Western Higher Education in Global Contexts

by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar (Editor), Myles Chilton Nihon University (Contribution by), Angelica Maria DeAngelis (Contribution by), Oana Anca Fotache Dubalaru (Contribution by), Krystyna U. Golkowska (Contribution by)

Overview

The globalization of American style higher education is a field of study that is undergoing a significant phase with the current expansion of American branch campuses and curricula around the world. This volume contributes to the scholarship on the project of implementing and expanding U.S. influenced curricula in the Middle East and Asia. Many of the branch campus projects are only a few decades old making this a liminal moment in the translation and development of higher education worldwide that needs to be captured. What are the challenges, opportunities, and considerations faculty encounter in classrooms in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia? How do faculty translate western higher educational principles in new contexts? Projects like the multiversity international branch campuses of Education City, in Doha, Qatar, demonstrate the interest of foreign governments in western education and training. Other collaborations, like the Yale National University of Singapore College, demonstrate a nationalistic approach, where the nation’s premiere university maintains as high a profile as the invited collaborator. Such a wide range in mission and matriculation of students deserves further study. We open the conversation about the complex teaching and learning environment of American style education in a global context. Contributions include case studies, pedagogical interventions, and reflections. This volume features chapters by faculty teaching at international branch campuses (IBCs) or institutions using western curricula, such as the worldwide, privatized American University system

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498571814
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	10/31/2018
Series:	Expansion and Internationalization of Higher Education in Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	6.24(w) x 9.11(h) x 0.78(d)

About the Author

Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar is assistant professor in the Liberal Arts and Sciences Department at Virginia Commonwealth University, Qatar.

Table of Contents

1.Writing Centers and Academic Professionalization in the Russian Federation—Ashley Squires

2.Imported Traditions—Oana Fotache and Mircea Vasilescu

3.The Shadow of America on Japanese Higher Education—Myles Chilton

Cultural Challenges in International Branch Campuses

4.Writing Program Administration, Mobility, and Locality at the American University of Beirut, 1970 to the Present— Amy Zenger

5.The Challenges of Imagining Post-Universal Education in the Arabian Gulf Region— Angelica DeAngelis

6.Developing Symbolic Competence on a North-American Branch Campus in Qatar—Krystyna Golkowska

7.Rethinking Critical Thinking in a Non-Western Educational Context—Magdalena Rostron

8.Scaffolding Literacy at a Branch Campus of an American University in the Middle East: Interdisciplinary Collaborations—Silvia Pessoa, Thomas D. Mitchell, and Ryan T. Miller

Editorial Reviews

Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar’s edited volume takes a much-needed comparative look at the internationalization of western higher education, investigating its challenges and opportunities through both theoretical lenses and detailed pedagogical interventions. In particular, the collected essays dive deeply into the experiences of American universities in the Middle East, with three case studies of Qatar’s Education City alongside contributions from the American Universities of Beirut and Kuwait. Full of provocative and unique insights, Western Higher Education in Global Contexts invites the reader to better understand the interactive negotiations between the imported universities and the local communities they are meant to serve.

Jocelyn Sage Mitchell

This book makes an important contribution to the growing literature on the spread of American higher educational models and institutions throughout the world. Rather than theorizing abstractly about the meaning and significance of the internationalization of curricula, academic personnel and institutions, this volume provides a view from the inside out. Academics who have confronted the pedagogical and political-sociological issues associated with higher education transplantation write perceptively about their experiences. As a result, this collection provides the reader with a richly critical analysis of the promises and pitfalls associated with our present moment of higher educational transformation.

John Willoughby

The authors in this volume explore how American higher education gets localized though curricular adaptation in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, thoroughly challenging claims of uniform cultural imperialism and neoliberalism. The rich case studies presented here, often based on first-hand teaching experiences, are a unique and welcome addition to the scholarship on globalized higher education.

Neha Vora