Difference‐sensitive communities, networked learning, and higher education: potentialities and risks

Abstract

Recent emphases on prospects for difference-sensitive virtual communities rely implicity or explicity on some optimist accounts of cyberspace and globalization. It is expected that hybridity, diaspora and fluidity, marking new understandings of spatiality and temporality in a globalized postmodern era, will create new forms of belonging that will not suffer from the shortcomings of the old notion of community. In this article, the author examines the paradigmatic assumptions underlying these views and explores their positive and negative possibilities. The author concentrates on some dangerous paths that globalization follows and globalist discourse overlooks, in its effort to promote a difference-sensitive conception of multiple communities. The author then shows how homogenizing tendencies in higher education might take precedence over democratic inclinations, and block the potential employment of virtuality for better political purposes. The author concludes with suggestions about how to conceptualize learning communities Other-wise and how to cultivate other-oriented educational conduct.

Criticality in international higher education research: a critical discourse analysis of higher education journals

“…Of articles that made recommendations to increase global engagement and equity, recommendations were often broad and vague, lacking tangible next steps for future researchers and practitioners. This was evidenced at the individual, institutional, regional, and international levels (e.g, Papastephanou 2005;Postiglione 2013;Rumbley et al 2014). For example, Papastephanou (2005), recommends critical thinking and involved educators to combat elitist higher education trends, but provides no details on how this can be thoughtfully adapted to classrooms for educators.…”

“…This was evidenced at the individual, institutional, regional, and international levels (e.g, Papastephanou 2005;Postiglione 2013;Rumbley et al 2014). For example, Papastephanou (2005), recommends critical thinking and involved educators to combat elitist higher education trends, but provides no details on how this can be thoughtfully adapted to classrooms for educators. Rumbley et al (2014) suggest that "connecting peers of researchers and educators" (1294) can increase knowledge transmission and promote improved cross-border collaborations, yet fails to explain how this might be achieved.…”

Guest Editorial: Critical and Creative Practices of Global Citizenship Education in the Digital Age of Information and Communication Technologies

“…Much has been written about the affordances and limitations of new and globalised learning technologies for educating democratic communities (e.g., Bamberger, 2022;Bleazby, 2012;Papastephanou, 2005). However, the connection between GCE and ICTs remains relatively underexplored, especially concerning their impact on promoting critical consciousness (Bosio, 2023a/b/c;Bosio & Waghid, 2023b), Global South perspectives and decolonialism (Bosio & Waghid, 2022) and social justice (Bosio & Olssen, 2023;Giroux & Bosio, 2021;McLaren & Bosio, 2022).…”