Browsing by Subject "International Education"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Analysis of the relationship between internationalization and the quality of higher education.
    (2009-03) Jang, Ji-Yeung
    The universal phenomenon of internationalization as a mainstream element of higher education is often based on the assumption that there is value added to the quality of higher education systems when enhancing the international dimension of teaching, research and service (Knight, 1997). Questioning the validity of the assumption, this study examined the relationship between internationalization and quality of higher education. Using the pre-existing data collected originally by Horn et al (2007), Lombardi et al (2003), and U.S. News World and Report (2003), the study conducted the simple correlation analysis and the multiple regression analysis. The research variables included six internationalization variables such as international students, U.S. study abroad, internationalized faculty and scholars, international research activities, internationalized curriculum, and organizational support; and seven quality variables such as research competitiveness, faculty competitiveness, undergraduate competitiveness, advanced training competitiveness, financial stability, constituents’ satisfaction, and institutional reputation. The results showed that there was a positive relationship between internationalization and quality of higher education. Particularly, the presence of international students was found to have statistically significant and positive effects on all the quality variables except for the research competitiveness. Internationalized faculty and scholars had statistically significant effects on advanced training competitiveness and financial stability. Also, the organizational support for internationalization played a significant role in institutional quality enhancement. However, internationalized curriculum was found to have no effect on any quality variables. Based on the results, the study suggests that various internationalization strategies be conducted and measured properly as part of the institutional quality improvement process.
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    Born Unveiled: The Process, Protest, and Product of Racialization Among International Black African Collegians in US Graduate Education
    (2024-01) Watson, Ashley
    This dissertation focuses on the racialization of graduate international Black African collegians (IBAC) and the effects it has on their racial identity development. The intercentricity of race maintains that race is a defining factor for how one is situated in US society. However, many international students do not come from communities stratified by race first. For example, Black US Americans (BUSA) are socialized to view race as a master narrative from an early age. Yet, IBAC, are socialized in ways that tend to prioritize clan, tribal, or ethnic heritage as differentiating characteristics. I argue that despite being raced as similar, BUSA and IBAC undergo different socialization processes and therefore, the identity formation around race for IBAC follows a different trajectory than that of BUSA. The study includes semi-structured interviews conducted with ten graduate IBAC recruited through purposeful selection. Transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, a qualitative approach which seeks to provide detailed examinations of a person’s lived experiences. Based on this analysis, four thematic clusters and 14 subthemes were identified revealing how participants made sense and meaning of their racialization. The first theme, Becoming Veiled, outlines the process of becoming Black in a US context. The second theme, Living Under the Veil, draws attention to how IBAC maneuver through highly racialized environments. The final two themes, Resisting/Refusing the Veil and Opting Out both relate to how participants enact their agency to preserve their core essence. This dissertation extends current understanding of international student identity development by bringing into conversation critical intercultural studies, sociology, Black studies, and comparative education. Results from this study (in conversation with others) makes a strong case for reconsidering a blanket application of Cross’ (1978) Nigrescence Model as a schema for all Black students.
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    Complicating International Education: Intersections of Internationalization and Indigenization
    (2019-11) Heath, Theresa
    Internationalization of higher education is no longer a peripheral strategy for most universities and colleges, now positioned to influence multiple layers of institutions. Intercultural learning as a positive and necessary outcome has bolstered the importance of internationalization; in Canada, intercultural learning has increasingly been institutionalized as an organizational strategy. More recently, Indigenization, or the engagement with Indigenous knowledge and peoples, has been taken up by higher education institutions in Canada. These strategies are grounded in differing educational philosophies, values, and motivations but are implemented simultaneously. This dissertation examines one Canadian higher education institution and the intersections of its strategic priorities of internationalization, interculturalization, and Indigenization. Utilizing case study methodology with interviews, document review, and observation as data collection methods, I examine the following research questions: 1) How do faculty and staff conceptualize the university’s international and intercultural efforts and motivations? 2) How does the institutional priority of increasing intercultural understanding engage with the internationalization and Indigenization organizational strategies of the university? 3) How do staff and faculty across the university understand the intersection of Indigenization and internationalization? Through this dissertation, I make two primary arguments. First, internationalization’s implementation through a business framework has motivated a movement toward interculturalization to further academic learning on campus and temper more the neoliberal outcomes of internationalization. This relationship has established a lasting link between the two strategies. Second, the growing engagement of higher education in Indigenization efforts has brought about intersecting strategic priorities and a hope that interculturalization can support and further Indigenization. However, the Indigenization project is supported and motivated by Indigenous autonomy and sovereignty, not by Western organizational frameworks. Further possibilities of engagement require an uncoupling of business and economic motivations for internationalization and interculturalization to open both to the possibility of transformation.
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    Factors Contributing to the Intercultural Competence of International School Administrators: A Mixed Methods Study
    (2016-05) Jubert, Daniel
    This mixed-methods study explored the intercultural competence of international school administrators employed in member schools of the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS). The purpose of this study was to assess international school administrators’ intercultural competence and determine if differences exist due to specific demographic and background factors. An explanatory sequential mixed methods model of research was undertaken. Quantitative data was derived from the Intercultural Developmental Inventory (IDI; Hammer, 2011), while qualitative data was derived from semi-structured interviews with selected individuals who took the IDI. A total of 260 international school administrators were administered the IDI to determine their intercultural competence and potential factors influencing their development. The IDI, version 3, is a psychometrically valid instrument constructed to measure orientations toward cultural differences, adapted from the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (DMIS). Following the administration of the IDI, 15 international school administrators whose IDI profile reflected an intercultural mindset were interviewed to obtain additional life factors potentially influencing development across the intercultural continuum. Results from the IDI indicated international school administrators mean developmental orientation score was 102.49, placing them in the minimization stage of the continuum. At this stage, individuals are familiar with dissimilar cultures and aware of differences in cultural patterns, yet focus primarily on unifying frameworks. International school administrators also had high perceptions of their intercultural competence, with the mean perceived score significantly above their actual score. The number of years living outside of passport country showed a significant relationship with developmental orientation of intercultural competence. Those administrators who had spent 10 or more years outside of their passport country had significantly higher levels of intercultural competence. Results from international school administrators who were operating at the highest levels along the continuum were also analyzed. These administrators took wide-ranging paths to develop intercultural competence, suggesting there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach. Significant themes generated throughout the interviews included gaining more experience in diverse settings, increasing both cultural specific and cultural general knowledge, and modifying ones’ thought process to be more open, curious and self-reflective regarding cultural experiences. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research are discussed.
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    The Factors Influencing the Achievement of a U.S. Governmentally-Sponsored International Education Exchange Program’s Objectives: Reflections of Alumni from the Kyrgyz Republic
    (2017-09) Timlin, Kevin
    The purpose of this study is to determine which factors influence the achievement of program objectives for Kyrgyz Republic alumni of the U.S. governmentally sponsored UGRAD program. The UGRAD program was designed to provide university students from the former Soviet Union an opportunity to study at an institute of higher education in the United States for one academic year in the hope they will develop skills and attitudes that they can take back home to help their countries transition from the Soviet past to a democratic future. To explore this topic, an explanatory sequential mixed methods approach was used, in which 72 UGRAD alumni from the Kyrgyz Republic were given an online survey to ascertain information about their UGRAD experience and their progress towards achieving the UGRAD objectives. Then, 11 of the survey participants were selected by using maximum variation sampling and then given in- depth, qualitative interviews. The three main findings of the research were: 1) community college placements for UGRAD participants were found to be ineffective; 2) UGRAD participants with highly developed academic and/or professional goals tended to achieve program goals than those with lesser developed plans; and 3) the more quickly a UGRAD participant can turn their experience into employment or academic opportunities upon returning home, the more likely they were to achieve program objectives. These findings can be useful for international education program administrators to help ensure that future programs maximize the benefits of similar international education exchange programs.
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    Fostering intercultural competence through study abroad: a gender- based analysis of individual and program factors influencing development.
    (2011-12) Nichols, Karen Preston
    This study explores how individual student characteristics, study-abroad program choices and gender influence intercultural competence outcomes through study abroad. The Georgetown University Consortium Project (GUCP) sample included 1,163 students who completed a pre- and post-test of intercultural competence using the Intercultural Development Inventory and were studying abroad on one of 51 programs around the world. The secondary analysis of GUCP data found that men and women differed in both individual and program characteristics. Women were more likely to start out with a higher level of intercultural development, take all content courses delivered in the target language, and receive frequent group mentoring more often than men. Both taking content courses in the target language and receiving frequent group mentoring correlated with greater positive changes in intercultural competence through study abroad. Considering only individual student characteristics, negative predictors of change in intercultural competence were found to be initial intercultural development level and majoring in non-international business. Being female was a positive predictor. When both individual and program characteristics were considered, initial intercultural competence level and majoring in non-international business remained negative predictors. Living with international students and living with a host family were also shown to be negative predictors of intercultural competence development. Being female remained the only significant positive predictor of intercultural competence development when all individual and study-abroad program characteristics were considered.
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    International Mindedness: Conceptualizations and Curriculum in an International School in Brazil
    (2017-05) Dewey, Nelson
    This dissertation is a qualitative, single case study of an international school in Brazil that explores how school administrators and teachers conceptualize international mindedness, and how it is developed within the curriculum of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. I provide a rich description of the context, developing four themes that reveal what international mindedness looks like in this context. I use a five-category typology in my review of constructs of international mindedness in the literature of K-12 international education and apply the same categories in my analysis of the participants' views. Drawing on literature from a variety of sources, I develop five continua for the analysis of international mindedness in the curriculum. Data collection and analysis procedures were informed by a social constructionist approach. Data sources include semi-structured interviews, documents, classroom observations, field notes and pictures collected during three visits. Among the documents collected are the school mission, vision and beliefs statement, the EAB learner profile, curriculum maps for the IB classes, and the upper school handbook. I found the American School of Brasilia to be a diverse and welcoming community. The administrators and teachers with whom I spoke did not demonstrate consensus in their conceptualizations of international mindedness, though I found they had a strong sense of school identity defined by their core documents. The school adopted the IB program six years ago and have taken principles from the IB program and applied them throughout the upper school. Teachers demonstrated a commitment to exposing students to a wide variety of perspectives and are active in drawing on the rich experiences contained within the school's diverse community. Participants provided examples the embodiment of international mindedness. However, some of the participants' conceptualizations of international mindedness suggested that it is something students have as a result of their lifestyles, not of the instructional program. The analysis of the curriculum of the IB courses reveals a superficial understanding of culture and little intentional development of international mindedness.