Cross-cultural catalysts in international academic partnerships: Canadian technical assistance to Chinese and Ukrainian universities

The analysis in this paper engages the interplay of the boundary objects theory and multi-structural governance theory to shed light on opportunities and challenges of the university transformations driven by international projects. In particular, this presentation examines the roles and characteristics of cross-cultural facilitators in balancing the legacies of academic practices in the two different worlds: on the one hand, a post-modernist society, driven by critical inquiry and learning (as represented by Canadian universities), and, on the other hand, post-totalitarian hyper-regulated institutions of specialized education (as represented by Chinese and Ukrainian universities). The study draws on qualitative data collected through review of CIDA/CBIE reports, university institutional and scholarly accounts of technical projects. These data sources are triangulated then through emailbased questionnaires with Canadian, Chinese and Ukrainian co-PIs, as well as this author’s observation notes from several technical assistance projects in the field. Three aspects are elaborated in the process of data analysis: 1) major roles played by cross-cultural catalysts (national, institutional, and individual) in Canadian collaborations with Chinese and Ukrainian universities; 2) major challenges in the created/implemented partnerships; 3) expected and realized outcomes in the cross-cultural collaborations. Copyright © 2018 CSSHE.