ACE | At Home in the World Initiative

Cultural competency among 21st century graduates has become imperative as the job market globalizes, and the workforce continues to diversify. In order to become responsible, productive citizens, our students must understand their own cultures and those of their neighbors at home and afar. By engaging higher education institutions in examining the collaboration potential between diversity/multicultural education and internationalization, The American Council on Education (ACE) seeks to address these needs through the At Home in the World: Educating for Global Connections and Local Commitments initiative. For institutions to fulfill their service mission in a globalized society, they will need to advance the analytical frameworks, pedagogical enhancements, diversification strategies, and innovative solutions to societal issues that the work in this intersection affords.

ACE's Inclusive Excellence Group and Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement are collaboratively promoting the At Home in the World Initiative to reach the ultimate goal of creating synergistic learning environments that empower students.

The Current Three-Year Good Practice Project
Funded by The Henry Luce Foundation

Through this three-year effort, ACE will work collaboratively with a select group of eight institutions to advance new analytical frameworks, enhance pedagogy, and develop innovative ways of fostering collaboration between internationalization and diversity/multicultural education on campus. More information on this project.

It is anticipated that selected institutions will engage with the ACE project team over approximately two years and then participate in a national conference (Summer 2013) to disseminate findings and lessons learned. The engagement will take the following forms:

campus visits by the ACE team
project meetings in Washington, DC
regular consultations with ACE team
quarterly virtual meetings of the learning community

Through this project, ACE seeks to enhance access to:

communication strategies that facilitate productive and mutually beneficial conversations between international and multicultural educators;
planning processes that identify and support shared priorities between internationalization and diversity/multicultural education initiatives; and
models that feature new traditions of collaboration between international and multicultural educators and administrators.

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Background:

ACE's work to date includes two roundtables, a publication and two institutes, through which we have learned that many institutions recognize the potential benefits of collaboration between diversity/multicultural education and internationalization, but most are still in the early stages of exploration. This suggests that institutions are seeking guidance in facilitating campus dialogues. This ACE project is intended to assist the broader higher education community in further study.

Over the past few years, ACE has engaged institutional leaders and practitioners in discussions about this initiative through meetings and publications.

Past Issue Discussions:

Year	Title	Description
2009	At Home in the World Institute	This gathering drew more than 150 representatives from 41 institutions to explore synergistic programming designed to bolster both the internationalization and multicultural/diversity education agendas on campus.
2008	Bridging the Gap between Multicultural Education and Internationalization Symposium	ACE convened more than 120 higher education leaders in teams from 26 institutions to advance the national dialogue on cultivating collaboration between diversity/multicultural education and internationalization.
2007	At Home in the World: Bridging the Gap between Internationalization and Multicultural Education	The publication outlines the common ground between diversity/multicultural education and internationalization, the ways in which these areas diverge, and potential strategies for advancing conversations that cultivate collaboration between these areas.
2007	ACE Internationalization Collaborative Meeting	The 2007 Collaborative meeting highlighted how domestic pluralism/diversity/multiculturalism and internationalization can be synergistic and integrated, rather than in competition.
2006	Roundtable of Scholars and 2007 Advisory Group meeting	ACE convened two working groups to advise CII and CAREE on the development of the collaborative initiative between diversity/multicultural education and internationalization.
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At Home in the World Initiative

Educating for Global Connections and Local Commitments

The Current Three-Year Good Practice Project Funded by The Henry Luce Foundation

Background:

The Current Three-Year Good Practice Project
Funded by The Henry Luce Foundation