citizenship within the psychology major, the importance of a
capstone experience within UG education (during year 3 in Australia, year 4 in the US),
professional opportunities for 3-year graduates (i.e., certificates, minors), refined and
enhanced learning outcomes linked to professional organizations (APS, APA), among other
initiatives. All of these initiatives are prompting needed discussions about the future of UG
education in psychology in Australia and around the world. This Fellowship project and the
impact of its outcomes are reminiscent of the Bologna process in Europe and certainly will
NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL LITERACY AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP 78