Internationalisation and Multiculturalism in CELA-Particpating Landscape Architecture International Education Programmes

Abstract

The paper addresses the need for research in landscape architecture international education by offering a selective analysis of three surveys of department heads in CELA-participating landscape architecture programmes. The primary data addressed in the paper is a set of follow-up focused interviews conducted in 2004. These interviews expand on the authors' previous surveys concerning international education activities in CELA-participating schools, which were conducted in 2002 and 2003, and a similar survey by Malcomb Cairns and Ann Hoover, conducted in 2003. The selected data from the surveys and interviews provide information from the reporting landscape architecture programmes on their history, and approaches to internationalisation and multiculturalism. Analysis of the data indicates that: (1) Most landscape architecture international education programmes began during the 1980s and 1990s, and the majority of programmes reported significant change in their activities within the last decade. (2) A significant number of programmes described their approach to international education in terms of the relationship between the region and the global or international. (3) A significant number of programmes described their international education activities in terms of opportunities for, and benefits of, exposure to cultures other than their own, and in terms of relationships between multiculturalism and internationalisation.