Have Framework, Will Travel: Extending the Frameworks into Transnational Higher Education

The future scholar will require a range of skills, habits, and knowledge to be able to competently participate in an increasingly digital, globalized world. The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) and the Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA), National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and National Writing Program (NWP) Frameworks (ACRL 2015; CWPA, NCTE, and NWP 2011) both recognize this in their articulation of trends in information literacy, postsecondary writing, critical thinking, and higher education more broadly. The ACRL Framework characterizes the “rapidly changing higher education environment” as one where students play a larger part in the creation of new knowledge, while the WPA Framework articulates the “21st-century-skills” critical for college success, emphasizing the rise of digital technologies. However, it is the increasingly globalized nature of information and scholarship which draws our attention in the context of transnational higher education (TNHE), a higher education setting where these American frameworks are frequently being deployed to non-American students outside of America. This chapter introduces TNHE, provides background regarding the use of the Frameworks outside of the United States, and offers an important look into the application of the Frameworks in this unique, challenging, and increasingly common environment. Additionally, we highlight ways in which practitioners in both domestic and TNHE settings can learn from one another.