Lecturers’ perceptions of the Internationalization of the Curriculum in Finnish higher tourism education

Abstract

The Internationalization of the Curriculum (IoC) has become a more important focus in higher tourism education in recent years. However, despite several studies, its key definitions and dominant conceptual frameworks have not been adopted by the tourism education literature. Therefore, this qualitative study extends the current understanding of IoC in higher tourism education from lecturers’ perspective by applying the key definitions and dominant conceptual frameworks from the IoC literature (Leask, 2001; 2009; 2011; 2013a; 2013b; 2015; Leask & Bridge, 2013). The study provides further insights into how IoC is perceived in action in the context of tourism education in a non-English speaking European country: Finland. The findings reveal that IoC in Finnish higher tourism education is still fragmented and based on ad hoc practices. Conversation should be initiated to develop shared understanding and to answer the questions about IoC at the institutional and degree program level. A number of suggestions are made for the program managers and lecturers to support them in evaluating the current state of IoC and help them to ensure the competitiveness of the degree programs.

Keywords

• internationalization
• curriculum
• tourism
• higher education
• Finland