Internationalization of Higher Education: A Case Study on College Music Teachers’ Intercultural Expertise

School and work organizations are operating in an increasingly global world. Meeting different people and groups is part of daily learning situations. The diversity of student and work communities can change from putting up with difference into conscious learning from dissimilarity in interaction. Intercultural education emphasizes the personal encounter of difference in another person and mutual learning. Internationalization and the effects of a global economy can be seen in the changes concerning work and the workplace as well as in the mobility of the labor force. There is a demand for intercultural competencies not only in business life, but also in arts and science. Internationalization and intercultural learning are also goals of official education policy. International student and staff exchanges, instruction in a foreign language, and credit systems across national borders have posed challenges to educational institutions as well as to the workplace.

In this article I will discuss music teachers’ intercultural expertise and internationalization in higher education in Finland. Firstly, I will deal with human capital, which includes intercultural competence as a natural part, followed by a presentation of some case study interviews.