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Internationalization of Curriculum


If you make deliberate effort to add international and global perspectives through your course content, activities, assessments, and classroom environment, you are actively engaged in internationalizing or globalizing your course/curriculum.

Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Who are the majority of the authors of your course readings?
  • Is most of what your course is about focused on Euro-centric and Americanized perspectives?
  • How are international and global perspectives represented and presented in your course?
  • Who are your guest lecturers and what are the topics they mostly talk about?
  • Are your course learning outcomes embedded in global awareness and world-mindedness? Hereis an adaptation of a that is focused on internationalizing pedagogy and can help you with designing learning outcomes for an internationalized course.
  • Are your course learning outcomes embedded in and ?Being globally awaresignifiesefforts tobuild an inclusive environment where differences arebothexpected and respected. A globally awareenvironmentpromotes interest inpolitically, socially, economically, andenvironmentallyevolving global context.World mindedness, on the other hand,builds on global awareness in thatit refers toa person’s disposition to thinkandcare about how their actions and decisions affect and are affected by other people around the world.

If the answers to these questions make you rethink about how your course is designed, you are in the process of internationalizing and globalizing your course.

Here are three main strategies you can adopt to internationalize/globalize your course depending on the content and the context.

Add-On

This is the easiest of the three approaches as you do not need to change a lot in your course from what you have been teaching. See examples below:

  • Add a reading from international perspective by an international author/s.
  • Invite a guest speaker who presents the matter with an international lens.

Integration

This approach may require careful rethinking of the design of the course and integration internationalized elements in the existing course.

  • Add at least one course outcome that is connected with intercultural competency.
  • Add an assignment that requires students to demonstrate understanding of diverse viewpoints.
  • Add a/more reading/s from international perspective by an international author/s.

Transformation

This approach may require careful rethinking of the design of the course and integration of internationalized elements in the existing course.

  • Think about a complete shift in the design of the curriculum.
  • Deliberately integrate intercultural and global aspects in the course from both pedagogical and educational points of view.

Internationalization statement for course outline (optional)

Following statement()on internationalization can be integrated intothe learningoutcomes and environment of thecourse,ensuring a deeper understanding of the statement and your actions inthe classroom.

“Instructors can identify global learning outcomes and intercultural competency outcomes for the teaching, learning and assessment activities and observe the achievement of these outcomes through the formal, informal, and hidden curriculum.”

If you are interested in takingupany of the initiatives above, andwouldliketo workwith an educational developer, please contacttheEducational Developer, Internationalization & Intercultural Competency.I’d be happy to help.