Kültürlerarası Bir Bakış Açısından Yükseköğretimde Uluslararasılaşmaya Yönelik Öğretim Elemanlarının Deneyimleri, Görüşleri ve Karşılaştıkları Zorluklar

This paper explores faculty experiences, visions and their perceived challenges of internationalization in higher education in two different cultural contexts through a causal-comparative research. The participating faculty (N = 216) were affiliated with a university in the Northeast of the USA and a university in Mid-Anatolia in Turkey. Data were collected through Status of Internationalization Scale and the Challenges of International Education Scale and analyzed employing descriptive statistics and one-way between-groups multivariate analyses. The study findings indicate that faculty are challenged differently by the internationalization process in the two cultural contexts. The sample in the west tends to internationalize less abroad as receivers of international students and are especially challenged to teach diverse student populations and dealing with cross-cultural communication. The faculty in non-west internationalize more abroad and view their curriculum as international due to adopting an Anglophone education and utilizing international curriculum instruments. The study overall reveals that universities become increasingly complex and should establish policies not only to address international student needs, but also promote policies for collaborative research in a global context.