The ‘[h]unt for new Canadians begins in the classroom’: the construction and contradictions of Canadian policy discourse on international education

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn Canada’s first-ever strategy, international education (IE) is linked to immigration policy with international students (IS) recruited as ‘ideal’ immigrants. This paper engages in policy sociology and Ball's concepts of 'policy as text' and 'policy as discourse' (10). It follows three stages of critical policy discourse analysis. The first a simple tally of the most commonly used words/phrases in the Strategy; the second analyses it using Van Leeuwen’s framework and the third presents results from a study on the perception and experiences of IS, exposing the gap between policy rhetoric and practice. The paper concludes that critical discourse analysis is a powerful tool to uncover policy values/ideologies, identify legitimation strategies and reveal perpetuation of power relations/status quo within Canadian society.