Higher education increasingly entails a crossing of national, linguistic and cultural boundaries. Recent years have seen significant expansion in the sector around transnational education and online learning, with students, academic staff, educational programmes and even institutions all ever-more mobile. This expansion is usually seen in unproblematic terms, with economic growth the main priority in view. The challenge that is entailed in pursuing social justice in the face of such global expansion, however, should not be underestimated. This book subjects to critical scrutiny the uncertainties that are associated with internationalised higher education. It explores how the agency of teachers, other members of staff and students is mediated by experiences of inclusion and exclusion. Physical or virtual movement around the globe may have become more straightforward in recent years, but the same cannot be said of intercultural relations in classrooms. Challenges can be expected where concerns, projects and practices of students are pursued in an unfamiliar cultural setting, or where agency crosses over more than one cultural system. Finally, mobility often throws up situations in which privileges are accompanied by distressing challenges. The book teases out the implications of all these issues for teaching in higher education. It will be of interest to researchers and advanced students of education, politics, sociology, human geography and social work.
This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Teaching in Higher Education.
About the Author: Peter E. Kahn is Professor of Digital Education at the University of Manchester, UK, and Editor of the journal Teaching in Higher Education. His research is focused on applying critical realist perspectives to the study of higher education.
Lauren Ila Misiaszek has been Associate Professor in the Institute of International and Comparative Education at Beijing Normal University since 2013. Lauren is the immediate past secretary general of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (2016-2019), an associate director of the Paulo Freire Institute, UCLA, and a co-founder and Fellow of the International Network on Gender Social Justice, and Praxis.
