The Initiation and Implementation of Internationalization Programs at a Secondary School in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Bridget Lim Suk Han; Indra Sahril Sayuati

Bridget Lim Suk Han
Indra Sahril Sayuati

Abstract

Internationalization involved a process of transformation school leaders adapted to function in an international context, based on institutional context. The main purpose of this paper was to examine how the work with internationalization at a case school in Kota Kinabalu was undertaken and emulated the procedures manifested in the Partnering Cycle. This cycle is divided into 4 different domains with 12 different steps. This was a qualitative case study adopting 2 different research methods comprising conversational interview and document analysis. The data appeared in the forms of verbatims, video and audio recordings, photographs and documents, were decontextualised and then recontextualised to tease out pertinent themes and patterns as well as dilemmas for the researchers to craft the very mould of this case school on implementing the work of internationalization based on the Partnering Cycle. The findings provided in better details the activities that could be carried out in relation to the 12 steps of the Partnering Cycle. The findings too pathed the way for the educational leaders involved in this case school specially to reflect and self-appraise as well as rationalise why certain steps were more emphasized in comparison to the others for the work of internationalisation at the case school. The outcome of this study was an eye-opening experience especially for the researchers. Apart from the opportunities to gather realistic activities carried out for each of the steps delineated in the Partnering Cycle which focussed more on scoping and building by the case school, this study supported the crafting of the Michael’s Framework, the novelty of the study, that graphically depicted the initiation and implementation of internationalization work at the case school. The success of the internationalization work at the case school was upheld by the school leader with the application of the 3 attributes – Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes which were influenced by the contextual factors of and surrounding the case school.

References

Altman, D. (Ed.) (1999). Statistics in the medical literature: 3. Statistics in Medicine, 18(4), 487-490. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0258(19990228)18:4<487::AID-SIM106>3.0.CO;2-J.
Björkman, C. (2008). Internal capacities for school improvement: Principals´ views in Swedish secondary schools. Academic Dissertation, Umeå Universitet. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:142435/FULLTEXT01.pdf. Accessed on 15 Jan 2023.
Daymon, C., & Holloway, I. (2002). Qualitative research methods in public relations and marketing communications. Routledge.
De Wit, H., Hunter F., Howard L., Egron-Polak E. (Eds.) (2015). Internationalisation of Higher Education, European Parliament. Brussels: EU. Retrieved from from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/540370/IPOL_STU(2015)540370_EN.pdf on 18 May 2021.
De Wit, H., Hunter, F., Howard, L., & Egron-Polak, E. (Eds.). (2015). Internationalisation of higher education. European Parliament, Directorate-General for Internal Policies.
Dolby, N., & Rahman, A. (2008). Research in international education. Review of Educational Research, 78(3), 676–726.
Egekvista, U. E., Lyngdorfa, N. E., & Du, X. Y. (2017). Internationalization in schools – Perspectives of school leaders. International Journal of Educational Research, 83, 20-31. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijer.2017.02.009.
European Parliament. (2006). Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the council of 18 December 2006 on key competences for lifelong learning. Retrieved from http://data.europa.eu/eli/reco/2006/962/oj
Gay, L. R., Mills, G. E., & Airasian, P. (2009). Educational research: competencies for analysis and applications (9th ed.). Pearson Education.
Stake, R. (1995). The art of case study research. Sage Publications.
Hammad, T. (2019). A.S.K. Attitude, Skills, and Knowledge. EC Publishing LLC.
Hesse-Biber, S. N., & Leavy, P. (2006). The practice of qualitative research. Sage Publications.
Hopkins, D. (1993). A teacher’s guide to classroom research (2nd ed.). Open University Press.
Hudzik, J. K., & Stohl, M. (2009). Modeling assessment of outcomes and impacts from Internationalization. In H. de Wit (Ed), Measuring success in the internationalisation of higher education (pp. 9-22). Amsterdam: EAIE Occasional Paper 22.
Jackson, J. (2008). Globalization, internationalization, and short-term stays abroad. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 32(2008), 349–358.
Killick, D. (2011). Students as global citizens: Being and becoming through the lived-experience of international mobility. Unpublished Ph.D Thesis. Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK
Knight, J. (2003). Updated internationalization definition. International Higher Education, 33, 2–3.
Knight, J. (2004). Internationalization remodelled: Definition, approaches, and rationales. Journal of Studies in International Education, 8(1), 5-31.
Lewis, A. (1992). Group child interviews as research tool. British Educational Research Journal, 18(4), 413-421. doi: 10.1080/0141192920180407.
Landis, J. R. & Koch, G. G. (1977). The Measurement of Observer Agreement for Categorical Data. Biometrics, 33(1), 159-174. https://doi.org/10.2307/2529310.
Lim, B. S. H. (2012). The Capacity and Capability of a Rural Primary School in Sabah in Promoting the Teaching and Learning of the English Language. PhD thesis, Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Merriam, S. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. Jossy-Bass/John Wiley & Sons.
Perez-Karlsson, Å. (2014). Meeting the other and oneself: Experience and learning in international, upper secondary sojourns (Doctoral dissertation). Umeå Universitet, Umeå, Sweden.
Rumbley, L. E., Altbach, P. G., & Reisberg, L. (2012). Internationalization with the higher education context. In D. K. Deardorff, H. de Wit, J. D. Heyl, & T. Adams (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of international higher education (pp. 3-26). SAGE.
Sahlin, S., & Styf, M. (2019). Internationalization as an Internal capacity builder for school Improvement: a case study. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 24(3), 371-392. DOI: 10.1080/13603124.2019.1591511.
Southworth, G. & Conner, C. (1999). Managing Improving Primary Schools: Using Evidence-based Management and Leadership. Falmer Press.
Swedish National Agency for Education. (2013). Curriculum for the upper secondary school [Gy11 in English]. Retrieved from www.skolverket.se/publikationer?id=2975 on 11 May 2021.
The Partnering Initiative (2009). Partnering: Step by Step. Retrieved from https://thepartneringinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/partneringstepbystep.pdf on 18 May 2021.
Tupas, R. (2014). Intercultural education in everyday practice. Intercultural Education, 25(4), 243–254.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (2018). Introducing UNESCO. Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/about-us/introducing-unesco on 11 May 2021.
Yemini, M. (2012). Internationalization assessment in schools: Theoretical contributions and practical implications. Journal of Research in International Education, 11(2), 152–164.