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Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management
ISSN: 1360-080X (Print) 1469-9508 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cjhe20
Internationalizing the curriculum: the
implementation experience in a Faculty of
Business and Economics
Glenda Crosling , Ron Edwards & Bill Schroder
To cite this article: Glenda Crosling , Ron Edwards & Bill Schroder (2008) Internationalizing the
curriculum: the implementation experience in a Faculty of Business and Economics, Journal of
Higher Education Policy and Management, 30:2, 107-121, DOI: 10.1080/13600800801938721
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13600800801938721
Published online: 26 Jun 2008.
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Internationalizing the curriculum: the implementation experience in a
Faculty of Business and Economics
Glenda Crosling*, Ron Edwards and Bill Schroder
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Curriculum internationalization is a strategy adopted by many universities as
they prepare their graduates for employment in the global economy. This paper
is a case study of the organizational change involved in one institution’s
(Monash University, Melbourne, Australia) attempts to implement curriculum
internationalization in the foundation subjects in the six core business disciplines.
The Faculty of Business and Economics at Monash, in encompassing five
Australian and two offshore campuses and three families of degrees, presents both
an opportunity and a challenge in implementing curricula change. The multi-
campus structure provides the opportunity, while the challenge is the number and
geographic dispersion of the teaching staff, along with differing academic cultures.
In this paper, we discuss organizational change as it accompanies the curriculum
internationalization process, and the responses of the discipline-based teams to the
curriculum internationalization objective. We identify significant staff and faculty
issues requiring consideration in the change that accompanies curriculum
development, such as the powerful effect of the traditional notion of academic
autonomy, and the need for continued resources to support the changes.
Keywords: business education; curriculum; implementation; internationalisation
Introduction
In response to the challenge to prepare graduates for employment in ‘the global
economy’ where they may work internationally, many universities have adopted a
strategy of ‘internationalizing the curriculum’. However, curriculum internationa-
lization is a multidimensional concept that can be defined and, therefore,
approached in several ways. Some universities adopt a pragmatic approach, seeking
to gain or entrench advantage in a competitive environment through offering a
curriculum relevant to a larger number of students worldwide, or developing
competencies that allow graduates to operate in an international environment
(Laughton & Ottewill, 2000; Whalley, 1997). An ideological approach may prevail
where it is important to prepare graduates with lifelong learning skills for the largely
unknown but increasingly inter-related future world. The motivation for curriculum
internationalization may encompass both these aims.
Recognizing the multiple internationalization approaches, there is a substantial
literature on the dimensions of curriculum internationalization in schools of business
and commerce (Crosling & Martin, 2005; Crowther et al., 2000; Edwards et al., 2003;
Whalley, 1997), external variables influence its adoption (Beamish & Calof, 1989;
Green, 2002; Toyne, 1992), organizational issues in implementing curriculum
internationalization (Cavusgil, 1991; LeBlanc, 2007; Palmer, 2006; Scherer et al.,
*Corresponding author. Email: glenda.crosling@buseco.monash.edu.au
Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management
Vol. 30, No. 2, May 2008, 107–121
ISSN 1360-080X print/ISSN 1469-9508 online ß 2008 Association for Tertiary Education Management and the
L H Martin Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Management
DOI: 10.1080/13600800801938721
http://www.informaworld.com
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2000; Trevino & Melton, 2002) and issues in measuring the adoption of curriculum
internationalization, as well as the performance of educational institutions that have
internationalized their curricula (Gniewosz, 2000; Kwok et al., 1994). There have
also been several attempts to develop models and typologies of the curriculum
internationalization process (Edwards et al., 2003; Kwok et al., 1994; Whalley,
1997). The typology by Edwards et al. (2003) has three levels: Level 1, international
awareness; Level 2, international competence; Level 3, international expertise.
This paper is a case study of one institution’s (Monash University, Melbourne,
Australia) attempts to implement curriculum internationalization in the foundation
subjects in the six core business disciplines. The Monash Faculty of Business and
Economics presents both an opportunity and a challenge in implementing curricula
change. Operating on five campuses in Australia and two offshore (Malaysia and
South Africa), in partnership with a variety of other tertiary institutions (mostly in
Asia) and through distance learning, it encompasses three ‘families’ of degrees. This
structure and the large number of international students on Australian campuses
provide the opportunity. The number and geographic dispersion of teaching staff,
along with differing academic cultures arising from the origins of the multicampus
structure, provide a challenge to the collegial processes of managing change in a
university. In addition, academic staff at Monash, as with their colleagues at other
Australian universities, have faced increased workloads and pressure to conduct
research, limiting their commitment to curricula matters. Although the empirical
results of the project are mainly limited to Level 1 of the Edwards et al. (2003)
typology, of developing international awareness, in discussing our experiences in this
paper, we identify significant staff and faculty issues for consideration in the
organizational change involved in curriculum internationalization. We conclude that
although the curriculum internationalization project reflected positive aspects of
organizational change such as careful planning, resources and the involvement and
support of academic staff are critical. However, staff resistance may occur in that
participation in the programme may be seen as contravening traditional notions of
academic autonomy.
Curriculum internationalization
Underpinning the case study examples is the view that curriculum internationaliza-
tion is a response to ‘internationalization’ of society, referred to broadly as
globalization. Although globalization involves increasing international interconnect-
edness in all aspects of contemporary life (Held et al., 1998), the three forms
discussed by Room (2000) are market, political and social. The effects of
globalization have been far-reaching and profoundly affected the governance and
management of universities (Peters & Roberts, 2000; Pratt & Poole, 2000), including
the development of curricula (Fugate & Jefferson, 2001). Kedia and colleagues
(2001) suggest that business schools have a special role in inculcating an appropriate
global mindset, knowledge base and skills.
The tendency in the literature on curriculum internationalization, as a response
to globalization, has been to emphasize the attributes for graduates to operate
internationally (Francis, 1993; IDP Education Australia, 1995; Whalley, 1997).
These have been overviewed by Edwards et al. (2003), where it is argued that the
literature provides limited guidance on curriculum internationalization. The
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approach by Edwards and colleagues’ (2003) links the aims of curriculum
internationalization and the subject curricula. Their typology identifies teaching
strategies and methods for use at various levels of internationalization. For example,
the first typology level of developing ‘international awareness’ through encouraging
reflective approaches, involves infusing the curriculum with international examples,
cases and perspectives. The second level of ‘international competence’ ‘involves
building cross-cultural interaction into the formal and informal experience’
(Edwards et al., 2003, p. 190) of university life. This level demonstrates the change
in students’ perspectives that has occurred, as reflected in adaptation of their projects
to reflect other cultural perspectives. The final level of ‘international expertise’
through foreign language study and exchange programmes immerses students in
global settings, so they can ‘consolidate the international literacy that has developed
through the previous two levels’ (Edwards et al., 2003, p. 191).
Implementing curriculum internationalization
Toyne (1993) argues that it is not easy to internationalize the business administration
faculty because developing new graduate attributes and strategies/methods for
achieving them requires organizational change; that is, academics need to teach
different materials in different ways, involving time-consuming changes that may be
perceived to result in some loss of academic independence and autonomy. These
changes are implemented when academics are increasingly frustrated with increased
lecturing and administrative or organizational workloads, and pressure to do more
research (Gillespie et al., 2001; Winter & Sarros, 2002).
Organizations, like living creatures, tend to be homeostatic (Goodstein & Burke,
1997) and, according to Lewin (1991), must be ‘unfrozen’ for change to occur.
Carnall (1997) identifies three conditions for effective change: awareness (under-
standing the need for change); capability (people must feel that they can cope with
new situations); and inclusion (‘ownership’ of the change process, a credible
commitment of managers, understanding of accountability and reward systems).
Dirks et al. (1996) relate the degree of ‘psychological ownership’ of individuals for an
organization to three types of change alternatives: self-initiated/imposed; evolu-
tionary/revolutionary; and additive/subtractive. An individual’s disposition towards
change is positively related to psychological ownership when the change is: (a) self-
initiated; (b) evolutionary; and (c) additive. Conversely, the individual is negatively
disposed towards change when it is imposed, revolutionary or subtractive. Burnes
(1996) identifies two types of organizational change; planned and emergent. The first
of two further categories of planned change is based on action research, where
change occurs through the collection of data, feeding the data back into the
organization, making appropriate changes, observing the results – and so on. The
second type of planned change recognizes stages that the organization must pass
through in planning and implementing change and identifies the activities at each
stage. The emergent change model takes a less structured view of change
management, arguing that, in a rapidly changing environment, change should be
organic and continuous.
The theories of organizational change can be used collectively to develop
practical checklists for change management. For example, Wasson (2004) identifies
five steps: Understanding what needs to be changed; clearly defining the change
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process; resourcing the process properly; ensuring people understand the need for
change; recognizing resistance and learning from staff concerns (Piderit, 2000); and
management commitment and leadership.
In implementing change in a university environment, Lewis’ (1994) longitudinal
case study is of an Australian college of advanced education undergoing
transformation to a university, with the related pressure for staff to publish more
research. Although there was widespread opposition to the change, the organization
performed well according to the stakeholders’ criteria, suggesting that culture and
attitudes do not necessarily correlate with performance when the change is perceived
by staff as important and inevitable. Trowler (1998) states that in the change process,
understanding pre-existing staff attitudes is required and addressed. He argues that a
‘bottom-up’ as well as ‘top-down’ approach develops a shared vision by staff and
management, and commitment to the change. This is facilitated by ‘hands on
experience’ and ‘room for experimentation and adaptation’ (Trowler, 1998, p. 153).
An approach such as Trowler’s (1998) confirms the view that academics value
autonomy and may be especially resistant to imposed change. Individual staff
members usually have a high degree of autonomy in the subjects they teach and may
see any change (such as curriculum internationalization) as subtractive, especially if
their psychological ownership of the subject/course/department/faculty is high (Dirks
et al., 1996). At the same time, universities are collegial institutions, and as change
management tends to be collective, planned and evolutionary, it might be expected
that academics should respect evidence-based change and, thus, the appropriate
model is action research.
Curriculum internationalization by business discipline
The core disciplines in business degrees include economics, management, marketing,
accounting, commercial law, and a quantitative methods subject. Some disciplines
such as management and marketing are more culturally embedded and, therefore,
more amenable to curriculum internationalization than others. Furthermore,
professional and industry bodies influence curricula matters, such as professional
accounting, where, in most countries, they contribute in establishing and monitoring
accounting curricula, with a domestic rather than international focus. However, the
American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AA CSB) has advocated
curriculum internationalization since the 1980s (Sharma & Roy, 1996).
Overview
Of the commonalities and differences in the curriculum internationalization
literature across the six disciplines, one commonality evident in the (mostly US-
oriented) literature is a lack of interest, and limited real achievement. Another
commonality is the influential argument of professional and accrediting bodies for
increased internationalization, but also coverage of country-specific issues (especially
accounting and business law). Differences in curriculum internationalization
philosophy are that, in economics, one concern is the parochial nature of economics
courses that do not reflect the increasing economic interdependence of nations (e.g.
Stiglitz, 1993). Another viewpoint is economics enabling students to make decisions
and solve problems in differing contexts (LeClair, 1995). In management, the
emphasis is on changing attitudes or orientations. For example, management courses
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have a role in inculcating an appropriate global mindset, knowledge base and skills
(Kedia et al., 2001). Similarly, Dufour (1995) comments on the increasing cultural
rather than technical emphasis on management in Europe. In accounting and
marketing, the priority is adding international topics to the curriculum. For
accounting in particular, this process is strongly influenced by accrediting bodies
(Rezaee et al., 1997).
Economics
In the USA (the source of most business textbooks, underpinned by the 1970s ‘closed
economy’ assumption, which is less relevant in the more open, global circumstances
of today), international issues have not been prominent in economics courses. Stiglitz
(1993) states that although this may have been reasonable given the size of the US
domestic market and the lesser relative importance of the international marketplace
at the time, a new approach is now required. Curriculum development and
international issues at all levels of economics study are required for graduates to
understand global issues (Stiglitz, 1993), such as global warming and ozone holes as
externalities, and the cost of international peace forces as public good and free-rider
problems. Fuess (2001) notes that in Japan, issues such as trade disputes with other
countries, and ensuing controversies over treatment of foreign workers underscore
the importance of global perspectives to the Japanese economy.
Kedia and colleagues (2001) argue that managers with economic and interna-
tional perspectives are positioned well to assess national and regional economic
development policies, and develop strategies to avoid negative economic con-
sequences. Furthermore, micro-economic understandings are important, as many
countries increasingly engage in privatization and economic liberalization. LeClair
(1995) argues that the economics of organizations and management in international
contexts in the economics curriculum develops students as potential managers who
can operate in a range of environments.
Management
Much of the literature of internationalization concerns MBA programmes, aiming to
prepare the ‘international manager’ with functional and cross-cultural competencies,
and knowledge of international markets, finance and strategy (Howe & Martin,
1998). Although these approaches involve a higher-order level of internationaliza-
tion than is the focus of this paper – level three according to Edwards et al. ’s (2003)
typology – a common concern is the ‘international manager’ not being the conduit of
‘best practice’, as defined by Western management gurus (Howe & Martin, 1998), or
uncritical proponents of Western management fads.
Curriculum internationalization is more advanced at the graduate level, as seen
in case studies by Harvard and other universities (Sharma & Roy, 1996), and
simulation exercises are popular for developing international themes (Klein et al.,
1993). Stiglitz’s (1993) observation that economics textbooks relegate international
matters to a low profile is interesting in that it matches Ahmed and Krohn’s
(1990) observation that most management textbooks devote only a chapter or so
to international topics, rather than integrating an international approach
throughout.
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Accounting
Rezaee and colleagues (1997) found that due to the globalization of economies,
cross-border capital financing and free trade agreements, accounting graduates need
international skills. Beed and Shooshtari (1998) express concern that accounting lags
areas such as marketing and management in curriculum internationalization, and
present options to overcome this. The first is the introduction of additional, separate
courses in international accounting; second, an international dimension added to
existing subjects. The third is a major or minor to the area. They see the drawback of
the first as the isolation of international skills from their application, whereas the
second option provides too little, unintegrated international knowledge. The third
option is weakened by a limited number of students being exposed to the knowledge.
Rezaee and colleagues’ (1997) survey found that, although practitioners favoured
a separate international accounting course, some academics preferred a separate
course, and some the cross-curriculum integration of international accounting.
Adhikari and colleagues’ (1999) survey of US and international business schools on
accounting curricula internationalization concluded that, although more progress is
evident at the graduate rather than the undergraduate level, there was room for
improvement. The major obstacle for both the US and non-US respondents was the
‘overcrowded curriculum’, and an overload of domestic content is a major issue with
the proliferation of new accounting standards. Simultaneously, the globalization of
business pressures the accounting profession to adopt International Accounting
Standards.
Business law
Driven by globalization and information technology advances (Roorda, 1993;
Sanchez, 1997), academics increasingly recognize that law practice is becoming
internationalized. Evidence is the growth of internationally accepted forms of
dispute settlement, the reduction of legal barriers to working in foreign jurisdictions,
and convergence of practices of different legal cultures and systems (Roorda, 1993).
Furthermore, the laws of other nations contribute in diverse areas, such as the
operations of multinational corporations (MNCs), trade practices and charges of
human rights violations (Bollag, 2001). International law now includes regulation of
different nations’ transactions and relationships between companies, creating
interpretation and implementation problems due to conflicting legal systems and
cultures. The issue is not about language per se, but each party’s inaccurate
assumptions about the other’s thinking on a problem. Hence, lawyers dealing with
cross-border problems increasingly require knowledge about a legal system’s
operation within a culture to understand the application of the laws (Murray,
2001; Roorda, 1993; Sanchez, 1997). To prepare students as effective practitioners,
law schools need to include foreign law studies in the curriculum (Sanchez, 1997).
Students also need to discuss legal issues with students in other countries in order
to foster an open mind about different ways of doing things (Murray, 2001). Sanchez
(1997) suggests that they learn about other nations’ legal structures and terminology,
in the context of culture. One law school has a Global Law School Programme
(Sanchez, 1997), and uses foreign law examples in the basic curriculum, such as
contrasting American and German expert witnesses (where each side enlists its own
in the former, and where the judge appoints a single expert from those nominated by
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the two sides in the latter). Other law schools are acknowledging the need to
internationalize the curriculum (Bollag, 2001) and, according to Murray (2001),
success depends on both Faculty interest and administrative support, and the most
important factor is student interest.
Although the literature on business law curriculum internationalization is
limited, issues are similar to those facing accountants. International examples and
specialist international subjects can enrich the curriculum; however, the space for
commercial law in a business course is limited due to competition from other
disciplines, with pressure from professional bodies to include more local content.
Marketing
Although marketplace globalization of consumer and industrial products should
render marketing as the most ‘international’ of the business disciplines, there is
limited literature about marketing curriculum internationalization. Most basic
marketing textbooks are American, and although a trend towards more interna-
tional examples, ‘boxes’ and the like is noted, their home market is still strongly the
focus. However, international marketing has emerged as an elective in most business
programmes. Tyagi (2001) identifies four approaches to internationalizing marketing
curricula: (1) Integrating international material into existing marketing courses; (2)
Specialist international marketing subjects; (3) Specialist marketing subjects
integrated with other ‘international’ subjects (e.g. a foreign language); and (4)
‘Hands on’ approaches, such as internships. These correspond roughly to the
typologies developed by Edwards et al. (2003), and others.
The USA business school surveys show that most marketing departments reflect
a relatively low level of curriculum internationalization, mostly in raised awareness
of the international marketing environment through marginal changes in the
introductory marketing subject, and satisfaction with this is relatively high (Andrus
et al., 1995; Tyagi, 2001). The lack of an internationally oriented faculty was seen as
the main barrier to internationalization.
Quantitative methods/statistics
The principles and application of statistical methods might seem universal, and
curriculum internationalization in business statistics limited to ensuring culturally
diverse examples and applications. It seems that business statistics teachers in
business faculties are not interested in curriculum internationalization. Although
there is some literature on designing business statistics subjects that are relevant to
the course overall (e.g. Krehbiel & McClure, 1993), we found no literature that
specifically addressed curriculum internationalization.
Internationalization of the first-year business subjects: process and subject case studies
Overview
To summarize our discussion so far, curriculum internationalization requires
students to develop global mindsets and attributes to operate internationally, as
well as organizational change, as staff are required to teach different material in a
different way. For the success of such change, planning is required; staff need a sense
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of psychological ownership by self-initiating changes, which is evolutionary and
additive, rather than subtractive. A definition of the change is required, a process,
resources, understanding of the need for the change and understanding of staff
resistance, so that the change is perceived as important and inevitable. In our
business faculty, the features outlined above had to occur across a range of
disciplines, where, generally, staff showed an initial lack of interest in internatio-
nalization.
The three major approaches to organizational change and curriculum
internationalization relevant to our following discussion of the first-year subjects
is shown in Table 1 below.
Process
Initially, the project included only two subjects, economics and management, and
focused on one degree, the Bachelor of Business and Commerce (B.Bus.Com.). Of
the six project objectives, the most important of these for this paper were:
N Develop two of the Bachelor of Business and Commerce’s six core subjects in
flexible learning mode, utilising interactive multimedia (IMM).
N Internationalize the subjects’ curricula to reflect the international diversity of
the Monash global group of campuses.
N Achieve the commitment of academic and administrative staff on offshore and
Australian campuses by involving as many as possible in project implementa-
tion.
The project was later extended to the remaining four core subjects. Although
initial discussions occurred about the curriculum internationalization objective,
developing technology to support flexible learning was seen as equally important,
and accounted for the largest share of the project budget.
Project strategies
The organizational change was carefully planned. A Project Manager and Subject
Leaders for the first two subjects were appointed at the project’s inception. Inclusive
cross-campus Subject Teams were established, facilitating psychological ownership
and, to some degree, a ‘bottom-up’ approach. The change process was defined, with
Table 1. Perspectives in internationalization of the first-year business subjects.
Perspective
Stages and
requirements
Stages and
requirements
Stages and
requirements
Edwards et al. (2003) Stage 1 Curriculum
internationalization:
international awareness
Stage 2 Curriculum
internationalization:
international
competence
Stage 3 Curriculum
internationalization:
immersion in global
Setting
Carnall (1997) Change requirement 1:
awareness
Change requirement 2:
capability
Change requirement 3:
inclusion
Dirks et al. (1996) Change requirement 1:
self-initiated
Change requirement 2:
evolutionary
Change requirement 3:
additive
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the first stage focused on internationalizing the curriculum, followed by flexible
delivery and multimedia developments to reflect the internationalized curriculum.
Cross-campus teleconferences were held early in the project to strengthen the
teams, explain the project’s purpose and establish management procedures. After six
months, team members from all campuses met in Melbourne for a two-day
workshop. Emphasizing the importance of the project’s mission and, to some extent,
the inevitability of the change, this workshop was attended by the Dean and
Department Heads and opened by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and
Planning). The teams reviewed subject content with the objectives of: (a)
standardizing across the three families of degrees; and (b) internationalizing it.
‘Standardization of the curriculum’ refers to establishing common topics, the
previous lack of commonality reflecting the diverse histories of the university’s
campuses. Allowing for experimentation and adaptation, individual teachers can
operate in a self-initiated way, emphasizing particular topics, giving their particular
perspectives, and relating the material to their local context. Simultaneously,
common learning objectives and a common exam maintain a degree of
standardization. Student choices in exams allow for variation in emphasis, and
questions involving examples allow students to choose local or international cases.
Where this context provides insufficient flexibility to cater for local needs, different
subjects are developed, an option mainly taken up by law units. To provide further
flexibility, the equivalent core units in the three families required only 80 per cent
commonality in topics.
Following the workshops, the two Subject Teams worked to achieve the
curriculum internationalization objective – their experiences are discussed in the
sections below. At the project’s conclusion, we interviewed the Subject Team
Leaders, Heads of Departments and representatives from related support services on
their views of the project’s overall success, difficulties in implementation and future
directions.
Case study 1: economics
Efforts initially faltered as the Subject Team demonstrated some resistance, arguing
that economics was already internationalized with constant principles that apply to
all national contexts.
However, a change emerged, perhaps reflecting the team members’ increasing
sensitivity to internationalization. As economics is taken by first-year students on all
campuses, it needed to be relevant to all students, rather than imposing the
Australian curriculum in a colonial-like manner. As a ‘bottom-up’ response to the
internationalization rubric, this response was in line with the first stage of raising
international awareness of the Edwards et al. (2003) typology. It assisted offshore
staff to develop ownership, as international examples of the economics principles
would be incorporated in the teaching. With the Australian students, international
examples, especially from countries where the university has a significant presence,
would provide for inclusion and make the subject content relevant to students’
situations. The international examples would raise the international consciousness of
the Australian students. A change in the teaching was necessary to ensure that the
examples did not function gratuitously, and the class discussion of the international
examples invited students to reflect on similarities and differences as the economics
principles were applied in different contexts.
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The aim was to transform students’ attitudes so that they expected diversity,
could benefit from it, to render the subject relevant and, hopefully, enjoyable.
Problem-solving was developed as an internationalized perspective underpins
students’ abilities to evaluate problem solutions in the globalized environment.
Case study 2: management
The team focused on the subject’s theory in order for students to develop diverse
perspectives. Reflecting an awareness of the need for the change, the Subject Team
was critical of the textbooks, and were aware that management theory arises largely
from the US and Western countries. Despite a lack of examples from other cultural
settings, the team wanted students to become aware of the origins of the theory,
implicitly raising their international awareness. Furthermore, the team perceived
that this approach demanded critical thinking abilities, which were written into the
subject’s objectives and implemented in the teaching.
Further demonstrating recognition of the importance of the change, the Subject
Team acknowledged that critical thinking could be problematic for the first-year
students, and that it requires a wide view, so students would benefit from developing
broad perspectives. The multimedia developments supported this, and two
innovative and interactive learning tools were developed. The first, an interactive
‘tree of knowledge’, assisted students to develop an overall perspective through
presenting an integrated history of the development of management theory. The
second tool focused on the relevance of management studies to everyday business
operations, and for students to appreciate the diversity of contexts and management
responses. A survey was developed that students administered to a manager in their
community, the results were collated in the multimedia programme, and could be
sorted and cross-referenced according to various criteria, such as managers in
overseas countries, at particular management levels, and by gender.
Other subjects
For accountancy and business law, the requirements of Australian professional
bodies for course accreditation were primary. This is in accordance with the research
reported in the section ‘Curriculum internationalization by business discipline’.
These result in significant differences in the accounting curriculum for the South
African campus and Australia and Asia. The objective of the flexible learning
materials interfaced with the curriculum internationalization objective in that
electronic media can facilitate the use of international examples and comparisons,
and provide for different learning preferences. A good example is business law, in
which the importance of the change was recognized, and focused on teaching and
learning for the large non English-speaking background student population. The
provision of learning through different modes requires students to expect and cope
with diverse approaches. A fully integrated electronic presentation of the subject was
developed, with the multimedia learning tools attached to the platform, and integral
to the subject. The tools aimed for students to develop appropriate study and writing
approaches. For instance, the problem question scenario was produced in video
form, appealing to students who prefer visual rather than written communication,
and normalized, to some extent, the presence of legal issues in general contexts. In
the videos, the English language used was accessible to all students, avoiding
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colloquial and idiomatic language, and the video characters represented different
ethnic backgrounds.
The Business law and taxation internationalization approach was inclusive and
pragmatic. The innovative teaching and learning methods and tools widened
students’ horizons, as well as assisting students from diverse backgrounds to
participate actively in their learning with other students, whether face-to-face or
through electronic means. This exposes all students to a variety of styles and
approaches, raising awareness of diversity and the ways that issues, topics and
problems may be addressed.
Commitment to curriculum internationalization was low for the remaining
subjects. Although overly colloquial language and examples were seen as
inappropriate, further curriculum internationalization was not a high priority on
the grounds that: (a) subject content was universal; or (b) it was already sufficiently
internationalized.
Implementation issues
In this section, we discuss the findings from our project and, in doing so, provide
guidance for others who are in the process of curriculum internationalization.
To recapitulate, the key issues in managing university change that emerge from
the literature in the section ‘Implementing curriculum internationalisation’ are:
1. People respond positively to change when: they understand why it is
required; they can cope with it; and they have ‘ownership’ of the change
process.
2. Senior management must be seen as committed to the change, through
leadership and the provision of resources.
3. Academics value autonomy on curricula matters, especially with individual
subjects.
4. Australian academics are frustrated with increased administrative and
teaching workloads and are under pressure to research more.
The workshops brought together staff from all Australian and offshore campuses
to understand the change and discuss its meaning and form for their subject, thereby
participating in and owning the change. The purpose of the workshops was to
involve as many staff members as possible and to demonstrate to the team the
Faculty and University commitment to the project. However, the autonomy issue
surfaced early and requires consideration by others as they internationalize their
curriculum. Several academics argued strongly that individual academics should
decide how ‘international’ their subjects should be.
The individual subject leaders (who were funded for time release) were diligent in
their attempts to internationalize the curriculum and develop flexible learning
materials. However, apart from the initial workshops, the involvement of other
academic staff was limited and is explainable by work pressure and the need to
research and publish. Most held neutral attitudes on the project’s value and were
happy to leave the work to someone else. A small proportion was strongly negative
and such attitudes need consideration in the process. For example, two academics
saw a more sinister objective for the project – the ‘Taylorisation’ of teaching and
learning (Schapper & Mayson, 2004). Although one project objective was to
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standardize subject topics (as discussed above) for 80 per cent commonality between
core subjects in each of the six disciplines, the other curriculum internationalization
objectives, flexible learning and involvement of academic staff from all campuses,
aimed to facilitate rather than constrain diversity.
Although not explicitly stated, the idea behind this type of project is that, if
successful, it provides a ‘demonstration effect’, leading to more widespread adoption
across the University. However, demonstrated success in a pilot is only one variable
influencing innovation adoption in organizations. As well as leadership and
continuing financial commitment by Faculty and University management, individual
academics must be convinced that teaching and learning innovation does not
threaten their continued employment, contributes to advancing their careers (relative
to, say, research), contributes to improved learning outcomes, and can be
implemented in a cost-effective way.
We interviewed Department Heads and Subject Team Leaders at the completion
of the project. As might be expected, their attitudes were quite positive and
welcomed the positive course curricula developments and efforts to build team
relations. However, the Subject Leaders were concerned about some of their
colleagues’ lack of involvement, which we have explained earlier. Incentives for
involvement may overcome such issues in the future.
Conclusions
Despite the social challenges posed by globalization, the importance of international
skills and knowledge is widely accepted. A commitment to global issues, such as
human rights and environmental protection, the capacity to empathize and
communicate with people of different backgrounds, and the ability to feel at home
everywhere, are attributes that will assist the current generation of university
students as they make their way in the world. Hence, universities have revised their
aims and objectives to incorporate international skills and knowledge as core
graduate attributes. However, little work has been done to translate this new priority
into curriculum documents and teaching practice.
This paper has reflected on and described one institution’s attempts to introduce
curriculum internationalization and the development of flexible learning materials
that facilitate it. In doing so, guidance has been provided for others as they engage in
curriculum internationalization. The project was concerned with six core subjects
(the curriculum internationalization component was pursued in depth for only two).
This represents a small first step on the first of the three stages proposed by Edwards
et al. (2003). The pilot projects for the two subjects for which curriculum
internationalization was the primary objective (economics and management) showed
that students appreciate the effort and that their learning opportunities were
enhanced.
Academic staff closely involved with the subjects were also generally positive but,
other then the subject leaders, were unwilling to commit much of their time.
Although we lack objective attitudinal information of other academics, our
impression is that their views are generally neutral or positive, but not strongly
held. There are many things on their minds, in particular, the need to produce more
published research. At the same time, the Faculty and University have pressed ahead
with other aspects of internationalization. For example, a growing proportion of the
118 G. Crosling et al.
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student population participate in university-funded study abroad programmes, and a
programme to support short-term, international staff exchanges has commenced.
Although adding international opportunities of this nature is relatively easy,
curriculum change, involving large numbers of staff and students, is a difficult
process. It confronts the same constraints of those introducing change in any large,
complex organization and, therefore, has to be carefully planned, well resourced and
have the involvement and support of the academic staff.
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