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Modern Social Imaginaries

The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis

This chapter explores the developmental trajectory of a Hong Kong Chinese university student who participated in a year-long exchange program in Canada. After Kingston (a pseudonym) returned home, he enrolled in Intercultural Transitions , an elective course designed to enhance and extend sojourn learning through guided, critical reflection. Kingston’s oral and written narratives provided a window into his second language learning, intercultural communication, cross-cultural adjustment, and evolving sense of self. Multiple sociocultural factors (e.g. host receptivity), personality attributes (e.g. ability to overcome psychological barriers, degree of ethnocentricism/reflexivity, willingness to try new things), and depth of investment in language and (inter)cultural enhancement impacted on his “whole person” development. The findings underscore the complexity of learning on stays abroad.

The transformation of &#8220;a frog in the well&#8221;

In 2018 the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) stressed that ‘citizens need not only the skills to be competitive and ready for a new world of work, but more importantly t...

Global and intercultural competences for whom? By whom? For what purpose: An example from the Asia Society and the OECD

The landscape of global higher education is changing rapidly in response to and alongside the geopolitical and geosocial global transformations and China and East Asia are becoming key players in higher education. As China’s economic power and strategic reach grows against a context of global uncertainty, it has become increasingly important to develop a nuanced understanding of Chinese globalisation, not least for its significance to the balance of power relations within and beyond Asia. Higher education provides a powerful lens through which to see how China is globalising and how this might impact on the world. This is manifested in its many established and newer forms of education mobilities. Recognising the lack of research efforts to systematically understand the complexities of contemporary higher education mobilities across China, this paper proposes a typology through a thematic narrative review of more than 250 peer-reviewed journal articles, government and media documents. This typology of Chinese educational mobilities reveals three key insights, including 1) a critique on the ‘mobility imperative’ and the role of the Chinese state, 2) a call for more longitudinal and/or retrospective research to facilitate a relational understanding of the fluid nature of higher education mobilities in China, and 3) a note on the urgency of developing a comprehensive theoretical and conceptual tool kit. This article contributes to an updated understanding of the fluid, multiple and multi-directional nature of contemporary higher education mobilities of China.

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Educating China on the move: A typology of contemporary Chinese higher education mobilities

This paper problematizes the imagineering of study abroad, especially in terms of set objectives and learning outcomes. The authors propose a shift away from a ‘pure’ cultural and intercultural preparation of mobile students, which tends to ignore the fact that unrealistic expectations and preconceived ideas about study abroad can be as much of a hindrance as e.g. ‘culture shock’. The concept of imaginaries is used to prepare international students, some from Asian countries, to reflect on, discuss and ‘reform’ their perceptions of study abroad. Imaginaries, which are constitutive of human beings living in groups, are of course necessary components of the study abroad experience. The results show that the students are able to deconstruct critically their own as well as others’ doxic discourses on the characteristics of study abroad. Yet at the same time, as one should expect, the students develop new imaginaries on mobility. We argue that by allowing them to develop more counter-narratives about study abroad—and thus multiplying imaginaries—the students can feel more apt to face the complexities and contradictions of the study abroad experience.

Study Abroad Beyond the Usual ‘Imagineering’? The Benefits of a Pedagogy of Imaginaries

International Students in China: Education, Student Life and Intercultural Encounters

Research on international students’ experiences abroad has tended to rely on models of adjustment, integration and/or acculturation to describe their (mis-)encounters with different kinds of people (e.g., co-nationals, locals and other international students). This paper proposes to use the more fluid concepts of imaginaries and hospitality, leaving behind stages and phases of adaption and acculturation, and focusing on the influence of the Structure on their experiences. Based on a discursive pragmatic analysis of interview data with 20 international students at a top Chinese university, the authors review how the students describe the kind of hospitality experienced at this institution and the influence that it has on their (mis-)encounters. Culturalist, differentialist and essentialist imaginaries (static and fixed views of Chineseness) are often used to justify the lack of encounters and the “segregation” and somewhat “positive discrimination” that they experienced. However, the paper shows that, amongst others, the institutional hospitality management for international students leads to closed contexts of encounters and feelings of exclusion. Although the study serves as a case study and cannot be generalized to the many and varied experiences of international students in other universities in China, some recommendations are made to solve, at least in part, misconceptions about what interculturality and hospitality entail in the internationalization of higher education.

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“I Want to Feel That I Live in China”: Imaginaries and Hospitality in International Students’ (mis-)Encounters at a Top Chinese University

In this chapter, the editors problematize the topic of the volume by examining official discourses, examples of students’ narratives and recent research on international students in China They note the lack of substantial research on the topic, especially in relation to interculturality—a central them for study abroad The chapter ends with a presentation of the chapters composing the volume

Anu Härkönen

Papers

Study Abroad Beyond the Usual ‘Imagineering’? The Benefits of a Pedagogy of Imaginaries

International Students in China: Education, Student Life and Intercultural Encounters

“I Want to Feel That I Live in China”: Imaginaries and Hospitality in International Students’ (mis-)Encounters at a Top Chinese University

International Students in China - A Dream Come True?

'A Truly International Campus' - Imaginarium of Higher Education?