Abstract
International mobility programmes and opportunities have enthusiastically been embraced by universities as part of a growing demand for graduates with global, international and intercultural capital on the part of graduates. In this project, we take two universities, one Australian and one Indonesian, as illustrative case studies of some of the commonalities, differences and, in particular, imbalances, with regard to the conduct of international professional experience in the global north and south. Specifically, a recent visit by Indonesian pre-service teachers was used to inform an upcoming visit by Australian pre-service teachers to Indonesia. We used this opportunity to compare the accessibility of travel for Australian and Indonesian pre-service teachers, as illustrations of in/equality of access for northern and southern learners. We hope that this paper will prompt discussion about global imbalances of opportunity with regard to international experiences. We also hope that our mutual interview process adopted for this study might be a useful research tool.
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Appendix
Appendix
Mutual interview protocol.
In what ways is the flow of ideas and people between developed and developing nations un/equal?
What are the varying levels of access to mobility of students from developed and developing nations?
How do we understand and describe the ways in which pre-service teachers from developed and developing contexts interface when meeting? Is there an assumption that ‘western’ pedagogies, deemed (rightly or wrongly) to be more ‘student-centred’ than those from Asian contexts, are superior? Is there a neo-colonial deference to pedagogies deemed ‘western’? What do visitors and hosts learn from one another?
Who benefits the most from IPEs?
What language assumptions are implicit in IPEs?
What of implications from shifting global power bases, especially in Asia? Might these changing (socio-)economic realities, more than any well-intended attempts at intercultural understanding on the part of academics, establish new patterns and assumptions in international mobility and its goals?
Implications of (over-?)regulation of western systems?
Is it possible/easy for people separated by culture and distance to become true friends? What, if any, are the barriers to this?
Questions specific to our circumstances: How do Indonesian and Australian students typically view and ‘construct’ one another and their respective countries?
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Buchanan, J., Widodo, A. Your place or mine? global imbalances in internationalisation and mobilisation in educational professional experience. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 17, 355–364 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-016-9432-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-016-9432-y