Transnational Education in Higher education: productive pedagogies or pure profit?

1. Tania Aspland University of Adelaide ALTC: Enhancing frameworks for ensuring quality frameworks in off shore teaching http://www.education.uwa.edu.au/research/frameworks Transnational Education in Higher education: productive pedagogies or pure profit?

2. Overview of the presentation • The context of transnational education in Australia – industry, education or both? • The research studies • The data • The argument • Conclusion

3. DEFINITIONS OVER TIME • International education is a growing part of Australia’s international relations ...and we need to recognise the internationalisation of higher education (Beazley 1992) and the changing face of education in Australian universities (Phillips 1990) as a result of the changing overseas student policy in 1985 • Australian International Education Foundation established in 1994 • Internationalisation of higher education is the process of integrating international and intercultural dimensions into the teaching, research and service functions of the university (de Witt 1998) • Influence of globalisation on university policies and practices as the hegemonic discourse of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries (Vidovich 2005) • Globalisation has opened up Australian education to the world and increasing competitive markets have become evident, with concerns about the commodification of education identified by academics

4. DEFINITIONS OVER TIME • UNESCO : Code of good practice in the provision of transnational education (2001) • Australian government: Transnational Quality Strategy (2005) Transnational education refers to marketing, enrolment processes, delivery and/or assessment of programs delivered in a country other than Australia by an Australian provider...may lead to an Australian qualification or may be non-award course, ...provided by and accredited Australian educational organisation

5. Evidence of growth • 1986: 22 000 international students in Oz (AVCC) • 1995: 73 000 international students in Oz (AVCC) • 2008: 449 000 overseas students studying in Australian programs on shore and off shore (AEI) • 2003: Australia offered 1569 off shore programs (70% in China and HK, Singapore and Malaysia) • 2008: 1310 providers of education to international students (TVET 2009) Annual export figure of $15.5 billion

6. EMERGING CONCERNS As education has moved across borders we have witnessed: • The introduction of a market and trade approach to education • A renewed emphasis on educational mobility • An increased demand for tertiary education given the role of the knowledge society • Increasing use of intensive teaching, advanced technology for delivery and blended learning • Developing research into the cross-cultural nature of learning and program delivery • Serious auditing of higher education initiatives in transnational education These concerns are evident not only in Australia but through EU, the UK and the Americas.

7. The nature of surveillance: “being AUQA-ed” Quality of transnational education through AUQA through • AQF • National protocols • ESOS Act • National Code of Practices for Registration Authorities and Providers • Provision of Education to International Students: Code and guidelines for Australian universities • CRICOS registration

8. RESEARCH AGENDA • Plagiarism • Cross-culturally learning • Internationalisation of the curriculum • Communication • English as a second language • Congruence between language and learning • Acculturation • Cultural preparedness of teachers off shore • Impact of types of delivery • Quality issues (equivalence, academic standards)

9. KEY RESEARCH QUESTION Transnational Education in Higher education: Is there evidence of productive pedagogies or is transnational education designed purely for profit? In other words is transnational teaching about GOOD TEACHING OR A FAST BUCK?

10. RESEARCH AGENDA (1999-2009) • Perspectives of academics teaching off -shore • Preparation • Curriculum development • Delivery - pedagogies • Assessment • Welfare Principles to assist quality assurance • Perspectives of students engaging in transnational education both on-shore and off-shore • Curriculum development • Delivery – pedagogies of undergraduate and postgraduate programs • Assessment • Welfare Principles to enhance quality teaching and learning

11. Principles to enhance quality assurance: On the part of higher education institutions • Directors of Academic Programmes in Australian universities should be members of off-shore Advisory Academic Councils to ensure quality auditing of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. • Universities should have formal processes whereby the quality of offshore programs can be regularly reviewed and concerns resolved in a transparent manner • Curriculum packages should be comprehensive and should evince clear quality controls • Units delivered both offshore and onshore should be equivalent, rather than necessarily identical to each other. Unit outlines, topics and learning outcomes should be the same, but curriculum content and pedagogical practice may be adapted to suit cultural differences • Coordinators of programs should have the right to veto the appointment of locally engaged staff

12. Principles to enhance quality assurance: On the part of higher education institutions • In order for the Australian university to maintain its credibility it should ensure that offshore programmes for a particular degree should have the same entry requirements as apply to those students who wish to enrol in the same degree programme onshore • Regulations relating to advanced standing, transfer of credit, student failure and withdrawal from off-shore programmes should be made clear to offshore students at the outset rather than at the point of crisis • Program coordinators should ensure that offshore students have access to appropriate learning resources, including computers, readings and other library services and facilities. • Staff appointed offshore should fulfil the expectations of the Australian university with regard to their academic qualifications, training and experience, as well as their general suitability for appointment, including English language competency. Formal comprehensive training of staff engaged to provide offshore teaching should take place before their deployment commences. • Activities undertaken offshore must take into account the laws and customs of the country in which they are conducted.

13. Principles to enhance quality assurance: On the part of higher education institutions Faculties/Departments should establish management committees to establish and monitor the effectiveness of offshore activities Composition • Such committees should consist of the following staff and provide for gender balance, where possible: •  experienced and inexperienced offshore teachers; • administrators from both partners involved in the activity; • a senior academic member of the Faculty/Department as chair; and • Co-opted members as considered appropriate by the committee. Purpose •  appropriate staff are involved in all key aspects of course delivery and development; • staff development and orientation programs are relevant, up-to-date, useful and regularly reviewed; • mentoring takes place between newly appointed and experienced staff; • programs are reviewed, at least annually, to determine their viability; and • a ‘clearing house’ for issues raised by staff, both offshore and local

14. Principles to enhance quality assurance: On the part of higher education institutions Contracts of employment relating to offshore activities should be clear and unequivocal in relation to: • Employer • Line Manager to whom responsible • Legal jurisdiction of the contract • Remuneration • Legal recognition of programmes • Legal documents for offshore travel • Insurance • Legal tender in which salary and allowances will be paid

15. And now let’s turn to productive pedagogies ............ • PEDAGOGICAL MARGINALISATION • INTERRUPTING POWER RELATIONS • INCLUSIVE TEACHING

16. Principles to enhance teaching and learning: Pedagogical marginalisationStudent report experiencing cycles of pedagogical marginalisation followed by compliance. As a result they question themselves as learners and become distanced from authentic learning. The pedagogies at work do not allow students to locate themselves in a learning discourse.

17. Principles to enhance teaching and learning: Pedagogical marginalisation • Find a repertoire of ‘both-ways” pedagogical practices - do not ignore those who position themselves on the margins • Shift students from the periphery to the centre of pedagogical engagement • Avoid the practices of ‘othering’ and ‘trivialising’ students through recognising and valuing the cultural embeddedness of multiple ways of knowing and learning • Strive for reciprocity through pedagogical engagement • Deconstruct stereotypical myths of cross-cultural teaching and learning. More specifically...............

18. Interrupting power relations implicit in pedagogies The pedagogical relations of dominant and subordinate positioning locates the student in asymmetrical learning relationships fraught with dilemmas that generate • cultural struggles: suppression of ways of knowing – “becoming invisible” • material struggles: devalued as a research worker in own context “feeling like a little girl” • learning tensions: learning is culturally non-responsive and historically located – “feeling like a failure” – “silenced”

19. Principles to enhance teaching and learning: Interrupting power relations implicit in pedagogy • Do not suspend learning subjectivities that may be culturally different but locate them at the constitutive centre of pedagogy –avoid silencing the learner • Avoid the bifurcation of the learning self by juxtaposing western ways on culturally different ways of knowing and thinking – find a “both-ways pedagogy” • Construct a pedagogical relationship with learners that “gives voice” for the enabling of learning rather than resistance to learning through silence • Avoid “learning through subservience” based on gender positioning, patriarchy/matriarchy nurturing or cognitive dissonance and power constructs , and find spaces for students to present and re-present their learning selves in personally and politically meaningful ways

20. Constructing a space for inclusive learning • Students reported that some pedagogies were shaped by residual colonialism • (Rizvi, 1993) where they were located a s difficult students under the watchful • eye of paternalistic concern. • Students were tolerated rather than nurtured as learners - dislocated learners • Students were a foreigner in their own country – the submissive other • Students were unable to find a comfortable space for learning and engaged in silence as a form of resistance • Students felt both included and excluded within an ambivalent learning space where they were conceptualised as “almost the same but not quite” (Flax 1990; Ang 1996; ) , where they were invited in but kept out simultaneously.

21. Principles to enhance teaching and learning: Constructing a space for inclusive learning • Find a place for teaching and learning to replaces western hegemonic pedagogies with culturally inclusive and pedagogically responsive teaching. While curriculum implementation requires equivalence pedagogical engagement should be responsive and inclusive of difference • Locate the student (through collaborative negotiation) as central to pedagogical engagement - not content or assessment - if real learning is the purpose of the intervention • Avoid the trivialisation of culture, gender and historically constructed subjectivities • Address tensions, ambiguity and dilemmas as they “ bubble up” through pedagogical engagement

22. THE ARGUMENT: Is transnational education designed purely for profit?

23. THE ARGUMENT: PURE PROFIT? There is no doubt that • Profit margins vary • The purpose of engaging in transnational education vary • Allocations of resources vary Generally speaking: the higher the quality of teaching - the lower the profit margin IT IS EXPENSIVE FOR UNIVERSITIES TO ENGAGE IN HIGH QUALITY PROGRAM DELIVERY IN OFF-SHORE CONTEXTS

24. THE ARGUMENT ARE PRODUCTIVE PEDAGOGIES IN PLACE IN HIGHER EDUCATION TRANSNATIONAL PROGRAMS ?

25. The Longitudinal Study (QSRLS) (2001) suggest that there are 4 dimensions of productive pedagogies. These dimensions are: • intellectual quality • connectedness • supportive learning environment • recognition of difference.

26. ARE PRODUCTIVE PEDAGOGIES IN PLACE IN HIGHER EDUCATION TRANSNATIONAL PROGRAMS ?My assessment ......... Intellectual Quality Connectedness • Dimension of Intellectual quality • Higher-order thinking • Deep knowledge X Deep understanding X Substantive conversation X Knowledge as problematic X Metalanguage • Dimension of Connectedness • Knowledge integration X Background knowledge X Connectedness to the world • Problem-based curriculum

27. ARE PRODUCTIVE PEDAGOGIES IN PLACE IN HIGHER EDUCATION TRANSNATIONAL PROGRAMS ?My assessment ......... Supportive learning environment Recognition of difference Dimension of Supportive learning environment • Social support X Academic engagement • Explicit quality performance criteria X Self-regulation • Dimension of Recognition of difference X Inclusivity • Narrative X Identity formation X Cultural knowledges

28. CONCLUSION Transnational Education in Higher education: Is transnational education designed purely for profit? Is there evidence of productive pedagogies? So where to from here...........

29. Future directions The ongoing research reported here and else where will no doubt unsettle (Bannerji et al., 1991) and disrupt the social, cultural and political relations of transnational teaching for some Australian academics. Alternatively it may promote others to question how they are positioned within their own transnational teaching projects. It is my intent to • Contribute to the politicisation and transformation of teaching and learning and curriculum delivery in the cross-cultural contexts of transnational education. • Disrupt the silences that are implicit in continuing practices of the imposition of Western hegemonic ways of knowing and inequitable teaching practices through transnational programs, at times, with a view of financial profits • Shift the location of international students from periphery to centre through evidence based research that demonstrates the use of productive pedagogies are central to teaching that empowers students, values cultural ways of knowing and engages learners in transformative learning.

30. THANKYOU and QUESTIONS Further conversations: tania.aspland@adelaide.edu.au From Mei: Looking in from the outside: “You learn round and I learn square...I need to learn how to think round!”