Internationalization of the Curriculum: An Analysis of Three Traditions Using Illustrative Example of Global Water Issues

As a result of a push for increasing internationalization efforts, institutions of Higher Education in the U.S. have begun promoting a wide range of efforts toward campus internationalization. This study has looked at three traditions of these internationalization efforts to examine the potentials and pitfalls of the various approaches. These include an information-based, an experiential and a spatial approach. These modes of engagement are examined through the lens of a set of epistemic virtues, meant to complexify and deepen the meaningfulness of the experience, which include historicity, relationality, reflexivity, criticality and imagination. The first part of the study looks at an information-based approach, through an analysis of two lesson plans. The other two traditions are examined through case studies in practice. The first case study involves a study tour which focused both on issues of water, but also on issues of study abroad as well. The second case involved an on-campus elective undergraduate course that I taught called ‘Understanding Global Water Issues’. What this study shows is that effective internationalization must occur at multiple levels and that these levels can reinforce one another. However, an ‘add-on’ approach to internationalization without a comprehensive plan or structure and without elements of criticality will not be as effective, and has greater potential to be ‘mis-educative’, which in turn closes down future possibilities to engage and learn. Finally, the mode of internationalization efforts is, in the end, not the primary issue, so much as the purposes and the processes involved.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Policy Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2010

Author dc:creator

• Lamers, Nicole A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Darder, Antonia
• Johnston-Parsons, Marilyn A.
• Peters, Michael A.
• Rizvi, Fazal

• Global Studies
• Internationalization of Education
• Global Water Issues
• Global Pedagogy

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2010 Nicole Alane Lamers

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/17076

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/17076