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International-mindedness in an international school in Cairo, Egypt

Posted on:2007-01-04Degree:Ph.DType:Dissertation
University:Walden UniversityCandidate:Hurley, TheresaFull Text:PDF
GTID:1457390005981214Subject:Education
Abstract/Summary:
International schools have increased dramatically in number in order to meet the demands of a globally mobile expatriate workforce, and while this proliferation has taken place, there has also been a slow but steady transformation of international education from comparative national studies to an internationally-minded education. Globalization and cross-cultural contact have influenced the evolution of international schools whereby many of the stakeholders at these schools have made efforts to embrace and foster international-mindedness. However, the transformation of an expatriate private school to an internationally-minded one has not proven to be an easy task. In this study, interviews, school documents, and field notes provided data in response to three research questions that addressed international-mindedness at an international school in Cairo, Egypt: how did international-mindedness manifest itself at the school; how did stakeholders construct international-mindedness; and how did stakeholders negotiate international-mindedness in their host culture? The answers to these questions were grouped into various social constructions that revealed the challenges of cultivating international-mindedness at an actual international school. The findings suggested that the transformation of this international school into an internationally-minded school was not successful even though stakeholders affirmed international-mindedness in very similar ways. The significant gaps in school practice and stakeholders' outlook indicated that this international school lacked strategies to foster international-mindedness. This study contributes to social change by emphasizing the importance of successful implementation of international-mindedness within school cultures. Because schooling affects the lives of the majority of all of the world's children and youth, the context of a school is ideal to promote international-mindedness. At this point in the global era, schools have to consider their global impact more so than their generation of grades and test scores by preparing lifelong learners to participate in ongoing dialogues about the interconnected and interdependent globe. To take action, schools must transform into internationally-minded learning organizations that take heed of the feedback from their own stakeholders so that they become socially interactive communities involved in learning about global goals, diverse perspectives, and their own improvement.
Keywords/Search Tags:School, Global, Stakeholders
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