Ideas and Realities: Investigating Good Practice in the Management of Transnational English Language Programmes for the Higher Education Sector

Abstract

This paper describes the findings of an Australian Government-funded research project that sought to investigate the management of transnational English-language teaching programmes in the higher education sector with a view to identifying those activities that both facilitate and inhibit good practice as defined in the paper. Using data obtained from desk research and semi-structured interviews conducted on three different programmes (two run in Indonesia and one in Mauritius), the researchers sought to identify staff perceptions of the causes of the problems and explanations for the successes that had occurred at the three sites. The study found that for transnational English-language teaching programmes for the higher education sector, key management concerns can be related to issues of communication and culture, principles and values, and capacity and resources. It concluded that these issues need to be consciously and transparently addressed if good practice in the management of transnational English-language teaching programmes is to be successfully promoted.