International Research Journal Focuses on Albany State University

Six Albany State University (ASU) faculty members contributed research articles to a special issue of the International Research and Review (IRR) Journal of Phi Beta Delta Honor Society of International Scholars. The special issue journal, Internationalizing the Curriculum for all Learners, focuses on strategic models of integrating international, intercultural, and global engagements into courses in higher education institutions, specifically at ASU. 

“The journal highlights ASU as one of the first institutions to offer scholars at other HBCUs a faculty-led example for internationalizing their curricula. In the journal, ASU faculty wrote about their course designs and experiences implementing this curricular change. ASU shows that higher education institutions can follow and lead faculty in these internationalization efforts,” said Dr. Rhonda Porter, Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

Participating faculty members included Dr. Nneka Nora Osakwe, Dr. Erica DeCuir, Dr. Louise Wrensford, Dr. Andrea Dozier, Dr. Patrick Whitehead, and Dr. Anthony Owusu-Ansah.

Dr. Nneka Osakwe served as the project coordinator, guest editor, and wrote the introduction to the journal. Her article discusses the intentional design of campus internationalization programs, which target all students’ global learning, with examples from ASU.

In “Internationalization for All Students: Global Learning at Home as a Strategic Process,” Dr. Erica DeCuir and Dr. Osakwe discuss the features which guide successful faculty implementation of this initiative. This includes internationalization of the academic-self, which embodies various intentional activities and global reflection to expand global and intercultural perspectives, syllabus redesign, content and pedagogy review, and course assessment.

In “Implementation of a Global Health Perspective in a Content Heavy Biochemistry Course,” Dr. Louise Wrensford discusses approaches to integrate international learning into a content-heavy chemistry course, which is required for students whose majors are biology, chemistry, and forensic.

In “A Design Process for the Internationalization of Conceptual Basis of Professional Nursing,” Dr. Andrea Dozier conveys her experience as she internationalized a nursing course required for students in the RN-BSN program. She shares a step-by-step, learner-centered instruction process, which takes place online.

Dr. Patrick Whitehead in his article “Internationalization of a Course in Human Development,” establishes the inadequacy of the nature and nurture theory of human development and propounds the need for internationalization. His course internationalization followed a three-step procedure, repeated eight times in covering eight critical cultural topics, focusing on Indigenous Alaskans.

In “Internationalizing the Language Arts Curriculum: Process, Strategies, and Challenges,” Dr. Anthony Owusu-Ansah describes a unique research-based internationalization process of teaching middle grades reading and English Language courses. The students started the research at the home- campus. They continued in Ghana, the study abroad location where the research investigation occurred in the context of cultural awareness and appreciation. The process was completed at ASU with students’ research presentations.

This research publication shares examples of ASU’s institutional model for curriculum and co-curriculum internationalization, such as faculty professional development and engagements, faculty-led programs abroad, and course internationalization for all students’ global learning. It also highlights interdisciplinary curricular and co-curricular in-class and campus-wide programs and activities, which all combine to enhance students' global learning.

The University hopes that this research publication will assist faculty members in other universities in internationalizing their curriculum for all learners.