Internationalization of the curriculum in Japanese higher education

Strategies, pedagogies and practices in ‘international’ EMI classrooms

Abstract

Internationalization of university curricula has received growing attention among scholars and policymakers who recognize the importance of providing international and intercultural opportunities to all students, not only those able to partake in education abroad.  Much of the research in this area has been done in Anglosphere and European contexts (Leask 2017; Beelen and Jones 2015; Haigh 2002), with less scholarly attention given elsewhere. Our study focuses on Japan, analyzing the approaches taken to internationalize the curriculum in English-medium instruction (EMI) programs in Japanese universities. We seek to understand the experiences of educators and students involved in teaching and learning in these internationalized classroom contexts, with a view to contribute novel insights that can inform future policy and practice at internationalizing universities. The research questions guiding this mixed methods project are: 1)What does internationalization of curriculum mean for educators in the Japanese university context? 2)How do faculty members incorporate intercultural/global dimensions into curriculum design in their EMI programs? 3)What factors do educators and students perceive to enable or block the internationalization of the curriculum in these programs?