Internationalization has become a strategic policy priority for many Chinese higher education in the process of becoming world-class universities. However, there is little research focusing on students’ experiences of internationalization at home. This research investigates how Chinese undergraduates interpreted and experienced internationalization at a prestigious university in China. Data for the study were collected through policy document analysis, semi-structured interviews with students, and site visits. The results of the study reveal that students perceive internationalization as Westernization, question the prominence of English in the university’s internationalization in both formal and informal curricula, and raise concerns about unequal access to internationalization. The study interrogates the unidirectional orientation of internationalization between China and the developed Western world. It calls for an approach to the de-Westernization of internationalization, reclaiming indigenous Chinese epistemology, language, and culture. The findings have important implications for an alternative social imaginary of internationalization for researchers and policymakers.
Background: Despite increased access to higher education in recent decades, first-generation (first-gen) university students continue to face challenges with persistence and completion. Recommended responses by universities include exposing these students to “high-impact” educational practices. Purpose: This article examines the potential of one of these practices—service-learning—to address the disadvantages faced by first-gen students. Methodology/Approach: We review the literature on first-gen students and service-learning and offer a conceptual critique of dominant approaches. Findings/Conclusions: Dominant conceptions of service-learning treat first-gen students as a homogeneous, deficient group and reduce learning to an input-environment-output model. We argue for a more conceptually nuanced understanding of the reasons for the cultural mismatch often experienced by underrepresented groups of students. Implications: The conceptual resources offered in this article are intended to help researchers and policy makers undertake research that captures the diversity and richness of students’ lives and leads to more equitable practices.
This article discusses how teaching faculty in a western Canadian university respond to the growing number of Chinese international students in their classrooms. Interviews (n=21) and survey data (n=60) reveal that professors struggle to communicate academic expectations across language and cultural barriers; develop cross-cultural content; engage students in active learning in the classroom; and provide effective feedback on written work. This in-depth account shows how faculty negotiate demands to both adapt to and create an “internationalized classroom” in the absence of institutional supports. Unsurprisingly, we confirm that adaptation is a struggle. Faculty rely on a combination of personal experience, disciplinary grounding, and stereotyping to inform their efforts. We conclude with a discussion of the limited utility of “Confucian Heritage Culture” (chc) as a path to meaningful change. Though frequently invoked to describe the preferences and behaviors of Chinese students, the homogenizing and misleading assumptions of the chc framework prevent faculty from recognizing the contemporary reality of these students’ country of origin and leads them to neglect individual student learning styles and needs.
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