Knowing, Being, Relating and Expressing Through Third Space Global South-North COIL: Digital Inclusion and Equity in International Higher Education

Abstract

This paper examines digital inclusion and equity in international higher education with particular focus on Global South-North Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). Practice examples, bringing together students and academics in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK, are used to consider how COIL is being integrated into higher education curricula to interrupt western hegemony and open up spaces in which “otherwise” ways of knowing, being, relating and expressing can thrive. We consider COIL as a Third Space within which academics can help facilitate the different intellectual, emotional, and socio-cultural positionings of Global South-North students and reflect on how meaning-making and engagement can be transformed as a result of this dialogue. We also recognize how the digital environment as a Third Space can be experienced as inaccessible and troublesome and make suggestions on how South-North digitalization practices can be designed to address access and inclusion needs of students and academics.

Global citizenship online in higher education

“…Access to internet and devices as well as a degree of digital literacy are also prerequisites for participation in such exchanges and the inequities in access are well documented (Milan, Treré, and Masiero, 2021 ) and remain a challenge in many contexts. Beyond this is also the issue of digital capital—that is students’ behaviors and ability to use the digital learning ecologies (Wimpenny et al, 2022 ). Furthermore, in the case of this English-mediated VE such as those in this study, only students who have some knowledge of the English language have access to the exchanges, and though students saw the exchange as improving their language skills, different levels of competence and confidence can create unequal power dynamics and exclude many participants (Helm & Acconcia, 2019 ).…”

Emotions of L2 Learners in Different Contexts and Modes

“…teachers of the language. In our view, this possible interpretation is strengthened when we take two factors into account: a) the fact that previous reports about native-speakerism among experienced teachers in Brazil showed a prevalence of feelings of imposture (Diniz de Figueiredo, 2011;Rajagopalan, 2005); and b) the growth in teacher education courses, classes and other initiatives that specifically try to address native-speakerism (e.g., Walesko, 2019) with the aim of empowering students, using, for example, decolonial perspectives and virtual exchange to connect and support L2 teachers (Wimpenny et al, 2022).…”

Sustaining opportunities and mutual partiality through Collaborative Online International Learning in South Africa

“…COIL has been described as a Third Space opportunity (Moje et al, 2004; Whimpenny et al, 2022). Moje et al (2004) portray the Third Space as a navigational space where “diverse stakeholder perspectives and discourses can meet,” allowing for “cultural, social, and epistemological change” as competing knowledges and discourses from various spaces are brought into conversation to challenge and alter the participants' ways of thinking and behaving.…”

“…Moje et al (2004) portray the Third Space as a navigational space where “diverse stakeholder perspectives and discourses can meet,” allowing for “cultural, social, and epistemological change” as competing knowledges and discourses from various spaces are brought into conversation to challenge and alter the participants' ways of thinking and behaving. Likewise, Whimpenny et al (2022) also see COIL as a Third Space where academics can support the various intellectual, emotional, and socio-cultural positionings of Global South–North students. The Third Space Venn’s the space to decenter Eurocentric hegemony and open up to the plurality of knowledges.…”