Designing culturally inclusive affordance networks into the curriculum

Abstract

This study addresses the challenges concerning the internationalisation of higher education, with a particular focus on designing new international programmes. It presents a case study of a novel international study programme: the MA in Media Education at the Faculty of Education at the University of Lapland, Finland. The study looks into its curriculum as an affordance network and asks: How do the planned and experienced curricula respond to and support cultural inclusion? The results shed light on the risks of transforming existing domestic degree programmes into ‘international’ programmes. The core curriculum design challenges found in this study stem from the fact that the meaning of internationalisation has been defined ‘from within’; from the existing structures and expectations of the programme and from the host institution. We suggest that more attention should be paid to students' life-worlds and the entire multicultural ecosystem that builds on the affordances inscribed in the curriculum.