Challenging Deeply Held Paradigms 1

One of the many surprising aspects about the Sharing Cultures Project has been how this relatively small, intercontinental, virtual project – operating for barely four years – has managed to transcend the narrow confines of an academic module tucked away in an advancement/support program into the broader institution dealing with questions of internationalization and diversity.

How does one create strategies to change long traditions and deeply held paradigms about teaching, learning, and curriculum? Various factors played an enabling role in this regard at our institution. First, the Deputy Vice Chancellor officially endorsed the program’s value for the issues of diversity, access, and research. NMMU, formerly the University of Port Elizabeth (UPE) historically was an all-white, Afrikaans institution. UPE has grown into NMMU and is now regarded as one of the most racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse universities in Southern Africa. The full NMMU was established in the January 2005 through the merging of three institutions totaling more than 22,000 students. The construction of this new institutional identity implied the definition of a new vision, mission, and goals to which the Sharing Cultures Project elements of internationalization, diversity, technology and language strongly resonate.

In addition to academic international programs like Sharing Cultures Project, we have recognized the need to bring the principles of the project to our home campus. A conscious process has started to promote cultural understanding and integration of students (and staff) on campus – attempts to create a global village at the NMMU. If you can negotiate identity here, if you can transform learning here, the chances are much better that you will become a world-citizen, appreciating the local in the global.