Web-Based Analysis of Internationalization in Israeli Teaching Colleges

Abstract

The international activities of academic institutions dramatically expanded in volume, scope, and complexity during the past three decades. This expansion raised the need to monitor and assess the process at various levels and ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of internationalization. This study has two main aims: first, to present a model large-scale feasibility test for internationalization assessment through institutions’ websites; and second, to assess internationalization using the proposed methodology in teachers’ colleges in Israel. A website-based analysis was combined with in-depth interviews with colleges’ leadership. The use of the proposed methodology is demonstrated through systematic assessment of 21 teachers’ colleges in Israel. The effect of contextual variables such as colleges’ size, location (national periphery vs. center), and educational stream (Jewish-Secular, Palestinian-Arab, and Jewish-Religious) on internationalization expression and intensity are presented and discussed in detail. Internationalization levels were found to positively relate to the size of each institution and its proximity to Israel’s geographic center. In addition, Jewish-Religious and Palestinian-Arab colleges were found to possess lower general levels of internationalization in comparison to the Jewish-Secular stream. This article presents discussion and policy implications of the findings.

The Drive to Internationalize: Perceptions and Motivations of Israeli College Directors

“…This growing interest has translated into active development of policies, programs and infrastructure at institutional, local and national levels. Moreover, as internationalization is perceived as a vital process for further development of higher education institutions, differences in the intensity and scope of internationalization -and certainly the ability to internationalize -might affect the competitiveness and even the survival of such institutions (Cohen et al, 2014). Research into internationalization research has been growing, with studies conducted on different aspects: the concept and definition (de Wit, 2002;Knight, 2005;Knight, 2011), strategy (Childress, 2009;Byun and Kim, 2011), curricula (Leask, 2013), intercultural and international learning outcomes (Deardorff, 2009), assessment of internationalization (de Wit, 2010;Aerden et al, 2013) and faculty motivations to internationalize (Lemke, 2011;Agnew, 2013;Spencer-Oatey, 2013).…”

The iconography of universities as institutional narratives

“…Lately, calls have been made that language ''goes beyond spoken words to include objects, behaviors, practices, images, symbols, etc.-all of which are called 'signs''' (Brannen 2004: 595). In the field of higher education, too, analyses of identity narratives privileged text-based expressions namely mission statements and promotion material (see, Davies and Glaister 1996;Scott 2006;Morphew and Hartley 2006;Osman 2008;Kosmütski 2012;Cohen et al 2014). Yet, following recent proposals to focus on visual artifacts of organizations to capture meanings or institutional narratives (see, Meyer et al 2013), this study intends to seek the identity narrative of universities in visual material calling attention to organizational iconography as capturing, expressing, and materializing meanings about organizational identity and social role.…”

“…Until very recently, research on identity work in universities focused on the textual expressions. Attention was paid in particular to how identity gets narrated in the mission statements of universities (Davies and Glaister 1996;Scott 2006;Morphew and Hartley 2006;Kosmützky 2012) or in such textual material as brochures (Osman 2008) and online promotional material (Cohen et al 2014). The recent aesthetic turn in organization studies toward the visual (Gioia et al 2013;Meyer et al 2013;Gioia et al 2014) spurs an interest in iconography and branding, also of universities.…”

Internationalization Strategies and Policies in Second-Tier Higher Education Institutions

“…Its students hail from different sectors and communities (Jewish and Palestinian-Arab; new immigrants, and those with ethnic backgrounds from different parts of the world); thus, second-tier colleges face the need and the opportunity to develop an intercultural dimension in education, which comprises an integral part of internationalization's definition (Knight 2004). Indeed, several colleges nowadays address this challenge by presenting extensive work on developing the intercultural dimension in their aims, function, and delivery of education (Cohen et al 2014).…”