Does internationalization of higher education foster an inclusive curriculum? A comparative review of institutional curricular practice in English-speaking destination countries

• In Event: Study abroad programs: Issues and questions

Abstract

The increasing international student mobility in higher education reflects the trend of internationalization of higher education around the world. According to OECD (2013), there are an estimated 4.5 million students enrolled in a postsecondary institution outside their country of citizenship. English-speaking countries, including the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), Australia, and Canada, attract almost 1.97 million students (OECD 2012, UKCISA 2014, CISA 2014, & CBIE 2014) from abroad, becoming the leading destination countries of study.

Though internationalization of higher education is driven predominantly by political and economic reasons, for instance, the importance of institutional effort, particularly in creating an inclusive curriculum for the increasingly diverse student body, cannot be overestimated. A well-designed curriculum provides an environment where students develop their academic and professional skills, value views, and personal identity. If an institution does not take its diverse student body into account by enhancing inclusive curricula for all students, development for both all students would be limited in both academic excellence as well as student development.

However, the educational challenges and values resulting from the influx of more and more international students are still not fully acknowledged, addressed and emphasized. Current institutional practices reflect the fact that institutionalized curriculum as a basis for fostering internationalization is lacking. Furthermore, limited research and empirical studies fail to inform comprehensive curricular practice and implementation in response to the impact of internationalization on university curriculum and the assessment of student learning.

The purpose of this review is to identity extant literatures and research to call for reflection and discussion of international higher education’s accountability to all students, and the consequent development of international and intercultural responsive curricula. This review will provide an analytic and comparative study in the following English-speaking destination countries for international students—the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Canada, to examine current higher education curricular practice in creating an inclusive learning environment. This review will contribute to the existing knowledge when current studies have not addressed the issue in depth, especially considering student development for both domestic and international students.

This review first compares the definition and purpose of ‘multiculturalism in curriculum’ and ‘internationalizing the curriculum’ in respective institutional and/or national contexts, and further examines the curricular content, teacher preparation/training, student learning experience, curricular assessment, and student development evaluation. This review finds that the U.S. has a distinct interpretation of ‘multicultural curriculum’ from other comparing countries: in the U.S. the term describes the domestic racial/ethnic diversity, while in other countries multicultural curriculum refers to the addition of international student diversity. Thus, the attention of the inclusive learning environment in the U.S. context is mainly focused on domestic diversity, despite the fact that the U.S. has the highest number (more than 750,000) of international students enrolled (2012, OECD). On the contrary, the U.K., Australia and Canada have more qualitative studies conducted in discussing how internationalization of curriculum can be progressed in a more effective way. In addition, this review also identifies the lack of a more systematic examination of institution-wide curriculum design, when most existing research concentrates on the study of a specific course, program, or department.

In conclusion, the findings of this review indicate a need to underline the following areas: (a) the need for empirical studies in the U.S. curricular context, with specific attention paid to the inclusion of international diversity in order to develop a research-based understanding of U.S. curriculum; and (b) the need for university-wide curriculum reexamination with regard to the importance of all student’s success and development. Only when institutions acknowledge their educational responsibility and the importance of inclusive curricula for the increasingly diverse student body, can meaningful implementation be realized.

Author

• Ting-Han Chang, Vanderbilt University