Internationalisation in the Swedish Nurse Education from the perspective of teachers involved: An interview study

This paper presents results from an interview investigation with university teachers in Swedish nurse education especially interested in internationalising the education. The aim has been to study teachers’ understandings and experiences of internationalisation against the backdrop of the strong concern for internationalisation expressed in different policy documents. The results are seen in the context of globalisation, constraints to educational change, a cultural perspective and in relation to the existence and need of a curriculum theory. In their personal experiences the teachers united the global, national and local through personal experiences of other countries and cultures as a basis for their interest in and choice of content in their teaching considered to represent internationalisation of the education. The teachers were interpreting internationalisation in line with there understanding of nursing and favoured approach to nursing without making any clear distinction of what specifically was internationalisation. The teachers seem to represent an important resource in internationalising the education. However, their understanding and approach did not represent a shared culture and there was no shared curriculum including a distinct understanding of internationalisation. This is seen as a big challenge to both policy makers and teachers.

Key words: Higher education, internationalisation, experiences, understanding, teaching, learning, cultural differences, personal growth.