Internationalising the Curriculum: From the ‘symbolic’ to the ‘transformative’ in learning,

teaching and assessment practice

Viv Caruana

2014 Solstice eLearning and CLT Conference

Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Effective Practices

Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, UK

5-6 June 2014

Keynote address

Conceptualising internationalisation of HE

GLOBALISATION

Marketisation Knowledge Economy andDiscourse Learning Society

Global citizenship – participation, responsibility, activism?

Internationalisation: The Challenge

The development continuum

Symbolic or Technical observance

More international students and staff

‘Add-on’

Remedial support

Transformative or Relational participation

Fostering cultural production

Confronting homogenisation

New forms of trans-cultural experience

How?

(Adapted from McTaggart, 2003)

Internationalisation – what does it mean to me?

• Policy perspective, institutional level – exploring the big picture….

• Activity:

You have been given three different colour cards, on each one is an institutional statement select the one which best fits with your notion of what internationalisation means for you, hold the card up for all to see! (1 min.)

Talk to the person to your left - did you make the same selection? Why did you make that particular selection? (1 min.)

Please share the most compelling reason for your selection with our group (1 min.)

…the internationalised curriculum is culturally relevant and empowers international and other ethnically diverse students, whilst enhancing the global dimension for all students. It therefore takes account of students’ diverse backgrounds and prior learning experiences and provides curriculum space to discuss and reflect on transitions. It enables students to appreciate their position within a globalised world, and to develop as global citizens with global perspectives and cross-cultural capabilities. The internationalised curriculum embraces both ‘internationalisation abroad’ and ‘internationalisation at home’ by providing opportunities for staff and students to experience education, work placements etc. in other countries whilst, at the same time, bringing new cultural experience to the home campus through sharing international teaching, learning and research experience in multicultural classrooms.

(Caruana, 2011)

Exploring the internationalised curriculum

Three key principles of the internationalised curriculum

• Inclusion

• Multiple perspectives

• Cross-cultural capability

What does inclusion mean?

No one should be disadvantaged

OR

All should be helped to learn by a curriculum designed to achieve success

Multiple perspectives?

• Acknowledge another person’s cultural viewpoint?

• Acknowledge multiple ways of knowing, multiple ways of producing knowledge, different ways of living, doing, being and becoming

• Criticality?

(Caruana, 2011)

Cross-cultural capability?

- intercultural awareness (awareness of self in relation to ‘other’)

- skills that enable students to communicate effectively across cultures

- international and multiple perspectives on the discipline that have traditionally characterised the ‘content’ approach to internationalising the curriculum.

(Killick, 2006)

Enablers of the internationalised curriculum

• International students and/or home students with diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds in campus classrooms

• International collaborations and partnerships

• Links with organisations in the community which are either representative of cross-cultural interests or are involved in work which has a cross-cultural dimension

• International accreditation of programmes

• International staff who are contractually available to teach and staff who have experience of teaching and research in other countries

• Learning materials and resources which originate outside the host country

• Opportunity to learn languages

Some key issues in the way forward

• Mis-match of teacher and student expectations

• What ALT strategies make curriculum more inclusive?

• My curriculum is already packed!

• We think students don’t want to cross the boundary … maybe that’s because they need the capability in the first place!

Some key issues in the way forward

• Students see the relevance of cross-cultural capability but are not explicitly assessed on it

• My student cohort is not diverse how does an internationalised curriculum work for them?

• How does global citizenship fit with the internationalised curriculum?

• Most students don’t want to go abroad how is cross-cultural capability developed for them?

(Caruana, 2011)

International mobility – the gold standard in developing cross-cultural capability ?

• Mobility has become an ‘…almost exclusive frame of action, perception and identification of the global citizen.’ (Rhodes et al, 2008)

• Insufficient knowledge and understanding of how intercultural competence, growth and transformation occur as a result of mobility and how study abroad enhances graduate employability (King et al, 2010; Savicki and Selby, 2008)

International mobility – the gold standard in

developing cross-cultural capability ?

International mobility – the gold standard in developing cross-cultural capability ?

• Allport (1979) - prejudice is reduced by intercultural contact which is sustained, reaches below the surface, occurs among individuals or groups of equal status in pursuit of common goals.

• International mobility acknowledges that globalisation provides access to a wider cultural inventory, but neglects the fact that the cultural inventory also gains access to you, in your locality and in your workplace etc.

(Hannerz , 2006; Westrick, 2005; Shannon-Little, 2013)

Voluntary social segregation?

• Avoidance of difference, discomfort around acknowledging difference, fear of discriminating or stereotyping

• The tensions of internationalisation discourse as marketisation discourse

• Criticism being voiced – the quality debate, us versus them, on whose terms?

• Perceived ‘risk factors’ are less associated with the demands of academic learning per se and more associated with social issues – the challenge of ‘fitting in’ with peers leads to self doubt and isolation and undermines academic performance

• Students will often reach out to the surrounding community

(Caruana, 2013; Caruana et al, 2011; Caruana and Ploner, 2010)

Multicultural group work – students are not crossing the cultural boundaries?

group mix

transparent rationale

relevance of tasks

engage higher order cognitive skills

time to get to know each other

guidance on group processes

reflexive and constructive discussion

(Caruana and Spurling, 2007)

Addressing mis-match, being inclusive and freeing-up curriculum space?

• The ‘international mindset’

• Challenging stereotypes

• Working with colleagues in international student support and specialists in international education

• Engaging students’ prior learning experiences – first-day introductions etc.

• Diverse learning stimuli and environments

• ‘Threshold concepts’ – a key enabler

(Caruana, 2011)

My cohorts are not very culturally diverse

• Online collaboration allied to a learning and teaching strategy based upon experiential and problem-based learning

• Importance of ‘getting to know you’ period

• Activities designed to benefit both sets of students

• Assessment of outcomes of collaboration

• Guiding discussion

• Experiential learning in local multicultural settings

(Caruana, 2013; Caruana, 2011; Caruana and Spurling, 2007)

Making assessment inclusive?

• Dialogue to consider UK HE culture

• Guidance on task

• Overcome confusion surrounding when and how to ‘reveal one’s own voice’

• Avoid cultural bias and ‘intellectual self-censorship’

• Countering plagiarism – using detection software as a developmental tool

• Mixed method assessment to ‘level the playing field’ and strategic use of ‘formative assessment’

(Caruana and Spurling, 2007)

Assessing cross-cultural capability?

• An assessment taxonomy – intercultural awareness, competence, expertise

• Cross-cultural capability is not an absolute concept, rather it is emergent, iterative and highly dependent upon experience

• Locate the starting point and the shift in disposition

• The dilemma – reflexivity requires reflection, a quality of the mature learner – or is it?

(Caruana, 2011)

A word on global citizenship

• Empowerment as critical thinkers

• Understanding global issues in the context of one’s own life

• Global perspectives as understanding the relationship between local actions and global consequences and vice-versa

• Understanding how marginalised peoples have come to experience their world and how multiple voices and perspectives challenge dominant and seemingly universal ways of reading the world

(Caruana, 2011)

Cross-cultural capability – engaging the

intellectual and the emotional?

• Cross-cultural capability and global citizenship are less about international travel per se and more about harnessing the diverse experiences of students

• Current emphasis on multicultural education on university campuses (celebrating difference, valuing non-dominant cultures) may create an atmosphere of mutual tolerance but intercultural understanding involves negotiation, shared symbols and meanings to develop ‘relational identity’ moving from the ‘symbolic’ to the ‘transformational’

• From comfort zone to contact zone – biographical teaching method, engaging the emotions without compromising teaching ethics?

• Cultural autobiography, storytelling and personal biography – engaging past, present and future transitions with curriculum space to reflect

(Caruana, 2014; Caruana, 2011)

References

Please see accompanying Word document.

Thank you!