Decolonizing Internationalization of Higher Education: Onto-epistemological Experiences of International Students in Canada

Abstract

This chapter investigates the colonizing aspect of the internationalization of higher education. It does so by analyzing if international students in Canadian higher education institutions are merely seen and treated as financial beings (cash cows) or if their ways of knowing (epistemology), being (ontology), and values (axiology) also become a part of the Canadian tertiary education discourses. The overarching objective of the chapter is to investigate if internationalization of higher education (IHE)Internationalization of higher education (IHE) in Canadian universities results in epistemological pluralism? A related objective is to find out the impact of education from a single dominant epistemological framework on knowledge formation (epistemology), being (ontology), and the value system (axiology) of international and Canadian students. In other words, do the marginalized knowledge, value systems, and ways of being of international students from the Global South get included in the higher education systems in Canada to create a diverse knowledge system or not? The chapter investigates two crucial dimensions of IHE, namely, the internationalization of curricula (IoC)Internationalization of curricula (IoC) and the epistemological, ontological, and axiological inclusion/exclusion of international students. Conceptually, the chapter draws on insights from decolonial, poststructuralist, and postcolonial perspectives to contend that it is essential to disrupt the global imaginary, which projects a singular knowledge system (Western) as the most valid, legitimate, and authoritative way of knowing.