Globalisation and the Curriculum

Globalisation has left, and continues to leave, such an indelible mark on human experience that it is now impossible to ignore the global context within which whole fields of study occur or the global dimensions of various disciplines. Even though it has come fairly late to the party, higher education, like all other areas of human endeavour, must respond to globalisation. Comprehensive internationalisation is higher education's response and the curriculum is identified as one of its six elements according to the American Council on Education (2012) and one of the four themes in the 2013–2016 Universities Australia's agenda for higher education (Universities Australia, 2013). How scholars engage in enquiry and how/what students learn has immense implications for our ability to negotiate the challenges and exploit the opportunities wrought by globalisation. In the context of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, for example, Charles and Doerry (Reference Charles and Doerry2013) note that ‘STEM education not only needs to be in the vanguard of our national educational policies and priorities, but must also be thoroughly internationalized in order to allow STEM graduates to collaborate more effectively with peers around the world in critical innovate discovery and design’ (38). Likewise, Kedia and Englis (Reference Kedia and Englis2011) indicate that the transformation of the global economy requires that students in business education be immersed in an internationalised curriculum in order to meet the demands of fast-growing developing markets and a more globalised marketplace in general.

The reality is that globalisation has now become the arbiter of both relevant and inconsequential knowledge. And although it may seem easier to make the case for the internationalisation of STEM or business education, all disciplines and all knowledge systems now seem obliged to fall in line. Knowledge can no longer be only local. The curriculum is an important device that can be used systematically to ensure that all students are prepared with the skills, knowledge and dispositions to both understand and succeed in this globally interconnected and interdependent world.

Probably, the most compelling evidence that more and more disciplines accept this to be true is the fact that it is inscribed in the standards or criteria of various accreditation bodies. For example, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria for accrediting engineering programs states in its section on student outcomes that students must receive ‘the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, environmental and societal context’ (ABET, 2015–2016, General criterion 3). In its Core Values and Guiding Principles (part of its accreditation standards), the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) states, ‘the school fosters sensitivity toward and greater understanding of cultural differences and global perspectives. Graduates should be prepared to pursue business or management careers in a global context. Students should be exposed to cultural practices different than their own’ (AACSB, 2015, p. 6). Although there is no similar accrediting body that addresses standards within Indigenous education, entities like the Australian Indigenous Studies Learning and Teaching Network, a collaboration of tertiary Indigenous studies educators in Australia, advocate the building of relationships with ‘leading international Indigenous studies scholars’ as a way to ensure that a global approach to the discourse on Indigenous studies is achieved. Indigenous education must make its own conspicuous and substantive commitment to scholarship and pedagogy from a global perspective as it confronts the reality of a globalised world.

Why Indigenous Education in a Global Context?

When the challenges that confront Indigenous people around the world are examined, it is remarkable to see the degree to which their experiences are shared — especially in terms of colonisation, regardless of where they are situated on the planet. The invasions, the expropriation of land, the acts of genocide, the enslavement, the subjugation, the theft of children and sexual abuse of women, the denial of personhood, the imposition of alien laws and religious ideas and the general reluctance to restore stolen land and political autonomy seem to be largely standard fare for Indigenous people around the world (see for example, Jalata, Reference Jalata2011). This does not suggest however, that Indigenous people's experiences were and are the same all over the world. Indeed, Indigenous responses to colonisation are diverse as is the lived realities of Indigenous people. Understanding Indigenous issues in a global context, therefore, helps to link the narratives of Indigenous people, extend their agency in contexts that still feature hostility and barriers to opportunity, and ultimately broaden the democratic project — an aspiration of all progressive societies (Smith & Ward, Reference Smith and Ward2000). The internationalisation of Indigenous Studies takes into account both Indigenous students who may pursue this discipline and non-Indigenous students who are exposed to and engaged with this curriculum. It can mean many things, including student mobility across national borders, student support, and specialised coursework, but above all, it must mean the articulation of a global narrative for Indigenous Studies.

Yet another consideration has to do with the fact that although Indigenous people around the world have for years suffered marginalisation, exploitation and even genocide, the knowledge(s) they possess have been used to resolve a host of problems afflicting the human condition. Their knowledge of medicinal plants, for example, has been valuable to individuals and corporations alike (see e.g., Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women's Council Aboriginal Corporation, 2013; Pascoe, Reference Pascoe2014). The internationalisation of Indigenous Studies helps students to understand how Indigenous people both in historical and contemporary times, have served as the guardians of knowledge that, for centuries, have helped to perpetuate life and keep the earth's systems in balance — knowledge whose value has never been greater than it is now.

In the end, the mission of Indigenous education, like all other educational pursuits in the academy, must be to advance knowledge related to the discipline and prepare students to be effective and productive citizens in a globalised world. Therefore, the curriculum must be at the heart of this enterprise, both in terms of the scholarship that informs it and the perspectives that students encounter on their way to becoming educated adults. The curriculum, following Nakata et al. (Reference Nakata, Nakata, Keech and Bolt2012, p. 136) needs to assist students to ‘think and navigate through complex and contested knowledge spaces on their way to understanding Indigenous worldviews, colonial experiences, contemporary dilemmas and future goals’.

Indigenous Education and International Collaboration

Internationalising Indigenous Studies requires, in the first instance, a global conception of the field, a conception that can be best supported by collaborating with scholars from around the world. Indeed, one of the features of scholarship in the age of globalisation is the degree to which scholars cross national borders to work together. Adams (Reference Adams2013) names this era as the international age or the fourth age of research, claiming that we have already progressed through the individual, the institutional and the national ages. To the extent that there is always a need to bring the best and the brightest minds to grapple with the large and even small questions in any discipline, it is increasingly evident that the best and most cited results and ideas are more apt to emerge from research teams that are diverse.

Freeman and Huang's (Reference Freeman and Huang2014) study of 2.5 million scientific papers published over more than 20 years revealed that research produced by groups of scholars that reflect ethnic and geographical diversity tends to be published in higher-impact journals and to receive more citations than others. In effect, the scholarly contributions to science are greater when the scholarship is done by a diverse group of scholars. In addition to this, the work of Katz and Hicks (Reference Katz and Hicks1997), Sooryamoorthy (Reference Sooryamoorthy2009) and Narin and Whitlow (Reference Narin and Whitlow1990) show that research produced by international collaborations results in higher citation rates than research lacking such collaboration.

A commitment to international collaboration must therefore be central to any project for the future of Indigenous education. Such a commitment will allow this field to produce the best scholarship possible, to nurture the kind of intellectual capital necessary to advance the field and will present opportunities to build bridges and cement relationships. Impressive inroads have already been made within Indigenous scholarly communities in this regard. Organisations such as ‘Native American and Indigenous Studies Association’ (http://www.naisa.org/journal.html), ‘World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education’ (WiPC:E, http://wipce2014.com) and publications such as the Indigenous managed journals, ‘Alternative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples’ (http://www.alternative.ac.nz) and ‘The Journal of Global Indigeneity’ (http://ro.uow.edu.au/jgi/) who are committed to encouraging international and interdisciplinary scholarly collaborations. Moreover, they adhere to strict ethics guidelines that recognise the diversity of Indigenous, cultural competence and ethical research practices.

How Interdisciplinarity Advances Indigenous Studies

Globalisation has forced not only an intentional global approach to the study of various disciplines but also recognition of the value inherent in an interdisciplinary approach. Interdisciplinarity brings multiple perspectives to bear on a particular problem or subject, expanding the menu of options available to understand the phenomenon in question and offering insights that might never otherwise be broached if viewed through only one disciplinary lens. Climate change, for example, offers a contemporary and compelling example of how multiple disciplines work together, within and outside of the context of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to help us understand this challenge more completely and develop practical solutions to help mitigate its most harmful effects. The response of the Centres for Disease Control to the recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa offers another example of how multiple disciplines have been brought to bear on understanding and ultimately defeating this frightening disease. Palmer (Reference Palmer2001) is absolutely correct in saying that ‘the real-world research problems that scientists address rarely arise within orderly disciplinary categories, and neither do their solutions’ (p. vii).

Indigenous people in communities have always worked across disciplines in solving issues of importance to them. Indigenous academics around the world have been calling for recognition of Indigenous knowledge for issues such as climate change and environmental degradation for many years (see e.g., the special issue of the journal Alternative, ‘Indigenous Knowledges Impacting Environment’ (2014)). As noted by Hutchings (Reference Hutchings2014, p. 445), scientists are keen to turn to Indigenous knowledge holders to seek alternative answers when ‘conventional science has failed to avert emerging environmental crisis’.

Interdisciplinarity helps to increase the visibility of the challenges, it helps to marshal a more comprehensive response to intractable problems, and it also helps to develop a more nuanced pedagogy. These advantages are crucial when co-opted in the service of articulating a bold and visionary narrative of Indigenous Studies for the 21st century. There is indeed, a role for history, sociology, literature, film studies, psychology, economics and numerous other disciplines, particularly within the humanities and the social sciences, that can address core issues in Indigenous Studies in more substantive ways and help to take this discipline in new directions as it seeks to engage with the new and emerging challenges.

Enabling Global and Interdisciplinary Engagements in Indigenous Studies

As worthwhile and desirable as it may be to foster greater global and interdisciplinary engagements in Indigenous education, this does not happen simply by wishing it. These commitments are still not sufficiently institutionalised in the academy to expect that such support will occur as a matter of course. The most likely advocate, however, may very well be a Centre or Office for International Education that defines its mandate to include supporting the internationalisation of the curriculum. Such an office is generally an administrative unit within academic affairs that has responsibility for providing institutional leadership for internationalisation efforts, coordinating initiatives and projects of an international nature, providing a range of services that address the international dimension of the university and supporting engagement with and momentum for the internationalisation of the curriculum. Such a role is further assured if there are institutionally driven strategic goals and internationalisation mandates, in relation to Indigenous Studies, that are clearly articulated and are taken seriously enough in guiding institutional behaviour.

The case of Northern Arizona University (NAU) is instructive, where a working group on Indigenous identities was established, and involved an international and interdisciplinary collection of scholars (Carlson, Reference Carlson2015). This group was formed as a result of a vision for globally engaged faculty invested in advancing the discourse within Indigenous education, specifically issues around Indigenous identities. If a catalyst for this vision were to be identified, it would be the arrival of a Fulbright scholar in 2009, the application for which was shepherded by the Center for International Education. This scholar, who is a political sociologist and is of Māori descent, taught courses and also engaged in scholarly dialogue on issues of Indigenous identities with one of the authors of this paper during his one year sojourn at NAU. This experience led to the vision for a Working Group on Emergent Indigenous Identities (WGEII).

Funding was required to support the WGEII in convening its initial meeting in Flagstaff, Arizona in 2010. Again, the Center for International Education, believing in the need to invest in such initiatives, provided modest funding for this first meeting. Five years later, we are able to look back at a series of actions unleashed as a result of this initiative that far exceeds what any participant would have imagined, goes substantially beyond the initial financial investment, and has exponentially generated scholarly and pedagogical outcomes that have made significant contributions to the field of Indigenous education (Carlson, Reference Carlson2015; Carlson, Berglund, Harris, & Poata-Smith, Reference Carlson, Berglund, Harris and Poata-Smith2014; Harris, Nakata & Carlson, Reference Harris, Nakata and Carlson2013). We discuss the details below. The moral of this story is that a comprehensive infrastructure and leadership for international education on the campus makes it possible for partnerships with academics in advancing the internationalisation of the curriculum that can ultimately lead to significant scholarly and pedagogical outcomes.

Goals, Successes and Challenges of the WGEII

The goals of the WGEII were fairly straightforward. They were as follows:

1. 1. To serve as a vehicle to bring individuals from a number of disciplinary backgrounds including Sociology, Political Science, Education, Philosophy and Literature, to share unpublished scholarly work on the issue of Indigenous identity formation, new forms of cultural expression and challenges to existing notions of Indigeneity.

2. 2. To allow for the possibility of cross-disciplinary thinking about their scholarship.

3. 3. To produce an edited volume comprised of the revised essays presented at the meeting, as well as other essays that would be submitted as a result of a call for papers on the topic of Indigenous identity.

Some invited scholars had long teaching and research experience on Indigenous issues, and though they examined different aspects of the topic, each examination both broadened and deepened understanding of contemporary Indigenous identities. For example, one member whose scholarship and teaching falls within the discipline of English literature, examined the notion of the decolonising possibilities of film-making by Indigenous youth; they recognise that their self-representations, stories and documentaries work to counter legacies and ongoing streams of misrepresentations of Indigenous peoples (Berglund, Reference Berglund, Harris, Nakata and Carlson2013). By contrast, one sociologist in the group interrogated theories of the self, standpoint theory and the concept of ‘creolisation’ (a term used in the context of the New World that means to be native to a place), to put forward the argument that contemporary identities are formed, in part, from a dynamic process of intercultural fusion viz., its complimentary and divergent parts leading to a particular whole in a specific context (Harris, Reference Harris, Harris, Nakata and Carlson2013).

Several new to academia and early career researchers were also invited to participate in the Working Group, with the aim of creating opportunities for collaborations and mentorship. A great deal of energy emerged from the interdisciplinary collaboration. This, above all else, proved to be a rich and stimulating experience for the participants. Members brought much passion to the subject of Indigenous identities and the intellectual engagement generated broad excitement. In the end, the ability to leverage the experience and intellectual capital of the group instilled greater commitment to the project. At the end of the first meeting in 2010, members committed to turning their working papers into manuscripts that would be published in an edited volume, and the co-editors committed to procuring a publication contract.

Over the course of the next two years, the WGEII met one more time in Sydney, Australia. The goals of the second meeting were to encourage members to complete their manuscripts (a publishing contract had been procured) and to begin an agenda for future collaborations amongst group members. Along the way, the project faced a number of challenges. For example, the involvement of scholars from different parts of the world meant working remotely from time to time and communicating electronically when face to face meetings might have been more desirable. There was also some attrition from the group; a few scholars decided that they could not keep their commitment to submit a manuscript for publication because of other work and life commitments.

Notwithstanding these challenges, the output of the WGEII proved that it was and continues to be an incredibly successful endeavour. The edited volume of papers on Indigenous identities that were presented at the first WGEII meeting was published in 2013 by an Australian academic press (Harris et al., Reference Harris, Nakata and Carlson2013). The book featured works from all but one of the original WGEII members, in addition to essays from seven other scholars who had responded to a call to submit papers. Chapters focused on a number of Indigenous groups around the world, including Māori, Navajo, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, Maasi and Yanyuwa (from Brazil). The authors themselves hailed from around the world and were trained in multiple disciplines.

Outcomes of the WGEII

Since the successful completion of the edited volume, The Politics of Identity: Emerging Indigeneity (Harris et al., Reference Harris, Nakata and Carlson2013), the WGEII has continued to collaborate on numerous projects. Despite the fact that members hail from around the world, WGEII has managed several face-to-face meetings. In 2013 and 2014, the group met twice, once at NAU and later at the University of Wollongong (UOW). These particular meetings followed the WGEII's successful application for a UOW International Links Grant to enable the development of internationalised curriculum that would be offered at both NAU and UOW simultaneously. The project titled, Indigenous Identities in a Global Context: A Collaborative Curriculum Project, had three distinct elements:

1. 1. The development of an Indigenous Studies subject that explores critical issues in contemporary global Indigeneity with academic staff at both NAU and UOW collaborating on the design and delivery.

2. 2. The subject is designed to enhance the collaborative learning experiences of students at both universities. Students engage with each other across national and international boundaries using a mixture of online learning platforms, social media and other freely assessable online technologies (e.g., YouTube and Skype). Students also collaborate on specific assessment tasks.

3. 3. The development of curriculum resources to support the delivery of the subject. This included the development of subject modules, teaching materials and resources, Indigenous-centred pedagogies and lectures by academic staff in their respective areas of expertise.

While developing the subject, we were faced with some challenges around nomenclature — particularly using the term ‘Indigenous’. The WGEII considered the challenges of conveying the nuances and complexities of naming (how Indigenous people around the world refer to themselves) when endeavouring to teach subjects that have a global focus. These discussions led to a commitment to write a paper about this phenomenon so that students of Indigenous Studies could have a resource that addresses this important issue. The paper, ‘Four Scholars Speak to Navigating the Complexities of Naming in Indigenous Studies’ (Carlson et al., Reference Carlson, Berglund, Harris and Poata-Smith2014) is now widely used as a resource in Indigenous Studies. The paper invites students to think more critically about the complexities of naming. This is a useful publication for readers who are asked to consider how particular terms represent certain colonial histories and power dynamics on a global scale. A version of this paper was presented at the 2014, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Conference in Austin, Texas.

The WGEII has also collaborated on teaching and research grants including an Australian national competitive grant, a further UOW ‘International Links Grant’ and a NAU grant offered by the Center for International Education, the ‘Global and Interdisciplinary Research and Teaching Fund’. Of the four grant applications submitted, three have been successfully funded. These grants also present further opportunities to work with a broad range of scholars from various locations around the world. Two of the grants that were successful have led to collaborations with additional Indigenous scholars from the United States, Canada, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia. Indigenous people from these locations share a similar experience with colonisation therefore have much common ground for collaboration.

In 2013, members of WGEII established of the Forum for Indigenous Research Excellence (FIRE) (http://lha.uow.edu.au/hsi/research/fire/index.html). While managed from UOW, FIRE has global membership. Members of FIRE are individuals based anywhere in the world with a current active involvement and/or interest in research activities in an Indigenous context. One of the main aims of FIRE is to provide a research environment that supports the development and application of Indigenous knowledge to address contemporary challenges and opportunities. FIRE has enabled further collaboration exemplified by the 2015 UOW Indigenous postgraduate study tour to Aotearoa/New Zealand. Academics from UOW utilised the international linkages FIRE promotes and were joined on the study tour by a scholar from NAU and others from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in New Zealand. FIRE has enabled other international collaborations such as the Queering Culture/Cultured Queer: Indigenous Perspectives on Queerness Symposium (Carlson, Reference Carlson2015). Presenters at this Symposium are Indigenous to North America, Canada, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia. There was a great deal of interest in this Symposium including from Indigenous media in Australia. The ABC National radio program AWAYE that is produced and presented by Bundjalung man and broadcaster, Daniel Browning, featured interviews with the Symposium presenters (Browning, Reference Browning2015). One of the aims of FIRE is facilitating and fostering research with and for Indigenous communities both nationally and internationally. This involves ensuring research and publications are accessible to Indigenous people and communities regardless of their location. This commitment led to the 2014 establishment of the Journal of Global Indigeneity (http://ro.uow.edu.au/jgi/).

The Journal of Global Indigeneity (JGI) is an outgrowth of the WGEII and of FIRE. It is an international Indigenous focused journal that is digital and accessible at no cost. The editorial board consists of Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars from around the world. The journal is new; however, there has been a great deal of interest from Indigenous authors on a range of topics of importance to Indigenous peoples. For example, submissions includes papers that address Indigenous queer theory from Indigenous authors from the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, who represent a number of disciplines such as Indigenous Studies, Education Creative Arts, and Sociology. The first edition is currently in progress.

Several members of the WGEII are presenting together at the 2015 NAISA conference in Washington. This will provide an opportunity for members to once again convene and work towards the next collaborative project. There has been interest in joining the WGEII from Indigenous scholars from Sweden and Canada. Their interest was stimulated after accessing the edited volume. There is potential to work in collaboration with other Indigenous Studies programs to deliver the global Indigenous Studies curriculum that scholars at both NAU and UOW have worked on. This is an exciting opportunity that the WGEII looks forward to.