Teaching and Learning through the Eyes of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Postgraduates and their Lecturers in Australia and Vietnam: Implications for the Internationalisation of Education in Australian Universities

Abstract

International and transnational education has become common place. Australian universities have embraced the rise in international enrolments from students in the Asia-Pacific region. There are many considerations, however, if these courses are to avoid being labelled neo-colonial exercises, not least of which is the necessity for informed dialogue about practices and beliefs in teaching and learning between all stakeholders. With this in mind, this paper draws on a larger study which examined the teaching and learning experiences and perspectives of a group of culturally and linguistically diverse postgraduates and lecturers from the Asian continent and Australia. All of the participants were involved in an MA program offered by an Australian university and all were, or had been, English language teachers. Findings indicated that while participants from Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan, India, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia all appreciated (to some extent) educational discourses imported from "the West", many of them also valued local educational discourses and felt that these latter discourses were often viewed as "different" at best or "deficit" at worst by educators and academics outside of their locality. The implications of these findings for universities involved in international and transnational education are discussed with recommendations focusing on the need to develop more metacultural sensitivity on the part of university academics (both fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) and home), greater appreciation by home universities of diversity in stakeholders' perspectives on teaching and learning and increased respect for, and confidence in, local expertise in the Asia-Pacific region.