Knowledge Diplomacy and Worldview Diversity Education: Applications for an Internationalized Higher Education Sector

• In Event: Rethinking education: diversity, mindfulness, and movement

Proposal

Higher education is influenced by globalization in various ways, and efforts to internationalize this sector have been the focus of numerous policy initiatives, research studies, curricular and programmatic developments, and philosophical discussions. A particularly marked manifestation of this broad trend – both in practice and in scholarly literature – is the transnational movement of students. On a worldwide basis, the number of students studying at higher education institutions outside their home countries is currently approaching three million, and is projected to reach as many as eight million by 2025 (Guruz, 2011). This paper will present a new angle of analysis on the phenomenon of rapidly increasing student mobility by applying the lenses of “knowledge diplomacy” (Knight, 2015) and worldview diversity education (Ilisko, 2017). In particular, this paper will discuss the potential and the responsibility of higher education, through internationalization efforts, to promote understanding across differences in worldview and temper the recent resurgence of nationalism and xenophobia we are witnessing across the globe.

In the discourse around the internationalization of higher education, the concepts soft power and global market competitiveness have most often been presented as reasons to pursue increased student mobility (Knight, 2015); “soft power” refers to the use of higher education to promote a country’s agenda internationally “through attraction rather than coercion” (Nye, 2004, p. x). However, alternative discourses are emerging that analyze the potential for an internationalized higher education sector (in general) and international student mobility (in particular) to serve as a form of knowledge diplomacy and to develop a new generation with broader, more inclusive worldviews (Knight, 2015; Yonezawa, Kitamura, Meerman, & Kuroda 2014). In other words, instead of examining the internationalization of higher education for its self-serving potential (in terms of gaining global dominance), some scholars are choosing to consider how it can be used as a force for increased global harmony.

Furthermore, a parallel conversation among higher education scholars and policy makers around the world discusses the need for education to serve as a tool to “enhance mutual understanding among different cultures and religions” (ASEAN Plus Three, 2007, Section D, 5.2). As a response to the increasing displays of violent religious extremism and rising interreligious tensions worldwide, many government bodies – and, subsequently, university faculty and administrators – have, in recent years, made more overt efforts to incorporate worldview diversity education as an essential component of their educational initiatives (Halsall & Roebben, 2006). Within this discourse, exposure to, and education about, religious and cultural diversity (i.e., worldview diversity) is deemed necessary for students not only to become more effective global citizens, but also more respectful and compassionate people that will help create sustainable peace globally (Ilisko, 2017).

In combining these similar, yet to-this-point distinct, bodies of literature, this paper will, (a) describe the intersections of higher education internationalization, cross-boarder student mobility, knowledge diplomacy, and worldview diversity education; (b) theorize ways forward for higher education globally that reflects the potential for knowledge diplomacy and worldview diversity education in an internationalized higher education sector; and (c) suggest future areas of research and scholarship that can help to build more synergy between these two associated discourses, and establish a stronger understanding of the way higher education internationalization can be used as a means for promoting global peace. To be clear, both knowledge diplomacy and worldview diversity education are fairly new concepts within the field of international higher education. This paper, then, is an attempt to contribute to the development of these concepts and their application for the study and practice of higher education.

Authors

• Sachi T. Edwards, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

• Yuto Kitamura, University of Tokyo