2003-04 Activities
Globalization and the University
The theme of the 2003-04 EOTU Working Group is Globalization and
the University. We will devote attention to four issues: (1) international
education in U.S. universities; (2) the effects of the global higher
education market on U.S. universities; (3) the effects of international
students on U.S. universities; and (4) study abroad of U.S. university
students.
Globalization and the University will continue the commitment of
EOTU to fostering student research that is embedded in larger institutional,
political-economic, and representational contexts. Globalization
and the University will: (1) train Working Group participants—many
of whom will teach EOTU-affiliated courses—in this area; (2) prepare
EOTU organizers to be able to include Globalization and the University
as a session in the Summer 2004 EOTU Summer Institute (which will
train a second generation of faculty to teach EOTU-related courses);
and (3) result in a Globalization and the University gateway page
on the EOTU website for teachers and students (i.e., an informational
clearinghouse that will foster inquiry-based student research that
is institutionally and globally embedded).
EOTU appreciates that each of these themes can be easily addressed
in student ethnographic research on the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
Globalization and the University looks forward to the following
conversations and visitors.
SPRING 2004
March 12 (Lucy Ellis Lounge, Foreign Languages Building),
3-5 p.m.
- William Pinar, St. Bernard LSU Alumni Association Professor
of Education, Louisiana State University
Internationalization of Curriculum Studies
There was a time, not so long ago, when internationalism was
a key component of proletarian struggles and progressive politics
in general.
—Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri (2000, p. 49)
In many faculties of Education, research is focused on teaching
or, as many prefer, "instruction." The dominant interest
is in learning how to teach more effectively, so that students
can learn more quickly, as measured on standardized examinations.
Such educational research is a form of social and behavior science.
While hardly disinterested in questions of pedagogy, the interdisciplinary
field of curriculum studies attends to what knowledge is worth
knowing. More influenced by scholarship in the humanities and
the arts than by research in the social and behavioral sciences,
the field studies the cultural, historical, and political questions
that surround and inform the curriculum question: what is knowledge
is of most worth?
Like the humanities and the arts, the academic field of curriculum
studies is embedded in national culture, a fact underscored
in the first international handbook of curriculum research (Pinar
2003). Because school curriculum and curriculum research are
embedded in their respective national cultures, in the political
present (a different present in different nations and regions),
in cultural questions represented in various curricula as well
as in curriculum research, and in those public debates and policies
surrounding those curricula and research, studying the academic
field of curriculum studies locally and globally (as each is
embedded in the other) should enable scholars to strengthen
and make more sophisticated their critical and intellectual
distance from their respective cultures and from those processes
of globalization against which several national cultures are
now reacting so strongly.
Professor Pinar will discuss the history, present, and future
prospects of the internationalization of curriculum studies,
including a specific research proposal to study and participate
in the process.
References
Hardt, Michael and Negri, Antonio (2000). Empire. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.
Pinar, William F. (Ed.) (2003). International handbook
of curriculum research. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
April 23 (Lucy Ellis Lounge, Foreign Languages Building),
3-5 p.m.
* * * * *
PAST SESSIONS
SPRING 2004
March 5 (Lucy Ellis Lounge, Foreign Languages Building),
3-5 p.m.
FALL 2003
September 26 (Lucy Ellis Lounge, Foreign Languages Building),
3-5 p.m.
- Earl Kellogg, Associate Provost for International Affairs
and Professor, Agricultural and Consumer Economics, UIUC
Internationalization and the University of Illinois
Homepage for UIUC
International Programs and Studies
October 10 (ACES Library, Heritage Room), 3-5 p.m.
- Philip G. Altbach, Director of the Center for International
Higher Education and Professor of Higher Education, Boston College
The Effects of the Global Higher Education Market on
U.S. Universities
Higher education is increasingly becoming a global commodity
to be bought and sold like any other durable good. Indeed, the
World Trade Organization is currently considering proposals
that would submit the import and export of higher education
to W.T.O. protocols. Many have charged that W.T.O. regulation
would pose a severe threat to the integrity and ideals of U.S.
universities. At stake in these considerations is the very meaning
of national educational systems—and autonomy. Furthermore at
stake are educational missions and commitments in the face of
the lure of commercialization. As some observers have noted,
entrepreneurial strategies do not necessarily translate into
academic ones. Professor Altbach, an international expert on
higher education across the globe, will lead a session devoted
to this topic.
Advance reading:
Philip Altbach, "Why the United States Will Not Be a Market
for Foreign Higher Education Products: A Case Against GATS,"
International Higher Education 31 (Spring 2003). (HTML)
Philip Altbach, "Higher Education and the WTO: Globalization
Run Amok," International Higher Education 23 (Spring
2001). (HTML)
- Discussant: Stanley O. Ikenberry, President Emeritus,
University of Illinois, and Regent Professor, Educational Organization
and Leadership, UIUC
November 14 (Lucy Ellis Lounge, Foreign Languages Building),
3-5 p.m.
- Jane Knight, Comparative, International and Development
Education Centre, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education,
University of Toronto, Canada
Internationalization: Developing an Institutional Self-Portrait
Internationalization is a term that is being used more and
more to discuss the international dimension of higher education
and more widely post-secondary education. It is a term that
means different things to different people and is thus used
in a variety of ways. While it is encouraging to see the increased
use and attention being given to internationalization, there
is a great deal of confusion about what it means. For some people,
it means a series of international activities such as academic
mobility for students and teachers; international linkages,
partnerships and projects; new international academic programs
and research initiatives. For others it means the delivery of
education to other countries through new types of arrangements
such as branch campuses or franchises using a variety of face-to-face
and distance techniques. To many, it means the inclusion of
an international, intercultural and/or global dimension into
the curriculum and teaching learning process. Still others see
international development projects and alternatively the increasing
emphasis on trade in higher education as internationalization.
Finally, there is frequent confusion as to the relationship
of internationalization with globalization. Is internationalization
the same as globalization? If so—why and how and to what end?
If not—how is it different or what is the relationship between
these two dynamic processes? Thus internationalization is interpreted
and used in different ways, in different countries and by different
stakeholders. This reflects the realities of today and presents
new challenges in terms of developing a conceptual model that
provides some clarity on meaning and principles to guide policy
and practice.
Advance reading:
Jane Knight, "Internationalization: Developing an Institutional
Self-Portrait" (PDF)
Jane Knight, "Developing an Institutional Self-Portrait
Using the Internationalization Quality Review Process Guidelines"
(PDF)
- Discussant: Fazal Rizvi, Professor, Educational Policy
Studies, UIUC
December 5 (Lucy Ellis Lounge, Foreign Languages Building),
3-5 p.m.
- Nadine Dolby, Professor, Educational Psychology and
Foundations, Northern Illinois University
Study Abroad and National Identity: American Undergraduates
Around the World
The study abroad experience is often understood
through cross-cultural paradigms that stress understanding and
appreciating others, different cultures and ways of life. In
contrast, I argue in this paper that study abroad—in the American
context—is more usefully seen as an encounter with one’s national
identity and self. Drawing on a qualitative research study of
American undergraduates who studied abroad in Australia, I discuss
how students’ American identity is challenged and, in some cases,
remade, through their experiences. Some students defend their
American identity as property—as James Clifford argues—and suture
the state of the “United States” with the nation of “America.”
Others, however, reject this conflation of state and nation,
and explore the postnational spaces of the American self. Such
research suggests that study abroad can potentially play an
important role in reinvigorating the public sphere and reshaping
notions of citizenship in an increasingly privatized and globalized
world.
Advance reading:
Dolby, "Encountering an American Self: Studying Abroad
and National Identity" (forthcoming in Comparative
Education Review; do not cite without author's permission)
(PDF).
December 12 (109A Davenport Hall), 3-5 p.m.
- Nicholas Burbules, Grayce Wical Gauthier Chair and Professor
of Educational Policy Studies, UIUC
The Virtual University
Professor Burbules will speak about the “virtual university”—the
growth of distance education and the increased use of technologies
in the classroom. He will lead participants in asking, How does
the rise of the virtual university affect the campus as a teaching/learning
space? For an earlier exploration of this subject, see Burbules
and Callister (2000).
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