Topic 3: Ways into IoC, disciplinary contexts
We have looked at a range of theories on IoC over the last two weeks and thought through what they might mean in practice. The focus for this week is our own subject disciplines. You have already started to think about the issues that IoC raises for your discipline and may recognize, as you explore the resources, that your discipline feels more comfortable responding to internationalising the curriculum in some dimensions but not others e.g. global perspectives (with an emphasis on international case studies) or cross-cultural capabilities (perhaps by encouraging interaction between international and domestic students) or responsible citizenship.
Responsible citizenship is perhaps the most contested aspect of IoC. Firstly the notion of citizenship, and citizen of what or where, invokes great debate among political scientists and others. The notion of 'responsibility' raises the question of responsible for what and responsible to whom? There is also debate around the possibility of universal agreement to values such as equity, justice and sustainability.
There are two tasks this week aimed at generating ideas for internationalising your discipline.
Activity 1: investigating your discipline
This week we would like you to familiarise yourself with how curriculum internationalisation is developing in your discipline area by exploring relevant resources and case studies. There are a number of web sites that you might like to explore:
- The Centre for Curriculum Internationalisation (CCI) website is designed to provide resources to programme teams exploring IoC. It has a good list of resources, some discipline specific, and a few case studies. You will find it at: www.brookes.ac.uk/services/cci/.
- On the Higher Education Academy (HEA) UK website at www.heacademy.ac.uk/home you will see a link to 'your discipline', this will take you to a list of over 50 disciplines which you can click on to explore resources. On the front page there is also a right-hand menu of 'popular pages', one of these is 'internationalisation'. Again this takes you to many resources, although a lot are focused on teaching international students.
- The Australian Office for Learning and Teaching website which has a resource library of the many projects that have been completed with its funding. See www.olt.gov.au/.
You might also like to explore the Journal of Studies in International Education at www.sagepub.com/journalsProdDesc.nav?prodId=Journal201378. There was a double issue produced in 2009 (vol 13) entitled 'Using formal and informal curricula to improve interactions between home and international students'.
There was also a recent special issue of Higher Education Research and Development (2011, vol 30, No. 5) entitled 'Internationalising the Home Student'.
Other ideas are:
- your own discipline pedagogical journals (you might find that some of the journals have had special issues devoted to IoC)
- conferences in your discipline over the past few years may have had a focus on IoC
- professional organisations produce their own hard copy and online resources, eg SRHE (Society for Research on Higher Education) and BERA (British Educational Research Association)
Activity 2: pushing into new areas of internationalisation
Aim to post this by Thursday of week three.
In the 'Activity 2: pushing into new areas of internationalisation' discussion forum identify your discipline and the areas in which you feel the discipline is already operating. Choose an area that it is not so active in and, using the 'How To' ideas list, take one or two ideas that you think could be used to 'push the boundaries' into other areas of internationalisation. Explain how you would use the ideas.
Study the postings of two other people and pose some questions that a critical friend might ask about the impact and limitations of the ideas.
Further readings
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Clifford, V.A. (2009). Engaging the Disciplines in Internationalising the Curriculum, International Journal of Academic Development, 14(2) 133-143.
This article explores disciplinary understandings of the concept of internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC) and ways academics might be encouraged to engage with the discourse. The learning communities of the 'hard pure' disciplines were found to be resistant to engaging in the discourse of internationalisation, while all other discipline areas recognised the effects of the contextualisation of knowledge and the need to consider the future multi-cultural work environments of their students. - Edwards, R. Crosling, G., Petrovic-Lazarovic, S. and O’Neill, P. (2003). Internationalisation of Business Education: meaning and implementation. Higher Education Research and Development, 22 (2), 183-192. This article seeks to bridge the gap between the aims of curriculum internationalisation and the subject curriculum. It looks at international awareness, international competence and international expertise in Business Education. [This article is not free access; you will have to access through your institution.]
- Haigh, M. (2005). Geography and the 'European Year of Citizenship through Education'. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 29 (2), 173-182.
This article looks at citizenship education, at what sets of knowledge, skills and attitudes individuals need to be able to be active citizens in Europe in the twenty first century, and how these can be developed. Citizenship is a contested concept , however, this article offers a very digestible critique of the concept. [This article is not free access; you will have to access through your institution.] - Course text: Montgomery, C. Chakula, M., Ndoumin, J.P. and Sedgwick, C. Chapter 11: Being and becoming a global citizen: student perspectives on engagement, interdisciplinarity and boundary crossing.
This chapter focuses on student experience of volunteer activity in the community beyond the classroom, and examines the connections students make between their informal learning and their formal university studies.
