How to internationalise a curriculum

School of Medicine University of Tasmania

July 2011

Associate Professor Betty LeaskALTC National Teaching Fellow

University of South Australia

How to internationalise a curriculum?

Action Focus Some Key Questions

1. Review and reflect on what you already do and your rationale for IoC

Why should we engage in IoC in our course at this time and in this ‘place’?

2. Work as a team – communicate, develop some shared goals

What does IoC mean in this course?

3. Identify obstacles, opportunities and resources

What is stopping us? What opportunities are there?What resources do we have?

4. Develop short and long term team and individual plans

Who will do what by when? What research outcomes?

5. Review and reflect on achievements and ....

How will you know what you’ve achieved?

A definition

• An internationalised curriculum (product) will purposefully develop the international and intercultural perspectives (skills, knowledge and attitudes) of all students

• IoC is the incorporation of an international and intercultural dimension into the preparation, delivery and outcomes of a program of study (process)

(Leask 2009)

Internationalisation of the curriculum is:• Context sensitive

– Multiple contextual layers

• Disciplinary driven – From rationale to outcomes

• Future oriented– Critical perspectives on the past and present

• Founded on excellent teaching and research– ‘Aligned’ and student focussed

IoC in the disciplines

• is related to the way in which disciplines and professions are culturally constructed, bound and constricted

• requires that academic staff think outside of these traditional restrictive, boundaries

• has ‘macro-level’ as well as ‘micro-level’ implications for programs

• May look very different in different disciplines

• An internationalised curriculum will move beyond traditional boundaries and dominant paradigms and prepare students to deal with uncertainty by opening their minds and developing their ability to think both creatively and critically.

Some questions to consider

• Why is IoC important in your discipline and in your course?

• What are the drivers for IoC in your course given the different contextual layers within which it sits?

Some Disciplinary Interpretations and

Approaches to IoC

Nursing: Rationale

• education can and should create the conditions necessary for health, peace and harmony as fundamental human rights in every society

• nurses and midwives can make a valuable contribution to the promotion preservation and maintenance of these conditions

(Sandstrom 1998, p.146)

Nursing: Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes for nurses in a globalised world • Ability to co-operate and collaborate in joint efforts

across national and cultural boundaries• Intercultural communicative competence required for

provision of professional health care to patients from diverse cultural backgrounds

• Ability to obtain and utilise ideas and experiences from different parts of the world

• Ability to function within the healthcare organisations of the future

(Sandstrom 1998)

Nursing 2010-2011

• 60% teaching staff completed QIC online • Follow-up interviews with 7 staff• Some ‘surprising moments’ e.g.

– Every course has a question about ‘what would happen if this problem was situated in another cultural context? BUT not used...

• Follow-up action related to staff induction, development and resources

• Need to make implicit explicit to staff & students• Make more of international experiences of some

to enhance learning for all

Public Relations

• Public Relations theory is not objective, scientific or culturally neutral - as a discipline it is culturally constructed and culturally specific

• Culturally diverse student groups have challenged normative approaches to the field

• Teaching offshore has challenged traditional approaches to curriculum content and delivery

Public Relations

• In 2005 curriculum was modified to include assessment options related to application of theory in different social and political contexts e.g. Development/analysis of communication materials generated in relation to:– Power blackouts in Malaysia and Western Australia– Water issues in Singapore & Malaysia– Taiwanese government elections

(Surma & Fitch 2006)

• Five years on .... a work in progress

Social Sciences (1)

• In Social Sciences we can’t easily define for students what their professional practice will be – but important that we help students to create a professional identity in a globalised world

• Not just about how we get students to look at other cultures (this is the easy bit), but how we get them to look at themselves and their own cultures

Social Sciences (2) cont

• Curriculum in some areas is internationalised already (e.g. anthropology) but could be better articulated and made more explicit to students

• Need to create room for staff and students to be more self-reflective in relation to intercultural and cross-cultural problems/issues

• Need to incorporate IoC as part of regular reviews such as ‘Annual Review’ rather than as something separate and extra

Applied Science

• a curriculum based on a critical analysis of the connections between culture, knowledge and professional practice in science within a globalised world

• employ problem-based methodologies • prepares students to be flexible, adaptive and

reflexive problem solvers who can conduct community-based as well as industry-based investigations

(Carter 2008 p.629)

Biological Sciences - Rationale

• The big problems in biology are international problems that require international solutions

• There are many important problems to be solved in the developing world

Accounting

• Linguistic and cultural diversity likely to increase not decrease – not only related to IS

• Need to require, support and assess/assure development of professional communication skills as part of degree

• Tweaking rather than major addition to content – still possible to cover technical skills

• Program-level approach with changes at subject level- but not all subjects (Evans et al 2009)

Medicine

• Hanson, L. (2010) Global Citizenship, Global Health, and the Internationalization of Curriculum: A Study of Transformative Potential Journal of Studies in International Education February 2010 14: 70-88.

• Harden, R.M. (2006). International medical education and future directions: A global perspective. Academic Medicine, 81(12 Suppl), S22-S29. (UK)

• McNicoll, Y.R., Burney, S. & Luff, A.R. (2008). Enhancing faculty culture to meet student needs: Internationalising the curriculum. Paper presented at the Australian Universities Quality Forum: Quality & Standards in Higher Education: Making a Difference, Canberra. 68-74. (Australia)

Hanson, L. (2010) Global Citizenship, Global Health, and the Internationalization of Curriculum: A Study of Transformative Potential Journal of Studies in International Education February 2010 14: 70-88.

• Reports on a 6-year outcome evaluation of the impact and transformative potential of two interdisciplinary global health courses taught using transformative pedagogies in a Medical School in Canada. Results of the evaluation show promise that this model of internationalized curricula can foster personal transformation and global citizenship while creating bridges of understanding between local and global health issues. The course pedagogy may hold keys to increasing potential for social transformation through the process of internationalizing curriculum.

Harden, R.M. (2006). International medical education and future directions: A global perspective. Academic Medicine, 81(12 Suppl), S22-S29. (UK)

• Describes a transnational approach in which internationalization is integrated and embedded within a curriculum and involves collaboration between a number of schools in different countries. In this approach, the study of medicine is exemplified in the global context rather than the context of a single country. The International Virtual Medical School serves as an example in this regard.

McNicoll, Y.R., Burney, S. & Luff, A.R. (2008). Enhancing faculty culture to meet student needs: Internationalising the curriculum. Paper presented at the Australian Universities Quality Forum: Quality & Standards in Higher Education: Making a Difference, Canberra. 68-74. (Australia)

• In 2007 the FMNHS at Monash University inaugurated a long-term project to internationalise the curricula of its 32 undergraduate and 76 postgraduate coursework programs. Goal was to align with the University’s IoC policy introduced in 2005 and with the University’s Graduate Attributes, which state that graduates will exhibit oral and written communication skills in a broad range of settings and domains [including] communicative competence across cultures and genres, both generally, and in the discipline in which they graduate. The overall aim is to normalize the curriculum internationalisation across all courses. The execution of this project and implications for future IoC activities are described in this paper.

Discussion

• What is the rationale for IoC in your course?

Some Key Learnings from the Fellowship

Teamwork is essential

The importance of reflection and discussion

1__________2_________3_________4

Localised curriculum

Internationalised curriculum

Study abroad

Language study

Case studies from different cultures

International learning outcomes

Multi-cultural group work

Team members will have different roles and responsibilities

• Champions

• Advocates

• Latent champion or advocates

• Sceptics

• Opponents

Not everyone will want to, or be able to, be involved to the same extent

Review and reflect ‘as a mob’

• A Questionnaire on IoC – QIC• 16 questions e.g. Assessment Tasks and Arrangements at Program and Course Level

• 10.1 Assessment tasks never require students to consider issues from a variety of cultural perspectives

• 10.2 Assessment tasks rarely require students to consider issues from a variety of cultural perspectives

• 10.3 Assessment tasks sometimes require students to consider issues from a variety of cultural perspectives, but no systematic approach to this has been discussed by the course team

• 10.4 Assessment tasks systematically require students to consider issues from a variety of cultural perspectives so that it is assured by the end of the course that students can do this effectively

‘Macro’ and ‘micro’ level questions need to be considered

1. What international/intercultural perspectives/competencies do you want graduates of this degree to have when they graduate?

2. How will these be developed in each successive year of the degree?

3. How will students’ progress towards achieving these internationalised outcomes be evaluated?

4. How will you know our graduates have achieved them?

5. How can you support this through the informal curriculum?

Obstacles and opportunities

• Or ‘blockers and enablers’ can be both ‘individual’ and ‘organisational’

• Easy to sat time and money as main blockers but these may be ‘symptoms’ rather than ‘causes’

Discussion

• Which blockers apply in your situation?

• What can you do about them?

• What are your key enablers?

Resources to assist you

Contact me: betty.leask@unisa.edu.au

Visit the website http://www.ioc.net.au or

http://resource.unisa.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=5925

• Themed literature review – by discipline• QIC – an aid to team reflection and review• Blockers and enablers questionnaire• Case studies of IoC in Action

National Symposium

Monday 10 October, 2011

Bradley Forum

University of South Australia

Details on the website

References• Carter, L. (2008) Globalization and science education: the implications of science in the new

economy. Journal of Research in Science Teaching 45(5), 617–633

• Leask, B. (2009) Using formal and informal curricula to improve interactions between home and international students. Journal of Studies in International Education, Vol. 13, No. 2, 205-221

• Sandstrom, S. (1998) Internationalisation in Swedish Undergraduate Nursing Education: It’s interpretation and implementation in the context of nursing with tender loving care. Research Bulletin 96 Helsinki: Faculty of Education: University of Helsinki.

• Soudien 2005 in Zajda, J. (ed). International Handbook on Globalisation, Education and Policy Research Netherlands, Springer pp501-516

• Fitch, K., & Surma, A. (2006). The challenges of international education: Developing a public relations unit for the Asian Region. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 3(2), 104-113