Complicating International Education: Intersections of Internationalization and Indigenization A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Theresa Heath IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Dr. Christopher Johnstone, Advisor November 2019 Ó Theresa Anne Heath, 2019 Acknowledgements As is often said, a PhD program is not completed alone. There are many people who have lent guidance, patience, encouragement, and support throughout this experience. I am so grateful to have walked this road with so many excellent friends, family and colleagues. First to my family and in particular my parents, Steve and Ruth Heath. You have always supported me in every endeavor and have encouraged me to take on new challenges. This journey was no different. Thank you for your patience, your love, and unwavering faith in me. To my brothers, Christopher, Peter and Michael and my dear sisters-in-law, Linda and Jill, who have encouraged and teased me with equal measure while always having my back. To my nieces and nephews: Alexander, Kylie, McKinley, Stella, Amelia, Lilli and Lincoln. You are such bright lights. Much love to you all. To Felipe, who never doubts I can do anything and always supports me in my work and my passions, thank you. Much gratitude to my advisor, Christopher Johnstone, for your encouraging and insightful feedback and generosity of time as I worked to find my way in my research and writing. Big thanks to my committee members, Elizabeth Sumida Huaman, Peter Demerath, and Barbara Kappler, for your enthusiasm and wise words. You all have provided guidance and encouraged me to probe further in my work, reflect more deeply, and ask tough questions. To Michal Goh for supporting me when I made the decision to pursue the PhD full time and take the first step into the classroom as an instructor. I am grateful to the many faculty who taught me in and out of the classroom: Roozbeh Shirazi, Andy Furco, Cawo Abdi, Karen Miksch, Fran Vavrus, and Tania Mitchell. I am also grateful to the many brilliant scholars in my cohort and beyond who read my work, encouraged me to keep moving, and importantly brought community to what can be an isolating experience: Kristeen Chachage, Anna Kaiper, Maurice Sikenyi, Laura Wangsness Willemson, Kevin Clancy, Barbra Banks, Arien Telles, Laura Seithers, Zhuldyz Amankulova, Tiago Bittencourt, and Pimsiri Aroonsri. And particularly to Elly Cohen, whose friendship, wisdom, and support was infinite. I also want to thank the University of Minnesota Graduate School for X fellowship? and the John and Grace Cogan Graduate Research Fellowship. The support was central to my ability to travel to my site of research for data collection. I am grateful for my crew, Sara, Beth, Meg, Sara B, Maureen, and Christina, your friendship transcends any show. To Carla, my cheerleader from afar. Many thanks to Anne and Adrian for opening your home to me in the most amazing way. A big thanks to Stuart. To Matthew for encouraging me to take up this path. i Finally, deep gratitude to those at the site of my case study, my primary contact and the study participants who shared their time, work, passions, and frank assessments. This work challenged me and led to deeper reflection on my role and work as a researcher and practitioner. Thank you. ii Abstract Internationalization of higher education is no longer a peripheral strategy for most universities and colleges, now positioned to influence multiple layers of institutions. Intercultural learning as a positive and necessary outcome has bolstered the importance of internationalization; in Canada, intercultural learning has increasingly been institutionalized as an organizational strategy. More recently, Indigenization, or the engagement with Indigenous knowledge and peoples, has been taken up by higher education institutions in Canada. These strategies are grounded in differing educational philosophies, values, and motivations but are implemented simultaneously. This dissertation examines one Canadian higher education institution and the intersections of its strategic priorities of internationalization, interculturalization, and Indigenization. Utilizing case study methodology with interviews, document review, and observation as data collection methods, I examine the following research questions: 1) How do faculty and staff conceptualize the university’s international and intercultural efforts and motivations? 2) How does the institutional priority of increasing intercultural understanding engage with the internationalization and Indigenization organizational strategies of the university? 3) How do staff and faculty across the university understand the intersection of Indigenization and internationalization? Through this dissertation, I make two primary arguments. First, internationalization’s implementation through a business framework has motivated a movement toward interculturalization to further academic learning on campus and temper more the neoliberal outcomes of internationalization. This relationship has established a lasting link between the two strategies. Second, the growing engagement of higher education in Indigenization efforts has brought about intersecting strategic priorities and a hope that interculturalization can support and further Indigenization. However, the Indigenization project is supported and motivated by Indigenous autonomy and sovereignty, not by Western organizational frameworks. Further possibilities of engagement require an uncoupling of business and economic motivations for internationalization and interculturalization to open both to the possibility of transformation. iii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................................... i Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ...................................................................................................................................................... vi Chapter One: Shifting Perspectives of Knowledge and Intercultural Engagement of Difference ......... 1 Truth and Reconciliation in Canada ............................................................................................................................................7 Description of Site ................................................................................................................................................................................9 Positionality and Methodology .................................................................................................................................................... 11 Conceptual Framework ................................................................................................................................................................... 13 Definitions ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 15 Terminology .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Limitations............................................................................................................................................................................................. 19 Significance of Study ........................................................................................................................................................................ 20 Conclusion............................................................................................................................................................................................. 22 Chapter Two: Higher Education Strategies for Change ............................................................................ 24 Internationalization as Opportunity in Higher Education .............................................................................................. 24 Critique of Globalization and Critical Internationalization .......................................................................................... 29 Critique of Intercultural Dimensions of Internationalization ....................................................................................... 32 Intercultural Communication: Troubling the Nation–State and Systems of Power ............................................ 33 Settler Colonialism and Higher Education in North America ...................................................................................... 38 Frameworks of Education .............................................................................................................................................................. 42 Indigenization: Changing the Academy................................................................................................................................... 48 Education in Canada: A Case of Settler Colonialism and Anti-Colonial Activism............................................. 51 Education in Canada: Higher Education Organization .................................................................................................. 55