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AS THE COMMITMENT TO INTERNATIONALIZE CAMPUSES continues to gain momentum, one of the most effective methods that higher education institutions have found to create meaningful, substantive, and long-term change on their campuses is to develop ways of encouraging their own faculty to become involved in education abroad.
Engaging faculty in study, teaching, and research abroad can infuse exciting new energy, knowledge, and a more global perspective into the classroom while also bringing about more diffuse benefits both on and off campus. "Engaging our faculty in education abroad has helped us become an internationally aware and active university," says Alice Bier, director of the International Education Office at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
At Florida State University, an award-winning Global Pathways certificate program has helped generate interest and involvement in eductation abroad among both students and faculty. According to Program and Exchanges Coordinator Cadence Kidwell, "As more of our faculty become involved in the certificate or exchange programs, there is more synergy for all international education efforts ... More faculty are finding out about lectures, conversation partner programs, research, and service opportunities, and are discussing these options with their students." Kidwell notes that another result of faculty engaged in education abroad is "the development of a community ... and the sharing of ideas across disciplines."
As international educators, we spend a lot of time talking about how to get students to become involved in education abroad. There's much less talk about how to get faculty involved- yet getting faculty engaged with education abroad is vitally important. "When faculty are involved in students' international education and experiences, the benefits are multiplied many times over," explains Mary Coburn, vice president for student affairs at Florida State University. "By applying theory that they have learned in the classroom and in reflecting upon the meaning of the international experience in their lives, students expand their knowledge while they develop into fully aware global citizens."
"The most powerful recruitment tool we have on campus for convincing students to study abroad is a professor whose eyes and ears have been opened, or an academic adviser, career counselor, or financial aid officer who has benefited from an international learning experience," says Wendy Williamson, director of study abroad at Eastern Illinois University. "Students...