Exploring the Glocal Competence of Students Through the Global Leadership Center : A Qualitative Case Study on the Lived Experience of Graduate

The purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of glocal competence through the lived experiences of alumni from the Global Leadership Center (GLC) at a Midwestern University in the U.S. The GLC is an undergraduate certificate program, which purports to provide opportunities to internationalize curricula across campus and the necessary avenue for undergraduate students to complement their degree programs. Further, the program is intended to provide students with opportunities to be globally minded and locally engaged through "active learning project- and team-based learning concepts from problem-based-learning-pedagogy (PBL)" (GLC, 2004, p.4) with a focused on international themes. Jean-Francois' (2015) glocal competence theory and conceptual framework informed the study. Using the GLC as a qualitative case study, this research explored the perceived glocal competence of 10 graduates based on their lived experiences in such program. In other words, this study drew from the experiences of students who have participated in the GLC program. The findings revealed that graduates of the GLC perceived that they developed glocal competencies (attitudes, knowledge, skills, and understanding), which enabled them to be effective in both global and local contexts.