Learning Across Borders : Perspectives on International and Transnational Higher Education [1 ed.] 9781443887656, 9781443885836

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Learning Across Borders

Learning Across Borders: Perspectives on International and Transnational Higher Education Edited by

Leslie Seawright and Amy Hodges

Learning Across Borders: Perspectives on International and Transnational Higher Education Edited by Leslie Seawright and Amy Hodges This book first published 2016 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2016 by Leslie Seawright, Amy Hodges and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-8583-5 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-8583-6

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ..................................................................................... vii Introduction ................................................................................................ ix Section I: Theorizing Transnational Education and International Educators Chapter One ................................................................................................. 2 Crossing Borders to Build Bridges: Reading Indigenous Higher Education in a (New) Transnational Framework Anne Grob Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 32 Can Liberal Arts Education Have an Impact on Globalization in Africa: The Example of Ashesi University College Marcia Grant Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 53 A Possible Role for Narrative Literature in Cultural Training for Transnational Educators Sarah Hudson Section II: Pedagogy in Transnational and International Spaces Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 66 Providing Space for Critical Consciousness in the Mathematics Classroom Summer Bateiha Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 88 Creating a Feedback Loop between Peer Tutors and Faculty Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar, Jessica Hammam and Rumsha Shahzad Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 100 Teaching Multicultural Composition through Graphic Novels Stephanie Scott

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Chapter Seven.......................................................................................... 116 Assimilation, Accommodation, or Separation: Teaching and Tutoring English Writing Jeannie Waller Section III: Transnational and International Student Voices on Identity and Learning Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 132 Attitudes toward English as Lingua Franca: University Students in Qatar Zohreh R. Eslami, Leslie Seawright and Angelica Ribeiro Chapter Nine............................................................................................ 149 Jazan University Faculty and Student Attitudes toward Academic Integrity Gamil Alamrani Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 165 Cultural Conflation: Encounters with the Global Education Paradigm Jeremy Cook Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 181 Third Culture Kids: A Life of Transitions Colby Seay Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 193 A Cultural Other in Transnational Education: The Impact of Globalization on Student/Teacher Identities Magdalena Rostron Contributors ............................................................................................. 216 Index ........................................................................................................ 220

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are many people who made the production of this edited volume possible. The chapters contained in this book were first devised and presented at the third annual Liberal Arts International Conference at Texas A&M University at Qatar in 2015. Editors Leslie Seawright and Amy Hodges thank the Liberal Arts International Conference Committee Members for their efforts in bringing over 80 participants to Doha, Qatar for the event. Committee members included Leslie Seawright (Chair), Trinidad Rico (incoming Chair), Phil Gray, Amy Hodges, Martinus Van de Logt, and Nancy Small. In addition, the editors would like to thank Dean and CEO of Texas A&M University at Qatar, Mark Weichold; Vice Dean, Eyad Masad; Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, Hassan Bazzi, and Liberal Arts Program Chair, Troy Bickham for their tireless support of the conference and faculty in the Liberal Arts Program. We also thank Khadija El Cadi, Vanessa Lina, Lorelei Blackburn, Elizabeth Schmidt, and Carol Nader for their work in organizing, planning, and coordinating the LAIC in 2015. This conference and volume would not have been possible without funding from a Qatar National Research Fund Conference and Workshop Sponsorship grant. Qatar Foundation has been a crucial sponsor of the Liberal Arts International Conference for the past two years, and without their help many presenters would not have been able to travel to Doha and contribute their knowledge on the topic of transnational education. We would like to thank all of the contributors in this book for their work in revising and tailoring their chapters for publication. In addition, we thank our student-worker Hanaa Loutfy for her dedication and work in preparing the manuscript for publication. Her attention to detail and speedy revisions rendered her invaluable to the production of this volume. Thank you. Leslie Seawright and Amy Hodges would like to thank David Jolliffe, who delivered a keynote address at the conference and has served both of them as a director, advisor, mentor, and friend. Under his tutelage, we have both grown as teachers, scholars, and individuals.

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Lastly, we would like to thank all of the teachers, instructors, and professors around the globe who are dedicated to student learning and pedagogical research. It is our hope that this book can aid them in their teaching and theorizing. —Leslie Seawright and Amy Hodges

INTRODUCTION

We live in an educationally mobile world: instructors deliver courses at two or more different campuses, students transfer from community colleges to universities (and others do the reverse), new curricula are offered in hybrid online and physical spaces, and innovative programs defy traditional disciplinary boundaries. On a global scale, many students move across oceans to obtain a degree, and faculty members travel to new countries and work with diverse populations of students. Increasingly, universities are adopting cross-border curricula and partnerships in order to help their graduates compete in a globalized economy. Those of us who live and work in such transnational and international spaces have become interested in how these larger trends impact the learning that happens in our classrooms. This book is the extension of that intellectual and personal curiosity, stimulated by conversations the contributors had at the 2015 Liberal Arts International Conference in Doha, Qatar. Under the theme of Looking Forward, Looking Back: Transnational Perspectives on Globalization, scholars from many different liberal arts disciplines convened to discuss the impact of globalization on teaching and learning. As these authors explored the city of Doha – its world-famous Museum of Islamic Art designed by I.M. Pei, the riot of color and spice in Souq Waqif (a reconstruction of Doha’s traditional marketplace), and the cutting-edge design of Education City where a number of the world’s leading universities have branch campuses hosted by the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development – they were struck by the mix of old and new, of modern and traditional, the seamless integration and incongruities that marked the footprint of globalization on what was, in many ways, historically a globalized region where West mingled with the East. Adding to our motivation, David Jolliffe presented a thoughtprovoking keynote address titled “Global Corporate Decisions, Local Impacts and the Need for Economic Literacy.” His talk connected the decisions of large multinational corporations with the everyday lives of citizens in a rural Arkansas town, an excellent model for examining global and local networks. Furthermore, Jolliffe called upon us to teach our students to become liberal artists – active citizen-scholars who draw upon

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Introduction

an extensive liberal arts background to enter many different types of conversations on local and global issues. This keynote refined a central question of this volume: What role does a liberal arts university education play in the lives of transnational and international students? The trend of “academic mobility” (Knight, 2011, p. 223) has resulted in a variety of higher education structures across the world. Our collection examines the interactions between teachers and students in the following settings: x The broader category of cross-border education, or “the crossing of national jurisdictional borders by teachers, students, curricula, institutions and/or course materials” (Waterval et al, 2015, p.2) x The inclusion of students outside of the US in US university classrooms, or internationalization, “the process of integrating an international, intercultural or global dimension into the purpose, functions (primarily teaching/learning, research, service) or delivery of higher education” (Knight, 2004). x And finally, transnational education, where “learners are located in a country different to one where the awarding institution is based” (Wilkins & Huisman, 2012, p. 627); international branch campuses (IBCs) are one of the most prominent forms of this arrangement. Between 2000 and 2009, the number of students leaving their home countries to seek further education increased by 85 percent: some of the most recent figures estimate that 3.7 million people are enrolled as international students at universities around the world (Wildavsky, 2010). Over two hundred international branch campuses are in operation, according to the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education report in 2012 (Lawton and Katsomitros, 2012). In light of these growing numbers, we believe it is all the more important to add to the case studies of researchers like Knight (2013), as each of these institutions operates within its own context. Although our authors’ situations are impacted by the shape of their local cultures and educational systems, we also hope to provide a solid base of theoretical knowledge and practical applications to readers in similar situations. Thus, when we ask, “What role does a liberal arts university education play in the lives of transnational and international students?” our contributors use a variety of tactics and disciplinary methods. For many authors in our volume, answering this question begins with the larger structures of tertiary education: choices of curricula, academic majors, and the scope of the university as a whole. While noting that “rarely, if ever,

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do academic innovations emanate from the periphery to the centre” (Altbach, 2004, p.17), the contributions to this volume form one small step towards redirecting this flow of information and provide understanding about how people adapt, adopt, and reimagine the role of a university in a region. For others, self-reflection and analysis of teaching practices form the foundation of inquiries into international and transnational classrooms. It can be easy to employ the rhetoric of difference to define our relationships with the men and women in our classrooms: they come from a different culture, they expect different behaviors from their instructors, they have different definitions of what an education should be, and we, their faculty members, know what is best for them. Our authors examine their own tendencies towards self-other binaries and represent the complicated dialogue between learners – both students as learners and faculty members as learners. Overall, listening to our students forms an important epistemological base for the volume’s investigation into issues of international and transnational education. We know that students choose to attend international and transnational institutions for a variety of factors, such as their comfort level with the culture and lifestyle in the host country, their prospects in the labor market, convenience, quality of educational choice in their home country, and international reputation of the institution (Li & Bray, 2007; Wilkins, Balakrishnan, and Huisman, 2012). Research also shows that they often develop more open-minded attitudes towards diversity because they interact with different ethnic and national groups (Summers & Volet, 2008). On the other hand, students attending an international or transnational institution can feel like they do not belong to the university, the disciplines represented by faculty members, and the professions the IBC is preparing them for (Chapman & Pyvis, 2006). Different dialects or expectations of English fluency can prevent students from moving forward in the curriculum or even being accepted into the university, and students’ secondary school curricula may not match up with the introductory courses in the traditional “gatekeeping” subjects of writing and mathematics, in particular. Faculty perspectives on international and transnational institutions’ quality vary, particularly as many face entirely new teaching situations and student populations upon being hired to teach at such a university. Experiences at transnational university partners have led faculty members to call for more “honest and complete” communication between the home institution and the faculty member about the realities of international branch campus (IBC) teaching (Getty, 2011). Others have expressed dissatisfaction over teaching materials and student assessment, adherence

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to irrelevant or non-contextualized curriculum, and a lack of respect from faculty at the home institution (Dobos, 2011). Models of Western pedagogy and learning styles may not translate into local cultures (Eaves, 2011). Moreover, faculty are also overwhelmingly concerned about quality assurance given that many live in, as a faculty interviewee in Dobos (2011) put it, “a culture of bend the rules” (p. 29). Additionally, faculty members living abroad can feel like administrators at home campus “do not really know what is going on” in the host country (Smith, 2009). On the other hand, teaching overseas or teaching international students can be a powerful and life-changing experience, as Saudelli’s (2012) study of international educators in the United Arab Emirates shows. Her interviewees’ insistence on “recognition of the ease of colonizing and an embrace of blending in based on new experiences” (p. 107) is sadly underrepresented in the literature on faculty at international and transnational institutions. As editors of this volume, our experience living and working in the hybrid space of transnational education has brought a double meaning to phrase “Learning Across Borders” in our title. We have learned as much or more about ourselves – our limitations, our shortcomings, and our potential for growth; our roles as educators, women, and white Americans – in the process of opening up access to learning for others. However, we cannot ignore the “deep inequalities that are part of the world system of higher education” (Altbach, 2004, p. 8). Our classrooms are a space where some of these inequalities surface, as Pratt (1991) explains in her concept of “contact zones,” or “social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today” (p.34). In order to help our students learn, it is all the more important that growing numbers of instructors reflect on the power dynamics in their own classrooms. How do we make safe spaces in transnational and international classrooms? Whose voices are heard, and whose voices are silenced? How does my course reflect the multifaceted identities of the students within it? What is the role of English (or world Englishes) in my teaching and my multi- and monolingual students’ learning? In this volume, these questions are addressed from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Education, English language teaching, higher education administration, indigenous studies, literature, mathematics, rhetoric and composition, and writing center studies are represented in this collection, and authors from Germany, Ghana, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,

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Singapore, Yemen, and the United States of America reflect on their experiences teaching and learning across the world. The first section, “Theorizing Transnational Education and International Educators,” takes a broad cross-cultural perspective on education. Anne Grob analyzes indigenous higher education institutions in order to redefine relationships between nations and their universities. She also discusses the efforts by Indigenous universities to create a global Indigenous education network, to share Indigenous-based research skills between Indigenous and non-Indigenous institutions, and to serve as important agents in the cultural and linguistic revitalizing processes that are underway in Indigenous communities around the globe. Marcia Grant details the choices made by administrators, faculty, and students at a Ghana university to combine Western liberal arts traditions with local contexts, and argues that Ashesi University College’s hybrid liberal arts curriculum, stressing ethical leadership and entrepreneurship, has created a campus culture that empowers its students and gives them agency. Sarah Hudson argues that American transnational educators may benefit from reading narrative literature before embarking on their teaching in a new culture. She suggests that the added benefit of such a program will likely reduce at least some of the cross-cultural tension and confusion that is bound to arise in such situations, making transnational education a far more enjoyable and productive experience for both faculty and students. Next, the section “Pedagogy in Transnational and International Spaces” interrogates how instructors can innovate in curricula and teaching methods. Summer Bateiha explores Western bias in mathematics education and reports on the success of a mathematics course that emphasized critical consciousness. Her findings indicate that providing space for critical consciousness appeared to enhance her students’ understanding that mathematics is more accessible to them and more relevant to their understandings about their world outside of the classroom than they believed prior to this course. Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar, Jessica Hammam, and Rumsha Shahzad collaborate on the importance of communication between peer tutors and faculty members at their university in Qatar. In addition to improving student writing, their strategy allows peer tutors to reflect on their experiences in the sessions and also gain advice or confirmation of the strategies that work from a more experienced writer. Stephanie Scott analyzes a composition course in the U.S. which used graphic novels to broaden students’ understanding of other cultures. Such a course, she states, responds to students’ need to belong, to connect to other cultures, and to develop a basis of responsible knowledge about the world and the people who populate it, in addition to

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teaching the relevance of writing. Jeannie Waller examines the complexity of business faculty and business communication tutors’ responses to the language of second language writers at an American university. Her chapter concludes that building trust with all of the business students means individualizing the way the tutors work with the students, which means that they listen more carefully for the students’ language goals and stances towards language assimilation. The final section, “Transnational and International Student Voices on Identity and Learning,” considers who the students are in transnational and international classrooms, and what their motivations are for being there. Zohreh Eslami, Leslie Seawright, and Angelica Ribeiro report on the findings of their survey on attitudes towards the English language among university students in Qatar. Based on these results, they advocate for a bilingual approach in which both English and Arabic are used as a medium of instruction and competency in both languages is maintained for uses both in academic and non-academic settings. Gamil Alamrani examines educational and cultural factors contributing to breaches of academic integrity at a university in Saudi Arabia. His chapter shows that social and cultural concepts of collaboration, help, and honor common to Saudi students overlap with expected academic behaviors of honesty and ownership. Jeremy Cook considers the experiences of Saudi students who attend a two-year college in the U.S. and adjust to life in a small Oklahoma town. His chapter details how Northern Oklahoma college works to connect with this student population and help them progress towards their educational goals. Colby Seay reviews the literature on third culture kids and discusses adjustments they may make as they transition into higher education and how universities can better serve these global citizens. He concludes that, because they have grown up in many societies, third culture kids may be able to act as a cultural link between students from different backgrounds. Magdalena Rostron looks at the complicated ways in which the concept of the “cultural Other” manifests in a transnational classroom in Qatar. Her analysis reveals the impact of globalization on students’ growing ability to see, identify, and define issues and processes that may have gone unnoticed without Western education and its relentlessly probing, questioning nature. As a whole, the collection looks to the future of education in an increasingly globalized world. The transnational and international classrooms presented in this volume offer a glimpse into the complexity of identity, teaching, and learning in the 21st century. We hope that readers – those who have learned or taught abroad, those who have never crossed

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the borders of their own country, and all those somewhere in between – will find these chapters illuminating and thought-provoking.

References Altbach, P. (2004). Globalisation and the university: Myths and realities in an unequal world. Tertiary education and management, 10(1), 3-25. Chapman, A., and Pyvis, D. (2006). Dilemmas in the formation of student identity in offshore higher education: a case study in Hong Kong. Educational review, 58(3), 291-302. Dobos, K. (2011). ‘Serving two masters’ – academics’ perspectives on working at an offshore campus in Malaysia. Educational review, 63(1), 19-35. Eaves, M. (2011). The relevance of learning styles for international pedagogy in higher education. Teachers and teaching: theory and practice, 17(6), 677-691. Getty, L.J. (2011). False assumptions: the challenges and politics of teaching in China. Teaching in Higher Education, 16(3), 347-352. Jolliffe, D. (2015, February). Global Corporate Decisions, Local Impacts and the Need for Economic Literacy. Keynote address presented at the Liberal Arts International Conference, Doha, Qatar. Knight, J. (2004). Internationalization remodeled: Definition, approaches, and rationales. Journal of studies in international education, 8(1), 531. Knight, J. (2013). The changing landscape of higher education internationalisation - for better or worse? Perspectives: Policy and practice in higher education, 17(3), 84-90. Lawton, W., and Katsomitros, A. (2012). International branch campuses: data and developments. Retrieved from The Observatory on Borderless Higher Education at http://www.obhe.ac.uk/documents/view_details?id=894 Li, M., and Bray, M. (2007). Cross-border flows of students for higher education: Push–pull factors and motivations of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong and Macau. Higher education, 53, 791–818. Pratt, M.L. (1991). Arts of the contact zone. Profession, 91, 33-40. Saudelli, M.E. (2012). Unveiling third space: A case study of international educators in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Canadian journal of education, 35(3), 101-116. Smith, L. (2009). Sinking in the sand? Academic work in an offshore campus of an Australian university. Higher education research & development, 28(5), 467-479.

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Summers, M., and Volet, S. (2008). Students’ attitudes towards culturally mixed groups on international campuses: Impact of participation in diverse and non-diverse groups. Studies in higher education, 33(4), 357-370. Waterval, D.G.J., Frambach, J.M., Driessen, E.W., and Scherpbier, A.J.J.A. (2015). Copy but not paste: A literature review of crossborder curriculum partnerships. Journal of studies in international education, 19(1) 1-21. Wildavsky, B. (2010). The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities Are Reshaping the World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Wilkins, S., Balakrishnan, M., & Huisman, J. (2012). Student choice in higher education: Motivations for choosing to study at an international branch campus. Journal of studies in international education, 16(5), 413-433. Wilkins, S., and Huisman, J. (2012). The international branch campus as a transnational strategy in higher education. Higher education, 64, 627645.

SECTION I: THEORIZING TRANSNATIONAL EDUCATION AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATORS

CHAPTER ONE CROSSING BORDERS TO BUILD BRIDGES: READING INDIGENOUS HIGHER EDUCATION IN A (NEW) TRANSNATIONAL FRAMEWORK ANNE GROB

In the past two decades, the higher education field has become highly diversified and increasingly interconnected on a global scale. Internationalization efforts including networking activities and diverse forms of collaborations and exchanges between institutions, departments, faculty and students have not only become widespread at universities but are at the core of most university agendas. Following this internationalization strategy, universities are directly answering to labor market demands that favor graduates with an intercultural skill set enabling them to work internationally. Innovations in information and communication technology have further contributed to the rise of interconnected global networks and facilitated the emergence of new forms of education programs and methods of instruction (Henard, Diamond, & Roseveare, 2012, p. 7). Among these new forms of educational provision is transnational education. Transnational education is characterized by higher education institutions moving beyond national borders to offer their programs, and according to recent research this educational structure will continue to grow substantially over the next few years (McBurnie & Ziguras, 2007, pp. 1-13).1 In addition to the everincreasing number of students studying abroad, border-crossing higher education institutions substantially contribute to the internationalization of tertiary education. A second relatively new higher education system that has also started to increase its international connectedness is Indigenous

1

See also Chen, 2015, p. 634; Knight, 2007, p. 134, p. 145. According to Mercardo and Gibson (2013) the transnational education market has “doubled in size since 2000” (p.1).

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higher education.2 Developed by indigenous groups to respond to decades of ethnocentric and assimilationist education efforts by conventional universities,3 Indigenous colleges and universities (ICUs) provide affordable and cross culturally-sensitive education opportunities to predominantly tribal populations. Controlled and operated by indigenous groups, many of these ICUs are significant players in their tribes’ culture and language restoration and revitalization efforts (Robbins 2002, p. 83; AIHEC, 2006, pp. A-1-A-2). Following a short introduction into the concepts of transnational and Indigenous higher education, this chapter seeks to answer the question on whether these two forms have anything in common. It will further offer an additional and annectant reading to the term “transnational education.” By juxtaposing the new reading of “transnational” with Indigenous higher education, it will contribute a new layer of analysis by illustrating key issues like funding, accreditation, evaluation, and reputation among Indigenous postsecondary education providers. The final section of this paper will then return to the traditional reading of “transnational” education and will discuss the efforts by Indigenous universities to create a global Indigenous education network. Featuring specific examples from long-term research at two tribally-run higher education institutions in the US and Aotearoa4 (New Zealand), the article will demonstrate how 2

Much of the information provided in this paper is based on the fieldwork at Salish Kootenai College in the US and at Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university in Aotearoa (New Zealand). Without the support, assistance, and willingness of over ninety faculty and staff members to share their knowledge with me, this article would not have been possible - thank you. While my name appears on the first page as the author of this article, I consider all of you as coauthors of the tribal university-specific knowledge provided, and the knowledge will remain yours. 3 While many scholars use the term “mainstream” university when referring to long-established non-Indigenous university providers in both the US and Aotearoa (New Zealand) I refrain from using this term, as the term “mainstream” contains an ingrained power divide implying the marginal/minority status of Indigenous education models. Instead, I will follow Graham Hingangaroa’s advice to use the term “conventional university” to refer to non-Indigenous universities in this paper. 4 Te Reo (the Maori language) is one of three official languages in New Zealand (English and Sign Language are the other two official languages) (Stefani, 2015, pp. 111-113). Throughout this chapter, I will use the term “Aotearoa” to refer to New Zealand, specifically when alluding to Indigenous groups in New Zealand. “Aotearoa” is the Maori term for New Zealand and can be translated into “the land of the long white cloud”.

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Indigenous-based research skills are shared between Indigenous and nonIndigenous institutions and how research capacity with a particular Indigenous focus is increased. It will provide evidence of the heightened global interconnectedness and the growing potential of interacting on a global basis that both transnational and Indigenous higher education providers have realized is of utmost importance, and will note the crucial role of Indigenous universities as important agents in the cultural and linguistic revitalizing process that is underway in Indigenous communities around the globe.

The Concepts of Transnational Education & Indigenous Higher Education In the field of education, the term “transnational education” is used to describe the multifaceted and complex processes by which education providers deliver their educational programs and courses to students located in a different country than where the education provider is based (Clark, 2012, p. 1).5 While traversing national boundaries by students and scholars represents an established form of academic mobility well documented in the higher education literature, cross-national or crossborder educational mobility by higher education institutions is not yet as common but has increased remarkably since the 1990s. According to McBurnie and Ziguras (2007), this development is “at the leading edge of the most fundamental changes taking place in higher education today” (p.1). The delivery and engagement models of transnational education range widely and include international branch campuses in foreign countries, articulation and collaboration agreements between home and host institutions, online learning and distance delivery, as well as franchising, twinning and validation agreements, and credit transfers (Clark, 2012, pp. 3-4).6 While opponents of transnational education particularly fear the commercialization of higher education and see the local public education systems at stake, proponents most notably emphasize the role of transnational education as a catalyst for developing 5

See also McBurnie and Ziguras, 2007, p. 1, p. 21; Chen, 2015, p. 634; Vignoli, 2004, p. 1-3; and Mercardo and Gibson, 2013, p. 1, who provide similar definitions of the term transnational education. At times, some researchers also employ the term “cross-border education” when referring to activities in which the student population is located in another country than the awarding institution (Mercardo and Gibson, 2013, p. 1; McBurnie and Ziguras, 2007, p. 22). 6 For a more detailed discussion on delivery modes please also consult Chen, 2015; Vignoli, 2004; Knight, 2007; and Mercardo and Gibson, 2013.

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countries to expand educational opportunities and to stimulate economic development (McBurnie & Ziguras, 2007, p. 1, p. 21). Additionally, Vignoli also highlights that transnational education has the potential to not only benefit the receiving party but also entails benefits for the education provider that offers its services abroad (p. 8). Similar to transnational education providers offering a response to a demand for higher education that is not being met by the national education system of the host country (Rauhvargers, 2001, p. 2), Indigenous tertiary education as a fairly young educational format also tries to respond to the still unanswered needs of a specific target group: Indigenous communities that are situated within their particular nation states. Not unlike to the growing importance of cross-border education initiatives, ICUs are becoming increasingly significant in the tertiary education landscapes of their respective nation-states, as well as in the global postsecondary education market and are predicted to substantially grow in the coming years (Maxim Institute, 2006, p. 1). Historically, Indigenous communities around the globe have always been active in holistic, Indigenous forms of tertiary education reflecting the cultural, economic, and political needs of their respective tribal communities. However, with the introduction of formal, western based schooling built with a clear national assimilation and acculturation policy in mind and with the intention to “civilize” Indigenous groups, most Indigenous higher education strategies were effectively suppressed (Reyhner and Eder, 1989, p. 1). While the specific contexts and historical experiences of tribal groups in regard to educational policies in the various nation states have differed, the unifying stories of language and culture loss still resonate on a tribal and intertribal level. Bound by a common story of experiencing colonialism, 7 the desire to respond to decades of unsuccessful and ethnocentric education efforts by conventional western-based education institutions grew stronger among many Indigenous communities in the 1960s and 70s. The wish to create Indigenous education models from and for Indigenous peoples, joined by changes in the social and political climate nationally and globally, and the drive for more Indigenous self-determination worldwide fostered the development of Indigenously-driven and tribally-run higher education initiatives (Jacob et al., 2013, p. 1; Cole, 2011, p. xviii). The first such -

7

While the colonization efforts in the US and Aotearoa (New Zealand) differ in scope, Indigenous groups in both countries still face the effects of colonialism until today, and similarities regarding cultural survival and healing strategies can be found in both countries.

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Chapter One

initiative was spearheaded by the Navajo Tribal Council on the Navajo Reservation in 1968. Chartered as Navajo Community College, and later renamed Dine College, this Indigenous education provider laid the groundwork for many more tribal colleges in the United States to come and also influenced the creation of higher education initiatives in other countries (Bordeaux, 1989, p. 11; Stein, 1990, p. 18). Higher education initiatives by Indigenous groups have been developed in a number of countries with Indigenous populations, and among the most successful are tribally-run colleges and universities in the US, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, Canada, Scandinavia, Russia, and Latin America (Cole, 2011, p. 2). Although it is important to stress that Indigenous communities and their education providers are characterized by unique cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, and sociopolitical realities in the nation states they are situated in, the main goal of Indigenous higher education providers globally is the same: to increase the access of their particular Indigenous population to higher education. Through their work, many Indigenous higher education institutions around the globe are key players in their respective Indigenous communities’ efforts towards culture and language revitalization, and this strong focus and commitment towards cultural and linguistic preservation and transmission makes them unique in their countries’ higher education landscapes. As this chapter will focus on and provide examples from two specific Indigenous higher education institutions in the US and Aotearoa (New Zealand) it is apt to provide a short glimpse into the Indigenous higher education landscapes of these two countries. In the United States, thirtyseven Indigenously-operated higher education institutions known as tribal colleges and universities8 (TCUs) serve a predominantly9 American Indian student population in geographically isolated and rural areas on or near reservations (Thornton, 2006, p. 35).10 With Native Americans making up about two percent of the overall US population in 2013,11 TCUs serve the smallest minority in the US and cater to a group who otherwise might not have been able to attend and graduate from a university (American Indian Higher Education Consortium [AIHEC], 2006, pp. A-1-A-2; U.S. Census 8

At times, they are also referred to as tribally controlled community colleges. While the majority of students attending tribal colleges are of Native American descent or ancestry, TCUs are open admission schools, and are open to any student who wishes to enroll (Collegefund, “Tribal Colleges: Educating the Spirit and Mind”, 2015, para. 2) 10 See also His Horse is Thunder, 2006, p. 3. 11 US Census Report, 2014. 9

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Bureau, 2014). Tribal colleges started out as two-year institutions with certificate and associate degree programs and as such responded to the initial goal of tribal colleges to provide vocational training and job preparation. The great number of TCUs remain two-year community colleges, but some have also begun to offer Bachelor and Master’s degrees (His Horse is Thunder, 2006, p. 3).12 The degrees and programs offered at Tribal Colleges are directly related to tribal community needs, with the most popular fields of study being business, health professions, education, computer/office technology and vocational/technical trades (Cunningham & Redd, 2000, p. 8; The Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2006, p. 21). In Aotearoa (New Zealand), MƗori-led education providers and universities are referred to as wƗnanga. Designated under the Education Act of 1989, they offer higher education based specifically on MƗori values principles, and Tikanga (behavioral codes and customs). The three existing wƗnanga of Aotearoa (New Zealand) are all located on the northern island and are committed to preserve, create, and disseminate mƗtauranga MƗori (MƗori knowledge). Similar to tribal colleges in the United States whose mission is to serve their respective tribal community, wƗnanga are catering to develop and enhance whƗnau (family), hapnj (subtribe), and iwi (tribe) wellbeing and prosperity (Tertiary Education Commission [TEC], 2014; Ministry of Education, 2013, p. 13). The first wƗnanga established in Aotearoa (New Zealand) was Te WƗnanga o Raukawa founded by the three iwis13 of Te Ɩti Awa, NgƗti Raukawa und NgƗti Toa Rangatira in 1981 (“Establishment of Te WƗnanga o Raukawa,” para. 1). Serving as case studies that will provide specific examples within this article are Salish Kootenai College (SKC) in the United States and Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi - indigenous university (TWWoA) in Aotearoa (New Zealand). Salish Kootenai College is situated on the Flathead Reservation in the northwestern part of Montana, in the US, and was chartered in 1977 to serve its tribal population that consists of three tribal groups: the Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Kootenai. Considered a leader among tribal colleges in the US, it offers Certificates of Completion, Associate degrees as well as Bachelor’s degrees. Unlike many other tribally-run colleges in the US, it not only attracts tribal members as students but students from a wide variety of American Indian ,

12 13

See also Kaya, 1998, p. 244; and O’Laughlin, 2002, p. 6. “Iwi” is the Maori term for tribe.

8

Chapter One

and Alaska Native tribes14 and is also attended by non-Indigenous students from the vicinity (Salish Kootenai College [SKC], “Mission Statement”, 2015, para. 1; Robbins, 2002, p. 57). Established to answer to the need of higher education on the reservation, it set out to increase the number of tribal members with college degrees and to reverse the dismal fifty percent drop-out rate of Salish and Kootenai tribal members in conventional universities before SKC was built in 1977 (Tyro, 2004, p. 61). Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi, located in the coastal town of WhakatƗne, Aotearoa (New Zealand) opened in 1992 and was assigned as a wƗnanga in 1997. Considered a leading Indigenous education provider in Aotearoa (New Zealand) it provides opportunities to engage in community education programs, offers Certificates, Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, and is currently the only wƗnanga offering doctoral programs in Aotearoa (New Zealand). The Indigenous university is named after AwanuiƗrangi, an ancestor many tribal groups claim their descent from, among them tribal groups such as NgƗti Awa, Te Whanau-Ɨ-Apanui, Whakatǀhea, Tuhoe, NgƗti Manawa, and NgƗti Whare. Although it has strong ties to these tribal groups and predominantly follows Ngati Awa cultural protocols as it is situated on Ngati Awa traditional tribal lands,15 the wƗnanga is open to all other MƗori tribal groups, to non-MƗori New Zealanders, and to international students (Te Rnjnanga o Ngati Awa, “Te Whare”, 2015, para. 1-3).

An Additional Reading of the Term “Transnational Education” through the Lens of Indigenous Education As alluded to at the beginning of this chapter, transnational education and Indigenous higher education do not seem to have much in common at first glance. Representing two distinct education models, they nonetheless share a number of characteristics which will be presented by featuring the various global networks and partnerships that Indigenous higher education institutions are in the process of building and expanding. Prior to focusing 14

Many tribal colleges primarily attract students from their own tribal communities. Blackfeet Community College in Montana, US, would be an example of a tribal college with a high percentage of Blackfeet students. 15 Although MƗori tribes are united by the same language (with regional dialects), there are cultural differences among tribes, and the cultural, linguistic, and social realities and uniqueness is fostered by the common practice to follow the cultural protocols of the particular tribal group. At Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university, Ngati Awa are tangata whenua (the people of the land) and during official welcoming ceremonies, Ngati Awa cultural protocols are followed.

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9

on the more traditional reading of “transnational” in Indigenous higher education and the attributes they share, this section aims to add an additional layer of analysis to the term “transnational” when juxtaposed with Indigenous higher education. According to Vignoli (2004), transnational education “implies the crossing of cultural, linguistic, legislative as well as national and often intercontinental borders” (p. 3). McBurnie & Ziguras (2007) further underscore this notion of crossing by referring to the “range of ways in which education can cross borders” (p. 22). Taking these two propositions to think beyond the original scope and meaning of transnational education, is a different, additional reading of the term “transnational” education imaginable? Do Indigenous educational institutions such as tribal colleges and wƗnanga necessarily have to physically cross national boundaries to fit the category of a new reading of “transnational” education or can the crossing take place on a more metaphorical level as well? Indigenous groups are characterized by their unique legal and political status, and their “exceptional claims to sovereignty under international and domestic law” (Cole, 2011, p. xviii) have significantly contributed to the emergence of Indigenous postsecondary institutions worldwide. In the US, American Indian tribes, also referred to as tribal nations, enjoy a quasisovereign status: While they are not granted full sovereignty equivalent to self-governing rights of foreign nations, each tribal nation possesses and exercises its inherent right to sovereignty within the borders of the United States – including education – and the right to open tribally-run postsecondary education institutions. Often termed domestic dependent nations or nations within a nation, American Indian nations’ unique political relationship with the US federal government on a government-togovernment basis arises from signing treaties16 (National Congress of American Indians [NCAI], “Tribal Nations” 2015, pp.16-17; US Department of the Interior, “Why Tribes” para.1). In Aotearoa (New Zealand), a single treaty, the Treaty of Waitangi, shaped and continues to shape the relationship between MƗori tribal groups and European settlers, and, similar to treaties in the US, the Treaty of Waitangi has implications in terms of educational provisions for MƗori (Stefani, 2015, p.111). While not treated as full sovereign entities by the nation states they reside in, Indigenous groups are nonetheless considered unique political entities. By applying the terms “nation”, “nation-state” and by extension “national,” their legal and political standing warrants the notion to 16

In the period from 1778 to 1871, more than 370 individual treaties were signed with tribal nations in the US (US Department of the Interior, “Does the United States” para.1).

10

Chapter One

respectively consider Indigenous higher education institutions as educational entities that engage in a new reading of “transnational” education that I hereby propose. Without physically leaving the respective nation state they are embedded in, and positioned between tribal, state, and federal law regulations, ICUs constantly cross (quasi) national borders in a metaphorical rather than physical way. The structure of Indigenous higher education providers, including their funding, accreditation, and evaluation frameworks, attest to Indigenous postsecondary institutions’ engagement in the complex process of crossing and negotiating national borders on a daily basis. Indigenous postsecondary education facilities are distinct from conventional universities in both their structure and mission. With traditional Indigenous higher education systems destroyed to a great degree by western education initiatives over hundreds of years, a simple return to pre-contact Indigenous higher education structures was not an option for any of the tribal communities that have Indigenous colleges and universities today. Globally, tribal leaders were aware that Indigenous youth needed an education model that would respond to the still widely unmet cultural needs of their populations within higher education. Ensuring that education is relevant to their students’ lives and to provide students with a cultural grounding in their tribal communities were considered important goals of the education model that was to be developed. Commitment towards cultural preservation and transmission by teaching traditional cultural values and languages formed and still forms the bedrock of Indigenous higher education (Oppelt 90). Many Indigenous universities and colleges are crucial forces in language revitalization efforts in their communities by offering language courses to students and the tribal community as is the case at Salish Kootenai College and Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university (observation, July 2007; observation, October 2011). Depending on the number of fluent speakers and the wellbeing and status of the Indigenous language, ICUs also support the local Indigenous languages by teaching part of the curriculum in the Indigenous language as can be seen at Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university (observation, October 2011). In addition to the cultural and linguistic focus and commitment, tribal leaders were also mindful to create an education model that would offer a pathway for success not only in the Indigenous but also in the nonIndigenous world by offering transferable general education courses, and by establishing avenues for Indigenous students interested in furthering their education beyond the qualifications offered at Indigenous postsecondary

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11

providers (Stein 1986, p. 32). In an effort to answer to these demands, Indigenous postsecondary institutions were created that are structurally positioned at the intersection of western based education models and traditional Indigenous forms of knowledge. They infuse culturally distinct tribal aspects into western academic structures by varying degrees. In the United States, Tribal Colleges are modeled after community colleges. US community colleges’ mission to respond to the needs of students and the community, an open door policy, and a curriculum reflecting community educational needs and transferable general education, were pivotal reasons for Indigenous leaders in the United States to choose this education form as a model that would best correspond to the needs of tribal communities (Stein, 1988, p. 38; Oppelt, 1990, p. 32). In Aotearoa (New Zealand), Indigenous universities have been remodeled from the traditional MƗori concept of “wƗnanga” (houses of learning) and are rooted in distinctly MƗori or specific iwi (tribal) values and mƗtauranga (knowledge). Rather than simply alluding to a specific place of learning the term and concept relates to a holistic “mental process of learning” (Stefani, 2015, p. 113). Unlike tribal colleges in the US, wƗnanga are not modeled after a conventional higher education model, which seems to make the inclusion of mƗtauranga MƗori within the wƗnanga curriculum less challenging. However, receiving funding and being subject to accreditation also necessitates wƗnanga to navigate and negotiate between MƗori and nonMƗori education and social structures. The positioning of ICUs at the intersection of differing educational structures that are often based on divergent ideals and values is not free of conflicts and misunderstandings. A recent article entitled “Tribal colleges give poor return on more than $100 million a year in federal money” appearing online in The Hechinger Report17 in November 2014 illuminates two important issues Indigenous higher education providers globally and tribal colleges in the US more specifically are confronted with: they have to engage with complex funding structures, are subject to evaluation and accreditation schemes that are based on non-Indigenous frameworks, and need to create an understanding of these issues among the non-Indigenous community. In her article, Sarah Butrymowicz points out that despite federal funding and grants for low-income students, low success rates of tribally-run colleges are a clear sign of their failure. While mentioning some of the reasons for this “failure”, such as a lack of funding, she nonetheless points to an education researcher who believes that taxpayers spending “tens of millions on tribal colleges and universities deserve to get -

17

The Hechinger Report is a non-profit newsroom.

12

Chapter One

more for their money” (Butrymowicz, 2014, para. 14). This quote reveals two viewpoints widespread among critics of Indigenous higher education: first, that postsecondary higher education institutions receive a lot of money, and second, that taxpayers providing the money for Indigenous universities are entitled to expect better outcomes. What the author of this article fails to provide is the socioeconomic and financial context tribal colleges operate within. Federal funding for Indigenous postsecondary education providers, and education for Indigenous groups in general, arise out of treaty obligations nation states at various times in history have entered into with tribal groups around the globe. Although some critics consider these treaties and the provisions they entail a relic from the past, they are still valid today carrying much political significance in regards to the sovereignty of tribal nations and their education systems. While TCUs are entitled to federal funding through these treaties, they still face numerous challenges. They receive far less funding than non-Indigenous community colleges. Although Butrymowicz in her article correctly points out that 100 million dollars in funding goes to tribal colleges, she neglects to mention the Gasman and Stull findings that the total annual expenditure for education by the federal government is a total of 140 billion dollars. Receiving a small fraction from the total amount spent for education, dividing the allocated tribal college funds by the number of TCUs and students enrolled, this accounts for only 3,333 dollars per student per year (Gasman & Stull, 2014, para. 2).18 Additionally, TCUs, unlike community colleges, cannot rely on local state support due to their government-togovernment relationship with the federal government which leads most states to consider educational support for TCUs a federal task and not a state responsibility. Following the same line of argumentation, and adding that TCUs are open-admission schools, many states further refuse to financially support non-Indigenous students attending tribal colleges, while being aware of the fact that TCUs receive no federal funding for about 20% of tribal colleges’ non-Indigenous student body (Oppelt, 1990, p. 86; Raymond, 2004, p. 177; Hill, 1994, p. 9; Gasman & Stull, 2014, para. 5). Unlike conventional universities that at times rely heavily on student fees, tribal colleges can only count on tuition and fees on a small scale due to many Native American students’ socioeconomic backgrounds

18

In Aotearoa (New Zealand), the three wƗnanga receive $158.6 million in federal funding which makes about 6% of the funding the government is investing in the New Zealand tertiary education sector (Tertiary Education Commission, “WƗnanga Performance”, 2015, para. 1).

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(AIHEC, 2006, E-3).19 Growing American Indian enrollment at tribal colleges yet stagnating federal funding schemes further complicate the fiscal situation of these postsecondary institutions. It is further crucial to note that TCUs need to spend much more time, effort, and money on providing incoming students with remedial education than their conventional university counterparts. Without receiving additional money for this work, TCUs nonetheless work hard to eliminate the numerous barriers that can lead Native students to drop out of college (Crazy Bull, 2014, para. 3, 5). Relying solely on quantitative measures such as graduation numbers as indicators for success of Indigenous colleges and their students does not do justice for either of them, especially considering that Indigenous students in many cases still have to overcome substantially more socioeconomic and historical barriers to enter and successfully finish their higher education journey than non-Indigenous students.20 Evaluating tribal colleges in regard to taxpayer benefit only fails to acknowledge their unique mission and neglects to recognize the positive outcomes for Indigenous students and tribal communities not measured in westernbased evaluation and accreditation frameworks (Crazy Bull, 2014, para. 12). Gasman and Stull (2014) poignantly illustrate that: -

“[m]ainstream measures of success […] are often at odds with Tribal Colleges’ unique institutional missions. Mainstream discussions of institutional success often focus on enrollments numbers, 4 or 6-year graduation rates, standardized test scores, rankings, faculty research output, and so on. However, TCUs find success in Nation Building, language revitalization, personal student growth and increasing Tribal sovereignty. Who measures these contributions to society and education?” (para. 3)

What ICUs, conventional universities and transnational education providers offering their services abroad have in common is the understanding 19

Competitive government and foundation grants are other sources tribally controlled colleges can rely on as a funding basis. Equity grants to strengthen agricultural and natural resources and extension program funding are available thanks to the status of tribal colleges as land-grant universities. Some tribal colleges also receive additional funding from the Aid for Institutional Development program, as well as other sources like state block grant programs and funds that are directed towards specific programs (AIHEC, 2006; Boyer, 1997). 20 Closely tied to socioeconomics, reasons for Native students to drop out include low income, high unemployment rates in tribal communities, long commutes to college due to the rural areas TCUs are located in, extended family obligations, and insufficient scholarship structures (Crazy Bull, 2014, para. 2, 7, 9; Gasman & Stull, 2014, para. 5).

14

Chapter One

that maintaining high educational standards and assuring the quality of academic provision through national or regional accreditation agencies are key for the success of tertiary education institutions and their students (Knight, 2007, p. 134). However, as was pointed out, for the most part, accreditation and evaluation frameworks and procedures of assessment are still based on western-education ideals and educational performance indicators, not recognizing or leaving out tribal colleges’ and wƗnanga’s impact on the community they closely work with and for. It is essential though to understand Indigenous postsecondary education institutions as community-focused entities that center on tribal student success and community development (Gasman & Stull, 2014, para. 7). Creating such an understanding among accreditation agencies as well as changing the lens through which evaluations are conceptualized by developing and incorporating culture-based indicators of success is a mission Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university in Aotearoa (New Zealand) has set out to achieve by working closely with the accreditation agency, NZQA (New Zealand Qualifications Authority) and with the government commission TEC (Tertiary Education Commission) (Graham Hingangaroa Smith, personal communication, September 12, 2011). During an external site visit at TWWoA by NZQA in September 2011, the former CEO Graham Hingangaroa Smith emphasized the close connections of TWWoA to the tribal community as “an intrinsic part of the school” (personal communication, September 12, 2011). He also highlighted that the wƗnanga has an important responsibility to the surrounding Indigenous communities it serves by developing learning avenues in and with the communities. Referring to culture-based indicators of success, he accentuated the unparalleled success of TWWoA in family education. Applying a MƗori whanauoriented (extended-family-oriented) teaching and learning pedagogy steeped in Indigenous values and practices, it is not unusual at TWWoA to have various members of an extended family in the same classroom. Smith referenced a successful example of eight students belonging to two families who started out in the community education programs at TWWoA and together worked their way up to degree level qualifications. Unlike conventional universities who aim to empower the individual, Indigenous universities like TWWoA focus on strengthening the (tribal) community to empower the individual (Graham Hingangaroa Smith, personal communication, September 12, 2011). As this example shows, ICU’s modification of the educational framework and the tailoring of learning environments and contents to Indigenous students’ needs result in community and individual student success. Changing government policy

Crossing Borders to Build Bridges

15

and evaluation frameworks by taking Indigenous-specific needs and circumstances into consideration will enable to view the Indigenous education process as a holistic experience, and this change can ultimately also contribute to conventional universities’ approaches to learning and teaching. Accreditation status also plays a crucial role in marketing campaigns of conventional and Indigenous universities as they assure prospective students that programs are of high quality and will be transferable for further studies or will be relevant for job placement (Knight, 2007, pp. 139-140). Conventional universities have been in existence much longer than Indigenous universities and subsequently had more time to establish their place and possibly advance their standing in national and global university rankings. Indigenous universities, on the contrary, are much younger and as a new education model were initially often confronted with reservations from non-Indigenous as well as Indigenous communities. Even today they have to work hard to be perceived as “real” colleges and universities open to Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Among numerous reasons for this perception is the widespread lack of understanding regarding the mission and work of ICUs, and as discernible from the article by Butrymowicz, the lack of contextual knowledge. A second reason lies in the small number of institutions in the ICU sector that at times disproportionately magnifies a few institutions’ financial or educational mismanagement controversies, obliterating that the majority of ICUs are working effectively, meeting rigorous educational standards. Finally, as has been illustrated, there is a need for a framework shift in evaluation criteria that regard tribal colleges and wƗnanga as holistic educational entities, and these shifts have to be communicated to the wider public. A change is not only needed in regards to evaluation criteria but also with respect to the overall validity and importance of Indigenous knowledge for society in general. While this shift in perspective will not take place overnight, tribal colleges and wƗnanga are constantly working on creating more understanding by collaborating with the surrounding tribal and non-tribal communities and by expanding partnerships, collaborations and transfer agreements with conventional universities. Student numbers at many ICUs are rising and ICU graduates successful in furthering their higher education at conventional universities or flourishing in varying jobs and professions will greatly contribute in building ICUs’ prestige and standing. The process of ICUs building up their reputations and brands will need time and requires them to continue fostering an understanding of these issues among Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

16

Chapter One

Referring back to the two premises by McBurnie & Ziguras (2007) and Vignoli (2004) regarding transnational education at the beginning of the section, claiming that there is range of ways in which education can cross borders (Mc Burnie & Ziguras, p. 22) and that transnational education providers cross-cultural and linguistic borders (Vignoli, p. 3), the example of Indigenous higher education clearly shows that crossing boundaries can also take place without physically leaving the nation state. Constantly traversing and negotiating transnational spheres, ICUs carve out new spaces from which to operate and proceed in their endeavor to validate Indigenous knowledge systems while simultaneously enabling students to confidently negotiate their way in the Indigenous and the non-Indigenous world.

Creating a Global Indigenous Education Network: Transnational Connectivity among Indigenous Higher Education Providers As was demonstrated in the previous section, Indigenous universities and colleges cross boundaries metaphorically on a daily basis. However, in applying the traditional definition of transnational education which is characterized by crossing national borders, tribally run higher education providers also share many commonalities. The following section demonstrates how Indigenous education providers, exemplified by the two case studies from the US and Aotearoa (New Zealand) introduced above, started to engage in a variety of global networking and exchange activities in recent years. The internationalization efforts by Salish Kootenai College in the US predominantly consist of linkages initiated through personal relationships. Reciprocal group visits, individual faculty exchanges, and international symposiums are among the most common forms of international interaction found at SKC. Among the first group visits were educators from Salish Kootenai College, Nk’wusm (a tribal immersion school), and others from various secondary schools on the Flathead Indian Reservation. They traveled to Aotearoa in 2005 (New Zealand) to learn more about MƗori language and culture revitalization. Reflecting the important contribution MƗori made and continue to make in a variety of language and culture revitalization initiatives, the visiting group gained an insight into the implementation and management of specific language programs by touring the North Island and visiting MƗori total immersion pre-

Crossing Borders to Build Bridges

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schools, so-called kohanga reo’s.21 During their visit to Aotearoa (New Zealand), the group was furthermore welcomed onto the campus of Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi - indigenous university. They participated in a traditional welcoming ceremony, 22 shared food, and engaged in discussions illustrating the role of the wƗnanga for the surrounding tribal communities and highlighting the role of wƗnanga in the NZ education sector (Joshua Brown, personal communication, July 2007). Hosting guests from Aotearoa in 2010 at SKC, two MƗori visitors, Tania Ka’ai and John Moorefield, 23 presented their work at Salish Kootenai College, and encouraged SKC faculty to come visit Aotearoa (New Zealand) to learn more about the acquisition techniques the language institute employs to effectively teach the MƗori language. The latest linkage to Aotearoa (New Zealand) dates back to the year 2013, when Salish Kootenai College welcomed MƗori scholar Karl Rangikawhiti Leonard. As a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, he engaged in a number of academic and social activities while on campus, among them teaching MƗori culture and traditional MƗori weaving in the Art Department at SKC for the winter and spring quarter. In an interview with the tribal newspaper Char-Koosta, he emphasized the transeducational objective of his stay by explaining that through the collaboration with SKC he hoped to “examine whether there is a crossover in [both] cultures of techniques, designs, and traditions that can be employed and reflected in [his] art to clearly and distinctly represent both cultures” (Upham, “New Zealand Fulbright”, 2013, para. 7). In addition to individual faculty exchanges and reciprocal group visits established, SKC has also organized an international conference that took place for the first time in October 2013. During the American Indigenous Research Association conference, speakers from the US, Hawaii, Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa (New Zealand) discussed Indigenous research methods. Cree keynote speaker Dr. Shawn Wilson from Manitoba, Canada, who has been working at the University of Sydney, Australia 21

Kohanga Reo is a MƗori family-based early childhood education model in which children up to six years are immersed in MƗori language (te reo MƗori) and culture (tikanga). Parents and families (whƗnau) are significantly involved in these total immersion pre-schools, and all Kohanga Reo’s follow the guidelines of the Te Kǀhanga Reo National Trust Board (kiwifamilies, “What is Kohanga Reo”, 2012, para. 1-3; Ministry of Education, “NgƗ Kǀhanga Reo”, 2015, para. 1). 22 The welcoming ceremonies that follow a strict cultural protocol are called pǀwhiri (Kǀrero MƗori, “Pǀwhiri”, 2015, para. 1). 23 At the time of their visit, Tania Ka’ai and John Moorefield worked at the National MƗori Language Institute and the International Centre for Language Revitalization at Auckland University of Technology.

18

Chapter One

since 2012 and whose expertise is in Indigenous research paradigms and Indigenous philosophies, particularly stressed the importance of building relationships when working with Indigenous people (Tiskus, “Indigenous researchers”, 2013, para. 1-3, 5-6; Wilson, “Research Interests”, 2015, para. 1). These relationships predominantly pertain to and include “other people, family, clan, tribe or nation” (Wilson as cited in Tiskus, 2013, para. 6), but it can be argued that relationship building with tribal nations from around the globe is just as crucial. Indigenous education providers also create internationalization strategies that are embedded within the core values of the institution as can be seen at Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university. The international focus and emphasis on Indigenous connectivity of TWWoA is distinctively discernable in its name: It includes the MƗori term whare wƗnanga (house of higher learning) alluding to the ancient MƗori education model that existed long before European contact. Additionally, it also carries the descriptor indigenous university in its name, which indicates that the institution not only perceives itself as a MƗori university for MƗori students but as an educational venue that is aware of and values its international character and impact in a globalized and intertwined (Indigenous) world. This notion of interconnectedness with Indigenous as well as non-Indigenous perspectives is reflected in former CEO, Graham Hingangaroa Smith’s address to a visiting American student group in 2012, at which he expressed this sentiment as follows: “For our institution, engaging with different international perspectives, groups, and peoples is strengthening what we are all about. We are always open to learning, and to sharing our achievements.” (Graham Hingangaroa Smith, personal communication, May 25, 2012) At TWWoA, international connections have been developed with a number of higher education institutions and in a variety of forms. They include degree and international seminar programs, faculty and student exchanges, group visits, and the organization of international conferences, as well as the participation at international conferences abroad. The first of TWWoA’s international participation and cooperation models can be located within the School of Indigenous Graduate Studies which has a strong international focus visible through the offering of a Master’s and a Ph.D. degree in Indigenous Studies. While TWWoA also offers Bachelor’s, Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in MƗori Studies, the Indigenous Studies degree programs recognize and reflect one of the Indigenous university’s core values: MƗori aspirations “are linked to and expressed by other indigenous people throughout the world” (Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi [TWWoA], “Our History”, 2015, para. 6). It is by

Crossing Borders to Build Bridges

19

connecting local tribally-based MƗori knowledge to a wider international Indigenous context and by acknowledging “a common experience for tangata whenua [people of the land] and indigenous people everywhere” (TWWoA, “Our History”, 2015, para. 6) that makes these degree offerings unique from conventional universities and other ICUs. The interest from international students is slowly but steadily growing. Hawaiian Ph.D. student, Malcolm Naea Chun, was among the first two graduate students who were awarded the doctorate degree at Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university (Education Review, “Education Review finds”, 2012, para. 3). According to MƗori Affairs minister Dr. Pita Sharples, this first Ph.D. bestowal at TWWoA was nothing short of “a great milestone for our MƗori people” (para. 4). At the graduation ceremony, he highlighted that the two graduates, MƗori PhD student Sheryl Lee Ferguson24 and Hawaiian PhD candidate Malcolm Naea Chun, were the first to be taught by MƗori lecturers at a MƗori higher education institution that was specifically developed with MƗori and Indigenous peoples’ aspirations for higher education in mind (Education Review, “Education Review finds”, 2012, para. 5). The distinct focus of the Graduate Program is further explained by the Head of School of Indigenous Graduate Studies at that time, Dr. Patricia Johnston, who during a presentation to faculty members of the University of Hawaii in September 2011 explained: “One of the important facts about our program is that we ask those [international students enrolled at TWWoA] to stay in their country because we envisage that the work that they are doing is about their own communities. (…) One of the things that we do with our doctoral students is that all of their theses, […] their work has to be about how to improve their communities [...]. Prof. Smith says we are not into private academics, we are not here for someone’s career. We are here because we expect [them] to better their communities in some way or another.” (Personal communication, September 29, 2011)

Clearly discernable within this statement is the strong community connection TWWoA and its graduate program feel committed to. The goal to produce research outputs relevant to and applicable by particular tribal communities and the objective to improve community life makes Indigenous higher education providers unique from conventional universities 24

Dr. Sheryl Lee Ferguson further earned the Emeritus Professor Roger Green ONZM Award for Top Thesis (Education Review, “Education Review finds”, 2012, para. 2).

20

Chapter One

and can be found in many Indigenous higher education providers’ mission statements. In addition to strengthening local MƗori community connections, a unique feature at TWWoA is the support of Indigenous and non-Indigenous graduates from overseas whose aim is similar in scope but tied to their specific local circumstances. While international students with a strong community focus usually stay in their own Indigenous communities and mainly study by distance education, a trans educational and transnational connection is still maintained through adjunct faculty, through video conferencing, and through residential wƗnanga taking place at TWWoA. At residential wƗnanga or noho’s (meetings) all students including the international graduate students gather for an intense weeklong workshop in which they attend workshops and seminars, have mentoring sessions with their advisors, share and discuss their research, and continue to write on their doctoral thesis. Residential wƗnanga are offered four times a year, and participants stay on campus or at the local marae (a communal space, the meeting house) together, which helps to strengthen group cohesion and individual productivity. While graduate students are obligated to attend at least one noho a year, many students take advantage of these meetings more frequently (observation, October 914, 2011). The international focus by offering a Master’s and doctoral degree in Indigenous Studies has been extended recently with the introduction of a new doctoral program at TWWoA. The Professional Doctorate degree entitled “Doctor of Indigenous Development and Advancement” is specifically designed for professionals working in Indigenous settings and contexts. The first group of fifteen American students from Washington, US, have successfully entered the program in March 2013, and will research topics closely related to their work placements. It will enable students to come up with custom-made solutions in their specific tribal and community settings and as such it will positively impact the communities they work in and for (TWWoA, “Students welcomed to new”, 2013, para. 1-4). A second example of engaging with and being part of the international education community is the international seminar series “Indigenous Culture-based Education” offered in 2010 and 2011. Consisting of fourteen weekly video conference sessions, the course included five different seminar sites and their respective classes. Universities that participated included The University of Hawaii – Hilo, the University of Alaska – Fairbanks, the University of Arizona, Lakehead University in Canada, and Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi indigenous university in Aotearoa (New Zealand). The seminar’s goal to engage in the comparative study of educational issues among Indigenous

Crossing Borders to Build Bridges

21

communities globally included an emphasis on language and culture. After an introductory session, in which each of the class sites engaged in introductions and voiced their expectations, each of the weekly seminars was led by one of the five different sites. It featured historical accounts of educational efforts in the various sites and progressed on to presentations of current language and culture revitalization projects. This way, seminar participants learned first-hand about the educational specificities in Indigenous communities in the US, Canada, and Aotearoa (New Zealand) and in sharing their experiences were not only able to reflect on their own situation but develop collaborative strategies on how to engage in language and culture preservation (observation, September 7 – December 7, 2011). A third pillar in international outreach at TWWoA consists of facilitating faculty and student exchanges, group visits, and the organization of international conferences. While similar in nature to the efforts at SKC already discussed, the international spectrum is even broader ranging from linkages to the US, Norway, Hawaii, India, Australia, Japan, and Taiwan. Among the many examples of transnational linkages to the US is an artist residency exchange program with Evergreen State College in the United States and yearly visits from American graduate students that commenced in 2011. One such visit was facilitated in 2012 and consisted of eighteen Education Studies masters and doctoral students from nine different US universities who were led by two professors from Bowling Green State University. During these week-long visits, the students explore how Indigenous principles as a crucial part of wƗnanga philosophy and practice are incorporated into the provision of tertiary education. They take part in the formal welcoming ceremony, are provided with opportunities to listen to faculty members and local tribal leaders in formal and informal lectures, engage in discussions with wƗnanga students, and explore local Ngati Awa sites25 (observation, May 25, 2012). In addition to academic linkages with various American universities, TWWoA has initiated a formal working relationship with an Indigenous university in Norway. After both Indigenous universities signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June 2011, Nils and Kaisa Helander from Sami University College in Norway arrived in WhakatƗne for a year25

In May 2013, TWWoA also hosted a group of architecture students and faculty members from Woodbury University in Los Angeles, US, whose interest in the architectural manifestation of cultural identity sparked an interest in the universities’ expression of MƗori art forms and culture in its building structures (TWWoA, “US students study”, 2013, para. 1, 5, 8).

22

Chapter One

long research stay to work together with faculty at TWWoA in establishing Indigenous development strategies for their respective tribal groups with the intention to make these strategies applicable to various Indigenous groups worldwide (TWWoA, “AwanuiƗrangi strengthens ties”, 2012, para. 4). Strong ties have also been established with academics and administrators at the University of Hawaii who visit the TWWoA campus on a regular basis. Academic members of Windward Community College in Hawaii also have long-established links to Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university and have visited to reinforce the academic bonds between both institutions. Among other agenda highlights, they engaged in discussions on how to implement and adapt some of the TWWoA initiatives into the mainstream university sector in Hawaii. Accompanied by Hawaiian kupuna (elders) and musicians, the group also supported the opening of a local marae26 in September 2011 and was joined by other international delegations from various Pacific Islands and from Australia (Ngati Awa He Pitopito KÛrero, “Hawaiians WhakatƗne Bound,” para. 3-5, 6-7). Specifically the last example shows that Indigenous universities which are closely related to their tribal communities not only serve as educational institutions but also open pathways to international interactions between tribal communities on a more general level. Alongside the US, Norway, and Hawaii, TWWoA has also strengthened its connection with India. In March 2012, three TWWoA’s faculty members, as part of a MƗori delegation led by the MƗori Research Institute, visited Indian education providers in an effort to enhance educational, cultural and business relations between Indigenous New Zealand and India. During their stay, faculty members attended the “Fourth International Conference of the Elders of Ancient Traditions and Cultures” in Haridwar and engaged in discussions on education and cultural exchange of their Indigenous communities. As a result of their visit, two vice-chancellors of tribal universities in India reciprocated with an informal visit in WhakatƗne and expressed their interest in developing a working relationship with Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university (TWWoA, “MƗori Delegation heads” 2012, para. 1, 5, 7, 9-10; Rotorua Daily Post, 2012, para. 3, 16-17). Another formalized collaborative relationship with an Indian university has been established in December 2013 by signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Central 26

The Te Manuka Tutahi marae is the only repatriated meeting house in New Zealand. Built in 1875, it returned to its original location in WhakatƗne in 2011 (“Mataatua”, 2015, para. 1).

Crossing Borders to Build Bridges

23

University of Orissa in Koraput, India. The working relationship allows for student and faculty exchanges between both institutions and also features TWWoA’s integral part in establishing a Centre for Indigenous Studies at Central University. Drawing from the extensive experience of TWWoA in incorporating Indigenous research paradigms and Indigenous knowledge into the curriculum and into educational programs, the new Indigenous Studies center at Central University in India, among other goals, aims at developing a wide-ranging curriculum dealing with tribal issues such as language and cultural preservation, as well as health in the rural district of Orissa. Emphasizing TWWoA’s significant role in the establishment of the center, former CEO Graham Hingangaroa Smith opened the new tribal-research centered institution at Central University on 4 December 2013 (TWWoA, “MƗori delegation heads”, 2013, para. 1, 3, 5-6; Central University of Orissa, 2015, para. 1-2). Signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) as an internationalization strategy is common in the transnational education field and as demonstrated, Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university established MoUs with Sami University College in Norway and Central University of Orissa in India. A growing MƗori population living in Australia and the desire to more adequately respond to MƗori student needs outside Aotearoa (New Zealand) also resulted in Trans-Tasman relationships to be reinforced in February 2013 by signing a MoU with Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Sydney. In particular, CSU voiced a strong interest in the Bachelor of MƗori Performing Arts degree, and with more MƗori living and studying in Australia, this interest is gradually building, resulting in a growing number of Kapa Haka (MƗori Performing Art) groups that successfully compete in Australia and Aotearoa (New Zealand). Through a MoU, TWWoA is not only able to expand its MƗori Performing Arts program into Australia but simultaneously connects with Canada. Crossing the bridge to Canada is possible through CSU’s branch campus in Ontario, Canada, and CSU’s interest in establishing a strategic Indigenous working relationship encompassing Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Canada (Charles Sturt University Ontario, 2015; TWWoA, “Australians explore arts”, 2013, para. 2, 3,8-9, 11-12). Two further examples that showcase TWWoA’s leading role in connecting Indigenous higher education efforts globally are visits by a Japanese and a Taiwanese group. A group of Ainu, as Japan’s Indigenous population is referred to, visited the AwanuiƗrangi campus in February 2013, as part of a five-week exchange program through Aotearoa (New Zealand). On campus they learned about culture and language revitalization

24

Chapter One

initiatives, recent wƗnanga developments, and political strategies. TWWoA’s CEO highlighted that Ainu share many experiences with other Indigenous nations in their effort to maintain tribal culture, language, and knowledge, and he stressed that by TWWoA’s sharing of experiences and by presenting successful strategies, it can assist Ainu in developing strong initiatives for culture and language preservation in Japan (TWWoA, “Japan’s Ainu study”, 2013, para. 1-4, 6). The Taiwanese group, hosted by Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university, consisting of five Indigenous Taiwanese writers and their interpreters was formally welcomed to campus for a day in September 2013. Similar to the Japanese group that visited TWWoA as part of an exchange program, the Taiwanese delegation visited universities, government agencies and publishing houses on a ten-day trip through Aotearoa (New Zealand). During their visit at TWWoA, the Taiwanese writers engaged in conversations with faculty members and exchanged information about Indigenous initiatives dealing with cultural knowledge protection (TWWoA, “Indigenous Taiwanese writers”, 2013, para. 1, 3). Organizing conferences and symposiums as well as presenting current research at international conferences overseas is further seen as a crucial internationalization strategy by Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi indigenous university. Hosting one to two international conferences each year, these meetings broach issues of common Indigenous significance such as environmental planning. In November 2010, the international conference entitled “Indigenous Planning and Environmental Decision Making – Mana Kaitiaki” designed to link MƗori and global Indigenous environmental planners with developers, academics, legislators and industry planners took place at TWWoA. The conference attracted participants from Aotearoa (New Zealand) and abroad, featuring wellknown Indigenous keynote speakers from the United States such as Ted Jojola and Gregory Cajete who contributed a Native American point of view in environmental planning and ethnobotany.27 The conference also proposed plans to establish an Indigenous Land Management Center in Aotearoa (New Zealand). According to the conference organizer, Richard Jefferies, TWWoA plans on working collaboratively with the Indigenous Land Management Institute at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, and aims to draw from their extensive experience of organizing and leading such a Land Management Center (tangata whenua, “WhakatƗne 27

The conference was co-sponsored by the local tribal council Te Rnjnanga o Ngati Awa, the Foundation for Research, Science & Technology, and Environment Bay of Plenty Regional Council (tangata whenua, “WhakatƗne hosts international”, 2010, para. 1).

Crossing Borders to Build Bridges

25

hosts international”, 2010, para. 1-4, 7).28 Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi - indigenous university is also very active in presenting its research at international conferences. Regular conference participation by faculty members, to name just three examples, include the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Indigenous education symposia initiated by universities like the University of British Columbia, and the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education29 (Doherty, personal communication, June 10, 2011). As demonstrated, the activities among tribally controlled educational institutions range from more personalized exchanges among individual faculty members to reciprocal institutional guest lecture appointments and researcher-in-residence programs. Other forms of interaction include faculty and student exchanges and visits, as well as the establishment of Memorandums of Understandings with other Indigenous universities and traditionally western based institutions or the facilitation of international seminar offerings. Exemplified by these two specific Indigenous institutions, many Indigenous education providers have recognized that their educational aspirations are linked to other Indigenous groups and universities and that global networks contribute to reaching broader goals. Partnerships and alliances with other Indigenous and non-Indigenous higher education institutions foster institutional capacity building and also contribute to both partners’ brand-building. While the scope of these efforts range widely among Indigenous higher education providers, the following statement by Graham Hingangaroa Smith holds true for all institutions: “Indigenous exchanges are always a two-way process. It’s not just about sharing what we know, it’s also important to keep our ears open and to learn from others” (personal communication, July 23, 2011). Juxtaposing -

28 At the writing of this chapter it was not possible to find out if the proposed plans have been implemented or not. 29 Similar to many ICUs, Salish Kootenai College as well as Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi - indigenous university are also connected globally through their membership in WINHEC, the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium. Established in 2002, WINHEC’s shares “a vision of Indigenous People of the world united in the collective synergy of self-determination through control of higher education.” It is “committed to building partnerships that restore and retain indigenous spirituality, cultures and languages, homelands, social systems, economic systems and self-determination.” (Seven Generations Education Institute, World Indigenous Higher Education Consortium, 2015, para. 2). For a more detailed account in regards to the founding process see the article “Native Educators Form World Consortium” by the Tribal College Journal (2002, para. 17).

26

Chapter One

transnational and Indigenous higher education, this chapter contributed an additional layer of analysis and a new reading of the term “transnational” in relation to Indigenous higher education by emphasizing tribal nations’ and by extension Indigenous higher education providers’ unique legal and political status as (quasi) sovereign nations. It illuminated the various ways ICUs cross (national) borders and negotiate transnational spaces on a daily basis. While representing two distinct education models, this article has also demonstrated that transnational and Indigenous higher education have much in common. Featuring specific examples of two Indigenous higher education institutions in the US and Aotearoa (New Zealand), it highlights the growing global connectivity that Indigenous universities, similar to transnational providers, have realized is crucial for a successful future. Global Indigenous networks and cooperation models with fellow Indigenous and like-minded conventional non-Indigenous education providers will continue to increase and intensify, and the establishing and furthering of trans-Indigenous and international relationships will ultimately support the struggle for cultural and educational recognition and survival on a global level.

References American Indian Higher Education Consortium. AIHEC AIMS Fact Book 2005 - Tribal Colleges and Universities Report. Alexandria: American Indian Higher Education Consortium, 2005. Bordeaux, Lionel R., and Schuyler S. Houser, “Reservation Economic Development and the Role of Tribal Colleges.” Winds of Change 4 (1989): 45-54. Boyer, Paul. Native American Colleges - Progress and Prospects. A Special Report. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997. Butrymowicz, Sarah. “Tribal colleges give poor return on more than $100 million a year in federal money.” The Hechinger Report, November 26, 2014. Accessed November 26, 2015. http://hechingerreport.org/tribal-colleges-give-poor-return-100million-year-federalmoney. Chen, Pi-Yun. “Transnational Education: Trend, Modes of Practices and Development.” International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 5 (2015): 634-637. Accessed: September 10, 2015. doi: 10.7763/IJIET.2015.V5.582 (2015). Cole, Wade. Uncommon Schools: The Global Rise of Postsecondary Institutions for Indigenous Peoples. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011.

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Crazy Bull, Cheryl. “Why Tribal Colleges Matter: Our Response to The Hechinger Report.” American Indian College Fund News, December 16, 2014. Accessed September 12, 2015. http://www.collegefund.org/press/detail/299. Cunningham, Alisa F., and Kenneth E. Redd. Creating Role Models for Change: A Survey of Tribal College Graduates. Washington D.C.: Sallie Mae Education Institution, 2000. Ferguson, Sheryl L. “Education Review finds out what postgraduate students from universities, polytechnics, wƗnanga, and private training establishments from all around New Zealand are up to.” Education Review, October, 2012. Accessed May 13, 2015. http://www.educationreview.co.nz/magazine/october-2012/postgradprofiles/#.VUD0P5MXvf5 (2012, October). Gasman, Marybeth, and Ginger Stull. “Not a Full Picture: Evaluating Tribal College Success Using Mainstream Measures.” Huff Post College, December 12, 2014. Accessed December 16, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marybeth-gasman/not-a-fullpictureevalua_b_6320400.html. Henard, Fabrice, Leslie Diamond, and Deborah Roseveare. Approaches to Internationalisation and Their Implications for Strategic Management and Institutional Practice – A Guide for Higher Education Institutions. Paris: OECD Higher Education Programme IMHE, 2012. Hill, James. Tribal Colleges: A Success Story. Washington, D.C.: Educational Resources Information Center, 1994. His Horse Is Thunder, Deborah. (2006) “Tribal Colleges & Universities: Defining the Future of Native America.” Paper presented at NCA Higher Learning Commission Annual Meeting. “Honorary doctorate a big surprise for Maori elder.” Rotorua Daily Post, April 10, 2012. Accessed September 16, 2015. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/article.cfm?c_id= 1503438&objectid=11059655. Institute for Higher Education Policy. Championing Success: A Report on the Progress of Tribal College and University Alumni. Washington, D.C.: Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2006. Jacob, W. James and others. “An organizational analysis of the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium.” Accessed July, 15, 2015. http://www.academia.edu/6758149/An_Organisational_Analysis_of_th e_World_Indigenous_Nations_Higher_Education_Consortium. Kaya, Kathryn. “Native American Colleges: Progress and Prospects.” The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 24(3) (1998): 244-245.

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Knight, Jane. “Cross-Border Higher Education: Issues and Implications for Quality Assurance and Accreditation.” Higher Education in the World (2007): 134-146. Accessed May 18, 2015. https://upcommons.upc.edu/revistes/bitstream/2099/8109/1/knight.pdf. Korero Maori. “Pǀwhiri.” Accessed March 15, 2015. http://www.korero.maori.nz/forlearners/protocols/powhiri.html Mataatua Marae – The house that came home. “Mataatua Marae”. Accessed April 1, 2015. http://www.mataatua.com/. Maxim Institute. Current Issues in MƗori schooling. Auckland: Maxim Institute, 2006. http://www.maxim.org.nz/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/maori _education.pdf McBurnie, Grant, and Christopher Ziguras. Transnational Education: Issues and Trends in Offshore Higher Education. Abington: Routledge, 2007. Mercardo, Simon, and Lorni Gibson. “The key elements of transnational education (TNE)” Accessed April 18, 2015. http://www.eaie.org/blog/key-elements-transnational-education-tne/. Ministry of Education. Te TƗhutu o te MƗtauranga. “NgƗ Kǀhanga Reo.” Accessed May 15, 2015. http://www.lead.ece.govt.nz/ServiceTypes/NgaKohangaReo.aspx. —. Te TƗhutu o te MƗtauranga. “Profile & Trends 2013: New Zealand’s Tertiary Education Sector.” Accessed May 18, 2015. https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/1527 10/Profile-and-Trends-2013.pdf National Congress of American Indians. “Tribal Nations and the United States: An Introduction.” Accessed April 26, 2015. http://www.ncai.org/tribalnations/introduction/Tribal_Nations_and_the _United_States_An_Introduction-web-.pdf “Native Educators Form World Consortium.” Tribal College Journal, 14 (2002). Accessed May 13, 2015. http://www.tribalcollegejournal.org/archives/11867. O'Laughlin, Jeanie. “Financing of Tribal Colleges.” Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the National Association of African American Studies, the National Association of Hispanic and Latino Studies, the National Association of Native American Studies, and the International Association of Asian Studies, (2002): 1-22. Oppelt, Norman T. The Tribally Controlled Indian Colleges: The Beginnings of Self -Determination in American Indian Education. Tsaile: Navajo Community College Press, 1990.

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Rauhvargers, Andrejs. “Transnational Education – Presentation of Definition and Code of Good Practice.” Paper presented at Malmö Seminar on Transnational Education, Malmö, Sweden, March 2001. http://www.ehea.info/Uploads/Seminars/trans_edu%281%29.pdf. Raymond III, James H. “A History of American Indian Tribal Colleges.” Unpublished PhD diss., Wilmington College, 2004. Reyhner, Jon., and Jeanne Eder. A History of Indian Education. Billings: Eastern Montana College, 1989. Robbins, Rebecca L. Tribal College & University Profiles. Pablo: Salish Kootenai College Press, 2002. Salish Kootenai College. “Degree Programs & Certificates.” Accessed April 7, 2015. http://www.skc.edu/degree-programs-2/. —. “Mission Statement.” Accessed April 10, 2015. http://www.skc.edu/mission-statement/ Seven Generations Education Institute. “World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium.” Accessed April 4, 2015. http://www.7generations.org/?page_id=2741. Stefani, Lorraine. “Higher Education in New Zealand: A Case Study of the Land of the Long White Cloud.” In Democratizing Higher Education – International Comparative Perspectives, P. edited by Patrick Blessinger & John.P. Anchan, 111-124. New York: Routledge, 2015. Stein, Wayne J. “Indian/Tribal Studies Programs in the Tribally Controlled Community Colleges.” Wicazo Sa Review, 2(2) (1986): 29-33. —. “A History of the Tribally Controlled Community Colleges: 19681978.” Unpublished PhD diss., Washington State University, 1988. —. “Founding of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.” Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education, 2(1), (1990): 18-22. Tangata Whenua. “WhakatƗne hosts international environmental conference.” Tangata Whenua, (2010). Accessed May 16, 2015. http://news.tangatawhenua.com/2010/11/whakatane-hostsinternational-environmental-conference/ Tertiary Education Commission. “About WƗnanga.”Accessed April 3, 2015. http://www.tec.govt.nz/Learners-Organisations/Learners/perfor mance-in-tertiary-education/performance-by-type-of-tertiaryprovider/about-wananga/. —. “WƗnanga.” Accessed April 3, 2015. http://pr2013.publications.tec.govt.nz/2013+Performance/W%C4%81n anga. Te Rnjnanga o Ngati Awa. “Ngati Awa.” Accessed April 11, 2015.

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http://www.ngatiawa.iwi.nz/cms/view/te-whare-w%C4%81nanga-oawanui%C4%81rangi.aspx —. „He Pitopito Kǀrero - Hawaiians WhakatƗne Bound for Wharenui Opening.” Accessed April 11, 2015. http://www.ngatiawa.iwi.nz/panui/Issue3.htm. Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi. “About Us.” Accessed March 22, 2015. http://www.wananga.ac.nz/about Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university. “Australians explore arts potential.” Accessed March 13, 2015. http://www.wananga.ac.nz/News?id=bf23dd83-1b16-e311-ae21005056b16b93. —. “AwanuiƗrangi strengthens ties with Sámi.” Accessed January 24, 2015. http://www.wananga.ac.nz/News?id=c8757bd5-db2f-e211-a26d005056b10005. —. “Central University of Orissa Signing MoU.” Accessed March 10, 2015. http://www.cuo.ac.in/. —. “Charles Sturt University, Ontario. Accessed February 12, 2015. http://www.csu.edu.au/about/locations/ontario. Te WƗnanga o Raukawa. “Establishment of Te WƗnanga o Raukawa.” Accessed March 27, 2015. http://www.wananga.com/index.php/aboutus/history. Te Whare WƗnanga o AwanuiƗrangi – indigenous university. “Indigenous Taiwanese writers visit.” Accessed April 13, 2015. http://www.wananga.ac.nz/News?id=659c9792-4d20 e311-ae21005056b16b93. —. “Japan’s Ainu study MƗori initiatives.” Accessed March 28, 2015. http://www.wananga.ac.nz/News?id=53c02bc9-1a16-e311-ae21005056b16b93. —. “MƗori delegation heads to India.” Accessed January 25, 2015. http://www.wananga.ac.nz/News?id=adc84efd-3460-e211b5ca005056b10005. —. “Students welcomed to new doctorate program.” Accessed April 6, 2015. http://www.wananga.ac.nz/News?id=f825ec3a-2016-e311-ae21005056b16b93. —. “US students study architecture.” Accessed April 8, 2015. http://www.wananga.ac.nz/News?id=653bf944-1c16-e311-ae21005056b16b93. —. “WƗnanga strengthens links with India.” Accessed March 23, 2015. http://www.wananga.ac.nz/News?id=6ab75e5c-a75be311-ae21005056b16b93.

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Thornton, Samuel David. “An Analysis of Tribal College Student's Backgrounds, Motivations, and Attitudes: The Relationship to Classroom Retention.” Master’s thesis, Montana State University, 2006. Tiskus, Berl. “Indigenous Researchers gather at Salish Kootenai College.” Valley Journal, October 16, 2013. Accessed March 13, 2015. http://www.valleyjournal.net/Article/6679/Indigenous-researchersgather-at-SalishKootenai-College. “Tribal Colleges: Educating the Spirit and Mind.” Accessed April 18, 2015. http://www.collegefund.org/userfiles/Book1/TRIBAL_COLLEGES_E DUCATING_THE_MIND_AND_SPIRIT.html. Tyro, Frank “More Than Smoke Signals: An Examination of the Experience of Online American Indian Students at Salish Kootenai College.” Unpublished PhD diss., Union Institute and University, 2004. Upham, Lailani. “New Zealand Fulbright Scholar comes to Salish Kootenai College for spring quarter.” CharKoosta, November 15, 2012. Accessed April 18, 2015. http://www.charkoosta.com/2012/2012_11_15/Moari_Fulbright_Schol ar_comes_to_SKChtml. U.S. Department of Commerce. United States Census Bureau News. Facts for Features: American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. CB14-FF.26, November 12, 2014. Accessed May 23, 2015. http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/newsroom/factsforfeatures/2014/cb14ff-26_aian_heritage_month.pdf. U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs. Why Tribes Exist Today in the United States. Accessed March 27, 2015. http://www.bia.gov/FAQs/. Valentine, Kylie. “Kohanga Reo.” Accessed Juni 14, 2015. http://www.kiwifamilies.co.nz/articles/kohanga-reo/. Vignoli, Gabriel. “What is Transnational Education?” Accessed May 25, 2015. http://www.cimea.it/files/207_114.pdf. World Education News & Reviews. “Understanding Transnational Education, Its Growth and Implications.” Accessed March 15, 2015. http://wenr.wes.org/2012/08/wenr-august-2012-understandingtransnational-education-its-growth-and-implications/

CHAPTER TWO CAN LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION HAVE AN IMPACT ON GLOBALIZATION IN AFRICA?: THE EXAMPLE OF ASHESI UNIVERSITY COLLEGE MARCIA A. GRANT

Introduction In Africa today, there are only a handful of small liberal arts universities, perhaps ten at most, each with less than two thousand students. Some are private, non-profit institutions which struggle to finance themselves without government subventions, depending primarily on tuition for revenue. Nonetheless, these liberal arts universities are having an impact on their societies disproportionate to their size and financial means. This impact comes through the way their students’ lives are transformed. This chapter examines how Ashesi University College, one of these new universities, is adapting the liberal arts model to the demands of SubSaharan Africa and to its home country, Ghana, while facing the challenges and opportunities that globalization has brought to Africa and to African higher education. It argues that Ashesi’s hybrid liberal arts curriculum, stressing ethical leadership and entrepreneurship, has created a campus culture that empowers its students and gives them agency.

Globalization in Africa Globalization has been characterized as “the widening, deepening and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness” (Held, 2007, p. 2). It is the convergence of a series of processes – economic, political, and technological – at the end of the twentieth century. For Africa, the political processes of globalization began with decolonization in the late 1950s and

Can Liberal Arts Education Have an Impact on Globalization in Africa?

33

1960s and were followed by the struggle to establish viable states and functioning political systems. The process of establishing modern states in Africa with civilian-run political systems and service-oriented bureaucracies has been uneven. In some places there are inadequate legal systems to promote the rule of law, and in most, corrupt practices continue to be a way of life. Ghana is one of the countries that has created a political system in which power is transferred peacefully through elections and where the rule of law is protected by a working court system. Even so, corruption is still widespread and serves as a real brake on the potential for both political and economic development in the country. The spread of free market economics brought about through globalization has had an impact on Sub-Saharan Africa, and countries across the continent have experienced considerable economic growth in the first part of the twenty-first century, as shown in Table 1. Table 2-1. Macroeconomic developments in Africa (AfDB, OECD & UNDP 2014, p.8). 200509

2010

2011 2012 2013( 2014 e) (p)

2015 (p)

Real GDP Growth (%) Central Africa

4.1

5.9

4.4

5.8

3.7

6.2

5.7

East Africa

7.1

7.3

6.3

3.9

6.2

6.0

6.2

North Africa

4.9

4.3

0.3

9.4

1.9

3.1

5.5

Southern Africa

5.2

3.7

3.9

3.3

4.0

4.0

4.4

West Africa

5.7

7.1

6.9

6.9

6.7

7.2

7.1

Africa

5.3

5.2

3.6

6.4

3.9

4.8

5.7

Africa (excluding Libya)

5.3

5.1

4.3

4.1

4.2

4.8

5.2

Nonetheless, this growth has been primarily due to extractive industries and agriculture. While there is development of entrepreneurial enterprises across the continent, their growth is slow because of the lack of capital, essential infrastructure, and knowledge of how to use new technologies and data. In recent years especially, the “speeding up” of communications and internet access offers new kinds of opportunities to African companies and states to “leapfrog” stages of development by using mobile devices and storing information on the cloud (Bezy, 2015).

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Chapter Two

Finding ways to create more jobs and expand economic opportunity in Africa is urgent, given the predictions that Africa’s population will double to 2.4 billion people by the year 2050 (Pflanz, 2013). But job creation in Africa is not easy. For example, Ghana was considered to be one of the African states most likely to lead in the use of information technology until oil was discovered and derailed the focus on supporting infrastructure for IT development. During the past year, 2014-2015, the Ghanaian economy has gone into recession. There have been many causes, including the impact of the Ebola epidemic in the West African countries of Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, which stopped tourism and international meetings planned for 2014-2015. In addition, the lack of management of resources for energy development has led to a power crisis across the country, affecting all sectors of the economy.

Higher Education and Globalization in Africa Higher education in Africa was introduced by colonial governments in the late 1940s in the British colonies, and in the late 1950s in Francophone Africa. Universities such as the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and the University of Ghana at Legon, which both started in 1948 as university colleges, were mentored by the University of London. This colonial mentoring model is still in effect in the procedures required of new universities wanting to get accreditation in these countries today. The national African universities were modeled on the British university system, and they catered to an elite and relatively small student body, with the purpose of preparing a bureaucratic class to run the civil service. The universities recruited a large number of expatriate faculty and offered a quality education while gradually incorporating African faculty and curricula. After independence, governments created a number of new universities, always considering that the tertiary sector of education should be public. These public universities fell prey to the ills their societies experienced during the years of military rule from the late 1960s through to the 1980s. Globalization has had an impact on higher education in Africa in two ways: there has been a surge in demand for university places, and private universities have been established for the first time. For example, at the University of Ghana, still the most respected university in the country, student enrollment has skyrocketed during the 1990s and in the 21st century, going from 5,306 students in 1993-4 to 14,424 in 2001-2 and to 32,546 in 2015 (Ghana Statistical Service, 2013, p.33; University of Ghana, 2015).

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While most families in Ghana want to send their children to the public universities, some parents and students are starting to look for something different from the rote education, memorization, and very large class sizes to be found there. They are willing to pay for an education that will ensure that their children will be employed, and they see that the kinds of jobs and thinking needed in the new global economy require new skills, problem-solving abilities, and flexibility. It is this surge of demand that has contributed to the establishment of private universities in Ghana. In fact, the growth of private universities has been significant: since the year 2000, sixty private universities and institutions of higher education have been accredited in Ghana, most started by religious denominations (National Accreditation Board, 2015). However, the National Accreditation Board (NAB), the government body that accredits new universities, public and private, has policy guidelines based on the practices of Ghanaian public universities. While there has been initial accreditation of programs given to the new private universities, it is extremely difficult for them to obtain presidential charters with independent status offering their own degrees. For example, the guidelines for obtaining a charter of independence published by the National Accreditation Board (NAB) have changed regularly since 2002, and each change has required more programs and more faculties. Even for program accreditation, the new universities are basically required to replicate the courses required for majors in the public universities, thereby not allowing a liberal arts curriculum to have the variety and choice that would be expected in liberal arts schools elsewhere. With the exception of Valley View University, a private school founded in 1997, which offers a postgraduate diploma in Ministry, and B.Ed. Programs in IT and Religious Studies, the NAB has been unwilling to grant the name “university” and independent status to any other private institution of higher education in Ghana, except seminaries.

The Impact of the Small Liberal Arts University The liberal arts model as we know it comes from the United States. It is a model of small, residential undergraduate universities offering a four-year curriculum, of which the first two years are dedicated to giving students a broad exposure to the different divisions of learning – natural sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities – either through a required core curriculum or through distribution requirements. The idea is to expose students to different approaches to acquiring knowledge. The third and fourth years are spent in pursuing a major in one academic field, offering

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the student the experience of depth of learning. Students may enter a liberal arts course of study without knowing what they want to major in, and they are given the opportunity to explore and choose different courses and to change their major. This goes against the prevailing European model where students are admitted to a field of study based on specialization and may lose years if they decide they want to change their major. Beyond curriculum, the liberal arts model contains a number of features. Faculty are rewarded for teaching excellence and exploring new pedagogies. They are also evaluated on their service to the community. They are asked to advise students about their studies and possible careers. Classes are usually small, and professors are accessible. Faculty are expected to conduct research, but there are not the same requirements to publish as exist in research universities. The liberal arts model also contains the organization of a lively cocurricular student life, with clubs, outside speakers, sports and other activities. Because university life is residential, students are expected to learn from one another. Many of the American liberal arts colleges were founded by religious denominations and have distinctive campus cultures, based on the distinctive ways their founders taught about ethical questions and social engagement. In the liberal arts model the Dean of Students and Student Affairs plays a major role in a student’s life, as do the services for student, including Career Services and the Office for International Academic Exchange. There is also an emphasis on staying in touch with the university’s graduates through Alumni organizations. Thus the liberal arts model is a complex system which includes curriculum, student-centered pedagogy, an administrative structure that is friendly to students and somewhat different from European models, cocurricular activities and a system of governance that often includes alumni. In all of this, students are encouraged to develop their powers of critical thinking – including the challenging of their professors – and to explore their own talents and interests. A liberal arts education is not a professional education, but one that prepares its students for lifelong learning.

The Development of Ashesi as a Liberal Arts Hybrid With each of the new African liberal arts universities there is a very personal story of how its founder or group of founders discovered a need that was not being met in society and looked to the American liberal arts education model as a way of offering their societies a new kind of

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education (Harrington, 2008). In 1997 the founder of Ashesi University, Patrick Awuah, decided that he wanted to return to Ghana to create a new institution that would transform Africa At first he considered starting a software company, but then he decided to start a university. As a graduate of the liberal arts from Swarthmore College, with double degrees in Economics and Engineering, he had spent eight years working at Microsoft. After discussing his idea with his colleagues there he went to the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley to study for an MBA, and he wrote a business plan for starting a university in Ghana as his thesis. In order to finance the university he set up a foundation and raised money from his friends and colleagues from Microsoft in Seattle. He quickly understood that he would need to finance the day-to-day running of the university through tuition, and that fund raising would be for capital projects and sometimes for new projects (Harrington, 2008). Awuah wanted, ideally, to create a liberal arts college using as a model the one he had experienced as an undergraduate. When he went to Ghana to survey the demand for higher education he found that parents not only wanted their children to get away from rote learning and to learn critical thinking skills, but that they also wanted to make sure that they would be able to qualify for good jobs as a result of their education. He included in his survey interviews with banks and international corporations in Ghana. Awuah’s business plan assumed that the university would start with sixty students, and with such a small number, he decided to open with only two majors – Business Administration and Computer Science - both of which were career-oriented, responding to the parents’ and businesses’ responses to the survey (Harrington, 2008). In 2002 Ashesi (meaning ‘beginning’) University opened its doors with only twenty-seven students who fulfilled the entrance requirements. Located in two rented bungalows in Accra, the school was most unprepossessing. Its mission statement incorporated Patrick’s vision of how it would transform Africa: .

To education a new generation of ethical entrepreneurial leaders in Africa, to cultivate within students the critical thinking skills, the concern for others and the courage it will take to transform a continent. (Ashesi Foundation)

Because Ashesi started with half of the students that it had expected in the business plan, it took two years longer than planned to get to the breakeven stage. This proved to be a help to the university’s development, giving its faculty and staff more time to think through its curriculum and

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its culture. There was also more time to find the appropriate site and to design and begin to construct its permanent campus.

The Curriculum: A Liberal Arts Core The curriculum of Ashesi is not a traditional liberal arts curriculum but has elements which give students a liberal arts philosophy and understanding. Part of the problem in designing the curriculum has been that the requirements of the NAB are based on public university curricula and do not allow curricular flexibility to new universities. Thus students at Ashesi have very little free choice, except in selecting African Studies courses and electives within their majors. What has emerged is a hybrid curriculum between liberal arts and course-intensive and career-oriented majors. Behind each of the requirements within the Liberal Arts core, most of which the student takes during his or her first two years, is very clear thinking. For example, all students at Ashesi are expected to be numerate, and to achieve this, they must take either Calculus One and Two their first year, or a three-course sequence of Pre-Calculus One and Two with a summer course of Applied Calculus. Beyond Calculus, all students take a Statistics course and also a Quantitative Methods course. (Engineering majors do much more than that.) In addition, all students take at least one introductory programming course. Until autumn 2015 all students have been required to take both Micro and Macro Economics, with Awuah arguing that one of the great failures of the early leadership of independent Africa was that the leaders did not understand economics. Consequently, Awuah has been adamant that all students become literate in economics. Nonetheless, for 2015-2016 year, there will be a compromise wherein Engineering and Computer Science students will take only one course in Economics. All non-engineering students are also required to take at least one course in Finance. At Ashesi, there is no English Composition course. Instead, a full-year sequence of Oral and Written Communication, followed by a course on Text and Meaning, is required. In addition, all students are introduced to the Social Sciences through a course on African Social Thought. All classes at Ashesi require student participation, and oral reports are often part of their assignments. While it is a small school, Ashesi’s mission is to create leaders to transform the continent, and central to achieving this aim is the fourcourse Leadership Curriculum. The first three leadership courses give only half a credit (a full course is one credit), as they require fewer hours than a regular course. This curriculum, accompanied in the first year by the five-

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week module on Giving Voice to Values (GVV), differentiates Ashesi from any other school in Ghana. GVV is adapted from Mary Gentile’s course at Babson College (Gentile, 2010), and is co-taught by a member of faculty or staff and an Ashesi alum, who helps students see that they have the right to talk about their own values and to put this forward when they feel that their values are being violated. In the second semester of the first year, all students take Leadership One, which asks the question, “What Makes a Great Leader?” Leadership II, taken the first semester of the second year, is about ethics, rights, and the rule of law, and includes an examination of African theories of politics and governance. Leadership III introduces students to different ideas about the economic organization of a good society and looks at issues, such as the environment, over which educated people will differ. It helps students to “appreciate the challenges African countries face in adopting democratic governance and a capitalist or socialist production system” (Adei, 2014). Finally, Leadership IV is a full-credit course looking at leadership as service, and requiring students to undertake at least forty hours of unpaid volunteer work with an NGO. In some cases, students create their own organizations. As Dr. Esi Ansah, the course’s instructor describes, this course is “to help you carve out your personal identity as a leader and to find yourself in this equation: personal integrity + desire for social change + relevant skills + creative problem-solving + courage = an Ashesi leader (Ansah, 2015). The course is designed to help students understand the concept of “servant leadership.” She assures the students that she is there “to inspire, encourage and support” (Ansah, 2015). In each of the course syllabi at Ashesi the Learning Goals, which the Faculty and Staff Retreat developed in 2009, are repeated in the syllabus, often with an elaboration by the faculty. These goals are posted in each classroom and in most faculty offices (see Figure 1).

The Honor Code There is a clear reason why freshmen take the five-week module about giving voice to values during their first semester. It is the introduction to a series of talks and discussions on the topic of ethics and the Honor Code. At the beginning of the second year, students vote to commit to the Code, promising to turn themselves or their friends in for cheating on exams or assignments (see Figure 2). In order to enter the Code, the vote must be seventy-five percent or over of the entire class. At present all second, third and fourth-year students have voted to join, and this means that there is no invigilation of their exams. Instead, all sign an honor pledge on their

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examinations and agree to hold each other accountable for any examination irregularities. Up to today, every class has voted to enter the Code. Ashesi is the only university in Ghana, and perhaps in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an Honor Code.

Figure 2-1. Ashesi Learning Goals. Image courtesy Ashesi University College.

Figure 2-2. Second Year Student Signing the Ashesi Honor Code. Image courtesy Ashesi University College.

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The Examination Honor Code developed out of an increasing concern about the incidence of cheating in examinations and on written assignments, and from the very practical necessity of not having enough faculty to serve as invigilators. By 2007, Awuah was worried that the school was getting away from its mission and held serious discussions with the faculty and staff, trying to think of ways to combat the cheating behavior. When the Dean of Students reported that she did not have enough faculty to invigilate examinations that year and asked to be able to call on members of the finance department to invigilate, Awuah’s surprising response was that perhaps Ashesi should not have invigilators (Harrington, 2008). The idea of having an examination honor code had been under discussion for a while, and so the response to the Dean’s report was to consider the Honor Code seriously. It was approved by the faculty and executives of Ashesi in November 2007 and was adopted by students in January 2008. Any violations to the Code are reported to the Dean of Students, who determines whether the case is such that it can be settled by informal resolution (for minor, first offenses) or needs to go to the Ashesi Judiciary Committee for an investigation and hearing. In 2009 during an Academic Audit by the NAB, members of the NAB panel said that they had heard that Ashesi had an Honor system for examinations whereby exams were not invigilated, and they wanted confirmation. When Ashesi confirmed that it had an Honor Code system the NAB replied that such a Code was unacceptable. The response of Ashesi was that students and parents, faculty and staff all began a letter-writing campaign to the NAB and refused to give up the Code. In 2015, in the discussion with the NAB during another Academic Audit, one of the pending issues mentioned by the General Secretary of the NAB in his letter to the President of Ashesi was the Honor Code and the fact that students are asked to “approve” it (Dattey, personal communication, July 2, 2015). In Ashesi’s response to the Executive Secretary of the NAB Associate Provost Suzanne Buchele wrote that Upon matriculation, all Ashesi students agree to adhere to Ashesi’s Code of Ethics, which is in effect for all members of the Ashesi community. The Code of Ethics states that all members of the community agree not to condone or participate in cheating, lying, or any misrepresentation, and not conceal such activities of others. This is part of Ashesi’s over-all honour system which is not subject to student vote (Buchele, personal communication, July 21, 2015).

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After she gave a detailed explanation of how Ashesi educates its students about ethical issues in society, she explained that the students then vote for the Code, and that the student vote is “intended as an affirmation of the Examination Honour Code…and not a vote of whether or not the honour system, or the Examination Honour Code, should be in place at Ashesi” (Buchele, personal communication, July 21, 2015). Finally, she clarified that the Student Handbook was being updated to make clear that the Examination Code of Conduct applies whether students are under the Honour Code or not.

Ashesi as a Liberal Arts College Model in Ghana As discussed above, the liberal arts college model in the United States is not only a curriculum but also a system. This system comprises a faculty which prioritizes teaching. It has a sense of community in the relations between students, faculty and staff. It stresses the importance to its education of co-curricular and residential life. The staff and faculty give personal attention to the students and help them to succeed. Ashesi has adapted this system to Africa and has developed as a unique educational institution in Ghana and in Sub-Saharan Africa. As described below, it has a very motivated and teaching-oriented faculty. Its staff are equally committed. The campus is a model of excellent architecture and landscaping, and its yearly intensive maintenance is unusual in Ghana. A remarkable culture of belief in the university’s mission and pride in carrying it out, characterize the campus.

Faculty Over the years, the faculty of Ashesi found the university or the university found the faculty – people who are teachers, but also scholars, and primarily from Africa The twenty-six full-time faculty, twenty are from Ghana, and fifty percent have doctorates. There are also ten part-time adjunct faculty members, all of whom are Ghanaians. Of the full-time faculty, seven did all of their undergraduate work in the United States, and twelve did graduate work there. Some of the teachers have said that they could not teach elsewhere in Ghana because they need the freedom to teach in the new ways that Ashesi encourages. One characteristic of almost all of the faculty is that they have had some international experience in Africa, either as children or as young professionals. For example, one woman went to school in Nigeria, when her parents taught in a Nigerian university. Another’s mother worked as a lawyer in Liberia. A third was .

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brought up partly in England, and a fourth was educated in Togo, while his mother worked in Cameroun. The head of the Business Administration Department spent years working for Unilever in Nigeria, saving enough so that he could afford to be a university professor. The adjuncts who teach at Ashesi are highly motivated and give far more of their time and energy than the pay would indicate. For example, the Design Thinking team of the academic year 2014-2015 was made up of two highly-trained architects (one an engineering undergraduate at Harvard who later went to the Harvard School of Design in architecture) and someone who had studied at the University of Pennsylvania as an undergraduate and later studied design in Milan. The monthly Faculty Meeting has become an important gathering where many teachers participate in talking about papers they have given, problems in teaching, or new resources for teaching. There is a monthly Faculty Research Seminar at the home of the Provost on campus. This seminar, along with the Research Committee and the student Research Club, is changing the culture at Ashesi towards an interest in research and in developing a team approach to research that makes it possible in a teaching-intensive institution. This year, for the first time, two faculty members published a paper about their new approach to the teaching of entrepreneurship, and they also presented this paper at a professional meeting in the United States (Agyepong & Warren, 2015). Each year there is a faculty development program at the end of the second semester in which all faculty members participate. In 2014, Professor John Bean of the University of Seattle (Bean, 2011) worked with Faculty to develop rubrics for grading senior capstone projects. In 2015, faculty from Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering conducted a one-day design thinking workshop and then led the faculty in how to design courses in order to achieve their desired outcomes in student learning.

Staff Ashesi began with two, and then three, employees: Patrick Awuah, Nina Marini with whom he studied at Berkeley, and Matthew Taggart, who was a graduate of Evergreen State in the state of Washington. Gradually, they hired staff to be the Dean of Students, the Dean of the University, and others to handle Admissions, Finance, and Operations. With the move to the campus in 2011, all of the major staff changed, and over the years 2012-2014 Awuah assembled a new executive team. Like the faculty, the senior staff members come from international backgrounds. Again, they

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are firmly committed to the liberal arts model of education, and this acceptance of the university’s administrative model, a problem in some of the new universities in the Middle East and Asia (Grant, 2013) is important to Ashesi’s success. It has been the practice of all of the staff and faculty to have a retreat together every two years. What is observable in this retreat is the strength of belief that the people who work at Ashesi have in the mission of the university.

Students, Student Aid, and Study Abroad In 2014-2015, the total student body of Ashesi was 630 students. Of them, 93 were international – from Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Liberia, Cameroun, Togo, Uganda, Lesotho, the Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire, India, and the United States. Ashesi has a five-year grant from the MasterCard Foundation, which has enabled it to recruit students from the lowest socioeconomic quintile across Africa These students are given a full scholarship plus a computer and stipend, and they spend their first summer at Ashesi, learning new skills – such as swimming – and consolidating the work that they have done during their first year. After their second academic year, many are expected to go home and work in an internship, and after their third, they work for an NGO. Ashesi also gives financial aid to students, and this past year, 51% of the class of 2018 received financial aid. In the three years that it has existed, the Office of Diversity and International Programs has negotiated agreements with a variety of universities in the United States and Canada. The agreement with Wilfrid Laurier of Canada funded a video-conference class in Children’s Rights and Human Rights over a three-year period. Now there are open-ended student exchange agreements with Coe, Macalester, the College of Wooster, Swarthmore and Wheaton Colleges in the US. In the academic year 2015-2016 a comprehensive series of exchanges have started with The College of Wooster, beginning with the four Computer Science students who worked in Wooster as consultants in applied mathematics (Applied Mathematics Research Experience or AMRE) projects in Wooster, Ohio, companies. During the year, there will be student exchanges with Wooster, along with video-conferenced joint classes. Three faculty will visit Wooster in October to participate in classes and give a panel in the University Lecture Series, and Patrick Awuah will speak to the College at the end of January. In the spring, the faculty development workshop will be given by Wooster on how to help .

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students to create e-portfolios, and ways to strengthen student research, especially on their senior Capstone projects.

Student Government and Student Life The Ashesi student body has an active student government which undertakes special projects every year. For example, students raised funds for a second cafeteria in 2013-2014, and the following year they raised money for a football pitch. The Student Government oversees a number of activities, and their academic representative raises student concerns regularly with the Provost and faculty. Ashesi has a wide variety of clubs – from sports to music groups to religious societies – and there are weekend activities since a large proportion of students live on campus. While the large majority of students are Christian, there are students who are Muslim or non-believers, and different prayer spaces are available on campus. Among the activities of the students are the NGOs that students have created. Every year, some Ashesi students are recognized by the Dalai Lama Foundation, and one award-winning project was the adult literacy school created by students for adults from the neighboring village of Berekuso. All that year, the adults of Berekuso walked up the hill every evening to English and Mathematics courses given by 25 student tutors.

Career Services and Alumni From the beginning, Ashesi offered career services to its students, and as soon as its first class graduated, it formed an alumni association. The Career Services Office has organized a corporate council to guide its projects and annually holds a Careers Fair that is a model for the rest of Ghana. At the fair in March 2015, over sixty firms and NGOs participated, including two Ghanaian government agencies. The companies made presentations, and there were contests during the day, but the most impressive aspect for Ashesi students was that both internships and jobs were being offered, and students could hold preliminary interviews with these firms. Ashesi’s Career Services have become a model for the university sector of Ghana, insofar as the NAB has added the requirement that all universities provide tracer studies of what happens to their alumni in their annual audits. Ashesi graduates are employed once they finish their

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Ghanaian National Service, with 95% being employed immediately, and 100% within six months. Ashesi students have also been entrepreneurs, and interestingly, it has most often been the Computer Science majors who have started their own businesses. The internships offered to Ashesi students and administered through the Career Services Office include work experience at Goldman Sachs and Bank of America-Merrill Lynch (both in London) and at Google in Dublin and India. Some Ashesi students have been offered jobs in these firms. But there has not been a brain drain issue for Ashesi students. Ninety percent of Ashesi graduates have stayed in Africa and those who have gone abroad to graduate school most often choose to return. ,

The New Campus While it was always in the plans of Ashesi to build a residential campus, the project did not get underway until 2007. In that year, Awuah and his team located and purchased one hundred acres of land in the hills outside of Accra, and with the help of a group of Ghanaian architects and contractors, designed and built a campus in 2011, which was completed at a cost of only seven million dollars. This campus is characterized by a large terraced central courtyard, where public events, concerts, and parties are held. The five classrooms of the campus are U-shaped and offer space that can be used for case study discussion. There are also two large computer laboratories and a beautiful and airy library. The gardens of the campus are well-maintained, as are the buildings, which are repainted annually. Visitors to the campus comment on the fact that while no adults are present over the weekend, and students have free reign throughout the campus, the students are very respectful of their surroundings, leaving the classrooms and labs in good order. One of the requests of the Academic Representative of the Student Council during my first year as Provost, which I readily granted, was to open the library on Sunday afternoons and evenings, with only student workers present. A feature of Ashesi, much remarked upon, is the donor wall at the entry to the university. On it are the names of all of the donors to the main campus, including faculty, staff, security guards, and gardeners. It speaks to the pride that all members of the university feel toward the campus. Indeed, guards are still delighted to speak with visitors about the university. With the construction of the new engineering building there is

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a new donor wall, and, once again, a very high percentage of faculty and staff are among the donors.

Governance When Ashesi was started it was governed through the board of the Ashesi University Foundation in Seattle, a 501(c)3. The National Accreditation Board requires a board within Ghana, and Awuah has carefully selected people who understand the liberal arts and who are willing to give the time that board service demands. The local Board of Ashesi University is now the primary governing body of the university, and a joint meeting is held with the foundation once a year. During the academic year 2014-2015, three new women members were elected to the board, carrying out the policy of Awuah to aim for gender equality in all parts of the university.

New Programs In spring 2015 Ashesi completed a new building for engineering, and three engineering programs will begin in 2015-2016: Mechanical, Computer, and Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Awuah has seen the need for people who can work with their hands and fix things, for “tinkerers.” This is a very different view of Ghanaian higher education’s purposes from the educating of an elite civil service who would not dirty their hands. Coinciding with the opening of engineering, a new year-long freshman course for all first-year students from all programs started in September 2015. Called Foundations of Design and Entrepreneurship, the twosemester program will organize teams of freshmen that will practice design thinking and that will create small businesses. To make these small businesses possible, and to support the senior Entrepreneurship projects, the faculty are designing a venture capital fund that will be launched in the autumn of 2015. At the same time, Ashesi has introduced an elective French course for second and third-year students. The idea behind this course is to give students the skill to speak as well as write in French, so after two years they can participate in internships in Francophone Africa. Being able to graduate students who have achieved fluency in French will strengthen Ashesi’s goal to be Pan-African.

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Assessing Ashesi’s Impact It is far too early to be able to assess Ashesi’s overall success as an educational institution since it only graduated its first class in 2005. Yet it now has close to 700 alumni, and certain aspects of the university’s success can be measured. Its rate of employment is already outstanding and by far the highest in Ghana. Ashesi alumni are staying in Africa, starting businesses, working in banks and financial institutions, and – in the case of GE Corporation in Ghana – providing the largest number of employees. Some students have entered the NGO sector, including one valedictorian of her class, who is now the COO of an orphanage and who has succeeded in establishing a high school for the orphanage and the neighboring villages. This year a graduating Liberian student created an online network to gather information about Ebola, which he then shared with the government of Liberia and the WHO. He has returned to Liberia to continue to build better IT accessibility for Monrovia. There are also some students who choose to study overseas for graduate degrees, and this year Ashesi employed its first alumnae who has earned a doctorate. Ashesi has received international recognition within and outside of Africa in a number of ways. First of all, it has attracted important internships for its students. It has been invited to be the African member of the Melton Foundation, training young leaders in socially responsible leadership over a three-year period. Its students have been awarded grants from the Dalai Lama Foundation to carry out projects of social concern. The Ford Foundation granted the university funding for student projects with social impact in the village of Berekuso. Ashesi’s energetic International Office has worked to develop student exchanges and started a new exchange with The College of Wooster in fall 2015. Ashesi students have performed very well academically during their semesters abroad, and they have shown admirable curiosity in taking courses in new fields and in participating in new kinds of co-curricular activities. The exchange students to the university have found new challenges here, and go back to encourage other students to choose a semester at Ashesi. It has recently been invited to become a member of the Global Liberal Arts Alliance, a consortium of quality liberal arts universities across the world, which work together on liberal arts projects. Awuah, himself, is seen as an outstanding leader and is asked to speak and work with groups across the continent and across the world, yet he works at the university all of the time he is not called away for fundraising, and he is very accessible to students. In 2015, he was awarded the prestigious Elise and Walter Haas School of International Award in front

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of the entire graduation of the University of California at Berkeley, and he was named one of the world’s fifty leaders by Fortune.

The Impact of Ashesi on its Students Something does happen to students at Ashesi. They are noted for their ability to give oral presentations and to ask good questions. They take initiative. As one student described his challenge when working with outstanding Oxford graduates as an intern at Goldman Sachs, “I couldn’t participate in the discussions for two days, and then I had a talk with myself. You’re an Ashesi student. You have to speak up!” (Grant, personal communication, September 25, 2014). What seems to be happening to the students is that they are being transformed from people who take fitting in and not making waves as appropriate behavior, to people who speak up for their values and accept that they need to be leaders. Indeed, they have learned both critical thinking and taking the initiative. Through their practical majors in Business Administration and Computer Science, in their courses and practice in entrepreneurship and design, they know how to do things in new ways. In a word, Ashesi is giving them agency. For the Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, ‘human agency’ is essential to development because it “represents people’s ability to act on behalf of goals that matter to them, and this aspect of freedom, he argues, is a core ingredient of positive social change” (Alkire, 2005). At Ashesi, the goal of transforming Africa is repeated regularly and becomes part of the students’ vision of the future. Fundamental to Ashesi is its emphasis on ethical behavior and social responsibility. As Dr. Stephen Armah, one of Ashesi’s young economists, has stated, “Ethical education has not been taken seriously in liberal arts education in the States for some time, whereas here in Africa we cannot take ethics for granted. If ethical education is a part of the liberal arts it will help us to transform politics” (Grant, personal communication, May 5, 2015). Thus, the experience of the Honor Code and the courses on Leadership are an important part of how Ashesi is transformational.

Conclusion: Can Liberal Arts Education Have an Impact on Globalization in Africa? This chapter began with a definition of globalization and a discussion of the urgent political, economic, and demographic challenges facing Africa. It can be argued that globalization, and the new technologies and communications that have accompanied this process, offer Africa an

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opportunity to be part of the international political, economic, and cultural systems on new terms. One of the impediments to Africa’s participation in the processes of globalization comes from the African states and their institutions. While higher education in Africa is only a part of the development picture, its success will ensure that Africa has the brainpower and training to take advantage of new opportunities in technology and communications, and in the exploitation of its agriculture and mineral resources. Yet in the case of Ghana, it can be seen that the regulating body for accreditation of new universities is not facilitating the creation of private universities and clearly seems to misunderstand what the liberal arts model has to offer. In the case of Ashesi University College, the university has quickly become part of the international world of education, and its graduates have learned that they can travel both mentally and physically between their own countries in Africa and the rest of the world. Liberal arts education, as they have experienced it at Ashesi, has given them critical skills, and honed their ethical sense of what is “the right thing to do.” While it will take time for Ashesi to contribute to the knowledge economy through its research, there is already a beginning. For example, its faculty are contributing their ideas about the use of mobile phone apps to the public health and agricultural sectors through their research. From these practical applications, student research assistants are learning to see connections between the classroom and their society, and each of the students working on these projects has found employment using their newly-gained skills. The practices of Ashesi as a university system are already being emulated, even in its mentoring institution, the University of Cape Coast (UCC). UCC reported that they have tried an honor system in the examinations of small classes and that this has worked. Moreover, the National Accreditation Board has included questions about alumni tracing in its audit and in the application form for a Presidential Charter. What might be feared in a discussion about the impact of the liberal arts on globalization in Africa is that it would only be about the impact on their students in terms of job preparation. But this is not the case. The impact of the liberal arts core at Ashesi has developed in its students qualities for a new kind of African citizenship that seeks to create and give back to society. That, coupled with the rigorous education in Computer Science and Business Administration, and soon, Engineering, will mean that when these students return home after their Ashesi education they will have an impact on societies across Sub-Saharan Africa. As young leaders, they are already creating jobs, solving problems, and asking questions about where their societies are going. As the Ashesi model shows, the

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liberal arts can be about leadership, empowerment, ethics, and social responsibility, all qualities that are needed in response to the forces of globalization.

References Adei, S. (2014). Leadership III syllabus. Ashesi University College. AfDB, OECD & UNDP. (2014) African economic outlook 2014 (Pocket ed.). DOI: http://dx.doi.oreg/10.1787/aeo-2014-en. Retrieved from http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org. Agyepong, S. A. and Warren, T. (2015, March 20-21). From West Coast to Gold Coast: Teaching a Capstone Entrepreneurshop Course in Ghana based on Lean LaunchPad. Proceedings of VentureWell Open 2015 Conference. Retrieved from http://venturewell.org/open/wpcontent/uploads/2013/10/WARREN.pdf. Akire, S. (2005). Subjective Quantitative Studies of Human Agency. Social Indicators Research, 74, 217-260. DOI 10.1007/s11205-6525-0. Ansah, E. (2015). Leadership IV Syllabus, Ashesi University College Ashesi Foundation. (2015). Ashesi Foundation website. Retrieved from http://www.ashesi.org. Bean, J. C. (2011). Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Bezy, M. (2015). Impact of ICT on SMEs in Africa. Presentation given at Ashesi University College, Ghana, May 13. Gentile, M.C. (2010). Giving voice to values :How to speak your mind when you know what’s right. New York: Mc Graw-Hill. Ghana Statistical Service. (2013). 2010 Population and housing census report: Women and men in Ghana. Accra: United National Ghana. Grant, M. (2013). Challenges of Introducing Liberal Arts Education for Women in the Middle East. The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs: A Global Perspective for an Interconnected World, 37, 15-24. Harrington, S. (2008). Ashesi University. Case: E290. 06/16/08. Stanford Graduate School of Business. Stanford University. Held, D., Mc Grew, A., Goldblatt, D., & Perraton, J. (1999). Global transformations: Politics, economics and culture. Stanford: Stanford University Press. National Accreditation Board. (2015, May 13). NAB Website. Retrieved from http://www.nab.gov.gh. Pflanz, M. (2013, September 12). Africa’s population to double to 2.4 billion by 2050. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved from

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/ University of Ghana (2015, September 10). University of Ghana website. Retrieved from http://www.ug/edu.gh.

CHAPTER THREE A POSSIBLE ROLE FOR NARRATIVE LITERATURE IN CULTURAL TRAINING FOR TRANSNATIONAL EDUCATORS SARAH HUDSON

As international branch campuses (IBCs), also known as transnational education (TNE) or offshore campuses, increase and the current institutions evolve, more scrutiny has been given to the quality of education such campuses provide. Integral to such scrutiny is a closer look at instructor performance and interaction with the student body in these new cultural settings. Though scholars have been writing about the lack of formal preparation for instructors who teach foreign students in foreign countries since the 1980s, the extant literature continues to point out the persisting need for better teacher preparation in international contexts. Gribble and Ziguras, in their oft-cited 2003 work, point out the deficiencies in the preparation of offshore instructors from Australia teaching in Southeast Asia. In the article, they make suggestions about how to improve instructor preparation, including offering easier access to legal and local information—such as maps and the locations of important places—as well as developing a system to support the informal mentoring that was already taking place (213). However, these suggestions have clearly gone unaddressed, for the most part, as Dunn and Wallace found that the Australian instructors that they surveyed in 2005 also had little to no formal preparation, and Gopal notes the same problem in her 2011 article. While one possible reason for this sluggish response to the recommendations in the literature may stem from the belief that students who enroll in an international branch campus want “an unmediated Western curriculum and pedagogy” (Dunn and Wallace 359), Pyvis insists upon the need for context-sensitive measures of quality in transnational contexts, arguing that “reliance on the home programme as the quality yardstick largely stems from understanding that ‘sameness of quality’ requires sameness in approach” and that such a stance often leaves the

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local education system, not to mention the branch campus students, feeling confused or slighted (741). Like the Gibble and Ziguras article, most literature advocates the need for both practical and cultural preparation for IBC instructors. The practical preparation is perhaps the easiest and most often accommodated. Universities like Griffith University in Australia offer a pre-departure manual that gives future TNE instructors a checklist of things to do and learn before they leave. Almost all of the information is strictly practical and the section on “cultural matters” consists of a list of seven short items that the instructors should be familiar with before they leave, but it offers no guidelines for how to obtain that information accurately (Barker and Hibbins). The University of Southern Australia similarly offers a guide for their transnational instructors, but the cultural preparation is largely left in the hands of the instructor to participate in or not according to preference, though it does provide some helpful links to further information (“Staff Traveling”). Perhaps the vagueness of guidelines on cultural preparation for offshore instructors stems from the often vague definitions of terms like “intercultural development” or “cross-cultural development” as well as the lack of guidelines for how to achieve such an amorphous thing as “intercultural development.” In this paper, I hope to draw upon diversity and culturally relevant pedagogical theory, predominantly from US scholars, in order to offer suggestions on how to better achieve intercultural understandings in transnational educators. I would like to suggest, based on the scholarship of the psychology of narrative and literature, that reading local narrative literature before departure and for the duration of stay and participating in group discussions in which the literature is used as a starting point to encourage self-reflection and introspection on both home and host cultures could achieve or encourage many, though perhaps not all, desired aspects of intercultural development in transnational instructors.

Cultural Diversity While there is a large body of literature on cultural diversity and multiculturalism in US schools, I will be primarily drawing on Gloria Ladson-Billings’s theory of culturally relevant pedagogy here. Her theory maintains that a culturally relevant pedagogy should (1) develop students academically, (2) nurture and support cultural competence, and (3) help students develop a sociopolitical or critical consciousness (483). LadsonBillings’s work addresses the difficulty of adequately incorporating African-American students into primary and secondary education in the

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US; however, her concept of culturally relevant teaching, with a little tweaking, could be applicable to transnational instructors who are seeking to find similar ways of bridging culture gaps with their students. Furthermore, these three goals of culturally relevant pedagogy are largely shared by transnational educational institutions. All of the international branch campuses at Education City in Qatar, for example, mention the importance of diversity, community involvement, cultural awareness, and global awareness, in addition to their mission of academic success. Regardless of the university’s particular area of emphasis, each acknowledges in its official documents that developing its students academically, culturally (locally), socio-politically (usually, globally) is integral to the institution’s mission and long-term goals. However, the trouble arises when, in order to achieve such a lofty mission, the faculty must also be culturally competent and globally aware in a culture and country with which they are not particularly familiar. One of the observations that Ladon-Billings makes of culturally relevant teachers is that they became members of the communities that they served, even if they did not live in the same areas as their students (479). Similarly, Richards, Brown, and Ford make some recommendations about how teachers can become more culturally responsive in their teaching including encouraging teachers to “learn about the history and experiences of diverse groups” (65) and “foster a positive interrelationship among students, their families, the community, and school” (67). Successful, culturally relevant, teachers participated in and developed connections to the communities in which their students lived. Such a connection is all the more important the greater the distance between home and host culture. However, such a connection is difficult to forge in faculty that only spend a few weeks to a few years in a given location far from where they initially reside. Sparapani, Seo, and Smith argue that one way teachers can gain the cultural knowledge and awareness needed to become what I have been calling a culturally relevant or responsive teacher is to “walk around” culture. They argue that teachers who wish to walk around a culture should “pay attention to what people do, why they are doing it, and how they are doing it. In other words, they not only observe the culture, they try to get a sense of what life is like in that culture” (55). By doing so, Sparapani, Seo, and Smith argue, teachers can more easily cross borders and become more effective instructors. They identify five key principles that they deem essential for the preparation of teachers who will be required or expected to cross cultural boundaries while teaching: (1) culture is communication, which requires an understanding of how one’s own culture is similar to and different from

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other cultures, (2) culture is personal, which requires teachers to be sensitive to how what they say or do affects the personal nature of culture, (3) culture has boundaries, which requires knowledge and familiarity with the boundary conditions of different cultures, (4) culture is perceived by those who stand outside the culture, which requires disregarding stereotypes of the culture, and (5) culture is defined by the people in that culture, which requires knowing the people in that culture and allowing that knowledge to change their perceptions of that culture (64-5). Walking around culture is certainly the most direct way to achieve most of these goals; however, given the time constraints of transnational educators and the inability to walk around a culture as part of pre-departure preparation, I propose that literature might provide a useful precursor and companion to the walking around culture that Sparapani, Seo, and Smith propose for successfully educating people of a different culture. While direct contact with the target culture offers many benefits that literature does not, literature provides a number of potential benefits that direct contact with the target culture cannot, hence the suggestion that they are used together, not as a substitute for each other.

The Psychology of Literature and Social Interactions Though the suggestion to use narrative literature rather than nonfiction informational readings to help prepare IBC instructors may seem unusual or perhaps not as helpful as nonfiction information, there is a body of scholarly literature that explains why narrative and narrative fiction, in particular, can be far more effective at improving social interaction and cultural understanding than nonfiction prose. While the psychological study of literature and its readers is a small niche in the field of social psychological studies, it is a fertile one. Though scholars like Suzanne Keen question the ability of fiction to create real change in its readers, the bulk of the literature offers convincing support to the claim that reading narrative fiction has tangible, measurable results on its readers. The individual and joint works of Raymond Mar and Keith Oatley provide a widely accepted framework for how the human mind processes narratives. Their work has far-reaching implications for utilizing narrative literature in efforts to improve social interactions and reduce prejudice. Mar and Oatley argue that “carefully crafted literary stories are not flawed empirical accounts, but are instead simulations of selves in the social world. They function to abstract social information so that it can be better understood, generalized to other circumstances, and acted upon” (173). They go on to claim that these simulations serve two purposes: (1) they

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offer a model for social situations that cannot be directly experienced and (2) they help readers understand and, perhaps, predict behavior that occurs in complex systems of interactions (174-5). Miall and Kuiken agree with Mar and Oatley, claiming that to participate mimetically in a text “draws upon the same social skills that enable us to understand others and maintain an appropriate stance toward them” (224). If we accept these explanations as true, it becomes easy to see how using fiction to help prepare transnational instructors for their classrooms and experiences abroad might be a particularly productive approach. De Nooy agrees with Mar and Oatley that stories can be seen as simulations of social action, and he goes so far as to say that stories can be seen as social action in and of themselves. He argues that stories have two social functions: (1) controlling social relations within specific settings and (2) offering practice in social interactions and relations (364), both of which are in agreement with Mar and Oatley’s work. However, De Nooy claims that stories not only operate on an interpersonal level but on an inter-group level as well (368). De Nooy’s work offers support for the argument that fiction can help, not just individual transnational teachers interact more effectively with a few students, but transnational faculty and staff as a whole interact more effectively with students, staff, and culture in international branch campus locations. The supposition of these initial findings is that fiction can be used to help readers better understand their own or another culture and learn, through the experience of social simulation, how to behave properly in those social and cultural conditions. In their aptly titled article, “Bookworms vs. Nerds,” Mar, Oatley, Hirsh, dela Paz, and Peterson found that exposure to fiction produced a stronger positive correlation with performance-based measures of social ability than exposure to nonfiction. They propose that this correlation is the result of fiction’s ability to simulate social situations and experiences (705). If applied to the case of transnational instructors, such exposure to narrative fiction written by and about the host culture could very well help instructors better prepare for their teaching duties as well as their cultural interaction during their daily lives in the host country better than purely informative nonfiction. While the details and information in guides such as Griffith and Southern Australia Universities’ booklets, such information lacks the ability of fiction to simulate the social environment and social interactions that the instructors may encounter on their travels. In addition to these theories on the potential for narrative to improve interpersonal and intergroup social skills, there is a body of literature that explains the transformational power of fiction and offers explanations for how narrative is able to prompt changes, sometimes permanent changes, in

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belief systems and personalities. Djikic and Oatley propose that the simulative quality of fiction produces fluctuations that can be precursors to personality change and that personality change can occur as the result of the indirect communication within artistic fiction. In a later study, Djikic, Oatley, Zoeterman, and Peterson found that fiction can, in fact, lead to personality changes and that such evidence indicates that fiction could be used as a facilitator in the process of personality growth and maturation. They claim that if fiction can, in fact, produce fluctuations in personality traits, “it seems reasonable to assume that this process can casually lead to a gradual change of oneself toward a better understanding of others as well” (28). Building upon Appel’s earlier work which found that fiction has measurable effects on readers’ real-world belief systems, Appel and Richter found that such beliefs acquired or changed through reading fiction not only persist over time but often increase with time. However, the likelihood of these changes is subject to conditions. While the research supports the theory that these changes occur, regardless of the following conditions, there are certain circumstances that make personality changes far more likely to occur and far more likely to be permanent. Schank and Berman claim that we create stories to teach others about us, what we know and what we think. When we consider the stories of others, or when we have new experiences, our existing thoughts and beliefs are sometimes challenged. These expectation failures lead us to examine our beliefs and sometimes build on them or change them. (294)

They admit, however, that the trouble with learning from stories is that the reader/hearer may not be sufficiently interested enough to alter their own memory structures (304). They recommend using stories that relate the most to the target listener/reader’s personal experiences (304). They also claim that “changing our beliefs requires expectation failures powerful enough to convince us there is actually something wrong with our existing beliefs, our representations of the domain” (309). Taking this condition under consideration would prompt me to suggest that, when asking transnational instructors to read fiction from and about the host country, he or she should choose books with protagonists or situations that he or she finds interesting. For a group setting, books should be chosen that reflect shared experiences of the group, perhaps novels about immigration or places and locations that they have been to or will visit. Novels should also be chosen that actively contradict preconceived notions or stereotypes of the host country held by members of the home country. Oately argues that “at an aesthetic distance that is optimal, the reader both

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experiences emotions, and can reflect upon them, in order to assimilate their meanings” (446). He agrees with Schank and Berman that the associative structures, those structures with which the reader identifies or that provoke memories for the reader, of a work of fiction are key in provoking both empathy and personal reflection (447). Oatley’s insistence on the necessity of reflection for personality change is consistent with Sharma, Phillion, and Malewski’s assertions that studying abroad, in and of itself, was not enough for pre-service teachers to develop multicultural competencies. In order to develop cultural competencies, the future teachers had to engage in personal reflections. It would seem that such is the case with fiction as well. To that end, unguided personal reading may not be enough to elicit the desired cultural competency for transnational instructors. Beyond purely simulating the social environment and proper social comportment, fiction also has the capacity to reduce intercultural and stereotypical biases in its readers. Harrison argues that narrative has the capacity to overcome empathic bias, or the tendency of people to empathize with people similar to themselves and that, because of this capacity, fiction “can play a critical role in facilitating cross-cultural empathy” (257). She claims that experiencing narrative empathy for a racially, culturally, or socially different “other” has the capacity to reconfigure the reader’s concept of who or what is similar to him or herself (258). Schank and Berman agree, and claim that “most of the knowledge we use in our day-to-day lives is stored in our memory structures as stories” (287). They call the storage of stories in memory “indexing” and argue that once stories are indexed in our memory, the lines between our own stories and the stories of others, whether factual or fictional, become functionally similar (302). Because of the capacity of fiction to reconfigure a person’s sense of sameness, Harrison claims narrative empathy can encourage readers to focus on similarities between themselves and others that they might not have realized otherwise. She goes on to posit that “it stands to reason that repeated exposure to characters from particular social groups would magnify these results” (270). Furthermore, Johnson, Jasper, Griffin, and Huffman postulate that narrative can reduce prejudice by providing a safe haven from inter-group anxiety. As part of their study, they also found that “indirect, as opposed to direct, intergroup contact may be more effective for individuals low in dispositional perspective-taking or other individuals who experience high levels of intergroup anxiety” (594). In a subsequent study, Johnson, Huffman, and Jasper found that narrative, as distinct from exposure to counter-stereotypical examples and

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reading about out-group culture, has the capacity to blur lines between races. While some might hope that such a reduction in stereotyping and racial and cultural bias would not be necessary for professors of higher education, individuals are often not aware of their own, often more subtle forms of bias and cultural stereotypes. Fiction offers a means of reducing these sometimes unknown cultural biases and stereotypes in a nonthreatening way and allows individuals who may be apprehensive about interacting with foreign students and the host culture an opportunity to reduce those anxieties before exposure to the new culture.

Recommendation of Practices Based on this information, I would recommend that institutions who operate international branch campuses and other forms of offshore education or transnational educational programs develop a reading list and discussion group for professors engaged in transnational teaching—a group that would form before leaving the home country and continue upon arrival in the host country. While most professors prefer the informal mentoring system that is currently the only means of pre-departure preparation for many transnational teachers, such a method has deep flaws. Hoare points out that such informal mentoring can unintentionally reinforce stereotypes and “enable an organizationally entrenched ethnocentrism” (565). Anita Gopal argues that, in order to obtain intercultural competence, transnational instructors should cultivate (1) attitudes that are open to and value other cultures, (2) self-awareness and comprehension of the other culture, and (3) skills that allow the instructor to engage in critical self-reflection and reflexivity (374). A well-designed literature discussion group can contribute to the development of all three core elements. While developing the desired attitudes, knowledge and comprehension could be achieved directly through the fictional readings, critical selfreflection and reflexivity could be encouraged and developed through the weekly or biweekly meetings of a discussion group. Such a group would need a facilitator, preferably a more experienced international branch faculty member, in order to guide the conversation towards critical reflection and discussion. Involving a more experienced faculty member would also have the advantage of preserving some elements of the informal mentoring program, which is perceived as preferable and effective by most faculty (Gribble and Ziguras 209) without relying on it entirely. Such a format would also allow for a personalization of training and experience as opposed to formalized training seminars or courses

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which are necessarily generic and generally disliked by faculty (Gribble and Ziguas 209). If it is possible to maintain the same group members in home and host country groups, such a group would also foster camaraderie and social support for the traveling instructors. The discussions in such groups should be directed toward a number of different factors, depending on the location of the group. For pre-departure groups, discussions should focus on developing an awareness of the home culture in relation to the host culture in the context of expectations of teaching and living in the host culture. Upon arrival, that conversation should shift to include the experiences of the teachers as they live and work in the host country. While it is both helpful and important to focus on some similarities, which would help reduce unrealized biases and stereotypes, the discussion should not minimize or shy away from the legitimate differences of culture that the instructor is likely to experience. Hoare points out that the recognition of cultural distance is necessary for developing cultural competence and that ignoring such differences is not productive in developing culturally sensitive and aware instructors. By including fictional reading in these discussions, topics and subjects that may not consciously arise in the everyday experiences of life in a foreign country, but that nonetheless are important to developing cultural competence, may be discussed and framed by both the literature and any relevant experiences of the instructors in the group. As more and more universities decide to embark upon transnational education through opening international branch campuses in foreign countries, faculty must be adequately prepared to function in and educate students from vastly different cultures. Such preparation is not only necessary for the betterment of the quality of education offered by the branch campus, but also necessary to ensure that faculty members have positive teaching experiences. By requiring faculty who intend to teach abroad to read literature from the host country and participate in discussion groups designed to foster critical thinking about home and host culture before departure and upon arrival, institutions can better prepare their faculty for the sometimes shocking experience of living and teaching in another country. By developing cultural competence in traveling faculty, the institution will also likely reduce at least some of the crosscultural tension and confusion that is bound to arise in such situations, making transnational education a far more enjoyable and productive experience for both faculty and students.

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References Appel, Markus. “Fictional Narratives Cultivate Just-World Beliefs.” Journal of Communication. 58(2008): 62-83. Print. Appel, Markus and Tobias Richter. “Persuasive Effects of Fictional Narratives Increase Over Time.” Media Psychology 10(207): 113-134. Barker, Michelle, and Ray Hibbins, comps. "Preparation for Teaching Offshore: A Guide." (2008): n. pag. Griffith University. Griffith University. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. De Nooy, Wouter. "Stories and Social Structure: A Structural Perspective on Literature in Society." The Psychology and Sociology of Literature: In Honor of Elrud Ibsch. Ed. Dick H. Schram and Gerard Steen. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 2001. 359-77. Print. Djikic, Maja and Keith Oatley. “The Art in Fiction: From Indirect Communication to Changes of the Self.” Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 8.4(2014): 498-505. Print. Djikic, Maja, Keith Oatley, Sara Zoeterman, and Jordan Peterson. “On Being Moved by Art: How Reading Fiction Transforms the Self.” Creativity Research Journal. 21.1(2009): 24-29. Print. Dunn, Lee and Michelle Wallace. “Australian Academics and Transnational Teaching: An Exploratory Study of Their Preparedness and Experiences.” Higher Education Research and Development 25.4 (2006): 357-369. Print. Gopal, Anita. “Internationalization of Higher Education: Preparing Faculty to Teach Cross-Culturally.” International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 23.3(2011): 373-381. Print. Gribble, Kate and Christopher Ziguras. “Learning to Teach Offshore: PreDeparture Traingin for Lecturers in Transnational Programs.” Higher Education Research and Development 22.2(2003): 205-216. Print. Harrison, Mary-Catherine. “How Narrative Relationships Overcome Empathic Bias: Elizabeth Gaskell’s Empathy across Social Difference.” Poetics Today 32.2 (2011): 255-288. Print. Hoare, Lynnel. “Swimming in the Deep End: Transnational Teaching as Culture Learning?” Higher Education Research and Development 32.4(2013): 561-574. Print. Johnson, Dan, Brandie Huffman, and Danny Jasper. “Changing Race Boundary Perception by Reading Narrative Fiction.” Basic and Applied Social Psychology 36(2014): 83-90. Print. Johnson, Dan, Daniel Jasper, Sallie Griffin, and Brandie Huffman. “Reading Narrative Fiction Reduces Arab-Muslim Prejudice and

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Offers a Safe Haven from Intergroup Anxiety.” Social Cognition 31.5(2013): 578-598. Print. Keen, Suzanne. Empathy and the Novel. New York: Oxford, 2007. Ladson-Billings, Gloria. “Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.” American Educational Research Journal 32.3(1995): 465491. Print. Mar, Raymond and Keith Oatley. “The Function of Fiction is the Abstraction and Simulation of Social Experience” Perspectives on Psychological Science. 3.3(2008): 173-192. Print. Mar, Raymond, Keith Oatley, Jacob Hirsh, Jennifer dela Paz, Jordan Peterson. “Bookworms Versus Nerds: Exposure to Fiction Versus Non-Fiction, Divergent Associations with Social Ability, and the Simulation of Fictional Social Worlds.” Journal of Research in Personality. 40(2006): 694-712. Print. Miall, David and Don Kuiken. “A Feeling for Fiction: Becoming What We Behold.” Poetics 30(2000): 221-241. Oatley, Keith. “Meetings of Minds: Dialogue, Sympathy, and Identification in Reading Fiction.” Poetics. 26(1999): 439-454. Print. Richards, Heraldo, Ayanna Brown, and Timothy Forde. “Addressing Diversity in Schools: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy.” Teaching Exceptional Children 39.3(2007):64-68. Print. Shank, Roger and Tamara Berman. “The Pervasive Role of Stories in Knowledge and Action.” Ed. Green, Melanie, Jeffrey Strange, and Timothy Brock. Narrative Impact: Social and Cognitive Foundations. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002. 287-313. Print. Sharma, Suniti, JoAnn Phillion, and Erik Malewski. “Examining the Practice of Critical Reflection for Developing Pre-Service Teacher’ Multicultural Competencies: Findings from s Study Abroad Program in Honduras.” Issues in Teacher Education 20.2(2011): 9-22. Print. Sparapani, Ervin, Byung-In Seo, and Deborah Smith. “Crossing Borders by ‘Walking around’ Culture: Three Ethnographic Reflections on Teacher Preparation.” Issues in Teacher Education 20.2(2011): 53-66. Print. "Staff Traveling to Teach Offshore: A Quick Guide for Academics." (2011): n. pag. University of Southern Australia. University of Southern Australia. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.

SECTION II: PEDAGOGY IN TRANSNATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SPACES

CHAPTER FOUR PROVIDING SPACE FOR CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE MATHEMATICS CLASSROOM SUMMER BATEIHA

Educational systems across the globe understand the benefits of mathematics education, as evidenced by the breadth of mathematics courses offered from preschool and kindergarten to the highest levels of post-secondary education. However, mathematics remains a highly problematic subject for many students, particularly in Western-based educational systems (Bartell, 2011). Difficulties experienced by students prevent many from developing the mathematical literacy necessary for numerical problemsolving, obtaining certain careers, and participating fully in society (Wager & Stinson, 2012). Why is it that mathematics seems to be so difficult? Is mastering this subject only possible for individuals with special gifts or innate abilities? Is fluency in mathematics restricted to some rare genetic combination? Or are there other forces at play that may be hindering students as they struggle through one confusing math class after another? Critical consciousness, a concept rooted in critical theory and developed by Paulo Freire in his 1970 work Pedagogy of the Oppressed, argues for first, a thorough cognizance of the structures that rule the world we live in and the oppressive nature of such constructions, and second, deliberate action against this oppression. Freire contends that Westernbased educational systems are firmly situated within the oppressive structures and serve to perpetuate the oppression of the subordinate classes. Informed by Freire's classic work and mathematics educators who have explored the repressive nature of mathematics pedagogy (e.g., Frankenstein, 1987; Frankenstein & Powell, year; Gutstein & Peterson, 2006, 2013) this chapter examines the oppressive nature of contemporary Western-based mathematics courses. The chapter identifies how the classroom experience can prevent students from attaining meaningful

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knowledge of mathematics. It concludes with ideas educators may use to provide space for critical consciousness in the mathematics classroom. These suggestions are presented along with reactions from students who were taught in such a non-traditional setting.

Perpetuating Oppression through Mathematics Hegemony, coined by the philosopher Antonio Gramsci, can be understood “as the process by which dominant groups establish the legitimacy of their version of reality throughout society” (Che, 2005, p. 22). A mathematics curriculum that perpetuates social and economic hierarchical structures is one manifestation of hegemony in educational systems that embrace Western forms of teaching and learning mathematics. Through hegemony, oppression emerges in the mathematics classroom and prevents critical consciousness in at least three ways. Students in Western forms of mathematics classrooms become indoctrinated into a certain version of reality by: 1. interacting with a curriculum that tends to ignore the history and contributions of people outside of the Euro-Western one, therefore, perpetuating a belief that Western contributions have historically been more significant to the advancement of mathematics than others (Frankenstein & Powell, 1997). 2. being treated as empty, less-knowing, basins meant to be filled with ideas to be regurgitated, therefore, reproducing and accepting the delivered notions rather than interpreting ideas and transforming concepts into new knowledge (Houser, 2006; Wheatley & Abshire, 2002). 3. utilizing meaningless or superficial contexts for word problems, therefore, limiting meaningful mathematical questioning and understanding of critical social problems and disregarding increasingly problematic issues (e.g., the rise of debt, consumerism, violence, etc.) (Gutstein, 2003; Gutstein & Peterson 2006, 2013). ,

Students who resist or do not buy into these forms of conditioning often falsely develop beliefs about themselves and their capabilities to do mathematics that prevent them from becoming mathematically literate (Frankenstein, 1987; Powell & Frankenstein, 1997; Gutstein & Peterson, 2006, 2013; Wager & Stinson, 2012). The next three sections elaborate on these three points.

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Ignoring the History and Contributions of “Others” Mathematics has existed for as long as humans have sought patterns to make sense of the world in which they live. “[I]t is clear that mathematics arose as a part of everyday life” (Boyer, 1968, p. 3). It began with ideas of distinction and similarity—“the difference between one wolf and many, the inequality in size of a minnow and a whale” and “one wolf, one sheep, and one tree have something in common” (p. 3). Understanding these abstract notions birthed the concept of number, and with time, different cultures began developing more refined mathematics that reflected their social and political needs. For example, Egyptians established devices for counting time and measuring land. Pre-colonized Columbian societies formulated and utilized a base 20 number system that “employs three symbols to write any whole number from zero to whatever quantity is desired” (Ortiz-Franco, 2006, p. 72). The Zapotecs of Oaxaca and Mayas in pre-colonized Central America used this number system to create calendars and to study astronomy (Ortiz-Franco). As the mathematics of different cultures and societies progressed, so did interaction between and among them. People began understanding and recording the mathematics of others and assimilating this new information into their own bodies of knowledge. The field grew as cultures learned from one another and expanded mathematical ideas. A new worldview began to emerge and mathematics became essential for human achievement and advancement. With mathematical inventions such as the mechanical clock, “[m]edieval mysticism and qualitative interpretations of time were replaced in the 16th and 17th centuries with quantitative, numerical notions of time” (Fleener, 2002, p. 39). Time became isolated and separated from life and was used to control workers’ behavior and quantify the universe— what Fleener has called a mathematization of reality. The invention of the mechanical clock and the acceptance of the perspective of mechanical time provided a necessary foundation for the modern scientific paradigm. The relationship between objects moving in space and time, and the mathematics that captured that relationship, fundamentally changed how Western societies approached nature and conceived of the potential of science to understand the inner workings of nature…Mathematics, originally a way of modeling our ideas about nature, soon became mistaken for an exact representation of the inner workings of nature. (p. 43) The mathematization of reality led to the separation of humans from nature. A shift in consciousness emerged in which people began believing that with enough scientific advancement, nature could be controlled, and

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the leading metaphor for the world became that of a machine—the idea being that like a machine, the world could be pulled apart, understood, and hence manipulated by its pieces. And inherent in this new metaphor was a “logic of domination” (Fleener, 2002). Mathematics and science became idolized among the studies, fragmenting thinking into categories with technicality perceived as superior to thought and emotion. World structures began to and still do reflect this mode of thought which “touts competition over cooperation, individualization over community, and progress over process” (Fleener, 2002, p. 47). People competed for advancement and resources and colonization efforts expanded. As certain groups of people overtook new parts of the world, they began to mold the structure of education in these new places, replacing existing ways of knowing. With these efforts, certain groups of people took credit for and distributed knowledge to other parts of the world. Although mathematical ideas emerged from the contributive endeavors of people from around the world, Western colonization and record keeping manifested an illusion of uni-cultural influence, acknowledging Western contributions above others, creating a mathematical knowledge hierarchy. This depiction continues to exist and disregards many of the efforts of other cultures. For example, history shows that the Middle East, China, and India contributed tremendously to the development of academic mathematics. However, credit for their undertakings has often been attributed to scholars such as Euclid and Pythagoras. Euclid – the so-called ‘father’ of plane geometry – spent 21 years studying and translating mathematic tracts in Egypt. Pythagoras also spent years studying philosophy and science in Egypt, and possibly journeyed East to India and/or Persia, where he ‘discovered’ the so-called Pythmatical documents (c. 800-500 B.C.). How could a theorem whose proof was recorded in Babylonian documents dating 1,000 years before he was born be attributed to Pythagoras? (Anderson, 2006, p. 44) Today, these legends survive in Western mathematics texts (used worldwide)—Euclid is still considered to have introduced plane geometry to the world, and Pythagoras still holds the title of first to prove the theorem that was named after him. Contemporary Western-based education continues to present mathematics in this way. This system of instruction perpetuates ideologies that impose and reward Western contributions over all other societal groups. Students from cultures outside the West are expected to study this Westernized discipline of mathematics with complete disregard of their own historical cultural mathematical ideas and contributions. This is particularly poignant

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in locations around the world where Western expatriate faculty members teach Western-based mathematics to non-Western students in their own homelands.

Treating Students as Empty Reservoirs The Western-based educational system seems to disregard not only the historical contributions of non-Western “others” but also the present individual capabilities and contributions of students in the classroom. Indeed, this educational system begins from the standpoint that the mathematics they study can only include what already exists as readymade and is only meant for memorization and regurgitation, with no room for invention or renovation. The pedagogical methodologies utilized in contemporary Western mathematics classrooms are deeply rooted in a Behaviorist model of teaching and learning (Houser, 2006) that emerged with the rise of Modernity and the scientific paradigm. This model depicts the student as someone to whom knowledge needs to be delivered, rather than someone who can construct his/her own ideas. In other words, the teacher demonstrates a concept and supplies a solution method which students are expected to mimic. If students stumble, the teacher typically quickly corrects them, leaving no room for error, different ways of looking at problems, innovative ideas, or time to grapple with issues until the students can resolve them on their own. This instructional model leaves little space for the development of autonomous thinking (Marchionda, Bateiha, Autin, 2014) and encourages students to play the school game, waiting for the teacher to tell them what to do and how to do it without regard for whether or not what they are doing makes sense. According to De Corte, Verschaffel, & Greer (2000), it is not so much a cognitive deficit that causes pupils' abstention from sense-making when doing arithmetic word problems in a typical school setting. To the contrary they are rather acting in accordance with the "rules of the game" which they belie[ve] to regulate the interactive ritual in which they are involved (p. 68).

One consequence of this pedagogical model has been a mathematics that appears impractical and handed down by specialized experts who are very different than the students themselves (Young, 2002). Connections between what happens in the classroom and what students do or who they are outside of the classroom do not seem to exist, and students are not invited to develop their own problem-solving skills based on the knowledge and the backgrounds they possess. The mathematics problems

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they engage with appear to have prescribed solution methods that have already been identified by an “other” with no room for input from the students themselves. This pedagogy prevents many students from generating strategies that could work for them and in so doing, enable them to develop confidence in their abilities to solve problems or come up with innovative ideas on their own  skills they will need for mindful citizenship and transformative considerations of the world in which they live. Further, it perpetuates the myth that some people can do mathematics (those who create and distribute it and/or those who are good at playing the school game) while others cannot (those who question it and/or those who cannot or do not play the school game). Studies about preservice and in-service teachers who will eventually or already teach mathematics show that even they tend to view mathematics as rule-bound and procedural (Bateiha & Reeder, 2014; Muir & Livy, 2012). They perceive mathematics as containing either right or wrong answers and often times believe that in order to succeed, students must search for prescribed algorithms and memorize formulas (Young, & Reichwein Zientek, 2011). Moreover, they often believe that people who succeed mathematically have a gift or innate ability to understand the subject (Frank, 1990). Ethnomathematical research examines the mathematical practices of various societal groups, including non-Western people. Studies of groups who use a mathematics that is different from the traditional academic form have found that treating students as empty vessels contributes to students’ frustrations about academic mathematics (Powell & Frankenstein, 1997). These obstructions emerge from the school depiction of mathematics as something to be handed to them and as different from the mathematical activities they participate in naturally outside of the classroom. Powell and Frankenstein highlight two examples of successful applications of mathematics outside of school that may be viewed as non-mathematical. In one example, Haris (1987) writes about the parallels between the domestic task of knitting the heel of a sock (a traditionally female task) and an engineering task of modeling a right-angled cylindrical pipe. He proposes that the knitting task is not mathematical, but the pipe task is, underpinning the inherent sexism in formal educational conditioning. For many students, this distinction perpetuates the false sense that they do not know how to do mathematics even though in their environments outside of the classroom they probably do mathematics naturally but perceive it as something entirely different. The mathematical knowledge of women and others is devalued by a reservoir filling system of teaching and learning, and students from certain socio-economic backgrounds, races, and genders

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are educationally marginalized (Powell & Frankenstein, 1997). Ezeife noted that “[o]ne of the reasons advanced for the high dropout rate and poor performance in examinations by the few aboriginal students who enroll in mathematics or science is that mathematics and science taught in school is bereft of aboriginal cultural and environmental content” (2002, p. 177). And Davison said, “American Indian students’ capacity to learn mathematics is influenced by language, culture, and learning style. However, the methods by which mathematics is typically presented do not take into consideration these factors” (as cited by Ezeife, p. 177). Similarly, in a second example, Spradbery (1976) conducted a study in England in which he worked with sixteen-year-old students who had not succeeded in elementary mathematics courses. After receiving futile remediation, these students “left school ‘hating everyfink what goes on in maffs’” (p. 237). Yet, Spradbery reported that outside of school, the students in this study “kept and raced pigeons…Weighing, measuring, timing, using map scales, buying, selling, interpreting timetables, devising schedules, calculating probabilities and average” (p. 273). These students were successful in applying complex academic mathematics in daily activities outside the school but were unable to conduct even elementary mathematical calculations in the classroom. The literature suggests two key factors are at play. First, the classroom is an unnatural and prescribed environment with unnatural and prescribed activities of little relation to the lived realities of the students. Second, neither students nor teachers recognized a connection between these extracurricular activities and the concepts presented at school. Students and teachers alike viewed the two activities as disparate and unrelated. Failure to succeed at the school game prevents many students from academic achievement, but these students are citizens who will soon serve in the various economic sectors of their society. Solid understanding of mathematical principles and practices enable one to better understand what is happening in the world and why, therefore enhancing one’s abilities to make meaningful contributions to the society (Gutstein & Peterson, 2013).

Meaningless and Superficial Mathematics Word Problems In most mathematics classrooms, instructors utilize word problems to give real-world context to skills and procedures taught and developed in the classroom. The idea is to help students recognize and understand the practical and meaningful applicability of mathematics outside the classroom. However, this pedagogical objective is rarely met to its full potential. Students often do not see the contexts studied as relevant to or

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logical outside of the classroom (De Corte, Verschaffel, & Greer, 2000). One reason for the field’s failure to meet this objective is that even when contexts are relevant, the problems presented to students give superficial scenarios that limit mathematical problem-solving to non-meaningful situations rather than critical contexts that demonstrate the power of mathematics as a tool for understanding deep rooted social issues (Gutstein & Peterson, 2006, 2013; Wager & Stinson, 2012). For example, word problems are often connected to topics such as distance traveled by two speeding trains or the exponential growth rate of bacteria—subjects that students may find meaningless and irrelevant in their lives. Lack of apparent relevance correlates with lack of interest. Using such contexts forces students to do an irrelevant mathematics, imposing on them the idea that they need to solve a problem they may have no interest in solving because it is what they are supposed to do. They are asked to focus on something uninteresting and irrelevant to them and must submit to following the rules of playing the school game rather than engage with mathematics in an organic and meaningful way. Problems presented to students are not within the realities of the students, but rather, are situated within the contrived reality of a fictional “other” (Verschaffel, Greer, & De Corte, 2000). An interesting pedagogical irony is that after being presented with these contrived and irrelevant problems, students are then encouraged to ignore the contextual component as they are told exactly what to do in each problem and how to do it. It is perhaps no surprise that students develop an understanding of context as irrelevant to the problem-solving process (De Corte, Verschaffel, & Greer, 2000) and skilled instructors and their students are caught in a pedagogical paradox in which teaching students to solve problems or apply skills and knowledge in real contexts is focused instead on playing a game of looking for keywords to do the mathematics, ignoring the importance of the context. Studies have shown that students in this interactive play often do not even assess whether or not the answers they obtain make sense in the situation because they view the problems as having nothing to do with logical thinking or realistic scenarios (Op’t Eynde, De Corte & Verschaffel, 2002). Even when the contexts stem from more popular topics of interest to students, such as pizza, shopping, and M&Ms, they remain superficial in nature and do not contribute to the learning of a mathematics necessary for active citizenship (Gutstein & Peterson, 2006). Gutstein & Peterson present the following as a problem that is more “real” for students. ,

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The strength of this problem is its scenario that students can relate to because they or their friends experience this in their own lives. However, Gutstein & Peterson (2006) propose that this problem “has a subtext of consumerism and unhealthy eating habits” (p. 6). Although the context of this problem is more engaging than train speeds and bacteria growth, it nevertheless addresses a superficial and arguably destructive context. The authors argue that mathematics is far more powerful than this context and can, in fact, help students recognize and understand significant global issues. Motivating students to comprehend the importance of mathematical understanding through critical real-world issues can be the springboard for considering transformative possibilities in society (Gutstein & Peterson, 2006, 2013; Wager & Stinson, 2012).

Providing Space for Critical Consciousness Some scholars have reconsidered the teaching and learning of mathematics in counter-hegemonic ways in order to provide space for critical consciousness. They are re-envisioning mathematics as a means of uncovering the effects of Eurocentric particularities by empowering student voices, histories, and capabilities, and connecting mathematics to critical worldly contexts. In the past decade, such efforts have emerged in the form of a social justice approach to teaching mathematics (e.g., Gutstein & Peterson, 2006, 2013; Bartell, 2011; Wager & Stinton, 2012), and before that, in the form of Ethnomathematics (e.g., Frankenstein, 1987; Powell & Frankenstein, 1997). Within these contexts, mathematics is turned into a “tool to understand and potentially change the world” (Gutstein & Peterson, 2006, p. 2). The idea is that mathematics can be a means to “reading the world,” which can give power to marginalized students (Gutstein, 2003) while at the same time helping students from Western culture recognize injustice so that social and economic disparities may dissolve and world conditions may begin to improve. Mathematics, history, language, art, and society become interconnected and mathematics curriculum becomes more holistic and relevant to all participants. For example, in order to give value to the contributions of non-Western mathematics, in Mozambique, Gerdes (Powell and Frankenstein, 1997) used baskets, fish traps, and other local objects to teach Geometry and illustrate the idea that mathematical understanding has always existed naturally in Mozambican culture. His students discovered the Pythagorean

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Theorem by studying how to construct a woven button used to fasten the top of a basket. After the task, the students made comments such as, Had Pythagoras—or somebody else before him—not discovered this theorem, we would have discovered it?...Could our ancestors have discovered the ‘Theorem of Pythagoras’? Did they?...Why don’t we know it?...Slavery, colonialism… (as cited by Powell & Frankenstein, p. 253)

Gerdes used this approach to create a space for his students to gain an awareness of the mathematics their culture utilized as a natural part of their traditions. This also allowed students to begin to understand that although Pythagoras may have taken formal credit for the theorem, he did not build these ideas alone. Students became aware of the misconception that one culture has contributed more to mathematics than others (Powell & Frankenstein, 1997). Other educators have contested the Behaviorist empty vessel model of teaching and provided space for critical consciousness by legitimizing the voices of their students (Frankenstein, 1987; Reeder, Cassell, Reynolds, & Fleenor, 2006). Frankenstein (1987) used dialogue in her classroom to facilitate student engagement. She asked her students to find and discuss solution methods, and in so doing, reconsider the roles of teaching and learning. This approach allowed students to question the Behaviorist assumption that teachers control all knowledge for the students and students are incapable of constructing mathematics through using their own natural ways of knowing. Frankenstein found that students were empowered by utilizing their own natural mathematical capabilities to build academic mathematical concepts. Their ideas and contributions were heard and valued, rather than disregarded and underestimated. They began to understand that although credit has been given to only a select few, mathematics can be created by everyone. The dichotomy between authoritative figure and subservient individual was replaced by mutual influence and diverse abilities. Further, educators have discovered the power of using meaningful social contexts for mathematics real-world problems—using mathematics as a tool for understanding current relevant social problems (Gutstein, 2003; Gutstein and Peterson, 2006). For example, Steele (2006) used traditional mathematics concepts to teach his high school accounting students the effects of sweatshop manufacturing on the economic and social well-being of the workers who manufacture the products. Andrew Brantlinger (2006) used the inequity present in certain geographical areas such as South Central Los Angeles during the riots of 1992 to illuminate geometric concepts. Through mathematics, he helped his students from

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Chicago’s north side understand that social conditions are often a result of culture rather than individual deficiencies. And Beatriz Font Strawhun, a teacher in a middle school in New York (Turner & Font Strawhun, 2006), used concepts such as linear and area measurement, ratio, operations with fractions, and mixed numbers to help her students uncover the injustice in the conditions of their overcrowded school when compared to those of a more affluent nearby school. “The opportunity to investigate real issues pushed students to construct and apply important mathematical concepts” (p. 86) and prompted them to take action to change the conditions of their school. A clear example of the transformative nature of this approach is seen in the problem presented by Gutstein & Peterson (2006). Factory workers aged 14, 15, and 16 in Honduras make McKids children’s clothing for Wal-Mart. Each worker earns 43 cents an hour and works a 14-hour shift each day. How much does each worker make in one day, excluding any fees deducted by employers? (p. 6)

Presenting students with mathematical word problems as examples of “an explicit text of global awareness and empathy” (p. 6) is a significant way mathematics can facilitate students developing critical consciousness. Coupled with the dialogical techniques used by Frankenstein (1987), such word problems transform mathematics into a vehicle for using critical relevant context and student capability to provide space for understanding the structures that rule the world in which we live and developing problem-solving skills and confidence in individual constructions of knowledge. This transformative mathematics empowers marginalized students and helps students from all social levels to recognize the nature and impact of injustices. Guided by these teachings, incoming generations of graduating students are better armed to disallow social and economic disparities. To summarize, teaching and learning the kind of mathematics outlined in this section can: x help students develop positive dispositions towards mathematics; x promote social awareness; x help students address and understand social problems and the “forces and institutions that shape their world” (Gutstein, 2003, p. 40), which in turn influences students to “pose their own questions” (p.40); x advocate “writing the world” or creating “a sense of agency,” in which students see themselves “as people who can make a difference in the world, as ones who are makers of history” (p. 40);

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x help students “develop positive social and cultural identities by validating their language and culture” and help “them understand their history” (p. 40); x help students develop positive dispositions towards others by validating other groups’ cultures, contributions, and histories; and x help students question the role of teacher and learner.

Reactions from Students Taught in a Social Justice Mathematics Classroom Informed by the literature, I taught a non-traditional mathematics course to a group of students at a community college in the Southwest region of the United States of America (USA). The course was offered at the preservice teacher level and was the first of two required mathematics courses for completion of their major. I conducted a practitioner-research (Anderson, Herr, & Nihlen, 1994) case study (Cresswell, 2007) with this group to investigate their reactions and perceptions. Among other things, the study was designed to examine their perceptions of mathematics, social issues, and their capabilities to learn and understand the subjects in the beginning and at the end of this course. The participants included 19 students: 12 Euro-American students who spoke English as their first language, 7 Mexican-American students who spoke Spanish as their first language, and 1 Korean-American student who spoke Korean as her first language. Table 1 shows a breakdown of these ages. Table 4-1: Age Range Age Group Number of Students

Below 20 2

20-29 7

30-39 8

40-49 2

As the study took place in an evening class at community college, it is possible the age ranges of the students did not represent “typical” elementary preservice teacher ages for this part of the USA. Further, because many of the students in the class represented a non-traditional age sample, several of them had not taken a math course in the past year. Table 2 shows a breakdown of the time since their last mathematics course.

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Table 4-2: Last Mathematics Course

Number of years Number of Students