International Education Environment - Essay Example

International Education Environment Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Introduction International schools, in Australia refer to the schools that facilitate international learning environment, by adoption of national education curriculum that is different from that of local schools. These schools adopt curriculum such as Cambridge International Examinations or International Baccalaureate. These schools were initially designed for students are not citizens of the Australia (host country), students who belong to the staffs of the international organizations, foreign embassies, international businesses, and missionary programs. However, local students from Australia attend these schools in order to achieve proficiency in foreign languages, to be equipped with employment qualifications in a foreign country (Rizvi, 2005). While in these schools, local students encounter intercultural interactions which have become an integral component of everyday life in this globalised world. Therefore, this paper focuses on the international education as a globally responsive educational environment for the local people of the Australia and how the lives of students and educators are influenced by local or global identities in such an educational environment. Origin of international education The earliest international schools were established in the late 19th century in Turkey, Switzerland and Japan (Shields, 2013). These international schools catered for children of people who travelled such as international organizations, international companies, embassy staffs, and non-governmental organizations, in host countries. This educational environment was established by foreigners who had exceptional interest in the host countries. For example, the students who belonged to the American army and military families, most of the time attended Department of Defence Department Schools. In the same order, French business and diplomats’ families established similar schools with French curriculum of education (Shields, 2013). As years progressed, globalization has expanded market or environment for an international education. Therefore, national standards, on their own, are not enough in the improvement of the global economy through national education curriculum. However, the highest internationally performing education systems offer benchmarks for success. Therefore, increasing movement or migration of people globally, has established children generations who are brought up in the foreign countries, expanding and creating a need for international schools (Taylor, 2013). In the middle of the 2007, there were almost five thousand international schools which were anticipated to surge due to the globalization forces. For example, in New Delhi the entries for the IGCSE examinations increased by 20 percent in 2009, creating a strong affirmation of the presence globalization in the education environment such as international schools (Thakore, 2006). Therefore, international schooling enables children to become global nationals by offering a comprehensive and rigorous education with complete immersion into manifold cultures and languages. Global forces The term globalization is used to refer the flow of the economy, technology, people, ideas, and values across borders. Globalization has been found to exhibit profound effect on almost all aspects of the society, and consequently, becoming an important factor that affect the nature and function of international education in the local context. In respect to international education, globalization is used to refer, on the other hand, in relation to the technological, economical, societal, and political forces which affect the access for the international education for the local people. In addition, globalization is used to refer the process by which traditional learners are getting exposed to the international experiences. Therefore, one of the definitions of the globalization concentrates on the inclination of massive learning, understanding, and connection of the global context. In traditional institutions of Australia, there have been internationalization initiatives such as incorporation of international curriculum, encouraging students and faculty exchanges, creating opportunities for the local students to study abroad, creating more opportunities for the international student recruitment, and importing or exporting educational programs. However, there have been capacity issues which have configured itself into the subject of discussion, as internationalization creates capacity at higher cost, for graduate students, and hence the need for cultural awareness. The issue of internationalization is evidently manifested in the perceptible increase, in the cross-border operations or activities of the international education institutions (Rizvi, 2005). International education is partially fueled by the increasing world demand for international education and the inclined mobility of these institutions globally. As clearly stipulated by the UNESCO (2006), international education covers a wide scope of modalities form face-to-face interactions to distance learning (due to increased technological know-how such as e-learning). Australia is one of the principle destinations for the international students where in, in 2005, a considerable number of Australian students (17.3 %) were based on international education (UNESCO, 2006). Intercultural interactions Equally importantly, international education for local students has been characterized by intercultural interactions which have become an important constituent of life in this globalised world. As seen earlier, there are technological, demographic, economic and societal imperatives for acquiring aptitude in intercultural interactions (Lustig and Koester, 2006). Therefore, intercultural education in the international schools has created a positive response to the global imperatives. The first item of the global imperatives articulates on conceptualization of personal attributes and skills which are necessary for the intercultural interactions (UNESCO, 2006). The second item focuses on the learning and development of attributes and skills for success in the intercultural interactions. It is important to measure these attributes and skills so that constructs related to the global imperatives are better conceptualized and then reconfigured into models of intercultural competencies. The learners and educators The learners of the international schools consist of local students and foreign students who are in the host country (Australia). The local students who exhibit international mindset are potentially enrolled in these schools to develop intercultural competence and enhance their qualifications in terms of skills and foreign language proficiency so that they become employed outside Australia. The globalization has enabled easy movement of factors of productions such as human capital (labour). Therefore, more and more students are increasingly becoming interconnected to other parts of the world. Nowadays, students find it easy to learn a foreign language without having the need to travel in the native country of that language. The presence of the international schools in Australia has enabled these students gain intercultural competencies (Bingham & Council of International Schools, 2009). While at international schools, local students interact with foreign students, thereby promoting cultural diversity through mastery of a foreign language. This process is possible through intercultural interactions. The educators consist of the natives who exhibit cultural competence, or mostly, foreigners who help native students, as well as foreign students to develop their intercultural competence by creating a favourable climate for intercultural interactions. The educators are able to help the students, in an international educative environment, using the latest technologies such as web-based learning as supportive tools which have been made possible due to globalization. The educators also exhibit international-mindedness which has made them dedicate their lives on helping students develop and expand intercultural competencies through curriculum as International Baccalaureate curriculum. Pedagogical approaches The international educational environment in the Australia has addressed global environment and cultural issues in its local context through producing global and all-round students through developing and expanding the knowledge of the intercultural competence and its conceptualization developed through different pedagogical approaches. Therefore, it is necessary to establish favourable environment pedagogies in urban and rural Australia (Someville, 2008). Conceptualization of Intercultural competency The term intercultural competency have used over decades, but there is no definite meaning that have agreed upon (Deardorff, 2006a). The attempts have been made to provide a definition and concepts of the intercultural competency. Intercultural competency includes the capability of effectively and appropriately interacting with students from diverse cultures. Interaction usually includes communication and behaviour. Intercultural competency involves four dimensions such attitudes, knowledge, behaviours, and skills. Above these commonalities of intercultural interaction, there are perceptible differences of the conceptions and models. The intercultural interaction requires motivation, knowledge, effective and appropriate behaviours, and skills non-verbal and verbal communication (Lustig and Koester, 2006). There is a relationship between intercultural competences and tolerance for knowledge discovery, communicative awareness, ambiguity, empathy, and behavioural flexibility. These dimensions contain attitudinal, behaviour and cognitive elements. According to Deardorff (2006) intercultural interaction involves five aspects: knowledge, attitudes, relating and interpretation skills, discovery skills, and awareness. Intercultural literacy as described by this model involves the competencies, understandings, participation, language proficiencies, identities, and attitudes for successful cross-cultural interactions. Intercultural competence is a process where attitudes form a principle starting point for the growth of the intercultural competencies (Deardorff, 2006a). Based on the Deardorff’s model of intercultural competence, the acquisition of certain sets of knowledge, including but not limited to skills, and self-awareness. The process is composed of well-versed frame of reference which involves an ethno-relative point of view, a foundation from which intercultural competence can be conceptualized. Several models have been established for specific contexts or situations. The intercultural behaviour model process relates to the context of living in foreign countries (Landis and Bhawuk, 2004). This model borrows largely from other theory and research to build five models which are combined to establish the overarching model. This model encompasses intercultural sensitivity, attitude, the attainment, and skills certain behaviour and knowledge with the extra aspects of those people living in overseas. Additionally, this model tries to explain the correlations between the mentioned components of the model while retaining testability. Learning intercultural competence at international educative environment Intercultural training usually takes as an autonomous program in the international schools, although learning and teaching of intercultural competence can be undertaken in other educational institutions. In international education settings, intercultural competence education is usually incorporated in academic subject such as social and foreign language studies. However, the extent to which social and foreign languages studies are intercultural relies on the curriculum orientation. The potentiality of intercultural understanding to be incorporated into the curriculum is increasingly becoming an area of interests in the international schools due to the involvement of the local people. For example, the Australian government has lately incorporated intercultural understanding as a capability in its national curriculum (Perry & Southwell, 2011). The cultural aspect of foreign language education has developed over the last few decades in Australia, although some studies concentrating on correlation between language learning, attitudes and insights towards cultural diversity is limited, and studies have shown that there is no causal linkage between two. It is largely recognized that language is unbiased and teaching of foreign language can engross exposing students to various text and cultural representations so that students develop and expand a critical comprehension of the elements of the language, as well as representation of culture (Ware and Kramsch, 2005). It is argued that when developing an intercultural deportment in language teaching calls for a critical comprehension of culture and also language as a culture, as well as consciousness of self and identity. However, some studies suggest that pragmatic learning of culture is more efficient and effective than learning confined in the classroom. Equally importantly, interaction between native speakers and learners of a language is commonly used to facilitate culture and language in learning comprehension. In the years back, to accomplish learning of a foreign language required students to travel abroad, but nowadays the technology involving World Wide Web has been used by the foreign language teachers of the international education as a tool of teaching. For example, blogs were used by foreign language teachers to bond language learners in the US and in Spain so as to facilitate student’s skills of language and intercultural interactions. Additionally, a miscommunication as World Wide Web collaboration between US and Germany students can be an invaluable opportunity for learning. Therefore, technology enhanced intercultural interactions leading to unintentional negative outcomes such as underpinning cultural stereotypes. Intercultural competence can be fostered through digital technologies, although the degree of fostering has not been satisfactorily examined. Furthermore, current researches are limited to exploring the dimensions of the pedagogy and the potentiality of technologies in developing and expanding the knowledge of intercultural competencies instead of its effectiveness (Elola & Oskoz, 2008). Additionally, intercultural competence is also taught crosswise as far as subjects are concerned part of the mission of the school. This theory is particularly adopted by the international schools along with providers of the curriculum. Example of an international school is An International Baccalaureate Organization, which is the major player in the international educational context, and providing a comprehensive curriculum to its students with the age of three years up to students at pre-university levels. The main objective of the International Baccalaureate curriculum is to nurture students with an international mind and with an intercultural comprehension (Hill, 2006). In the same magnitude, a learning based on inquiry is adopted to assist students to comprehend that different people embrace different worldviews, to evaluate those views with much respect, and without necessarily accepting them. A significant element of an international curriculum is the motivation of the students to embrace critical interaction and inquiry with local communities and most importantly, their cultures. Researchers have indicated that students of international schools including those from the International baccalaureate exhibit higher levels intercultural comprehension, intercultural sensitivity, and international comprehension (Hinrichs, 2003) more than their counterparts who are studying non-international schools. However, non-experimental and cross-sectional designs failed to indicate that attending International Baccalaureate or international school made students acquire such outcomes as illustrate by Hinrichs (2003). For example, the studies as outlined above failed to account for the experiences of non-school educational environment such as home. Therefore, it has been of practice that those students with the mindset of the international context are potentially believed to enrol more in the International Baccalaureate schools that that student who are different. The researchers were not able to differentiate dimensions of the International Baccalaureate experiences. For example, the researchers failed to differentiate between cultural diversity and curriculum among the students. There is a suggestion that the international educational environment of most of the International Baccalaureates may be more appropriate for enhancing the intercultural comprehension than International Baccalaureate curriculum in general. Furthermore, not all researches compare students at non-international and international schools, leaving a gap for most intercultural attitudes of students to develop as time progresses regardless of the schools these students attend. In over all, no study has been able to indicate that International Baccalaureate or any other international school enhance soft skills for students, attitudes and values such as an intercultural comprehension, international-mindedness or intercultural competence ( IBO, 2008). The future of international schools Most of the researchers have indicated that attending a school characterized by cultural diversity has the energy to promote the intercultural competence for the students who are enrolled in them. Therefore, cultural diversity is the principle mechanism through which international educational environment is nurtured to assist students develops their intercultural competence. This characteristic has been found with students and teachers, who perceived the cultural diversity of the schools to the most significant influence based on school regarding the advancement of the intercultural competence and comprehension of the students. The correlation between intercultural competence and school diversity is yet to be evaluated empirically, nonetheless. It is reasonable that cultural diversity of schools is potentially able to develop the intercultural capabilities of the students, although there is no surety that it can do exactly that. Additionally, studies have suggested that students have a tendency to bind their interactions to their peers with similar cultural background, or from another cultural group (Halualani et al, 2004). Halualani et al. (2004) also indicate that offering opportunity to students for intercultural interaction is not sufficient, nevertheless. Therefore, the future of the international schools in the local context has been affirmatively anticipated to exponentially develop in the coming years, even beyond 2025. Conclusion As the world becomes more globalised or interconnected and as societies are increasingly becoming more multicultural, more ways are developed for assessing and conceptualizing intercultural competence in a more understandable form. Therefore, international educators such as the International Baccalaureate and educational systems of the country are solemnly calling for the intercultural competence development as a desirable result. However, most of the students have an inadequate understanding about the means of developing intercultural competence. The intercultural competence and related concepts are wide and involve many disciplines, making it complex and demanding. This paper establishes a comprehensive assessment of the intercultural competence in an international educational environment where people of various people meet as the world has become much globalised, thereby fostering cultural diversity. Therefore, we can deduce that the area requires extra research so as to enhance our appreciation of the myriad approaches of developing intercultural competence. Intercultural training tools and foreign stays are not easily accessible, and researchers should find other ways of learning opportunities such as international educational environment to develop and expand intercultural competence. Lastly, more empirical approaches are necessary for assessment of the different ways intercultural competence development. References Bingham, D., & Council of International Schools. (2009). CIS international schools directory 2009/10. Woodbridge: John Catt Educational. Deardorff, D.K. (2006a). Assessing intercultural competence in study abroad students. 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