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Course

Internationalizing the Curriculum for All Students

Started Jun 25, 2021

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Full course description

Discounts are available for current Boston College faculty and staff, email internationalhighered@bc.edu for more information. 

Current Boston College students should register via Agora. Please contact internationalhighered@bc.edu with any questions about that process.

Course Information:

Title: Internationalizing the Curriculum for All Students
Dates: Asynchronous online course, held during the week of June 28, 2021.
Location: Online

In this interactive online course, convened by Professor Emerita Betty Leask, a leading international scholar in the field of internationalization of the curriculum, all participants will discuss videos, readings and examples of internationalized curricula and their implications for their research and scholarship. This discussion will occur online, via an asynchronous discussion forum so that people from all over the world can easily participate. 

Who should enroll?
The online course has been designed as a professional development opportunity for those working in roles related to internationalization of the formal curriculum and the campus (informal curriculum), including, for example, faculty, those working in academic development roles, student affairs professionals and anyone with an interest in research and scholarship in related areas, such as intercultural competence development. As the course is intentionally international in its focus, participants from both outside and inside the U.S. are positively encouraged to enroll.

Course Description

In the past decade, traditional approaches to internationalization in higher education focusing solely, or even mainly, on mobility activities for a minority of students have been identified as insufficient. In the 21st Century, all students require intercultural skills and international awareness in both their personal and professional lives. Further, it has been argued that universities have a responsibility to ensure their programs are more inclusive of diverse knowledge and multi-cultural perspectives, systematically provide global learning opportunities for all students and ensure all students develop their soft skills, as well as their disciplinary and professional knowledge. Approaches to internationalization based on mobility for the minority, or the recruitment of international students, are clearly insufficient for this task, even more so in 2021 and 2020 than ever before. 

Even before COVID, in universities across the world, increasing attention was being to internationalization at home for all students. This approach creates both challenges and opportunities for university leaders, faculty who design and teach courses, and staff who facilitate and support the learning and development of students in the co-curriculum. Research over the past decade has repeatedly shown that, while some of the challenges faced are context-dependent, others are shared across a range of different disciplinary, institutional and national contexts.

It is timely, as we enter a new decade in a world ravaged by a pandemic, to think about how to apply what we know about internationalization of the curriculum, teaching and learning at home - in class and on campus - in different disciplinary and institutional contexts. Discussions and presentations will provoke critical reflection on the past and prompt forward thinking, inviting all participants to consider their role in imagining and creating internationalization of the curriculum for the future.

Certification of Completion
Please note that all participants from outside Boston College will not receive academic credit nor a transcript documenting their participation in this course. However, all participants will be awarded a certificate of completion to share with their employers.

Any questions about this course can be directed to internationalhighered@bc.edu.

Additional CIHE Summer Offerings

Dates Course Instructor
Jun 14 - Jun 25, 2021 Inclusive Practices In Education Abroad: Why, Who, And How? Nick Gozik
Jun 3 - Jun 6, 2021 Making Quality Work In Higher Education Gerardo Blanco

 

Course Instructor:

Betty Leask

Professor Betty Leask

Betty Leask, Emeritus Professor in the School of Education at La Trobe University Australia, and an Australian Senior Teaching Fellow, is well known internationally as a researcher and thought leader on internationalisation of the curriculum, teaching and learning in higher education. She is Editor-in Chief of the Journal of Studies in International Education, the leading journal in the field, a Research Fellow at the Centre for International Higher Education (CIHE), Boston College US and an Honorary Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation at Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Italy.  Betty’s research is grounded in practice. She has extensive experience working in academic, professional and leadership roles in universities, most recently as PVC Teaching & Learning and DVC Academic at La Trobe University. Her research and consultancy interests include internationalisation of the curriculum, teaching and learning, the internationalisation of higher education for society and institutional leadership of internationalization.