11th Annual EDiNEB International Conference Educating Professionals Leveraging Diversity in Globalizing Education

Globalization leads to an intensification of worldwide social relations linking distant localities (Giddens, 1990), which will result in greater cultural diversity in educational settings. This article is based on the premise that this diversity can be leveraged into enhanced learning capabilities, which, following Ashby’s law of requisite variety (1956), every system needs that is confronted with growing complexity and dynamism in its environment. However, whereas globalization enables closer contacts among different cultures; it does not inform us how to employ cultural differences. The challenge posed by globalization is therefore how to actually combine the varied ideas, knowledge, and skills of different cultures in such a way that diversity can indeed be seen as a constant source of critical inquiry, learning, and innovation? Furthermore, how can higher education institutions leverage diversity most productively and, in that way, help shape globalization? This article reports on how the Department of Information Management of the University of Amsterdam prepares itself for the effects globalization has and will have on higher education. This department has a long record of experimentation with education design and the organizatio