Faculty International Experience and Internationalization Efforts at Community Colleges in the United States

Abstract

In recent years, internationalization has been a strategy for colleges and universities to recruit overseas students, as well as to raise institutional and national revenue (Raby 2007; de Wit et al. 2013; Raby and Valeau 2013). Internationalization at colleges helps to “educate their students for global citizenship, to keep pace with their peers, to better serve the national and international community, and to remain great universities” (Biddle 2002, p. 7). Faculty can enhance their international experiences by teaching in another country or by traveling and participating in programs such as study-abroad, exchange program, Fulbright fellowship, and international seminars. In addition to such out-bound opportunities (in which US-born faculty get educated), faculty who were born abroad bring linguistic and cultural diversity, different worldviews, and international skills to American colleges (in-bound). When faculty exchange ideas, innovative curricula with colleagues, and participate in international development program, the college gets involved in the process of internationalization (Raby 1995). Such occasions develop faculty’s awareness of and appreciation for the rich diversity of human experience found in the customs, traditions, and cultural contributions outside of their frame of reference. Along with globally emerging technology, cross-cultural communications, and shifting political alignment, institutions of American higher education have reshaped the strategies for “global consciousness and a critical understanding of how national and international issues intersect” (Biddle 2002, p. 5).