How to internationalise a curriculum
School of Medicine
University of Tasmania
July 2011
Associate Professor Betty Leask
ALTC 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
Localised
curriculum
Internationalised
curriculum
1__________2_________3_________4
International
learning
outcomes
Study
abroad
Language
study
Multi-cultural
group work
Case studies
from different
cultures
Team members will have different roles
and responsibilities
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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.ph
p?id=5925
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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
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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), 104113