Understanding global student mobility: exploring new ways of capturing international experiences using in-county overseas students

Australian universities have large numbers of overseas students who do not engage meaningfully with local students about their international experience. The objective of this research, an initiative that was part of a project funded by Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), entitled the Global Canopy, was to develop pedagogy to promote local students’ awareness about international study based on an in-country teaching program. The research study aimed to develop new knowledge about how domestic students understand global mobility through interacting with international students enrolled in the same university. The initiative included two workshops that brought together a number of project team members, three overseas students and academic staff mentors, representatives from Deakin Global Student Mobility office, and 31 undergraduate domestic students. Data was collected from a series of in-depth interviews with students involved in the program. Initial findings suggested that the workshops were successful, with 12 undergraduate students enrolled in winter schools in India after completion of the program. The paper concludes with lessons learned from the initiative and calls for exploring new ways of identifying international experiences that can be facilitated within discipline curriculum of the home university.

Cosmo girls : new configurations of class and femininity in elite educational settings

In this paper we offer a unique contribution to understandings of schooling as a site for the production of social class difference, by bringing together recent work on middle-class educational identities in neoliberal times (O’Flynn and Petersen 2007, Reay et al 2007, 2008) with explorations of classed femininity from the field of critical girlhood studies (Harris 2004, Ringrose and Walkerdine 2008). Drawing on data generated in two recent research projects in Australia and the UK our aim will be to explore how class mediates the construction of young femininities in the private girls’ school. Our particular focus will be on exploring how articulations of identity within such schools are configured through discourses of mobility and global social responsibility. In line with the broader ‘cultural turn’ in the social sciences (Devine 2005) we discuss class and femininity in this paper in cultural and symbolic terms. We draw on Butler’s (1993) notions of performativity to understand the multiple and processual nature of identity constitution and Bourdieu’s (1987) understandings of class (based on symbolic struggles for capital in social space) to enable us to explore the ‘subjective micro distinctions’ through which class is expressed, embodied and lived; viewing class as a set of fictional discourses that inscribe and produce identities (Walkerdine et al 2001). This understanding of class, as something that is ‘done’ rather than something that ‘we are’, was deemed particularly important in these studies of elite education, for the research was undertaken in schools where class was apparently ‘everywhere and nowhere’, never named or ‘directly known as class’ (Lawler 2005, Skeggs 2004). This underplaying of class identity is often linked to neo-liberalism, and in this paper we would like to link these constructions of ‘the private school girl’ with neoliberal subjectivity by focusing on two main characteristics. First we will consider the notion of mobility, where we will discuss the ways in which these girls constructed themselves as ‘cosmo’ girls (global citizens at ease with traversing national borders) and the ways in which the schools supported this through educational practices which enabled the students and their families ‘to exploit and strategically pursue economic and cultural capital’ (Doherty et al 2009). We will also focus on the struggles that the schools and students encountered as they attempted to juggle these discourses of global mobility with more traditional discourses of privilege (often associated with national boundaries and based within a predominantly British model of schooling steeped in colonial history). Second, we will look at discourses of responsibility, to explore how these girls were incited to take responsibility for themselves and their futures but also to embrace diversity and to commit themselves to social service. We will also examine the competing discourses of instrumentalism and social justice that were at play in these schools.

New online ethnicities and the politics of representation

The paper interrogates the literature on online cultural and religious identities through a critical engagement of Stuart Hall's work on new ethnicity and regimes of representation. It suggests that this literature conflates Hall's notion of ‘new ethnicity’ with one that argues that online cultural and religious identities are ‘new’ because of transnational and global processes, the pervasiveness of computer-mediated communication and the global mobility of immigrants. Thus, current research on online ethnic and religious identities underestimates the complexity of Hall's concept and to highlight this complexity we ponder the extent to which new online ethnicities – as expressed in the current literature – reflect, construct or renegotiate so-called offline ethnicities. The paper concludes that online ethnic subjectivities, while providing alternative representations to counteract the dominant racist discourse within host societies, still reflect mimic essentialist voices.

Expatriate career intentions: links to career adaptability and cultural intelligence

Given the increasing rate of global mobility, it is important to have a greater understanding ofthe factors that influence intentions for expatriate careers. Guided by the Career ConstructionTheory and Intelligence Theory, this study takes the view that self-initiated expatriation as aform of global mobility is an adaptive vocational behavior driven by an individual's self-regulatorycapacity to thrive in another country and work to build one's career. This study positsthat individuals who want to work overseas rely mainly on their adaptive resources to developtheir careers. Additionally, career adaptability, as a self-regulatory competency, is posited to bereinforced by an individual's intercultural capability (i.e., cultural intelligence). To test these assertions,data were collected in a sample of university students (n = 514) in the Philippines, acountry reported to have high rates of overseas migration for economic and career-related reasons.Career adaptability was found to be positively and significantly related to overseas careerintentions. In addition, cultural intelligence was found to moderate the said relationship. Theseresults offer the groundwork for understanding the earlier stages of expatriate careers and, inparticular, how the intention to have a career in another country is developed and influencedby the interaction between the self-regulatory characteristics and intercultural capability ofindividuals.

Competency-based training, global skills mobility and the teaching of international students in vocational education and training

 In Australia, all vocational education and training (VET) qualifications must be based on competency-based training (CBT) and training packages. Yet, since 2005, there has been a major expansion in the number of VET international students in Australia, 85% of whom are from Asia. Given this development, the teaching and learning contexts in which competency-based training and training packages are located are becoming increasingly diverse and no longer reflect the traditional training characteristics and boundaries that apply for domestic students.
This paper examines the relevance of training packages and CBT for teaching international students in the Australian VET sector. It draws on interviews with teachers and international students from 25 public and private training providers in Australia. The discussion of the findings aims to assist the VET sector create a curriculum framework that supports flexibility, adaptation and responsiveness so that international students’ divergent and shifting study purposes and complex learning characteristics can be catered for effectively. This contributes to helping the sector remain viable in a context in which a VET course is no longer a pathway to migration.

Faculty collaboration in teaching global business, MBA teaching process

This presentation stems from global business teaching and ongoing research of an interactive group of professors working together in the service delivery of online MBA education at University of Maryland University College . A model for collaborative teaching by delocated professors who literally span the globe – from Australia to Canada, including the United Kingdom, both coasts of the USA, China and Dubai - is offered, underscoring the enormous mobility of knowledge and knowledge workers. Working together as a collaborating team, it was found that the "whole is greater than the sum of the parts". The teachers became more than a teaching team, they became a collaborating operation as they worked together in the sharing and development of materials, insights and knowledge. The model demonstrates how the teaching of global business in an MBA environment is really an exercise in the management of global service operations.

The global corporate curriculum and the young cyberflâneur as global citizen

Contents: Introduction: youth, mobility, and identity / Nadine Dolby and Fazal Rizvi -- New times, new identities -- The global corporate curriculum and the young cyberfleneur as global citizen / Jane Kenway and Elizabeth Bullen -- Shoot the elephant: antagonistic identities, neo-marxist nostalgia, and the remorselessly vanishing past / Cameron McCarthy and Jennifer Logue -- New textual worlds: young people and computer games / Catherine Beavis -- Diasporic youth: rethinking borders and boundaries in the new modernity -- Consuming difference: stylish hybridity, diasporic identity, and the politics of culture / Michael Giardina -- Diasporan moves: African Canadian youth and identity formation / Jennifer Kelly -- Popular culture and recognition: narratives of youth and Latinidad / Angharad Valdivia -- Mobile students in liquid modernity: negotiating the politics of transnational identities / Parlo Singh and Catherine Doherty -- Youth and the global context: transforming us where we live -- The children of liberalization: youth agency and globalization in India / Ritty Lukose -- Youth cultures of consumption in Johannesburg / Sarah Nuttall -- Identities for neoliberal times: constructing enterprising selves in an American suburb / Peter Demerath and Jill Lynch -- Disciplining "Generation M": the paradox of creating a "local" national identity in an era of "global" flows / Aaron Koh -- Marginalization, identity formation, and empowerment: youth's struggles for self and social justice / David Quijada.

Re-positioning Australia's international education in global knowledge economies : implications of shifts in skilled migration policies for universities

In recent times, many key host nations have made it easier for foreign graduates to migrate after graduation. These students are often considered ideal migrants, possessing local qualifications along with a degree of acculturation, language skills and, in many cases, relevant local work experience. For the student, the opportunity to obtain international work experience adds to the appeal of the overseas study experience and enhances the graduate skills necessary to compete in the global labour market. This paper examines recent changes to migration policy in Australia affecting the post-study work entitlements of international students studying at Australian universities and explores the underlying rationale and consequences of the recent changes in policy direction. An examination of migration policies in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada indicates that recent changes to skilled migration policy in Australia, along with bleak economic conditions in a number of key host countries, has opened up opportunities for Australia to re-position itself favourably.

Protocol for a home-based integrated physical therapy program to reduce falls and improve mobility in people with Parkinson’s disease

Background The high incidence of falls associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD) increases the risk of injuries and immobility and compromises quality of life. Although falls education and strengthening programs have shown some benefit in healthy older people, the ability of physical therapy interventions in home settings to reduce falls and improve mobility in people with Parkinson’s has not been convincingly demonstrated.
Methods/design 180 community living people with PD will be randomly allocated to receive either a home-based integrated rehabilitation program (progressive resistance strength training, movement strategy training and falls education) or a home-based life skills program (control intervention). Both programs comprise one hour of treatment and one hour of structured homework per week over six weeks of home therapy. Blinded assessments occurring before therapy commences, the week after completion of therapy and 12 months following intervention will establish both the immediate and long-term benefits of home-based rehabilitation. The number of falls, number of repeat falls, falls rate and time to first fall will be the primary measures used to quantify outcome. The economic costs associated with injurious falls, and the costs of running the integrated rehabilitation program from a health system perspective will be established. The effects of intervention on motor and global disability and on quality of life will also be examined.
Discussion This study will provide new evidence on the outcomes and cost effectiveness of home-based movement rehabilitation programs for people living with PD.

Academic mobility, intercultural encounters and cosmopolitan knowledge creation

In this presentation, I examine contemporary international encounters and intercultural interactions in academia as a researcher and recent participant in the ever-expanding global academic mobility programs. Academic mobility is a part of the modern continuing changes in the teaching and learning processes that higher educational institutions are undergoing globally. These changes are often termed ‘internationalization of education’ and they are expressed in the transformations in both the curricula and recruitment practices of students and staff. Global scale of academic mobility opens up prosperous opportunities for intercultural knowledge interchange, knowledge creation, and knowledge enrichment, all leading to the broadening of cultural imagination and creation of shared cosmopolitan cultural meanings.

Intercultural pathways for knowledge Transfer within academic mobility

This paper focuses on academic mobility with the view of examining knowledge flows and effective cultural pathways for knowledge transfer. Its main objective is to set up the theoretical parameters for exploring intercultural encounters within academic mobility with an additional goal of revealing underlining conditions for effective intercultural knowledge transfer and creation. Academic mobility describes global mobilities of tertiary students and university staff and refers to a growing phenomenon worldwide. It creates additional possibilities for exploring the enabling conditions for the intercultural knowledge flows. Academic migrants have been acknowledged as important agents of intercultural knowledge transfer, interchange and, ultimately, knowledge creation. This paper is guided by a hypothesis that cosmopolitan dispositions can create preconditions for successful knowledge transfer in everyday intercultural interactions in academia. In this paper, theoretical notions and ideas are discussed to provide a foundation for designing an ethnographic research which will seek to analyse empirical manifestations of emerging cosmopolitanism. Some preliminary findings of a pilot study are also analysed.