Written by scholars and educators based in Canada and the USA, this book articulates and implements a new cutting-edge theoretical framework entitled the disruptive learning narrative (DLN). The contributing authors analyze their experiences with international service learning students using DLN to uncover important lessons about race relations, power and privilege. They offer fresh insight on how DLN is useful in understanding and unpacking controversial teaching moments abroad and provide further reflections on how others can adapt the DLN framework to meet the contextual needs of their international educational experience. The chapters offer case studies and learning from international service learning and study abroad programs in Canada, China, Columbia, Cuba, Kenya, Tanzania, and the USA. The book provides essential knowledge and insights for educators who wish to address the inherent messiness and complexity of international experiences. It will help educators and researchers to better understand the controversial and sensitive issues of race relations, power and privilege dynamics.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, universities around the globe have taken numerous extraordinary measures and implemented many changes to their strategic, operational, and academic activities. Currently, there is a transformation taking place from the emergency decision-making in the early stages of the pandemic towards reflection and resolution on how the past months can shape governance and strategy. Higher education institutions have been facing challenges with the alignment of their university governance for their strategic and operational plans. Presently, university leaders have prioritized risk management and financial management over all else. Unfortunately, due to these priorities, university responses to the pandemic took the top-down approach of management, rejecting the shared governance structures and collegial practices of the institutions. The pandemic has accelerated the openness to change by creating an emergency or steering response team led by university presidents and provosts, with sub-teams focusing on operations and other academic advisory groups working together to deal with the fast-rising scenarios. The consequence is a clear flow of information and strong communication across the institution, which sequentially builds on mechanisms to respond to the secondary effects of the pandemic. Moreover, higher education institutions are continuously facing challenges with their strategic alignment of business objectives in order to have a diverse educational system in response to the pandemic. Assessing University Governance and Policies in Relation to the COVID-19 Pandemic presents the latest research and studies investigating information on university governance and adapting previous, existing, and proposed models for the current pandemic. This book is comprised of chapters contributed by various leading international authors to discuss and analyze all aspects of university governance in relation to their impact on strategies in finance, sustainability, academic issues, research, faculty and students, leadership, campus, employment and recruitments, and more. This is an essential text for university presidents, strategic planning authorities in universities, college deans and academic department chairpersons, government authorities and policymakers, researchers, students, and academicians.