A Study of the Relationship between School Internationalization and the Fostering of Intercultural Literacy in Taiwan’sInstitutions of Higher Education

• Main Authors: Joagni PARE, 巴祐寧
• Other Authors: Chu-Ping Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/p33q7b

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 教師專業發展研究所 === 102 === Most schools are so concerned with diversifying their demographics that they fail to make of internationalization a participatory, engaging, and inclusive construction for their staff, student, and faculty population. This study looked into the current internationalization practices and policies of the Taiwanese universities with the goal to understand whether they contribute or not to multicultural awareness and intercultural learning. Data of this study were collected using surveys and the qualitative inquiry methods, and were analyzed using a thematic method. The results, which were looked across through the lens of the theoretical framework of Allport’s intergroup contact hypothesis, indicate that the Taiwanese institutional environments are highly multicultural and constitute an ideal place for fostering intercultural literacy. However, many factors were found to handicapped not only the schools’ walk toward internationalization, but also their ability to transform their multicultural and multiethnic campuses into real hubs for intercultural learning. These factors included the following: (1) westernized internationalization policies and practices; (2) lack of strong faculty and staff commitment; (3) lack of proper institutional support for students and faculties; (4) Low interaction between international and local students. Based on those findings, a number of suggestions are made for teachers, educational practitioners and policy makers, as well as future researchers in the field of intercultural literacy and internationalization.