One of the profound college experiences that I often reminisce about is the intense discussions that my college peers and I had. Topics related to global issues were not only addressed in the classroom but also actively discussed throughout the campus community. Student engagement in such discussions challenged the Western lens in comprehending global issues, which many international students have had personal experiences and greater knowledge of. 

Learning about global issues through a critical lens is not easy. My undergraduate experiences were definitely not comfortable, yet they allowed us to assess our inner world in connection to the outer world. It takes a lot of patience, a sensitive approach, and self-awareness to truly comprehend the many issues that occur globally. It requires one to navigate the world through personal and shared narratives. Global education is the key to building our students’ social consciousness; however, this is unattainable when students struggle to connect themselves with their surroundings. 

For many Hong Kong students, it may be challenging to start paying attention to global issues, but it is not impossible. It is better to start somewhere than to not start at all. Here are several ways to learn about global issues and start critically assessing them:

1. Start reading news articles. Reading news articles can be daunting because there might be a lot of information that you’re unaware of. But start somewhere. Just reading anything that appeals to you could allow you to develop an interest in reading news. Once you’ve built the interest, you will naturally find lots of topics to discover.
2. Find different sources that cover the same issue. Learning about an issue only from one perspective can create biased opinions. Every source has its biases, and it is important to recognise them. Question what you’re looking for and why you resonate more with one source than another. This helps to raise self-awareness about one’s own preconceived notions and encourages reassessing issues from other perspectives.
3. Be critical of authors who write nonfiction. If you’re interested in feminism, for example, consider what kind you want to explore. The topic of feminism might be drastically different between a Western perspective and a non-Western perspective. Understanding an author’s socio-cultural context can give you more insights on how their experiences have shaped them to form their perspectives on a social issue.