On intercultural dimension of internationalization of higher education and intercultural learning in formal and non-formal education: the experts’ views from Italy and Ukraine
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This research was intended to contribute to a deeper understanding of intercultural dimension of internationalization of higher education and intercultural learning through the perception of policy-makers, representatives of higher education and civil society sectors from Italy and Ukraine. Both countries stive to become more open to the outer world and help their citizens to live and work in the global context. More specifically we have attempted to study if internationalization has operated a shift towards qualitative learning objectives, making universities to focus on intercultural learning within the internationalization process. Universities in both countries strive to be internationally highly ranked and to have numerous international studentship, however they form different multicultural contexts, ways to institutional policy and practice, have different internationalization strategies, different traditions of cultural and language homogeneity in education systems. The cases provided from Italy and Ukraine will illustrate how the policies of internationalization cultivate the intercultural awareness. This is not intended to be a comparison between the two countries but rather as a snapshot of the ways internationalization agendas enhance cosmopolitan outlook of the academia in different locations. Under the complexity of the globalized world it is an urgent need to draw attention at the historical mission of the university education concerning the formation of globally aware citizens. Challenges of globalization today continue to increase pressure for the education to change curriculum and learning environment in order to educate young generation to be capable to live and work in culturally diverse society. The research idea is to examine whether the internationalization of higher education stimulates the universities to fulfill this mission. The present research examines how these discourses interact with internationalization of higher education, taken particular universities in Italy and Ukraine as the research sites. The intercultural/global discourses are complex phenomena represented through various ideas and practices, hence they can be understood differently in different places, by different people, and also may lead to different outcomes. The research is done as a comparative study in two countries: Italy and Ukraine. The higher education institutions in both countries strive to be internationally highly ranked and to have numerous international studentship, however they form different multicultural contexts, ways to institutional policy and practice, have different internationalization strategies, different traditions of cultural and language homogeneity in education systems. The cases provided from Italy and Ukraine will illustrate how the policies of internationalization of higher education at national and institutional levels meet the stated above challenges.
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The main research question is based on exploration on how the intercultural dimension of internationalization is actually concretized in teaching and learning in compliment to a purely organizational focus in the chosen HEIs in two countries. The study was carried out in two public universities in Ukraine and one university in Italy due to the acquaintance of the researcher with these institutions: University of Salerno (UniSA), Donetsk State University of Management (DSUM), and Kharkiv National Economic University named after S. Kuznetsa (KHEU). The selected universities mark the regional locations (South Italy and East of Ukraine). The selected institutions strive to pursue the internationalization agenda at its most and have long-term cooperation records. The mixed-method approach for the research purpose, which proves advantageous and reliable for qualitative research, and used thematic analysis for the analytical work, which is one of the most common approaches to qualitative data. As mentioned before, the university have cooperated for many yers, which allows the authors to pay visits, to meet and converse teaching members and administrative staff from different departments, attend thematic conferences and other public events. The primary data collection method for this study was in-depth, semi-structured interviews with the open-ended questions that encouraged the respondents to share their experiences and highlight their implicit knowledge within the field. Prior to the interview, the participants were informed of the nature. With pandemic restrictions in mind, the online video interviews were conducted at different platforms convenient for the respondents: ZOOM, Skype, and Microsoft Teams. The interviews were conducted in English with the Italian respondents and in Ukrainian with the Ukrainian respondents. In addition, the researcher translated the recorded interviews texts of the Ukrainian experts into English. The interviews were taken from December 2020 through June 2021 for seven months. Fifty six experts from Italy and Ukraine were interviewed for this research: 30 - from Ukraine and 26 - from Italy. To provide a more holistic picture of the research question, the respondents from various professional fields were chosen and engaged in more collective, self-reflexive examinations of the research question. The four groups of the interviewees were formed. I. National level /policy-makers/ public servants, responsible for education. II. The representatives of the organizations providing non-formal education (civil society organizations (CSOs), associations, unions, agencies, foundations). III. Institutional level – Administrators (internationalization vice-rectors, heads, and employees of the international relations offices, heads of the research departments, didactics departments, student service employees, representatives of student self-governance, etc.). IV. Institutional level - Teaching Staff.