Session Information
WERA SES 03 B, Student Mobility: Troubling Discourses Of Colonialism In Higher Education
Symposium
Contribution
In times of neoliberal globalization, Higher Education has been highly affected by intensified internationalization practices and student mobility plays a significant role not only in the current state disinvestment in the public university but also in the growing market globalization of the university (Sousa Santos, 2004). According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2014), over 4.5 million students studied tertiary education outside of their country of citizenship in 2012, with over 80% enrolled in institutions in the G20 countries. In the case of Brazil, the Ciências sem Fronteiras (CsF) mobility program has sent more than 75,000 students to tertiary institutions abroad in the last few years and nearly one-third of the investment has been allocated to universities in the United States (Brazil, 2014). The United Kingdom, France, Canada, Germany and Australia are also preferred destinations of Brazilian students. Within this framework and drawing on postcolonial and decolonial studies, the aim of this paper is to scrutinize and discuss the epistemic logic and the ethical educational issues that complexly emerge from the constant colonial investment in North-South relationships (Sousa Santos, 2007; Mignolo, 2007; Grosfoguel, 2007). By using data collected from interviews with Brazilian undergraduate students at a University in Canada and the analyses of the official guidelines and documents of the scientific program, the findings of this research focus on ideological issues in which internationalization policy emerges from practice and challenges the alleged understanding between North-South countries. The Brazilian students' narratives reveal signs of adaptation, resistance and subversion through their academic mobility experience. These students disrupted the Eurocentric perspective that North teaches South and therefore re-signified the relationship with the Other.
References
Brazil. Ciências sem Fronteiras. Retrieved January 10, 2015 http://www.cienciasemfronteiras.gov.br/web/csf/o-programa Grosfoguel, R. (2007). Descolonizando los universalimos. In: Castro-Goméz, S. y Grosfoguel, R. El giro decolonial: reflexiones para una diversidad epistémica más allá del capitalismo global (compiladores). Bogotá: Siglo del Hombre Editores, Universidad Central, Instituto de Estudios Sociales Contemporáneos y Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Instituto Pensar, 2007. Mignolo, W. (2007) Coloniality: The Darker Side of Modernity. In: Coloniality and Modernity/Rationality, Cultural Studies, vol. 21, nos. 2-3, pp. 155-167. Retrieved January 10, 2015 from http://m1.antville.org/static/m1/files/walter_mignolo_modernologies_eng.pdf Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2014) Education at a Glance 2014: Highlights, OECD Publishing. Retrieved January 10, 2015 from http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/education-at-a-glance-2014_eag_highlights-2014-en Sousa Santos, Boaventura de (2004). A Universidade no Séc. XXI: Para una Reforma Democrática e Emancipatória da Universidade. São Paulo: Cortez Editora, 3ª edição. Sousa Santos, Boaventura de (2007). Beyond abyssal thinking: from global lines to ecologies of knowledges, Revista Critica de Ciencias Sociais, 80. Retrieved January 10, 2015 from http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2007-06-29-santos-en.html
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