Engaging the disciplines in internationalising the curriculum

The claim by universities to be ‘international’ has spread world-wide over the last two decades and this has been largely interpreted to mean the recruitment and support of international students. Little attention has been paid to what this means for curriculum development. This study was carried out to explore disciplinary understandings of the concept of internationalisation of the curriculum (IoC) and ways academics might be encouraged to engage with the discourse. Staff at all campuses of an Australian university, including campuses in Malaysia and South Africa, were interviewed about their views on internationalising the curriculum. The interview tapes were transcribed and the scripts analysed using Becher’s categorisation of the disciplines to explore disciplinary differences in the discourses. The learning communities of the ‘hard pure’ disciplines were found to be resistant to engaging in the discourse of internationalisation, while all other discipline areas recognised the effects of the contextualisation of knowledge and the need to consider the future multi-cultural work environments of their students. The possible reasons for the resistance of the hard pure discipline group are explored and ways to facilitate their engagement in the discourse