The past week could be my learning and reading season as I've been able to have free access to some gooooood journals for 60 days and free seminars ka!
For us in the international education circle, a lot more articles are coming out concerning the impacts of Covid19 on internationalization (IZN) that basically focus on mobility. One paper on University World News, entitled 'Is the pandemic a watershed for internationalisation?' by Betty Leask and Wendy Green May 2, 2020 showed divided views as along with fear or hope, some thought things could be temporary while others expressed that the pandemic would see permanent change of higher education.
I'm glad that the authors picked up an issue of defining IZN and 'its relationship to international travel' to stir some thoughts. They pointed out that IZN seems to be synonymous with global mobility....'rather than a means of connectivity through research, teaching and learning. Policy and practice in higher education has created and reinforced a distinction between home and abroad.'.....going through 'failure to better integrate students’ diverse international and intercultural experiences at home into the curriculum for all students.'....seen as 'exclusive activity and its impact on individuals.' (I like the latter part a lot as we need much more thought and design to come up with systematic mobility process to heighten IaH in addition to individual development and motivation) In a seminar I attended, some universities and their exchange students still talked more on logistics and 'paper' (certificate of program completion) lae ka! OMG!
The paper stressed the need for integrated international and intercultural dimensions into curriculum engaging those having had prior mobility experiences with those who don't to maximize global learning at home.
In fact, the aspect of IZN of curriculum (IoC.....another acronym to see more often ka.) has been around for some time now and I think our universities have tried to incorporate it under the General Education Subjects, even though GE is another weakness of ours that is yet to be improved in some ways. The IZN process to offer global learning for our students to be global citizens needs increased understanding of both FACULTY and staff, and students for successful integration into the curriculums ka.
One of the authors, Wendy Green, also wrote an article on, 'Engaging "Students as Partners" in Global Learning: Some Possibilities and Provocations', published in the Journal of Studies in International Education, Vol. 23 (1), 2019. One key word with another acronym is 'SaP: Students as Partners' popped up. She shared that when having an IoC with an involvement of students as partners, there are some unique benefits to transfer diversity among students while empowering some groups who may otherwise be overlooked. Her research with a small group of Chinese students and the use of WeChat has shown positive results and she was able to link IoC and SaP together.
My point to share with you today is that while mobility is/used to be high on the IZN agenda, Thailand has begun to see more movements to introduce IaH, knowing that mobility is for a very small group of beneficiaries. A great key issue to ponder upon is 'how' to partner with students from diverse groups who are experienced from different approaches to be inclusive in curriculum design, in sharing their thoughts, in promoting global learning.....all can be done AT HOME and even FROM HOME!
Change of current practices and mindset plus creativity are called for ka!
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