Knowledge, Skills, and Preparing for the Future: Best Practices to Educate International Studies Majors for Life after College

• Published in: International studies perspectives 2018-05, Vol.19 (2), p.148-169
• Main Authors: Zartner, Dana, Carpenter, Kathie, Gokcek, Gigi, Melin, Molly, Shaw, Carolyn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: EXPLORING PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES AND NOTIONS
• ISSN: 1528-3577; 1528-3585
• DOI: 10.1093/isp/ekx004

Higher education is at a point of transition. Colleges and universities are considering new ways to attract students through innovative programs that stay true to their educational mission and also prepare students for the current job market. Employers consistently talk about the skills they need in graduates they hire, including critical thinking, strong writing, adaptability, and cultural competency. International studies as a major is perfectly poised to provide students with both the academic grounding they need to better understand the world around them and the skills necessary to make them desirable to employers. Communicating the skills and content that coursework in the major offers, however, is often not a straightforward process. Students have both skills and content knowledge, but two key issues need to be addressed: (1) how can faculty better communicate to students the skills and knowledge we want them to gain from our classes, and (2) how do we enable students to understand and articulate these skills to future employers? This article addresses these questions by examining the contributions of international studies with regard to building skills in the classroom, enhancing cultural competency, promoting language training, developing networking capacity, and preparing students for life after college. La educación superior se encuentra en un punto de transición. Las universidades están considerando nuevas formas de atraer estudiantes a través de programas innovadores que sean fieles a su misión educativa y también preparen a los estudiantes para el mercado laboral actual. Los empleadores hablan sistemáticamente sobre las competencias que necesitan en los graduados que contratan, como pensamiento crítico, escritura sólida, adaptabilidad y capacidad cultural. Los estudios universitarios superiores a nivel internacional están perfectamente preparados para brindar a los estudiantes tanto la base académica que necesitan para entender mejor el mundo que los rodea como las competencias necesarias para hacerlos atrayentes para los empleadores. Comunicar las competencias y los contenidos que los estudios superiores ofrecen, sin embargo, a menudo no es un proceso sencillo. Los estudiantes tienen tanto las competencias como el conocimiento de los contenidos, pero es necesario abordar dos cuestiones: (1) ¿cómo puede el cuerpo docente comunicar mejor a los estudiantes las competencias y el conocimiento que queremos que obtengan en nuestras clases? Y (2) ¿có