Program partnerships for global literacy in professional communication

Current global trade negotiations, such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) are expected to spur global trade to unprecedented levels and, with this growth spurt, the need for global professional communication will likely expand as well. Already, many professional communicators spend considerable time collaborating in global work teams, writing for audiences around the world, or managing projects in global networked environments. To succeed in such environments, professional communicators need to be globally literate - able to think, work, and communicate in global networks and to do so ethically, effectively, and with critical awareness. To foster global literacy, programs need to partner globally and build networked electronic learning spaces that offer regular, just-in-time opportunities for learners to develop such literacies. This presentation presents early results for a research project on global partnerships in professional communication programs, extending our previous framework for partnering to global partnerships. Specifically, the presentation discusses the purposes, benefits, operations, and considerations for communication in building such partnerships.