Teaching and Learning through the Eyes of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Postgraduates and their Lecturers in Australia and Vietnam: Implications for the Internationalisation of Education in Australian Universities

International and transnational education has become common place. Australian universities have embraced the rise in international enrolments from students in the Asia-Pacific region. There are many considerations, however, if these courses are to avoid being labelled neo-colonial exercises, not lea...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dobinson, Toni
Format: Journal Article
Published: University of Western Australia 2015
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39485
_version_ 1848755603639369728
author Dobinson, Toni
author_facet Dobinson, Toni
author_sort Dobinson, Toni
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description International and transnational education has become common place. Australian universities have embraced the rise in international enrolments from students in the Asia-Pacific region. There are many considerations, however, if these courses are to avoid being labelled neo-colonial exercises, not least of which is the necessity for informed dialogue about practices and beliefs in teaching and learning between all stakeholders. With this in mind, this paper draws on a larger study which examined the teaching and learning experiences and perspectives of a group of culturally and linguistically diverse postgraduates and lecturers from the Asian continent and Australia. All of the participants were involved in an MA program offered by an Australian university and all were, or had been, English language teachers. Findings indicated that while participants from Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, India, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia all appreciated (to some extent) educational discourses imported from "the West", many of them also valued local educational discourses and felt that these latter discourses were often viewed as "different" at best or "deficit" at worst by educators and academics outside of their locality. The implications of these findings for universities involved in international and transnational education are discussed with recommendations focusing on the need to develop more metacultural sensitivity on the part of university academics (both fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) and home), greater appreciation by home universities of diversity in stakeholders' perspectives on teaching and learning and increased respect for, and confidence in, local expertise in the Asia-Pacific region.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T08:58:56Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-39485
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T08:58:56Z
publishDate 2015
publisher University of Western Australia
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-394852017-01-30T14:34:20Z Teaching and Learning through the Eyes of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Postgraduates and their Lecturers in Australia and Vietnam: Implications for the Internationalisation of Education in Australian Universities Dobinson, Toni International and transnational education has become common place. Australian universities have embraced the rise in international enrolments from students in the Asia-Pacific region. There are many considerations, however, if these courses are to avoid being labelled neo-colonial exercises, not least of which is the necessity for informed dialogue about practices and beliefs in teaching and learning between all stakeholders. With this in mind, this paper draws on a larger study which examined the teaching and learning experiences and perspectives of a group of culturally and linguistically diverse postgraduates and lecturers from the Asian continent and Australia. All of the participants were involved in an MA program offered by an Australian university and all were, or had been, English language teachers. Findings indicated that while participants from Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, India, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia all appreciated (to some extent) educational discourses imported from "the West", many of them also valued local educational discourses and felt that these latter discourses were often viewed as "different" at best or "deficit" at worst by educators and academics outside of their locality. The implications of these findings for universities involved in international and transnational education are discussed with recommendations focusing on the need to develop more metacultural sensitivity on the part of university academics (both fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) and home), greater appreciation by home universities of diversity in stakeholders' perspectives on teaching and learning and increased respect for, and confidence in, local expertise in the Asia-Pacific region. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39485 University of Western Australia restricted
spellingShingle Dobinson, Toni
Teaching and Learning through the Eyes of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Postgraduates and their Lecturers in Australia and Vietnam: Implications for the Internationalisation of Education in Australian Universities
title Teaching and Learning through the Eyes of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Postgraduates and their Lecturers in Australia and Vietnam: Implications for the Internationalisation of Education in Australian Universities
title_full Teaching and Learning through the Eyes of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Postgraduates and their Lecturers in Australia and Vietnam: Implications for the Internationalisation of Education in Australian Universities
title_fullStr Teaching and Learning through the Eyes of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Postgraduates and their Lecturers in Australia and Vietnam: Implications for the Internationalisation of Education in Australian Universities
title_full_unstemmed Teaching and Learning through the Eyes of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Postgraduates and their Lecturers in Australia and Vietnam: Implications for the Internationalisation of Education in Australian Universities
title_short Teaching and Learning through the Eyes of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Postgraduates and their Lecturers in Australia and Vietnam: Implications for the Internationalisation of Education in Australian Universities
title_sort teaching and learning through the eyes of culturally and linguistically diverse postgraduates and their lecturers in australia and vietnam: implications for the internationalisation of education in australian universities
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/39485