Local Internationalization of the Curriculum: Opportunities for Intercultural Learning in the Globally Diverse Classroom

Abstract

As intercultural perspectives assume a greater emphasis in higher education internationalization, “interculturalization” is gaining prominence. This study builds on a critical incident study where cultural identity experiences related to race, ethnicity, and national origin as well as experiences of ability, education, sexuality, socioeconomic status/class, gender and spiritualty/religion were documented in the globally diverse classroom. This exploratory study examines intercultural processes in the international classroom by asking university instructional faculty to discuss the importance of intercultural learning outcomes as a graduate attribute, describe cultural diversity of the student population at the research site, and validate the critical incident analysis from previous research, thereby investigating local internationalization of the curriculum in a domestic context. The findings indicate that students’ cultural identity experiences provide for opportunities of interculturality. However, domestic students may not see their own internationally connected families as global, which suggests that there is a particular role for international students.