Coda

When faculty members choose to participate in the Internationalizing Teaching and Learning (ITL) Cohort program, they find a guiding framework that has been in place since the program was developed. This framework is focused on aiding the University of Minnesota in achieving its goal of graduating students who are prepared to be global citizens (U of M Guiding Framework, 2010). Conceptualized by Gayle Woodruff and developed with Christine Parcells and Mary Katherine O’Brien, it emphasizes three dimensions of institutional work toward internationalization:

• Student learning objectives,
• Faculty development of personal and academic identities, and
• Adaptability of internationalization as viewed through different academic disciplines.

This framework has been shaped and transformed by cutting-edge and ongoing research on the internationalization of higher education.  Concepts that came from the research literature include focusing on global competency, internationalization of the self (Sanderson, 2008), and how disciplines engage in internationalization (Clifford, 2009), with examples pulled from articles on creating globally competent engineers (Downey et al., 2006) and the internationalization of mathematics (Appelbaum et al., 2009). For students, one of the most important aspects of this framework is not to assume “right” or “wrong” approaches to work solved by others, but to see that others may choose to solve problems differently (Downey et al., 2006).

Another guiding framework of the ITL program is that faculty — as gatekeepers to students’ education — must practice self-reflection about their own culture and value system to understand their worldview (Cranton, 2001, as discussed in Sanderson, 2008) and its impact on their teaching practices. One of Sanderson’s (2008) recommendations, and a core aspect of the ITL program, is to know yourself and develop an openness to others and to different places and experiences. Before we can graduate students prepared to be global citizens, faculty themselves need to be transformed; that transformation then leads to a transformed curriculum.

This guiding framework of understanding your own worldview — being open to other worldviews, places, and experiences — is a first step toward two outcomes: a sense of global citizenship, and a sense that working with others to solve the problems of the world is a best practice. This is the basic premise of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development, n.d.) — none of the goals can be achieved without working together with people across the world and in different disciplines. Zero hunger (SDG2), for example, can’t be achieved without addressing poverty, education, and many of the other sustainable development goals. The SDGs have a strong sense of equality ingrained in them, with “for all” a common addition to each of the goals. When the ITL program began in 2010, the SDGs didn’t yet exist (they were adopted in 2015), yet the idea of global citizenship positioned the ITL program to incorporate the SDGs.

The ITL Cohort now requires cohort participants to incorporate at least two SDGs into their revised global curriculum. This has increased visibility and awareness of the SDGs across the UMN system (Home | UMN Sustainable Development Goals). We have created a course list from which students can choose classes from across the University system that address specific SDGs (SDG Course Listing | UMN Sustainable Development Goals). And the Internationalizing the Curriculum and Campus (ICC) program, which hosts the ITL cohorts and a variety of other professional development opportunities related to internationalization, regularly trains faculty and staff about how to incorporate the SDGs into their curriculum and continue the Minnesota tradition of innovative international teaching and learning.

While the ITL program has grown to incorporate the SDGs, it retains the framework established by Gayle Woodruff and colleagues during the program’s creation, with mentorship, knowing yourself, the Fink taxonomy (Fink, 2013) of significant learning, openness to other approaches and worldviews, and so on. And the power of one changed mind remain the underlying theme of the UMN’s International Teaching and Learning Cohort Program.

Just as the Minnesota Model for Curriculum Integration and Internationalization has become shorthand for innovation in international education, we believe that integration of the SDGs across the curriculum at UMN will become shorthand for innovation and a transformative international education that is centered around building a better future for all.