Category: Capacity Building

Call for Proposals for the Democratizing International Student Mobility Symposium

International Symposium

Democratizing International Student Mobility 

February 2-3, 2024, Waseda University, Japan

This symposium aims to examine international student mobility in the contemporary era with a specific focus on the issue of inequality and the practices and experiences related to the possibility of democratization of international education. 

Since the late 20th century, international student mobility has been expanding rapidly. National governments see international student mobility as a means to cultivate global talent, provide international aid, and promote soft power. Educational institutions promote student mobility to increase the quality of education, revenues, as well as prestige. Individual students participate in cross-border mobility for skills, knowledge, credentials, as well as the opportunity for labor migration and cultural adventures. Currently, the volume of international student mobility is unprecedented and has become a major industry, involving different levels of actors from the state to individuals. However, despite its rapid expansion and commodification, international student mobility remains largely an elite educational practice.

First, the academic and policy discourse about international education and international student mobility focuses primarily on phenomena and practices at the higher education level. Second, government policy toward international student mobility often ties international students to talent programs. Third, cross-border mobility itself is largely a practice among the elites. Most of those who have access to international student mobility at the higher education level are among the economically better-off in society or those from the global north. Even though a minority of international students might come from less socioeconomically endowed backgrounds or countries, they are often academic elites chosen for the opportunity to pursue higher education across borders.

This elitist tendency seems to be at odds with the philosophy of modern education itself. John Dewey in the early 20th century pointed out that education as an important institution in modern society should be grounded in the principles of democracy and aim to cultivate active and informed citizens who can contribute to the betterment of society. Moreover, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals 4 (SDG4) aim to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all. Granted, international student mobility entails crossing national and cultural borders and can be costly. Are there possibilities for international education to be inclusive, equitable, and rooted in democratic principles?

In this symposium, we ask how students from a wide range of social backgrounds, not just the socioeconomically affluent and academic elites, can be included in cross-border educational mobility. We pay attention to the plurality of international educational practices, including those in and beyond higher education, and those following unconventional trajectories. We invite submissions from researchers in different disciplines, including but not limited to sociology, geography, anthropology, education, and political science. We welcome original empirical studies that engage the following discussions:

  • The question of social (in)equality and sustainability in international student mobility
  • International student mobility into diverse educational institutions, including language academies, vocational schools, and other education and training programs 
  • International student mobility into non-English speaking zones and non-conventional destinations
  • The emergent actors and stakeholders of international student mobility
  • International student mobility and individual capability building
  • ICT and the democratization of international education

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

Paper proposals should include a title, an abstract (300 words maximum), and a brief personal biography of 150 words for submission by 15 September 2023. Please also include a statement confirming that your paper has not been published or committed elsewhere, and that you are willing to revise your paper for potential inclusion in an edited journal publication (in collaboration with the workshop organizers and other participants) if we proceed with such a project.

Please submit your proposal to glfarrer@waseda.jp. Successful applicants will be notified by mid-October. Panel presenters will be required to submit drafts of papers (4,000-6,000 words) by 15 January, 2024. These drafts will be circulated to fellow panelists and discussants in advance. Drafts need not be fully polished. Indeed, we expect that presenters will be open to feedback from fellow participants.

This symposium is funded by Waseda University Top Global University Program and will be held in person on Waseda University campus. Depending on availability, we would be able to cover full or partial travel costs for selected participants. Please indicate in the proposal form if you require funding support.

Contact:

Gracia Liu-Farrer (Waseda University) glfarrer@waseda.jp

Call for Papers for the British Journal of Sociology of Education

The British Journal of Sociology of Education is delighted to invite calls for proposals from individuals or teams to edit a special issue. We are particularly keen to receive proposals that focus on topics that are at the leading edge of current debates and are clearly relevant to the journal’s international leadership.


Proposals should be clearly sociological in nature and address any area of education (including formal and informal sectors). Submissions can adopt theoretical, methodological, review-based and/or empirical angles and must clearly articulate how the overarching theme proposed will make a significant and lasting contribution to the field.


We particularly welcome submissions from editors/editorial teams who identify as from minoritised/ marginalised communities.


Proposals should outline: the topic of the proposed special issue; the research
expertise and any previous editorial experience of the proposed editor/editorial team; and a provisional timetable for putting the special issue together.


Please note that all British Journal of Sociology of Education special issues are
advertised through an open call for papers.


Proposals (no more than 1500 words) should be emailed to Rachel Brooks
(r.brooks@surrey.ac.uk) by 16th October 2023.

Managing Editor: Xin Fan

Call for Papers for Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education 

Call for Proposals for Winter 2024 Special Issue of Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education :  

Conceptualizing Micro-Level Narratives in  Thematic Constructs of Internationalization  

Send proposals to Guest Editors: Omolabake Fakunle, University of Edinburgh: omolabake.fakunle@ed.ac.uk and Fiona Hunter, Centre for Higher Education Internationalisation. Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano 

Papers in this special issue will expound on the micro-level dimension in the internationalization of higher education. The aim is to critically examine internationalization at the individual level because internationalization is impossible without the participation and contribution of individuals who enable [and sustain] its functioning at the institutional, national, and international levels. A case in point is the paradoxical lack of integration of international students’ rationales for internationalization to underpin the development of strategies centered around student recruitment mainly from economic imperatives. This feeds into a persisting neglect of the humanising aspect of internationalization which remains drowned within dominant neoliberal marketized constructs. The relative lack of attention to the human aspect of internationalization implores the need to learn about the transformations that internationalization promises in advancing human development and flourishing, and how these may be actualized, and the challenges involved. The observation in the last three decades by scholars regarding the conceptual fuzziness around internationalization reflects the missing voices of individuals at the heart of internationalization.  

This special issue invites contributions to submit reflective accounts, theoretical papers, or findings from empirical research pointing to the importance of micro-level individual dimension in internationalization. Contributors can utilise different theoretical approaches that speak to the relational dimension of internationalization, such as a decolonial approach or capability approach to underpin articulations of agency amidst structural affordances and constraints. The papers will link to one or more thematic constructs of internationalization, such as:  

academic staff mobility, digitalisation of internationalization, international partnerships, international student mobility, internationalising the curriculum (pedagogical approaches and engagement in internationalised classrooms), internationalization at home, and transnational education.  

Proposals should be 500 words and submitted on or before October 1, 2023. Authors will be notified of their acceptance by November 15, 2023. Completed articles should be submitted by January 30, 2024. All articles will undergo a double-blind peer review process and must follow the JCIHE guidelines: https://www.ojed.org/index.php/jcihe/about/submissions. Proposals can be submitted directly to omolabake.fakunle@ed.ac.uk or can be submitted via the JCIHE website. 

Research with International Students Conference

December 11 – 12, 2023
Hybrid: at the University of Manchester (United Kingdom) and online

This conference is funded by The Spencer Foundation and builds on the upcoming publication of the Research with International Students book (to be published in late 2023). It further establishes a network of critical researchers and scholars who wish to develop more ethical approaches towards research that includes international students as participants and co-researchers. 

Conference focus

There is a growing recognition in research with international students that their experiences are intersectional (George Mwangi et al. 2019) and unequal (Mok and Zhang 2022). Although international students share a migrant identity, there is significant variation in how their experiences may be racialized, gendered, or seen through ableist or heteronormative lenses. For instance, different groups of international students are routinely ‘othered’ (Moosavi 2021) or stereotyped (Heng 2018) through assumptions they should ‘assimilate’ into the cultures and practices of their hosts. Scholars are also increasingly documenting the ways that becoming an international student may lead to renegotiating new minoritized identities in contexts where concepts such as race may be socially and culturally constructed in different ways (Madriaga and McCaig 2019). International students’ experiences with prejudices, xenophobia, and racism are also well documented (Jiang 2021; Harrison and Peacock 2009; Ladegaard 2017), where some research has started to unravel how this may unfold differently for students with different racial (Ramia 2021), religious (Arafeh 2020), gender (Brooks 2015), or dis/abled (Olave-Encina 2022) identities (among others).

However, research focusing on intersectional inequalities is the exception rather than the rule, as international students are routinely collectivised in research as a homogenised group (Jones 2017). Research has also historically operated from positions of deficit (Lomer and Mittelmeier 2021), as international students are often assumed to ‘lack’ experiences or skills necessary for success, particularly compared to home students. Similarly, international students are frequently portrayed as only experiencing challenges or difficulties (Deuchar 2023), which fails to see the complexity of their multidimensional and intersectional experiences. For example, the subfield is rife with research that seeks to ‘fix’ perceived problems with international students’ believed lack of critical thinking, language proficiency, classroom participation, or referencing knowledge, without reflecting that their educational experiences and knowledges may be different, but not deficient (Heng 2018). 

Many current research approaches fail to view international students as ‘epistemic equals’ (Hayes 2019) whose knowledges and experiences are equally worthy of inclusion rather than erasure. Further, the failure to recognise, document, and address intersectional facets of international students’ identities (of race, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, class, and more) through research means there are limited evidence-based measures for countering inequalities in practice. 

Given these issues, this conference focuses specifically on research designs and approaches within the subfield of research with international students. We aim to develop more methodological guidance to steer the subfield away from problematic discourses and assumptions. Therefore, we invite presentations which consider issues around the following questions:

  • What critical conceptual and methodological issues currently face research with international students as a subfield?
  • What are practical (macro or micro) considerations for research designs in this subfield?
  • How can researchers consider issues of power, inequality, intersectionality, and ethics in research with international students?
  • How might research with international students be imagined differently?
  • What should the future of research with international students look like?

Conference format

This is a two-day hybrid conference with a face-to-face component at the University of Manchester (UK) that will be streamed online. All presentation sessions will be recorded and shared online afterwards for those not able to attend live, but informal discussion sessions will not be recorded. We encourage as many speakers as possible to attend in person, but contributions will be considered at a distance if required. Prior to the conference, we will hold a pre-conference networking workshop online. We also aim to co-create a set of methodological guides for our website, which participants will be invited to collaborate on online after the conference. We ask all accepted speakers to participate in the full conference. 

Confirmed keynotes

We are pleased to confirm the following keynote speakers will join us at the conference in Manchester:

  • Kalyani Unkule (O.P. Jindal Global University)
  • Chrystal A. George Mwangi (George Mason University)
  • Hanne Kirstine Adriansen (Aarhus University) 

Submission guidance

You are invited to contribute as a presenter. We welcome contributions from around the world and support the inclusion of early career researchers and international student scholars. Authors may submit an abstract for an empirical or theoretical presentation related to the conference theme. Please note that the purpose of this conference is to focus on methodological and conceptual considerations for research with international students on a broader scale, considering the process of how we undertake research in the subfield. While authors are welcome to include examples of their research findings in their presentations, abstracts which fully intend to share research findings only will not be accepted.

You can submit a title and abstract of up to 300 words for consideration here: https://www.qualtrics.manchester.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_5sYVTQcR4Cyuwo6
All (co-)authors will also be asked to include a short 100-word bio for inclusion in the conference programme.

If the Qualtrics survey is inaccessible for any reason, please contact the organisers. 

Deadline: 12:00 noon UK time on 17 July 2023
Time zone converter: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20230717T110000&p1=302 

Funding

This conference is free to attend, in person or online. 

The conference is funded by The Spencer Foundation’s Conference Grants Program. Limited funding is available to support scholars with attending the conference in Manchester (UK). This funding will be competitive and is reserved for those with the highest quality abstracts. Funding will be prioritised for the following categories:

  • Scholars with no institutional funding available for conference travel
  • Scholars based in ‘Global Majority’ or ‘Global South’ contexts
  • Scholars who identify as ethnic, religious, or cultural minorities in their contexts 
  • Disabled scholars
  • Scholars with caring responsibilities 
  • International student scholars
  • Early career researchers 
  • Scholars with any other marginalised or minoritised background or identity in their context 

We are unable to offer funding to scholars who already have institutional funding available for conference attendance. 

The abstract submission form will allow you to indicate whether you would like to be considered for funding to attend. A full application for funding should be submitted by August 31st at: https://www.qualtrics.manchester.ac.uk/jfe/form/SV_6lpysfOxC7NUF94

In the application, you should include a rough budget for the funding you would like to request. If successful, travel and hotels will be booked on your behalf by the conference team (no need to fund up front) and reimbursement is available for visa costs, caring costs, or supporter’s costs. Due to limited available funding, we will likely not be able to fund all requests and ask attendees to keep costs to a minimum to help us stretch the budget as far as we can. We are only able to fund a hotel around the conference days (up to 3 days maximum) and any extended stays will be at the attendee’s own expense. Lunches will be available at no cost on conference days, but other subsistence is at the attendee’s own expense (information about local grocery stores and budget restaurants will be provided). All travel must be in ‘economy’ class. Separate applications must be made for each individual author who wishes to attend.

Maximising your time in the UK: 

Other conferences

We have purposefully scheduled this conference to coincide with two other higher education conferences in the UK, should participants wish to maximise their travel. If you are in receipt of funding to attend our conference, we can pay for travel to/from your choice of an airport or train station in the UK, but not travel between conferences or hotel stays beyond the Research with International Students conference. 

Please note that abstracts to the Research with International Students conference should be significantly different from presentations made at SRHE or ChinaHE.

Collaboration and co-working

If you would like to extend your stay in Manchester for the purposes of collaboration and/or co-working with other conference attendees, we can book university rooms for your use on request. We are also happy to facilitate building connections with other researchers based in the Manchester Institute of Education.

Any questions about the conference can be directed to Jenna Mittelmeier.

Managing Editor: Tong Meng

China Institute of Trier University Webinar “Mapping migration and the history of “foreign influences” on Chinese education, 21.06. 2023, 9:45-12:00 (CEST) via Zoom


21.06.2023 09:45–12:00 OnlineWorkshop | Seminar

China Institute of Trier University (CIUT) Webinar Series: Mapping migration of people and the impact on Chinese education

The mobility of people and goods between China, their neighbours and countries in the West has had a tremendous impact on individual as well as national and global education. Periods of openness and free flow of ideas were followed by seasons of self-imposed closing up isolation – as becoming much more evident again in our increasingly bipolar, challenging world. 

• How can we document and map individual histories of migration and its impact on education?

• Which analytical frameworks, methods and tools do different disciplines offer and what patterns of influence can be observed when looking at different historical contexts?

• How can international and interdisciplinary collaborative work on common topics about “China” be developed and conducted by researchers across temporal, geographical, cultural, and ethno-lingual boundaries? 

The series of three webinars focusing on “Linking data infrastructures for Chinese biographical research”, “(His)Stories of Chinese diaspora & education migrants” and “History of foreign influences on education & science in China” is part of the effort of the China Institute of the University Trier (CIUT) to strengthen research on the mobility of Chinese people, the Chinese diaspora communities, and the influence and impact of their interactions with the host societies on Chinese societies.

The finalized programme of the second webinar “(His)Stories of Chinese diaspora & education migrants” is as follows (time zone: Central Europe Summer Time):

Date/Time:21 June, 2023 (Wed), Time (CEST) (His)Stories of Chinese diaspora & education migrants 
9:45-9:55 Opening notes of the series: Kristin Shi-Kupfer, Director, CIUT 
9:55-10:00 Moderator: Kristin Shih-KupferHousekeeping
10:00-10:30Yu-Chin TsengJunior Professor of Modern Taiwan Studies, Department of Chinese Studies, University of Tübingen, GermanyAcademic mobility and Chinese transnational families
10:30-11:00Johanna WatersProfessor of Human Geography, Department of Geography, University College London, United KingdomVarieties of Chinese education migration
11:00-11:10 Fresh Air Break 
11:10-12:00Kristin Shi-KupferFlipped Classroom: linking the present with the past
Participants are invited two watch the following two selected videos BEFORE joining the webinar:
The first Chinese student in Europe, by Henrietta Harrison (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxChaJq1d14)
The first Chinese student in the US: Yung Wing, by Frank Yung (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDJXauQK_6Q)

To access the meeting room of the second webinar in the series, simply do a quick registration below to obtain the unique access link with your email account:

https://uni-trier.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYofu-qrz8tHNAXKRAGIexr8piZYtg14Jxu

The confirmation will be automatically sent to that email address after your registration. 

The webinar series is kindly supported by the interdisciplinary research cluster “Cultures in Transition”,  Trier Center for Digital Humanities and the University Library @UniTrier.

Managing Editor: Tong Meng