International Education is learning about issues that relate to or affect nations and their people. International means “between nations” and education means receiving or giving knowledge.
Examples of International Education are learning about conflicts such as the Israeli-Palestine Conflict, the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a language exchange between Uruguay and Australia, etc. These are all issues that represent some exchange among different nations (good and bad). At times international issues raise Global concerns, such as the example of deforestation which creates global warming.
International Education relates to the mobility of students and scholars or an exchange of information and ideas. International Education does not require a person to be physically in the nation with whom there is a connection. International Education might involve different types of linkages, agreements, and understandings of many sorts.
Therefore International Education is content that relates to more than one nation with the purpose of learning.
Examples of International Education
an exchange between scholars from one country to another, a study abroad program, writing a scholarly article between two professors from two nations, learning pedagogy from a different country, learning a language, and many more are examples of international education.
BRIEF HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
International education can go back as far as the history of cultural exchange and education, playing a crucial role in the development of civilizations. Phoenicians (1500-300 BC) were great maritime people living in the Eastern Mediterranean, trading with other regions, and with that, they had an important exchange of knowledge and ideas. The Egyptians were some of the first known educators and as such, they had people from different places teaching their skills to the kings and aristocrats. Throughout the history of humanity, there have been refugees and slaves passing their knowledge to their masters. Another example of the cultural exchange was the Romans who sent their rich youth to Greece to learn literature, philosophy, administration, trade, and other trades and skills.
The first Univerity in the world was established in Fez, Morocco, and dates back to 895 AD. Fatima bint Muhammad Al-Fihriya Al-Qurashiya university had people from different places and was an important educational hub.
A more “contemporary” account of this critical knowledge exchange was created in the universities’ 13th and 14th centuries. One of the oldest universities of its time was the University of Bologna, Italy, which was established in the year 1088 that had an important exchange of students and scholars.
International Education contributes to the meaning and the use of an international framework, (a framework is a set of rules or norms that tells you what to be taught). what does this mean??
Suppose you use an international perspective for your work or ideas, where you establish links and or conclusions based on a couple or more nations. In that case, you are using an international framework.
Unfortunately, the International Education terminology has been and still is many times misused.
International Education Week
International Education Week is only one of the many aspects of international education that must be explained within an international education context. International education started as a celebration of international initiatives at institutions. Scholars attribute international education week to the field of Comparative Education, the education field that researches, learns, compares, and evaluates different education systems. Later in time when exchanges and agreements between institutions and scholars became more popular, International Education Week grew to be a place of information about agreements and exchanges available at universities.
International Education is evolving, we still have a long way to go to make the concept equitable and recognizable to all. The field has a strong proven theoretical framework that has not been completely understood. The standards of International Education must be much higher. Let’s not forget that international education has been a trend for a while, growing very quickly it was not always developed in a way where some of the people involved in the field had expertise in the area. As a consequence, terminology and extrapolation from areas of study/knowledge that are decontextualized have done more harm than good. Many jumped on the bandwagon, which advertised schools, programs, and ideas where students could acquire international and cross-cultural skill sets that in the end, they barely recognized. I know I opened a can of worms but it is only ethical to do so.
Why is International Education Important?
It is important because it allows us to be exposed to something different. It broadens our views and experiences contributing to a wider knowledge base; a store of information that makes it possible to expand what we already know, increasing the knowledge we have, understanding differences, and hopefully making solutions to problems.
