Student subsidy of the internationalised curriculum: knowing, voicing and producing the Other

Abstract

This paper explores cultural production in online internationalised education. The analysis samples interactions in a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) unit offered online by an Australian university to a student group including enrolments through a Malaysian institution. Part of the curricular content was a consideration of how different cultural contexts shape management practices. The analysis highlights moments where ethnic/national cultures or cultural differences were invoked in texts to enrich this curriculum by design. In this case study, such ‘student subsidy’ was actively encouraged as a vicarious asset made possible with the internationalised student group. To this end, small mixed groups for assessable online discussion were allocated to precipitate such cultural interchange. The analysis displays who voiced what claims about whose culture, the grounds for legitimating such claims, and the kinds of cultural categories thus produced. The discussion then reflects on the degrees of insulation typically produced between cultural categories and how this failed to reflect or engage with the students’ interconnected worlds within the enterprise of online internationalised education.