Towards Different Conversations About the Internationalization of Higher Education

Abstract

As institutional commitments to internationalize higher education continue to grow, so too does the need to critically consider both the intended purposes and actual outcomes of the programs and policies that result. In particular, there is a risk that internationalization efforts may contribute to the reproduction of harmful historical and ongoing global patterns of educational engagement. In this paper we explore these issues by offering a social cartography of four possible articulations of internationalization, and considering their relation to an often-unacknowledged global imaginary, which presumes a colonial hierarchy of humanity. We also address the practical and pedagogical possibilities and limitations of enacting each articulation within mainstream institutional settings, and propose that social cartographies offer a means of reframing and deepening engagement with the complexities, tensions, and paradoxes involved in internationalizing higher education.