Human agency and legacy-innovation tensions in the internationalization of higher education: Re-orientations managed by internationally-educated scholars of Central Asia

Abstract

Research on tensions between continuity and change in the internationalization of higher education remains scant. The transformative forces generating these tensions are under-investigated. Using insights from interviews with 21 internationally-educated professors from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, this paper examines the roles of human agency in shaping international perspectives in the academic profession transitioning from the Soviet model of university to a post-Soviet one. This paper focuses on the agency of academics managing the legacy-innovation tensions resulting from the growing influence of global science and networking. While international education and outreach advances research and development opportunities for scholars in Central Asia, professors educated abroad persevere in the struggle to achieve a productive balance between demands for local and global engagement. The human agency of internationalization appears to play a significant role in mitigating these tensions and driving the rejuvenation of the academic profession in the post-Soviet space.