One of the unprecedented challenges of International Higher Education is to promote social justice and offer graduates equal opportunities regardless of cultural background, linguistic abilities and/or geo-political belonging. This challenge is an outcome of Globalization which has turned into a one-sided process that allows the West to dictate the East how to conduct research, how to advance and use technology, and how cultural movements with a focus on English linguistic skills should influence social and political behavior. Globalization therefore, is nothing else than a modern form of colonization that promotes socio-economic, political and cultural inequality. In order to face this socially unjust process in a global context, a significant possibility for International Higher Education has arisen to institutionalize the internationalization of curriculum and social justice in education as one main tool for decolonization from globalization. It is wise therefore, to have a look at how internationalization of curriculum and social justice in education are addressed and linked to each other in higher education today.
Internationalization of Curriculum and Social Justice in Education
A traditional curriculum is narrow in its focus because it limits alumni abilities and professional skills to a certain geographical region, which sometimes does not even cross the national boundaries. On the other hand, an internationalized curriculum means “incorporation of international, intercultural, and/or global dimensions into the content of the curriculum, as well as the learning outcomes, assessment tasks, teaching methods, and support services of program of study. (Betty Leask, 2015). Therefore, the process of internationalization of curriculum promotes critical thinking and raises questions in regards of how and what are students taught, assessed and what kind of knowledge do they develop by following certain curricula. It also addresses inclusiveness and equal chances to learning of all individuals regardless of cultural backgrounds and socio-economic status. Further, guarantees international and intercultural competence in a certain field of study at a global scale.
Just as international curriculum starts from the premise that traditional curriculum does not prepare students enough for today’s global transformations, social justice in education has developed on premises set by social justice. s a process that helps society to rebuild by eliminating socio-economic, political and cultural hierarchy and acknowledges inclusion and equity irrespective of social, cultural, religious and economic backgrounds of individuals (Lee, 2016). Consequently, Social Justice in Education has the role to instill critical thinking and make all individuals (students, faculty, staff and administration) aware of justice and injustice in their personal lives as well as in local communities, within national boundaries and on global arena.
Both, internationalization of curriculum and social justice in education have developed as complements to precedents. First is a complement of traditional curriculum and second is a complement of social justice. Further, both terminologies refer to cultural awareness and acknowledgment, critical thinking and equal participation of individuals to the everyday life of the society. Therefore, two viewpoints could be distinguished. First is that internationalization of curriculum complements social justice in education by taking the recognition and inclusion of individual from local to global. While social justice in education pursues fair social treatments to students in local educational systems by analyzing occurrences and transformations in local societies, communities and personal lives, internationalization of curriculum reinforces the importance of how intercultural and international competencies help graduates develop skills and knowledge that would guarantee professional success in the vast arena of global society. A second viewpoint is that both, social justice in education and internationalization of curriculum stand for the same cause: recognition of all socio-economic and cultural groups equally in the process of education.
The future possibility
The unprecedented challenge to promote global social justice has actually created a significant possibility for International Higher Education to shift globalization from a one-sided process to a two-way street. The links between internationalization of curriculum and social justice in education, support the theory that both could be institutionalized as one single system. Critical thinking, inclusion and equity emphasized by social justice in education would be broadened from local societies and communities to global society through international and intercultural dimensions in the curriculum.
Cultural and social lives of both West and East would be equally acknowledged, and multilingual skills, opposed to English as the master language, could be used for political transformations and economic development.
Adams, M., & Bell, L. A. (Eds.). (2016). Teaching for diversity and social justice. Routledge.
Leask, B. (2015). Internationalizing the curriculum. Routledge.