Archive
Volume 12, Issue 2 (2021)
Global Inequality and Widening Global Access in Cross-Border and Transnational Higher Education:
Alexander Lenger and Florian Schumacher
Transnational study programs and international mobility in higher education are rising. Recently, new forms of widening access and improving participation are being discussed on the national level. All the actions taken are expected to impact positively on underrepresented and disadvantaged groups in higher education, particularly for prospective students from lower socio-economic strata, under-represented gender or ethnic groups, disabled people, mature students and care givers, etc. On the international level, this debate on participation and access seems to be less marked. However, an analysis of the social dimension of widening global access has to consider not only national and international class barriers but also the gender, age, language and regional background of students. By analyzing the grades of 320 students enrolled in the Global Studies Programme between 2002 and 2013, a jointly operated transnational social science master's program located in Argentina, Germany, India, South Africa, and Thailand, this article provides empirical evidence that global inequality might be reproduced within such a transnational educational setting as well. In summary, we do not nd signi cant correlations between gender and grading, age and grading or language and grading. However, a strong and signi cant correlation between provenance and grades can be found. Our findings can be interpreted as additional ndings for the existence of a Northern-dominated higher education system, even amid cooperation with the Global South.
The Meritocracy of International Class Formation
Francisco Javier Ardila Suarez
Education enjoys the reputation of being one of the main tools for enabling social mobility. The rise in popularity of meritocracy, the capability approach
and equality of opportunity, among others, have further reinforced the idea that social
mobility is attainable and is determined by personal effort given a fair set of consequences. This perspective contrasts with the observed role of education in social
reproduction by sociologist like Pierre Bourdieu. This paper presents a case study
to test the role of education as a tool for social mobility in an international master
program by using the method of Jodhka, Rehbein and Souza (2014). The findings do
not support the argument of social mobility and instead present education as playing
a role in social reproduction.
Internationalization Efforts at a German University: A Case
Study on How International Students are Engaged in a
Meaningful Way as Cultural Resources
Jennifer Ingeson
This study used a single-case study design and a qualitative research
strategy to examine the manner in which international students were being engaged
as contributors towards internationalization efforts at a German research university
in a global city. The data suggests that international students are marginally being
engaged as cultural resources mainly through mentoring programs and that several
contextual barriers were hindering the interaction between international and German
students. The study identified that opportunities for meaningful engagement between
international and German students should be expanded to reach a wider audience while
programs that are designed for international students should include the integration
of more German students to avoid reinforcing student bubbles. This study proposes
a framework to overcome contextual barriers that allows for internationalization for
all through the meaningful integration of students and to motivate the university
to recognize the benefits of utilizing international students as contributors towards
internationalization efforts.
Secondary School Choice in Chile and South Africa:
A Literature Review on the Orientations and Determinants
of Families' Decision-making Processes in Highly Unequal
and Segregated Contexts
Ximena Rubio Vargas
Chile and South Africa introduced school choice policies as explicit efforts
to create and expand educational opportunities within a market-oriented school
system. This article analyses secondary school choice processes from a demand-side
perspective, based on a literature review of qualitative research published during ten
years (2008-2017). Additionally, the article exposes the assumptions behind the policy
model regarding the chooser profile and the rationality of decision-making processes.
Patterns of school choice are based on class, place of residence, race, nationality, and
gender. Different social groups try to access the most valued capital in society according
to their means. School choice is thus not only a struggle for the acquisition
of cultural capital, but it is also a battle for symbolic capital. Specific variations in
school circuits at the secondary level suggest processes of increasing segregation and
intra-class divisions, as well as a unification of previously separated groups. Furthermore,
the differences in which preferences of school choice are shaped in Chile and in
South Africa underline the divergent entrenchment of market orientations. Although
in both cases market devices, such as school choice, were successfully introduced, the
legitimation of their functioning works differently according to their historical policy
development, institutional arrangement, and socio-economic transformation.
Remote Connectedness and Meaningless Knowledge:
Of Resonance and Alienation in the Phenomenology of a
Digital Global Studies Programme
Daniel Stich
Through a short literature review and by making use of Heidegger's phenomenological approach and Rosa's theory of resonance in an extensive analysis of
semi-structured interviews with students in or close to the Global Studies Programme
(GSP), held during the years 2020 and 2021 under pandemic related restrictions, this
paper sheds light on opportunities, constrains and particular traits of a digital environment setting in an international and cultural setting and elaborates that a digital
study environment was perceived as successful, inspiring and meaningful if interactive
relations were fostered; if students heard and felt heard or self-efficient. In this sense,
whether or not students met each other physically determined their senses of belonging, their comfort with each other and the success of a digital GSP. Then, students
were able to exit their formal roles of being a student in a seminar to which the digital
setting tended to reduce them and where inspirational moments could have been rare.
It was in such perceived collective moments that knowledge creation and studying was
experienced as meaningful, even in a digital setting although alienation was expressed
by all interviewees and mutual approachability or equality remained illusive.
