1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46

A One-Armed Embrace of Postmodernity:
International Education
and Church-Related Colleges

by Keith Graber Miller

Rhodes Consultation on the Future of Church-Related Colleges
27 September 1997


Goshen [College's] identity and national reputation
have become so tied to its international program that
a few faculty members have asked whether, in the college's communal
self-identity and values, international education has not moved above
the Mennonite church connection. It is a fair question.

--Theron F. Schlabach, GC professor of history1

In an increasingly culturally diverse and globally interdependent


world, U.S. colleges and universities have recognized the necessity for

internationally educating their charges through both curricular alterations

and study-abroad programs. Impetus for such education is multiplex. For

some, the simple recognition that the U.S. is "behind" other countries in

internationalizing its institutions of higher education is sufficient:while

western European countries, Japan and other nations have educated for

interdependence, the failure of the U.S. to do so will "irreversibly diminish its

world stature."2Although the numbers have gone up dramatically in the last


IMAGE imgs/ArmEmb01.gif

1Schlabach, "Goshen College and Its Church Relations:History and
Reflections," in Richard T. Hughes and William B. Adrian, Models for Christian
Higher Education:Strategies for Survival and Success in the Twenty-First
Century(Grand Rapids:William B. Eerdmans, 1997):209.

2Statement from the Advisory Council for International Exchange, cited in
Alexander A. Kwapong, "Some Reflections on the Role of International


1

[CONVERTED BY MYRMIDON]