Internationalization of teaching and learning in public health

Due to the increased interconnectedness in the world, healthcare workers and policy makers now widely recognize that health transcends national boundaries, with global political and economic impact. Unfortunately, existing evidence suggests that the current global public health workforce is unprepared to confront the challenges posed by globalization. There is growing recognition of the need for the internationalization of curriculum (IoC), and the development of educational programmes that adequately prepare the public health workforce to deal with global health issues. The present literature review aims to examine the current perspectives, pedagogical approaches, theoretical or policy issues and debates related to (and explores different ways of improving) IoC in public health. A systematic search of literature up to 22 January 2018 was undertaken in the following databases in addition to google scholar: MEDLINE; EMBASE and PsycInFo. Data analysis involved writing annotated summaries of each paper and classifying the papers according to which of the questions they address, displaying the data, comparing the themes across papers, and drawing inferences and conclusions. The results suggest that internationalization of the public health curriculum, overall, can enable universities and individuals to meet both local and global social accountabilities and responsibilities. However, the way that IoC is defined, along with the internationalization model and pedagogical approach taken, have an impact on the benefits that can be realised.