Hanne Tange

Caught in the Tower of Babel: university lecturers' experiences with internationalisation

Abstract The paper examines the ongoing internationalisation of Danish higher education from the perspective of the academic staff. Drawing on a series of qualitative research interviews, the analysis highlights the implications of internationalisation for individual lecturers ability to act and interact in the classroom, changing the form of the lecturers message as well as its content and frame of reference. A major theme emerging from the inquiry is language since most lecturers agree that the linguistic change from Danish into English, which is requested for most international programmes, affects the quality and quantity of classroom communication. A second theme is cultural diversity, which the lecturers characterise as an obstacle as well as a possible resource in the multicultural classroom. Ud fra et underviserperspektiv belyser artiklen den igangværende internationalisering af de videregående uddannelser i Danmark. På baggrund af tyve kvalitative forskningsinterview påvises det i analysen, hvordan internationaliseringen får konsekvenser for undervisningens form, indhold og referenceramme. Et gennemgående tema er sprog, idet underviserne fremhæver, hvordan et sprogskifte fra dansk til engelsk får betydningen for både mængden og kvaliteten af deres interaktion med de studerende. Analysens andet tema er kulturel mangfoldighed, der af underviserne beskrives som henholdsvis en barriere og en ressource i det multikulturelle læringsrum.

International Language Management: Contained or Dilute Communication

This paper addresses how the management decision to implement English as a common corporate language affects the practice of intercultural communication within international corporations. Drawing on a qualitative study of 14 Danish companies, the study identifies contained and dilute communication as obstacles to cooperation and communication, highlighting the social character of language in the multilingual workplace. The practices of contained and dilute communication are related to group formation, sociolinguistic awareness and linguistic competence, and the authors recommend that international managers adopt a pro-active stance on language diversity, promoting social interaction between organisational speech communities.

Organising language at the international university: three principles of linguistic organisation

Drawing on interview data from five Danish research sites, the article asks what processes of internationalisation mean for the way universities organise and are organised by language. Following an initial reflection on the nature of a global knowledge market, the discussion centres on the idea of ‘linguistic organisation’, as this has been interpreted within the sector of higher education. A distinction is made between the idea of ‘organisation’, which suggests a managerial decision about language usage, and ‘organising’, which describes the way individual actors linguistic practice shapes an organisation. The analysis presents three prototypes of linguistic organisation, which have been named Single Course, Parallel Languages and English Only. Single Course describes an institutional environment where English is used for specific programmes or courses, but Danish remains the principal teaching language. Parallel Language refers to an organisation where parallel programmes are run in both Danish and English. Finally, the third prototype of linguistic organisation, English Only, is characterised by the adoption of English as the default teaching medium for entire programmes or disciplines, which often comes as the result of a long-term strategic commitment to international education.

Inclusive and exclusive knowledge practices in interdisciplinary, international education

ABSTRACT This study provides a critical engagement with the principle of inclusion, as manifest in three international, interdisciplinary master programmes in Denmark. Initially, it is proposed that one focuses on the knowledge practices found in international, interdisciplinary education, asking to what extent these suggest inclusion in the sense that all students are treated as equals. The alternative is an exclusive learning environment where certain groups are singled out for special treatment, which will often request from them assimilation into the dominant practice. A conceptual point of departure is provided by the educational sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, which motivates the identification of ‘normative centres’ (Graham, L., and R. Slee. 2008. “An Illusory Interiority: Interrogating the Discourse/s of Inclusion.” Educational Philosophy and Theory 40 (2): 277–293. doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2007.00331.x, 283) related to the two themes of interdisciplinarity and international-ness. The topics are subsequently pursued in an empirical analysis, drawing on 19 qualitative research interviews with lecturers involved in the three master courses. This leads to the conclusion that exclusive knowledge practices can be found in all programmes. At the same time, the interviews reveal a reality that is multi-centred, suggesting that interdisciplinarity is as ‘troublesome’ (Land, R. 2012. “Crossing Tribal Boundaries: Interdisciplinarity as a Threshold Concept.” In Tribes and Territories in the 21st Century, edited by P. Trowler, M. Saunders, & V. Bamber, 175–185. Abingdon: Routledge) in higher education as the question of internationalisation.