Exploring Chinese Students’ Experience of Curriculum Internationalisation: A Comparative Study of Scotland and Australia

Author(s):

Ming Cheng(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 12 A, Internationalisation: Experiences and Support

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-26

09:00-10:30

Room:

NM-Theatre R

Chair:

Carolina Guzmán-Valenzuela

Contribution

The number of Chinese students around the world is rising considerably. Research on Chinese students has mainly focused on the influence of culture on their academic performance and the challenges they experience during their transition at the university (Huang 2012). There is lack of study on how the practice of curriculum design and development affects Chinese students’ learning experiences. This research will address the gap by exploring how Chinese postgraduate taught (PGT) students experience curriculum internationalisation at a Scottish and an Australian university. Scotland and Australia are chosen for study, because they are popular study destinations for Chinese students, due to perceived academic reputation and prevalence of English language (Iannelli and Huang 2013).

This paper considers that there is increased awareness of the importance to internationalize the curriculum in the higher education sector (Yemini and Sagie 2015), because it has been perceived as a main approach to develop students’ global perspective of their subject area and the competences they will need in their future career (International Association of Universities 2012). However, there is limited practical guidance on how the curriculum can be internationalized (Edwards et al. 2003), in particular, what to teach, how to teach it, when and to whom, in what sequence, and of what quality and quantity (Bell 2004).

Furthermore there are reported barriers to academics being engaged with that, especially in modifying and adapting the formal curriculum (Leask 2005). One barrier is that academic staff’s understanding of the meaning, purpose, relevance and approach to internationalizing the curriculum may vary with subject areas (Sawir 2011). This lack of agreement often leads to fragmented and individual academic approaches as well as the lack of institutional cohesion in addressing internationalized curriculum (Caruana and Hanstock 2003). Another barrier is that cultural differences within a cross-cultural learning environment can fragment class groups and inhibit promotion of cross-cultural interaction (Turner, 2009). Furthermore, the lack of academics’ proper international experiences is regarded as a key constraint to curriculum internationalisation (Wamboye et al. 2014). Some other barriers, including the lack of consideration of academics’ engagement with teaching in an institution’s tenure and promotion, also limit academic staff’s propensity to adopting an internationalized curriculum (Andreasen 2003).

On consideration of the importance of curriculum internationalisation and the challenges in implementing that in practice, this paper will use the threefold typology proposed by Edwards et al. (2003) as a framework to explore and compare the practice of internationalizing the curriculum in a Scottish and an Australian university. This typology is chosen because it has a focus on curriculum designers (academic staff) and students, and it provides higher education institutions with practical approaches to internationalize the curricula (Caruana and Hanstock 2003). According to Edwards et al. (2003), international awareness, international competence, and international expertise are the keys to curriculum internationalisation. International awareness aims to foster an understanding that knowledge does not emerge from a single cultural base and requires that teaching is integrated with international examples, cases and perspectives. International competence refers to building cross-cultural interaction into students’ university experience. The aim of developing international expertise is to prepare students to become global professionals through promoting student mobility experiences, such as study abroad and international work placements. Using this typology of curriculum internationalisation as a framework, this research explores how Chinese postgraduate taught students in Scottish and Australian universities are supported to develop international awareness, international competence, and international expertise. It will reveal whether the practice and strategies of curriculum internationalisation vary with disciplines and countries.

Method

There is two-stage data collection process in this project. Stage one involves ten focus groups with 40 Chinese postgraduate taught students and 21 semi-structured interviews with academics, programme directors and university managers from one Australian and one Scottish university. Both universities are well-established, with years of internationalisation experience, and they have a large number of Chinese postgraduate taught students. These interviewees are selected from business and engineering studies, because these are popular subject areas among Chinese students (HEFCE 2014). A theoretical sampling approach (Punch 2013) is used to select these interviewees. Gender, seniority and cultural background are considered. The focus groups and interviews are tape recorded and professionally transcribed. They are used to explore the existing practice and strategies of curriculum internationalisation in Scottish and Australian universities, and how that affects Chinese students’ learning experiences and their engagement with the process. The effective strategies and practice of curriculum internationalisation and challenges to achieve that are identified and analyzed. Content analysis (McKee 2001) employing Nvivo software is used for data analysis. In the second stage, informed by the findings of the focus groups and interviews, a questionnaire is designed and circulated to Chinese postgraduate taught students in business studies and engineering in the two selected universities, in order to further explore their understanding and experience of curriculum internationalisation. 325 students have completed the survey. This survey provides a broad comparative view of Chinese students’ experiences with curriculum internationalisation at both Scottish and Australian universities.

Expected Outcomes

The majority of academic interviewees in the Scottish and Australian universities share a common understanding of curriculum internationalisation, asserting that it mainly involves teaching case studies that cover an international context and being responsive to cultural differences in the student cohort. In terms of the extent of international elements in the curriculum, there is difference between business studies and engineering courses. Academic interviewees feel the need to provide international examples in business studies, but not in the engineering syllabus. There is a clear lack of opportunities for Chinese students to get mobility experience during their Master’s studies in both Australia and Scotland. Academics and university manager interviewees rationalize this lack of mobility opportunities by stating that the students already come from different cultures, so in a sense, they already have international experience. In contrast, Chinese Master’s students express their strong desire for opportunities of mobility, such as internship, exchange programmes and visiting industry etc. They believe that this will give them good international experience, especially when they are in an environment where most of the students in their class are Chinese. The majority of Chinese students do not find their Master’s education equip them well for their future job in China, because the subject as a whole is too focused on European, British or American perspectives, even when academics add international case studies in their teaching. This contrasts the view of academic interviewees that Western perspectives are important, because they have long been dominating many academic fields and have imposed codes of practice that are now adopted all over the world. Chinese students’ interaction with peers from different cultures is raised as an area to work on. Chinese student interviewees interpret the main challenges as cultural differences, language barriers, and sometimes a feeling of being treated differently.

References

Andreasen, R. J. (2003). "Barriers to international involvement." Journal of International Agricultural and Extension Education, 10(3), 65-69. Bell, M. (2004). "Internationalising the higher education curriculum: Do academics agree." Presented at Transforming Knowledge into Wisdom: Holistic Approaches to Teaching and Learning: 2004 Annual International Conference of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA). 4th – 7th July, 2004: Milperra, NSW, Australia. Caruana, V., and Hanstock, J. (2003) "Internationalising the curriculum: From policy to practice." Presented at Education in a Changing Environment 17th-19th September, University of Salford, United Kingdom. Edwards, R., Crosling, G., Petrovic-Lazarovic, S., and O'Neill, P. (2003). "Internationalisation of Business Education: Meaning and implementation." Higher Education Research & Development, 22(2), 183-192. Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) (2014) Decline in global demand for English higher education. http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2014/news86922.html. Accessed on 10 October 2015 Huang, Y. (2012). "Transitioning Challenges Faced by Chinese Graduate Students." Adult Learning, 23(3), 138-147. Iannelli, C., and Huang, J. (2013). "Trends in participation and attainment of Chinese students in UK higher education." Studies in Higher Education, 39(5), 805-822. Leask, B. (2005). "Internationalisation of the curriculum", in C. J and R. J, (eds.), Teaching international students. Improving learning for all. London: Routledge, pp. 119-129. McKee, A. (2001). A beginner’s guide to textual analysis. http://emsah.uq.edu.au/courses/ccst1000/supplementary/analysis.htm? Accessed on 5 Oct 2015. Punch, K. F. (2013). (3rd Eds). Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. London: Sage. Sawir, E. (2011). "Academic staff response to international students and internationalising the curriculum: the impact of disciplinary differences." International Journal for Academic Development, 16(1), 45-57. Turner, Y. (2009). "“Knowing Me, Knowing You,” Is There Nothing We Can Do?: Pedagogic Challenges in Using Group Work to Create an Intercultural Learning Space." Journal of Studies in International Education, 13(2), 240-255. Wamboye, E., Adekola, A., and Baldwin, A. (2014). "Internationalising business education curriculum in a'flat world': the scope and constraints." International Journal of Trade and Global Markets, 7(2), 99-115. Yemini, M., and Sagie, N. (2015). "Research on internationalisation in higher education – exploratory analysis." Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, 19(1) 1-9.

Author Information

Ming Cheng (presenting / submitting)

University of Wolverhampton

Institute of Educaiton

walsall

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