New work, old power

Inequities within the labor of internationalization

Dados Bibliográficos

ID12427771
AutoresKumari Beck (Simon Fraser University, autor correspondente), Roumiana Ilieva (0000-0003-3871-9769, Simon Fraser University), Ashley Pullman (0000-0002-1671-7423, Simon Fraser University), Zhihua Zhang (0000-0001-5309-2648, Simon Fraser University)
EditoresJohn Moravec
Ano2013
Volume21
Fascículo2
Páginas84-95
Data de publicação2013-05-08
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoOn the Horizon The International Journal of Learning Futures (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1074-8121 • E-ISSN: 2054-1708
EditoraEmerald Publishing Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1108/10748121311322987
OpenAlexW2068467856
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas23

Purpose The aim in this paper is to extend Dorothy Smith's conceptual understanding of work to consider the emerging labor of “knowmads” within internationalization of higher education. Through original research on everyday experiences of internationalization, the authors seek to illuminate the ways individuals develop skills and competencies in relation to these new forms of work in order to address the reproduction of inequities. The authors make a connection between internationalization of higher education and knowmadic labor based on the premise that cross‐border education is often pursued in order to develop knowmadic attributes. Design/methodology/approach Through a critical institutional ethnography of one mid‐sized Canadian university, the paper uses survey and interview data gathered from students and faculty ‐ individuals who are involved in knowmadic labor connected to internationalization – to illustrate some of the study participants' daily experiences of internationalization coordinated by the institutional structures of the university in times of globalization. Findings It is concluded that internationalization and connecting new forms of work involved in becoming and producing knowmads not only bypass and disregard present inequities in higher education, but work to reproduce them in new ways. Practical implications The paper provides insight in regards to processes and allocation of work within internationalization, while addressing forms of social inequities that often cut across these practices and concludes with brief comments on the implications of academic knowmadic labor in Western higher education institutions engaged in internationalization. Originality/value While research has been conducted on work in international contexts, little has addressed “the labor” that is involved in becoming knowmads, and that of “producing” knowmads. The paper draws connections between the internationalization of higher education and knowmadic work showing that knowmadic labor is often preceded by knowmadic educational opportunities. The cosmopolitan vision of creating globally aware citizens, with international knowledge, skills, and competencies that institutions espouse, are assumed to be good per se , and to lead to knowmadic qualities and attributes required in a knowmad society. The paper questions these assumptions and the relations of power on which they rest

Economic growth · Economics · Epistemology · Globalization · Higher education · Internationalization · Internationalization of Higher Education · Originality · Political science · Power (physics · Premise · Public relations · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Work (physics · Engineering · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Higher Education Governance and Development · International Student and Expatriate Challenges · Law