Field Of International Education Research Articles

Beyond the Local–Global Binaries of Higher Education Internationalization in Post-apartheid South Africa

The article critiques the tendency in the field of international education to theorize internationalization around the impacts of and policy responses to globalization in local contexts. The central argument of the article is that South Africa’s history and development prospects are so intricately bound up with those of its neighbors in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region that it would be misleading for the country to be talked about in just national/local and global terms. To develop this argument on South Africa’s roles and situation in a regionally interconnected context, I draw on insights from an institutional ethnography of a top-rated, historically White South African public university. While local–global discourses were institutionalized nationally and institutionally through policies for transformation and internationalization, the conspicuous absence of formal institutional structures for regionalization shows the limitations of local–global or global north–south dichotomies in analyzing structures that operate both above and below the level of the nation-state.

International Education for Enlightenment, for Opportunity and for Survival: Where Students, Migrants and Refugees Diverge

This article argues that participants in international education fall into three broad but distinctly different categories: Mobility for Enlightenment, Mobility for Opportunity, and Mobility for Survival. By examining participants who study in a country other than their own through this lense, this article will be useful to educators who seek not only to better understand who is participating in international education globally, but also to account better for their situations and needs. This categorization of participant types has not yet been sufficiently analyzed in the extant literature in Comparative and International Education but must be given current geopolitical realities. Recognizing important differences between all those who are involved in global educational mobility is meant to encourage a more vigorous dialogue among scholar-practitioners who are woriing n the field of International Education, so they can bring in additional evidence and examples to help further build upon these three initial proposed categories.

Everybody’s monkey is important: LEGO® Serious Play® as a methodology for enabling equality of voice within diverse groups

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the theoretical underpinning of the LEGO® Serious Play® methodology and highlights the affordances of the method in the context of eliciting thoughts and views within groups made up of a range of stakeholders. It provides insight into how LEGO® Serious Play® can be integrated into discursive research practices amongst stakeholders, in this case for International Education. The work reports on the application of the method in a workshop with participants, diverse in terms of gender, age, national and linguistic background, professional experience and seniority. The workshop explored and developed conceptions of International Education. The LEGO® Serious Play® method is shown to overcome some of the hierarchies and hegemonies, which can exist in such contexts, allowing equality of voice amongst participants, such that each expresses their views or opinions, which are given equal consideration and legitimacy. This resulted in high levels of engagement, which enabled the presentation, and inclusion, of a broad spectrum of ideas, as well as the development of a shared vision of research in the field of International Education. Findings in this paper show that the LEGO® Serious Play® method has enabled imaginative conceptualisations of the rationale, role and potential for research in International Education.

Intercultural advising for Chinese international students: a reflective inquiry

ABSTRACTIn the past decade, there has been a rapid increase in the number of Chinese international students studying overseas. There has also been a corresponding increase in the media stories about their cross-cultural difficulties. Reported in this study is a reflective inquiry into my work as an international student advisor with a large number of Chinese students in a top Canadian university. Through five composite stories, I hope to present a few areas of challenges Chinese students experience and reflect on how advisors can better support them from the intercultural perspective. I also hope to engage other advisors through this study in exploring ways to contribute to the field of international education as frontline practitioners.

EDUCACIÓN Y SUPRANACIONALIDAD: APROXIMACIÓN A LOS CONCEPTOS BÁSICOS

Throughout the following pages we’ll find a text whose character is eminently didactic. The aim of this text is to show a conceptual approach to the supranational policies of education and its impact on the historical context and contemporary society. For this, we go into the notion of education, politics and education policy, by means of reference authors that help us to delimit and define the meanings of the proposed terms. Afterwards, we made an approach to the concepts of globalization and supranationality, delve into the determining factors that have led us to develop the globalized society presently and we delimit the concept of supranationality, its political connotations and its repercussion. Finally, we describe the object of study of the supranational policies of education as a young discipline in the field of international education, as well as its origin, its evolution and its current reality.

Sustaining quality learning abroad opportunities in Australian schools of social work

Student learning abroad experiences are encouraged to develop students’ intercultural understanding and global citizenship. This article reports internationally collaborative research exploring social work student short-term mobility programmes and international field education placements. Findings from interviews with staff from Australian schools of social work are presented. Themes developed from the data explore the establishment and ongoing resourcing and sustainability of international exchange programmes, including implications for risk and safety, relationships and partnerships, and reciprocity. The complex landscape of student international experiences is discussed, and it is proposed that the lack of adequate resourcing of learning abroad opportunities threatens their sustainability.

Measuring and predicting process quality in Ghanaian pre-primary classrooms using the Teacher Instructional Practices and Processes System (TIPPS)

In recent years, there has been an increase in the demand for and supply of early childhood education (ECE) in low- and middle-income countries. There is also growing awareness that unless ECE is of high quality, children may attend school but not learn. There is a large literature on the conceptualization and measurement of ECE quality in the United States that focuses on the nature of teacher-child interactions. Efforts to expand access to high quality ECE in low- and middle-income countries will require similar measurement efforts that are theoretically-grounded and culturally-adapted. This paper assesses the factor structure and concurrent validity of an observational classroom quality tool to assess teacher-child interactions—the Teacher Instructional Practices and Processes System© (TIPPS; Seidman et al., 2013)—in Ghanaian pre-primary classrooms. We find evidence of three conceptually distinct but empirically correlated domains of quality: Facilitating Deeper Learning (FDL), Supporting Student Expression (SSE), and Emotional Support and Behavior Management (ESBM). Teachers’ schooling level, training in early childhood development, and professional well-being positively predict the three quality domains in different ways. SSE and ESBM predict classroom end-of-the-school-year academic outcomes, and SSE predicts classroom end-of-the-school-year social-emotional outcomes. Implications for the field of international education and global ECE policy and research are discussed.

Social work education crossing the borders: a field education programme for international internship

The demand for setting international social work education standards are on the rise. The increased prospects of global exchange in teaching learning process initiated by different international universities, as a part of their agenda for international collaboration and cross cultural immersion in the profession are major impetuses for the same. Social work interns who participated in international exchanges appreciated the need for knowledge of global priorities and strategies to advance social work education, research and skill development for practice which also has lead to future collaboration between the institutions in these areas. But there are many challenges for the intern as well as the institutions involved, which should be integrated during different phases of the exchange process. This requires meticulous planning from the part of host institution. This paper focus on the need for international social work, the challenges involved in international internship and the process and content of field education provided to the international students based on experience of the author. The intention of the paper is to propose a general model of international field education, which may be mutually shared and agreed by the home institution as well as the host institution.

The Critical Global Educator: Global Citizenship Education as Sustainable Development by Maureen Ellis. New York: Routledge, 2016. 246 pp. $163.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-1-138-88780-0.

<i>The Critical Global Educator: Global Citizenship Education as Sustainable Development</i> by Maureen Ellis. New York: Routledge, 2016. 246 pp. $163.00 (cloth). ISBN 978-1-138-88780-0.

Learners’ Self-perception of Target Language Study in Overseas Immersion

Studies have supported the belief that study abroad (SA) is more beneficial than studying domestically in developing oral proficiency (e.g., Freed, Segalowitz, &amp; Dewey, 2004). However, little research has focused on individual learner factors related to promoting learners’ effectiveness in language learning abroad, such as an ideal point in target language (TL) study in SA contexts. The current study investigated the learner-perception of their preferred time in TL study for oversea immersion self-reported by students themselves. Participants (N=125) studying 30 languages in 32 different countries were recruited nation-wide. The results of students’ self-reports revealed that participants preferred intermediate levels of TL proficiency than any other level of proficiency. Findings of this study, even though they are based on the self-reported data, make important contributions to SA research and to the field of international education.

Canada and the Global Rush for International Students: Reifying a Neo-Imperial Order of Western Dominance in the Knowledge Economy Era

In a global knowledge economy, western nations compete for the best knowledge workers, while positioning English language and western education as superior. Drawing from critical theories of globalization, we argue that the international education field has become a site to maintain a neo-imperial agenda concealed by a neoliberal rhetoric of progress and economic expediency. Using Canada as a case study, we critically examine the global tactics of power and governance strategies in international education policy, as they influence and shape education and immigration policy within Canada. We illustrate how the OECD positions itself for global dominance in education and (re)produces the international education field using tactics such as rescaling, the policy cycle and ‘self-responsibilizing’ students. This process creates and maintains a global market for knowledge producers and expands the soft power of western nations.

The Peculiarities of Training in a Comprehensive School of Kazakhstan and Italy

Increased interest in research in the field of international education, typical for the most of the world, is largely due to trends of interdependence and mutual influence of nation-states in a period of rapid development of the processes of globalization and integration, including in public life and in education. current stage of the modernization and consolidation of the national educational systems in the world educational space, the impact of the global structures of the integration features that determine educational policies, employment, training, strengthening the role of international organizations in setting priorities for education in the world and regions, is an objective and dynamic phenomenon. results are related to the further development of education, international project activities covering all stages of education, the availability of the results of international comparisons and the national reports on education (PISA, OESD, CEDEFOR, ETF etc.). Currently, the established cross-cultural communication is of particular importance; it allows scientists, teachers-practitioners to present comparative picture of education systems operating in different countries with different political, economic and social systems. international contacts in the field of scientific and pedagogical research among public universities in the region of Basilicata (Italy) and Aktobe oblast (Kazakhstan) were concluded as a part of the summer school working on The humanities and social sciences: current problems and research directions, held in Massafra (Italy) organized by the Research Center of Eastern Europe, the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (Poland), Higher School of Foreign Languages (Poland / Italy). purpose of research to conduct a chronological study of the educational systems of Kazakhstan and Italy based on the study and analysis of the legal, educational, archival documents (on an example of the Aktobe region (Kazakhstan) and the Basilicata region (Italy)). Material and methods: methods of data collection the study, the analysis of the legal, educational, archival documents; Expedition to Italy and Kazakhstan were used to obtain the necessary data. Pedagogical research criteria are: Main criteria: 1. Legal framework. 2. School types. 3. Profile of the school (link with the choice of profession), an individual trajectory of students in high educational institution. 4. Requirements for teachers teaching in high school. 5. social situation of students. 6. Psychological support of high school students. Special criteria: 1. General information on education systems in the region of Basilicata (Italy) and Aktobe oblast (Kazakhstan). 2. local coordination department of the educational process. 3. Total number of students – separately, number of secondary schools in the region separately. 4. dominance profile in the region and their causes. 5. Basic methods and learning strategies used by teachers in the school. 6. Social and psychological aspects of the selected area. 7. Communication with universities. results show the conceptual system of institutions of student socialization allowing to determine the level of acquired knowledge that forms the basis of their functional literacy.

Keep Calm and Study Abroad: The Effect of Learning Abroad on Student Mental Health

This research set out to discover whether statistics would support the belief in the international education field that the stress of going abroad (adjusting to a new culture, missing home, being away from support network, etc.) can trigger mental health conditions in students participating in learning abroad programs. The study sought to glean on overall picture of student mental health abroad, as well as determine the percentage of students studying abroad who reported experiencing a diagnosed mental health condition while abroad, the nature of these diagnosed mental health conditions, the frequency of relapse/recurrence of existing conditions while abroad, the frequency and type of treatment received, and local attitude toward mental health conditions. The research was conducted by means of an online survey administered by the University of Minnesota’s Office of Measurement Services, which was sent by email to people who had participated in study abroad through the University of Minnesota’s Learning Abroad Center between Summer 2009 and Spring 2012, a total of 7,191 students. As the Learning Abroad Center, while serving University of Minnesota students first and foremost, also acts as a program provider recruiting students nationally, the participants’ home institutions were likely dozens of universities nationwide (though home institution information was not collected). We received 613 responses for a response rate of 8.52%. The data from the survey suggest, surprisingly, that in general, student mental health actually improves while abroad, an in fact, that skills learned during an international experience may contribute to improved mental health upon return.

Effects of an International Experience Requirement, Year in School, and Preferred Program Duration on Student Interest in Study Abroad

This study was conducted at a large research university in the western U.S.A that shares many postsecondary educational institutions’ goal of increasing the number of students engaged in international experiences. To achieve this goal, this institution has implemented an international experience requirement (IER) for approximately 30 disciplines. The aim of this research was to 1) determine if there exists a difference in desired program duration between students who are subject to the IER and those are not, 2) establishwhether degree of interest in study abroad differs by year in school and 3)examine differences in degree of interest in study abroad by the existence or absence of the IER, preferred program duration, and the interaction of these factors. The author’s intent was to augment the cumulative understanding of the field of international education by exploring the area of required international experience, which to date has not been adequately studied. As institutions take measures to send larger proportions of their student body abroad this topic will become increasingly relevant. Existing studies in this area are discussed below.

Mobility as ‘becoming’: a Bourdieuian analysis of the factors shaping international student mobility

This paper unpacks the meanings and implications of the mobility of international students in vocational education – an under-researched group in the field of international education. This four-year study found that transnational mobility is regarded as a resourceful vehicle to help international students ‘become’ the kind of person they want to be. The paper justifies the value of re-conceptualising student mobility as a process of ‘becoming’. Mobility as ‘becoming’ encompasses students’ aspirations for educational, social, personal and professional development. Theorising mobility as ‘becoming’ captures international students’ lived realities and has the potential to facilitate the re-imagining of international student mobility with new outlooks. By theorising mobility as ‘becoming’, this research suggests the importance of drawing on the integrated and transformative nature of Bourdieu’s forms of capital in understanding the logics and practice of the social field – international student mobility.

Organizational and Pedagogical Conditions of Academic Mobility Development of Students at School of Higher Professional Education

The relevance of the stated problem is caused by the fact that the development of academic mobility of students and carrying out the program of mutual exchange and training of students and teachers in other higher educational institutions of Russia and the whole world, are one of the indicators of educational autonomy of the university. In this regard, this article reveals the conditions of formation, expansion, improvement of academic mobility of students, the conditions for a stable regulatory framework and the development of academic mobility conditions to prevent the brain drain. Proceedings of the article are of value to the heads of international departments and teachers of higher educational institutions of professional education, as well as valuable in the development of recommendations on the policy-making in the field of international education and the integration of the Russian professional schools into The Common Education Space.

Isolationism, exceptionalism, and acculturation: the internationalisation of Mormon education in Mexico

Faiths have long used education as a means to preserve and transmit cultural values from one generation to the next. However, they have also employed education to unite people of different cultures and proselytise others to their worldview. Over the last two centuries, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Latter-day Saint, LDS, or Mormon) has exercised these same patterns in its educational programmes, especially internationally, as it has sought to expand around the world. Using Mormonism's Juárez Academy in northern Mexico as a historical case study, our paper demonstrates how transnationally governed religion-led school systems can confront the challenge of exceptionalism by embracing local culture and customs while maintaining the heritage of their faith tradition. The study advances the field of international education, highlighting the issues of globalisation, cultural transfer, and transnational educational governance.

The post-2015 debate and the place of education in development thinking

As the end date for the Millennium Development Goals approaches so the focus on goals, visions and policies for development after 2015 becomes ever heightened. However, there has been relatively little engagement by educational research community in these debates. What then is being written about education in the key post-2015 documents? How is education's role in development conceptualised by those most central to shaping new accounts? I explore these issues through an analysis of a key text on post-2015, the High Level Panel Report of May 2013 (UN HLP, 2013), and an exploration of a year's worth of posts on 30 prominent blogs and websites discussing post-2015 matters. This leads me to two further, interlinked questions: what are the implications of potential marginalisation and irrelevance from these debates for the field of international education and development research? What are the potential dangers for the field of closer engagement in these debates and their growing use of social media? The academic international education and development community may be more comfortable in keeping these policy debates at a distance, but this may play against the strong educational research drive to engage in social science that makes a difference. If there is to be engagement with post-2015 then alternative ways of developing practices of research, action and dialogue need further strengthened. This may include interdisciplinary dialogues around such issues as early childhood development, the role of professions in development or environmental sustainability. Engagement with the post-2015 debate would also require a careful analysis of how best to engage with the instrumentalised accounts of education that are dominant in the policy-advocacy arena. This would entail more strategic positions on the uses and dangers of social media. At the same time, engagement with development studies as well as the development policy community requires a reappraisal of epistemological and methodological stances.

Commentary: Cultivating a defiant global research imagination in international education

Developing a 'defiant research imagination' (Kenway and Fahey, 2006) is necessary in all educational research. Do the papers in this special issue, individually and collectively, exhibit a 'defiant research imagination'? To what extent and how?I believe that a 'defiant research imagination' is necessary because of the untenable present conditions of knowledge production with their reductionist notions of the knowledge economy and national innovation (Kenway, Bullen & Fahey with Robb, 2006). The globalizing neo liberal university adopts the following primary and interrelated research imperatives: a techno-scientific orientation to knowledge, an emphasis on 'knowledge networks' for the explicit purpose of 'knowledge transfer' and on the commercialization and commodification of knowledge.The corresponding implied researchers are the techno-scientist, the instrumental and strategic knowledge networker transfering apply-able knowledge to 'end users' and the knowledge entrepreneur who is skilled at branding and can readily turn knowledge into profit. We call this figure the 'technopreneur' (Kenway, Bullen, & Robb, 2004). It is intended that the deepest allegiances of technopreneurial researchers are to 'their' university. They are expected to be ruthlessly competitive in advancing its, often defensive and sometimes paranoid, agendas within neo liberal governments' policy and benchmark settings be they those of the nation state or international agencies such as the OECD (the two are usually agreeably 'harmonized'). This is regarded as the highest calling of any researcher or research group and attracts the greatest accolades. The field of international education is as subject to these imperatives as other fields and certainly attracts its fair share of technopreneurs.In this context what possibilities exist for defiant research theories, practices and identities and how might such alternatives be conceptualized? In our opening chapter to Globalising the Research Imagination, Johannah Fahey and I (Eds, 2008) offer some pedagogical principals designed to assist PhD supervisors/advisors to support PhD students to develop a defiant research imagination. This argument is, of course, directed as much to supervisors themselves as to research students. Such an imagination is unavoidably global.The pedagogical principles involved in cultivating a defiant global research imagination include seeking and provoking 'uncomfortable thought', examining 'unexamined habits of looking', trying 'to see from elsewhere' and 'striving for complexity'. These arise from our interviews with some of the English-speaking world's finest scholars on globalization who come from the fields of anthropology, sociology, geography and education. We complement their thinking with ideas on the imagination drawn from Greek-French thinker Cornelius Castoriadis, philosopher, economist, social critic and psychoanalyst (1984a, 1987, 1994a). In translating his ideas about the imagination into our discussion of the notion of a defiant global research imagination we develop an argument for a research imagination that is rich with critical, creative and ethical, individual and collective possibilities and responsibilities. Overall we contend that such an imagination should seek to unsettle the global hegemonic research imagination, noted above, and in relation to this would also attend to what we call 'global geographies of power/knowledge' (Kenway and Fahey, 2008).Attending to such geographies involves taking seriously the implications for knowledge and education of colonialism, imperialism and their 'post', 'neo' and recent manifestations; overall, to the geopolitics of the circumstances being researched and the geopolitics of knowledge itself. This means not only addressing past and present colonialism and imperialism as they are manifest in the particular situation under research scrutiny but also attending to how we think about the particular situation. …

Afterword: a research agenda for international education

Four years ago, I (with then graduate student, Aliya Rahman) published a review of scholarship in the field of international education (Dolby and Rahman 2008). Faced with multiple, conflicting hist...