Meeri Hellstén

Hanging Together Even with Non-Native Speakers : The International Student Transition Experience

Hanging Together Even with Non-Native Speakers : The International Student Transition Experience

Introduction: Critical Engagements with the Internationalization of Higher Education

For the a cademi cw ith a taste f or adventure, an insatiable desire to know and experience a wide range of exotic ‘others’, a willingness to board the entrepreneurial bandwagon, a hankering after airport departure lounges, and an immunity to the effects of long term exposure to radiation at 10,000 metres above sea level, the internationalization of higher education is an enticing and intoxicating cocktail of possibilities. From teaching intensive residential school so ff-shore in the ‘glitz and glamour’ of Hong Kong, to educational consultancies in remote Kingdoms ‘lost in time’, to the mad cap intellectual menagerie of massive academic conferences in Montreal, to the exquisite pleasure of witnessing the graduation of one’s on-shore international students, the internationalization of higher education appears to provide increasing opportunities for academics to become global travellers, makers of difference, effectors of personal change, and facilitators of social progress. Indeed, if some programs are to be believed, it provides elusive opportunities to be peddlers of poverty alleviation practices and dispensers of sustainable development. Under internationalization, the world is our oyster, or perhaps, our garden, in which we sow the seeds from the fruits of our academic labours: powerful knowledges, proven (best) practices, and established systems of scholarship, administration and inquiry. Of course, the preceding description is only one reading of the internationalization of higher education, and the main purpose of this volume is to trouble such unproblematized notions and to provide more critical readings and explorations of the process. Internationalization has been the subject of study and comment in a range of academic fields, including comparative education. The relationship between interd nationalization and comparative education is both complex and dynamic. For decades, comparative educators have been concerned that the field of comparative education

The Sami Identity: A Souvenir or Something Living?

This paper discusses the notion of identity in relation to the options of cultural affiliation available to minority group members. In particular, the paper addresses commentary made in relation to the implementation of national curriculum guidelines in indigenous literacy education settings. The discussion draws examples from documented commentary on the administration and implementation of indigenous Sami education in Finland. The paper concludes with some suggestions as to the polemic of implementing (mainstream) curriculum for the maintenance of indigenous culture and emphasises perceptions about language and literacy as important components of the ethnic identity.

Anybody Out There a Real Expert

This paper reports on an evaluation of online learning in a large Australian undergraduate first year university subject. A central focus is the effectiveness web based learning and its implications for facilitating transition pathways into a new learning environment by new university students. The research is situated within a framework of action research and curriculum evaluation by exploring the different uses of a subject web site. Student postings on the web site bulletin board were evaluated. The interpretive content analysis indicates that the online mode of delivery is most beneficial in the distance education mode acting as a socialization and inter-relational device.