Development of a scale to assess faculty motivation for internationalising their curriculum

Abstract

Faculty members are instrumental in internationalising the curriculum in a higher education institution. Their favourable or unfavourable orientation toward global education initiatives might significantly affect their engagement in internationalising the curriculum. The purpose of this study was to develop the Motivation for Internationalizing Curriculum Scale (MICS), which aims to assess college professors' motivation toward internationalising the curriculum. The MICS was informed by Herzberg's two-factor motivation theory, involving intrinsic (motivator) and extrinsic (hygiene) factors of motivation. The MICS includes 20 items, and was administered to a national random sample of 418 college professors in the United States. Cronbach's coefficient alpha values were .90 for intrinsic motivation, .92 for extrinsic motivation, and .94 for the final 20-item MICS total scale. All 20 items in the newly developed scale have excellent Cronbach's alpha values. The findings revealed that a combination of dominant intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors may influence faculty's motivation to internationalise their curriculum.