How does Transformative education link to my subject

• How does the model of transformative education relate to models you are already using as frames of reference?

The transformative approach to education is where students and teachers see their subject matter not only from their own viewpoint but also to consider the viewpoints of others who are different to them, racially, ethnically, economically, politically and gender-wise. I initially thought that law taught all of these things, that law was there to protect multicultural-ness in a diverse society. I am more at ease with the term multicultural rather than transformative education because it brings home the message clearer and has more impact. Although I still believe in an idealist way that law is there to protect society, all of society, we (law teachers) need to recognise multicultural and transformative education in a much more open and direct manner. I initially thought if you pushed it too hard the students would tune out of the lesson but instead I realise now that it is the whole point of law. To see the law and its application from different people’s views and perceptions is what transformative education is to me. It is as simple as discussing the implications for people from different racial backgrounds when arrested, when getting married, when applying for visa’s etc. For my subject money laundering and terrorist financing, multicultural education and transformative education is essential. I was naive in forgetting that other do not think as I do, that there is no different between people as we are all people. It is not that I did not realise there was a difference in treatment for different people but that it was not widely known and accepted. I am not sure I am still 100% clear on the issues but to understand that the students need to understand perceptions on the laws from other people is a good starting point. Working out how and detailing the curriculum will come. In Dennis’ paper I realised and understood the importance of having authentic assessment as a means of examining whether the students have understood as well as learnt. I was also happy to realise that the mixture of f-2-f teaching and online teaching/discussion allows for this as well as our oral and written examinations of the students.

Transformative Education - Multicultural Education - IoC

In week 2 of the course we are looking at Transformative Education - Multicultural Education - IoC. We are to read various papers on the issue and at first glance, I kicked back and thought, we do this in law. How could we not do this in law. How could we not incorporate different social, economic, political, racial, cultural norms into our students education. I read 2 papers from the specific reading list and by chance I read a paper by a friend in the US who sent me it to review for a conference. The paper that I am talking about can be located here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1433850 Prof Johanna Dennis makes a compounding argument that multicultural education in the US is still not going far enough. My eyes were opened to the fact that law which I link to social, political, economic, cultural, ethical and racial elements is often ignored by curricula. How can this be so? How can we teach law, the protector of rights and values without considering multicultural elements. I thought I was doing ok on this front. That my courses were IoC friendly, that my students were as open minded as I am. This is not to say they are not. I have no evidence either way. However after reading this paper I realise that much more needs to be done.
I thought and was proud that law stood up for those who were often overlooked, ignored because of multicultural issues. However how can we be proud when we are not teaching our students, the lawyers of the future to accept and adapt to these societal changes and transformations. OK I capitulate - I'll read some more accept the ideas and do the work. Idealistic I hear you cry, yes me too for the last couple of weeks but have a read and see what you think then. 

UWE's approach to Internationalising the Curriculum

Our vision is to be the UK's best Knowledge and Learning Partnership University.

Our mission is to make a positive difference to our students, business and society.

Our ethos of genuine partnership working enables U+WE to successfully promote and drive opportunity, social justice, creativity and innovation.

Together U+WE will INSPIRE...

I - Innovation

N – Nurturing Talent

S – Student experience

P- Participation

R – Research

E - Exchange

Building on our international successes and enhancing the ‘UWE Global’ brand are key features of our Strategic Plan. To achieve our goals we will continue to strengthen our partnerships, to provide even more outstanding opportunities for work and study, supported by our excellent range of professional services. With approximately 3,000 registered overseas students, UWE is already a multi-cultural university. Our aim is to build on our strong base to increase opportunities and recruitment, both at home and abroad.

Why internationalisation?

Our graduates are entering a global society, and we aim to make sure that through our strategic partnerships they are prepared for and can make the most of this environment.

UWE itself is also part of this global society. Through our strategic partnerships we aim to extend our capacity to raise aspirations across the world; we aim to boost inter-cultural communication, awareness and understanding at home and abroad; and we aim to enhance our work in collaboration with our partners in emerging economies, to help support them as these develop.

Selected global markets

With these aims in mind, UWE has established a number of strategic partnerships, particularly in South Asia, most notably Vietnam and Malaysia. We also have well developed partnerships in Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Pakistan and India. UWE is also engaging with developing markets in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Nigeria and Ghana.

Accomplishing our internationalisation aims

Our International Development Office co-ordinate our international partnership activities and international recruitment. Through this coordinated approach we will achieve our aims by:

·                       Utilising the opportunities that our international partnerships provide.

·                       Increasing recruitment of international staff and students.

·                       Developing broader networks of international alumni and links with businesses overseas.

·                       Expanding our transnational provision through the UWE Global brand.

·                       Providing clear progression opportunities for overseas students into UWE  2nd and 3rd Years, fully supported by our Quality Management Enhancement Framework.

·                       Increasing our postgraduate portfolio development dedicated to the international market.

These activities will ensure we further embed internationalisation into the UWE mindset.

Defining IoC in relation to Law

• How had you defined IoC up to now?

I had originally thought that IoC (and indeed this course) was a way of preparing our teaching materials to make them more applicable to non-home students. I thought this was a good thing and that I would be more sensitive to teaching foreign students my subjects. Instead this definition is turned up on its head and it is allowing your subject to be seen not just in a domestic sense but an international inter-connected and multifaceted way. It is the awareness of others. I am lucky that teaching international banking and finance law I am already talking about how laws are inter-connected and joined up, having affects and implications on other nations and other people.

• What is new to you in the ideas presented in the readings?

What is new to me is conscious realisation that the materials I am teaching in my course is allowing students to become more global, realising the cultures and politics of other countries which impact upon their own. The global financial crisis has been a great leveller of laws and situations countries now find themselves in. UK students cannot help to know that the EU and EU countries have a profound effect on their subject. They cannot help but realise the impact of the G20 or the Basel I II or III on their domestic laws. For me it is the realisation that banking and finance in an international context is already contemplating social economic and political aspects of globalisation, and thus preparing my students for entering the work place equipped with the necessary international skills.

• Are there ideas here that you think you could find useful in your work?

I like the idea that this notion of globalisation should be a conscious and not subconscious part of the course. More thought should be given as to how we extend what is already being done on a subconscious level. In Clifford et al’s paper he speaks about “global perspectives included an engagement with issues of equity and social justice and the reduction of prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination”. These things are entrenched in not only the LLB law degree course but in each module for example, employment laws derive from Europe and well as domestic legislation and case law and also allows for discussion of social and equitable perceptions.

I agree also with Clifford who states that non-western students learn in a different way to western students who feel freer to question the lecturer. However in my experience I find that once the seminars are integrated with western and on western students they pick up on each other social norms and adapt to the situation at hand. The non western students asks more and the west students pays more respect and listens more out of respect to the non western student. This has to be a benefit to both students.

• Are there ideas here that you think might not be useful - why is this?

The IoC ideas are all useful and I believe that most law subjects are tackling these issues in a subconscious way however I am cautious as to the use of them being used in an overtly conscious way. By this I mean it is harder to enforce the nuisances that are created organically in a seminar group. The tutor has to be aware of the importance of global learning but to force students to do it would be detrimental to their learning. One of the greatest hurdles I think is to show that law lecturers are already teaching IoC in their courses.  I am not in any way saying law does all of this and we need not learn more but rather I was surprised as how much of my course I could relate to this paper and also how much of my own law degree I could realte.

I wrote down some quotes of the definitions supplied which I thought applied to law.

Luong et al (1996:1) Curriculum “which values empathy and intellectual curiosity”.

Nilsson (2000:22) IoC as “aimed at preparing students for performing in an international and multicultural context”.

Schoorman (2000) “knowledge and practice where societies reviewed as subsystems of a larger inclusive world”.

I have posted a tweet to my law students asking whether they think their LLB is internationalised and whether it is important to them for it to be. I wait to see how they respond. 

Internationalising my banking curriculum - my story - task one

This is the first day week one of internationalising your curriculum or IoC. There are four tasks this week.
1. To write my story of how I came to IoC
2. Defining IoC
3. How to include IoC in my curriculum
4. My institutions IoC position.

I have pondered over this course for a while, in terms of whether it would be useful or not. I thought that IoC would teach me about how to include overseas students in my classes better, to teach my curriculum in a better way to all students to be inclusive as possible and how to make it more applicable to my students who are learning on-line in another country. This is not to be. It is about determining how to make home students more international whilst creating a curriculum which is international. Banking laws by their very nature have to be international given their interconnectivity with other jurisdictions.
So confused as I may be here are my posting on the VLE from the course on task 1.

I am English and live in Hereford which is very typically country English however I have lived in London and worked for small periods in Hong Kong, the US, Malta, Cyprus and Spain. I teach international banking and finance and although the law is from a UK perspective international laws play a major part in the laws of the UK. I have come to this course because I teach on-line and my courses are being taught via distance learning. Therefore a) I want to ensure that my courses are internationalised both for my home and abroad students and b) I would like to be able to teach the students the interconnectivity of banking laws in a more dynamic and international manner instead of just looking at a set of laws which are outside the UK's jurisdiction.

Theory into practice

Well yesterday was a day of firsts. I took my first on-line class. It was for banking and finance LLM and it went really well. The class was three hours long which I think was too long for them and for me. It was very intense. Fast paced and really intellectual. I realised that the students did not need as many questions as I had pre set them as they generally discussed all the aspects they needed during an examination of a typical assignment question. They participated and interacted with me. I would like to have seen a greater interaction with each other but I hope that will come. I am now thinking how I should make the session more interactive with them. Is it familiarity with the system and with each other? Will this develop over time?I had one student before the session say there was too much reading and then after the session he sent a tweet that he could not keep up or follow, so today I am going to work out a strategy for him to enable him to develop his online learning skills. I hope the others on the course enjoyed it. They are keeping their wiki profiles up to date too which is good. There is so much that can be done for online learning that there is not enough time with the students to do them all. It has opened by eyes to a whole new way of teaching.

Internationalising your curriculum

Hello again, yes it is that time of year when I go on another course and learn more about on-line teaching. This time it is about internationalising your curriculum. For which I have been given a text entitled "moving towards internationalisation of the curriculum for global citizenship in higher education" by Clifford and Montgomery. It is with tepid anticipation that I embark upon this course due to the dire time I had on the last course. I have indeed started to teach on-line and hopefully some of my course students will follow this blog and comment on thier experiences as well as me blubbering on about my thoughts and feelings towards the course.
Anyway for now adieu and speak more next week. The course starts on the 12th with proper kick off on the 17th!