Motivations and Processes Faculty Used to Design First-Year Undergraduate Classes with International and/or Intercultural Content

The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to understand the motivations and processes faculty used to design first-year undergraduate classes with international and/or intercultural content. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 7 professors at a large public university in the United States with very high research activity. Professors viewed their own international experiences as fundamental to their personal and professional development and were motivated to add international and intercultural content to their course design by the opportunity to offer their students learning opportunities of a similar nature. Besides the varied subject-specific learning goals, these first-year seminars had the common goal of broadening students' horizons and developing students' intercultural knowledge and skills. The findings suggest that internationalization of the curriculum can be occur naturally under appropriate conditions, which include faculty with international experience and the autonomy in course design. This understanding offers useful insight to higher education leaders who intend to engage in internationalization efforts beyond student mobility. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]