Abstract
Abstract A key issue in higher education research is that its nature is shaped by the contexts within which it is produced, in response to agendas that reflect more policy coordination demands than disciplinary concerns. The research problematiques are construed mostly out of the theoretical framework of the disciplines, which, in turn, are diluted within an applied research mode. Internationalisation, quality, and access, for instance, tend to be explored from an implementation and managerial perspective. We convene the criticisms of methodological “isms” to highlight how they shape our conceptualisations and understanding of the transformations in higher education. Under this stance, conceptual narratives on internationalisation of higher education prompted by the Brexit momentum are identified in the study Higher education and Brexit: current European perspectives to bring forward the extent to which internationalisation as a conceptual narrative acts as an explanation of the strategies to address the topic, and what is needed to be itself explained. The paper identifies discursive elements stemming from conceptual narratives convened to approach internationalisation in higher education research, and how they reflect the reification of the state and higher education. By focusing on the Brexit momentum that brought to the front stage the centrality of the nation-states and their competition/cooperation relationship, this paper contributes to call attention to the epistemological and methodological implications of isms.
Highlights
Higher education policy research has been marked by its focus on policy implementation and managerial issues of the sector (Amaral; Magalhães, 2013)
The question to bring forward is to what extent national/institutional priorities with regard to internationalisation explain by themselves the internationalisation of higher education institutions, or rather if they are what is to be explained under the rescaling of the national state
The extent to which national/institutional internationalisation priorities are explained under the rescaling of the national-states to the detriment of the need to respond to the challenges brought forward by the competition/ cooperation discourses between states, national higher education systems, and institutions is what remains to be seen
Summary
Higher education policy research has been marked by its focus on policy implementation and managerial issues of the sector (Amaral; Magalhães, 2013). National policies of internationalisation of higher education have been driven by political, cultural, academic/educational, and economic rationales (Knight; de Witt, 1995) that can be interpreted as discursive elements feeding the conceptual narratives on internationalisation In this sense, internationalisation acts, simultaneously, as a description of cross-border activities and as an “explanation” of competition and cooperation between states and institutions, legitimizing these processes. As argued above, internationalisation as a conceptual narrative is deeply influenced by the problem-solving perspective impinging on its dynamics, making competition inevitable as the framing conditions of cooperation are led by the competing interests of big players (e.g., Germany, UK and France) Under these conditions, a pragmatic stance towards cooperation/ competition reflects that, in spite of very different national framing conditions, academics have embraced the lens of a competition discourse since they accept that European higher education systems and institutions have to compete under the political grammar of coordination of higher education. The concern is to understand whether cooperation in higher education is to be explained under the changing nature of teaching and research activities and their structures and processes – or is it the cooperation discourse that explains internationalisation strategies?
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