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I realized how absolutely lucky I was to have taught Full Circle, my first academic course at York University, at the Center for Support of Teaching’s new faculty workshop. Here, we discussed the challenges faced by faculty in the classroom. How does one engage and motivate students in the subject material? How can one link subject material to their lived experience? Student motivation, engagement in the material, and connection with their lived experience were the least of my challenges when teaching Full Circle. Students were delighted that such a course was offered at York and they at once understood its relevance and importance; the link between experiential education and internationalization was made real.

Rebecca Tiessen asks, "How can regular university classes help students to frame personal and emotional growth [from their experience abroad] in the context of scholarly learning?"[1]. At York, we decided that this need could best be served through a new academic course that would provide students an opportunity to systematically and critically reflect on their international experience. Full Circle is the title of this new course which is a direct outcome of faculty, staff, and student deliberation at a conference hosted in 2004 by the Office of the Associate Vice President International on ‘Experiential Education and Internationalization’.

York had recently established a successful international internship program and students were returning with a rich account of their experiences: how the fundaments of development theory they studied were being challenged in practice; how they confronted their "whiteness and privilege"; or how their identities as Canadians were being challenged given that they were students of color and/or racial/ethnic minorities; how texts at York in disciplines such as South Asian Studies ought to include more non-Western scholars; and how the experience had them confused about the world and their place in it. While some students did have an opportunity to explore these experiences as part of their course work (for example, in development studies, environment studies and anthropology), many students in disciplines such as business and administrative studies, engineering and the sciences, and even in general humanities and social science programs, lacked such a venue.

Academic priorities are our principal motivation for internationalization at York; hence, the notion of offering an international education course was a natural next step in alignment with our priorities of offering a menu of international education and study abroad/work abroad opportunities. With financial assistance from the Office of the Vice President Academic, the course was launched as pilot project in the Culture & Expression program offered by the Atkinson School of Arts & Letters, Faculty of Liberal and Professional Studies in 2006, and I was honored to be asked to design and teach it. In designing this course, I received a tremendous amount of input and support from various faculty and administrators at other institutions in the U.S. and Canada who had offered a similar course or were engaged in international education. As well, I received valuable input from undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplinary backgrounds. There are a number of very interesting course models already out there, ranging from a focus on creative writing and literature, to cross cultural studies, to a business studies perspective. You do not have to re-invent the wheel. For me, it was a case of determining what was out there, learning from the experiences of others who had taught similar courses, and designing an outline that I was most comfortable with, given my own disciplinary bias, and my knowledge of York students and our programs of study.

At York, we have been committed to supporting the integration of our diverse international communities, and this has translated into joint programming activities for international and Canadian students. The course design is a reflection of this approach to international education, as it includes international students who want to understand their international experience in Canada, and incorporates readings on the international student experience. Similarly, the course is inclusive of third-culture students who have been born and raised in different countries as well as immigrants and sojourners who wish to explore their intercultural experience. The aims and objectives of this course revolve around exploring cross-cultural experiences within the framework of international education.

The course readings are drawn from theory and research in four subject areas: international education, cross-cultural studies, critical theory (such as post-colonial and feminist studies), and career development. The course takes a critical perspective and problematizes our understanding of the 'international' in the context of education, culture and field research. It allows students an opportunity to 'navel gaze'- that is, reflect, analyze and assess their personal development. At the same time, it encourages them to question this experience in relation to a critical understanding of the 'other.' Narda Razack, in her investigation of international student exchanges in the field of social work, argues that we need to examine how Euro-Western hegemony is produced and reproduced, including through international exchange programs that exist within imperialist frameworks [2]. In examining and re-examining conventional concepts of identity, space and culture on the one hand and knowledge, power and privilege on the other, students are compelled to ask difficult and uneasy questions, engaging them in a process of what Paulo Freire refers to as, "conscientization"[3]. In re-evaluating concepts of culture and cultural difference, and questioning dichotomies of the "here" and "there", the "center" and the "periphery", the "colony" and the "metropole", students begin, in Fazal Rizvi's term, to interpret the different dimensions of "interconnectivities"[4].

The course design assumes knowledge of social sciences and critical pedagogy, as well as requires good writing and critical thinking skills. Herein, lays the challenge for this course.

Students’ disciplinary backgrounds largely dictate the framing and the nature of questioning of their experiences. Some have difficulty with the required reading and the heavy emphasis on critical reflection. As well, students’ ability to critically engage with the materials differs greatly depending on their different locations, power, and positionality within Canadian society. In many ways it is these differences that make for a more interesting learning process, as they provide in Tiessen's terms, a constant challenge to question our, "bloated sense of self importance" and our, "ability to solve other peoples problems", to critically analyze our sense of what it means to be Canadian: "Canadian values" and "Canada's role abroad," and reinforce a, "sense of humility" and a "healthy balance between making a difference and knowing one's limitations"[5]. This is particularly important as several work/study abroad programs are framed in the context of global citizenship, social justice and/or skills training and presume that the experience is, "intrinsically effective and good"[6].

Students respond well to readings on the issues of identity, cross-cultural transitions, and models on inter-cultural learning, and international career development. They appreciate hearing from different guest lectures, and in particular, appreciated learning from each other while working in groups on assignments and class presentations. I have been impressed by the quality of student reflection and analysis in each of the assignments, and genuine interest in pushing the borders of their learning experience. Most students are mindful and willing to ask difficult and uncomfortable questions about their assumptions, perceptions and positions in the context of international education. As an instructor, this was the single most important indicator of a successful learning environment. Several students have approached me since they have taken this course about exploring international education as a career opportunity, and I am delighted at the thought that in the future we could have a few converts – young academics and/or practicing professionals contributing to the much needed task of building theory and research in the field.

Coming full circle, that is what this course was all about. For the international office, it was about recognizing the international experience in an academic context: being true to our principle of internationalization. For me, as the instructor, it was about connecting the theory and practice of international education. And for the students, for whom I would argue the course was most central, it was about a formal institutional recognition of the legitimacy of their personal background and experiences as a source of academic knowledge, a validation that is often missing in our institutions of higher learning.

References

[1] Tiessen, R. (2007) “Educating Global Citizens? Canadian Foreign Policy and Youth Study/Volunteer Abroad Programs.” Canadian Foreign Policy, 14(1), 77-84.
[2] Razack, N. (2002). "A Critical Examination of International Student Exchanges" International Social Work 45, no. 2, pp 251-265.
[3] Freire, P. & Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world. South Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey Publishers.
[4] Based on an informal presentation by Fazal Rizvi, Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign at the Faculty of Education, York University, September 2007.
[5] Tiessen, R. (2007).
[6] Ibid.

Author's Information

Roopa Desai Trilokekar is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Education, York University with extensive field experience with universities and various international and bi-national educational organizations, including the Fulbright Foundation in India. Her previous work as Project Manager, Strategic International Initiatives, Office of the Associate Vice President International included responsibility for the York International Internship program and the development of special projects to internationalize the curriculum and the student experience. Her research interests include Canadian higher education policy; internationalization of higher education; and student experiential learning through international study and work opportunities.

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