'Home' Academic Not At Home: A Journey Towards 'Pedagogy Of Connection'.

Author(s):

Maja Jankowska(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 04 A,

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

09:00-10:30

Room:

K5.04

Chair:

Monne Wihlborg

Contribution

Due to globalisation, there has been an increase in cross border travel and in the number of academics working in foreign Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It is estimated that in UK around 28% of the academics are non-British (HEFCE, 2015). The presence of these international academics in the UK HEIs offers both opportunities and challenges to themselves, students, and the HEIs. This has led to an increased interest in academics’ mobility, their adjustments and adaptations to their new work environments.

This presentation is prompted by a recent discussion among several international academics on their academic teaching journeys capturing:

The disconnects/ disruptions/challenges they have experienced in their pedagogical practices when comparing the educational/cultural systems they had experienced in the past to the one they are currently part of;
The strategies and strengths that they have developed as an international academic working in a foreign country in order to adapt and adjust to the challenges they have encountered/are encountering;
The impact of these developments, adjustments and adaptations on their development as an academic in a foreign environment.

This reflection will be captured in the compilation of personal narratives in the volume entitled ‘Academics’ Teaching Journeys: Personal Narratives of International Transitions’ (Hosein, A., Shu-hua Yeh, C & Kinchin. I., in preparation).

One of those reflections focuses on academics coming from within the EU to study or work in the UK who are classified as ‘home’. This term is used mainly for the purpose of fee structure (e.g. home students paying ‘home’ fees, as opposed to international students whose fees are substantially higher). However, it is also suggestive of certain commonalities among ‘home’ students or academics. Yet, it will be argued that many EU academics may indeed feel more ‘international’ or ‘cosmopolitan’ than ‘home’ as they come from distinctively different socio-historical backgrounds and pedagogic traditions and in addition often speak English as a foreign language (Jankowska, 2014). This presentation will focus on some disruptions and challenges commonly experienced by EU academics (with a focus on Central and Eastern Europeans). It will also consider the need for “reciprocal internationalisation” (considering ways in which ‘home’ academics may contribute to the agenda of internalisation within their host institutions and how in turn they may become more internationalised by working in the UK institutions).

The author will draw on her own personal narrative of academic journey as well as research she conducted looking at the experiences of international academics within her host institution (Jankowska, Kukhareva, Clements & Clarke, 2014). She will offer insights regarding learning and teaching approaches within HE for other international academics who are undergoing or a yet to undergo a similar acculturation process. In particular, she will focus on the concept of ‘pedagogy of connection’ (Cadman, 2005).

It is hoped that this presentation will be also of value to the management of the host universities who are responsible for facilitating a successful integration of their international academics in their respective institutions.

Method

The author will draw on autoethnographical narrative analysis which posits that she can be ‘both the author and focus of the story, the one who tells and the one who experiences, the observer and the observed, the creator and the created’ (Ellis, 2009, p.13). She will attend to the professional, personal and cultural intersections she finds herself at as a migrant, foreign academic, crossing boundaries between different systems of education and disciplines. She will consider an identity as a developmental process, something that is not fixed or complete but continues to evolve over time and across contexts and can be co-constructed and accelerated in unfamiliar social, cultural and organisational environments (Jankowska & Gaitán, 2016), with home and host cultures interacting, ‘cross-breeding’ and providing a platform for a more ‘hybrid’ identity (Sandsted, 2011). She will show how she is socially constructed and labelled by others (a migrant, a foreigner with an accent, an under-dog at a professional disadvantage and an alien, neither fully belonging here, nor being a part of there). Although she may be occupying some difficult to identify ‘in-between’ space (Bhabha, 1994, 1996), where neither ‘habitus’ nor ‘field’ (Bourdieu, 1986) can be taken for granted, she will reflect on how the journey enabled her to move towards ‘pedagogy of connection’ (Cadman, 2005). In the second part, the focus will shift to the data from research on the experiences of international academics in the author’s host institution, with specific focus on the data obtained from EU academics. This project utilised a mixture of quantitative (survey) and qualitative (narrative interviews) methodology. The qualitative part was an in-depth inquiry into experiences of academic staff who moved to the UK within the last 18 months. Narrative methodology was chosen as it allows capturing and analysing a complex, non-linear and necessarily contextual processes. It is not concerned with ‘facts’ but the meanings that emerge from (re)telling of experiences (Andrews et al, 2008; Riessman, 2008; Green & Myatt, 2011). Narratives acknowledge the fluidity of identity, with the focus on production and reproduction, being and becoming, belonging and longing to belong (Yuval-Davies, 2006) – aspects that are central to the international academics’ efforts in (re)constructing their academic identity in a new environment. The key findings from both autoethnographic and narrative analysis will be reported on, offering some suggestions for both international academics and their managers at host institutions

Expected Outcomes

A combination of personal insights (autoethnography) and other EU colleagues’ insights will provide a platform to discuss: - The disconnects/ disruptions/challenges EU academics may experience in their pedagogical practices when comparing the educational/cultural systems they had experienced in the past to the one they are currently part of; - The strategies and strengths that they have developed as an international academic working in a foreign country in order to adapt and adjust to the challenges they have encountered/are encountering; - The impact of these developments, adjustments and adaptations on their development as an academic in a foreign environment. The findings will be related to the available literature on the topic, highlighting aspects that may be interpreted as universal issues (and therefore used in a variety of contexts across Europe). Specific attention will be paid to the enablers for personal and professional growth, positive strategies and psychological dispositions/ strengths that can be developed to ease the transitions for international academics. Finally, the concept of “reciprocal internationalisation” will be explored with the aim to propose ways in which ‘home’ academics may contribute to the agenda of internalisation within their host institutions and how, in turn, they may become more internationalised by working in the UK institutions.

References

Bourdieu, P. (1986) The forms of capital. In J. Richardson (Ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood, pp. 241-258. Cadman, K. (2005). Towards a 'pedagogy of connection' in research education: A 'REAL' story, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 4 (4), pp.353-367. Ellis, C. (2009) Revision: Autoethnographic reflections on life and work. Walnut Creek, Ca: Left Coast Press, Inc. Gaitán, A. & Jankowska, M. (2016) Being an immigrant academic, Lifewide Magazine. Green, W. and Myatt, P. (2011) ‘Telling tales: A narrative research study of the experience of new international academic staff at an Australian university’, International Journal for Academic Development, 16(1), 33-44. Hosein, A., Shu-hua Yeh, C & Kinchin. I. (in preparation). Academics’ International Teaching Journeys: Personal Narratives of Transitions in Higher Education. London: Bloomsbury. Jankowska, M. (2016). Pathways through life, Lifewide Magazine, 16, 43-48. Jankowska, M. (2014). Students representations and experiences of Personal Development Planning (PDP) at one British university. Unpublished PhD thesis, available from http://uobrep.openrepository.com/uobrep/handle/10547/326090 [Accessed 10 June 2016] Jankowska, M., Kukhareva, M., Clements, A. & Clarke, S. (2014). An inquiry into the experiences of new international academic staff (IAS). Implications for CPD practice. Paper presented at the 20th Annual European Conference on Educational Research, Porto (Portugal). Jankowska, M. (2011) A reflection on adaptability; achievement motivation and success of Central and Eastern European students in one English university, COMPARE – a journal of international and comparative education, 41, 6, 81-818. Luxon, T. and Peelo, M. (2009) ‘Academic sojourners, teaching and internationalisation: the experience of non-UK staff in a British university’, Teaching in Higher Education, 14 (6), 649-659. Kostogritz, A. (2002) ‘Teaching literacy in multicultural classrooms: Towards a pedagogy of ‘Thirdspace’’. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, Brisbane, 1-5 December 2002. Pherali, T. (2012) 'Academic Mobility, Language, and Cultural Capital', Journal Of Studies In International Education, 16, 4, pp. 313-333. Riessman, C. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences, Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Author Information

Maja Jankowska (presenting / submitting)

University of Bedfordshire, United Kingdom

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