Internationalization of Higher Education: Preparing Faculty to Teach Cross-Culturally.

Abstract

The need to effectively prepare faculty to teach in a cross-cultural environment has become imperative in the context of globalizing higher education (Deardorff, 2009; Verbik, 2007). Many higher education institutions around the world have internationalized their degrees and programs, and they have established foreign branch campuses to provide their intellectual resources in other countries (Altbach, 2010; Armstrong, 2007). In this paradigm, faculty members are contracted from the home campus or from an outside organization to teach in the foreign branch, but they receive little formal preparation to teach in this type of environment (Lewin, 2008; McBurnie & Ziguras, 2007). Faculty members are unaware of culturally competent pedagogical strategies on how to respond in culturally sensitive ways, and thus they lack the ability to successfully communicate and work with learners from other cultures (Paige & Goode, 2009). This paper focuses on preparing faculty to teach cross-culturally at international branch campuses. Using Darla Deardorff’s process model of intercultural competency, I will develop a framework that focuses on three core elements of Deardorff’s process model—attitudes, knowledge and comprehension, and skills—that will help faculty members to teach internationally. In the paper’s conclusion, I will suggest best practices and discuss the implications of intercultural competency for transnational teaching.

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