Worldmaking in <scp>US</scp> Transnational Education

ABSTRACT This paper proposes a new theoretical framework, Worldmaking In TNE, that uses humanistic training as a strategy for embedding intercultural understanding, building competence, and nurturing global citizenship in US transnational education. The basis for the framework is the research of Harvard educator, Doris Sommer. The Work of Art in the World explores how thinking like an artist can enable civic agency and change paradigms. The author applies Sommer's findings to a core paradigm of US transnational education, US HEI owned and operated overseas education centres (“global centres”, referring to branch campuses and study centres) and asks how embracing the link between creativity and humanistic interpretation might be used as a tool to reframe education in these centres to reduce cultural isolation and better achieve US government ambitions for transnational education within the curriculum. US government ambitions for transnational education are defined and discussed alongside an analysis of its scale globally. The prominence of the global centre paradigm is established and its rationale explained. The challenges of the model in relation to students' acquisition of intercultural competence are identified. How centres could apply Worldmaking In TNE as a practice to support intercultural development is presented.