Constructing local/global pedagogies : insights into the learning experiences of international students

Introduction There is mounting concern that because education policies in Australia are driven by marketoriented neo-liberal globalism that the potential role education can play in a changing national/global environment is being undermined. For instance, Rizvi (2003a) observes that there is a danger that the Australian policies that are moving towards a market-driven higher education, will ignore the debate about the fundamental purposes of education within a global context (Rizvi, 2003a, p. 1). More specifically, in terms of pedagogy the worry is that efforts to internationalise higher education privilege untheorised claims to facts, rather than pedagogies that engage and enskill students in investigating the historical, ideological and localising practices of the contemporary transitions in globalisation. Pedagogically, Rizvi (2003b) suggests that the internationalisation would benefit from “a curriculum approach that seeks to provide students with skills of inquiry and analysis rather than a set of facts about globalisation.”(Rizvi, 2003b p. 4) This paper explores the possibilities for developing inquiry-oriented, analytically enskilling global/local pedagogies by examining evidence of the formal and informal learning experiences of international students from the People’s Republic of China who studied at Australian universities. It presents a summary overview of data from interviews with some 120 international students, along with a series of pen pictures of selected students’ perspectives. The paper begins by exploring their initial formal and informal education in China for factors that informed the students’ desires to study overseas, indicating how this contributed to their readiness for continuing their studies in Australia. Second, consideration is given to both the formal and informal learnings the students experience in Australia in terms of how these deepen and extend their trans-national education begun in China. Third, their views on the gains and disappointments of their educational experiences in Australian universities are examined. Finally, we consider some global/local pedagogies that might be possible given the constraints market-oriented neo-liberal globalism now imposes on universities.