Gillian Vogl

Work as Community: Narratives of Solidarity and Teamwork in the Contemporary Workplace, Who Owns Them?

The workplace provides a very important context for the development of community. Structural changes that have occurred in the workplace in the last 25 years have impacted on how community has been constructed and experienced in the workplace. These structural changes have often been accompanied by particular types of organisational cultures and forms of work organisation. One such form of work organisation has been teamwork. Some have argued that management induced forms of employee collectivism, such as teamwork have undermined more genuine employee generated forms of community and solidarity. Through in-depth interviews with employees in a number of organisations from two research projects, this article explores employees experiences of community and highlights the different ways in which teamwork is interpreted and experienced by workers.

English and the International Student: Getting Started, Getting on and Being Understood

This chapter identifies the nature and impact of English as a global language in higher education across the globe. It explores the reasons for the growth of English as the language of transnational higher education. It also explores the dilemmas between the notion of standardised English and hybrid local varieties of English which emerge in many countries in Asia where English is a second language. This chapter discusses how these differentiated varieties of English are spoken, encountered, mediated and negotiated by international students in the university and in their host communities. Using some research on the English language in an Australian university, many of the experiences describe the challenges associated with ‘getting started’ and ‘getting on’ and ‘being accepted’ in a new and often unfamiliar linguistic environment. This chapter also describes how the university teaching and learning process are changing in the context of growing numbers of Asian students with diverse English language skills and abilities at a time when resources are stretched and diminishing. The challenges for teaching and academic staff in dealing in an environment where other varieties of English are present and emerge in the academy are also discussed. This chapter describes the way in which the notion of learning has been radically radicalised around stereotypical views about how some, mostly Asian international students have been ‘conditioned’ to learn. Assumptions that Asian learning is reliant on rote learning, exam-driven memorisation, passive responses to the learning process and uncritical attitudes are seen by many host institutions as confining the learning potential of many international students. These dilemmas and tensions around perceived needs for students to be more independent in their learning and the nature of the debates about ‘dependent’ learners are discussed in the context of the changing learning environment in higher education which includes the use of new technologies of learning, temporary workforces and intensified teaching workloads for academics. This chapter describes some of the factors associated with the English language and its relationship to the internationalisation of higher education and its profound influence on the lives and experience of international students. The movement of higher education beyond the boundaries of the nation state has been attributed to the spread of global languages, and this has been seen as an enabling factor for the mobility of students across the globe. The rapid growth in the transnational markets in higher education has been influenced by the growth of English as a global language and its growing use as the dominant language in commerce, information technology and education. The global status of English is not accidental and is the product of the legacy of colonial domination by the British Empire, the hegemony of the American empire and its cultural and economic products, as well as pragmatic and deliberate policies of English-speaking nations to sell English as the language of globalisation and higher education.

Welcoming Students to Our Town: Engaging Community Based Support

Throughout 2009/2010, there were ongoing discussions and interventions by government and universities to overcome the impression that Australia was a dangerous destination and that international students were unwelcome. This chapter describes a community-based research project, initiated by the authors, called Welcome to Wollongong, which is an example of an action research project involving students, university staff, vocational education and training staff, members of the community and other volunteers from community groups. Welcome to Wollongong was designed to assist to build a better international relationship between the university and the community in support of international students, and this was done through a series of symbolic events. The chapter documents a range of similar interventions in other countries where students are symbolically welcomed into their communities by civic leaders in the hosting cities. These interventions include programs in Norway, the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States and are accompanied by many interventions at the local government level to welcome and support international students. These events included the Welcome to Wollongong project that included a civic welcome by city leaders and a mini-festival celebrating the presence and diversity of international students as a resource and as a positive contribution to the community. In addition, a series of ‘authentic’ information sites and activities that would enable international students to convey the message of the experiences and their needs, as well as establish networks in the community through working on Welcome to Wollongong. The chapter describes the vital role that the working group and community leaders had in taking a leadership role in supporting a holistic approach to the needs of international students. The project established a different and inclusive environment where international students could, through voluntary work, display skills that enabled them to gain confidence in establishing networks and relationships in the community that may not have otherwise been available to them. The project described here in this chapter has now operated for over 5 years and demonstrates how a local event has global dimensions and how community engagement had an important function in establishing a launching pad to forge some new global partnerships.

The Experience of Australia’s International Students: High Risks and Desperately Seeking Associations

This is a chapter that presents interviews from several research projects conducted in Australia by the authors and describes the experiences of international students, the majority are Asians. Some Australian students were also interviewed about their impressions of international students, and their experience of the impact of internationalization and global student mobility is documented. This chapter narrates in detail the experiences of students and ‘grounds’ the global events associated with global student mobility into vignettes and incidents in the national context of Australia. It provides some actual examples of how the theoretical notion of Beck’s ‘lives of one’s own’ plays out as students struggle to develop new friends and associates in what many see as an often strange and hostile new country. The chapter explores the spectrum of the interactions that Asian students encounter spanning ambiguity, harassment and assaults. The confusing and confronting expectations around academic performance, English proficiency and learning environments such as tutorials and group work are explored in detail through the narratives of students. The experiences also detail a growing affinity and identification with the host country and a growing sense of belonging and agency by some students involved in the research projects. The chapter documents the shifting notions of identity and affinity that students start to develop and their needs to be recognised as productive participants with agency and influence in their host communities.

Transnational Student Mobility: Introducing New Paradigms for Researching International Students

This chapter introduces the background and context of global student mobility and the shifts that have characterised transnational higher education. This chapter discusses the dominance of so-called Big Five nations of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Australia in the context of a global market. This book introduces the idea that global student mobility is an Asian phenomenon as the majority of international students come from the Asian region. This chapter discusses the shifts in global mobility from development and donor programs to a transnational market where students are a commodity. The authors argue that market context has emerged from the growth of the corporate academy where the commercialization of higher education has dovetailed into globalisation and internationalisation of higher education. This chapter also discusses the rise of Asia and the conditions, economic and social that gives rise to the factors that are facilitating the movement of students to overseas study. This chapter looks at the way in which developed countries have utilised international students as migrants to overcome skills shortages in professions. The link between international students and migration is explored in the context of a global backlash to migration. The combination of September 11, financial and economic crisis has led to strong anti-immigration movements in the developed world. These sentiments and the responses to them have created a new set of risks for international students. This chapter explores these risks in the context of concerns about the impact of international students on opportunities for local students and the labour market, academic standards and the character of institutions.

The International Student: Exploring the Invisible Subject of Global Mobility

This chapter explores the literature and research relating to international students and transnational education and argues that there is an orientation towards macrolevel studies, country studies and market analysis in the research on studying overseas. The literature, according to the authors, is generally biased towards instrumental and positivist research that constructs a systematic ‘market’. This chapter argues that the literature depersonalises students and that there is invisibility associated with the actual lived experience of international students. The authors argue that is an absence of research and literature that captures the human dimensions of mobility, cultural interaction and the complexities of being an international student. Most of the current literature that describes the experience of international students is also critiqued because it is assigning students a passive and dependent role and that much of the research does not question the inequalities and risks for students that that characterise market outcomes. As an alternative, the authors utilise a theoretical framework derived from Ulrike Beck’s notion of the risk society to describe the impact of late capitalism on the lives of people, including international students. Beck (1999) argues that the impact of markets has fragmented and isolated people and this has both created heightened risk in everyday life for all people including international students. In describing these trends, Beck (1999) and Beck-Gernsheim (2001) have also devised a notion of ‘a life of one’s own’ that identifies and categorises a process of individualisation emerging from the commodification of everyday life. Beck argues that global capitalism initiates the conditions for competition that fragments and individualises previously socially cohesive social practices. The benefit of Beck’s theoretical approach is the ability to explore the nature of friendship, affiliation and commonality and the impact that modern capitalism has on relationships between people. These notions of the risk society and individualisation are used as alternative theoretical tools to develop ways of exploring the discursive and contradictory nature of the lives of international students and are utilised as an interpretative tool to analyse global student mobility in this book.

Between The Flags! From Local Dangers to Global Risks for International Students

This chapter explores the interaction between the local experiences of the international students and the global dimensions of these often bad local experiences in Australia. This chapter, in exploring the experience of Asian students in Australia, provides a compelling analysis of the challenges in developing relationships involving Australia with its Asian neighbours. The chapter opens by documenting aspects of risk for students in Australia including major incidents such as the Cronulla riots in 2005, the murder of foreign students in the UK and Australia and a spate of attacks on Indian students in Australia in 2009. The chapter situates the possibilities for misadventure against the backdrop of the beach culture of Australia and explores how, for the foreigner, the cultural and natural setting can be both exhilarating and perilous. The seductive allure of the beach disguises the dangerous qualities that have taken lives and created the cultural environment that has spawned race riots. The impact of harassment and attacks and the ambiguous reaction of university official and police forces is documented and discussed against high-level diplomatic intervention by China and India whose students have been the victims of persistent racial attacks. The dilemmas for the Australian branding and the impact on the reputation of Australia as a safe destination are described in detail from media sources and illustrate the complex interrelationships between the global and the local as these events escalated into diplomatic incident in 2009/2010. The chapter also highlights the contradictions around identifying international students as a ‘problem’ when their contribution to the community economically, socially and educationally is underestimated and their own safety is in jeopardy. The chapter concludes that binaries that are constructed between so-called supporters of international education and their opponents are a limited notion that does not describe the complexity of reactions and responses within the communities nor adequately provides solutions to the issues confronted in earlier chapter.

Internationalisation in the Asia Pacific: Education Hubs in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia

This chapter explores the emerging participation of Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in transnational education and discusses the development of so-called education hubs in those countries as a way of promoting global student mobility. This chapter documents the policy settings and the different positioning of the state and the market in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in launching the concept of the education hubs as the platform for attracting international students. This chapter also describes how these education hubs are also part of a response in Hong Kong and Singapore to declining birth rates and an ageing population and the need for a younger professional workforce. This means that these nations, like others, are forced to compete in the market as global workforce, and foreign students offer an opportunity to source global talent. The authors also discuss how the metaphor of education hubs is used to create an image of modernisation that captures the ambition in these countries and cities to shift the principal foundations of the economy from ‘old’ production to ‘new’ knowledge industries. Education hubs are conceptualised around the demands of business groups who suggest that education hubs would facilitate growth in transportation, construction and ancillary services including tourism, finance and real estate. This close alignment with urban development and commercialisation has characterised the promotion of education hubs with mixed results. This chapter also details developments in each of these countries and cities and documents several emerging tensions and dilemmas. These include controversies in Hong Kong regarding the veracity of claims to internationalisation when the vast majority of international students are non-local students from mainland China. In Singapore, the ambitious plans for the island state to be a Global Schoolhouse by attracting high-quality international institutions from overseas are critically explored in the context of the collapse of many of the much vaunted collaborative enterprises. In Malaysia, the internationalisation of the higher education system has been hampered by questions about language policy, resources and a growing concern about radicalism which belies Malaysia’s reputation as a safe destination. In most cases, the authors consider the policy statements of governments are often a policy discourse of ambitious intent and in all the discussion associated internationalisation and education hubs in the Asia Pacific, students are seen as presented as nothing more than targets and numbers and their educational and personal needs are seen as peripheral to those of economic development. The need for housing, financing and transport for students is largely framed in economic terms as investment and infrastructure opportunities, and there is an assumption that students will adapt to their new environment easily without anxiety and trauma. This chapter explores the emerging participation of Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia in transnational education and discusses the development of so-called education hubs in those countries as a way of promoting global student mobility. This chapter documents the policy settings and the different positioning of the state in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia and the market in launching the concept of the education hub as the platform for attracting international students. There is considerable optimism and confidence that this loose concept of the education hub will facilitate internationalisation, but this chapter of the book describes many of the dilemmas and tensions that are associated with the notion of education hubs. The deterministic view that the education hubs represent an evolution in the development of the economies as they strive to become regional leaders in education is discussed and critiqued by the authors. Tensions around global student mobility being used as a conduit for migration, the privatisation of the higher education system, concerns over the quality of provision and instances of the collapse of providers all factors have an impact in some locations. In many cases, as the authors describe, the policy statements of governments are ambitious plans which have little substance and represent a policy discourse of ambitious intent. This chapter also describes how education hubs are also part of a response in Hong Kong and Singapore to declining birth rates and an ageing population and the need for a younger professional workforce. This means that these nations, like others, are having to compete in the market for as global workforce and students offer an opportunity to source global talent. While these centres promote themselves as regional centres and open economies, this chapter and the next chapter explore this from the student’s point of view. In all the discussion associated with internationalisation and education hubs in the Asia Pacific, students are seen and presented as targets and numbers, and their educational and personal needs are seen as peripheral to those of economic development. The need for housing, financing and transport for students is largely framed in economic terms as investment and infrastructure opportunities, and there is an assumption that students will adapt to their new environment easily without anxiety and trauma. The planned and systematic approach proposed by Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia stands in stark contrast to the often dynamic nature of global student mobility. The patterns and trends in student mobility are often influenced by external factors such as currency rates, visa and travel regulations, as well as perceptions about the safety and security of students. This means that the success or otherwise of the claims to regional leadership is also determined by factors that influence global students mobility in the dominant markets of Europe, North America and Australasia.

International Students, Anxiety and Risk in the Post–September 11 Nation State

This chapter explores the context and dilemmas in Australia, one of the major destinations for international students, where almost 20% of all enrolled students are from overseas. The chapter explores some of the dilemmas and tensions in a country which has a strong history of migration and a commitment to multiculturalism yet has been subject to significant resistance to immigration and backlashes against international students. The chapter explores some aspects of the shift against migration, the growth of regressive localism and the emergence of violence against migrant and ethnic groups in Australia. In the face of this growing uncertainty and resistance, the chapter explores the attempts of Australian authorities to market a benign and welcoming environment. The chapter selects and critically analyses several websites from international recruiters for Australian universities. The chapter documents how these websites portray the international student experience in Australia as benign and secure in a manner more traditional associated with youth tourism. The advertisements emphasise beach lifestyles, socialising and making friendships and companions and new adventures in exotic locations. The authors identify the contradictory situation for students where there are increasing levels of scrutiny and surveillance of international students and their families in an environment typified by a political and social environment where there is growing personal risk. The chapter explores how international students are positioned as a ‘problem’ and as a ‘risk’ and Becks’ notion of the risk society employed to further explore the reality that it is the international students who are placed most at risk and are highly vulnerable. The chapter identifies the patterns of intervention which are typified by contradictions and paradoxes as initiatives often contrive to impede and confine the opportunities for students to demonstrate autonomy and agency. The authors argue that, in Australia, there is a new paternalism with escalating levels of state monitoring and control is paradoxically shaped by the ideology of the neo-liberalism and the ‘invisible hand’ of the market. The chapter further identifies a trend that has seen the growth of greater levels of bureaucratic control at the same time that the services for international students are eroded at a time of expanded need.

East Asia, China and the ‘Asianisation’ of Mobility

This chapter explores more fully many of the themes discussed in the first chapter regarding the relationship between the emergence of the Asian region as the source of global student mobility and its rising economic power. The dimensions of the growing economic power and prosperity in the East Asia region are discussed, with an exploration of how students in the Asia Pacific region and its institutions are emerging as new destinations for Asian students. Aligned with the notion of centres being education hubs, many nations, most notably China and Japan, have embarked on ambitious and wide-ranging improvement programs in higher education institutions designed to enhance the international reputation of their institutions. This chapter describes the dimensions of some of these developments and the development of offshore campus in the Asia Pacific by some of the major European, American and Australasian universities. The authors argue that the growing presence of international education in the region providers offers students the advantages of cheaper tuition and living costs and easier visa conditions than in the West and the advantage of an overseas qualification in closer proximity to home.