International and language education for a global future

2. Gulliver’s Travels: The History and Consequences of Title VI

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pp. 17-32

The original title of Jonathan Swift’s 1726 classic was Travels into Several Remote Regions of the World, In Four Parts, by Lemuel Gulliver. The challenges of dealing with the unfamiliar, which made Gulliver’s Travels so popular, have hardly abated. For the past fifty years, Title VI of the Higher Education Act (previously the National Defense Education Act) has been the U.S. government’s primary mechanism ...

3. Title VI and National and Global Security: Current Status and Concerns Going Forward

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pp. 33-68

In addressing the relationship between Title VI and national and global security, this chapter offers reflections on four interrelated topics. The first section discusses the importance for security-related concerns of global competence— defined as knowledge, understanding, and skills related to other countries and cultures and to world affairs more generally. It also calls attention to the contribution ...

4. The Impact of Fifty Years of Title VI on Language Learning in the United States

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pp. 71-88

Why is it important for Americans to learn foreign languages? In a nation that has been so resolutely English-speaking for more than 200 years, where U.S. citizens can apparently live their entire lives without ever needing to use any other language, why should they bother? Even for those interested in international travel and work, is it not enough just to learn about other areas of the world without having ...

5. The Growth of the Less Commonly Taught Languages in Title VI and Language Programs in the United States

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pp. 89-110

That the 130 Title VI National Resource Centers (NRCs) and Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) universities have developed the capacity by 2006–2009 to offer approximately 195 less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) is an astonishing accomplishment made possible by a modest amount for funding from the U.S. Department of Education over the past fifty years.2 Each competitively selected ...

6. Language Competence—Performance, Proficiency, and Certification: Current Status and New Directions

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pp. 111-136

Throughout the first fifty years of Title VI legislation, reauthorizations, and funding appropriations, the U.S. Congress has charged the Department of Education with establishing a national capacity in foreign languages, cultures, and international and area studies. The companion chapter in this section documents the extensive successes of Title VI in developing a widespread infrastructure which serves as the ...

7. Title VI and Foundation Support for Area Studies: Its History and Impacts

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pp. 139-154

Are view of Title VI support for area studies from the inception of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) program in 1958 to the present has drawn my attention to three facts. The first is the enduring importance of Title VI programs as the mainstay of area and international studies in the United States. Second, area is not rigidly defined in Title VI legislation or for purposes of administration. Third, ...

8. The Changing Form and Function of Title VI since Its Beginnings in the 1960s

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pp. 155-164

It is immensely gratifying to contribute to the fiftieth anniversary celebration of Title VI, as I suspect that I am among the few survivors who participated in the founding and early operation of the program. My account will unavoidably be reminiscent, retrospective, and anecdotal because I have not been involved in area studies for some twenty-five years. Let me select a few issues that arose in the early ...

9. The Impact of Title VI Programs on the U.S. Higher Education System: Lessons from the First Thirty Years (1958–1988)

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pp. 165-192

From 1958 to 1988, federal policy was aimed at creating and sustaining capacity within the U.S. higher education system to provide international, regional, and language expertise and experts for the country. Title VI was forged into the core operational model of the federal international higher education policy arena, through the legislative and implementation trajectory of three programs: Title VI, ...

10. Area Studies and Academic Disciplines across Universities: A Relational Analysis with Organizational and Public Implications

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pp. 195-226

How can we think about contemporary and historical relationships among disciplines and area studies in order to enhance the scholarly value of their encounters and their impact on the public good? That is the broad question I pursue in a number of ways through other scholarship, but in this chapter I will focus on the contemporary, on how disciplines organize their area studies engagements, and on potential scholarly values in the ...

11. Renewing International Studies: Regional and Transregional Studies in a Changing Intellectual Field

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pp. 227-254

There are both public and scholarly reasons to wish for a renewal of international studies in American universities. Such a renewal would serve not only foreign policy but also private voluntary action, private business, and critical public awareness. Because U.S. universities have long been leaders in international studies, renewal—which the Title VI programs could lead—would be of global ...

12. Title VI and Global Competitiveness: Building International Business Education for the Twenty-First Century

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pp. 257-282

The past fifty years have seen a dramatic change in the international environment for U.S. business. Highly regulated trade has given way to more open markets, and the volume of world trade has increased tremendously. Currently, about 25 percent of world production is sold outside the country in which it was produced, up from 7 percent in 1950. U.S. imports as a share of gross national product, a measure of ...

13. Title VI and the Global Competitiveness of U.S. Firms

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pp. 283-300

In his most recent book, Thomas Friedman (2008) cited a Daimler advertising slogan used to promote its Smart “Fourfor” compact car. The slogan reads as follows: “German engineering, Swiss innovation, American nothing.” This slogan implies that the automobile advertised is superior because it is the product of German engineering and Swiss innovation and has no input from designers or manufacturers in ...

14. Beyond Accountability: A Balanced Approach to Assessment and Benchmarking

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pp. 303-316

Developing a national capacity of proficient language users is a central purpose of Title VI. The need was urgent in 1959, and is felt even more so today. In these fifty years, however, there has been no systematic measurement of language outcomes from Title VI programs. Title VI programs do indeed produce proficient speakers of a wide variety of languages, and the means to document these outcomes ...

15. Accessing and Assessing Title VI International Education Programs: The View from Black Colleges

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pp. 317-328

In 2005, the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) received Title VI funding to complete a survey of foreign languages, international studies, and study abroad at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and predominantly black institutions (PBIs).¹ This chapter is based on the results of that study (NAFEO 2009: 17), focusing on an assessment of the role of international ...

16. Preparing for the Future: Title VI and Its Challenges

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pp. 331-340

Occasions such as this fiftieth anniversary are times to remind ourselves of the roots and aspirations of the transformative legislation that we refer to as Title VI. The funding that began as a result of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in the 1950s has made a significant contribution to scholarship and to national security as it became Title VI of the Higher Education Act of 1965 and operated ...

17. Future Directions for Title VI and Fulbright-Hays Programs: Creativity and Competence for Facing Global Challenges

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pp. 341-354

For the past fifty years the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI and Fulbright- Hays programs (Title VI/FH) have played a highly significant and successful role in preparing generations of graduates from U.S. institutions of higher education to confront our nation’s economic, political, and security realities and challenges. In this chapter, I focus principally on new challenges and opportunities and ...

Appendix A. Title VI and Fulbright-Hays Programs of the U.S. Department of Education

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pp. 355-364

Appendix B. U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Centers, Language Resource Centers, Centers for International Business Education, American Overseas Resource Centers, and the Institute for International Public Policy, 2006–2010

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pp. 365-376

Appendix C. Summary of Discussions from Plenary Panels, Title VI 50th Anniversary Conference

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pp. 377-380

Appendix D. Papers Presented at the Title VI 50th Anniversary Conference, March 19–21, 2009, Washington, D.C.

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pp. 381-398

Appendix E. Less Commonly Taught Languages Offered in the Title VI National Resource Centers

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pp. 399-424