Blending Cultures of Pedagogy

Abstract

Liberal arts schools and university programs are flourishing in India. Over the past decade economic growth and the ability to pay for education have spurred the creation of private and public liberal arts schools. As internationalization of higher education and cross-border movements of students become increasingly more common, a new generation of students is now familiar with global education and corresponding western pedagogies. Along with the increase in study abroad programs is the rise in demand for quality liberal arts institutions at home. This study of O.P. Jindal Global University, founded in 2007, and the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities (jslh) examines the contradictions and challenges inherent in supplanting long-held traditional teaching methods and classroom culture with the western concept of liberal education. The jslh faculty consists of Indian and foreign instructors while all students are Indian. Applying qualitative research methods of direct observation, interviews with faculty and students and surveys, the author examines changes in the traditional classroom power dynamics and the acceptance and resistance to new pedagogies. One strategy for addressing challenges, such as the faculty’s resistance to change was through in-depth discussion among faculty of the merits and limitations of traditional education and experiential learning. Foreign faculty benefitted from co-teaching with Indian faculty as all parties made a conscious effort to recognize cultural differences in student-teacher relations.

Introduction

India has experienced a phenomenal growth in higher education over the past 20 years. According to the All India Survey on Higher Education, in 2011-13, there were 29.23 million students enrolled in programs of higher education in India, of which 79.44 percent were enrolled in undergraduate education. 1 In addition to the impressive growth of the tertiary school population, it is estimated that over 181,872 Indian students are enrolled in higher educational institutions outside India. Of these 102,673 are enrolled in us universities. 2 Almost two-thirds of these (59.9%), are enrolled in graduate schools. 3 The mobility of the Indian student population is part of a worldwide phenomenon: over 4 million students are enrolled in institutions of higher education outside their home countries. 4 Globalization, which is identified with the increasing flow of communication and information across borders as well as the mobility of jobs and geographic dislocation for career reasons, have increased the allure, if not the absolute necessity, of internationalizing education. The examples from abroad and the need to respond to market demands has also had an effect on curricular changes in new universities in India. The West and, in particular, the United States has had a major influence on the recent transformation of Indian universities.

Liberal Arts and Internationalization

The rapid growth of the Indian economy 5 has fostered creativity and innovation. Relieved of the burden of following the strict norms established by state regulations and the need to confront a multi-level bureaucracy, a number of privately funded schools have been able to introduce innovative pedagogies. These schools are able to meet the growing demand for private schools and to profit from increased wealth, the private sector has created numerous schools, thus increasing the cost of education. Parents who are now paying for their children to be educated in colleges and universities are demanding a return on their educational investment.

Numerous critics of Indian society note that the flourishing of independent thought is not taking place in the economic and social spheres with the same dynamism as is observed in the educational sector. 6 Some of the reports from global industry are even more scathing, claiming that, despite the increase in the number of university graduates, many are unable to meet the needs of the international workplace, including fluency in English, reading and writing and working independently. 7 The call for educational reform to meet the needs of the growing economy and the inclusion of India as a significant global player has been met with a variety of responses. One response has been the increased use of technology in the classroom, such as better delivery of courses through massive open online courses (moocs), changing teaching methodology to include active and collaborative learning, and the creation of transparent assessment practices based on learning outcomes. Another response, attributed in part to the exposure to higher education abroad, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, is the growing interest in the liberal arts.

A decade ago the notion of a liberal arts college or a liberal arts curriculum was almost unknown to prospective students and their parents in India. In general, Indians were unaware of the definition of liberal arts as applied in the us and Europe referring to specific disciplines, such as the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The image of the liberal arts college as “a particular type of institution—often small, often residential—that facilitates close interaction between faculty and students, and whose curriculum is grounded in the liberal arts disciplines” 8 had not entered the Indian imagination. Although many people were aware of the mediocrity of Indian higher education, few accepted the benefit of investing time and money in disciplines based solely on liberal arts. Currently this attitude is changing, with six colleges granting a liberal arts degree (b.a. Honors) and many others integrating liberal arts courses into the curriculum, including technical and specialized elite institutions, such as, the Indian Institutes of Management (iims) and the Indian Institutes of Technology (iits).

There are several important reasons why the uniquely American model of liberal arts colleges is so attractive when confronting the need for an alternative to mediocrity in higher education. The undergraduate model is small and fosters close relationships between students and teachers. Students, when free of the tremendous pressure of highly competitive technical and research institutions, can thrive as they explore their interests. When the model takes its distance from the for-profit and career-centered institutions, students and teachers can develop innovative learning plans and teaching strategies. 9

During the process of rethinking educational models, the Indian founders of the new liberal arts colleges have maintained a sense of the rich history that India enjoyed as a center of learning many centuries ago when Nalanda, Takhaashila, Vikramshila and Vallabbhi were centers of scholarship and learning that attracted teachers and students from the subcontinent as well as from China and beyond. 10 These early examples of cosmopolitanism are often alluded to by founder in accounts of the mission of new liberal arts institutions as a link to an earlier cultural heritage. 11

The new schools (Ashoka University, Foundation for Liberal and Management Education—flame, Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities—jslh, Mahindra College, and Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts), as well as the many other universities and colleges in India, profess the goal of internationalization. The term internationalization is used in a variety of ways. It generally derives from the recognition and desire to engage in educational programs that extend beyond the borders of the sender country. The collaborative undertaking developed by the American Council on Education (ace) and the Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement (cige) articulates a thorough and holistic internationalization program that consist of six pillars to be followed by the college or university that include:

1. Articulated institutional commitment

2. Administrative leadership structure and staffing

3. Curricular, co-curricular and learning outcomes

4. Faculty policies and practices

5. Student mobility

6. Collaboration and partnership. 12

Only points 5 and 6 are commonly considered indicative of internationalization in that these two involve border crossing at some level. Objectives are equally important as they are concerned with infusing the curriculum with a global perspective, introducing faculty development and an institution-wide commitment to the initiative. Many of the liberal arts programs are really referring to what Jane Knight calls “cross-border education,” which she describes as “a movement of people, knowledge, programs, providers, policies, ideas, curricula, research and services across international borders.” 13

Like the ace report, Knight further examines the two locations of internationalization, home and abroad. The author identifies diverse types of direct engagement that characterize the cross-border engagements, including long and short term teacher and student exchanges, joint degree programs, twinning, franchising, articulations, double degrees, and validation. There are advantages as well as disadvantages to these schemes. Many of the advantages are obvious and involve underscoring international cooperation, building the capacity of the institutions, promoting students’ post-graduation mobility, increasing research and teaching opportunities and job growth. The disadvantages are perhaps less prominent in the perspective of the sending countries as they inhibit development of the educational sector at home by lowering the quality of education, accommodating the market rather than educational ideals, reducing the national education budget, favoring short-term goals, and abandoning the endogenous educational culture. 14

Quality of Teaching

Along with economic growth has come growth of the population seeking higher education. The demand for schools coupled with increased wealth has led to growth of the private sector, which has increased the cost of education. Parents who are now paying for their children to be educated in colleges and universities are demanding accountability in the quality of education. For a number of years there has been a general sense that many institutions are not offering qualified students the education needed to succeed in a highly competitive globalized environment. Increased dealings with global markets and an international workforce has resulted in many Indian corporations citing the same graduate attributes that were named by a majority of us employers in a 2003 survey carried out for the American Association of Colleges and Universities (aacu). The summary report states, “More than 75% of employers say they want more emphasis on 5 key areas including: critical thinking, complex problem-solving, written and oral communication, and applied knowledge in real-world settings.” 15

Looking to the West for innovative and effective teaching methodologies has become the norm. Some of the problems that have been cited as a cause for inadequate teaching are lack of faculty development, academic dishonesty, poor program assessment and private education placing profits ahead of learning. No single element can account for this deficit, however, one major response has been the introduction of Western (predominantly from the us) curricular models as well as hiring instructors with overseas experience.

As previously noted, there is growing concern for the employability of graduates. Even the most respected American universities find it difficult to remain unresponsive to the market demands. Unpredictable markets and global instability over the past decades have left students with questions about the future. Columbia University professor Andrew Delbanco notes that students at his university “know that time-tested assumptions about the best route to this or that vocation, about how to find a mate and satisfying work, how to prosper and save, how to balance needs with wants—in short, how to make a life—are being called into radical doubt.” 16 And so in India improving the quality of teaching is seen as an antidote to at least the problem of finding a suitable career that is also associated with finding a suitable mate and leading a satisfying life.

While the introduction of new methodologies and instructors with international experience brings fresh elements to educational institutions, it does not assure improvement in the quality of teaching as long as there is still little attention being given to faculty development in learning and implementing appropriate pedagogies. The question concerning the appropriateness of the methodologies is not often addressed and when new pedagogies are hastily adopted in order to counter the tendency expressed in the adage, “You will teach as you have been taught.” As traditional and endogenous practices are discarded, the question of what will be lost is frequently neglected.

The Example of Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities (jslh) History

O.P. Jindal Global University (jgu), consisting of five schools, was founded in 2009 as a philanthropic initiative of Naveen Jindal, Founding Chancellor, in memory of his father, Om Prakash Jindal, who was the founder of Jindal Steel and Power. The eponymous campus is located in Sonipat, the state of Haryana, where Jindal was born and where the Jindal family remains deeply rooted. The university began by opening the Jindal Global Law School in 2009, followed in 2010 by the Jindal Global Business School, then in 2011 by Jindal School of International Affairs, in 2012 Jindal School of Public Policy and Government, and finally in 2014 the most recent addition, the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities (jslh). jslh admitted its first class in August 2014. Consistent with the University’s name and vocation, the curriculum, faculty and vision of the school support a strong global perspective, with at its center the internationalization of the curriculum.

At its inception the cross-border dimension of internationalization was a fundamental element of the jslh curriculum. Students participate in a double degree program with Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. jslh students receive two degrees in four years: the Indian b.a. (Hon.) and the American b.a. The agreement has had a significant impact on the design of the jslh curriculum and the attempt to blend Indian and American pedagogies within the program. Students are expected to fulfill their general education requirements for both India and the us during their first two years at the Sonipat Campus. The third required year of the Indian b.a. will be completed during the student’s first year at Rollins. Students will select a major before leaving India and fulfill the major requirements at Rollins. This is a very attractive program but one that is not without challenges. Sensitization of students to American teaching methods, culture and academic standards must be taken into account, therefore, internationalization of the curriculum is required in a very complete sense.

Interdisciplinarity, one of the main features of the jslh curriculum, provides students with different approaches to analytical thinking and problem-solving. One jslh faculty member described the interdisciplinary approach as an “a-disciplinary” pedagogy, respecting the disciplines while eschewing the silos imposed by the disciplines.” 17 The inclusion of texts from diverse disciplines on a single subject and the practice of team teaching respond directly to the question of knowledge creation. One course, Interdisciplinary Studies, is co-taught for three semesters by 3 different pairs of instructors. During each course students interrogate what they are learning and how they learn through guided class discussion and by specifically addressing the topic as part of continual written assessment.

While the dual degree program with Rollins remains a dominant feature of jslh, the priorities of students as well as that of their parents may change. Now in their second year many students who initially intended to pursue the dual degree track are no longer willing or able to spend two years abroad and pay the high tuition cost of tuition in the us. Having overseas experience remains important but many now see a substantial financial advantage of obtaining a liberal arts degree in India. In addition, parents and children are hesitant to consider undergraduate study abroad considering that the student is ill-prepared at eighteen or nineteen. 18 With a cohort now opting to complete their third and final year in India jslh is setting up options for short-term programs abroad during the third and final year.

Internationalization of the Curriculum

The general curricular design at jslh reflects the cross-border movement described by Knight earlier in this paper. Key elements of this design include multiple text sources that examine issues from diverse cultural points of view. Students are also exposed to a critical examination of the home culture (in this case the Indian culture). A deliberate effort has been made in hiring international faculty and Indian faculty who have studied and earned degrees abroad to enhance the cross-cultural dialogue within the school. Students are further exposed to culturally diverse perspectives through jgu’s vibrant guest speaker program that is popular with students and faculty and brings to campus as many national and international experts to speak on topics speakers that represent broad range of perspectives.

The Rollins connection is always kept in high relief in order that the transition from jslh to Rollins will build on the socialization of students and foster intercultural sensitivity. Rollins faculty and administrators have been generous participants in the program, a factor that recalls Knight’s first attribute of successful international, i.e., articulated institutional commitment. Regular visits by Rollins faculty and administrators to the jgu Sonipat campus, group Skype meetings among students and courses co-taught by jgu and Rollins faculty are actions that promote privileged relations and dialogue between Rollins and jgu. Exchange visits by faculty and administrators of the two schools proved to be helpful in developing the jslh curriculum and familiarizing students with American teaching methods. Extended visits that lead to ongoing communication are most beneficial as opposed to short stays, although each has a purpose. Mamta Accapadi, Rollins Dean of Students, spent over a week at jgu at the sessional opening the inaugural year. Dean Accapadi interacted extensively with students on her own and was able to observe differences in dorm life, parental communication with children, attitudes of students towards study and leisure and university restrictions placed on behaviors, including those of male and female students, use of alcohol and health and dietary concerns. All the aforementioned have an impact on student integration during study abroad and are highly suggestive of broader societal implications. Dean Accapadi related her experience to the Rollins Admissions Office and the University foreign student liaison.

Students were concerned about taking the sat test, a Rollins requirement that is not required in Indian universities; the Rollins Dean was concerned with the adequacy of students’ communication and writing skills in English. One way of overcoming these anxieties was to create a link with Rollins students so that they could meet online or by teleconference with their peers in Florida. To this end Rollins and jslh first year classes shared a common reading, My Freshman Year by Cathy Small, 19 an anthropological study of an American University. The school held a videoconference among students. The experiences generated student enthusiasm but did not achieve the desired ends because Rollins freshmen could not attend with the result that jslh students met with Rollins upper class students and administrators. It was concluded that in order to have students meet with their us counterparts the exercise needed to be integrated into both school’s Freshman Seminars.

A more successful initiative was the semester-long residence of Yudit Greenberg, a Fulbright Scholar and Director of the Rollins South Asian Center. Greenberg gave lectures, taught seminars on religion and participated in fieldtrips with students. Her presence in the classroom introduced students to lively interactive sessions. As a religion scholar with a specialization in India, she not only knew her subject well but also was a gifted teacher who skillfully engaged with students. Student expectations of Greenberg’s role as a teacher were not the same as they had for full-time jslh foreign faculty. The students maintained a respectful distance with regular faculty but were more informal with Greenberg who did not award grades.

In addition, Greenberg saw her role as relational rather than educational. 20 In order to understand the faculty-student relations at the Sonipat campus we must examine the composition of the faculty.

Faculty Engagement

The faculty consists of foreigners and Indians all of whom have studied outside their home country either in Europe, Canada or the us. All the Indian faculty have spent a significant part of their undergraduate education in India as have the British and Americans who spent their undergraduate years studying in their home cultures. Only two faculty members have previously taught in universities outside their home countries. University policy favors hiring faculty who have had significant experience abroad as a means of internationalizing instruction and infusing the curriculum with an exposure to a cosmopolitan culture in theory and practice. The University also seeks to enhance faculty exposure to other cultures through a generous program to sponsor faculty participation in conferences and research overseas.

Internationalization is of significantly greater importance at jgu than at many of the other new universities in India. jgu’s commitment to the cosmopolitan tradition is affirmed unconditionally in the University Vision Statement. The vision statement explains that liberal arts and humanities at jgu is part of the university’s vision “to promote a global perspective through a global faculty, global courses, global programmes, global curriculum, global research, and global collaborations in an intensive research environment, ensuring academic freedom and functional autonomy.” 21

jslh faculty embrace the challenge of the accelerated curriculum encompassing all the requirements for a three-year program in two years. All faculty have participated in admissions outreach that includes visits to many of the best private secondary schools in India and faculty regularly conduct phone interviews with prospective students. These are valuable exercises that in addition to introducing students and institutions to jslh, allow faculty to appreciate the Indian education system. An additional consequence of the talks is that faculty must articulate a personal narrative that addresses the vision of jslh. Most Indian faculty are familiar with the secondary schools having themselves gone through the system, but, even so, the development of private education over the past decade has led to changes. Foreign faculty find the visits extremely useful because most jslh freshmen are the product of these schools. The visits provide an introduction to the physical environment and demonstrate the persistence of British influence as reflected in the school uniforms, classroom discipline and terms of address used to denote the authority of the teaching staff and administration. It is rare to encounter the informality of a typical American high school.

Based on the secondary school visits, one’s own personal experience as a student and ongoing assessment of teaching and learning throughout the year, all faculty believe that jslh must introduce new teaching methods in order to develop particular skills and attitudes among the students. Their suggestions have in common the desire that programmatic learning outcomes help students develop critical thinking, creativity and imaginative problem-solving skills, and intellectual independence. These goals echo the educational philosophy espoused by the aacu in its Essential Learning Outcomes. 22 In an article offering advice to graduates, Forbes business writer Robert Farrington names the essential graduate attributes as strong communication skills and “real world” critical thinking. 23 The leitmotif in much of the current literature that discusses the reasons teaching methods need to change is based on maintaining India’s economic growth and the employability of graduates. The same refrain is reflected among university educators worldwide. Few academics are as adamant as Delbanco who concludes his defense of college as a time of exploration saying, “A college should not be a haven from worldly contention, but a place where young people fight out among and within themselves contending ideas of the meaningful like, and where they discover that self-interest need not be at odds with concern for one another.” 24

The jslh Vision document addresses the imperative that college be a place of exploration and creation and that its faculty, as the keepers of the new commons, are charged with this duty:

The Liberal Arts programme in India must have a dual cognitive role. It must be a custodian of many canons but it should also be the caretaker of an intellectual commons . . . A Liberal Arts faculty as a new commons seeks to de-commoditize knowledge and treat it as the perpetual gift to be renewed by every generation and through every act of reading. Archives, libraries, studios, museums have to fall within the definition of the new intellectual commons. 25

All faculty support the ideas expressed in the Vision Paper, and the general concept of a liberal arts school. Several individual faculty members were participants in constructing the curricular framework based on the vision paper in compliance with the two regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (ugc) and the Haryana State Government. The vision is translated into practice at the level of the faculty who are charged with developing the pedagogy and setting the tone of the learning environment.

Ways of Teaching 26

Faculty are free to design and teach their courses as they see fit. Those faculty who were present in 2013-2014 when the school was in a formative period discussed pedagogy and course content intensively for several months in an effort to align mission, vision and teaching methods. Experiential education was recognized as one of the principle approaches that would be put into practice at jslh. The idea of learning through experience and reflection corresponded with the Rollins philosophy and the curriculum design reflected the experiential method. Internships, service learning, and field trips were cited as pillars in the courses. However, experiential learning has not been fully incorporated into actual teaching practice.

In July 2014 faculty participated in a seminar on experiential education and the topic was discussed during two additional faculty meetings dedicated to methodology. However, despite their acclaimed pedagogical change, faculty prefer to teach using the methods they know best. When no particular training has occurred or discussion of whether or not a method is appropriate, most will do what they have been doing. This does not mean that the instructors have not put thought into their choices. Most use the dialogic method, one in which an initial lecture provides the basis for discussion prompted by the instructor’s questions. Peer-lead discussion and critique has been implemented in the communications class with success.

One instructor explains his rejection of the rhetorical lecture in favor of eclecticism and dialogism:

What usefully survives from the traditional lecture model is that there does have to be some percentage of room for the instructor to contextualize, explain and set the scene. The point, however, is that this is only the starting point. It provides the basis for dialogism since the students need apportioned room to register what is and is not clear. Moving from a contextualizing and brief mini-lecture to the seminar model works since it permits the voice of more than the instructor—students can educate their peers in matters of confusion and in a sense this empowers students to become teachers (or at least grasp the skills of expository and supportive dialogue that is one key aspect of teaching). 27

Another instructor cited taking into account the particular student population at jslh, “I believe, in an Indian context, the style of lecturing in large part and then opening a part of class time towards the end for discussion is beneficial. I also believe teaching is at its most thrilling for learners and instructors when it is intellectually provocative—with rules of civil engagement in place.” 28

Implementation of experiential learning has been largely confined to field trips. These field trips were related to the subject but the actual experience belied the validity of John Dewey’s remarks on the nature of experience and education. As he wrote, “The belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative. Experience and education cannot be directly equated to each other.” 29 The field experience served to illustrate a text but further reference to the experience and reflection on students’ observation was neglected.

Interdisciplinary Studies 1, an introduction to participatory action research, an approach to community development that is linked to theories of Brazilian educator Paolo Freire. 30 The Interdisciplinary course allowed students a great deal of freedom. Sufficient time was allotted to carry out a field experience over a five-week period, during which students visited the Nizamuddin neighborhood in old Delhi researching a subject of their choice. 31

Field trips and experiential learning are popular among students. However, in their course assessments, students indicated that they learn more in the traditionally taught lecture classes. The elusive question is how successful have classes have been in achieving the course outcomes. To date, the evidence for jslh courses is mainly anecdotal. In order to determine whether the methods are useful, instructors must be taught how to use active teaching methods and how to maximize their effectiveness. The instructor needs to make the ultimate decision on how to teach. Unlike the United States where summer institutes, campus resource centers and webinars are common ways that instructors hone their teaching skills, faculty development is hardly practiced in India.

Breaking with Traditional Education

The role of the teacher is fundamental in bringing innovation to the classroom. Zhu, Valcke and Schellens studied how teacher roles aid or hinder acquisition of knowledge and skills. 32 Their study is a comparison of attitudes towards the integration of on-line learning among university professors in China and in the Flemish area of Belgium. The study suggests that differences and similarities revolve around the traditional role of the teacher in each country. Observation of student reaction to introducing new classroom behaviors indicates areas of disruption. An example is the informality of addressing a teacher by her first name as is the practice in American universities. This corresponds to the experience at jslh where Indian students and Indian faculty find this practice uncomfortable and insist on fixing a title to the first name.

The role of teacher as facilitator and the teacher as co-learner 33 are practiced frequently in experiential learning. In India the teacher traditionally has had the role of the expert and the ultimate authority. The shift to a teacher who encourages autonomy and independent thought and who even acknowledges unknowing is destabilizing to students.

The attempt, either consciously or unconsciously, among jslh non-Indian faculty to create a “friendly” atmosphere marked by teacher-student familiarity has elements that go against the grain of traditional Indian society. In addition to the use of first names, allowing students to share the authoritative space, blurring the lines of privilege, recounting personal anecdotes, casual dress in the classroom and even the relaxed posture and body language in class are among the behaviors encouraged by foreign faculty that do not correspond to Indian tradition. Kakar and Kakar discuss the degree of power distance that is common in South Asia. They identify South Asia as having the greatest degree of separation among people according to their status and they note that this is “irrespective of his educational status.” 34

During a conversation following a faculty meeting on the introduction of teaching rubrics, 35 several Indian faculty members reported that they were unfamiliar with the terms being used in the texts, such as, “capstone” and “accommodation” and were baffled by the usage of these terms by non-Indian colleagues throughout the meeting and, in some instances, throughout the semester. These comments made clear the extent to which ethnocentric assumptions had guided conversations and teaching during the semester and even the program planning phase.

These observations beg the suggestion that the cultural dimensions of innovation of educational practice ought to be taken into account when implementing new modes of learning. Teaching methods are at the heart of learning and are not born out of a universal context.

Education and Intercultural Development

Many of the seemingly ethnocentric behaviors practiced by both Indian and foreign faculty are the result of a lack of paying sufficient attention to the effect of the “global” emphasis of the jslh curriculum on faculty and students and the way that it has been implemented. One glaring oversight was that new faculty have never been given an orientation to the culture and tradition of education in India. Most faculty, if interested, can learn through personal observation, independent reading and conversations with colleagues.

Milton Bennett points out that avoiding cultural confrontation and recognition of cultural differences is an ethnocentric orientation. 36 Ethnocentric behavior can go both ways and includes the host faculty as well as the guest. For example, asserting the validity of the predominant practice in the host country is often a consequence of “nation building.” 37 Likewise refusing to see only similarities and mediating difference in cultural attitudes will serve to obscure real and important issues. Many of the difficulties that have been cited, including teaching style, attitudes towards hierarchies and language can be addressed through recognizing the value of intercultural development for faculty.

Students going abroad and in the host country have an orientation to the place, food, cultural habits and expectations of the new culture. This does occur sometimes when faculty travel with students, but rarely occurs when faculty move abroad. In the case of jslh, the entire curriculum can serve as a valuable study in intercultural understanding. As one faculty member put it, by ”unpacking” even the terms of reference and the pedagogical and methodological approach, greater collaboration could be achieved and a radically new, blended pedagogy could result, one that would reflect shared ownership. 38 Without the much-needed effort to engage in an extended program of intercultural development for jslh faculty, the unspoken attitudes of defensiveness or denial of differences will not be overcome.

Conclusion

The widening of the borders of education through globalization and the development of the Indian economy have enhanced the expectation that the country’s system of education can be raised to a level consistent with India’s potential status as a world leader. India has a long tradition of education and cross-border exchanges that can be traced several millennia. British dominance during the colonial period and post-independence politics have guided India’s educational policies. The liberal arts is a domain that is being favored as a location where university students will acquire the education they need to compete in an increasingly competitive and globalized society. Just as important as responding to the call of the market is the need for university graduates to anticipate the new needs of society at every level and to do so in the spirit of service to society. jslh, having admitted its first batch in August 2014, hopes to meet this challenge through examining and taking into account Indian pedagogical tradition. The dual degree partnership with Rollins College is one strategy for internationalization. The transnational affiliation implies that the jslh students, currently all Indian, become familiar with the American system of liberal arts education and acquire the skills and educational habits that will allow their transition into another culture of learning. Implementing a blended pedagogy will foster a culturally sensitive community of learners; students as well as faculty. In keeping with jgu’s mission to be a global institution at least fifty percent of the faculty are non-Indian and the Indian faculty have studied abroad. jslh’s interdisciplinary and experiential curriculum employs pedagogy and teaching methods that are not part of current practice in most Indian schools. In addition, the learning environment and the teacher-student relationship is marked by the difference in cultural norms held in India and in the West. In order to avoid misinterpretation and create a more vibrant curriculum Indian and non-Indian faculty must engage in cross-cultural learning that includes a dialogue that addresses specific differences and recognizes the validity of both Indian and non-Indian pedagogies. Meaningful change cannot occur unless pedagogical practices are examined within the Indian social and cultural context. Most successful teaching methods in the West and elsewhere have originated within a particular environment. Educators must be cautious in order to avoid indiscriminately adopting pedagogies that may not be appropriate and inadvertently have a negative impact on learning.