International student mobility & study tours as a tool for social justice

Abstract

ABSTRACT Universities value the provision of opportunities for students to undertake international mobility experiences. Contemporaneously, they often highlight their commitment to social justice through international experiences, though it is not always clear how their educational activities fulfil this commitment. There has been little focus to date on the intersection of student mobility and the desire to include socially just pedagogy into university curricula. Drawing on narratives from semi-structured interviews with academics and professional staff, we explore the utilisation of study abroad within criminology. We argue that student mobility experiences have the potential to be socially just pedagogy through increasing access to new forms of education for a broad range of students. In turn, this positions mobility as a pedagogy for social justice by providing experiential learning opportunities that encourage critical engagement of students and increase their capabilities to act on social justice when in their home country.