Copyright 2021. Published by CAPA: ... advertisements, instruction manuals and books,” which have been selected on the basis that they are ...
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CAPA Occasional Publication Series, Paper No. 9
EMPIRES OF THE MIND? (POST)COLONIALISM AND DECOLONIZING EDUCATION ABROAD
General Editor: John Christian
Senior Editor: Michael Woolf
Editors: Catherine Colon Anthony Gristwood
Production Editor: Shawna Parker
A publication of CAPA: The Global Education Network CAPA: The Global Education Network is an international education organization (IEO) committed to empowering student learning through personal choice, academic integrity, and engagement in urban environments abroad. For more than 45 years CAPA has worked with institutions of higher education to build programs that meet their goals for learning abroad. We operate education centers in global cities and have developed distinct academic offerings, support frameworks, and oversight structures for our students and visiting faculty. The CAPA learning experience is characterized by the integration of curriculum, formal and informal experiential education, and study environments conducive to the analysis and exploration of the global cities in which we are located: learning laboratories in which students are empowered to develop their academic, personal, and professional skills.
45 Franklin Street, Fourth Floor Boston, MA 02144 USA www.capa.org
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Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
This volume extends CAPA's commitment to serious discissions around critical issues of race, ethnicity, and related questions. The need to raise consciousness and unearth stereotypical distortions motivates this work. Other volumes that engage with this area of investigation and implications include:
Borders, Mobility and Migration Civil Rights and Inequalities Cosmopolitanism and Diversity Globalization, Civilization and Their Discontents Human Rights in Action. These and other CAPA publications are freely available at: https://www.capa.org/forinstitutions/academic-publications.
Diversity is a core value of CAPA: The Global Education Network. It is reflected in the diversity of our global city locations and a critical learning and development outcome that engages all our students. We are committed to increasing student diversity and provide all participants a framework to explore, challenge, and redefine their identities in distinct ways.
CAPA's commitment to diversity extends to personal, experiential, and academic engagements throughout all of our communities. We strive to create inclusive environments for our students that allow them to experience and learn from people with diverse backgrounds, worldviews, and cultural traditions.
We provide students the tools they need--regardless of age, race and ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and abilities--to fully experience the diversity of the world through our programs. We view our commitment to diversity as a form of social justice by promoting international education as an opportunity that is available and achievable for everyone. More information on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion at CAPA can be found at www.capa.org/dei
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Acknowledgements
We are indebted to the contributors to this publication as well as everyone who participated in the discussions at CAPA symposia in Boston and Atlanta (on the campus of Spelman College) that inspired much of the writing in this collection. We also want to recognize the contributions of everyone in the CAPA community who helped make this publication possible, in particular, the support of CAPA's President John Christian. His commitment to this project for almost ten years is a demonstration of a consistent and unwavering belief that the field of international education needs to engage with significant issues in open, "brave" space. The symposium and Occasional Paper series are part of CAPA's efforts to contribute to the theoretical basis of our work so as to enrich the learning, teaching, and research experience for all of us aspiring to be thoughtful and curious students in a complex world.
CAPA Occasional Publication, Volume 9, second edition. © Copyright 2021. Published by CAPA: The Global Education Network. The articles in this volume are the sole property of the authors with all rights reserved. The contributions here do not represent any particular view and are not in any sense CAPA's thesis. Instead, they are offered as expressions of debate, analysis, agreement, and disagreement. They are intended to be a contribution to the field and a stimulus for further discussion and research.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTRIBUTORS
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SECTION I: SETTING THE SCENE
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John Christian Foreword
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Catherine Colon, Anthony Gristwood, Michael Woolf Introduction: Empires of the Mind?
Empire, Colonialism, and Education Abroad
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SECTION 2: IN THEORY
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John Woolf Ambivalence: Beyond Black and White
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James Arvanitakis and Anthony C. Ogden Decolonizing Education Abroad:
From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces
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Annmarie Whalen From Colonial Veranda to Digital Front Porch: A View to a Change
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Kalyani Unkule Homogenize and Rule: Empires of the Mind in 21st Century Higher Education
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Rosalind Latiner Raby New Voices in Community College International Education
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Angelina Rodríguez Towards a "fierce understanding together": The Humanities as
Radical Hospitality in Global Education
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SECTION 3: IN PRACTICE
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Allie Olvera Decolonizing Narratives of Service: A Toolkit for Facilitators in the Developing World
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Emira Ibrahimpasi and Kelly Payne Collective Memory and Critical Pedagogy: Approaching
Education Abroad in Europe through the Critical Themes of Dissidence and Social Protest
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Heidi James-Dunbar Creating Inclusive Curricula: English Literature in Study Abroad
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`Dimeji R. Togunde, Andrea Lewis, and Rokhaya Fall Practical Approaches to Decolonizing
Education Majors and Global Learning at Spelman College
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Gundolf Graml and Elaine Meyer-Lee From the Grand Tour to Global Journeys:
An Integrated Approach to Global Learning
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SECTION 4: IN PLACES
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Andrew Palmacci Exploring Myth-Making in Promoting Africa and Europe to All Study Abroad
Students: The Problem of Colonization and Decolonization in Making the French-Speaking World
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Michael Woolf Cricket, Coal, and Colonialism
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Achala K. Dissanayake Against Linguistic Imperialism: A Case for More Linguistically Inclusive
Language Standards and Requirements within the Discourse of Academia
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Tinaz Pavri Globalization, Fundamentalism, and African Immigrants in Millennial India
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Julie Ficarra Extending Colonial Critiques Beyond Service Learning in the Global South:
The Case of Florence, Italy
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Hermella G. Tekle Decolonizing Education Abroad: Changing the Narration of Africa
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SECTION 5: DECOLONIZING EDUCATION ABROAD
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Michael Woolf Coda
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Martha Johnson The Decolonizing of Study Abroad
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CONTRIBUTORS
James Arvanitakis PhD is Pro Vice Chancellor (Engagement) at Western Sydney University having just returned from a twelve-month Fulbright Fellowship as the Milward L. Simpson Visiting Professor, University of Wyoming. He is also a lecturer in Humanities and a member of the University's Institute for Culture and Society. James was also the founding Head of The Academy at Western Sydney University that received an Australian Financial Review higher education excellence award (2016). James is internationally recognized for his innovative teaching style and was the recipient of the Prime Minister's University Teacher of the Year Award in 2012 and an Eminent Researcher Award from the Australia India Education Council in 2015. His latest book is Sociologic (ed.2), a sociology textbook released by Oxford University Press.
John J. Christian is President and CEO of CAPA: The Global Education Network and has a longstanding history in the field of international education that spans over thirty years. He is a recognized leader and trainer and has been an active contributing member of the industry through several professional organizations including NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, and the Forum on Education Abroad. John began his career as a Foreign Student Advisor for The State University of New York, College at Oswego's Office of International Education. Following this he participated in a postgraduate program in Beijing, China where he was also the Resident Director of SUNY Oswego's Beijing program. John holds an MA in Area Studies China from the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. At CAPA, John continues to develop and support the field of international education and strives for new and innovative ways to enhance the student experience in academics, personal and professional development, and cultural exchange.
Catherine Colon is Vice President of Global Operations at CAPA: The Global Education Network. She is originally from California and began her career with CAPA in 1995. Catherine's passion for study abroad developed as an undergraduate at Santa Clara University when she spent her third year studying at Durham University in the north of England. After completing her BS in Psychology, she returned to the UK and earned an MA in Sociology and Social Policy at Durham University. In 1999, after a few years working in the US, including at the Museum of Tolerance in West Los Angeles and CAPA's former California office, Catherine returned to the UK and is based at the CAPA London Center.
Achala K. Dissanayake hails from Sri Lanka and is a lecturer in English language and literature at CINEC Campus, a private university in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Having earned her BA in English from the University of Colombo, she read for her MA in English Studies at the same university. She is currently reading for her MA in Linguistics at the University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka. Her research interests are World Englishes, English as a Lingua Franca, Maritime English, postcolonialism, cultural diplomacy, memory studies and Buddhist philosophy.
Rokhaya Fall is the Coordinator of Study Abroad and International Student Services and Data Analyst at the Gordon-Zeto Center for Global Education at Spelman College. She is responsible for the advisement of international students, recruitment of students for short term faculty-led study abroad programs,
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coordination of logistics with study abroad providers, risk management support in addition to data collection and analysis of Spelman's global initiatives. She co-authored (with `Dimeji Togunde) "Developing Intercultural Competence Through International Travels at Spelman College" (2017). She holds a BA in Psychology and Comparative Women's Studies from Spelman College and an MA in Social Work from Clark Atlanta University.
Julie Ficarra is the Associate Director of Study Abroad at SUNY Cortland where she oversees the development, implementation, and evaluation of over forty study abroad programs. She holds an MA in International Education Policy from Harvard, a PhD in Cultural Foundations of Education from Syracuse University, and is the 2019 recipient of NAFSA's Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship Innovation in International Education Research Award. Julie's work focuses broadly on applying critical theory to analyses of international education and more specifically on the intersection of hidden curriculum, colonialism, and neoliberalism in education abroad. She is particularly interested in the experiences of host community members and has recently published a chapter titled "Local Partners as Teachers and Learners in Education Abroad" in Ogden and Brewer's edited volume, Education Abroad and the Undergraduate Experience: Critical Perspectives and Approaches to Integration with Student Learning and Development.
Anthony Gristwood is Faculty Chair and Principal Lecturer at CAPA: The Global Education Network in London, UK, where he teaches interdisciplinary urban studies and directs CAPA's Community Engagement Certificate Program. He has been teaching in higher education since 1994 and has specialized in the field of education abroad for the last two decades at CAPA, the Bader International Study Centre of Queen's University (Canada), and the University of Connecticut in London. His current research and teaching interests include contemporary urban studies, global cities, and modern London; politics, identity, and culture in modern Europe, particularly Spain; and public geographies and participatory approaches to teaching and learning, including the use of Web 2.0 technologies. He is also an editor and regular contributing author for the CAPA Occasional Publications series. He holds an MA, PGCE, and PhD in Geography from the University of Cambridge.
Emira Ibrahimpasi is an Assistant Professor of Practice and Assistant Director of Global Studies Program (an academic major and minor) in the School of Global Integrative Studies at University of NebraskaLincoln. Dr Ibrahimpasi has a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from University of New Mexico and an MBA with a specialization in non-profit management from University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her current research project focuses on women and economic development in rapidly growing economies and disaster capitalism. Her previous research focused on women, agency, and Islam in post-socialist and post-war Balkans. Dr Ibrahimpasi has led numerous education abroad programs, advised hundreds of students on their own study abroad experiences, and is deeply committed to access and inclusion of underrepresented students.
Heidi James-Dunbar is Academic Faculty Director and a Lecturer in English Literature and Writing Studies at the Foundation for International Education in London. She has an MA in Creative Writing, is a recipient
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of the Sophie Warne Fellowship, and was the inaugural student at the London Graduate School for which she received a full studentship to read for her PhD in English Literature. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Heidi has over ten years' experience of Higher Education and Study Abroad involvement with a demonstrable record of high impact teaching, development and design of course content, effective leadership, research, and scholarship. Her academic research interests include Speculative Realism and Trauma Testimony in Contemporary Fiction. Heidi's novel (as Heidi James) The Sound Mirror (an "Exhilarating, heartrending work," Irish Times) was published August 2020, So the Doves was named The Sunday Times Crime Novel of the Month and has recently been published in the US and Canada. Her novel Wounding was published in April 2014. She was a finalist for the Cinnamon Poetry Collection Prize. Her novella The Mesmerist's Daughter won the Saboteur Award. Her novel Carbon was published by Blatt in October 2009 and is published in Spanish by El Tercer Nombre. Her essays, poetry, and short stories have appeared in various publications and anthologies. She presents a podcast on writing, First Graft.
Martha Johnson, PhD, is the Assistant Dean for Learning Abroad at the University of Minnesota. She has worked in international education since 1991 for organizations and institutions in the US, Ireland, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Her experience includes on-site program management, program development and marketing, management of a large university education abroad office, and teaching of short-term programs. She holds a PhD in American Studies with an emphasis in drama and the performance of gender, race, and cultural identity from the University of East Anglia (UK). She has presented at numerous international conferences and has authored articles and chapters for publications including Frontiers and Text and Performance. She has served in leadership positions for NAFSA, the Global Leadership League, and the Forum on Education Abroad, and currently Chairs the Board for the Fund for Education Abroad.
Andrea Lewis, PhD, an Associate Professor and Chair of the Education Department at Spelman College, is committed to preparing teachers with cultural and global competence. She organized Spelman's first faculty-led trip to Havana, Cuba in December 2015 to examine the intersection of history, economics, and politics on the country's education system. Subsequent trips were sponsored in 2016, 2018, and 2019. Dr Lewis has authored three books, Preservice Teachers, Social Class, and Race in Urban Schools: Experiences and Strategies for Teacher Preparation, Valerie's New Friends, and Unsung Legacies of Educators and Events in African American History (co-authored), as well as book chapters and articles centered on teacher education.
Elaine Meyer-Lee, Provost at Goucher College, was previously senior international officer for eighteen years at Agnes Scott and Saint Mary's. She has led, taught in, assessed, published, and presented widely on international, intercultural, leadership, and diversity/inclusion higher education since earning her doctorate in human development and psychology from Harvard. She has received grants including a Fulbright in France, and currently serves on the boards of ISEP, American Conference of Academic Deans, and the Haverford Corporation.
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Anthony C. Ogden is managing partner of Gateway International Group, an organization recently founded to assist institutions and organizations around the world to succeed in a new era of higher education. Previously, he held education abroad leadership positions at Pennsylvania State University, the University of Kentucky, and Michigan State University. Most recently, he served as the senior international officer at the University of Wyoming where he provided leadership and vision in advancing comprehensive internationalization initiatives, directly overseeing the work of the offices of International Students and Scholars, Education Abroad, the Center for Global Studies, and the UW English Language Center. Dr Ogden earned a BA from Berea College and then later studied at the SIT Graduate Institute where he earned an MA in International and Intercultural Management (MIIM), with a specialization in international education. He completed a doctorate at Pennsylvania State University in Educational Theory and Policy with a dual title in Comparative and International Education. As an educator, scholar, and three-time Fulbright recipient, Dr Ogden has numerous publications, including recent co-edited books on the integration of education abroad into the undergraduate curriculum (Stylus, 2019) and a comprehensive compendium on international education research (Routledge, 2020).
Allie Olvera is the founder of Allie Olvera Consulting, which works with education abroad providers to build social justice frameworks into their programming. She has facilitated over forty experiential education programs on five continents and specializes in student transformation through service learning. Her decade of experience in the field includes program development, curricular consultation, on-site program management, and facilitation for higher education institutions, Department of State citizen diplomacy initiatives, and nonprofits alike. She holds an MA in International Education Management from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a BA in Linguistics from the University of New Hampshire.
Andrew Palmacci is an international educator teaching French and World Art Appreciation at Arlington Catholic High School in the greater Boston area. He is a graduate student in International Higher Education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He holds a BA in English from Boston College and an MA in French from Middlebury College's French Language School. He has worked as a journalist and copywriter in a variety of corporations, start-ups, and independent publications in Boston over the past 15 years. His scholarly interests include French Heritage language learners, La Francophonie, and the intersection of K12 and university world language education, especially concerning education abroad. He has spent significant time living, studying, and working in France, including the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF). He has traveled extensively in Europe, Québec, and Japan.
Shawna Parker has worked in international education and related fields for 20 years. She is currently the Director of Marketing for CAPA: The Global Education Network and has previously served as the Director of Marketing for World Learning, an international education and nongovernmental institution that is the umbrella organization for the School for International Training (SIT Study Abroad and SIT Graduate programs), and The Experiment in International Living. She holds a degree in Political Science from Smith College. In addition to her work in international education, Shawna has experience as a book editor, designer, and publisher.
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Tinaz Pavri is the Division Chair for Social Sciences and Education at Spelman College. She is also the Director of the Asian Studies Program. She is a professor in the department of Political Science. Her BA in Political Science is from St. Xavier's College, Bombay. Her PhD, also in Political Science (with a specialization in international relations and South Asia), is from the Ohio State University. Dr Pavri's research and publication interests lie in the area of security studies and conflict resolution (particularly ethno-nationalist and protracted conflicts), questions of national identity, and the international political economy. She has published numerous articles in such journals as Peace Review and Roundtable, book chapters and a co-edited book (by Strategic Studies Institute Press) on these and other topics. Her latest book, a memoir, is Bombay in the Age of Disco: City, Community, Life. Dr Pavri has served as the President of the Georgia Political Science Association and is a consultant with the National Institutes of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has appeared as a guest on radio shows including National Public Radio's Tavis Smiley show. She has also successfully obtained grants from the US Army War College, co-authored grants from the Southern Educational Foundation (SEF) to support integration of technology into the classroom, and from United Negro College Fund-Special Projects to co-direct the Sophomore Summer Institute of the Institute for International Public Policy (IIPP) at Spelman College. She has spear-headed the India Initiative at Spelman, has served as consultant for numerous Study Abroad initiatives and the Fulbright-India selection committee, and directs Spelman's Career Pathways Initiative. A grant recipient of the Mellon and Lilly Foundations and the Association of Colleges of the South, she was awarded the college's Presidential Award for scholarship.
Kelly Payne is an Assistant Dean at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She received her PhD in English with an interdisciplinary certificate in Nineteenth Century Studies from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she taught courses in US literature, African American literature, and professional practices in the humanities, and served as the major advisor for over ten years. In 2017, she co-taught a study abroad course in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Rosalind Latiner Raby, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer at California State University, Northridge, in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department of the College of Education and is an affiliate faculty for the ELPS EdD Community College program. She also serves as Director of California Colleges for International Education, a nonprofit consortium whose membership includes ninety-one California community colleges. Dr Raby received her PhD in the field of Comparative and International Education from UCLA and, since 1984, has worked with community college faculty and administrators to help them internationalize their campuses. Among her publications on the topic of international education and community colleges are Global Engagement at US Community Colleges (2012), A Comparative View of Colleges of Further Education (UK) and Community Colleges (US): Maintaining Access in an Era of Financial Constraint with Martin Jephcote (2012), Community Colleges and Study Abroad (2005), and Looking to the Future: Report on International and Global Education in California Community Colleges (1999).
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Angelina (Lina) Rodríguez, PhD, is a Professor of Practice and Director of the Global Citizenship Program at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. Her theoretical, applied, and creative interests coil around the question of how we encounter and make sense of difference. She draws from psychoanalysis, geography, and the arts to think about the wide range of strategies people, cities, and nations employ--consciously or unconsciously--to confront their multiple others, whether these others are spatial, sensorial, social, or linguistic. A Latin Americanist, her area of specialty is Mexico, and she works in both Spanish and English. She is also a writer.
Hermella Tekle is a doctoral student in the field of Human and Organizational Learning at the George Washington University's Graduate School of Education and Human Development. Her research interests include technology's impact on organizational learning, leadership in developing countries, and education abroad in nontraditional destinations. Hermella's passion for international education emerged as an F-1 student from Ethiopia, which had a significant impact on her academic and professional trajectories. She is a NAFSA Academy trainee and a RISE Fellow for the 2020-21 academic year. Hermella is currently the Customer Success Manager at Brazen Technologies and previously worked with the Institute of International Education (IIE), where she managed communications and social media for the US Department of State's Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship and the KAUST Gifted Student Program (KGSP). As an advocate for women's rights, Hermella is the founder of a non-profit in Ethiopia that works to improve women's equal access to higher education and digital literacy. Hermella holds an MA from the George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management in Strategic Public Relations and an honors BA in History and Political Studies from Colby-Sawyer College.
'Dimeji Togunde is a tenured Professor of International Studies and Vice Provost for Global Education in the Gordon-Zeto Center for Global Education at Spelman College, where he leads the Campus internationalization and its assessment. He has over two decades of strategic leadership experience in developing and implementing global studies curriculum, program development/management, expanding access to international education, student learning outcomes, faculty development, accreditation, and strategic initiatives for diversity and inclusion in international education. He has developed 18 study abroad programs in four continents to enhance students' global awareness, intercultural competence, and faculty global engagement. His successful leadership has produced reputational gains for Spelman through several awards that include the 2017 Senator Paul Simon award for campus internationalization from NAFSA; Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion in international education from Diversity Abroad in 2018; and the IIE's Generation Study Abroad Seal of Excellence in 2019. Previously, he held the John S. Ludington Trustees' Chair in the Social Sciences as Professor of Sociology; served as chair of the Department of sociology/anthropology; director of ethnic studies program; chair of global studies curriculum at Albion College, Michigan, where he spent fifteen years before joining Spelman in 2011. He received his PhD Degree in Development Sociology from Cornell University.
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Kalyani Unkule is an Associate Professor, Jindal Global Law School and Head of Alumni Relations at Jindal Global University. She is also a visiting Professor at ISDE Law and Business School, Spain. Most recently, she is the author of Internationalising the University: A Spiritual Approach, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2019.
Annmarie Whalen serves as Advisor to College Year in Athens. Previously, she served as Vice President for Programs and Resources at the Forum on Education Abroad, with responsibility for development of a full range of member-driven publications and online resources. She was instrumental in developing education abroad's only independent quality assurance mechanism, the Forum's QUIP program. Annmarie's long association with Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad began in 1999, when she served as editorial assistant. She then managed the journal's peer review, copy edit and print production, its move to an open-access online journal, and in 2016 concluded her tenure as Frontiers Managing Editor. Annmarie has experience on-site with education abroad programs in Italy and assisted with ACCUPI's passage of the Barile Law to protect US programs against burdensome taxation. Her independent interests lie in philosophy, specifically, ethics, and aesthetics, and the relation between these.
John Woolf is a professor at Hult International Business School, teaching courses in English, Creative Writing, and the History of Art. He is the author of The Wonders: Lifting the Curtain on the Freak Show, Circus and Victorian Age (O'Mara Books and Pegasus Books, 2019), and co-author of the bestselling audiobook Stephen Fry's Victorian Secrets (Audible.com, 2018) and The Halifax Slasher (2020). He works across TV, radio, and film and is an elected Councilor in Islington. John is an active researcher and writer, currently completing a chapter for Palgrave Macmillan while writing a further audiobook, Edwardian Secrets. He is currently completing his second non-fiction book, Black Victorians: A Hidden History (to be published by Duckworth in 2022). He holds a BA and MA from the University of Cambridge and a PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London.
Michael Woolf is Deputy President for Strategic Development of CAPA: The Global Education Network. Mike has had much of his career in an international context. Prior to working in mainstream international education, he completed a PhD in American Studies and taught literature at the universities of Hull, Middlesex, Padova, and Venice. For four years he worked as a researcher-writer for BBC radio. He has held leadership roles in international education for many years and has written widely on international education and cultural studies. Much of his work has focused on areas of strategic development with particular focus on the status and credibility of education abroad within the wider academic community. He serves on a number of boards and was a member of the Board of Directors of The Forum on Education Abroad from 2006 to 2012. He was the recipient of the Peter A. Wollitzer Advocacy Award (2020) from the Forum on Education Abroad. A selection of his short essays may be accessed at: https://capaworld.capa.org/author/dr-michael-woolf.
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SECTION 1: SETTING THE SCENE
SECTION I: SETTING THE SCENE
How do we end silences? Philip Murphy, Director of the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, November 4, 2020
Colonial arrogance is a long time dying. Alain Badiou
The sun has set forever on that monocled, pith-helmeted resident colonialist, sipping tea with his delicate lady in the non-white colonies [which were] systematically robbed of every valuable resource. Malcolm X, speech at the Oxford Union, University of Oxford, December 3, 1964
Wealth is still concentrated in the hands of a few powers whose wasteful economies are maintained by the exploitation of the labor as well as the transfer and the plunder of the national and other resources of the peoples of Africa, Latin America, Asia and other regions of the world. Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1979.
In the opening section, the editors review the rationale for the volume and note the diversity of offerings that reflect the complexity of the issues raised. At the same time, the urgency of a decolonization agenda is apparent, even if there is no obvious consensus on what that might mean.
These essays offer, then, a debate in print. Readers are invited to engage with, and challenge, narratives that range from theory to practice, from personal to institutional perspectives, that cross continents, and connect problematic histories with the turbulent times in which we live.
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FOREWORD
John J. Christian CAPA: The Global Education Network
The inequalities of the present are rooted in the past. That is certainly one of the messages I drew from CAPA's ninth Occasional Paper: Empires of the Mind? (Post)colonialism and Decolonizing Education Abroad. The topic resonates with and illuminates, in any number of ways, the current state of our fractured environment here in the United States as well as in other parts of the globe.
The momentous events of 2020 with the Black Lives Matter movement, the global pandemic, and the unsettled global political landscape have brought the issues with which the field seeks to engage into sharp relief which, far from being drily abstract or confined to the past, are central to the dynamics of today's world.
Empire and colonialism are of particular relevance to CAPA's academic focus on globalization which, while often seen for its benefits, particularly within the field of international education, is also, like imperialism and colonialism, about hard and soft power. Dominant nations have subjugated others for centuries. Indeed, imperialism and colonialism are forms of transnational action as old as the history of humanity; globalization in action resulting in heightened inequalities between and within people and nations.
Moreover, many would argue that today, globalization continues to operate as a form of neocolonialism in which capitalist powers (both nations and corporations) dominate subject nations, in this case through the operations of international capitalism rather than by means of direct rule and occupation.
The essays in this occasional paper reflect the significance of the topic in many fields and across the world. Contributors include faculty, education abroad professionals, and activists from Africa, North America, the Indian subcontinent, Latin America, and Europe. Many of these essays employ innovative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches that draw upon a very wide range of academic fields including geography, history, politics, literature, linguistics, African studies, sports studies, sociology, and anthropology, among others. Equally wide is the range of geographical examples referenced here, including local, regional, national, and continental case studies from around the world.
Calls for the decolonization of institutions and curricula remind us that colonialism is not limited to the past and that oppression and discrimination of people designated as different through social class, religion, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual preferences, and so on persists in a variety of forms. Postcolonial theory challenges us to recognize and address these inequities and the ways in which Western power hierarchies and knowledge systems and, more recently with the
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SECTION 1: SETTING THE SCENE
pandemic, equitable access to the internet and technology have come to dominate globally. Decolonization aims to highlight alternative ways of knowing and understanding, allowing other marginalized voices to speak, and thereby increasing our collective understanding of the past and present.
This is an exciting and potentially liberating opportunity to increase attention to questions of social justice, equity, and inclusivity across our whole field. It invites us to consider how to rebalance privilege, to be more inclusive intellectually, and more truly to reflect the demography and diversity on US campuses in programs abroad. These are profoundly important, and deeply challenging, objectives and aspirations, inviting us all to re-examine and rethink what we come to learn, what we come to know, and requiring hard work and innovative and practical solutions to implement effectively. It is an ongoing process, but we, as well as colleagues within the field, are reviewing how we should best engage, teach, and support our students through this lens.
As an organization committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, CAPA fully supports this agenda and postcolonialism's illumination of the unequal power dynamics and ongoing privilege that continue to exist for some and not others, even long after actual colonial rule has ended. Together, the essays in this collection demonstrate the collective creativity and expertise of our field in responding to these challenges, and their implications, at a time of epochal change. The plurality of the perspectives they offer showcases the critical need for inclusive and alternative views which question dominant narratives of our shared past and present and reminds us of the need to ensure that what we do, nevertheless, sustains an ideological commitment to equality and empathy, an anti-colonial rejection of the notion of national hierarchies.
These papers also critically interrogate the perspectives and assumptions underpinning postcolonial thought and provide a benchmark for progress which has already been made, as well as the distance left for us collectively to travel. There is no room for complacency and much remains to be done.
Readers of this collection will take away a very real sense of the complexity of these discussions. That is not a weakness but an invitation to engage in a dialogue with ideas in conjunction and contradiction. From the beginning, the objective of the Occasional Papers has not been to resolve issues or to propose a thesis but rather to create space in which we can speak to each other in bold and creative ways. If, after reading these essays, you are left with more questions than answers, we will have done the job we intended. If we can enhance our own discussions, we will certainly serve our students more effectively.
Finally, I would like to thank the contributors to this collection for the breadth and depth of their insights. The stories they tell here inevitably lead us to challenge our assumptions and expand our views, to consider, reconsider, and perhaps, even to reconfigure the mission that drives our work.
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INTRODUCTION: EMPIRES OF THE MIND? EMPIRE, COLONIALISM, AND EDUCATION ABROAD
Catherine Colon, Anthony Gristwood, Michael Woolf CAPA: The Global Education Network
In the beginning, there were two nations. One was a vast, mighty and magnificent empire, brilliantly organized and culturally unified, which dominated a massive swathe of the earth. The other was an undeveloped, semi-feudal realm, riven by religious factionalism and barely able to feed its illiterate, diseased and stinking masses. The first nation was India. The second was England. The year was 1577. Alex Von Tunzelmann
When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible. Attributed variously to Jomo Kenyatta and Desmond Tutu
Just as none of us is outside or beyond geography, none of us is completely free from the struggle over geography. Edward Said
Empires of the Mind
We are all children, sometimes orphans, of empire. Products of a globalized world, we have been shaped by complex forms of contact, mobility, and power relations which, in one way or another, construct identities, experiences, and imaginations. Some of empire's legacies are clear, others are faint and ambivalent traces of the past which nevertheless continue to structure the ways we see the world, perceive our place within it, and how we relate to others: a persistent after-image in our field of vision. All history is told and re-told through lenses shaped by these subjective perspectives. History melds with poetry and politics: romanticization, demonization, nostalgia, belief; together, these shape the partial narratives created and those favored or discounted. Empires are made in histories and are reconstructed in the mind.
While states may have been physically decolonized, the "decolonization of the mind," to use Ngg wa Thiong'o's phrase, continues to be a complex, contested, and challenging process of readjustment (Thiong'o, 1986). Colonizers came to know the places and peoples they colonized. through the filter of Western perspectives. and values. Colonized people came to know
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themselves by reference to the same sets of values and assumptions. Those ways of knowing the world were reinforced by exclusive and prejudicial social structures, behaviors, and institutions which served to silence. marginalize and exclude voices, those "hidden from history" (Rowbotham, 1973).
In response to that history, the call to "decolonize" universities and curricula has grown louder in recent years, driving a re-appraisal of the disciplines we teach, the courses we create, and the power relations embedded in didactic practices. The emergence of diverse voices, alternative histories, and forms of political dissent, as well as demographic and generational shifts among university students, have all challenged the status quo.
However, what decolonization means in practice is not a matter of consensus and, indeed, has generated conflicting perspectives many parts of the world. A survey conducted by Times Higher Education (2020) reveals a range of views across universities in many parts of the world. The view of Steven Greer, professor of Human Rights at the University of Bristol, UK, typifies one area of concern:
Any attempt to prescribe the inclusion of any text, or to exclude any lawful and evidencebased approach to an academic issue, on purely ideological--including "decolonisation"-- grounds would be a gross breach of scholarly freedom and the values of open academic debate (Mckie, 2020: 39). In contrast, Shaun Ewan, pro vice-chancellor (Indigenous) at the University of Melbourne, argues that "diversity and decolonisation have to be linked" since they both "represent the grasping of power and privilege away from a smaller, elite group of people, into a greater diversity of knowledge systems" (Mckie, 2020: 39). Jessica Welburn Paige, an assistant professor in sociology and African American studies at the University of Iowa, supports that view: "In the US, the biggest barrier [to decolonization] by far is the lack of diversity across universities...The numbers of faculty from underrepresented groups are small--and get ever smaller the higher up the professional ladder you look...As a result, the perspectives of the majority white population remain dominant" (Mckie, 2020: 37). Discussions in this volume attest to the urgent importance of decolonization but also reflect a nuanced, diverse approach to what this means in theory, in practice, and in different locations. However, the process is approached, it is widely held that there is no room for complacency or marginalization of a decolonization agenda. Indeed, if we follow Dewey's dictum that universities and other institutions of higher education are the repositories of the common learning of our communities, perceptions necessarily change as those communities are transformed (Bhambra, 2018). Moreover, higher education is more than a reflection of broader society. It has a role in reproducing present-day forms of racism and inequality as well as past legacies in which some universities have themselves been historical beneficiaries and agents of colonialism. Introspection and reform become institutional imperatives.
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The Language of Colonialism
It is important to distinguish between imperialism and colonialism. Imperialism is the process by which a nation or foreign power dominates another country through a variety of mechanisms, which may (but do not always) include colonization. Imperial power operates to extend national power and influence through some combination of force ("hard power") and persuasion ("soft power"). Colonialism was a particular imperial practice involving the physical occupation and settlement of territories as well as the economic exploitation of their resources and labor.1
Although the sun may have set upon the British Empire and other colonial empires, they continue to cast long shadows which distort and obscure global relationships. Can postcolonial concepts help us to explore the contours of contemporary globalization? "Post-colonialism" is an uneven geographical and historical phenomenon as the "colonial present" retains its potency. The Republic of Ireland may be "post-colonial" but what about Northern Ireland? What about Palestine? In what sense are the United States or Australia "post-colonial" from the perspective of their indigenous peoples? Imperial power continues to take many forms, some overt, others concealed.
Education abroad is firmly enmeshed in this contentious history and its powerful legacies. Its historical roots in the European "Grand Tour" are well documented, and in its American form, it has often taken for granted an interconnected world and the relative privilege and mobility of its participants (Tsing, 2000). The valorization of intercultural experience and aspirations for students to achieve "global competence," and, ultimately, "global citizenship" (Schattle, 2008: 25-66; Lewin, 2009), have been subject to critique but remain dominant in neoliberal models of higher education (Woolf, 2010; Doerr, 2012, 2013; Bamber, Lewin and White, 2018; Gristwood and Kelly, 2019).
The notion of an American "imperial" worldview, sometimes labelled "Coca-colonization" (Wagnleitner, 1994), has particular significance for the development of study abroad. For example, Tamara Zemach-Bersin and others have traced the close association between international education and the projection of US "soft power" and intelligence-gathering during the Cold War. She notes the ways in which the marketing of a commodified study abroad experience sometimes employs colonial tropes, portraying students "in the position of explorer...bravely penetrating the depths of other lands to discover new knowledge" (ZemachBersin, 2009: 306; 2012).
The clamor for "non-traditional" locations in US study abroad may also be construed as the consumption of relatively under-privileged environments by relatively over-privileged
1 These discussions necessarily confront problems of definition. The term "colonialism" varies in meaning in different historical and geographical contexts.
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students. Service-learning and traditional study abroad programs in the Global South, however valuable they may be, are also open to the criticism that they potentially re-enact unequal relationships that resonate with a colonial model (the "missionary tendency"). Indeed, the "colonial student" has become a familiar stereotype in the field (Woolf, 2006; Ogden, 2007), a figure who displays "a sense of entitlement, as if the world is theirs for discovery, if not for the taking" (Ogden, 2007: 38). Several studies in this collection, notably essays by Anthony Ogden and James Arvanitakis, Annmarie Whalen, and Allie Olvera, re-visit this influential trope, considering if it is still relevant in the digital age, and exploring the neocolonial implications of what is inevitably an uneven encounter.
A Complex Scenario
What is history, but a fable agreed upon?2
The critic must attempt to fully realize, and take responsibility for, the unspoken, unrepresented pasts that haunt the historical present. Homi Bhabha
Discussions about colonialism are rarely conducted in an ethos of reasoned neutrality. "Empire," observes the British historian Linda Colley, "is a most complex and persistent beast. And it has claws" (2003). The violence of contested ideas is evident and has often oscillated between complete condemnation or nostalgia.
John Woolf's essay in this volume on British Victorian thought and society argues that such narrow frames of reference produce an impoverished understanding of history. He advocates an approach to the teaching of the subject which is sensitive to multiple perspectives and inherent contradictions. The Victorians were ambitious, self-confident, and aggressive empire builders, but, he suggests, it is only through the critical lens of "ambivalence" that we can begin fully to understand them and their legacy. Rather than simplistic rhetoric, ambivalence, he argues, "breeds an awareness of ambiguity and paradox which in turn discombobulates a plethora of structural dualisms that conceal more realities than they reveal."
Empire is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon operating over thousands of years and taking diverse forms. Global history widens our perspectives on imperialism and colonialism which are not just the outcome of European expansionism, but also occur within Europe itself, as well as within Africa, the Americas, and Asia before their colonization by European powers.
Popular conceptions of European colonialism tend to focus on White domination of Black and Brown people across regions of the world that were characterized by the colonizers as "less
2 Appropriately enough the source of this remark is contested, attributed to, among others, Fontenelle, Napoleon, and Emerson.
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developed," particularly from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth century. This narrow perspective underplays the complex and diverse forms of European imperial expansion over many hundreds of years across different areas of the globe. For example, Britain's colonial control of the territories, which were sometimes designated as the "White Dominions," such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and the Irish Free State, has at times been overlooked.
Not all empires were colonial; multiethnic/multinational empires such as the AustroHungarian or Ottoman Empires, which lasted in various guises from the fourteenth to the twentieth century, are, for this reason, marginal in mainstream postcolonial analyses. European countries were both colonizers and colonized, imperial powers and subjects of imperial rule.
Chinese history further demonstrates the complexities of these discussions. From the 1840s, European countries, Britain in particular, gained control over Chinese territories partly through force and through imposed trade deals. The Treaty of Nanking, which ended the Opium War of 1840, gave Britain significant privileges and control of Hong Kong which lasted until 1997. The Portuguese held Macau from 1557 to 1999. At the same time, China acquired territories which has entrenched the predominance of one ethnicity, the Han Chinese, over many others, such as Tibetan, Uighur, Mongol. Paradoxically, China was partly colonized while, simultaneously, emerging as a quasi-colonial power in the region.
There were also major and powerful empires in Africa before the colonization of the continent by European powers. The Aksum or Axum Empire (100-940), for example, controlled a landmass almost half the size of India. The Kingdom of Ghana dominated West Africa between about 750 and 1078. The Songhai or Songhay Empire (c. 1460-1591) became the largest state in African history. To these examples one might add the Mali Empire, the Ethiopian Empire, and the Kingdom of Benin.
In short, colonial and imperial histories are often, but not inevitably, defined by race. The common factor is, however, the impact of unequal power dynamics. There is, consequently, a much longer and more complex history than that contained in the conventional narrative.
How then should we seek to address the complex legacies of empire and colonialism? Attempts to rehabilitate colonialism as a viable development strategy (Gilley, 2017)3 or reinterpretations of empire as the crucible of modernity (Ferguson, 2003) rely on selective arguments which ignore the voices of those who were actually subjected to colonialism. This
3 The furor over Bruce Gilley's essay "The Case for Colonialism," which originally appeared in the peerreviewed journal The Third World Quarterly, generated passionate outrage, personal abuse, and even death threats. Almost 10,000 people signed a petition calling for the retraction of the article on the grounds that it was "utterly lacking in academic merit." That argument is not entirely convincing; many articles demonstrably lacking in academic merit pass unnoticed and unremarked despite peer review. More convincing were objections to the article's provocative rhetorical style and characterization of the colonized. Pressure to withdraw the article ironically brought much attention to a piece of writing which is, consequently, freely available in many places.
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"balance-sheet" approach is inherently limited and actively offensive to the descendants of those who were enslaved and colonized. As Linda Colley observes:
enquiring whether [the British] or any other empire was a "good" or a "bad" thing is historically bogus, because answers to this question vary so much according to when, what and who you choose to look at, and, critically, according to who you are [our italics] (Colley, 2003).
Post-colonialism
Ambiguity and ambivalence are at the very heart of postcolonial thought. For example, all too frequently, the transition to "post-colonial" governance upon independence did nothing to enhance government, equality, or prosperity, and in some cases also unleashed sectarian, religious, or other hatreds. However, this is not to suggest that the colonialism which proceeded it was good, nor that postcolonial futures were somehow disconnected from the imperial past. British culpability for the violence and atrocities which accompanied Indian independence after 1947, for example, is much debated. The British exit from the sub-continent was certainly "messy, hasty and clumsily improvised" (Dalrymple, 2015). For some historians, Partition, which led to the death of between one and two million people, and the displacement of fifteen million, emerged out of a colonial policy of divide-and-rule, accompanied by the arbitrary and hasty delineation of the borders of the new states by the British (Khan, 2017). In any case, its legacies persist: Tina Pavri's analysis of contemporary India in this volume illustrates the continuing fragility of post-colonial liberalism in an era of resurgent Hindu nationalism.
Following independence, in some cases only the makeup of dominant elites changed, while the structures, institutions, and forms of exploitation persisted. For example, across Africa, a generation of nationalist leaders emerged, some of whom, including Robert Mugabe, Hastings Banda, Idi Amin, and Ahmed Sékou Touré, led brutal, corrupt, and exploitative regimes. In Nigeria, the legacy of British colonial rule, which had administered the country as a corporate money-making entity with arbitrary borders, rather than a viable "nation," created the conditions for the subsequent fracturing of the country in the Biafran Civil War and the country's many problems of corruption, political violence, and repression in the so-called "post-British" era (Maiangwa et al., 2020).
Postcolonial approaches to history juxtapose and overlap alternative perspectives of past, present, and future, forcing our attention to the ongoing consequences of the collective past. Categories of "colonizer" and "colonized" were constructed from the complex interplay of ethnic, gender, sexual, and class identities which continue to resonate in present-day identity politics. As Anne McClintock argues in her analysis of the racialization of the Irish under British rule, the story of colonialism is "not simply about relations between black and white people...but about how the categories of whiteness and blackness...labor and class came historically into being in the first
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place" (McClintock, 1992: 16). In this volume, Michael Woolf contrasts the impact of "internal" colonialism in Appalachia with the appropriation of cricket by the colonized of the Caribbean and concludes that:
West Indian and Appalachian identities were forged in colonial experience. The struggle to emerge from under that burden demonstrates the persistence of that legacy. Narratives of coal and cricket reveal layers of ambiguity buried under the weight of stereotype and myth.
Modes of Colonialism
By way of example, the British Empire was a complex and multifaceted phenomenon operating for over four hundred years. There was no single motivation for the colonial enterprise. They were modified over time and were often blurred. The Government of India Act of 1858 signalled a transition from the East India Company's commercial priorities to formal British government control which encompassed commerce but was not solely defined by it. However, in his recent history of the East India Company, The Anarchy (2019), which, importantly, draws heavily on Indian archival sources, not just British ones, William Dalrymple charts the organization's corporate rapaciousness and its relentless rise from provincial trading company to the pre-eminent military and political power. He notes that the company acted like a state and ruthlessly controlled the political, economic, and social life of the country.
In "extractive colonialism" the natural resources of the colonies (such as diamonds in Southern Africa, rubber in the Congo) were harvested to benefit the colonial powers while, simultaneously, active deindustrialization of local economies was practiced. Shashi Tharoor argues that the British industrial revolution was, among other things, built on the deliberate destruction of India's textile industry (Tharoor, 2017). Profits were, for the most part, exported, constituting a historical form of globalization designed specifically to enrich one country at the expense of others.
Earlier examples of European colonial adventures were stimulated by exploration and the attraction of the "exotic." In England, during the reign of Elizabeth I (15581603), governmentsanctioned piracy financed what Jeremy Paxman called "the taming of the earth" (Paxman, 2012: 39). The function of merchant and buccaneer became inextricably interwoven. Mathematician, philosopher, alchemist, occultist, and court advisor to Elizabeth I, Dr John Dee (1527-1609) was the first person to coin the term "British Empire" (Home, cited by Coverley, 2010: 130).4 His pioneering work on navigation facilitated exploration in the Elizabethan era.
4 Dee also challenges the assumption that educational mobility is a modern phenomenon. After graduating from Cambridge in 1546, Dee studied and taught in Louvain, Brussels, and Paris. In his later years he was an international scholar, notably lecturing in Prague. There are a number of authoritative sources on the life and work of John Dee: see, for example, Parry (2011).
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A self-serving justification for colonialism subsequently emerged based on the belief that colonial powers were more advanced, racially superior, and/or possessors of a higher religion. They, therefore, had a responsibility to "civilize" indigenous populations. These notions of "race" are also, of course, products of Western colonialism, social constructs, without an objective basis. The "science" of eugenics is a further manifestation of the "Empire of the Mind." Exploitation, conversion, and education melded into a philosophical ethic: "Creeping colonialism and commercialisation were accompanied by the saving of souls" (J. Woolf, 2019: 83).
Colonies also offered convenient locations in which to dump "undesirables," religious dissenters, and criminals. The Americas and Australia, for example, offered spaces in which those who were perceived to be a threat to the state could be conveniently relocated. These spaces were represented as empty, ignoring existing populations and societies. Population theories such as that of the Rev. Thomas Robert Malthus5 justified this form of colonialism as a means of alleviating the pressure of growing populations on cities while Social Darwinism and eugenics provided a pseudo-scientific rationale for imperial domination.
In the nineteenth century, global power struggles also acted as a catalyst for colonial expansion, as Thomas Pakenham indicates in The Scramble for Africa (1994). Prestige and geopolitical control were critical motivators. Hence, locations were taken because of their strategic significance. The occupation of territories such as Gibraltar, the Suez Canal, the Falkland Islands, or the Chagos Islands had nothing to do with resources or wealth to be found in those places but everything to do with geographical location.
Postcolonialism and Post-colonialism
Empires don't die just because they're dead. John le Carré
Postcolonial theory? I don't know what it means. I think it is something that professors made up because they needed to get jobs. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (cited by Musila, 2018)
Postcolonial theory, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has observed, can sometimes seem inaccessible and removed from everyday language and experience. As international educators, postcolonial theory is not something we can ignore. A project that seeks to recover alternative ways of knowing and understanding and a means of addressing structural inequalities in our
5 An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) posited the theory that growth in population will inevitably exceed the supply of resources. Thus, prosperity depends on either limiting population growth or expanding territory.
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world, it offers a powerful analysis and critique of the ways in which Western knowledge systems have come to dominate globally. Privilege is more invisible to those who already have it; postcolonialism exposes to power its own powerfulness.
The collective energy around the Black Lives Matter movement, the toppling of statues across the US and Europe, and the calls for reparation for slavery demonstrate the power of postcolonial ideas to address the structural inequalities of our world.6 Recent events are testament to a collective determination to dismantle persistent symbols and structures of oppression, as well as consequences of the reluctance in the Global North to speak directly about colonialism and its legacies. This reticence is both a failure to see the past clearly and a denial of the manifest, complex relationship between the past and the present.
There is however an inherent tension in the concept; "post(-)colonialism" is a negative, relational notion in the sense that it is closely tied to reactions to what went before. It may be understood in two main ways, depending on whether a hyphen is used, and these do not necessarily coincide.7 Alison Blunt and Cheryl McEwan suggest that that the "post" has two meanings, referring firstly to the period of time after colonialism (a "temporal aftermath"), therefore both a historical period and a geographical term (some nations are, in this sense, postcolonial). The second meaning, without the hyphen, refers instead to its "critical aftermath," the set of discourses, movements and critiques which now challenge, but remain strongly influenced by, colonialism (McEwan and Blunt, 2002: 3): a metaphor for inequality and unbalanced power relations.
In any case, "post" in post-colonialism does not mean "after" in a linear sense and some critics argue that the term in its hyphenated form erroneously implies a complete rupture with the colonial past and is too celebratory in tone. For this reason, some scholars prefer terms like "neocolonial" or the "colonial present" to focus on the continuities of present-day domination and exploitation.
Colonialism as Metaphor: Decolonizing the University and the Curriculum
No need to hear your voice when I can talk about you better than you can speak about yourself. No need to hear your voice. Only tell me about your pain. I want to know your story. And then I will tell it back to you in a new way...in such a way
6 For example, on June 7, 2020, the statue of a seventeenth-century slave trader, Edward Colston, was torn from its plinth in the British port city of Bristol by a group of protestors, dragged through its streets, and thrown from the dockside where slaving ships had once loaded their cargoes. Before it was dumped, the statue lay flat on the ground, and one of the protestors placed their knee over the statue's throat in a symbolic echo of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis two weeks previously (Olusoga, 2020).
7 The distinction between postcolonialism and post-colonialism is not a matter of consensus. The editors have, therefore, chosen to retain and respect the usage chosen by individual authors.
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that it has become mine, my own. Re-writing you I write myself anew. I am still author, authority. I am still colonizer, the speaking subject bell hooks
They say what we know / Is just what they teach us... This ambush in the night / Planned by society Ambush in the night / They tryin' to conquer me Bob Marley and the Wailers: "Ambush in the Night"
A number of challenging questions arise from the call for decolonization. Is there a danger of narrowing perspectives by creating a new orthodoxy? Does "decolonization" risk a "tick box" curriculum, which entrenches the racism it seeks to remove by allocating value purely on the basis of authorial differences such as skin color, sexuality, or gender? We might argue that an exclusive curriculum has already been operating for hundreds of years, only now becoming cause for concern when we begin to discuss creating space for non-White/cis/male perspectives. Are such calls for curriculum reform just superficial "window-dressing" which leave unequal power relationships fundamentally intact? What about the need for students of color to see themselves fully reflected (and valued) in curricula in order to be motivated to succeed? In this collection, Heidi James-Dunbar highlights some of the implications within the context of literary studies and argues that "despite the challenges presented by non-specialist scholars and the short duration of courses, it is possible to develop inclusive, critical, and theoretical class models that do not exacerbate a neo-colonialist education."
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak's seminal essay "Can the Subaltern Speak?" (1988) argues that, in order to be heard and taken seriously, non-Western peoples have to adopt Western styles of thought and reasoning. In her essay in this volume, Achala K. Dissanayake addresses this issue by asserting that the types of English that are considered acceptable in formal discourse, or that are needed to publish or pass examinations across the globe, continue to reflect a colonial legacy.8 The British Council's International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is a measure of competence in English and is set by specialists in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. The only other widely acceptable measure is the Test of English as a Foreign Language, an American standard competing with IELTS.
Dissanayake recognizes that students need proficiency in diverse registers and varieties of English; among those must be versions (rather than a single version) that are acceptable in transnational educational contexts. Beyond that imperative, parity of respect for alternative forms
8 The subject is discussed in a European context in Woolf, ed. (2005): I gotta use words when I talk to you: English and international education.
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of English is a just aspiration. The association of some usages (Cockney, Appalachian, or forms of African English, for example) with social inferiority is a form of prejudice. However, equity of respect is not the same as accepting all forms of English as equally valid in all contexts. Variants of language employed by communities for use within the community are a way of constructing identity, but they are not necessarily designed for clarity of communication across communities. The challenges associated with "code-switching"9 between home and classroom as experienced by some students have significant implications for self-esteem and social mobility. We might argue with some justification that no language should be presented as an ideal; nor should any language, silence another.10
More broadly, postcolonial studies restore the humanities to the center of intellectual relevance. However, literature, history, and the social sciences have been targeted as less relevant and are subject to attack from politicians of Left and Right. Funding has been reduced and the disciplines are commonly disparaged, made second class. In contrast, STEM disciplines have acquired enhanced prestige and support. They represent, according to a current orthodoxy, what matters most.
However, in the gargantuan volume The Post-Colonial Studies Reader (1995), out of 526 pages and more than eighty-six contributions, only one essay of five pages relates to one of the STEM disciplines. Alan Bishop argues that western mathematics was "the secret weapon of cultural imperialism" (Bishop, 1995: 71). The rest of the volume demonstrates that postcolonial studies are rooted in the humanities and social sciences. As Angelina Rodríguez argues later in this volume:
art is activism; art can educate about gender-based violence and racism; transform lives in refugee camps, favelas, and hospitals; and make visible that which needs to be acknowledged and discussed. The rhetoric that privileges STEM disciplines arguably derives from a particular Western perspective: a neocolonialist emphasis on the relationship between technology, science, progress, and power which postcolonialism potentially challenges and disrupts. In post-colonial studies, power is rooted in identity and in the critical significance of representation and voice in the construction of alternative national identities. History and literature are at the heart of resistance and reconstruction, tools of social and political justice. The creation of voices alternative to those of the colonial power becomes critical in the process of independence. In the context of American national identity, Mark Twain's The Adventures of
9 Code-switching or "language alternation" is a linguistic term referring to the ways in which a speaker may alternate between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation.
10 In a less serious context, we might ask what it means that many pop songs across the English-speaking world are sung in an American accent: a harmless form of globalization or another expression of neocolonial influence?
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Huckleberry Finn (1884) was, perhaps, the first novel to be told in a voice that was discernibly not reliant on European models.11 The Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, in his first novel Things Fall Apart (1958), similarly made a declaration of independence that demonstrated the value of an African perspective and an African aesthetic.
In Education Abroad
"Comprehensive internationalization" of higher education has become a widespread objective in international education. However, if seen through a postcolonial lens, the objective is potentially problematic. What we assume is a progressive aspiration is open to two forms of critique: from the ideologies of the Right rooted in suspicion of internationalism, and from postcolonial perspectives wherein strategies and embedded ideologies of "comprehensive internationalization," however configured, might be seen as a priority appropriate to relatively privileged institutions.
The principle as an ideal could be construed as neocolonialist paternalism. In any case, the concept does not originate in institutions in the Global South; it is an exported ideal, promoted at times with a missionary zeal. The adaptation of Western higher education priorities in India is, Kalyani Unkule argues in her essay, an example of how a "dominant knowledge system can...ultimately strengthen its grip." Comprehensive internationalization may offer an answer to a question that is not universally relevant.
2020 was a momentous year. The disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on people of color and the Black Lives Matter movement have brought into focus colonialism and its legacies: the manifest relationship between past and present. A consequence is that international education is required to rethink its agenda and confront the structures of power and privilege within teaching and learning abroad. What is taught? How is it taught? Who teaches it? Where do students come from (place, class, gender, race, ethnicity)? Where is it taught? How should we address the legacy of colonialism? To what extent do postcolonial approaches liberate or constrain learning and teaching? What is the relationship between imperialism, postcolonialism, and contemporary "global" rhetoric? This cluster of questions creates a complex set of challenges to dominant orthodoxies. A number of essays in this volume present diverse but closely related responses to these challenges. Martha Johnson explores this environment in the concluding essay.
11 In a note to the editors, Dr Keshia Abraham suggests that Clotel, Or the President's Daughter by William Wells Brown (1853) or Harriet Wilson's Our Nig; Or, Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859) are earlier examples that draw upon African American experiences. That these novels are far less well known further demonstrates a subterranean history that deserves to be unearthed.
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In a personal and professional context, Andrew Palmacci examines the impact of a career-long engagement with the francophone world. He explores the implications of the fact that "the French-speaking world that we know today, came about largely through empire-building, enslaving of native peoples and subjugation of other lands." `Dimeji Togunde, Andrea Lewis, and Rokhaya Fall's essay highlights an institutional approach adopted by Spelman College in decolonizing its global learning, a task that is particularly relevant to the historical and contemporary functions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Gundolf Graml and Elaine Meyer-Lee offer an analysis of another approach to this challenge at Agnes Scott College in a case study of an integrated and decolonizing approach to global learning. Essays by Emira Ibrahimpasi and Kelly Payne, and Julie Ficarra consider the significance of applying postcolonial approaches to courses within Europe. Ibrahimpasi and Payne focus on Belgium and the Netherlands to demonstrate that the legacies of colonialism are not just to be found in the Global South. Ficarra's research in Florence describes "manifestations of colonialism in ... popular study abroad destinations" through her study of the impacts of US students on host communities. She argues that sustained attention to community impact is a critical component of ethical study abroad programming. These analyses offer a set of sophisticated, thoughtful strategies that move between theory and practice.
Essays in this collection demonstrate the kinds of intellectual discrimination we need to disrupt unexamined assumptions: that existing curriculum, for example, necessarily reflects White, male, cisgendered, European perceptions; that those teaching do not challenge prevailing norms; that the students are privileged elites; and, importantly, that the most popular locations for education abroad do not properly represent the learning potential in alternative regions. In her essay in this volume, Rosalind Lintner Raby describes how community colleges directly confront and contest those assumptions while balancing tensions between neoliberalism and postcolonialism.
This collection goes from theory, to practice, to place, indicating in that trajectory unease, ambivalence, and aspiration. There is a widespread awareness of the significance of other histories and experiences beyond those of the dominant narratives. Hermella Tekle's essay illustrates the need to move beyond stereotypical representation in images of Africa as a necessary precondition for reinvigorating study beyond Western Europe: she argues that curricula in US higher education institutions must have a factual narrative of colonization and the ways in which "it destroyed, stole, and diminished African countries' resources and cultures." Teachers, Tekle argues, have an obligation to challenge dominant narratives.
From the point of view of a commitment to social justice and equity, it would be difficult to disagree with many of these implicit imperatives: to re-balance privilege, to be more inclusive intellectually, to reflect the demography and diversity on US campuses in programs abroad. These are profoundly important objectives and aspirations. We nevertheless have an obligation
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to interrogate these perspectives critically. How does the call to "decolonize" education abroad actually relate to the major dynamics that have shaped and continue to shape our endeavors in the field?
As a number of essays demonstrate, the content of some of what we teach has been substantially revised and continues to be so. Conventional pedagogies continue to be modified, particularly in education abroad, where the importance of context has driven the integration of formal and informal learning models. Efforts to bring under-represented groups into education abroad have been unevenly successful, but the issue has moved into the center of the agenda. The use of technology potentially affords enhanced access, and the mobility of international scholars has perceptibly diversified those who teach at home and abroad, bringing new perspectives into the classroom. Foreign students on US campuses have also had an impact on learning environments. The notion of "traditional" locations obscures radical changes within European national identities. We might then recognize that a great deal is being achieved while also acknowledging that much remains to be done.
Conclusion: Diversity and Dissent
Postcolonialism offers a potentially liberating framework to stimulate reform and to enhance social justice and equity. It provides an opportunity to reconfigure the ways in which we approach teaching and learning in our field, as well as across the breadth of higher education. The perspectives it generates present a deeply challenging proposition, inviting us to re-examine and rethink what we have come to learn, and what we have come to know. The essays in this collection demonstrate collective creativity and expertise in responding to this challenge at a time of epochal change. The plurality of perspectives they offer showcase the critical need for inclusive and alternative views which question dominant narratives of our shared past and present.
History should teach us something of the dangers of allowing any ideologically driven canon, of Church, Mosque, Synagogue, Left, Right or Center, to repress the views of those who dissent. Colonial legacies contain implicit and sometimes unexamined values. Postcolonial approaches may similarly make assumptions that demand introspection and critical evaluation.
There are, of course, limits to tolerance. Incitement to hatred is beyond the boundaries of the law and, therefore, not acceptable in any context. Postcolonialism forces us to acknowledge the reality of inequities and symbolic violence implicit in dominant ways of seeing and describing the world. Critical analyses and re-appraisals of empire, colonialism, and their legacies create an obligation to hear a plurality of voices.
Recognition of the profound significance of diverse voices should not lead to the silencing of dissent. CAPA's Occasional Papers series in general exists to question orthodoxy and challenge
32
perceived wisdom. This collection allows dissonance and disagreement to stand in what we hope
are engaging, complex, brave, and challenging conversations.
WORKS CITED
Achebe, C. (1958): Things Fall Apart, Heinemann, London Bamber, P., D. Lewin, and M. White (2018): "(Dis-) Locating the transformative dimension of global citizenship education," Journal of Curriculum Studies, 50(2):204-230 Bhabha, H. K. (1994): The Location of Culture, Routledge, London Bhambra, G. K. (2018): "To Decolonise the University is to Democratise the University," World.edu, 28 September, online, available at: https://world.edu/to-decolonise-the-university-is-to-democratise-theuniversity/ Bishop, A. J. (1995): "Western Mathematics: The Secret Weapon of Cultural Imperialism," in B. Ashcroft, G. Griffiths and H. Tiffin, eds., The Post-Colonial Studies Reader, 71-76, Routledge, London and New York Colley, L. (2003): "Into the Belly of the Beast," The Guardian, 18 January, online, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jan/18/featuresreviews.guardianreview5 Coverley, M. (2010): Psychogeography, Pocket Essentials, Harpenden Dalrymple, W. (2015): "The Great Divide: The Violent Legacy of Indian Partition," The New Yorker, 22 June, online, available at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/29/the-great-divide-booksdalrymple Dalrymple, W. (2019): The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, Bloomsbury, London Doerr, N. M. (2012): "Study Abroad as `Adventure': Globalist Construction of HostHome Hierarchy and Governed Adventurer Subjects," Critical Discourse Studies, 9(3): 257268 Doerr, N. M. (2013): "Damp Rooms and Saying `Please': Mimesis and Alterity in the Host Family Space in Study-abroad Experiences," Anthropological Forum, 23(1): 5878 Ferguson, N. (2003): Empire: How Britain made the Modern World, Allen Lane, London Gilley, B. (2017): "The Case for Colonialism," National Association of Scholars, online, available at https://www.nas.org/academic-questions/31/2/the_case_for_colonialism Gristwood, A. and D. Kelly (2019): "Engaging with Self, Others, Space, and Place: Leveraging the Geographic Imagination in Education Abroad," in E. Brewer and A. Ogden, eds., Education Abroad and the Undergraduate Experience: Critical Perspectives and Approaches to Integration with Student Learning and Development, Stylus, Sterling, VA hooks, b. (1990): "Marginality as Site of Resistance," in R. Ferguson, M. Gever, T. T. Minh-ha and C. West, eds., Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures, 341-342, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA Khan, Y. (2017): The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan (new edition), Yale University Press, New Haven, CT and London Le Carré, J. (2020): "It's Breaking my Heart," The Guardian Review, 1 February, 6-11 Lewin, R., ed. (2009): The Handbook of Practice and Research in Study Abroad: Higher Education and the Quest for Global Citizenship, Routledge, New York, NY Maiangwa, B., M. D. Suleiman and C. A. Anyaduba (2020): "The Nation as Corporation: British Colonialism and the Pitfalls of Postcolonial Nationhood in Nigeria," Peace and Conflict Studies 25(1): Decolonizing Through a Peace and Conflict Studies Lens, online, available at: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1438&context=pcs Malthus, T. R. (1798): An Essay on the Principle of Population, J. Johnson, London McClintock, A. (1995): Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest, Routledge, London McEwan, C. and A. Blunt, eds. (2002): Postcolonial Geographies, Continuum, London McKie, A. (2020): "How Should Universities Approach Decolonisation?" Times Higher Education, 26 November, 34 - 41 Musila, G. A. (2018): "Chimamanda Adichie: The Daughter of Postcolonial Theory," Aljazeera.com, 4 February, online, available at: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/2/4/chimamanda-adichie-the-daughter-of-postcolonial-theory/
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SECTION 1: SETTING THE SCENE
Ogden, A. (2007): "The View from the Veranda: Understanding Today's Colonial Student," Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 15(1): 35-56, online, available at https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v15i1.215 Olusoga, D. (2020): "The toppling of Edward Colston's statue is not an attack on history. It is history," The Guardian, 8 June, online, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/08/edward-colston-statue-history-slave-traderbristol-protest Pakenham, T. (1994): The Scramble for Africa, Abacus Books, London Parry, G. (2011): The Arch Conjuror of England: John Dee, Yale University Press, New Haven and London Paxman, J. (2012): Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British, Viking, London Rowbotham, S. (1975): Hidden from History. 300 Years of Women's Oppression and the Fight Against It, Pluto Press, London Said, E. (1993): Culture and Imperialism, Vintage, London Spivak, G. C. (1988): "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in C. Nelson & L. Grossberg, eds., Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, 271-313, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL Schattle, H. (2008): The Practices of Global Citizenship, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD Tharoor, S. (2017): Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India, Hurst and Company, London Thiong'o, N. W. (1986): Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature, Heinemann, London Twain, M. (1884): The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chatto & Windus, London Von Tunzelmann, A. (2018): Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire, Pocket Books, London Wagnleitner, R. (1994): Coca-Colonization and the Cold War: The Cultural Mission of the United States in Austria After the Second World War, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC Woolf, J. (2019): The Wonders: Lifting the Curtain on the Freak Show, Circus and Victorian Age, Michael O'Mara, London Woolf, M., ed. (2005): I Gotta Use Words When I Talk to You: English and International Education, European Association for International Education, Occasional Paper 17 Woolf, M. (2006): "Come and See the Poor People: The Pursuit of Exotica," Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 13(1): 135-146, online, available, at: https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v13i1.178 Zemach-Bersin, T. (2012): "Entitled to the World: The Rhetoric of US Global Citizenship Education and Study Abroad," in O. de Andreotti et al. eds. Postcolonial Perspectives on Global Citizenship Education, 88101, Routledge, New York
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SECTION 2: IN THEORY
We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labor that is available from the natives of the colonies. The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories. Cecil Rhodes There is no hard line between theory and practice. Instead theory informs practice in creative and important ways. Transactions between thought and consequence are demonstrated in diverse contexts in this section. The breadth and depth of these discussions involves historical perspectives, contrasting institutional approaches, discussions of the degree to which students re-enact empires of the mind, consideration of the role of the humanities, and investigation of the spaces between the Global North and South. These essays signify both complexity and richness of thought generated within this field of investigation. Colonialism is an ideology and a political, philosophical system of global significance. Its persistence into contemporary reality is implicit in the diverse ways that we perceive the world.
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SECTION 2: IN THEORY
AMBIVALENCE: BEYOND BLACK AND WHITE
John Woolf Hult International Business School, London
Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) remains a seminal work in postcolonial theory. Building on the theoretical insights of Raymond Williams, Antonio Gramsci, and Michel Foucault in particular, Said argued that the West represented the East (which included the Middle East, China, Japan, and India) as exotic, distant, and unknowable. He illuminated the means by which the Orient was created as a binary to the Occident by decoding structures of power and knowledge that were constructed to control and dominate the Other. His study exposed a pervasive "colonial discourse" that represented, as he wrote, a "systematic discipline by which European culture was able to manage--and even produce--the Orient politically, sociologically, militarily, ideologically, scientifically, and imaginatively during the post Enlightenment period (Said, 1978: 3).
Said's insights were groundbreaking. His arguments impacted a plethora of disciplines including Literary Studies, Cultural Studies, Women's Studies, Native Studies, and Fine Art to name but a few. His thesis and conceptual framework became a central pillar of the diverse terrain known as "postcolonial theory" which emerged in UK and US universities in the 1980s. At its core, and despite numerous variations, postcolonial theory contends that the world we inhabit cannot be fully fathomed without recourse to imperialism and colonialism. Naturally there have been disagreements in the field (adding the prefix "post" being particularly debated) and Said's work has been critiqued on numerous fronts. I do not propose to rehash these debates, but I do want to draw attention to one particular area best summarized in a single world: ambivalence.
Numerous critics have argued that Said's binary opposition simplified the multifaceted nature of the colonial enterprise (Ahmad, 1994; Lewis, 1994: 88-118; Porter, 1994; Mackenzie, 1993 and 2013). It has been argued that there was no homogenous Orient but rather a series of "Orientalisms" (Girardot, 2002: 14-15). Ample scholarship has contended that in the nineteenth century, the Otherness of colonial subjects was never stable or inherent but constantly redefined and maintained (Hall, 2002: 1-22). Bill Ashcroft made a case for the ambiguous relationship between the nineteenth-century imperial subject and the trope of the child: "the myth of the child promises the development of the primitive unformed subject into the `Self' while maintaining that subject as the abject Other, the object of imperial rule" (Ashcroft, 2000: 194). Others have shown how early nineteenth-century views of China comprised a series of conflicting discourses that informed an evolving outlook (Jones, 2001: 14-66). In Britain, China was perceived as mystical, luxurious, and lofty while also being despotic and violent. Within different "contact zones" across the globe, early colonial encounters were marked by the production of ambivalent and paradoxical ideas about the Chinese. Even their physical characteristics, increasingly discussed
36
in British Sinology, were marked by an essential ambivalence: their skin color standing between the poles of black and fair (Hillemann, 2009).
The sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman offered a working definition of ambivalence with a buried insight that is worth quoting:
Ambivalence, the possibility of assigning an object or an event to more than one category, is a language-specific disorder: a failure of the naming (segregating) function that language is meant to perform (Bauman, 1991: 1). Ambivalence breeds an awareness of ambiguity and paradox which in turn discombobulates a plethora of structural dualisms that conceal more realities than they reveal. As such, there is a need to move beyond "`a bivalued logic incorporating an either/or model' towards embracing multifaceted and opposing `valences' i.e. emotions, thoughts and motivations" (Simon, 1998: 217). While this insight has long been recognized in the humanities, there remains a paucity of conceptual evaluations into the notion of ambivalence. Nonetheless, Homi Bhabha did centralize the concept of ambivalence alongside ideas such as "hybridity" and "mimicry." The latter is most commonly recognized when the colonized imitates the language, politics, or cultural attitudes of the colonizers. Mimicry manifests in colloquial language such as "coconut" or "wigger," racially charged terms signalling someone who behaves like they are white or black, respectively.12 Bhabha argued that a nineteenthcentury colonial discourse of mimicry, "a desire for a reformed, recognisable Other, as a subject of a difference that is almost the same, but not quite," was constructed around the notion of ambivalence (Bhabha, 1994: 86). Mimicry represented difference while simultaneously denying that difference, subverting the power of colonial authority which it paradoxically sought to maintain. Robert Young developed this insight through his identification of two existent models relating to nineteenth-century colonialism: a Hegelian dialectic based on a binary of black and white, Other and Self, and a model of mixture where deviance exists in a matter of degrees (Young, 1995: 179-182). In the realm of intergenerational relations, Lüscher and Pillemer (1997) challenged the predominant "dualistic solidarity-versus-conflict" framework and argued instead for an ambivalence that simultaneously supports positive and negative forces within intergenerational relationships (Lorenz-Meyer, 2001). With that in mind, and thus taking cue from the multifaceted nature of empire demonstrated in this volume, I would suggest that ambivalence is a useful conceptual reference point for teachers and scholars approaching the subject of colonialism. An awareness of ambivalence entails a recognition that culture and identities comprise multiple and competing discourses. This in turn illuminates historical complexities beyond binary
12 The editors are conscious of inconsistencies in the capitalization of white (White) and black (Black) in this collection. The decision to retain the authors usage reflects the fact that a choice of capitalization or otherwise is not neutral and may resonate with an individual interpretation of the topic discussed. Inconsistencies within essays have been edited, however.
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oppositions. Queer Theorists, for example, have argued that the notion of the "normal" was neither restrictive nor exclusive nor dichotomous; in fact, through the notion of averages which developed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the norm functioned by "collating the world" (Wiegman and Wilson, 2015: 17). The norm therefore was neither stable nor immobile but a complex domain which intersected with notions of difference.
Even as the norm came into being there were slippages and seepage. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the meaning of "monster"' had shifted from signifying "prodigies" and "marvels" to representing variations subject to the same rules as other beings: monstrosity and normality were not opposites but manifestations of the same rules of nature (John Woolf, 2019). Normativity is multivalent and thus ambivalent; it is rarely dichotomous. A recognition of ambivalence can engender a greater awareness of complexities, subtleties, and nuance which ultimately makes for better history and better teaching too. A brief exploration into the nineteenth century view on race highlights the point.
Initially, it would seem, Christian orthodoxy maintained that humans were a single species born from the same holy source. Differences between God's creation were considered environmental not biological. From the 1840s, ethnology emerged to investigate the relationship between different human groups (usually divided into "Caucasian, Mongolian, and Negro") and in 1842, the Ethnological Society was founded, which gave an air of institutional authority to the theory of monogenesis. This suggested that all men share a common descent (Qureshi, 2011: 67). James Prichard, an English physician and ethnologist, wrote in 1843 that "all the tribes of men are of one family" (Prichard, 1843: 26). He was asserting the unity of man (which, incidentally, was only recognized as a global principal in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, 1948).
But change was in the air from the 1850s. Georges Cuvier, the French naturalist and zoologist who helped establish the field of comparative anatomy, argued that all humans could be classified into a series of separate types. Similar polygenist ideas were important for Robert Knox whose 1850 book The Races of Man declared that people were biologically and hierarchically different and, as he wrote, "in human history race is everything" (Knox, 1850: 2). This line of thinking challenged the Enlightenment narrative of potential progress from a savage to a civilized state: if races were biologically different, and some biologically inferior, then there was little chance of their "progression." Knox's views were shared by James Hunt who established the Anthropological Society of London in 1863 and delivered a paper which claimed that "Negroes are a different species from the white man" (Hunt, 1864: XVII). By the 1860s, "anthropology" advocated an alternative approach to human difference which placed a greater emphasis on inherent biological racial difference. The emerging theory of polygenesis, unlike the ethnographer's monogenesis, stipulated that human races were different, separate and some were superior to others (Qureshi, 2011: 208-2018).
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Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859) did not help. Although part of a much longer and wider historical debate, Darwin troubled the dichotomy between ape and human by claiming that both were connected on an evolutionary scale. It was quickly surmised that Africans were closer to simians. This was not particularly novel thinking, but Darwin gave the conflation scientific credibility. His general ideas were soon applied to human groups and organizations. The philosopher Herbert Spencer coined the phrase "the survival of the fittest" in Principles of Biology, first published in 1864, and by the late 1870s the phrase "social Darwinism" began to be heard (Spencer, 1898: 263-4). These developing notions of competitiveness and struggle justified Britain's imperial ambitions. The mathematician Karl Pearson, for example, argued that indigenous populations unable to withstand colonial might must inevitably be pushed aside for "fitter" competitors (Burdett, 2014).
These views validated white colonists carving up the African continent during the Scramble for Africa. Propelled by a New Imperialism, ninety percent of Africa came under European colonial rule by 1914 (it was only ten percent in 1870), and there was a corresponding hardening of attitudes in Britain. Even before the Scramble for Africa, Darwin's cousin Francis Galton began to study eminent families from the 1860s. He argued in Hereditary Genius (1869) that mental and physical ability--even morality--were inherited and concluded, therefore, that natural selection should be replaced with "rational selection" of the "well born." These ideas underpinned what Galton termed the new science of "eugenics" which meant "well born." The "best" should reproduce, the worst should not (Galton, 1883: 24-25). And Galton was scathing about certain people. He wrote that the Chinese were a race of geniuses, that "Negroes" were vastly inferior, that "Hindoos" were inferior in "strength and business habits," and that the "Arab is little more than an eater up of other men's produce; he is a destroyer" (Galton, 1873).
Eugenics--a desire to improve a population's genetics-- became hugely popular. Conservatives, liberals, and socialists all embraced the ideas. The women's liberation struggle took it up in the 1890s. "Positive" eugenics tried to encourage middle-class women to have more children; "negative" eugenics targeted the poor and suggested policies to prevent them from reproducing (Burdett, 2014). Although these notions are aberrant to us today, they nonetheless reflected Victorian optimism. Throughout most of the nineteenth century there was an abiding sense of inevitable progress, most symbolically realized in the 1851 Great Exhibition. The world was dynamic and British ingenuity had ensured its moral and righteous dominance over the globe. British democracy, industry and Christianity were all forces for good. And as the Victorians believed these forces improved the world, there developed a desire to improve the racial stock.
But evolutionary optimism had a flip side. If everything was evolving, other things would devolve. This was deemed acceptable if confined to "savages" in Africa. But towards the end of the century, some started to wonder whether the British were degenerating too, and a new pessimism took hold. Devolution was explored in Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr
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Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Henry Rider Haggard's She (1887), and H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (1895). The 1895 translation of Max Nordau's Degeneration, utilized science and evolution to attack cultural producers such as Oscar Wilde whose downfall a year later seemed to prove Nordau's point.
Broadly speaking then, nineteenth-century attitudes to race went from perceiving the unity of man born from Creation to the superiority of the white man as a biologically destined superman--albeit with later concerns about degeneration. This survey would suggest moreover that the Victorians were largely racist. It is a belief that has given some in the Black Lives Matter movement reason to demand the removal of Queen Victoria's statue.
But the past is a complex terrain. Douglas Lorimer was right to caution that we are drawn to "scientific, literary or graphic" representations of race which perpetuate racial stereotypes that do not fully reflect the complex inconsistencies in attitudes and behavior (Lorimer, 1978). There were always shades of grey. There were always contradictions and paradoxes. There was always ambivalence. Indeed, narratives were multivalent and paradoxical: missionaries, the agents of imperialism, nonetheless bemoaned imperial injustices; the institutionalization of empire occurred alongside the abolition of the slave trade; liberalism and colonialism were advanced simultaneously; the Victorians celebrated their open borders.
Color was complex. Mary Seacole described herself as a "yellow woman"; the terms "African" or "Negro" carried different meanings to "black" which, as others have argued, resists interpretation and simple reading (West, 2007). In Victorian Britain, class could be more differentiating than race. The Italians and the French, the Jewish community, and the working class could all be cast as racially distinct. The Irish in particular were prone to racial denigration, as seen in the proliferation of the "simian paddy" after Darwin's On the Origin of Species (Curtis, 1997: 94-108). Darwin, though, did not include human beings in the discussions of species' evolution and openly criticized the system of slavery in the southern states of America. Furthermore, Darwin actually proposed a monogenist view of common descent.
Britain was proud of its moral interventions. They had leaders in the anti-slavery campaign who were outspoken in their oppositions to a plethora of international atrocities: Belgium's rule in the Congo, American slavery, and the Ottoman's treatment of its subject races. Byron led the Greek fight for freedom, Gladstone leapt into action after Turkish atrocities against the Bulgarians and yet... there were marked ironies as one historian noted:
The British largely missed the irony of carrying on their debates about Greeks suffering while simultaneously discussing how to deal with an Indian mutiny and festering Catholic grievances in Ireland. After Indians massacred Britons in Delhi and Kanpur in the summer of 1857, the British sadistically slaughtered Indians by the hundreds, burning old women and children alive, and smearing Muslims with pig fat before killing them. Carnarvon, Disraeli's colonial secretary, spoke inside the cabinet
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for the Bulgarians, just a few years before he launched widespread brutal reprisals against the Zulus in 1879 (Bose, 2014: 476). There are numerous narratives within colonial ideology, and I have highlighted just two. The first implies the innate superiority of white European Christian civilization. This racial superiority was perceived to be a permanent condition and justified the colonial enterprise. On the other hand, Christian civilization suggested a development phase of "higher" progress which justified a paternalistic colonialism designed to lead lesser civilizations towards higher standards of faith and social development. What is more, when we consider Bhabha's theoretical insights, most notably his concept of "mimicry" (or when we consider the Anglicization of some Indian elites or the embrace of cricket in British colonies) we are left with complexity, ambiguity, and ambivalence. It is precisely this mass of contradictions, this mess that is history, which needs to be embraced and explored. This is how educators can effectively address the complex legacy of colonialism: by starting from a recognition of complexity, which I have suggested gains some theoretical credence from the notion of ambivalence. Those in the field of international education and study abroad are particularly well placed to lead students into a historically discombobulating state that questions prior assumptions and injects some ambivalence into the past and everyday thinking too. Our students are already experiencing that discomposure which comes from living and studying in a new country. We hope their assumptions and prejudices are being challenged. Within the classroom we should continue that experience, pushing students to explore complexity beyond binaries of good and bad, black and white, oppressor and oppressed. This is not to suggest that such models be ignored, that we undermine the presence of racism, or that we gloss over atrocities from the past. We should not enter the realm of postmodernist hyper relativity. We can, should, and must make moral judgements about the past. For too long this has been ignored which is why the Black Lives Matter Movement is right to challenge the public statues which memorialize monsters from our past. But students should also be challenged to think beyond the obvious and the righteous; they should also be encouraged to look for ambivalence, ambiguity, complexity, and nuance. In the end this makes for much better pedagogy
and much better history too.
WORKS CITED
Primary Sources Galton, F. (1873): "Letter to the Editor of The Times, 5 June, online, available at: http://galton.org/letters/africa-for-chinese/AfricaForTheChinese.htm Galton, F. (1883): Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development, Macmillan and Co., London Hunt, J. (1864): "On the Negro's Place in Nature," Journal of the Anthropological Society of London, 2: xv-lvi Knox, R. (1850): The Races of Men: A Fragment, Henry Renshaw, London
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Prichard, J. C. (1843): The Natural History of Man; Comprising Inquiries into the Modifying Influence of Physical and Moral Agencies of the Different Tribes of the Human Family, H. Bailliere, London Spencer, H. (1898): The Principles of Biology, Vol. I, Williams and Norgate, Oxford The Times. (1875): 5 June
Secondary Sources Ahmad, A. (1994): In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures, Verso, London Ashcroft, B. (2000): "Primitive and Wingless," in W. Jacobson, ed., Dickens and the Children of Empire, 184-202, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke Bauman, Z. (1991): Modernity and Ambivalence, Polity Press, Oxford Bhabha, H. K. (1994): The Location of Culture, Routledge, London Bose, M. (2014): The Lost Hero: A Biography of Subhas Bose, Vikas Publishing House, London Burdett, A. (2014): "Post Darwin: social Darwinism, Degeneration, Eugenics," online, available at: https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/post-darwin-social-darwinism-degeneration-eugenics Curtis, L. P. Jr. (1997): Apes and Angels: The Irishman in Victorian Caricature, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington Davis, L. J. (2010): "Constructing Normalcy," in L. J. Davis, ed., The Disability Studies Reader, 3-19, Routledge, Oxon Girardot, N. J. (2002): The Victorian Translation of China: James Legge's Oriental Pilgrimage, University of California Press, Berkeley Hall, C. (2002): Civilising Subjects: Metropole and Colony in the English Imagination, 1830-1867, Polity Press, Cambridge Hillemann, U. (2009): Asian Empire and British Knowledge, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke Jones, D. M. (2001): The Images of China in Western Social and Political Thought, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke Lewis, B. (1994): "The Question of Orientalism," in B. Lewis, ed., Islam and the West: 99-118, Oxford University Press, Oxford Lorenz-Meyer, D. (2001): "The Politics of Ambivalence: Towards a Conceptualisation of Structural Ambivalence in Intergenerational Relations," Gender Institute New Working Paper Series, online, available at: http://www.lse.ac.uk/gender/assets/documents/research/working-papers/THE-POLITICS-OFAMBIVALENCE.pdf Lorimer, D. (1978): Colour, Class, and the Victorians: English Attitudes to the Negro in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, Leicester University Press, Leicester MacKenzie, J. M. (1993): Orientalism: History, Theory and the Arts, Manchester University Press, Manchester MacKenzie, J. M. (2013): "Orientalism in Arts and Crafts Revisited: The Modern and the Anti-Modern: The Lessons from the Orient," in I. Richard, ed,. Orientalism Revisited: Art, Land and Voyage, 117-127, Routledge, London Porter, D. (1994): "Orientalism and its Problems," in P. Williams and L. Chrisman, eds., Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader, 150-161, Harvester Wheatsheaf, London Porter, T. M. (1986): The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900, Princeton University Press, Princeton Qureshi, S. (2011): Peoples on Parade: Exhibitions, Empire, and Anthropology in Nineteenth-Century Britain, University of Chicago Press, Chicago Said, E. (1978): Orientalism, Pantheon Books, New York Simon, F. B. (1998): "Beyond Bipolar Thinking: Patterns of Conflict as a Focus for Diagnosis and Intervention," Family Process 37: 215-232 West, S. (2007): "Victorians: Black People in British Art 1800-1900," Victorian Literature and Culture 35: 329-334 Wiegman. R., and E. A. Wilson (2015): "Antinormativity's Queer Conventions," Differences 26: 1-25 Woolf, J. (2019): The Wonders: Lifting the Curtain on the Freak Show, Circus and Victorian Age, Michael O'Mara Books, London Young, R. J. C. (1995): Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race, Routledge, London
42
DECOLONIZING EDUCATION ABROAD: FROM SAFE SPACES TO BRAVE SPACES
James Arvanitakis, Western Sydney University Anthony C. Ogden, Gateway International Group
And so it was, and still is. Over ten years ago, Ogden (2007) compared education abroad students at the time to early colonial travelers who found themselves in worlds very different from their own and yet, they often lingered on the periphery of their host cultures, engaging by way of prescribed norms and conditions. Like early colonials, education abroad students today yearn to be abroad, to travel to worlds different from their own, and to find excitement and see new wonders. Like children of the empire, education abroad students all too often arrive with a sense of entitlement as if the world is theirs for discovery and consumption. For Colonial Students, new cultures are experienced on their terms in just the same way as new commodities are coveted, purchased, and owned. Rather than immerse themselves into their host cultures, they embrace the privileges afforded to them as short-term guests. Ogden went on to argue that the education abroad professional community is complicit in developing and perpetuating a Colonial System that supports this privileged position of the student through its willingness to merely transpose an American-style education to foreign locations. Still today, education abroad programming often lingers on the economic and cultural periphery of our host communities and yet, we continue to concern ourselves with issues of respectful cultural engagement, hostcommunity impact, and meaningful intercultural learning.
Ogden was not alone in recognizing the similarities between education abroad programming and early colonialism. Earlier on, Bolen (2001) criticized the consumer mentality increasingly evident among education abroad students, stating that students are too frequently buying an experience for its interesting culture and are not participating often enough in its intercultural potential wherein the host community gains as much from having the student as the student gains from being there. Zemach-Bersin (2008, 2009) also argued that education abroad is as imperialistic an endeavor as the "missionaries, colonizers, anthropologists, and humanitarian aid workers who have served as `goodwill ambassadors' who came before them" (2008: 24). She claimed that students are seldom encouraged to consider topics such as the commodification of culture or the power dynamics inherent in host culture contact. Perhaps one of the more stinging criticisms at the time, Woolf (2007) claimed that education abroad programming is often driven by an unholy trinity of national political interest, the pursuit of the exotic, and a missionary tendency.
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Still, calls to decolonize education abroad continue. Recently, Sharpe (2015) illustrated how colonialist tendencies continue to manifest in contemporary education abroad programming and pointed to specific ways such programs reify consumerist ideologies and employ an objectifying tourist gaze (Urry, 2002). Sharpe suggests scrutinizing practices through a postcolonial lens to identify when programs may be relying on practices or beliefs that perpetuate a colonialist relationship between students and host communities. Building on this, Adkins and Messerly (2019) have also begun to question how to decolonize education abroad, stating that failing to educate students about culture, power, and politics has consequences for both the students and their host communities. For Adkins and Messerly, decolonizing education abroad requires eliminating approaches that are "one-sided, ethnocentric, touristic, uncritical, oversimplifying of cultural complexity, and operating within the `savior complex'" (2019: 75). Adkins and Messerly point specifically to community-based programming, to which students are often drawn out of a desire to help or make a difference, which is a stance that positions the host culture as in need of help. Ogden and Hartman (2019) have similarly expressed concerns about such programming by building upon Ivan Illich's historical 1968 speech, "To Hell with Good Intentions," to offer an ethical framework that places equal emphases on community-driven goals and student experience and learning. Together, these concerns collectively underscore that education abroad programming must prioritize student preparedness, critical reflection, and host-community engagement lest it run the risk of perpetuating colonial tendencies and, thus, reinforce attitudes dominated by elitist thinking and consumption.
In spite of such persistent calls to decolonize education abroad, arguably little has changed over time and recent trends suggest that we are actually increasingly promoting education abroad programming that positions students as colonials within a system that makes it difficult, if not impossible, for them to seek out, on their own terms, meaningful intellectual and intercultural exchange. In Ogden's analogy, "The View from the Veranda," colonial students are still comfortably situated on the veranda and venture away only occasionally, and then only into well-charted, safe spaces. The challenge as educators, is how to respond? In this brief essay, we aim to critically examine contemporary education abroad programming, particularly as it relates to the growth in faculty-directed cohort programming and discuss how education abroad professionals can leverage the concept of cultural humility as one strategy, of many, to effectively design and develop programming that supports realistic and meaningful cultural learning and engagement.
Contemporary Education Abroad Programming: Driving Toward Colonialism
Recent decades have seen unprecedented growth in the number of students traveling abroad for the purpose of academic study. In the US, for example, nearly 333,000 students
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participated in education abroad programming in 2016-17, allowing them to earn academic credit in fulfillment of home institution degree requirements (IIE, 2018). During that same academic year, approximately 49,000 students from Australian universities studied abroad as part of their degree programs (AUIDF, 2017). Since the establishment of the Erasmus Programme thirty years ago, more than four million individuals have studied abroad within that European exchange framework. Asian nations such as Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea have similarly sought to increase education abroad programming through governmental policies and related initiatives (Dall'Alba-Alba and Sidhu, 2015).
Across the world, education abroad has increasingly become a priority of governments and higher education institutions' internationalization efforts (Knight, 2012). Not surprisingly, the driving rationales for why governments and institutions are investing in education abroad have changed over time. For decades, institutions leveraged education abroad programming primarily to enhance student learning in the areas of language acquisition and cultural knowledge. Developing proficiency in a foreign language was once a major consideration for US students and yet, today, foreign language study now represents just seven percent of education abroad enrollment (IIE, 2019; Kinginger, 2009). Developing intercultural competency has also been a long-held and widely regarded rationale driving education abroad growth. The overall assumption has been that education abroad programming supports the development of global-ready graduates who are able to work effectively across international and intercultural settings. As enrollment trends have shifted in favor of increasingly shorter program durations, intercultural competency as a driving rationale is being replaced with a prevailing emphasis on disciplinespecific, international learning. In fact, sixty-five percent of all US students now opt for programs of less than eight weeks in duration (IIE, 2019), which further minimizes the potential for sustained intercultural exchange and engagement. Assuredly there are other drivers of nondegree, education abroad programming around, including regional identity development as seen in Europe (Mitchell, 2012), degree enhancement, career preparedness, and so on, but the continuing relevance of education abroad for intercultural learning is being challenged.
Moreover, the growth and expansion of education abroad has led to the diversification of the primary modes of educational mobility. The most popular modes today appear to be reciprocal student exchanges, provider programs, and faculty-directed programs, although all modes are not utilized throughout the world. An increasingly popular mode of education abroad, particularly in the US, are faculty-directed programs (also commonly referred to as "faculty-led" and in some cases even as "island programs") wherein home campus faculty and other teaching staff accompany cohorts of students abroad and teach courses that are also offered in the home institution. These programs are typically discipline-specific, short-term, and offered during academic calendar breaks (Chieffo and Spaeth, 2017). An increasing number of faculty members have begun to prioritize the importance of graduating students who understand the international
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dimensions of their chosen disciplines and the need to establish and nurture global networks to support future careers. As such, faculty-directed programs have provided an ideal modality through which these faculty can jumpstart discipline-specific, international learning among their students. It is one thing to study art history in a US classroom, for example, but quite another to see the artwork firsthand and to interact with members of the communities that produced it. Today, the popularity of faculty-directed programming has become so commonplace that at some US institutions, the modality has become nearly synonymous with what education abroad represents.
It is perhaps the growth in faculty-directed programming however that most poignantly suggests that the education abroad professional community itself is ironically driving toward greater reinforcement of a colonial system despite its own calls for decolonization. For sure, faculty-directed programming presents real opportunities and overall enrollment growth and increased student access can largely be attributed to such programming. Yet, these very programs are, by design, fostering a system that knowingly perpetuates colonial tendencies. Faculty-directed programs are developed by home institution faculty members for home institution students, for home institution credit. Students travel abroad as distinct cohorts, generally for less than three weeks, on tightly scheduled itineraries. Groups move feverishly from site to site, mostly staying in tourist-oriented housing and dining in tourist-oriented restaurants. Programs seldom encourage language study, learning with and alongside host country nationals, and when there is contact with local students, it is often brief and highly structured. Courses are often delivered in situ where faculty members can be observed following along on guided tours, holding fleeting discussions in hotel lobbies, or hurrying students along lest they be late for their next stop. Students are told where to go, how long to go for, where to eat, what to buy, and whom they should avoid. Despite what many education abroad professionals claim, there should be no accepted pretense here that these programs are designed for real cultural integration and deep intercultural learning; if anything, they merely provide international exposure through a veneer of cultural engagement.
Meanwhile, sponsoring institutions are knowingly and unapologetically complicit. As education abroad is increasingly becoming a salient factor in college choice and student decision-making, institutions, at least in the US, are feeling pressure to offer robust programming. Thus, enrollment numbers are proudly presented alongside other metrics of institutional success, as if mere participation equates with student learning. Behind the scenes, many administrators are correctly concerned about tuition-flight. As such, faculty-directed programs have emerged as a preferred means with which to quickly increase enrollment to scale while retaining tuition revenue, even when such programs are undeniably the most expensive modality for students. Faculty members are increasingly incentivized to develop programs, but they must do so within tightly controlled bureaucratic systems governed by concerns of health,
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safety, security, and risk management. For example, programs must be developed and budgeted months in advance, even when doing consequently limits program flexibility and serendipity. Moreover, it is increasingly common in the US for institutions to unrealistically require that organizing agencies maintain liability coverage in excess of one million US dollars, which practically requires that education abroad offices work with US-based organizations over local partners. In spite of these concerns, institutional support for faculty-directed programs is strong and growing. With faculty members recruiting participants within their own classrooms, despite the inherent power dynamics at play, students are enthusiastically participating.
For many students, faculty-directed programs present an ideal chance to travel abroad with their classmates, to see the world, have a good time, and earn academic credit. And they really should not be faulted, as faculty members pressed to meet minimum enrollments, often play into this script by drawing upon the allure of international travel rather than singularly appealing to students through the lens of education and learning. Thus, it is not surprising that students on such programs can arrive abroad as unsuspecting colonial students eager to have a great time and even if that means experiencing the local culture through sunglasses, camera viewfinders, and bus windows. They document their travels through social media and the acquisition of souvenirs. Such students are not concerned about false promises of cultural integration or seem to mind the synthetic nature of their experiences (Ogden, Streitwieser, and Crawford, 2014). They are not burdened by their preexisting stereotypes of the host culture or fears that they may never be challenged through critical reflection and examination. Instead, they happily hover within the safe spaces of the program, rarely pressing bravely for authenticity. When they return, education abroad professionals are then quick to tell them how their time abroad transformed them, how they have developed essential skills, and how they are now more employable. Faculty members are eager to award academic credit and do it all over again.
Alas, the colonial nature of education abroad is strong. Institutions, faculty, and students are determined to maintain current momentum. Although faculty-directed programs have long been a feature of education abroad programming, the recent growth and popularity of the modality has unfortunately paved the way for colonial tendencies to thrive, which is threatening the long-standing intercultural learning rationale underpinning education abroad. Yet, these programs are here to stay. Using decolonizing pedagogies, faculty-directed programs can truly be leveraged to provide an ideal context in which students can realize how their understandings of the world are grounded in lived experience and begin the process of expanding their horizons through meaningful intercultural engagement (Roholt and Fisher, 2013). Students can be taught when to speak, when to listen, and how to engage in ways that help them become more aware of how their own values, assumptions, and beliefs are understood in relation to others. Education abroad professionals must similarly acknowledge the inherent colonial nature of faculty-directed programs today and seek new strategies for collectively addressing these challenges. The
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remainder of this essay will return to why deep intercultural learning still matters and how the concept of cultural humility presents one strategy with which to more effectively and intelligently design and develop programming that begins to decolonize education abroad.
The Importance of Intercultural Learning: Why it Still Matters
Former Australian Minister for Education, John Dawkins, described education as "the principal means for individuals to achieve independence, economic advancement and personal growth" (Dawkins, 1988: 6). From Western Sydney University in Australia to land grant institutions such as the University of Wyoming in the US, universities aim to confront some of the world's "grand challenges" by researching and educating the next generation of professionals and leaders (Davis, 2003). In this way, the benefits of education are not limited to the individual, but to local, national, and global communities also. One way that universities attempt to ensure that their graduates achieve these admirable goals of both personal development and economic advancement is by focusing on "graduate attributes," that is:
The qualities, skills and understandings a university community agrees its students should develop during their time with the institution. These attributes include but go beyond the disciplinary expertise or technical knowledge that has traditionally formed the core of most university courses. They are qualities that also prepare graduates as agents of social good in an unknown future (Bowden, Hart, King, Trigwell, and Watts, 2000).
These include critical thinking, cultural competency, communication, and internationalization (Arvanitakis and Hornsby, 2016). While such attributes have a long history, they have been increasingly attached to the employability agenda of educational institutions and governments (both state and federal) and are being developed both through curriculum and extra/co-curricular activities (Kinash, Crane, Judd, and Knight, 2016; Oliver and Jorre de St Jorre, 2018). One fundamental graduate attribute with increasing relevance, both for the employability agenda as well as the broader social goals of the university, is "internationalisation" (Arvanitakis and Hornsby, 2016). Specifically, "internationalisation" refers to the ability to work in different cultural contexts (Nomikoudis and Starr, 2016). This is increasingly important as universities and their educators face the challenge of remaining relevant in a rapidly evolving globalized economy, "where change is constant and intercultural proficiencies are becoming increasingly important as the university sector and job markets continue to diversify and internationalise" (Nomikoudis and Starr, 2016). While there is a significant body of literature attributed to an understanding of intercultural skills and their use in educational contexts, an increasing area of interest and relevance to contemporary education abroad programming is cultural humility--a topic to be
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discussed below (Alms, 2014; Arvanitakis, 2019; Gallardo, 2014; Trevalon and Murray-Garcia, 1998; Schuessler, Wilder, and Byrd, 2012).
Such intercultural learning is fundamental on many levels. To begin with, it provides a cross section of essential skills including the ability to communicate across cultures, work in culturally diverse teams, and lays the foundation for developing skills of cultural competency and ultimately, cultural humility.
Secondly, students with such skills are better positioned to build upon the complex array of attributes that higher education institutions strive to achieve for them and, thus, are better prepared for their professional journeys. This occurs as students are encouraged to broaden their world views through education abroad that encourages the understanding of different cultures through a firsthand experience. Such learning also provides opportunities for students to confront personal challenges such as feelings of being homesick, developing problem-solving skills from experiences as ordinary as learning the public transport system or shopping for groceries. These demands lead to opportunities for personal growth and the gaining of selfconfidence. Thirdly, intercultural learning through international education is an important element for building diplomacy between nations (Byrne and Hall, 2013). Finally, intercultural learning is an important pathway, both for students and institutions, who seek to decolonize learning. Such fundamental goals can best be met not through some theoretical exploration, but by deep international engagement and education abroad, despite the concerns raised above. These important aims, however, can only be achieved if embedded within a broader context of learning and education.
On Cultural Humility: A Strategy for Education Abroad
In addition to the many benefits of an international experience, students can also develop broader understanding through interactions with different cultures, if managed appropriately and with sensitivity. This can create the sense of cultural humility which Nomikoudis and Starr describe as "a guiding principle for educators to facilitate culturally appropriate learning and as an effective approach for ethical and sensitive communication in diverse and constantly evolving learning and professional settings" (2016: 70). In a time of globalization, exposure to cross-cultural teams and multicultural environments as well as the celebration of indigenous knowledge is a fundamental skill for university education. That is, graduates should be able to navigate the complexities of different cultural contexts. Drawing on Trevalon and Murray-Garcia (1998), Hunt emphasises the following:
Culture does not determine behaviour, but rather affords group members a repertoire of ideas and possible actions, providing the framework through which they understand
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themselves, their environment, and their experiences...Culture is ever changing and always being revised within the dynamic context of its enactment...Individuals choose between various cultural options, and in our multicultural society, many times choose widely between the options offered by a variety of cultural traditions. It is not possible to predict the beliefs and behaviours of individuals based on their race, ethnicity, or national origin (2004: 2).
The concept of cultural humility presents a strategy with which to more effectively design and develop programming that begins to decolonize education abroad. Nomikoudis and Starr (2016) present three main components of cultural humility as a guiding concept for ethical and effective intercultural practice. The first is a lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and selfcritique. This speaks to the notion that there is no finish line or ability to acquire "competence" as one is always in a state of enduring learning. The second is a desire to address and change power imbalances. This recognizes that in any situation, client/worker or student/teacher for example, both parties have valid knowledge and contributions to make. In other words, our students must be prepared to learn from the cultures with which they interact, not come prepared as experts to help reflecting historical missionary attitudes. Thirdly, cultural humility focuses on the development of deep and sustainable partnerships. This presents a sophisticated yet simple response to the complexity that intercultural interactions pose.
As noted, this can only be achieved through a "deep" international experience. Such an experience can only be realized through a combination of placing the experience within a broader context of learning that includes critiquing power relationships, the political, economic social, and cultural mismatch of the student and the community with which they are interacting, as well as the appropriate infrastructure to ensure there is not incongruence between the demands of the home institution and the opportunities offered to the students.
Risks and Reward: An Opportunity for Decolonizing Education Abroad
As discussed above, there are concerns that education abroad may be no different to a "short vacation," perpetuating neo-colonial perspectives and further cementing power relations both within and across communities. The potential rewards, however, can outweigh these risks. These rewards should not rely solely on moments of serendipity but require our students to be both properly prepared and supported. While there are many important opportunities that follow such an international experience, we would like to outline three: the potential to decolonize the curriculum, create the pathway to cultural humility, and prioritize brave spaces over safe spaces.
The first is that it can be an important part of decolonizing contemporary western curriculums. This does not mean eliminating white men or abolishing the western canon from the
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curriculum but rather, "challenging longstanding biases and omissions that limit how we understand politics and society" (Muldoon, 2019). This includes interrogating established assumptions from a cross section of perspectives. For example, understanding corruption in places such as Sub-Saharan Africa not simply from failed policy initiatives but as a direct consequence of colonialism (Mulinge and Lesetedi, 1998) and using such a lens to critique the challenges facing First Nation communities in places such as Australia and the US. In fact, such a process takes us closer to the Socratic ideal of intellectual engagement. No greater opportunity can exist to achieve such a process than when students are embedded in an in-country experience where they can discuss, challenge, and be challenged by educators from different cultures who confront such issues. Again, this does not need to be a false (or forced) binary between Western and non-Western cultures but one that opens the broader learning opportunities and theories. The second is that, within such a context, the potential for personal transformation emerges. As educators, we must aim to create an environment whereby educational engagement with our students is not simply about transmitting knowledge but challenges their preconceived concept and transforms the way they understand the world around them. To achieve this, it is important to create conditions of belonging and support in classrooms that release the creative and critical thinking energies of our students. This means that as educators, we should not be satisfied with scholarship alone--which remains at the core of the university--but also promoting citizenship: that is, empowering them to transform their own lives and reshape society. To theorize this, consider the ideas of Brazilian critical educator Paulo Freire (1972) and German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1927). It may appear that the work of Freire (who worked with illiterate Brazilian peasants in the 1940s) and Heidegger are dramatically removed from discussion of an international program, but their work remains both relevant and insightful even decades later. Freire focused on both skill development and consciousnessraising, two aspects that he saw as complementary in achieving individual empowerment. Fundamental here is Freire's argument that any "engagement" must be two-way: that is, rather than taking a "deficit" approach towards our students and treating them as passive containers to be filled by the knowledge of the educator, any classroom engagement is one that also informs and potentially transforms the "teacher." The "illiterate" Brazilian peasants that Freire worked with, for example, shared knowledge of resilience and adaptability in the face of changing global market forces that threatened their existence.
The second potential achievement of education abroad is to lay the foundations for a pathway to "cultural humility." Fundamental here is Freire's position on "critical consciousnessraising." For Freire, educators must not only pass on the disciplinary knowledge but also ensure those we work with develop the ability to perceive power relationships and injustices and take action against the oppressive elements of society. To discuss such consciousness raising, Freire draws on Martin Heidegger's (1927) phenomenological concept of the "threshold": that is,
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moments of change when we realize something about the world around us that moves us from ignorance to a state of reflection. It is in that moment that we encounter the world with fresh eyes. This moves us beyond a sense of wonder, to understanding, being inquisitive, willing to question, and possibly challenge, established power relations. This learning "journey" is undertaken together by both educator and students. While Heidegger presented artists as those with the potential to create threshold moments, at universities and colleges, it is the educators. This is because the changes we are attempting to promote through education are not simply "acts" of teaching but the culture and consciousness of thinking and learning--including the kind of cultural humility described above. The threshold both defines and sustains the uniting difference between two domains: between the familiar everyday experience that is common place, and where this is transcended. The threshold establishes an "in-between region"; a meeting place of different domains of understanding: the before and the after. When we, as educators, and our students, enter this phase of awareness, there emerges a sense that achieving intercultural learning does not have an "end point" but is an ongoing process.
The third point is to expose our students to the educational "power of discomfort" (Popescu, 2017). Our challenge is to achieve this through both the teaching and experiences we offer our students: to work with our students to create threshold moments. Such moments of disorientation force both educators and students to enter into two simultaneous domains of thinking: seeing and relating to the everyday while also perceiving the potential for social change. This is transitionary thinking because it does not disconnect us from the everyday while creating a rupture in the habitual and addresses its limits. The dissonance and discomfort require the establishment of "brave spaces" rather than safe spaces (Palfray, 2019). This is not to dismiss the many reasons for which safe spaces are promoted but it is to take the position that universities are about change and transformation, something that can only be achieved through discomfort, both from the student and educator's perspectives. For Boostrom (1998: 407), educators cannot truly foster critical dialogue regarding social justice by allowing education abroad programs to become uniformly "safe spaces" where the potential for deep and vulnerable intercultural exchange is ruled out. Rather, educators and the education abroad professional community must seek to design education abroad programs that encourage our students to move from the safe spaces they know and enjoy to bravely seek out new learning with cultural humility.
While in the short term, such an approach may place pressure on the market imperative of student numbers ahead of quality of experience, in the longer term, deeper engagement will compensate. This is because such an experience will be more likely to have the transformational affect that such programs truly desire. In so doing, both the alumni and partner organizations will achieve what no marketing department can: the sharing of truly life-changing experiences.
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Conclusion
This essay began by raising a number of concerns about international education with a focus on education abroad. Specifically, we argued that faculty-directed programs are by design colonial in nature and the professional community is knowingly complicit. The response from institutions must be broad and swift. Without a response, we not only perpetuate power relations, but we squander the potential for education abroad to drive a deep sense of intercultural learning.
Fundamental to such a response is cultural humility which offers both a strategy for addressing colonial tendencies as well as a pathway for deep cultural engagement. In so doing, higher education institutions, through education abroad programming, further ensure our graduates develop a set of skills and cultural knowledge and practices that complements their disciplinary focus. This pushes the debate beyond the simple transfer of knowledge as the focal aim of higher education institutions. Rather it takes on a broader, more societal focus, empowering our graduates to confront the many grand challenges, including histories of colonialism and exploitation. These goals should be enhanced through education abroad programming and related international learning opportunities. In this way, any experience does not perpetuate unequal power relations, but finds them, observes them, confronts them, and ultimately opens the potential to change them: a fundamental process of decolonization.
One such education abroad program that has been designed with cultural humility in mind is the "citizen scholar" program at Western Sydney University (see Kourtis and Arvanitakis, 2016). The program has two broad aims, to ensure that not only do higher education institutions promote the highest scholarship, but that they also produce engaged and empowered citizens who have a sense of mutual obligation to multiple stakeholders and partners. The program encourages a sense of discomfort and humility through education abroad that ensures the students work for closely partnered community organizations. Working with such organizations in nations such as India, students are exposed to the many colonial legacies and the risk that their very participation in the program perpetuates rather than confronts.
No longer can higher education institutions turn away from the potential colonial nature of contemporary education abroad programming. To do so undermines the very missions of our institutions and is a disservice to our students as we reinforce oppressive educational pedagogies that fail to address the grand challenges of poverty, power, and colonial legacies.
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FROM COLONIAL VERANDA TO DIGITAL FRONT PORCH: A VIEW TO A CHANGE
Annmarie Whalen College Year in Athens
The occasion for these thoughts was the March 2019 CAPA symposium on "(Post)Colonialism and Decolonizing Education Abroad." In the context of that event, when this essay speaks about colonialism and/or postcolonialism, it does not take up historical colonialism, past events of nation-building through force and the after-effects, or the historical moment of any example of colonialism and post colonialism. To do so would deny the horrors of the colonial system and its effects on the colonized, in Edward Said's words "the destruction and the misery and death brought by the latest mission civilisatrice" (Said, 1977: 111).
As a learning endeavor, does education abroad directly wreak violence, forcibly enslave, or physically harm in the same exact way that historical colonialism did? No. Does education abroad transmit, as CAPA describes, "Unjustly balanced power relations" and "a hierarchy of power that was substantially European, white, male, heterosexual, and Christian."13 Perhaps. In contrast, when we examine colonialism in the context of education abroad, we speak in terms of a cultural imperialism, where "soft power" is wielded through super-imposed external values. Exploring how the concept of colonialism applies to education abroad is an intellectual exercise based in theory, metaphor, and analogy, not in violent domination.
The symposium also asked its participants to consider Postcolonialism as a theoretical approach, as a metaphor, in relation to education abroad, to its biases and assumptions. However, postcolonialism and education abroad work from different starting points. Postcolonial theory begins its work several layers abstracted from culture itself; it works from the theoretical to the actual. This intellectual process first develops a conceptual framework, then examines the products of cultural perceptions, cultural artifacts, to arrive at a theoretical understanding of culture as a whole. Education abroad, in contrast, tends to begin its reflections within the experience itself, unmitigated and based on the observations of programs and of students, working from praxis toward understanding. These observations tend to be rooted in actual events, people, places, and not in an intellectualization of these.
13 Global Education Network (n.d.), "Symposium: Postcolonialism and Decolonizing Education Abroad," online. Available at: https://www.capa.org/for-institutions/upcoming-events/symposium-postcolonialism
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A seminal article by Anthony Ogden describing US students abroad and their programs as colonials, "The View from the Veranda: Understanding Today's Colonial Student," utilizes the education abroad practitioner stance. Its title, based on observation and experience, immediately establishes both an image with cultural resonance and a cultural critique. There is a reason that references to architecture, like the colonial veranda, resonate in education abroad. Architecture and defined spaces are part of the vocabulary and meaning of the education abroad experience and higher education generally. Education abroad uses the terms "comfort zone" and "contact zone" to describe cultural interaction. Education abroad goals have been described as moving students out of their "comfort zone." When interacting with host cultures, we talk about the interactions as occurring within the "contact zone." In higher education, we have created "safe spaces" on our campuses. Professional symposia and conferences are described as convening in a "brave space." The direct connection between architecture and space is that architecture defines spaces, making spaces into meaningful places encapsulating human interaction. And this connection makes architecture a meaningful metaphor for human, and student, experience. The veranda works as a metaphor because it describes the way in which people act and interact (or do not interact) in places. In this sense, architecture serves as a platform or stage for social engagement.
What we really are describing here is a mode of engagement, a type of "discourse," a term that is also critical to postcolonial theory. "Discourse" in postcolonial theory has a specific meaning rooted in the work of the philosopher Michel Foucault. It refers to how we define and organize our social world and social identity, particularly in terms of power relations. This connects us back to the spaces in which education abroad takes place and in which students construct their identities, in particular their social selves.
The "Veranda" article begins with a broad description of the colonial presence of a ruling elite, for the most part removed from local culture, "maintaining their distance, interacting only as needed and often in an objective and disassociated manner" (Ogden, 2007). In this view, education abroad is challenged "to preserve our fundamental mission to engage students in meaningful intellectual and intercultural experiences without falling back on a colonial discourse that is concerned with elitism and consumption" (Ogden, 2007). Note here the connection between colonialism, elitism, and consumption. Ogden's article's definition of the colonial student pivots on the idea of consumption, although consumption is not necessarily a term associated with colonialism.
The article then states that "the profession of education abroad is complicit in developing and perpetuating a colonial system" (Ogden, 2007). In this understanding, there is commercial market pressure to supply "familiar amenities and modern conveniences" which enable conditions that allow "students to remain within the comfortable environs of the
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veranda while observing their host community from a safe and unchallenging distance" (Ogden, 2007). Further, Ogden observes:
a distinct type of education abroad student appears to be emerging within this dynamic environment. This profile, the colonial student, typifies the US university student who really wants to be abroad and take full advantage of all the benefits studying abroad offers, but is not necessarily open to experiencing the less desirable side of being there...Like children of the empire, colonial students have a sense of entitlement, as if the world is theirs for discovery, if not for the taking. New cultures are experienced in just the same way as new commodities are coveted, purchased and owned (Ogden, 2007). In this portrait of US students abroad as colonials, they are passive, waiting for culture and learning to be presented to them instead of seeking out opportunities for learning. The student as colonial is elitist and entitled. They choose to stay removed from the authentic, especially if the authentic is unpleasant. The student as colonial consumes cultural experiences as goods to be purchased. Ogden then elaborates on colonial tendencies across education abroad programs generally--in student services and activities, and curriculum and management. He argues that education abroad's administrative models and standards impose the expectations of a US framework, removing both programs and students from any uncomfortable challenges of authentic experience of another culture. This is a resonant but misleading portrait. The image is attractive because we can relate to it. Education abroad professionals have noticed and remarked on the trends pointed out in the article and despise the degree to which higher education and education abroad have become commodified. On this issue, in the decade since the article was published, seemingly little has changed. And we recognize these students. We have seen them. We lament them. Dressed in culturally deaf apparel, they pose for the big "leap up" photo opportunity in front of monuments. Theirs seems to be a world of selfies, shopping, and imbibing, not one of wonder, awe, and learning. However, this view is short-sighted--we know better than to believe only what we see. Even a passing knowledge of education abroad research tells us that education abroad outcomes are notorious for unfolding over years and decades. We know that these young people are still forming their adult selves, and that biologically they are not fully formed. Their impulsiveness and lack of rationality is sometimes infuriating, although the education abroad experience allows these not-yet-adults more freedom than they often know how to manage.
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For this reason, we should pay attention to leaps in the argument of the article. Ogden calls these colonial students "colonial travelers." A "colonist," however, is emphatically not the same as a traveler. A traveler passes through; a colonist stays on until a process is completed. The argument makes another leap from colonial traveler to the notion of the student being on a Grand Tour. Again, the image lures us in, but the tourist of the Grand Tour, no matter the century, is decidedly not the same as the colonist.
When we dig beneath the surface image, then, the US student abroad as a "colonial" is not an easy fit; it does not quite work. To be sure, there are some common traits between the US student abroad and a colonial. Yes, students can be superficial and deliberately unaware of societal gaps, at the same time being self-centered, self-important, and not terribly self-aware. This is equally a portrait of adolescence as it is of a colonial elite. My point is that the profile of today's student and their stance, has, in fact, changed since Ogden published his article more than a decade ago.
Despite the differences between a colonial student and today's student, the reference to the architectural space of "the veranda" captures our attention. It works. It resonates. It is part of our cultural vernacular of architecture. We can all picture it, thanks to popular culture and the history of cinema: from the British in India in Gunga Din or A Passage to India, to recreations of Meryl Streep's/Isaak Dinesen's veranda in Out of Africa. We recognize this space: elevated, apart, touching the ground but not entirely of it. The colonial veranda is physically an open space, but not welcoming to all, at least not without an express invitation.
The postcolonial space has been irreverently described this way: Imagine that people come over to your house, while you're still living there, and decide to settle down. Permanently. They rearrange your furniture, force you to cook for them; they even tell you to say things like "wicked" instead of "hella." You'd ask them politely to leave, but every time you raise the subject, they shush you and remind you they've got guns. Big guns. Then, finally, things start looking up and you push the intruders out, guns and all. Byee! But wait...they've been over for so long that your house no longer feels like your home. Worse yet--you might not even remember how things were before these folks came in. Or, you might even like how these people rearranged your home--and life!...You'd think you'd feel footloose and fancy-free, and maybe you kind of do, but there's all this anger, frustration, and confusion, too. Plus, where'd they put the cookie jar? (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). This description may be impudent, yet it is an easily relatable way to get across the conflicting currents of postcolonialism. Both the colonial veranda as an image of colonialism and this mocking description of postcolonialism treat culture as a monolithic, solid thing. In this sense, these descriptions no
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longer fit. Both do not account for the contemporary fluidity of identity and porosity of culture. It is no longer applicable to say that the US imposes its cultural values internationally--that moment has already happened. The absorption of US culture by other nations is clear enough to our students when they are abroad. Recent and radical changes support that the assimilation of US culture has already taken place, evidenced in the introduction of the mobile digital age, and with that the invention of the digital self.
For example, one of the details used to support the colonial veranda thesis is that programs provide "Seemingly a positive service, in-house computer facilities [which] ensure [s] that the students maintain close proximity to the student bubble.... The message being communicated to the host community is... as long as the natives stay outside of the compound all will be peaceful and safe" (Ogden, 2007).
This description now seems a little quaint. One aspect of education abroad has radically changed in the years since Ogden's article was published. The computer lab is still there, perhaps, but much of the functionality of it has been replaced with a pocket-sized rectangular object of metal and glass, the omnipresent smart phone.
Access to the internet, email, and almost all things digital has become immediate and pervasive. In fact, an ethnographic research study marks 2005 as the year when the mobile phone began to replace "the bodily representations of the dimensions of self," (Greenfield, 2017: 21) photos, maps, guidebooks, store-value cards, clocks, calendars, datebooks, rolodexes, money. (The study tracked in great detail what people from London, Tokyo and Los Angeles carried in their pockets, wallets, and handbags.) Think of this in one's own personal experience--and then think of it in the context of the experience of today's student abroad. Looking at this chronology, it would make sense that Ogden's colonial student, based on pre2007 observations, no longer fits.
Adam Greenfield, in a chapter of his book Radical Technologies, "Smartphone: The Networking of the Self," posits that "After a single decade little more remains in our pockets and purses than the snacks, the breath mints and the lip balm" (Greenfield, 2017: 22). Tracking the place of the smart phone in everyday life in minute detail and in its broad implications, Greenfield holds that "The smartphone is the signature artifact of our age" (19) that has "altered the texture of everyday life just about everywhere, digesting many longstanding spaces and rituals in their entirety, and transforming others beyond recognition" (19). While smart phones "can never determine our actions outright, of course....they do significantly condition our approach to the world, in all sorts of subtle but pervasive ways" (25). Greenfield readily admits that the smartphone "as we know it is a complicated tangle of negotiations, compromises, hacks and forced fits, swaddled in a sleekly minimal envelope a few millimeters thick" (30-31). He also posits that:
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Given everything it does, and all of the objects it replaces or renders unnecessary, it has to be regarded as a rather astonishing bargain. And given that it is, in principle, able to connect billions of human beings with one another and the species' entire stock of collective knowledge, it is in some sense even a utopian one (31). For this very reason, and if indeed the "medium is the message," we need a new way of talking about "education abroad space," one that is a better fit with today's education abroad experience. I suggest that the new metaphor for the study abroad experience and action, our field's cultural discourse and conceptual architectural space, is the Digital Front Porch. The front porch references the vernacular, the everyday vocabulary of architecture, and a specifically US form and function. It is a vibrant part of the US cultural imagination. In small towns, think of To Kill a Mockingbird. In more urban settings from Brooklyn to Pittsburgh to Chicago, the front walk and lawn is translated into the culture of the sidewalk and street, the front steps and stoop. Think here of the films of Spike Lee. The heyday of the American front porch was fairly short-lived, from the nineteenth century to just after World War I, declining with the advent of suburbs and backyards. However, the front porch has seen a rebirth in the architecture of the new urbanism, and it remains a strong part of the American cultural imagination. Front porches are places to gather, to welcome a neighbor, a friend, and the odd passer-by. They are a place to exchange news, gossip, and information. These spaces include, not exclude. They invite. They are designed and decorated to attract and arranged to encourage contact. They establish relationships to family, community, and nature. The front porch is an ungoverned space. And it is present in every region of the US. The culture of the front porch is well-documented, and to some degree, romanticized. In her study, Swinging in Place: Porch Life in Southern Culture, Donlon discusses porch culture as a place where gender, race, and class are performed and negotiated. In 2006, NPR aired a radio series of observations called: "Sitting on the Porch: Not a Place, But a State of Mind" (Norris, 2006). The series expresses the view that "porches, debate and democracy go together," and that the bonds of community are formed through the interactions encouraged by front porches. In relation to the digital world, defining the new relationship between self and community is captured well by an expatriate American in a blog post: "Redefining Front Porch Culture: Bloggers and a world-wide notion of neighbor": Blogs, like porches, transition us from private to public space and back again. They link us to something larger, something outside ourselves...Blogs are open doors. They create a shared space, become a place where friendships form and lives change. Blogs encourage dialogue, deepen connections, create an experience that is richer than any single post in and of itself...Blogs are front porches reinvented for a digital age (McCullough, 2012).
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This image, replacing the colonial veranda, resonates with our students' digital lives, their interactions on social media, which are the new incarnations of the front porch.
Students arrive abroad having crafted a social identity online, on various platforms (there architecture again). These virtual portrayals are interactive, asking for comment via words and reactions via symbols of emotive responses. Even when the digital identity is protected, the student chooses to extend invitations to visit which leads to engagement. Digital social identity is carefully curated, much in the way a porch might be decorated. A person may create multiple identities, across different digital platforms. If the colonial order forced a "hierarchy of power that was substantially European, white, male, heterosexual, and Christian,"14 then this new order is as diverse as the individuals participating in it. The universe of digital social identity is not predominantly male, and it is not elitist. It is not monocultural; it is multicultural. This digital social identity may reflect cultural power hierarchies, but its primary goal is not to foster them. If the Postcolonial narrative "refers to theoretical approaches and liberation movements that recognize, and represent, historical and ongoing struggles for equity and justice,"15 the new digital social order by contrast reflects the moment and the immanent.
Places are the social architecture in which students create and curate their identities, and the digital front porch is where these discourses now unfold in ways radically different from on the veranda. The veranda imposes, the porch engages. The self-created digital social identity serves invitation, introduction, and content, providing a self-controlled way to navigate the distance between public and private. Is this then a colonial way of being in the world? Is it a postcolonial way of being? Or, have our students jumped the postcolonial and are they in an entirely different "place"?
To conclude, education abroad as colonial power, as an imposition of a monolithic ruling force, expanding the empire of the US, of its values, of its culture, is complete. That moment has passed. American culture is now ubiquitous, and students encounter it just about everywhere they study abroad. This is equally the result of the power of the global flatness of world economies as it is of the remarkable speed of influence of pop culture and the digital world as its means of deployment. When cultures have been adopted, even assimilated, what then is being exploited? Where does the colonial stance enter? How can students be in a bubble when they do not experience education abroad as a bubble?
14 Global Education Network. (n.d.). Symposium: Postcolonialism and Decolonizing Education Abroad, online, available at: https://www.capa.org/for-institutions/upcoming-events/symposium-postcolonialism 15 Global Education Network. (n.d.). Symposium: Postcolonialism and Decolonizing Education Abroad, online, available at:https://www.capa.org/for-institutions/upcoming-events/symposium-postcolonialism
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Rather, students today lead with their identities. Identity is the heart of their Foucauldian "discourse," the way they define and construct social practice. They are invested in identity creation before knowledge creation, and before consumption. In their lives they are constantly making and remaking their social identities. With all human knowledge at their fingertips, they are expert in drawing on as many sources as they have time for to fashion themselves. The Ryanair travel phenomenon of cheap air travel throughout Europe, a post post-colonial grand tour, is but one means for students to employ to curate their self abroad. The Chronicle of Higher Education tell us that students "crave value, relevance and Instagram" (Selingo, 2018). Each of these is directly related to the self, and more precisely, to the digital self on the digital front porch. This is a distinctly new way of being in the world, not colonial and not post-colonial.
The discourse of the colonial veranda is about power; the discourse of the digital front porch is about identity creation. By placing their selves front and center, whatever that curated self may be, students are in fact inviting a reaction from, and making themselves open to, the world around them. This is the foundation for students' identity, experience and learning abroad, a dramatic shift to which education abroad should pay attention.
However, the ghosts of historical colonialism and post-colonialism remain hovering in the background. There is a great irony in education abroad: most US students choose to study in Europe's former colonial powers: The UK, Spain, France, and Italy. When studying in Asia, US students choose mainly the former empires: China and Japan.
Who, then, has colonized whom?
WORKS CITED
Barnhart, S. C. (2005): "Swinging in Place: Porch Life in Southern Culture (review)," May 2, online, available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/182092 Donlon, J. H. (2001): Swinging in Place: Porch Life in Southern Culture, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill Greenfield, A. (2017): Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life, Verso, London and New York McCullough, K. M. (2012): "Redefining Front-Porch Culture: Bloggers and a World-Wide Notion of Neighbor," 21 December, online, available at: https://kathrynmmccullough.com/2012/10/22/redefining-front-porch-culture-bloggers-and-a-worldwide-notion-of-neighbor/ Norris, M. (2006): "Sitting on the Porch: Not a Place, But a State of Mind," 28 July, online, available at: https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5589974 Ogden, A. (2007): "The View from the Veranda: Understanding Today's Colonial Student," Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 15(1): 35-56. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v15i1.215 Said, E. (1978): Orientalism, Pantheon Books, New York Selingo, J. (2018): "Self-Directed Learning and Augmented Reality: How to Teach Gen Z.," 31 October, online, available at: https://www.chronicle.com/article/Self-Directed-Learning-and/244968 Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008): November 11 "Postcolonial Theory Introduction," 11 November, online, available at: https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literary-schools-of-theory/postcolonial-theory
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HOMOGENIZE AND RULE: EMPIRES OF THE MIND IN 21ST CENTURY HIGHER EDUCATION
Kalyani Unkule Jindal Global University
When intercultural learning takes place in a context where European languages and Eurocentric worldviews, histories, and markers of excellence are privileged, then study abroad becomes an instrument of sustaining global inequality. In this essay, I have reviewed the responses stemming from epistemologies of the Global South to the hegemonic discourse on legitimate knowledge creation. As a practitioner of higher education internationalization, I am concerned with the potential for projects and practices to nurture other ways of knowing16. In light of the conceptual discussion in the first part of the essay, I have analyzed salient features of the New Higher Education Policy proposed by the Government of India in 2019.
Hegemonic Epistemes: Science is Science is Science
According to Boaventura de Sousa Santos, epistemologies of the Global North which rely on systematic observation and controlled experimentation and thereby claim greater "rigor and instrumental potential" over other ways of knowing, "be they lay, popular, practical, commonsensical, intuitive or religious," possess a "privileged validity" (De Sousa Santos, 2018: 2). The importance of studying epistemologies of the Global South stems from the fact that ideational hegemonies serve an important real-world cause of domination by first establishing empires of the mind. To put it in the words of De Sousa Santos, the privileged validity of knowledge systems spawned by Western centric modernity contribute to "reinforcing the exceptionalism of the Western world vis- à- vis the rest of the world, and by the same token to drawing the abyssal line that separated, and still separates, metropolitan from colonial societies and sociabilities" (2018: 5). Indeed, the empires of the mind have shown remarkable resilience even as the economic interests and political projects they helped build have suffered less certain fortunes. Susan Hawthorne explains that the "knowledge spread most widely is that which is recognized by the powerful" (Hawthorne, 2002: 64) and the relationship to power is what leads such knowledge to support "the imposition of sameness, homogeneity, monopoly, monotony and monoculturalism" (Hawthorne, 2002: 68). Shiv Visvanathan exemplifies this argument by citing conceptual building blocks in Economics "especially of efficiency, productivity and growth where rationality and efficiency do not yield to a socio-biology, a lifeboat ethics syndrome where those in
16 In my earlier work I have shown how the "impact of mainstream paradigms of internationalization on higher education globally has made us acutely aware of the deep-rooted biases in knowledge creation and dissemination" (Unkule, 2019: 66).
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the boat refuse to help those drowning" (Visvanathan, 2018). Estimating the cost at which epistemic dominance is sustained he aptly finds that "the idea of fraternity, plurality and diversity have been poor cousins of western political thought, conceptual country bumpkins without the universalist sheen or cosmopolitanism that the ideas of liberty and equality convey" (Visvanathan, 2018) impoverishing conceptions of minority politics in the Global North (among other repercussions discussed later).
Formulations and concepts stemming from other ways of knowing too have lent themselves to application in practice. In my monograph Internationalising the University: A Spiritual Approach, I have explored this dynamic at play as it transcends the spiritual realm and supports, for instance, anti-imperialist, nationalist movements. However, these ideas do not lay claim to "privileged validity" and are more open to transformation through practice, thereby meeting the standard for Tagore's living ideals. Yet, it is for the same reason that they fail to meet the criteria of validity and generalizability as set out and defined by the hegemonic paradigm.
De Sousa Santos identifies the struggle against "capitalism, colonialism and patriarchy" (2018: ix) as the common denominator in epistemologies of the Global South. He is careful to decenter them spatially by acknowledging that even as they may not be dominant in many regions located in the geographical South, their existence might be evident in parts of the geographical North. Through this spatial decentralization, we make room for their growth and dissemination via exchange giving rise to a potential role for internationalization of higher education. A closer reading of De Sousa Santos reveals that epistemologies of the Global South stand against the concept of hegemonic knowledge systems and the structures of oppression the latter serve to legitimize. In this sense, they are a reminder that "there are epistemologies of the South only because, and to the extent that, there are epistemologies of the North" (De Sousa Santos, 2018: 2). In other words, they redirect us to the partial and the particular underlying that which claims to be universal. They signify "other ways of knowing" based on lived experiences that depart from the hegemonic mainstream norm.
De Sousa Santos distinguishes between knowledges which appropriate reality and ways of knowing which embody reality. Lived experience is the key to access the other ways of knowing inherent to epistemologies of the South. This requirement strengthens the case for experiential learning and an internationalization agenda for higher education that emphasizes not only learning "about" but also learning "from" and learning "with" Southern contexts. However, allowing for experience alone would not go far enough towards achieving the aim of decolonizing the mind, unless and until the frameworks within which the experience is received, processed, and expressed undergo radical re-examination and innovation.
Hawthorne cautions that hegemonic knowledge systems seek to maintain their advantage by adopting methods that are "most likely to be coercive and bludgeoning... But they
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might also be inducive: promises of catch up development or of a consumer heaven are examples" (Hawthorne, 2002: 69). This last qualification is important as it redirects us not just to the form and content of education but the basic goals and aspirations behind seeking and delivering it. Elsewhere I have observed that the "correlation between social status and access to knowledge is likely to especially hold in the so-called knowledge society" (Unkule, 2019: 24), which, at present, we pride ourselves on being. In this context, I have revisited the position of Rabindranath Tagore, according to whom "the promise that offering knowledge to the learner as stepping stones to status and power was akin to bribery."17 More pertinent to the higher education internationalization agenda, Hawthorne writes:
The power of attraction can be used (and misused) at both the individual and collective level. The "psychological dependence" of the powerless can be seen in global culture in instances of the allure of the Western lifestyle presented to young people in countries where the West is still a fantasy world (Hawthorne, 2002: 84) In the next section, the push-back that has stemmed from thinking about epistemologies of the Global South will be addressed.
Responses: Do you Speak Ethno?
Much of early higher education internationalization discourse was based on the idea of "identifying gaps" and "building capacities" in those parts of the world where education systems were portrayed as "playing catch-up." Hawthorne describes this attitude as "not seeing," (Hawthorne, 2002: 97) designed to identify and perpetually sustain "gaps" and "false problems" which the dominant knowledge system can address to ultimately strengthen its grip. Such is the impact of consistent not seeing that today institutions in the Global South themselves have championed the concept of capacity building. Thus, the first response is to start seeing and stop mistaking difference for lack or absence.
The project of resistance to monocultures of knowledge and the homogenizing onslaught of globalization still leaves us with the question of operationalizing diversity towards developing frameworks for learning. Visvanathan proposes that "the dialogue of knowledges, of medical systems, of religions, has to be a critical part of the democratic imagination" (Visvanathan, 2018). From a practical standpoint he urges that "every school and society group and community takes upon itself to keep a craft, a language, or a species alive as a way of life and as a
17 In his essay "An Eastern University" Tagore presciently wrote: "But unfortunately, education conducted under a special providence of purposefulness, of eating the fruit of knowledge from the wrong end, does lead one to that special paradise on earth, the daily rides in one's own carriage and pair. And the West, I have heard from authentic sources, is aspiring in its education after that special cultivation of worldliness." Online, available at: http://tagoreweb.in/Render/ShowContent.aspx?ct=Essays&bi=72EE92F5-BE50-40D7-AE6E0F7410664DA3&ti=72EE92F5-BE50-4A47-DE6E-0F7410664DA3
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lifeworld," in a spirit of trusteeship. In attempting to embrace learning of diversity though study abroad experiences, I have proposed a model called "a study trip to the pluriverse" which fundamentally attempts to distance "the student from the security of received facts" (Unkule, 2019: 150). I would further urge that the purpose of meaningful internationalization should not be limited to exposing students to novel experiences but to actively provide frameworks through which students are able to process these experiences and shed the baggage of assumptions of universal validity.
Lastly, the assertion of diversity should not be exclusionary. The aim is to "build an expanded commons on the basis of otherness" (De Sousa Santos, 2018: 5). It needs to be founded in the understanding that unequal power relations hurt the dispossessed perhaps more perpetually and visibly, but ultimately inflict significant harm on those who wield power as well. The current crisis faced by the liberal international order--the reverberations of which have spared no part of the world and arguably are felt more starkly in those which claim to be its architects--should provide a strong impetus to widespread acknowledgment of this proposition.
India's New Higher Education Policy and Approach to Internationalization
In the concluding section, I will evaluate the extent to which India's new higher education policy and the prevailing vision in the country behind internationalizing universities contributes to the mission of building an expanded commons based on otherness. Chapter nine of the draft new education policy (Ministry of Human Resource Development or MHRD of the Government of India or GoI) which is dedicated to higher education, envisages creation of "world class multidisciplinary higher education institutions across the country." Use of the term "world class" is widespread in higher education policy discourse and the inherent imagination and association behind its usage is of a University in the Global North. The twin goals of providing "21st century competencies for future work roles," (MHRD) while at the same time contributing to "a democratic, just, socially conscious, self-aware, cultured and humane nation, with liberty, equality, fraternal spirit and justice for all (MHRD)" are set out for higher education in the policy framework. However, the ways in which these two aims may or may not be compatible does not receive serious consideration. Instead, adoption of liberal education is seen as the solution:
Happily and coincidentally, the aforementioned multidisciplinary education and 21st century capabilities necessary for the employment landscape of the future--such as critical thinking, communication, problem solving, creativity, cultural literacy, global outlook, teamwork, ethical reasoning, and social responsibility - will not only help to develop outstanding employees but also outstanding citizens and communities (MHRD, GoI, 2019: 203). The policy also lacks an engagement with the assumptions and frameworks of western modernity at the heart of the off-the-shelf liberal education model. Instead, this issue is
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sidestepped entirely by portraying the adoption of liberal education as a revival, rather than a novel approach. Antecedents of the liberal arts curriculum are found in the idea of "64 kalas" or arts which "included subjects such as singing, playing musical instruments, and painting but also `scientific fields' such as engineering, medicine and mathematics" (MHRD, GoI, 2019: 208), referred to in ancient Indian texts. Further, this kind of learning is attributed to the ancient centers of learning, Nalanda and Takshashila. Thus, the opportunity to learn from any local or historical frames of reference is lost by bracketing them with "liberal education" rather than revisiting them in their temporal and socio-cultural context. And yet again, the attempt to demonstrate compatibility with the hegemonic approach to science and knowledge creation is in evidence; indeed, the success of US-based Ivy League schools is cited as a key argument in favor of embracing liberal arts education (MHRD, GoI, 2019: 224).
The internationalization agenda set out in the policy regards reputation of institutions as the most important factor informing student decisions about choice of study destination. In maintaining this view, the university system in India has been exposed by policy makers to the assessment and judgment of international ranking measures. I have fully explored the implications of the emphasis on rankings elsewhere but here it is important to reiterate that this is not only a self-defeating proposition but also based on an empirically unexamined hypothesis about learner preferences. It is further interesting to observe that public support to Indology is conceived as part of the internationalization strategy. The policy document unabashedly notes that "departments for Indic studies will also be funded in several institutions on a competitive basis, so that even Indian students do not have to go abroad to learn Indology as is often the case today" (MHRD, GoI, 2019: 254). Although the authors of the policy deserve credit for an honest appraisal of the current situation, from a perspective of nurturing Southern epistemology, this conception is marred by two inherent flaws. First, the scientific discipline of Indology as taught in western institutions is assumed to be the only legitimate way of learning about a country, its people, and their worldview. Second, the premise underlying the proposed measure is that if international students are coming to India it must be to study "about India"18. A policy framework concerned with contributing to an expanded commons based on otherness would rather ask, "what can students learn about history or environmental studies or software programming uniquely in India?" A related proposed step is to fund universities to design special courses in Yoga and Ayurveda in a bid to enhance their allure for international students. In an
18 Based on my experience of hosting study abroad programs for international students in India, I have found that what students study depends largely on the structure of the program. When they sign up for very brief immersion programs and have no say over curriculum, they end up taking courses about Indian constitution, economy, foreign policy etc. However, when the study period is of longer duration and students opt for courses which will count towards their degrees, they do not have a tendency to select India-specific courses. In fact, in my experience, unless study of Hindi for instance is made mandatory by the home institution, there is negligible student demand for it. Unfortunately, it is also the case that globally, HEIs and governments are favoring the short-term immersion model when encouraging students from the North to seek study experiences in the South.
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imagination and a discourse that is otherwise steeped in ideas and practices bequeathed by the dominant knowledge system of the North, this seems more like a half-hearted nod to the instrumental potential of ethnoscience rather than a wholesome effort to draw on other ways of knowing and maximise the value integral to diversity.
Looking inward to find our core strengths is an essential precondition to participating in global knowledge creation and cultural exchange. Policy makers and higher education leaders should heed the prophesy that "epistemologies of the South exist today so that they will not be necessary someday" (De Sousa Santos, 2018: 2). WORKS CITED
De Sousa Santos, B. (2018): The End of the Cognitive Empire: The Coming of Age of Epistemologies of the South, Duke University Press, Durham NC Hawthorne, S. (2002): Wild Politics: Feminism, Globalisation, Bio/Diversity, Spinifex, Geelong Aus. Unkule, K. (2019): Internationalising the University: A Spiritual Approach, Palgrave Macmillan, London Visvanathan, S. (2018): "A Prelude to a Manifesto on Heritage," Seminar website, online, available at: https://www.india-seminar.com/2018/705/705_shiv_visvanathan.htm
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NEW VOICES IN COMMUNITY COLLEGE INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Rosalind Latiner Raby California State University, Northridge
There are many narratives that are used to explore community college international education. Each narrative has a unique trajectory that examines the same situation but in different contexts. This essay uses two narratives that represent traditional and emerging voices in the field to make sense of community college education abroad practices. The first narrative is neo-liberalism that has long defined community college policy and advocacy initiatives. The second narrative is post-colonialism that is being used in practice to re-imagine what information is shared with students and how that information is presented. In some contexts, these two narratives also serve as a counterbalance to one another. The examples in this essay are based on practices that I have observed for the past twenty-four years studying education abroad in the context of community colleges.
The neo-liberalism narrative uses market-oriented policies to support the ideal of the private good. In higher education, this is applied in terms of economic gains for the institution and potential economic gains for the student. Neo-liberalism policies are used when the institution adopts profit-making and entrepreneurial programs to enhance the college budget which is often underfunded (Altbach and Engberg, 2014). Students, as well, buy into the abroad experience to gain knowledge and skillsets that in turn are believed to enhance social capitals that facilitate employment in jobs that serve the global knowledge economy (Farrugia and Sanger, 2017). The post-colonialism narrative acknowledges that while higher education can be a force for social good, it also represents colonial interests that reproduce inequities, such as poverty, differential access to higher education, and reproduction of dominant knowledge frameworks (Castiello-Gutiérrez, 2019). At the institutional level, post-colonialism inspired programs and policies are reformed to mitigate and to eliminate the effects of these inequities. As applied to the student, curricula encourage student self-reflection on how inequities are reproduced along with a new focus on creating opportunities for social equity and social justice (Stein, 2017).
Community College Education Abroad
Community colleges have been offering education abroad since 1968 (Raby, 2019). Community college education abroad is grounded in the open access philosophy in which admission constraints (class standing, GPA, prerequisites) are eliminated in the attempt to serve all students (Raby, 2008). Access is given to community members not enrolled as students,
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enrolled students, university students, and high school students who are concurrently enrolled in the college. In some states, "spiraling" exists that facilitates access in that students can enroll simultaneously in one or more community colleges in the same state as all courses are aligned with local universities for credit. As such, a student at one community college can easily enroll in an education abroad program at another college. On average, community colleges that offer education abroad send between eighteen and ninety-nine students abroad annually. This is important because it proves that community colleges can find enough students to meet enrollment criteria (Raby, 2019). Finally, education abroad serves the needs of the local community, which is one mission of the community college, as it advances student knowledge, facilitates student success, and influences future career trajectories.
Access is supported by flexible programming options that include year-long, semester, short-term winter-term, summer programs of three+ weeks, and seven to fourteen-day programs. Access is also supported by the range of education abroad classes that support the multipurpose mission of the community college, including classes in general education that provide credit for transfer, elective courses, and courses in technical, vocational, occupational, and career education, such as nursing, culinary arts, oenology (wine production), and cosmetology. Most of community college education abroad classes are faculty-led in which faculty design, lead, and market programs, often, to their own students with whom they have developed special bonds. Group affinity is very important for community college students and many faculty gain a following with their students. Since most community college education abroad programs are terminal, it is likely that they represent the only access to international knowledge and skills within the community college experience (Raby, 2019: 1996).
Neo-Liberalism Narratives for Education Abroad
Neo-liberalism in education abroad supports a for-profit orientation. On the institutional level, competition and entrepreneurialism are used to secure profit for education abroad offices, programs, and students. For-profit examples include the institution receiving payment for people's expertise in recruiting, training, curriculum delivery, and management style. The forprofit focus also influences the institution via partnerships with providers whose business is the field of education abroad and whose "export ready" mission aligns with a commercial rationale. Entrepreneurial strategies include fund-raising, alumni outreach, and program specific fees. On the student level, neo-liberalism links knowledge and experience gained from studying abroad to employment and to professional networks. Education abroad can teach soft skills that are honored by the global economy and include being adaptable, independent, interculturally competent, curious, able to think critically, communicate with others, and foster understanding and collaboration in group interactions.
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Application to Community Colleges 1
In the community college, profit generation supports education abroad on many levels. Entrepreneurial programming is central to the community college as a way to financially support programs and outreach. Profit generating policies and programs are specifically used to help support education abroad, which is chronically underfunded. At the same time, when profit is gained by increasing student fees, there is the potential that it clashes with the open access mission of the community college.
Infrastructure Investment: One of the most frequently mentioned issues in community college literature is the lack of infrastructure investment for education abroad. There are few fulltime offices, few colleges with a line-item in the budget for education abroad, and few full-time dedicated positions that lead education abroad efforts. The neo-liberalism narrative is most commonly used for advocacy linked to requests for more investment in education abroad. This includes institutional investments of time, resources, and human services, to build dedicated staff, as well as to enhance on-campus services. In addition, advocacy seeks to increase professional development funds which then is a form of human capital investment in terms of professionalization for the field.
Enrollment practices: Enrollment practices aim to motivate students to enroll in education abroad classes. Each faculty-led class needs to meet minimum enrollment regulations as defined by the district/college. For most community colleges, this is eighteen to twenty-six students. Marketing the education abroad class therefore is a necessity in order to maximize enrollment numbers. In turn, enrollment itself brings profits for the campus via enrollment formulas that provide state funding per student and that then supports institutional budget planning. Likewise, students need to buy into the programs which demands exchange of capital. The emphasis on tracking extends to number of students, number of locations, and number of partnerships.
For-Profit designs: In that few community colleges have adequate funding for education abroad, various means to gain profit are common. Unlike universities, there are few community colleges that gain profit by adding student application fees. While these fees can help cover some administrative costs and scholarship funds, they are problematic since they add costs to the student, which challenges the open access mission, especially where tuition is free (Raby, 2019). A more wide-spread form of profit generation is through specifically directed fund-raising programs, working with college Foundation, and alumni outreach. Profit also occurs through partnerships with local travel agencies that fit within the regulations of the college. Profit can also be gained via perks from the education abroad providers which also need to fit within college regulations.
Entrepreneurial programs secure new revenue that can support education abroad. A Southern California college has an entrepreneurial partnership with a local business to give
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internships for students who study abroad that in turn provides scholarships for their program cost. A Northern California college charges providers for their participation in study abroad fairs. Finally, entrepreneurial programs build upon customer loyalty relationships that link student/customer satisfaction with profit. All education abroad program evaluations ask about satisfaction of location choice and of the overall experience which then is used in promotions and future marketing. At the same time, perceived "risks" shared in these evaluations are addressed so that they cannot negatively impact future student choice to study abroad.
Career connections: Community college research shows that even some community college education results in students gaining access to better jobs and to higher income. The career-focus of community college education is based on the belief that the education experience enhances social and cultural capital currency. In turn, that currency is essential to produce a higher skilled graduate who then can economically contribute more to a nation than a lesser skilled graduate. Research on community college education abroad consistently shows that students describe gains in self-reliance, responsibility, and belief in themselves; soft skills needed for jobs that serve the global economy.
Neo-Liberalism and Post-Colonialism Correlations
While neo-liberalism narratives are part of the process that reinforces dominance through the academic canon (Appadurai, 1996), post-colonialism narratives strive to dismantle that dominance. Deconstructionist frameworks are used to challenge dominant ideologies framed by Western European, white, male, heterosexual, and Christianity that have created "long-standing patterns of power that emerged as a result of colonialism" (Maldonado-Torres, 2007: 243) and that result in poverty, differential access to higher education, and unemployment, or underemployment for specific populations in society. Post-colonialism narratives challenge neoliberalism narratives that view global capitalism as positive and that support a binary that consists of those with and those without capital (Takayama, Sriprakash, and Connell, 2017). Finally, while neo-liberalism narratives favors competition, such as world-class university rankings, post-colonialism narratives interpret rankings as a way to reinforce inequities by supporting a binary in which Western knowledge production is the norm and all others are lesserthan and, as such, strive to obtain that norm (Wildovsky, 2010; Santos, 2018).
Post-Colonialism Narratives for Education Abroad
The post-colonialism narrative as applied to education abroad identifies aspects in the program design and/or in the curriculum that perpetuates colonial narratives and that, in turn, foster inequities. At the same time, it also has the goal to create new frameworks that create programs that highlight mutuality, ethical and balanced cooperation in planning, respect for each
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partner's knowledge, and partnership engagement that is not hierarchal or stratified (CastielloGutiérrez, 2019). The curriculum for the "abroad" experience also adopts a new framework that helps students to recognize their privilege, place it in context of studying abroad, and then use diverse voices and alternative histories to mitigate the effects of inequity. Finally, postcolonialism narratives target the business of education abroad in which some students can buy access to the commodity of studying abroad (Woolf, 2019) while others who are poor or who are students of color (Adkins and Messerly, 2019) do not have such access.
Application to Community Colleges 2
In community college education abroad, post-colonialism narratives have existed in several forms in both historic and current program design. In the 1980s, a Southwest community college offered a Child Development course aimed to show students that there are other ways of raising children than the US way. This curricular design was done specifically to allow those working in child development to learn new ways to re-imagine their practice from the locals. In the 1990s, a Southern California Urban Studies course highlighted how diverse voices provided alternative ways of knowing by comparing experiences of minoritized youth in two countries. This program allowed minoritized students to engage with minoritized students abroad to learn from and with them. In the 2000s, a multi-college Environmental Studies course had students working with local communities in tasks designed by those living in those communities.
Countering knowledge production binary: Community college education abroad is in itself a form of post-colonialism as it has challenged patterns of knowledge production defined by the university. The traditional university Junior Year abroad construct defines who can and who cannot study abroad via a definition that excludes students at a community college who are not juniors as they only have access to the first two years of instruction. Since 1968, community colleges have countered this hegemonic practice with access for all students and at all levels of study. Nonetheless, community colleges continue to exist within a hierarchical construct in which universities remain the producers of influential best practices and maintain the standard in the field of education abroad to which community colleges are expected to adopt.
Counter-narratives that favor access: In response to university hegemony, community colleges have built a counter-narrative that celebrates their uniqueness. This is seen in the assets that community colleges have in regard to education abroad that the universities do not. In this counter-narrative, community colleges posit that they have broadened access to more nontraditional students and to more students of color and have actually changed the national demographics of who studies abroad (Raby, 2019). Another asset is the lower-cost programs that community colleges offer that support equalization of overall opportunities that is linked to free tuition. Finally, stackable credentials are an asset found in the community college that allows for pathway variations to accommodate for degree and certification requirements, especially in
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career and workforce education, fields that are under-emphasized in university education abroad.
What is taught in education abroad classes? While each education abroad class is subject focused, some classes also have purposeful active learning about Others. This active learning is done via course assignments and reflections that have a goal to create meaningmaking in which commonly held assumptions about Others and power relations are challenged. For example, a Northern California political science class offered in the Global South had the purposeful design to have students re-think their agency by understanding the imprint of colonialism and poverty on the country in which they were studying. Another example is a MidWest marine biology class that examined the positives and negatives of tourism economy and the effects it had on all members of the society.
Expected learning outcomes: Expected learning outcomes are measured in subject expertise, intercultural competencies, and life-experiences. All students are expected to master subject expertise via the prescribed curriculum of the class that they are taking. In terms of intercultural competencies, some programs have prescribed learning objectives that are embedded in class. Other classes do not and instead believe that intercultural competencies will be gained simply by spending time in another country. Neither of these, however, are part of the post-colonialism narrative because they do not utilize new frameworks to dismantle inequities. There are some examples that purposefully use the post-colonialism lens in designing and implementing learning objectives. One example is a Northern California education abroad program that has specifically added "Notions of Otherness Theory" into the curriculum; experience abroad is designed to allow the student to see how power and positionality frame their own experiences with the non-dominant people they meet in their abroad connections.
Deficit/anti-deficit theory for enrollment: The use of the deficit theory to ground marketing strategies and student expectations is at the core of some community college education abroad programming. The deficit theory claims that the students the community college serves lack knowledge about studying abroad, lack support by family and peers, and lack the financial means to study abroad. In a post-colonialism narrative, a counter-deficit lens shows that as adults, these students come to community colleges with a range of skills and experiences that honor learning. These students choose to study abroad because they find it to be a positive aspect of their education and most have the support of family and friends, many of whom have also studied abroad or were in military service abroad. Students often claim that the reason why they want to study abroad is that it is an "opportunity of a lifetime." Enrollment, therefore, is part of a conscious decision. In a post-colonialism context, program design and program marketing need to acknowledge and honor past experiences of students, build upon their agency, and identify the ways in which global process are creating conditions of economic and cultural exchange inequities that give some more privilege than others.
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Social justice pedagogy and curriculum: Recent programs are designed to move beyond "experience of a lifetime" syndrome by linking education abroad to social justice and social action. In a traditional form, volunteer/field-service is framed in the premise that the West has a duty to share Western experiences with Others (who are not seen as equals). This results in the student reinforcing their privilege. Post-colonialism versions build equitable practices based in mutuality in which both student and locals learn together and use criticism to understand context in a liberating rather than colonialization construct. Numerous community college education abroad programs focus on community building, on economic responsibility (such as fair wages for locals), on environmental responsibility (such as effects of carbon footprint, trash, and water use), and on building contexts based on equity. Within this context, stereotypes are addressed, economic binaries are explored, and social justice is re-imagined as the student returns home with high impact community service or volunteer experiences that continue at home.
How knowledge is taught: Destination and program length: Like universities, community colleges send most of their students to Western Europe. Unlike universities, since the 1970s, community colleges have offered education abroad programs in the Global South, especially to Latin America, Cuba, and the Caribbean. The Global South locations support low-cost programs that in turn increase access for a more diverse student-body. In terms of program length, community colleges mostly offer semester and summer programs of three plus weeks. However, very short-term programs are increasingly being marketed to community colleges aimed at meeting the specific needs of the nontraditional student population. Post-colonial narratives help to understand that when program length is linked to student demographics by assuming that some students cannot study for long periods of time, unequal patterns emerge in which very short-term programs are given to community college students while longer programs are allocated for those students with privilege. These inequalities direct poor and nontraditional students to educational experiences that are not equal in prestige (Raby, 2019).
Conclusion
Neoliberal policies continue to define community college education abroad and to influence the mindsets of practitioners and researchers. Profit plays a central role in under- or un-funded educational programs. Profit also plays a central role in limiting access, especially when education abroad is considerably more expensive than community college tuition. Not all community college education abroad programs are designed to include pedagogy and curricula that fosters equity. Some cross-cultural and inter-cultural engagement is conducted in isolation and can reproduce unequal power relations (Buckner and Stein, 2019) that deepen racial, ethnic, gender, and social class inequities. Education abroad by itself does not interrupt the dominant frames nor inequitable frames that govern higher education, despite having the intent to do so. Post-colonialism narratives envision how change can actually happen. In this context,
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change is systemic in how it impacts what is taught, how it is taught, and the process in which curriculum is dismantled as a product of dominant knowledge production. In turn, postcolonialism narratives support dialogue about colonial legacies of institutions, of dominant knowledge, and of student privileges with the intent of reform. This reform then supports discourse that is based in mutuality, eliminates ethnocentric and touristic contexts for education abroad, and builds dialogue on critical multiculturalization that services all students, at all levels of education.
WORKS CITED
Adkins, R. and B. Messerly (2019): "Toward Decolonizing Education Abroad," in E. Brewer and A. Ogden, eds., "Education Abroad and the Undergraduate Experience," 73-79, Stylus, Sterling, Virginia Altbach, P. G. and D Engberg (2014): "Global Student Mobility: The Changing Landscape," International Higher Education, 77(1): 1113, online, available at: doi:10.6017/ihe.2014.77.5676 Appadurai, A. (1996): Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN Buckner, E. and S. Stein (2019): "What Counts as Internationalization? Deconstructing the Internationalization Imperative," Journal of Studies in International Education, 23(1): 1-16, online, available at: DOI: 10.1177/1028315319829878 Castiello-Gutiérrez, S. (2019): "Reframing Internationalisation's Values and Principles," University World Reports, 8 March, online, available at: https://www.universityworldnews.com Farrugia, C. and J. Sanger (2017): Gaining an Employment Edge: The Impact of Study Abroad on 21st Century Skills and Career Prospects in the USA, Institute for International Education, New York, NY, online, available at: C:/Downloads/Gaining%20an%20Employment%20Edge%20-%20 The%20Impact%20of%20Study%20Abroad.pdf Maldonado-Torres, N. (2007): "On The Coloniality of Being," Cultural Studies, 21(2-3): 240-270 Raby, R. L. (1996): "International, Intercultural, and Multicultural Dimensions of Community Colleges in the USA," in R. L. Raby and N. Tarrow, eds., Dimensions of the Community College: International and Inter/Multicultural Perspectives. Garland Studies in Higher Education, 6 (1075): 9-37. Garland New York: NY Raby, R. L. (2008): Expanding Education Abroad at US Community Colleges, IIE Study Abroad White Paper, Series 3, September, Institute for International Education Press, New York Raby, R. L. (2019): "Changing the Conversation: Measures that Contribute to Community College Education Abroad Success," in G. F. Malveaux and R. L. Raby, eds., Study abroad opportunities for community college students and strategies for global learning, IGI-Global, Hershey, PA Santos, B. D. (2018): The End of The Cognitive Empire: The Coming of Age of Epistemologies of The South, Duke University Press, Durham NC Stein, S. (2017): "The Persistent Challenges of Addressing Epistemic Dominance in Higher Education: Considering the Case of Curriculum Internationalization," Comparative Education Review, 61(S1): S25-S51 Takayama, K., A. Sriprakash and R. Connell (2017): "Toward a Postcolonial Comparative and International Education," Comparative Education Review, 61(S1): S1-S25 Wildavsky, B. (2010): The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities are Reshaping the World, Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford Woolf, M. (2019): "Internationalisation of Higher Education - A Curate's Egg," University World Reports, 8 March, online, available at https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20190307142531281
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TOWARDS A "FIERCE UNDERSTANDING TOGETHER": THE HUMANITIES AS RADICAL HOSPITALITY IN GLOBAL EDUCATION
Angelina Rodríguez Lehigh University
The invitation to think about global education via what many see as the current assault on the humanities is one that could take us into a poetic, artistic, and sensory world that, rather than being located at the far-most remove from what is happening, is decidedly in the thick of things. Now more than ever, we need modalities of learning that uncage and unblock, even as they can only aspire to create provisional shelters in a time of torment. As educational inequities increase, we need to reach wider publics through different means of communication which points to the visual and the artistic, as well as to other sensory modes. Related to the need to speak with more people, as the US loses its global dominance under the current crisis moment, it is conceivable that English's power and ubiquity may fade as well, signaling the need to bring back into US education more emphasis on the world's other languages, both colonial and indigenous, before we find ourselves even more isolated. Witnessing the failure of our current development model, we might also want to intensify our search for different ways of thinking about how to exist together on the planet. The humanities, recently and often othered in the academy, can, therefore, serve decolonization in global education by offering more flexibility and otherness, allowing open modes of knowing, practicing, and expressing our work while also broadening our reach to different publics.
In this essay, I will share some of the questions we are thinking about and some initial moves we are making to incorporate the humanities into global initiatives at Lehigh University to disturb our usual ways of knowing. Within our global education work for undergraduates at the Office of International Affairs and in collaboration with the graduate College of Education, we are rebuilding a four-year global citizenship curriculum and creating a new Center for Global Citizenship Education precisely to push students, ourselves, and our partners to think and communicate more broadly and empathically. Alongside the university's strong orientation towards engineering, impact, problem-solving, determination, and design-thinking solutions, the humanities are allowing us to create new ways to listen and to practice radical hospitality within a global framework. While all of us in global education find ourselves unhappily stuck in a wheelsdown position since March 2020, a humanities focus may offer some new ways of opening that we might otherwise have missed.
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Global Thinking and Global Citizenship Education
As we attempt to re-signify global education without using the words mobility, visa, passport, and suitcase, it is helpful to return to the larger meaning of the term. The word global is not a synonym for international nor does it necessarily connote travel; rather, it means related to the whole. This calls up a range of interdependent and overlapping cultural contexts and also points us towards the intellectual pluriverse which contains the same Whitmanesque multitudes. Indeed, there are infinite ways to radically welcome more otherness into our global education practice, to learn to think otherwise, and even to be otherwise in a world that is clamoring for a change in course.
Who else is a knower, and what/how do they know? What counts as knowledge versus wisdom versus information, and why do we need all three? How do we create the conditions for increasing our empathic capacity? The humanities offer us traditional and untraditional paths as we search for responses because they inquire about what it means to be human and, by extension, what it means to be alive, human or otherwise. They lead us to inquiry through the imagination. In fiction, poetry, theater, language, as well as the arts, anthropology, history, and political theory, we grasp how social change occurs over time and space. Humanities, writing on the natural environment and the built environments of cities, show us that knowing more about our landscapes can lead us to care more and to rethink how we inhabit and relate to them. In the field of health, the medical humanities permit us to critically reflect on the knowledge and experiences of healers and patients and the many definitions of what well-being looks like. Through the humanities, we also learn to understand histories of loud and quiet violence as we attempt to orient towards social justice. And perhaps most importantly, the humanities' broad reach allows us to examine multiple sides of an issue and to communicate in diverse forms with a variety of publics beyond the university. Collectively, this work provides us with a thick description (following Clifford Geertz) of lived experiences that can inform policy and action with empathy, openness, and site-specific knowledge, and it increases our ability to move away from the intellectual ethnocentrism embedded within hierarchies of paternalism, colonialism, and the academy in general.
Within our global citizenship efforts at Lehigh, we are thus purposefully making room for the humanities. It is helpful to briefly define global citizenship: global citizenship is not a membership or an identity; it is a (subjective) position one takes up that has to do with concern for others we know and do not know (including the non-human) and the for the planet we share, and it includes the intention to take action as well.
It is clear that in some sectors, global citizenship is still conceived of in the same developmental framework of the past: students "helping" poorer countries and peoples gain access to the consumer goods and lifestyles of the First World. Let us hope that the COVID crisis in Europe and the COVID-meets-racism crises in the US have further toppled lingering aspects of
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this thinking, but like all in-academy initiatives in the same conundrum, this area of work both calls for radical change and, at times, reproduces that which it seeks to dismantle. It aligns with study abroad, international student exchange, and campus internationalization efforts in this respect. We work within a failed system from which extricating ourselves is not simple.
Perhaps more than giving voice, poetry, novels, etc., remind us we have ears and that listening can engender some attempt at reparation or change. At Lehigh, our emerging Center for Global Citizenship Education builds on the Global Citizenship's Program's long tenure and aspires to expand these commitments outward. The Center engages in work that plays out locally, domestically, and internationally and, more specifically, in the interstices and flows between these spaces. We have a particular focus on media and the arts which we believe offer exceptionally powerful and accessible ways to promote global citizenship education across communities. This focus allows us at once to build upon our strong community arts scene in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where we are located, and to harness the reach of the virtual. We are actively seeking to incorporate the arts and humanities as we welcome in other ways of knowing, thinking, communicating, interacting, and being.
On Poetry, Novels, and Theater as Other Epistemologies
Why turn to poetry as the world overheats, and the virus stays viral? We are seeing this shift already from writers and thinkers concerned with decolonization in the academy and might take note. For example, Alison Phipps, professor of languages and intercultural studies at the University of Glasgow and the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts, not only writes poems, which is not unusual, but she incorporates her own and others' poems into her academic articles and books (2019; 2013). Decolonial theorist Vanessa Andreotti, a proponent and critic of global education, also mixes her own poems, her original drawings, and extended metaphor play into her academic oeuvre (see 2016, among many others). Joanna Macy is a ninety+ year old eco-activist and translator of Rainer Maria Rilke, and she consistently sprinkles her translations of his poems throughout her writings about environmental justice reflection and action (2014). If it took over a decade for global education professionals to bring their theoretical concerns openly into their work, perhaps we will follow the lead of these writers and see the move to bring in creative genres and modalities come faster. These shifts move us away from separating and compartmentalizing. They encourage us to transgress these false borders and restart our thinking from a new point, and isn't this exactly what we espouse in global education of the mobility type? As poet Joy Harjo notes, in her "Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings":
You cannot legislate music to lockstep nor can you legislate the spirit of the music to stop at political boundaries-- --Or poetry, or art, or anything that is of value or matters in this world, and the next
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worlds. This is about getting to know each other. We will wind up back at the blues standing on the edge of the flatted fifth about to jump into a fierce understanding together (2017). Global education is about this wanting to get to know one another, and within this sort of "fierce understanding" that does not involve assimilating anyone's difference or losing our own subjectivity, we can move together towards new ways of interacting. Indeed, we might become the mushrooms of Sylvia Plath's powerful and quiet ode in a time that desperately needs us: Nudgers and shovers In spite of ourselves. Our kind multiplies: We shall by morning Inherit the earth. Our foot's in the door (1960). Whether at home or abroad, we can productively engage poetry to push our critical thinking and empathy, using site-specific examples when students are (once again) studying in a particular site or simply casting wide nets, regardless. One can make a similar argument for novels which also encourage imagining and listening. Take a set of domestic examples around urgent issues in the US: abortion, political divide, climate change. Last spring, I used Jodi Picoult's novel A Spark of Light about abortion in a global citizenship course because she told the story from the points of view of characters from an impressive range of positions (male and female, black and white, older and younger, religious and not), backed up with research about the history of abortion in the South. She essentially enacted in the novel what Elizabeth Lesser (2010) encourages in her "Take `The Other' to Lunch" Tedtalk: listening without judging, seeking to understand, hearing those frequently unheard-- whether they are unheard thanks to colonial damage or because we regularly choose not to engage them, or both. Again, this is the bread and butter of global education work, made possible through a zoom-based class which we found ourselves in after having begun the spring term in India in January 2020. Perhaps more than giving voice, poetry, novels, etc., remind us we have ears and that listening can engender some attempt at reparation or change. Beyond the creative genres of fiction and poetry, Charles Eisenstein, in his Climate: A New Story, engages this work too. He includes a sustained consideration of the views of climate change disbelievers here based on research into their specific arguments: more scientific and philosophical work that curates well with this same line of thinking. Indeed, Picoult, Lesser, and Eisenstein model how to respectfully sustain a listening practice without changing their own positions: fiction, conversation, and research doing the same work. As activist adrienne maree
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brown asserts, and I concur, "To a degree, our entire future may depend on learning to listen, listen without assumptions or defenses" (2017: 5).
Joanna Macy moves this to role-play, writing about her exercise of asking people to briefly occupy someone else's view or even to imagine a future person or non-human impacted by a given situation and to respond thoughtfully from that angle. Next spring, I will have beginning students take on the role of rivers for the class on the Rights of Nature to see what this could feel like. Role-playing for empathy points us to theater as well, where we might start from Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed which also aims to unveil and transform how participants think through dialogue and action. In my view, these are all global thinkers opening to other views through the humanities, and they provide ways to scaffold the study of difference both within the domestic and larger realms, allowing students to pluralize their perspectives in different locations and at different levels of familiarity.
As Macy writes, "To speak on behalf of another and identify even briefly with that being's experience and perspective are acts of moral imagination" (2014: 147). Kwame Anthony Appiah writes much the same: "Cosmopolitanism is an expansive act of the moral imagination. ...It asks us to be many things, because we are many things." (Appiah, 2019). Similarly, writer Zadie Smith, reflecting about her experiences both reading and writing, states:
I was fascinated to presume that some of the feelings of these imaginary people--feelings of loss of homeland, the anxiety of assimilation, battles with faith and its opposite--had some passing relation to feelings I have had or could imagine. That our griefs were not entirely unrelated (2019). Again: essential global citizenship work and basic global education dismantling the me/you, here/there binaries, all though the imaginative humanities.
More OthernessLanguages, Arts, and Other Visual/Oral Media
We are extending this opening slowly into more inclusive work with other languages as well. For example, within the global citizenship curriculum students read from SIT Bolivia's Kids' Books Bolivia project to examine other knowledges and portrayals of global issues from the perspective of Bolivian children. Many of these children's books (authored by SIT study abroad participants as part of their final Independent Research Projects) are published trilingually: English, Spanish, and Kichwa or Aymara, and they are donated locally. The students compared the stories (text and illustrations) to exoticized neo-colonial portrayals of the Amazon in mainstream children's books to consider how knowledge is unconsciously reproduced/embedded via written and visual means. They also thought about how the inclusion of other languages and the use of the Kids' Books for non-US/non-adult audiences interrupts our
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usual ways of thinking and writing for school.19 Within the curriculum, we are including other language strategies as well, such as language autobiographies and the study of linguistic landscapes (from everyone's remote locations) to examine power dynamics and place identities. And we now permit and invite final capstone work for the global citizenship program in other languages.
At the Center, we are beginning to offer workshops in other languages and will, with our partners, build pedagogical resources online in multiple languages for those teaching in diverse locations both in the US and beyond--all of this at a university that has no across-the-board language requirement and in which many students have saturated schedules in engineering and other majors that have tended to afford little opportunity to engage other languages when offered only in formal semester-long courses.
Within the arts, while we have been slowed by the pandemic, we are adding a virtual exhibition to an upcoming also-virtual conference at the Center, considering an eventual global citizenship artist-in-residence opportunity, and including art consistently as another type of text across our courses and offerings. Art is activism: art can educate about gender-based violence and racism, transform lives in refugee camps, favelas, and hospitals, and make visible that which needs to be acknowledged and discussed. Art blends easily into design for social change and creative place-making initiatives, as much as it links to trauma therapy and other applications. And it includes visual arts, music, theater and even the culinary arts given the tremendous concerns occurring around food waste, hunger, and food sovereignty. We are slowly incorporating all of these strands across our work, in partnership with artists, galleries, and activists both locally and internationally.
A final move we are making, like everyone else, is to promote new media in teaching and assignments. While we tend to use new media to signify cutting-edge, or at least up to date, I am wondering if we might focus less on this connotation of (so-called) innovation and more on how these visual and oral/aural modalities promote greater inclusivity and dissemination. What if we embedded the production of podcasts and other media-supported interviews into histories (vs futures) of aurality/orality? I am thinking about the importance of radio-based education as a means of concientización (Paulo Freire's model of critical consciousness-based education) in Central America as just one instance, and the importance of oral and shared learning modes in indigenous cultures: for example, in nahuatl, the verb "to read" means also "to narrate," and the knowers in that part of Mesoamerica thus read and teach at once, through song, poetry, and
19 We find a second example back in the university realm: see De Carvalho and Flórez-Flórez (2014) for a discussion of projects in Colombia and Brazil which brought in indigenous artisans, shamans, and healers, many of them illiterate, to teach around architecture, medicinal herbs, and reforestation in their own languages. The host universities provided simultaneous translation and organized titles/payment to fit how they worked with "traditional" guest professors. An inspiration as we move forward in our renewed work with partners this year.
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symbol. Poetry recitation in the Middle East has an equally illustrious and performance-based history, as it surely does in many traditions around the world.
Could we recast new media in this light? What borders could we relax between past and present, Global North and Global South, public and private, that might also allow us to take learning out of the individual competitive advantage mode and reposition knowledge as something to share versus hoard? These are only a few examples, but we might also look further into the world and consider what it might look like to frame group learning in other cultural traditions such as the orthodox Judaic chavrusa or chavurah, among others. While the digital divide must be acknowledged and addressed, as we create a strong COIL element in our Center and incorporate new media into course projects, we extend our reach further by turning to these more collaborative modalities of production that include a range of voices and disseminate further.20 Furthermore, new media promotes empathy. As MacDougall notes:
Podcasts take secondary orality [Walter Ong]...to a new level. With the headphones in place, listeners hear someone (or several people) speaking, quite literally, between their ears, adding a certain reality to the phrase "getting inside someone's head" (2011: 722). This sounds a lot like good fiction (or poetry or theater) where we immerse into the narrator's world. Within our global citizenship efforts, we are playing around with these ideas about linking oral/aural/visual media horizontally and vertically over time and space to different ways of knowing and creating knowledge with others.
Other Epistemologies: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) and Beyond: Appropriation Concerns
Finally, at the Center for Global Citizenship Education, while we contribute to the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goal 4.7 of Quality Education, we also recognize the failures of the systems that have produced our current contexts of inequity, injustice, and unsustainability (all of which are embedded within the Western development model); we are inviting in other knowledges and paradigms in our larger goal towards a more peaceful co-existence. Modeling this multiple situating, College of Education Dean William Gaudelli, in conjunction with Columbia Teachers College, offered a course on teaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (aimed mostly at US teachers) this summer, just as he also published a paper critiquing Western models of education (2020). While the SDG course was happening, I offered a short course in Spanish for professors at a partner university in Quito in which we considered both the UN Agenda 2030 and epistemologies from around the
20 While unequal Wi-Fi access (made more visible with COVID) reminds us that the digital is not a miracle solution, these projects, nonetheless, reach further than the classroom and can advance us towards different ways of thinking and communicating.
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world (sumak kawsay, eco-swaraj, degrowth, ubuntu, and biocentric models) as frameworks in which to take up global citizenship positions. We are thus building in ways to be/write/speak/act plurally both in our student curriculum and in our work at the Center (versus taking sides), drawing in the humanities as we do so: a braided two-part strategy.
That is not to say that thinking toward decoloniality is straightforward, automatic, or even within our (often white, always hypocritical) hands, and we consistently must grapple with the overlap between openness and appropriation. Referring to working with university students located in the Global North, Sharon Stein warns that incorporating other ways of knowing involves a risk as such work "may emphasize the consumption of knowledge about marginalized countries or populations, rather than facilitate the creation of spaces to ethically engage the knowledge produced by those" (2017: 33). We must be careful not to enact a hospitality that controls, contains, and ultimately still excludes. The possibility that we travel into the intellectual pluriverse as mere tourists only to return home with no thought of applying anything from other models looms large in my mind and points towards a much larger rethinking of our universities. On the flip side, however, to veer into thinking that only epistemological natives can espouse positions stemming from sites other than the US/Europe or forcing people to stay stereotypically within the viewpoint from their own versus others' localities cannot be an option either.
Again, the parallels with student immersion and mobility are obvious. While we quickly agree that certainty and "the" answer are not what we seek when reading further than the dominant models, a positive by-product of having these discussions with our students and partners is that they allow us to more deeply consider other modes of knowing and conceptualizing even as we are conscious of the larger context of epistemic inequality. We feel part of the larger pluriverse in which our differences cohabitate which counters our current separation and isolation under the capitalist (patriarchal, Cartesian) model based on the usual binaries of us/them, North/South, here/there, and so on. And imperfect as our efforts are, they allow us to create the conditions for engagement, suspension of judgment, conscious listening, and the experience of difference.
We cannot simply design-think away or strategic plan for the complexities of decolonization. This is the work of imagining the unimaginable, as the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective (Stein et al., 2020) terms it, and it plunges us into affect, grief, empathy, and imagination with as many limits and false starts as possibilities. By questioning and pluralizing our ways of knowing through the humanities, however, we move closer to filling in the gap and listening to complexity. We slow our stance, listen as much as respond, stop "preparing leaders," and re-focus back on what part of what constitutes our humanness: our ability to elicit and listen to one another's stories and to empathize within difference.
In these examples I have noted that in this description of global citizenship work at Lehigh, the humanities afford many strategies towards opening up to otherness and rethinking
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how we educate. I would argue too that, for the larger field of global education, our piece of the world's global work has widened since March 2020, even as our walked geographies have shrunk, and we can productively turn to the imaginative, empathic power of the humanities as we amplify our urgent work.
Conclusion
The best example I have ever seen of higher education practicing radical hospitality through the humanities happened several years ago when I presented a paper at the University Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco. The conference sessions were presented in English, French, and Arabic, mostly without translation. No one apologized for not translating into a particular language; no one apologized for their accent if speaking a second language. The language contributions varied both between and within individual panels with an easy hospitality. Even better, at the end of the conference, the Dean came to offer his own summing up of the experience of the week in what was a sort of spoken word meets traditional Arabic poetic form using all of the languages at one point or another in his rendering of our conversations and insights. This has remained in my mind as radical hospitality in action and a model towards which I imagine moving in our global citizenship practice at Lehigh.
Back to the intellectual pluriverse... The humanities are, by definition, human-centric, and we know that we need to decenter ourselves in our larger eco-sphere. But including other human cultural ways of knowing and existing, the world advances us in the collective unlearning/relearning we need to take on. Humanity as a word also means kindness and goodwill which, in tandem with global education's commitment to critical thinking, is certainly needed in 2020 more than ever as we are catapulted into some new era we cannot yet see or articulate. Aren't these the exact moments when poetic language, art, and the un-translatable words between languages are called for?
WORKS CITED
Ahenakew, C. (2016): "Grafting Indigenous Ways on Non-Indigenous Ways. The (Underestimated) Challenges of a Decolonial Imagination," International Review of Qualitative Research, 9 (3) Fall: 323340 Andreotti, V. (2016): "(Re)Imagining Education as an Un-Coercive Re-Arrangement of Desires," Other Education: The Journal of Educational Alternatives, 5(1): 79-88 Appiah, A. (2019): "The Importance of Elsewhere: In Defense of Cosmopolitanism," Foreign Affairs, March/April, online, available at: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2019-02-12/importanceelsewhere Boal, A. (1985): Theatre of the Oppressed, Theatre Communications Group, New York De Carvalho, J. and J. Flórez-Flórez (2014): "The Meeting of Knowledges: A Project for the Decolonization of Universities in Latin America," Postcolonial Studies, 17(2): 122-139 Eisenstein, C. (2018): Climate: A New Story, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA
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Gaudelli, W. (2020): "The Trouble with Western Education," online, available at: https://www.oneducation.net/no-07_april-2020/the-trouble-of-western-education/ Geertz, C. (1973): "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretative Theory of Culture," in C. Geertz, Interpretation of Cultures: Selected essays, Basic Books, Inc., New York, online, available at: https://philpapers.org/archive/geettd.pdf Harjo, J. (2017): "Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings," online, available at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/141847/conflict-resolution-for-holy-beings Lesser, E. (2010): "Take `The Other' to Lunch," TedWomen, December, online, available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_lesser_take_the_other_to_lunch?language=en MacDougall, R. (2011): "Podcasting and Political Life," American Behavioral Sciences, 55(6): 714-732 Macy, J. and M. Brown. (2014): Coming Back to Life: An Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects, New Society Publishers, British Columbia maree brown, a. (2017): Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Shaping Worlds, AK Press, Edinburgh Phipps, A. (2019): Decolonizing Multilingualism: Struggles to Decreate, Multilingual Matters, Bristol Phipps, A. (2013): "Unmoored: Language Pain, Porosity, and Poisonwood," Critical Multilingualism Studies, (2), June: 97 - 116 Picoult, J. (2018): A Spark of Light, Ballantine Books, New York Plath, S. (1960): "Mushrooms," online, available at: https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/mushrooms/ Smith, Z. (2019): "Fascinated to Presume: In Defense of Fiction," The New York Review of Books, 24 October, online, available at: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/10/24/zadie-smith-in-defense-offiction Stein, S. (2017): "The Persistent Challenges of Addressing Epistemic Dominance in Higher Education: Considering the Case of Curriculum Internationalization," Comparative Education, 6(1) Supplement: S25S50 Stein, et al. (2020): "Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures: Reflections on Our Learnings Thus Far" Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE), 4(1): 43-65
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A trip to a Central American jungle to watch how Indians behave near a bridge won't make you see either the jungle or the bridge or the Indians if you believe that the civilization you were born into is the only one that counts. Go and look around with the idea that everything you learned in school and college is wrong. B. Traven, The Bridge in the Jungle This section further demonstrates that there is no hard line between practice and theory. However, these essays, while drawing upon theories of decolonization, offer case studies of ways in which intentional decolonization processes can be applied to institutions, disciplines, and specific programs. Collectively, they exemplify the application of decolonizing strategies for programs within both the Global North and South by reference, for example, to Belgium, Cambodia, Cuba, England, Italy, The Netherlands, Uganda, and so on. Disciplines explored include service learning, English literature, history, teacher education, and global and area studies. The authors deconstruct potential colonial bias within and between these academic foci, while offering practical suggestions that enhance students' understanding of the baggage of stereotypes we all carry with us into unfamiliar space. Examples of decolonization within institutions offer further concrete pathways that might be applicable in other contexts.
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DECOLONIZING NARRATIVES OF SERVICE: A TOOLKIT FOR FACILITATORS IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD
Allie Olvera Allie Olvera Consulting
Introduction
The steady growth of voluntourism into a two billion dollar a year industry (Hartman, Morris Paris, and Blache-Cohen, 2014: 108) has transformed the landscape of travel to one where well-intended visitors are able to combine vacationing with volunteering in purported service of vulnerable communities within the developing world. While the benefits of these programs are widely debated--their popularity has even sparked tongue-in-cheek critiques such as the Instagram account @BarbieSavior, which parodies the eager and problematic volunteer in the Global South to its 167,000 followers; incorporating international volunteerism into academic offerings has become a cornerstone of many college programs. The Association of American Medical Colleges' (AAMC, 2018) Matriculating Student Questionnaire found that 35.1 percent of US medical students surveyed have participated in international volunteer experiences (AAMC, 2018). With the rise in short-term service learning and no set consensus for the standards in implementing volunteer work abroad, it is becoming increasingly pressing that we think critically about the ways in which we engage global volunteers in conversation about the developing world.
Service learning facilitators are often in the challenging position of establishing the program tone and guiding student reflection without having developed the curriculum themselves or having selected their own service project. These facilitators, responsible for monitoring student outcomes, molding their experience on the ground, and reinforcing the brand of their employer, are not always equipped with resources that allow them to quickly evaluate student expectations and offer participants a new framework for global engagement. This paper hopes to shed light on the importance of reconstructing the way we discuss service and the narratives our students return with, as well as providing activities that facilitators can incorporate into any program to support students in honestly exploring their relationships with the developing world.
The Need for Intentional Engagement
The proliferation of voluntourism and international service learning offerings signals the increasing awareness of global inequality and the initiative today's travelers are taking to contribute positively to the countries they visit. Simultaneously, with greater numbers of volunteers comes greater need for transparency and critical analysis of the naive optimism with
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which Western travelers expect to impact the world around them. Indeed, is this work helpful? For whom is it helpful? Who determines if it is helpful? Even assessing impact requires an evaluation of the power structures which have historically guided Western relationships with developing countries and the acknowledgment that an increase in the number of eager volunteers can lead to unintended outcomes in the communities they service.
A survey of Cambodian residential homes for children found that the number of institutional care facilities in the country jumped from 154 in 2005 to 269 in 2010, a 75 percent increase, and the majority of "orphans" placed in their care had at least one living parent (Cambodian Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, 2011: 12). The study expounded upon the relationship between voluntourism and the commodification of these youths, noting:
Since almost all residential care centres are funded by individuals from overseas, many centres turn to tourism to attract more donors. In the worst cases this becomes the basis for an "orphanage tourism" business, in which children are routinely asked to perform for, or befriend donors, and in some cases to actively solicit the funds to guarantee the residential centres' survival. Residential centres have also turned to international volunteers in the hopes of raising money. As a result, short-term volunteers, who have not undergone background checks, are frequently given access to children, which poses a child protection risk (Cambodian Ministry of Social Affairs, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, 2011: 29). When we give volunteers unchecked access to children, when we permit them to bathe, feed, and educate youth, often without any supervision, we continue to imbed colonialism into the fabric of service by implicitly informing participants that anything they have to offer is an improvement upon what existed previously. We reinforce the notion that they are entitled to limitless, intimate access to the citizens of developing countries and correspondingly, that host communities are not entitled to privacy or services provided by trained professionals. One reported case followed a thirty-one-year-old American sued in a Ugandan civil court after running a nutrition center in the country with no medical experience. She was first exposed to development work while volunteering in Uganda for 10 months as a recent high school graduate, where she provided care for orphaned and abandoned children. This gap year was the impetus for her return to East Africa and founding of her non-profit, which took in 940 "severely malnourished children" from 2010 to 2015, with 105 of them dying in her care (NPR, 2019). In the recently settled civil lawsuit, a field program manager stated that he saw the founder "take blood, offer diagnoses, administer drugs through IVs put on by herself and write prescriptions" (The Cut, 2019), despite not having medical training. In a 2017 interview, before her fall from public adoration, the American founder explained her preparation for volunteering during her gap year:
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I was interested in maybe working at an orphanage, which I think is kind of common-- when you don't know a lot about the international world and you think kids, you think "Oh, orphanage"...I had never really heard of Uganda before or much about it. It's like such a tiny, little country...I didn't know a lot about it initially and I didn't know anyone who had been there before, but just kind of took a leap of faith and felt like that's where the Lord was calling me to go (The News & Advance, 2017). It is easy to crucify untrained humanitarians for their negligent practices and the harm their arrogance causes cannot be understated. Yet to separate their hubris from our narratives of volunteerism in the Global South is to exonerate ourselves from culpability. There is no absolution when we send youth to participate in international development projects without conversations surrounding power, imperialism, and the legacy of colonialism in these countries who receive them. When we do not check assumptions and scaffold empathy and reflection into our curriculum, we allow participants to construct their own narratives about why they are on program and how they affect their host community. I am not exempt from these illusions of grandeur and white saviorism. In my first service learning experience, I spent five months in Peru building clean burning stoves, painting schools, and volunteering in medical clinics. My time in Peru was enormously impactful and the catalyst for my deep dive into leading experiential education programs in developing countries over the next decade, but it was also deeply problematic. While I had immense affection for the country and respect for its citizens, I also constructed narratives of the indigenous communities we worked in that assumed their access to us was inherently valuable by virtue of our country of origin. I made leaping presumptions about their connections to modernity and accepted, without ever asking, that I was exposing them to novel experiences that they would not have encountered otherwise. In taking pictures of elementary students, I told myself these children had likely never seen a camera before. What informed this alienating assumption? I enjoyed working on physically demanding projects and having the ability to work so intimately with rural communities I never would have visited without this program. There was catharsis in doing tasks that were exhausting and uncomfortable, and I took pride in the fact that I had selected what I saw as the "harder" study abroad. As a twenty-year-old, I felt committed to overthrowing oppression and deeply compelled to leverage my power to fight global systems of injustice; I just did not have a framework for how to be critical and thoughtful within my engagement. Why was I there? I knew nothing about construction, even less about practicing medicine, and surely there were individuals in our host communities who were more than capable of doing this work themselves. Working on medical campaigns as a young liberal arts student was not only inappropriate, but it also reinforced the notion that by virtue of my US citizenship, anything that I had to offer would be an improvement over the status quo in my host country. If I wanted to
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advance health outcomes in the Andes, couldn't I better achieve that through funding practitioners in rural communities and lobbying my elected officials for trade policies which increased global access to affordable medication? Yes. But would I have signed up for such a program? Probably not.
This is our challenge as providers and facilitators and also where there is the most opportunity for growth: how are we using service learning as a tool for engaging in discussions of power and disrupting mainstream narratives of the Global South? The following is a toolkit that can be applied to any program while on-the-ground to give facilitators a framework for interrupting subconscious neocolonial thinking and transforming sympathy into meaningful action.
Identifying Expectations and Biases
Each student begins their service journey from a different point of understanding and a different call to action. Some may have already participated in structured volunteer programming while some may equate service learning with a mission trip. Some will be in attendance because their friend signed up and others may dream of a career in international development and view this as a first step. Strategic questioning once they arrive in the host country, and before they begin working with local partners, instills in students the practice of reflection while allowing you (the facilitator) to evaluate what biases participants bring to the table. Writing down answers doubles as a tool for accountability and a reference point at the end of the program to document shifts in thinking. Questions to ask participants with regards to the host community:
· What do you think of when you think of (host country)? · What has been your source of information for these views? · Do you know anyone from (host country) in your community at home? · What do you want to learn about (host community)? · What actions can you take to educate yourself on those topics? On the theme of service: · Do you think you will make a difference? · What do you expect that will look like? · How will you know when you have made a difference? · What is one adjective you would want the host community to associate with you? · Will you be remembered in this community in one year? If so, by what? These final two questions are enormously helpful in creating a group contract where we can specify the outcomes we want to have and how we are responsible for doing work to get us there. Have your students agree on goals that you can check in on and action items that can guide their exploration.
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Note: You can make these questions specific to the host country, community you are in, or the region as a whole. Listen to the specific language students use to discuss the area and feel empowered to bring that into the conversation as well. When you are asking students about Senegal, do they respond by talking about Africa? Explore that with them and have a discussion about why Westerners often discuss Africa as a single country and what the impacts of nomenclature are on the ways we relate to people and places. This may be a point you will need to revisit frequently. It is a surprisingly stubborn element of our upbringing.
Have participants revisit these questions at the end of the program and unpack where their expectations were in and out of line with results. This reflection helps students recognize shifts in their own thinking, thus providing an informal pre- and post-test for soft skill development and is a quick tool you can use to see where your curriculum meets your learning outcomes and where it needs to be restructured. Guiding this reflection before re-entry is especially powerful, as it helps to mold the narrative they will share with friends and family into one with nuance and the need for continued advocacy. Compare where they stand now with the answers they gave at the start of the program. Ask them to point out visible changes in thinking and what it was that supported the change. This exercise is not just to dig deeper into their perceptions of one location, but to have them question where our opinions come from, what are the actions that combat stereotypes, and how we can continue to foster global citizenship when we return to our home countries. End of program questions:
· Do you think you made a difference? · How do you know if you have made a difference? · What difference did you expect to make? · What would be required to happen for these goals to be accomplished (e.g., UN
involvement, regime change, improved access to education, universal basic income, a local clinic, etc.)? · Where did your expectations of making a difference come from? · Who benefits from the way things are currently? · What is one adjective you think the host community associates with you? · Will you be remembered in this community in one year? If so, by what? · What do you think of when they think of (host country)? · What do you most want people at home to understand about (host country)? · Will you live any differently as a result of this program? If so, how?
Creating Parallels Between Experiences Abroad and Opportunities at Home
One of the most powerful promises of international volunteer work is the capacity to make a difference in the world. Considering that many students are not yet able to vote, live with
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full autonomy, or begin meaningful careers, their ability to live by their values day-by-day is limited, and service learning provides a rare opportunity for them to be engaged, have a voice, and develop a sense of connection to the world around them. While we want to create programs which inspire and empower young leaders, the marketing of programming in developing countries often insists that said regions are in dire need of volunteers to set them on the right course. How do we provide a sense of purpose for globally-minded volunteers without compromising the dignity of our host communities?
Honest conversations about obstacles to development in the Global South require us to explore massive power structures which are seemingly impossible to interrupt and with centuries of precedent reinforcing their existence. In order to have a healthier relationship to service and our host communities, we must be realistic about our limited capacity to create immediate change and cannot confuse our participants' presence in the community with value added. We must be mindful when exposing them to the challenges experienced locally to prevent the development of a deficit-based narrative of the host society and instead pivot their thinking to what change they can affect.
I once facilitated an adult program in Guatemala that included a visit to an impressive grassroots maternity clinic which focused on indigenous healthcare. In a conversation with the group, the founder, a local OBGYN21, recounted horrific stories of discrimination against indigenous mothers during childbirth and their high maternal mortality rates compared to those of their mestiza counterparts. While these stories were appalling, and were intended to be seen as such, my participants continued to remark on how unfortunate it was that Guatemalans had little respect for indigenous women. It is well worth noting that these participants were all white, middle class US citizens, and so their framework for exploring standards of care in childbirth came from those perspectives. For all their shock at the healthcare implications of being indigenous in Guatemala, they had a hard time drawing parallels to the health outcomes of mothers of color, black women in particular, in the United States.
An impactful service learning program creates enormous momentum that, when captured, can transform alumni into leaders capable of identifying gaps in equity and motivated to continue to positively affect the world around them. A recurring challenge for facilitators is connecting participants' experiences abroad to realities at home, but with this obstacle comes great possibility to challenge complacency. In our home countries, we see complexity and nuance. We may understand some of the root causes of homelessness or why environmental policies have a hard time getting passed by governments. In a new culture, ignorant to context and backstory, we are less apt to see cause and effect and have a tendency to view practices different than our own as inferior. International travel has the exceptional ability to open our eyes
21 OB stands for obstetrician and GYN stands for gynecologist
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in childlike wonder, but that same gaping awe can transform into childlike simplifications of complex issues.
Drawing parallels between what they have normalized at home not only humanizes the host country, but can translate passion while abroad to sustainable, local action. The following is a template for an activity a facilitator could use to redirect their takeaways and support participants in seeing cause and effect with greater clarity. Let us imagine your group is volunteering at a primary school in the host country and feels moved by the inequity they observe. During your nightly reflections or whatever structured check-ins you have with your participants, you hear their frustration with the challenges experienced by local students and how that is accepted culturally.
Evening reflection activity 1. As a warm-up, ask the group to collectively list some of the obstacles students face in completing their studies in the host community (families can't afford school fees, students are too hungry to study, students have no pens and paper, there aren't enough teachers, teachers are not culturally informed, etc.) 2. Break students into small groups and assign one list item per group. 3. Ask groups to create a problem tree that explores the root causes leading to the obstacle and what then comes to fruition as a result of these factors. a. Example: a group which is examining teachers' gaps in cultural familiarity as a barrier may find that one root cause is that non-indigenous teachers are teaching indigenous youth and do not speak their native languages. Or perhaps this region has teachers coming from the capital city as part of a government initiative and these teachers do not relate to rural life and the differing cultures. Or there is so much regional diversity that students in the area come from a variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds and the teacher cannot be equally versed in all of them. These roots feed into the core obstacle, which then blossoms into outcomes like teachers not establishing relationships with parents because of language barriers, parents being unable to help their child with homework because of language barriers, discrimination (intentional or subconscious) against indigenous students, among others. b. Parceling out the complexity of issues can halt hastily drawn conclusions and can be used as a tool to show global patterns. Your service learning students likely see the community in which they are working as one very different from their own, but once you help them break down the topics present, they can begin to see where there is crossover. This same group may notice that these are similar challenges for English language learners in their own district or that their school
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has primarily white teachers working with primarily students of color. You can begin to discuss these connections now, while also returning to this method of analysis towards the end of the program once they are thinking about re-entry. c. Ask the group to consider what obstacles students in their own community face which prevent them from completing their studies. They will likely have a stronger grasp of those factors and how they can contribute to programming which address them, such as free meals, mentorship, childcare for teen parents, or public transportation waivers. Who is doing that work in their community? How can they transform their newfound interest in educational justice to action in a community whose culture and resources they can more comfortably navigate? You could have them repeat the exercise and create new problem trees where they isolate these issues and propose their own "interventions" for each of the fruits. d. Depending on the nature of your program, a system of accountability could be helpful. What pledge do they make to contribute to the wellbeing of their home community? How will they continue to engage in social justice work after the program? How will they educate others on the themes they explored?
The most reinvigorating thing about working with young leaders is their drive to take action and their optimism for what society could become. They want to contribute positively to the world and need help to see concrete avenues outside of their service learning program to maintain their momentum and put their newfound skills to use. How are we scaffolding those opportunities into our curriculum? What communities should be positively impacted as a result of their participation? When we market our programs by highlighting their capacity to impact the lives of others and then do not equip them to identify opportunities to do so in their home community, we are doing a disservice to them and the systems that could be transformed by their innovation.
Teaching Empathy
It is widely assumed that participation in international service learning supports students in their development of empathy and intercultural competence but, without rigorous assessment, it is difficult to know when our programs meet these marks. It is likely we assume these experiences to be inherently valuable and life-changing because we ourselves found value and were changed by them, but such claims need to be reinforced by pedagogy. In their paper on empathy development in service learning, Dr Robin Everhart and colleagues pronounce, "we must reconceive empathy as a skill, rather than as a personality trait or virtue" (Everhart, Elliot, Pelco, et al. 2016: 3). When we begin to see empathy as a muscle to be developed and flexed, we recognize that it must be explicitly taught within the curriculum and role modeled by
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facilitators. Empathy is an abstract umbrella concept, and it is important to ask what you and your organization contain within it. Do you want your students to be better intercultural communicators? More tolerant of ambiguity? More open minded? It can be helpful to take inventory of your expectations of empathy and note the moments in your program where this is being developed.
At times, empathy-teaching needs to take place mid-conversation or when the students are not participating in a reflective activity. I once had a group who frequently proclaimed that what they were encountering was "weird." Their dinner: weird. Livestock on buses: weird. Carrying babies on one's back: weird. While it is natural to be surprised by the variety in human expression and cultural differences, weird is not a neutral term for noting this. When I asked the group what specifically they meant when they said that something was weird, they determined they meant it was new for them. We agreed that moving forward, we would name things as new or different when we saw them as such and would leave judgment-based language out of our processing. It was a small pivot, but one they stuck to and one which led to further conversation regarding verbal processing. When we declare something as weird, we are stating that our methods of doing something is the standard and everything is a deviation. How would that feel for a student in the group who grew up eating this same dinner? Are we then saying that what the host community is doing is wrong because they do not live in the way we do? What are the practices your family has that others would see as weird?
Empathy is a nebulous concept to concretely assess and it is often easier to see when it is missing than when it is present. The reflective activities offered in previous sections create opportunities to relate to the host community from a place of cognitive complexity, where students "see similarities without imagining individual lived experiences to be the same; to understand that situations, social issues, and even individuals are complex and without simple definitions or solutions" (Everhart, Elliot, Pelco, et al., 2016: 3). A succinct question to ask yourself before each lesson or guest speaker could then be "how does this show complexity?"
Conclusion
International service learning, when done well, has the power to impact more than just the students and host communities. Empathy and introspection are not set outcomes for volunteer experiences if they are not expressly taught and intentionally reinforced within our programming. Determining desired learning outcomes and then identifying where in the curriculum these themes will be directly supported helps us in our pursuit of supporting global citizenship and decolonizing our relationships to the developing world. It is through collective, intentional strategy that we are able to transform the students with whom we've been entrusted and build bridges globally.
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WORKS CITED
Association of American Medical Colleges. (2018): Matriculating Student Questionnaire: All Schools Summary Report, Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington, DC Cambodian Ministry of Social Affairs. (2011): With the Best Intentions: A Study of Attitudes Towards Residential Care in Cambodia, Veterans and Youth Rehabilitation, online, available at: https://www.thinkchildsafe.org/thinkbeforevisiting/resources/Study_Attitudes_towards_RC.pdf Everhart, R., K. Elliott., A, Pelco., D. Westin., R. Briones and E. Peron. (2016): "Empathy Activators: Teaching Tools for Enhancing Empathy Development in Service-learning Classes," Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Richmond, online, available at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1065&context=community_resources Hartman, E., C. M. Paris., and B. Blache-Cohen (2014): "Fair Trade Learning: Ethical standards for Community-engaged International Volunteer Tourism," Tourism and Hospitality Research, 14(12):108 116 NPR (2019): "American with No Medical Training Ran Center for Malnourished Ugandan Kids. 105 Died," online, available at: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/08/09/749005287/americanwith-no-medical-training-ran-center-for-malnourished-ugandan-kids-105-d The Cut (2019): "American Woman Accused of Letting Hundreds of Ugandan Kids Die at a Fake Clinic," online, available at: https://www.thecut.com/2019/07/renee-bach-pretended-to-be-a-doctor-in-ugandalawsuit.html The News & Advance (2017): "'An Ordinary Girl Who Said Yes to an Extraordinary God': Bedford native finds home in Uganda," online, available at: https://www.newsadvance.com/entertainment/features/anordinary-girl-who- said-yes-to-an-extraordinary-god/article_de7edc43-b53b-5269-aec1-0c6bd9f98c26.html
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COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND CRITICAL PEDAGOGY: APPROACHING EDUCATION ABROAD IN EUROPE THROUGH THE CRITICAL THEMES OF DISSIDENCE AND SOCIAL PROTEST
Emira Ibrahimpasi, University of Nebraska -Lincoln Kelly Payne, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
We cannot accept the world as it is. Each day we should wake up foaming at the mouth because of the injustice of things. Hugo Claus
Introduction
An examination of the ways in which we can decolonize education abroad is long overdue. The subject of European decolonization in Africa and Asia is highly relevant to fields across higher education. As historian James Le Sueur explains, "As a political, cultural, social, and intellectual phenomenon, decolonization became such a fierce feature of everyday life in metropolitan Europe, its colonies, and overseas that it would be inconceivable to study the twentieth century without giving it primary significance to it" (Le Sueur, 2013: 1). Thus, we consider the importance and the responsibility of offering programs abroad that critically engage postcolonial theory and decolonizing themes, especially when the destinations are located in Europe, part of the Global North, and even more so when the countries visited were once part of a colonizing empire.
To highlight the importance of the need to decolonize education abroad, and to offer some ideas about the ways in which we can do this work successfully in an inclusive and antiracist way, we focus on Belgium and the Netherlands as case studies. Belgium and the Netherlands hold prominence today as, respectively, the headquarters for the EU and NATO in Brussels, Belgium, and the home to the International Court of Justice at the Hague in the Netherlands.
They are known today as inclusive and tolerant countries. Although geographically much smaller compared to other former colonial powers like Britain and France, both Belgium and the Netherlands possess relative wealth and economic capital which was advanced considerably due to colonial profits. As H.L. Wesseling points out about the nature of colonial power, "In Africa, it was possible for Belgium, one of Europe's smallest countries, to acquire one of the largest colonies on the continent, the Belgian Congo, which was 80 times larger than Belgium itself" (2015: 148). The colonial powers at play in the low countries were varied and vast. The profits registered from colonization were extensive, and some have argued that this wealth contributes
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to the success of these countries today, as they did during the height of the colonizing project. In the nineteenth century, for example, Dutch profits from the Netherlands-Indies ranged from onefifth to one-half the annual public revenue (Thee, 201: 48). Finally, both countries represent good sites for an examination of how scholars, creative writers, and journalists as well as the countries' national governments are reckoning with the legacies of colonial exploitation, collectively or distinctly, in the age of Black Lives Matter and global social justice movements. It is this aspect of Belgian and Dutch culture, history, and socio-political realities that we sought to engage in a study abroad course: an approach that we feel is so critical to education abroad in the twenty-first century.
Education Abroad in the Low Countries by the Numbers
Education abroad from the US dates back to the late nineteenth century when faculty at Indiana University began to encourage students to spend their summers in Europe (Brewer and Ogden, 2019: 19). Of course, travel and overseas education have long been part of Western education; consider the tradition of the "Grand Tour" in the seventeenth and eighteenth century for young men of means. While in its early days US education abroad was only accessible to select few students with economic means, today it has become more accessible and has seen steady growth since the 1990s: from 143,590 students studying abroad at the start of the millennia, to 341,751 in the 2017/2018 academic year (IIE Open Doors Report, 2001 and 2019). An overwhelming majority of these students study abroad in Europe (and more specifically in Western Europe). Of the top ten destinations for US students going abroad, only three are outside of Europe. While it is encouraging to see that more Americans are participating in education abroad, the fact remains that the choice of locations remains largely Eurocentric.
In 2017/2018, the Netherlands accounted for about 1.2 percent (or 3,966 students) of the total US students studying abroad, while Belgium saw less than a third of that with 1,256 students (IIE Destinations, 2020). These numbers are staggeringly low compared to nearly 16 million foreign tourists who visited the Netherlands and 7 million to Belgium in 2018 (European Union Tourism Trends, 2020: 25). In general, the tourist appeal of both the countries does not necessarily translate to educational study as compared to neighboring countries like France which saw 17,185 American students, and Germany with 12,250 Americans in 2017/2018 (IIE Destinations, 2020). Although much smaller geographically, Belgium and the Netherlands enjoy a disproportionately high number of foreign tourist visits compared to Germany (with around thirtysix million in 2018) and France (with around eighty-three million in 2018) (European Union Tourism Trends, 2020: 25). These numbers indicate that these countries' storied pasts offer US students rich terrain to consider the history and cultural perspectives that include political occupation, multilingualism, colonization, among other topics.
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While less than 4,000 US students studied in the Netherlands in 2017/2018, they make up only a small percentage of the overall international student presence in the country. In 2018/2019, "there were 85,955 international degree students and 14,344 homecoming students enrolled in Dutch public higher education" (Nuffic, 2020: 3). International students at Dutch institutions account for around 11.5 percent of overall student enrollment in higher education, and it is partially the reason why the Dutch Ministry of Education proposed The Language and Accessibility Bill in June 2016. In order to "restore the balance, the government wants to introduce stricter rules on the language of instruction, raise fees for students from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and make it possible to restrict the intake on courses taught in a language other than Dutch" (Arunraj, 2019). Among the nearly 100,000 students who study in the Netherlands, the highest percentage comes for Business and Economics, followed by Arts and Culture, and then Engineering (Nuffic, 2020). Liberal Arts and Sciences studies in the Netherlands are low, accounting for less than a percentage (Eurostat, 2019). The trends in international student education in Belgium are similar to that of the Netherlands with 44,978 international students attending institutions of higher education in 2017 (Eurostat, 2019). When broken down by the field of study, we find that 36.1 percent of all tertiary studies by international students are in health and welfare, followed by arts and humanities at fourteen percent (Nuffic, 2020).
The majority of the programs offered in both countries are principally located in capital cities. In Belgium, for example, it is challenging to find programs outside of Brussels, while in the Netherlands, Amsterdam holds the same position, although the English-speaking options at Maastricht University draw some of the highest numbers of international students in the Netherlands (Nuffic, 2020: 11). A review of the majority of programs in Brussels shows that most are closely tied to studies of the European Union, European Commission, NATO, and the Belgian economy. Programs that reflect on Belgian history, literature, or culture tend to focus on Flemish painting and culture during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. While university curricula in the humanities and social sciences now include many robust courses examining current inequalities and divisions between Global North and Global South, few education abroad courses or programs in Belgium and the Netherlands focus on these topics. Nearly all information about studying abroad in Belgium focuses on Brussels as the seat of European Union. There are some notable exceptions with programs on migration, urban planning, engineering, medicine, and technology (Study Abroad in Belgium, 2020). A search of programs in the Netherlands yields parallel results. However, the Netherlands draws in a number of students interested in gender studies and the law, especially for students interested in the International Criminal Court in the Hague. In addition, the Netherlands seems to market itself as an international community, with affordable education and a safe location with great career opportunities (Study in Holland, 2020). Courses examining the political history and literary culture during the nineteenth and
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twentieth centuries, including the Dutch and Flemish entanglements with slavery and involvement in colonialism, are rare. Rarer still are experiences that thematically focus on dissidence and social protests, collective memory and cultural reckoning, or colonialism and its afterlives.
Examination of these trends further supports our suspicions that "much education abroad programming that occurs in Western Europe offers students superficial engagement with the host countries, essentializes local cultures, and packages an experience for students to consume" (Atkins and Messerly, 2019). Until education abroad is fully globalized (and all parts of the world are equally represented in study abroad), we must engage in decolonizing education abroad by doing "work not only to challenge the ways students already understand the world in colonial terms (primitive, modern, civilized, developed, and developing all being terms I would consider colonial or terms with colonial origins), but also to create a framework that enables students to begin to develop an anticolonial practice" (MacDonald, 2020: 216). As countries now recognized globally for their leadership in business, European and world policy, economic policy, and international justice, Belgium and the Netherlands have cultural and political capital. Their legacy as former colonial powers matters and has the potential to make the low countries representative locations for coming to terms with colonial legacies and national wealth built on racial violence, systematic oppression, and resource exploitation.
The majority of US students who study abroad have not been exposed to courses that center on critically engaging with colonial history or the ways that colonial regimes benefited financially from exploitation of resources and human labor in colonies such as Suriname (under Dutch colonial rule until 1975), Indonesia (under Dutch colonial rule until 1949), Congo (under Belgian colonial rule until 1960), Ruanda-Urundi (under Belgian colonial rule until 1962). These countries' long and troubled colonial pasts are riddled with human rights abuses and destructive campaigns to extract natural resources including ivory and rubber which fueled the expansion of industry. Belgium also boasted great advancements in the area of tropical medicine when the Institute for Tropical Medicine was first commissioned by King Leopold II. Given that it is rooted in "imperial dynamics," colonial medicine and research were fraught and "these dynamics reverberate into the present and need to be taken into account in any effort to bolster international health systems," as historian Helen Tilley points out (2016). The anti-racist scholar and activist Walter Rodney goes further to argue in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa that colonization was an intersectionally violent regime affecting gender, religion, political, social, and interpersonal relations, and roles. "The combination of being oppressed, being exploited, and being disregarded," as Rodney vehemently claims, "is best illustrated by the pattern of the economic infrastructure of African colonies" (2018: 347) including those under Belgian and Dutch rule.
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Despite the fact that few international students engage with Belgium and the Netherlands' colonial past, scholars continue to confront and critique colonial legacies. There is an urgency globally to reckon with the racism and racial oppression of the past in the US and Europe, especially the colonial aspects. Educationally and politically, countries are being held to the task of moving toward reconciliation and creating socially just policies. Significantly, "Both forgetting and remembering played a key role in European politics of history after the Second World War and since the end of Communism," (Verbeeck, 2019: 1) and Belgium, compared to other neighboring countries, is considered a "`latecomer,' both as a former colonial empire and in opening public and scholarly debate on this episode" (Verbeeck, 2019: 294).
Belgian and Dutch political and cultural institutions, including royals and government ministers, continue to confront the culture of denial and neglect to present a national narrative of collective memory and a critical debate on colonialism. In Belgium, for example, the Lumumba Commission and activities of the Royal Museum for Central Africa have taken reconciliatory measures publicly. In the Netherlands, the Tropenhuis Museum presents exhibitions that attempt to engage "seriously in challenging and questioning its colonial past and institutional legacies" (Aylett, 2019). And very recently, royal leaders have published statements of apology for the violence, racism, and damaging legacies of colonialism, recognizing the role of Belgium and the Netherlands as former colonizers.
Why Belgium and the Netherlands?
Global protests continue in response to the murder of George Floyd in the US on 25th May 2020. One impact has been to raise consciousness of global contexts of racial injustices. Statues of colonizers, like Belgium's Leopold II, have been removed, and in the Netherlands, protestors are calling for the removal of all colonial-era statues. In higher education, students, faculty, and some administrators are calling for a decolonized curriculum as well as the acknowledgement that educators need to decolonize higher education experiences more broadly (Anderson, 2012; Aman, 2018). There have been efforts in Western colleges and universities to expand their primarily Eurocentric education abroad programming by including more study abroad opportunities in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Sending more students to these regions while confronting decolonization in Europe would go far to give students a much more capacious understanding of the world.
What to do then with the trend among US university students to prioritize and privilege European study abroad? To start, faculty can listen to the call for decolonized curriculum. The supremacy of Western knowledge is being challenged by researchers and creative writers across the globe. Programs that center their curriculum on human lives and stories of the past, moving beyond questions of what studying another country can tell us about global business trends and markets, lend themselves to discussions of significant histories, injustices, and political
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developments. As David Loosely has written, "the discourse of the market has made us forget how to talk about issues of injustice, inequality, and morality" (2013: 105).
From our own scholarly backgrounds in literature, anthropology, and global studies, we are committed to antiracist scholarship and pedagogy. Our goal in developing this education abroad program in 2017 was to focus on Flemish and Dutch history and culture through the lens of political dissidence and social protest, themes that would open our experience in print and on the ground to critically engage the afterlives of colonialism and racism. Dissidence, in this form, as Julia Kristeva imagined it, is not to be "an echo-chamber of the past, but to recognize the political value of our work and seek to use the dissident posture to move toward something more like freedom and understanding" (Kristeva, 1986: 294). As the Dutch writer, Geert Mak suggests, "Our collective memory, whether or not it is receptive to the written word, is as loose as dry sand; apart from the most essential facts, the rest is guesswork" (Mak, 2020: 40). The goal is to move our students from guesswork and assumptions to greater understanding. Our students, we presumed, knew some of the essential tourist and contemporary political facts of the low countries; without greater context, however they only guessed at the significance of Belgium and the Netherlands in our global and cultural history. By acknowledging that "[a]cross history, racist power has produced racist ideas about the racialized ethnic groups in its colonial sphere," (Kendi, 2019: 62), we sought to interrogate what Uli Linke contends is "Europe as a hegemonic white space" (2014) out of which colonialism and nationalism dealt such oppressive blows.
Decolonizing Learning about the Low Countries
The course readings and writing assignments closely matched the geographical movement of our itinerary while offering students theoretical readings to shape their understanding of dissidence and social protest. The experience started in Amsterdam where we discussed collective memory and the impact of colonization in Dutch colonies during the 19th and 20th centuries. We clustered theory, history, and fiction to develop students' critical perspectives and interdisciplinary insights. For example, in the first week of the course, students were assigned theoretical texts on colonization such as Gayatri Spivak's "Can the Subaltern Speak?" as well as Kristeva's essay on the dissident intellectual. These we put into context with historical readings of Dutch colonization and its legacies, and Arthur Japin's novel The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi, a postcolonial fiction depicting how the lives of two Ashanti princes unfolded as they were taken from Ghana in 1837 and given in surety to the Dutch King William II. Significantly, the novel's action occurs in Africa, Weimar, and the Netherlands, establishing the deeply entangled geographic nature of colonial legacies across the globe. This cluster approach to assigned reading allowed us to talk about the past and presence of colonialism in depth, and to critically engage the present moment and confront neocolonial realities that perpetuate racism and anti-black oppression in Belgium and the Netherlands today.
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During museum visits and walking tours, we encouraged students to reflect on resonances between readings and the spaces we were in. Along the Canal Belt and within sight of the Amstel River, as the sociologist Sharon Zukin writes, one can reflect on the place "where the Jews of Amsterdam settled, built synagogues, traded diamonds [brought in from African colonies, no doubt] and old clothes, and were rounded up and deported by the occupying Nazis and Dutch collaborators in the 1940s, to be killed in the concentration camps of Eastern Europe" (Zukin, 2011). As the writer and theorist Saidiya Hartman has observed, the futures of those affected by African slavery and colonization are entangled transgeographically "with every other place on the globe where people were struggling to live and hoping to thrive" (Hartman, 2008: 233).
As we moved from the Netherlands to Antwerp, Belgium, our perspective shifted to discuss political dissidence and social protest in the twentieth century. Students were assigned clustered readings, again to mirror the postcolonial and critical pedagogy that broadens forms of knowledge, embracing the humanities and liberal arts perspective that stories contain truths and develop students' ethical and creative reasoning. In Belgium, colonial violence, enslavement, and racial oppression was examined through selections from Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, literary theory on dissidence and bearing witness, and Hugo Claus' famous novel The Sorrow of Belgium. Claus depicts the coming of age of a Flemish schoolboy during World War II when Belgium was under German occupation and at war from within due to the burgeoning Flemish nationalist movement. Each of the readings delved into the discursive territory of how dissidence and protest disrupted and challenged Eurocentric ideologies and opened spaces to consider hegemony and hierarchy as they affected individuals and individual families. Racism and racial ideology does damage at the individual, local, and global levels. Taboos and the trauma of remembering were also discussed, and connections were made between these subjects in the past and present. For example, Claus' career demonstrates how being critical of one's nation and colonial legacies can inform collective memory, expand national consideration of art and literatures' ability to confront colonial legacies. Our visit to the University of Antwerp's Hugo Claus Center and the faculty lecture and discussion led by Prof. Kevin Absillis further enhanced how students situated this complex historical novel within the legacy of Belgian colonial ways of knowing.
The final week of our course focused on stories of migration and neocolonialism in the lives of people of color living in Belgium and the Netherlands today. Readings included contemporary journalism on Belgian and Dutch museums and cultural sites celebrating problematic aspects of the past, literary theory on testimony and personal trauma, and Chika Unigwe's novel On Black Sisters Street which chronicles the experiences of four African migrant women living in Antwerp's Red-Light district who dream of the freedom to live beyond their current lives of satiating the desires of men. Students were encouraged to consider how these
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women's lives were hampered by the dual oppressions of white supremacy and gender violence, and how migrant identity positions these women vis-à-vis European colonial history, and how the narrative's focus on memory and collective storytelling are empowering lenses.
Additionally, we confronted the problem of Western tourism and the consumptive gaze in contemporary Belgian and Dutch society where the legacies of colonialism continue to disadvantage migrants and citizens of color. Western tourism becomes a problem of study abroad when visits to chocolate shops, shopping areas, famous districts (often including the diamond and Red-Light districts) are divorced from a critical discussion of the country's dark and unsavory history and its effects on people today. The production and distribution of chocolate offers a perfect opportunity to examine historical and present-day exploitation of the Global South but doing so must be done in a responsible and intentional way. Another opportunity to critically engage colonial traditions in Belgium and the Netherlands centers on an interrogation of the 6th of December Saint Nicholas holiday. One of our lectures by a local faculty member focused on the history and current debates surrounding the pervasive use of blackface during the Sinterklaas and his sidekick Zwarte Piet. Zwarte Piet is a particularly controversial figure because many Belgians and Dutch see it as a direct representation of both countries' problem with racism and colonial history. Students discussed the use of blackface as a symbol of race, its connection to the history of blackface in the US and compared it to its pervasive use during this holiday in Dutch and Flemish culture today. After walking tours, students were asked to consider what it means that King Leopold II has streets and monuments named after him despite his notorious colonial atrocities, or that Black Sisters Street is situated by the Red-Light district to which so many white tourists flock, or that the port of Antwerp, another popular tourist destination, was the site where Congolese rubber, minerals, and natural resources were processed.
One significant aspect of our approach to the course and our commitment to critical pedagogy was a conclusion focusing on the future. We did not want to fall into the mired path of talking about colonial oppression without consideration and awareness of how people of color and those formerly colonized peoples survived and continue to contribute to Belgian and Dutch culture today. The Black Lives Matter movement is a protest alive and thriving in Belgium and the Netherlands. Protestors are not simply standing in solidarity with America's Black Lives Matter movement but are using the movement and its momentum to confront the racism born of white supremacy and inherent in colonial history. Teaching about colonialism in European countries, which are predominantly white spaces saturated with reminders and memorials built to celebrate the history of the Empire, challenges the pervasive notion that racism is a phenomenon found only in non-white spaces.
Educators and faculty like ourselves, with white and educational privileges, must engage with topics of racism, colonialism, and the afterlives of oppression. To celebrate Flemish
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medieval and Renaissance art and economic vibrancy today, to uphold the cosmopolitanism of contemporary capital cities without also examining the rise to power, the role of slavery and colonial power, is to offer an imbalanced and skewed education that serves only to reinforce European hierarchies. We cannot expect that colonialism and its legacies are adequate for study abroad experiences in former colonial spaces only, nor can white educators shift the burden to our BIPOC colleagues (black, indigenous, and people of color). Rather, as white educators "we are positioned (both physically and symbolically) at the front of the classroom as dispensers of knowledge" (Smith et al., 2017: 45) and can thus allow our students, including those from predominantly white institutions like the large, research university from which we offered this experience, to better engage with these difficult topics.
Access to Education Abroad as an Issue of Decolonization
Organizing a faculty-led program abroad is a complex process that requires faculty to come up with a detailed itinerary of each day while abroad. Once this itinerary is submitted, our education abroad office is tasked with procuring various quotes from providers. Once these quotes are received, we then make the decision on which education abroad providers will help us execute our program abroad. We soon realized that working with a traditional education abroad provider meant that we could not make our program affordable or available to our students. As a result, we were forced to go with a traditional tour company that would provide us with a "barebones" program. The company only needed to provide hotel, tickets for public transportation, and entry tickets to various museums/sites per our request. Both of us felt that making education abroad affordable was paramount and thus we opted to work with a tour company who would only provide the bare minimum and we would handle the majority of the planning, organizing, and executing.
Even with such bare bones programming and organizing, we struggled to make the trip affordable. Education abroad has long been only available to those who had the means, thus cutting many students out of the experience. While there are many scholarships available and there has been an increase in low-income student participation, many students still struggle to afford the experience. Our goal from the beginning was to make the program affordable and accessible to our Midwestern university's first-generation and low-income student population as well as students with more economic means. At the time, in our roles as faculty, we strongly felt that decolonizing education abroad is not simply about decolonizing the readings and programming but must also be about addressing the cost of the program. Making education abroad programming affordable is in itself an act of decolonization. However, making the trip affordable came at a price.
Having led other programs abroad, one recognizes that the experience could have been richer had we had the option of working with a traditional education abroad provider. Working
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with a tour company left us without ability to communicate our goals and learning objectives as the trip arrangements were made. Most notably we had no ability to contact tour guides for various locations with which we were unfamiliar, and this created a hurdle. We would have welcomed increased contact which could have helped some of the guides be better aware of our purpose and goals. Our experience taught us that when you go with a "bare-bones" program that offers affordability, the faculty leaders lose the ability to engage. What remains a challenge, and what we must continue to address is how do we make education abroad affordable.
Our goal of making the trip affordable resulted in some experiences having a distinctly touristic aesthetic. We felt that the company, having known our purpose of the trip, could have aligned themselves better with our course theme and objectives. On our first night in Belgium during which we were to have a group meal, we were taken to a restaurant that had clearly been intended for American tourists. Another example was a tour guide who during a city tour insisted we visit a chocolate shop that was clearly owned by a friend. This is a very common practice among tour guides that both of us had experienced in our travels previously. One of the biggest disappointments was misinforming us about access to the Court of Justice in the Hague. We had asked for tickets right at the start of the program, which they did not provide, and were only notified once in the country that we ourselves (faculty leaders) had to request those tickets and tours. At that point it was too late as such organized tours needed to be reserved months in advance. If faculty are planning to go with a tour company rather than an education abroad provider in order to achieve affordability, it is important that the faculty clearly communicates their educational mission and learning objectives in order to provide experiences to take students further than mainstream tourist experiences. We struggled with numerous tour guides who treated our group as just another tour without any deeper reference to history, culture, or discussions surrounding our course themes. Despite these challenges, we did have one tour guide who, upon learning about why we were in the country, adjusted our daily itinerary to match course expectations. The experiences with this tour guide indicate that tour companies have access to guides who have the knowledge and ability to talk about difficult topics including colonization, dissidence, and racial justice and therefore have the ability to provide a better experience for those institutions who use their services for affordability purposes.
Looking Ahead
Education abroad experiences can and should be a critical space where colonialism, imperialism, and neo-colonialism are acknowledged and discussed, especially when the destinations are former colonial powers. We would like to suggest that the decolonizing of education abroad occurs across the board. Organizing a course that examines colonial history in the country that most benefited from the colonizing project is essential in allowing students a truly transformative education abroad experience. We cannot accept, nor should it be expected,
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that such educational experiences happen only in countries that were formerly colonized. Critical examination of the effects of colonization is especially powerful in those spaces where the evidence of these exploits can be seen and touched.
Belgium and the Netherlands are not only significant sites on Europe's political and commercial map, but are also centers of education, science, and technology, and as such draw thousands of international students. The appeal of European destinations will likely remain for the foreseeable future because they present a vast educational terrain and storied places where students can read about, discuss, and walk through cities centuries old, trying to reconstruct the faces, smells, sounds, atmospheres, and realities of the past. As faculty leaders we know that to effectively and ethically lead an education abroad program in countries that were once part of the Empire, it is vital to bring "awareness of colonial legacies, recognition of the effects of colonization in the world we find ourself moving in, and a gesture to create a world which disassembles (neo)colonial relations" (MacDonald, 2020: 216). Interrogating the original spaces in which colonial ideas were born is important so as to recast the burden of reconciliation and remembrance to the countries and ideologies that are the source of the problem. Doing so will enable countries that were once colonized to focus on aspects of their story (current or past) that are not necessarily tethered to Europe. In this way, a decolonizing perspective becomes not only a matter of location but also of critical insight. In 2017, the course theme of dissidence and social protest was a direct reaction to the emergence of varying social movements across the US and the world. Reacting to the immigrant rights movements, Occupy Wall Street, and Black Lives Matter, our goal with the course was to engage students with what they believed were strictly local movements by observing similar types of social protest in locations that in popular imagination are seen as "having it all figured out." Engaging with these topics allowed us to "focus on current framework that needs to be deprioritized and destabilized, and move towards a new way of seeing and understanding that may be considered anticolonial" (MacDonald, 2020: 217) and antiracist. As faculty leaders we have a responsibility to contextualize these movements in history and to ensure that students understand the national and international effects of these reconciliations.
Our role as educators, staff, and administrators is to provide experiences that force our students outside of their educational comfort zones that include a critical examination of historically significant events and institutions with lasting effects today. To do this well we must commit to creating experiences that, while challenging, are also interesting to students. To make sure our students would have space to engage with these heavy and difficult topics, we committed ourselves to creating class time (from morning lectures in the breakfast room of our hotel, to formal lectures with scholars at the local University) to allow students to think about these issues. We offered informal and formal discussions throughout the day so that there would be adequate time for students to debate, inquire, and process the information of the course. We
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purposefully assigned a lot of reading, encouraging students to find safe places to read in the city, as we traveled, and in our lodgings. Moreover, we kept a busy schedule of class activities thereby limiting their time as tourists in the country.
Moving forward it is important that all faculty, staff, and administrators take an active role in ensuring decolonization of education abroad. As we look to the future of education abroad, we must rethink the ways in which we talk with students at fairs, in class, official publications, and/or social media: less selling of tourist features (best chocolate in the world, or must-see canals) and more emphasis on why these histories must be confronted today. We need to be prepared to field questions rooted in popular imagination of the locations we are visiting and inspire student interest despite the heaviness of the topic. Despite its history rooted in privilege, education abroad has the potential to bring students in closer contact with difficult topics that stem from their relative privilege of being able to have the experience in the first place. We can begin by actively working to make education abroad more affordable so that our campuses' diverse student populations are equally represented. To do this effectively, all those involved must be committed to working with a more diverse range of providers (from tour companies to traditional education abroad providers and local educational institutions) to ensure affordability and access. The next recommendation is to be actively engaged in developing programs and curriculum that at least in part challenges colonial histories and legacies especially when the location for the program is in former colonial Empires. Additionally, we need to actively connect our students to faculty, writers, journalists, and activists in the countries visited whose scholarship is committed to the project of remembering and reconciling past injustices so as to ensure collective futures. By committing to assigning readings, booking tickets for reconciliatory and socially just museum exhibitions, and supporting the work of postcolonial journalists and scholars alike, we ensure the viability and continuance of decolonial efforts.
The trends we currently see of student preference for Global North over the Global South are not likely to change any time soon. Therefore, moving forward it is necessary for faculty and staff involved with education abroad to recognize the importance of including a critical historical lens. Calling upon the colonial legacies of the countries of the Global North will allow students to challenge their own perceptions of these locations and create a space for students to better engage with site visits, readings, and museums that are not explicitly designed with this purpose in mind.
WORKS CITED
Adkins, R. and B. Messerly (2019): Toward Decolonizing Education Abroad: Moving Beyond the Self/Other Dichotomy in Education Abroad and the Undergraduate Experience: Critical Perspectives and Approaches to Integration with Student Learning and Development, Stylus, Herndon VA Aman, R. (2018): Decolonising Intercultural Education: Colonial Differences, the Geopolitics of Knowledge, and Inter-epistemic Dialogue, Routledge, London
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Anderson, E. (2012): "Epistemic Justice as a Virtue of Social Institution," Social Epistemology, 26(2): 163173 Arunraj, B. (2019): "More Balanced Internationalisation in Higher Education," Eindhoven News, 27 September, online, available at:https://eindhovennews.com/features/2019/09/more-balancedinternationalisation-in-higher-education/ Aylett, S. (2019): "The Tropenmuseum Amsterdam--An Honest Reflection of the Dutch Colonial Past," The Postcolonial Heritage Research Group, online, available at: https://phrg2019.home.blog/2019/10/23/the-tropenmuseum-amsterdam-an-honest-reflection-of-thedutch-colonial-past/ Brewer, E. and A. Ogden (2019): "US Education Abroad: Historical Perspectives, Emerging Trends, and Changing Narratives," in Education Abroad and the Undergraduate Experience: Critical Perspectives and Approaches to Integration with Student Learning and Development, Stylus, Herndon VA Claus, H. (1990): The Sorrow of Belgium, Pantheon, New York European Union Tourism Trends (2020): online, available at: https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/pdf/10.18111/9789284419470 Eurostat (2019): "Mobile Students from Abroad Enrolled by Education Level, Sex and Country of Origin," online, available at: https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/submitViewTableAction.do# Frankema, E. and F. Buelens eds., (2013): Colonial Exploitation and Economic Development: The Belgian Congo and the Netherlands Indies Compared, Routledge, London Graham, M. (2013): "Black is Gold: African American Literature, Critical Literacy and Twenty-First-Century Pedagogies," in L. King and S. Moody-Turner eds, Contemporary African American Literature: The Living Canon, 55-90, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, online, available at: www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16gz907.8 Hochschild, A. (1998): King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa, Mariner Books, Boston Japin, A. (1997): The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi, Knopf, New York Jatmiko, A. and N. Karmini (2020): "Dutch King Apologizes for Deadly Colonial Legacy in Indonesia," The Diplomat, 10 March, online, available at: https://thediplomat.com/2020/03/dutch-king-apologizes-for-deadly-colonial-legacy-in-indonesia/ Kendi, I. X. (2019): How to be an Antiracist, Random House, New York Kristeva, J. (1986): The Kristeva Reader, T. Moi ed., Columbia University Press, New York Le Sueur, J. D. (2003): The De-Colonizing Reader, Routledge, New York Linke, U. (2014): "Racializing Cities, Naturalizing Space: The Seductive Appeal of Iconicities of Dispossession," Antipode, 46: 1222 1239, online, available at: doi: 10.1111/anti.12012 Loosely, D. (2013): "Speaking of Impact: Languages and the Utility of the Humanities," in E. Belfiore and A. R. Upchurch, eds., Humanities in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Utility and Markets, 91- 108, Palgrave Macmillan, London MacDonald, K. (2020): "Decolonizing Pedagogies: An Exploration of Learning with Students Volunteering Abroad," in R. Tiessen and R. Huish, eds., Globetrotting or Global Citizenship? Perils and Potential of International Experiential Learning, 209-229, University of Toronto Press, Toronto Mak, G. (2010): Amsterdam: A Brief Life of the City, Random House, New York Nuffic: The Dutch Organization for Internationalization of Education (2020): Incoming Degree Student Mobility in Dutch Higher Education 2018-2019, online, available at: www.nuffic.nl/facts-and-figures Nuffic: The Dutch Organization for Internationalization of Education (2020): International Degree Students Per Field of Study in 2019-2020, online, available at: https://www.nuffic.nl/en/subjects/fields-of-study/ Rodney, W. (2018): How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Verso Books, London Smith, L. S., Kashubeck-West. G. Payton, and E. Adams (2017): "White Professors Teaching About Racism: Challenges and Rewards," The Counseling Psychologist, 45(5): 651668 Spivak, G. C. (1988): "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in C. Nelson and L. Grossberg eds., Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, 271313, Basingstoke, Macmillan Study Abroad.Com (2020): Study Abroad in Belgium, 24 July, online, available at: https://www.studyabroad.com/in-belgium
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SECTION 3: IN PRACTICE Study in Holland (2020): Why Holland? 24 July, online, available at: https://www.studyinholland.nl/whyholland Thee, K. W. (2013): "Colonial Extraction in the Indonesian Archipelago: A Long Historical View," in E. Frankema and F. Buelens eds., Colonial Exploitation and Economic Development: The Belgian Congo and the Netherlands Indies Compared, 4159, Routledge, London Tilley, H. (2016): "Medicine, Empire, and Ethics in Colonial Africa," AMA Journal of Ethics, 18 (7):743-753, online, available at: doi: 10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.7.mhst1-1607. Unigwe, C. (2010): On Black Sisters Street, Vintage, London Verbeeck, G. (2019): "Legacies of an Imperial Past in a Small Nation. Patterns of Postcolonialism in Belgium," European Politics and Society, 292-306, online, available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/23745118.2019.1645422 Wesseling, H. (2015): The European Colonial Empires: 1815-1919, Routledge, London World Tourism Organization. (2018): European Union Tourism Trends, UNWTO, Madrid, online, available at: DOI: https://doi.org/10.18111/9789284419470 Zukin, S. (2011): "Memo from Amsterdam: On Living in an Old City," February 10, online, available at: https://blog.oup.com/2011/02/old-city/
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CREATING INCLUSIVE CURRICULA: ENGLISH LITERATURE IN STUDY ABROAD
Heidi James-Dunbar Foundation for International Education London
I began writing this article some time before the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis and the subsequent Black Lives Matter gatherings, protests, and commentaries that evidenced, yet again, the serious gaps and omissions in knowledge around colonial and indigenous histories, alongside structural racism and violence. This lack continues to maintain the dominant ideology informing power structures, biases, and assumptions. While my central argument remains the same, these events underline the urgency and necessity to rethink our curricula to ensure a more inclusive and critically engaged academic ecosystem for our students, faculty, and staff.
The call to decolonize higher education is hardly new, however, originating over two decades ago to represent indigenous and diverse knowledges on an equal standing with knowledges originating in the Global North, through more recent movements in South Africa (Rhodes Must Fall, 2015) and in the UK, such as the National Union of Students campaign "Why is my curriculum white?" Several UK universities including Sussex, Cambridge, and Keele have participated in this (long overdue) critical examination of curricula and teaching modules. We might comment here that eminent Post-Colonial (and New Historicism) theorists have been drawing our attention to the immanence of imperial and colonial discourses sustaining privileged hegemonies of thought since at least Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth was published in 1961.
Amplified and distorted by the British media, these efforts to decolonize education are not without their critics, including Doug Stokes, Professor of International Relations at the University of Exeter who wrote that decolonizing the curriculum is "a big mistake," asserting that "the movement...is highly selective in its cherry picking of facts and targets." He ends his argument with "the last thing our universities need are to have `male, pale and stale' voices sidelined" (Stokes, 2019).
As this discussion will demonstrate, Stokes' response is moot as the move to more inclusive curricula is not about the silencing or erosion of those canonical or previously dominant voices, but challenging presumptions, examining the construction of knowledge and privilege while exposing the connections between the systems of power that have maintained the structures of oppression across all disciplines. Indeed, even in the redress of this issue, ensuring curricula represent marginalized and unrepresented narratives, epistemologies, and critical perspectives must be an ongoing process. As academics, ensuring that we are not swapping one canon for another more palatable one that in its turn becomes ossified and static (regardless of
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content) is integral to scholarly integrity and prevents limiting the distribution of and contributions to an evolving discourse. Adjusting and updating course material to reflect current debates and findings ought to be the foundation of all course/module design, development, and maintenance.
This article's focus is on English literature and humanities curriculum in the context of study abroad, but these approaches are applicable to all disciplines and the urgency to rethink those curricula perhaps more profound (Roy, 2018). One of the central aims of study abroad is to contextualize and foster intercultural knowledge and competency as a "High Impact Practice," challenging assumptions and preconceived cultural tropes. Ensuring this does not become a neocolonialist exercise requires more than just rethinking our curricula but examining what we are teaching and why; carefully considering how we curate, and construct knowledge is central to student experience and academic rigor.
I write this not from a lofty point of view but with my sleeves rolled up, engaged in this critical task with my colleagues. Our commitment to ensure diversity and inclusivity is the foundation of our curriculum and means that there is no room for complacency.
What is a Colonialist Curriculum? Why Might Study Abroad be Guilty of This?
Anne Kimunguyi describes a colonial curriculum as: ... characterised by its unrepresentative, inaccessible, and privileged nature. Unrepresentative, because it selectively constructs teachings which exclude certain, oftentimes, crucial narratives. Inaccessible, because it consequently prevents many of its recipients from identifying with the narratives construed, whilst appealing to a historically favoured demographic. Privileged, because it ensures the continued participation, comfort and flourish of this select group of people, in both an academic and a wider societal context. Sadly, and unacceptably, this all occurs at the detriment of a diverse range of marginalised voices (cited by Hack, 2020). Study abroad or global learning has, at its heart, positive aspirations to develop students as intercultural learners and future global citizens through meaningful engagement with social, academic, and cultural difference. The aim is that, through this dynamic experience, students understand the multiplicity and value of human perspectives. As laudable as this is, it has been posited that this approach can create a "neo-colonialist" model in which intercultural learning replicates the "Grand Tour" paradigm of the nineteenth century in which exemplars of "Culture" (the canon) are studied in situ to enrich and improve the student (Namaste, 2020). This is exacerbated by the extensive reach of Britain's "soft power," the cultural force of the canon and limited representations of the UK in cultural artefacts, often means students (and their parents/institutions) are baffled when their literature classes are composed of writers other than Shakespeare, Donne, Shelley, and Dickens (Rose, 2018). Another neo-colonialist approach might offer the host site as a "classroom" or "laboratory" in which the culture and citizens are objects
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of study and investigation. While this might seem benign, it fosters the "othering" of the host site and residents reinforcing a "them" and "us" relation while not acknowledging or critiquing the structures of power at "home" (Adkins, 2018).
Contributing to these issues is the often relatively short duration of study abroad courses with students who may be taking classes to fulfil requirements rather than contribute to specialisms or their major and which can lead to the demand for, and creation of, broad survey classes that too often rely on utilizing dominant narratives. For example, a British Literature course taught over seven weeks might rely (for expediency, marketability, and credit recognition) on core texts from English, male, Anglo-Saxon writers (Shakespeare, Chaucer, Orwell, Keats et al.) and, perhaps for the sake of accessibility, employ a Leavisite or Liberal Humanist approach focusing on commentary and interpretation. A political theory course might be organized chronologically implying a hierarchy of concepts and knowledge systems. It is easy to see why these chronological, canon-centered approaches might be preferable for institutions and faculty. However, despite the challenges presented by non-specialist scholars and the short duration of courses, it is possible to develop inclusive, critical, and theoretical class models that do not exacerbate a neo-colonialist education. By reorganizing either of these example courses around key concepts, including marginalized voices and presenting asynchronous texts for comparison, they would disrupt the implied extrinsic teleology and dominance of Western epistemology.
Constructing an Inclusive Curriculum Positive intercultural learning requires a constructivist perspective (rather than a
positivist or immersive approach), with attentive selection of the materials we are using to construct and foster knowledge. Kimunguyi's description provokes a number of useful questions we might ask ourselves when considering the content of our courses:
· How does this course/content challenge a culture of exclusion to include diverse traditions of knowledge and narratives?
· Are perspectives encountered in this course/content balanced to incorporate competing narratives?
· Which voices are privileged, authoritative, and provide the core readings placed at the center of the learning experience?
· Are marginalized creators of knowledge being offered only as a "counter" or token of inclusion to the traditional canon (only to then reify the authority of said canon)?
· Does the inclusion of creators of knowledge implicitly confirm other biases or assumptions (for example, in studying the work of writers of color from the twentieth and twenty-first century, we affirm the presumption that there are no
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other, earlier works for inclusion and all the stereotypical preconceptions that entails)? · What do the voices included on the reading list communicate implicitly and explicitly about this society? · How does the academic's own specialism and research area contribute (perhaps unconsciously) to exclusive content and biases? · Are there guest speakers who could be invited to contribute to knowledge and learning where the faculty is not expert or experienced? · Does your pedagogy reinforce structural barriers and limit accessibility for students from nontraditional academic backgrounds? Before arguing that this work of decolonizing the curriculum does not apply to particular disciplines and subjects it is worth considering the following: "The ideology of Empire was hardly ever a brute jingoism; rather, it made subtle use of reason, and recruited science and history to serve its end" (Kabbani, 1994: 6). The challenge then, to create an inclusive curriculum, is productive and provides an opportunity to include canonical texts in a culturally hybrid syllabus and reading list/resources that introduce international students to encounters with multifaceted cultures, perspectives, and lived experiences in the UK. To interrogate, critique, and understand empire, class, power, and epistemology, and the interconnected relations that bind and reproduce these constructs, we must include a diverse range of texts. While in a study abroad context, the cultural value in studying the literatures of the host country may not prioritize Global South literatures, the inclusion of narratives and resources from socio-political marginalized authors (people of color, LGBTQ+, working class, and women authors) and work that challenges the distinction between "high" and "low" genres unsettles the exclusive and culturally homogenous canon and legitimizes the intellectual contributions from those outside the "establishment." To illustrate, I offer a short case study: Literary London: Reading the Restless City was developed and designed, in common with all FIE courses, with our values (of which diversity and inclusivity are central) as a foundation (Andreshak, 2003). This course introduces students to London, both as an object of inquiry and as a source, setting, and inspiration for numerous and diverse literary texts. Students engage with London's multiplicity in relation to key theoretical and historical/cultural events that have helped shape the city using different approaches including an analysis of the ways in which the city acts as a basis for critical interrogation and understanding. While the course is organized around key topics (Migrant London, London at War, Apocalyptic London etc.) that utilize various critical approaches to literature (post-colonial, feminism, New Historicism, Queer), we work to move back and forth across themes, theories, and concepts unsettling historical/chronological narratives of progress or the notion that a text can
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only be read via a single theoretical lens. Crucial to maintaining this dynamic, and avoiding further marginalizing diverse perspectives, is choosing sources that reflect and describe these interconnections. For instance, in studying Andrea Levy's novel, Small Island, we encounter narratives about class, gender, empire, race, war, and social change in London. Similarly, M H Bayliss' crime novel, A Death at the Palace, draws on multiculturalism, politics, and London's underclass but importantly, contributes to the questioning of what constitutes a legitimate literary source of intellectual enquiry.
This inclusive approach need not alienate students for whom Shakespeare et al. are cultural icons, only that the culture/location writers are enmeshed in is considered and explored. The aim is to neither create culture fetishes nor traduce cultural icons, but to consider the context and construction of our culture. We might ask, "what does a text do?" rather than "what does it mean?" This approach would foreground which archetypes, narratives, and hierarchies a cultural artefact reproduces or unsettles. It also questions the assumption that culture is merely descriptive or representative, rather than generative and active. Creating an inclusive curriculum requires more than inserting a few "diverse" texts; it needs a radical consideration of how and what we teach, and whether or not our pedagogic models reinforce the status quo.
To conclude, with our world proving to be ever more interconnected and interdependent, education must work to decolonize and de-center Western hegemonic thought systems, histories, and structures. Not to do so will promulgate the exclusive and incomplete narratives of dominant ideology and pedagogy. The creation of inclusive curricula has significant value; it produces an accessible education where diverse student experiences and cultures are represented and where students engage and develop the skills necessary to contribute positively in a diverse and global world. An inclusive and decolonized curriculum amplifies voices other than those of the traditional canon. It explores the privileging of Western-centric epistemologies. It examines how capital/economic structures are built and operate within the interconnected political, historic, and social networks and encourages different approaches and critical thinking. But the mission of decolonizing academia goes beyond curriculum and must include teaching and assessment strategies that develop intellectual endeavor while taking into account the iniquities in accessing educational resources and systems of support (Universities UK, 2019). We need a diverse faculty. We have to listen to students and ensure our classrooms (wherever they are) are safe spaces for the exploration and questioning of knowledge. As academics, we must commit to this ongoing, evolving and involving, essential work, and create space for all cultures and knowledge systems. As James Muldoon tells us: "Sceptics should realise that the campaign is not a witch hunt, but a legitimate concern about addressing how the forces of racism and colonialism have shaped our past and present. This is a campaign that all academics should be actively promoting in their departments--as many already do" (Muldoon, 2019).
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WORKS CITED
Adkins, A. B. F. (2018): "We're So Vain, We Probably Think This Program Is About Us," Decolonizing Study Abroad, S.l., Forum. Andreshak, J. (2003): "Inclusive Curricular Content: The Next Frontier in Widening Participation," in Face to Face, London: FACE, 10-13. Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Student Attainment at UK Universities: # Closing the Gap (2019): National Union of Students, Universities UK, London, online, available at: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policyand-analysis/reports/Documents/2019/bame-student-attainment-uk-universities-closing-the-gap.pdf Hack, D. K. (2020): Advance HE, online, available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/news-andviews/decolonisation-curriculum-conversation Kabbani, R. (1994): Imperial Fictions: Europe's Myths of Orient, Pandora, London Muldoon, J. (2019): "Academics: It's Time to Get Behind Decolonising the Curriculum," The Guardian, 20 Mar, online, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/mar/20/academics-its-time-toget-behind-decolonising-the-curriculum Namaste, S. (2020): "Opportunities and Challenges of Ethical Learning, Effective Global Learning," in S. Namaste ed., Mind the Gap: Global Learning at Home and Abroad, 178-186, Stylus, Herndon VA Rose, M. (2018): The Art of Soft Power, online, available at: https://www.britishcouncil.org/research-policyinsight/insight-articles/art-soft-power Roy, R. D. (2018): "Science Still Bears the Fingerprints of Colonialism," Smithsonian 9 April. online, available at: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-bears-fingerprints-colonialism180968709/ Stokes, D. (2019): "Universities Should Resist Calls to `Decolonise the Curriculum'," The Spectator, 18 February, online, available at: https://www.spectator.co.uk/writer/doug-stokes
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PRACTICAL APPROACHES TO DECOLONIZING EDUCATION MAJORS AND GLOBAL LEARNING AT SPELMAN COLLEGE
`Dimeji R. Togunde, Andrea Lewis, and Rokhaya Fall Spelman College
Historically, education is one of the many institutions affected by European colonization. In the US, education and the social constructs of schooling were created by and for White upper and middle-class families. Marginalized groups were not included in colonial education, as a whole person in the framing of the constitution, nor in the country's early higher education efforts. Early education in colonial America was primarily established by settlers in the Jamestown area, Puritans in New England, and plantation owners in the South. The early inhabitants provided education mainly for boys in upper class households and based on religious principles.
Education for marginalized groups in America has typically come from a deficit model. Europeans wanted to cultivate those who they found to have "savage qualities." For example, the first marginalized group to receive education from colonials in the Jamestown area included Native Americans. The Virginia Company of London was tasked with locating Native American boys who could be educated in true religious life and the principles of civilized life. Land, money, books, and materials were donated to cultivate Native Americans into European standards of acceptable knowledge and behavior; however, the school came to an end after a revolt led by Native Americans (Urban, 2009).
In 1488, Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was the first to venture around South Africa's southern coast, the Cape of the Good Hope. This marked the beginning of modern European colonialism which provided Portugal, Spain, the Dutch Republic, France, and England access to the sea route around South Africa. These countries monopolized western expansion through conquest and settlement and shifted power from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. As these nations expanded and colonized the west, European institutions and culture dominated much of the new world (Magdoff, 1969). This was colonists' first attempt to change a perceived outsider group and make them suitable for citizenship.
Another attempt to make a marginalized group suitable for society based upon White values occurred during the creation of many Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in America. Many HBCUs were founded by Whites shortly after the abolition of slavery. This was the case of Spelman College, founded by two White missionaries from New England. Evidence reveals that HBCUs graduate half of the nation's Black teachers. Given their significant role in preparing Black teachers, the curriculum, teaching practices, clinical experiences, and connections with local communities must depart from the vestiges of colonial legacies in
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American education. As such, there are two objectives of this essay. The first is to explicate the ways in which Spelman College's Education Department (a department that has developed future educators since 1892) has decolonized the minds of its students. The second objective is to highlight the approaches adopted by Spelman in decolonizing its global learning, which has become so intrinsic to a Spelman education.
Commitment to Decolonization and Intentionality of the Core Curriculum
For clarification sake, decolonization is operationalized in this essay to encompass intellectual efforts aimed at challenging the dominate Western Eurocentric approaches, theories, political discourses, and research practices among Western academics and governmental agencies by positioning intellectual knowledge and learning in the context of the lived experiences of the participants who may be minority or indigenous groups (Smith, 1999). In higher education, decolonization efforts are aimed at advancing the values, mission, and identity pertinent to the progress of an institution.
Contextually, since its founding in 1881, Spelman College, a historically Black college and global leader in the education of Black women, has been dedicated to academic excellence and the intellectual, creative, ethical, and leadership development of its students. According to its mission statement, "Spelman empowers students to engage the many cultures of the world and inspires a commitment to positive social change." Each first-year student at Spelman is required to take African Diaspora and the World (ADW), a two-sequence course which "prepares all students to develop a perception of themselves as citizens of a changing and increasingly compressed world, of sharpening the awareness of diverse cultural and historical experiences and of promoting the association between learning and social change." ADW is often lifechanging for students as it exposes students to colonial-based teaching that perpetually exists in public and private schools across the nation. Combined with the integration of African Diaspora and the World and other courses taught from an African-centered framework, students in the Education Department have a solid foundation in decolonized practices prior to beginning major course work.
The Education Department, which includes two majors, a minor, and nine teacher certification programs, introduces students to pedagogy and content that will prepare them to effectively teach in schools of varying demographics. In addition to culturally responsive and sustaining instructional practices, students immerse themselves in intense and meaningful field and clinical placements throughout metropolitan Atlanta. This provides them a better understanding of the cultural life of the school and community, as well as cultural norms of its children. Examples of program immersion include: increased field and clinical experiences, yearlong student teaching assignments, situating college courses in local P-12 schools, planning
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school-based family engagement activities, and attending faculty and Parent Teacher Association meetings (Lewis and Taylor, 2015).
bell hook's book, Engaging Pedagogy, urges educators to instruct students ``in a manner that respects and cares for their souls as opposed to ``a rote, assembly line approach'' (1994:13). hooks advocates for an education that extends beyond the classroom and relates to the college students as whole human beings, opposed to traditional lecture and invited response. The inclusion of life experiences and student voice in the classroom can serve as the foundation of knowledge which is generated, supported, and perpetuated in education (Lewis, 2015).
Culturally responsive pedagogy, a theoretical framework developed by scholar Gloria LadsonBillings, is a fusion and enhancement of the terms culturally appropriate, culturally compatible, and culturally congruent (Lewis and Taylor, 2015). In her initial research, Ladson-Billings suggested using the terminology "culturally responsive pedagogy" to address and describe the following: increasing the achievement of Black and Brown students, changing the mindset of teachers, and being familiar with how students of color learn. Ladson-Billings (2014) updated her classic theory to "culturally sustaining pedagogy," which encourages candidates to explore policies and practices that have direct implications on the lives and communities of P-12 student learners. Culturally sustaining pedagogy embraces discussions on racism, incarceration rates, increased violence towards Blacks, continued police brutality, incidents of White supremacy, and a variety of topics and occurrences that manifest almost on a daily basis (Lewis and Taylor, 2015).
Both Ladson-Billings' classic and updated theories provide a context for highlighting instructional practices that facilitate academic success and cultural competence of traditionally underserved and marginalized student populations that were directly impacted by colonialism. Through courses, clinical experiences, and internships, Spelman education students recognize who they are as individuals, understand the context in which they will teach, and are able to critically question their knowledge base and perceived assumptions. Additional elements of culturally responsive teaching that are incorporated throughout education courses include dismantling unequal distributions of power and privilege, as well as teaching diverse students' cultural competence about themselves and each other. Research suggests that teachers who become the architects and authors of their own stories and knowledge grow to be change agents and realize the powerful influence that culture and previous experience have on present thoughts and actions (Lewis and Taylor, 2015).
Experiential Learning in the Education Department
In addition to integrating culturally responsive and sustaining practices in education courses at Spelman, experiential learning at the local and global levels is valuable in helping students change preconceived notions. Kolb (1983) refers to experiential learning as the power
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of experience in learning that often occurs outside of the classroom. We use the historical research of Keeton and Tate who promoted, "Learning in which the learner is directly in touch with the realities being studied. It is contrasted with the learner who only reads about, hears about, talks about, or writes about these realities but never comes into contact with them as part of the learning process" (1978: 2).
Experiential learning in the Education Department provides students with opportunities to raise their awareness of an unfamiliar culture in collaboration with the College's Gordon-Zeto Center for Global Education. The Gordon-Zeto Center, named after Nora Gordon, the first Spelman alumna to teach in the Congo and Flora Zeto, the first Congolese student to graduate from Spelman, embodies the College's commitment of promoting students' engagement with world cultures. The Spelman College Strategic Plans for 2010-2017 and 2017-2022 and the College's Quality Enhancement Plan encouraged every student to participate in a global travel experience.
In alignment with the College's international initiatives, the course Global Education was created for education majors to sharpen their knowledge of schooling around the world. The course examines the historical, cultural, economic, sociological, philosophical, and political understandings of schooling and education from a global perspective. Global Education infuses scholarly readings, voices from international students on campus, and a critical context that challenges students' thinking about several factors that impact education and schooling in a variety of countries and regions. To provide a more impactful and personal learning experience, a yearly study trip to Havana, Cuba is embedded to complement the course. Cuba was selected as the destination based on the country's high literacy rates, free education, and the role education played in the Cuban Revolution.
The lasting effects of colonialism are ever present in Cuba. There is not much of a written account of Cuba's indigenous population, the Ciboney and Taino, prior to Christopher Columbus' arrival on October 28, 1492, however there are remnants of oral histories and legacies that have been maintained through the generations. Following Columbus' arrival in Cuba, Spain conquered Cuba in 1510. Subsequent countries to occupy Cuba throughout the years include France, Britain, and the US. During Spain's colonization, sugar and tobacco became the country's financial resource and Cuba became Spain's hub in the Caribbean. Consequently, Africans were enslaved beginning in 1527 to work on sugarcane and tobacco plantations. Towards the end of the legal enslavement of Africans in Cuba, indentured servants from China were lured to work on plantations. (Carr, Prieto, and Smorkaloff, 2019). The influences of all these countries is evident in the architecture, culture, history, and knowledge base of Cubans.
When the students travel to Cuba, a wealth of knowledge is always gained. The most prevailing learning typically centers on the mindsets of the Cubans, particularly in who and what they deem important throughout history. There is a great respect for historical figures who led
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Cuba's independence from Spain and the US, but there is also reverence to Christopher Columbus and Abraham Lincoln which Spelman students tend to find fascinating. Other longlasting effects of colonization include the way Cubans interact with each other in terms of racial backgrounds. As in similar countries that were colonized by European countries, darker skinned inhabitants are marginalized, while Spanish descendants often benefit from privileges associated with White skin. This is evident especially in the tourism, hotel, and restaurant industries where servers tend to be darker skinned and people in managerial positions are White or light skinned.
Decolonizing Global Learning at Spelman College
In the current era of globalization in which the world has become increasingly "small," complex and interdependent, the need for comprehensive global learning that exposes students and faculty to the world around them through teaching, research, and service learning has been recognized as a cornerstone of higher education. Global Learning aims at enhancing students' knowledge of global issues; fostering their understanding of shifts in global balance of power; informing them about the world's different political systems; developing their interest in becoming civically engaged and socially responsible for local and global communities; providing students with intercultural skills they will need to navigate the diverse global cultural landscapes; and ultimately preparing them to be successful as global leaders.
Despite these laudable goals, there has been a clarion call for initiatives to decolonize global learning as concerns are raised in regards to what is taught, how it is taught, who teaches it, where it is taught, who benefits from the teaching, what type of student support system is available in global studies courses offered on campus, short-term faculty-led programs, and in courses offered by study abroad providers.
Study abroad participation by students from the US has been disproportionately dominated by affluent White students, who have also been taught predominantly by White faculty, supported by resident staff of the same racial background in European destinations with comparable levels of socio-economic development to the US. Furthermore, the curriculum has also been approached largely from the Western perspective, using Euro-centric theories, perspectives, and political discourses that ignore the histories and experiences of the marginalized/minority populations. Within the last decade, however, the globalization of higher education through various campus internationalization efforts has led to an increase in the proportion of Black students studying abroad (currently at 6.1 percent). The pressure on various educational institutions, most especially, the Minority Serving Institutions including HBCUs, to internationalize their campuses as well as the efforts of most study abroad providers to increase access to education abroad through diversity and inclusion initiatives have been shaping the delivery of global learning in the US.
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In the paragraphs that follow, we highlight some of the College's global learning initiatives and the intentional approaches taken to decolonize their deliveries:
Curriculum Internationalization
In addition to the general education requirement for graduation that includes two years of foreign language and a course in international studies or comparative women's studies, Spelman has been globalizing its educational curriculum (infusing international elements or topics into course content by creating a new international course or revising an existing course with modules on international topics), using three interlocking and mutually reinforcing approaches, within the last eight years. The Area Studies approach promotes global courses that are focused on different regions of the world--Africa and Middle East, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. While this approach reflects the diversity of faculty expertise, at the same time, it fosters students' comparative knowledge beyond the European region. In addition, we have employed a Thematic approach that furthers the development of courses on topics such as global health, global food, global poverty, global migration, comparative global race and ethnic relations, and global terrorism; these have enhanced faculty collaboration (or team-teaching) and crossfertilization of ideas among various departments which has, in turn, strengthened disciplinary and interdisciplinary endeavors.
The third approach in decolonizing curriculum internationalization is to foster an inquiry into the interconnectedness between local and global issues, sometimes called "glocal." This has guided faculty to develop courses that have enabled students to study global issues at the local level while tapping into the richness of multiple nationalities, a myriad of cultural activities, and the growing ethnic diversity of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. With this approach, faculty have developed curricular and co-curricular programming that enriches students' global and cultural experiences without necessarily traveling abroad. The opportunity for students to connect local and global issues lends credence to Spelman's vantage location as an enriching learning laboratory nested within a vibrant cosmopolitan area.
With a record of thirty-four global courses within the last eight years, Spelman's decolonizing efforts through these approaches have provided an opportunity for faculty to engage students with the many cultures of the world and to analyze issues from multiple perspectives.
Faculty-Led Study Abroad Programs: Spelman College's success in creating a culture of global learning has been validated by the phenomenal percentage increase (117 percent) in the number of students who have studied abroad in the last eight years. Interestingly, with an average of over 400 students studying abroad per year, ninety to ninety-two percent go on faculty-led programs, which have grown from eight in 2011 to forty-four in 2019. In addition to the traditional faculty-led program, a team-taught model involves a faculty from one country
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collaborating with another faculty from another partner institution abroad, and a faculty from an American institution taking students enrolled in his/her course on an embedded program abroad. Furthermore, Spelman has designed a new faculty-led program model that works collaboratively with study abroad providers in developing a short-term two-week program that reflects an alignment with Spelman's mission, its global learning agenda, while incorporating several decolonizing approaches in courses offered to students.
While the courses jointly developed under this new model are taught by faculty working with study abroad providers, Spelman has incorporated the following ideas and approaches in decolonizing both the curricular and co-curricular activities at various destinations in Europe, Australia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia, locations wherein colonial legacies continue to impact what students learn and how they are taught:
a) Ensuring that every course syllabus includes the two learning outcomes of the Spelman Going Global! and the specific measures on how these learning outcomes will be demonstrated. i) Identify differences and commonalities of two world societies based on political, economic, social, and/or cultural values (Knowledge component). ii) Develop a personal definition of cultural engagement that reflects openness to cultural difference (Attitude Component).
We argue that for international education, a well-articulated learning outcome is an important way of addressing the complex legacy of colonialism; it provides students with clarity on where their learning must focus while simultaneously directing and guiding faculty at the local or international level on critical curricular and co-curricular instructional activities. At Spelman, this approach has enabled us to incorporate our values into what we expect students to gain from their global learning experience.
Furthermore, as an institution that promotes "Free Thinking Women," the opportunity created by our Cultural Orientation Program, that which enables students to reflect upon their global travel experience and also talk about it at a roundtable discussion, is quite liberating. The ensuing cross-fertilization of experience empowers them to demonstrate what they learn in profound and impactful ways.
b) As an institution committed to the education of women of African descent, every syllabus includes topics and activities that connect students with readings on other Black peoples of African descent in the Diaspora. Through this approach, students are able to compare their historical and contemporary experiences on issues such as racism and access to economic opportunities with others. Yet, the intersectionality of race, class, and gender are regularly explored in European destinations such as
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Spain, England, Netherlands, Portugal, and Denmark while negotiating intercultural competence in unfamiliar territories. c) Through guest lectures by other people who identify as Black or African American expatriates, students are able to further explore their racial and gender identities as they intersect with politics, culture, and economics. In some other instances, the curriculum includes interactions with other Black students in tertiary institutions through service learning, such as English Language training for elementary and secondary school students and assistance to the Black elderly in Nassau, Bahamas. d) Spelman College has historically been a site for encouraging social justice activism. Our curriculum includes modules and a living community for women interested in effecting social change within the cultural, social, political, and legal arenas of society. Thus, social justice activism focusing on human rights, global health disparities, educational equity, and anti-racism are included in faculty-led programs to destinations such as Brazil, South Africa, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. e) Visits to cultural sites, such as Slave Castle in Cape Coast in Ghana, the Tunnels of Hacienda San Jose in Chincha, Peru, the Slave Plantation in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and Cafetal La Isabelica Coffee Plantation in Santiago de Cuba, have provided knowledge on historical Black experience with slavery. f) Offering heritage and nontraditional destinations such as Ghana, Cuba, Brazil, and South Africa have enriched students' learning experience and have served as a vehicle for connecting students of African descent with cultural experiences that resonate with their historical narratives and antecedents.
Conclusion As a leading Historical Black College and University, Spelman education is deeply rooted
in its mission to provide academic excellence to students through their engagement with the many cultures of the world. Yet, such an engagement has deliberately challenged and confronted the colonial practices that have shaped educational institutions in the past and are still present today. Rather than educating students with a narrow perspective, biases and assumptions/stereotypes that are vestiges of colonialism, Spelman's rich liberal arts curriculum is imbued with several approaches to decolonizing majors and minors within the Education Department and the College's global learning agenda. Spelman's African Diaspora and the World Program (ADW) has served as a curriculum point of reference and the foundational academic experience of students on which several curricula, including Education and global courses, are built. The College has been intentional in ensuring that our students see themselves reflected and valued in global learning at home and abroad, and that the voices and perspectives of people like them reflect what they learn, and how they are taught.
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It is imperative, however, for study abroad providers to invest more in training their faculty and support staff so they can develop cultural competence and be equipped with skills to better support students of color while abroad. A class climate that fosters belonging for all students must be established. In addition, higher educational institutions must create policies and equitable access and opportunities through targeted funding for minority students in order to break the cost barrier while simultaneously promoting the value of study abroad.
In addressing the impact of globalization on global learning, Spelman College has been very deliberate in dismantling the structure of class and privilege associated with study abroad. The remarks by Dr Mary Schmidt Campbell, the 10th President of Spelman College, aptly conveys the College's commitment:
The College has made the culture of a global learning experience so integral to the teaching and learning environment that students view the study of their majors in a broad global context and come to Spelman assured that global travel is accessible and not dependent on certain socio-economic circumstances.
WORKS CITED
Chomsky, A., B. Carr, A. Prieto, and P. M. Smorkaloff eds., (2019): The Cuba Reader: History, Culture, Politics Duke University Press, Durham NC Horvath, R. (1972): "A Definition of Colonialism," Current Anthropology, 13(1), 45-57, online, available at: www.jstor.org/stable/2741072 Keeton, M. and P. J. Tate eds., (1978): Learning by Experience--What, Why, How, Jossey Bass, San Francisco Kolb, D. (1983): Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Prentice Hall, New Jersey Lewis, A. and N. Taylor (2015): "Enacting Diversity at a Single-Gender Liberal Arts HBCU Educator Preparation Program," AILACTE Journal,12(1): 35-51 Magdoff, H. (1969): The Age of Imperialism: The Economics of US Foreign Policy, Monthly Review Press, New York Smith, L. T. (1999): Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, Zed Books, London and New York Urban, W. J. and J. L. Wagoner Jr. (2009): American Education: A History, Routledge, London and New York
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FROM THE GRAND TOUR TO GLOBAL JOURNEYS: AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO GLOBAL LEARNING
Gundolf Graml, Agnes Scott College Elaine Meyer-Lee, Goucher College
The grand tour model with its imperialist and colonialist underpinnings continues to shape US students' experiences. Faculty-led courses, the fastest growing segment of study abroad in US Higher Education, play a crucial role in this development (Redden, 2019). Guided by learning goals that emphasize critical inquiry and global citizenship and connected to often sophisticated and innovative on-campus classes, faculty-led courses still tend to reproduce traditional power relations once they leave campus. Courses with destinations in the Global North focus on the achievements of Western civilization and feature visits to centers of political and economic power; courses visiting places in the Global South foreground community involvement and service learning. While such courses address the colonialist legacy that undergirds today's globalized world, they also reaffirm a colonialist divide, ascribing civilizational progress and political power to the North and treating poverty, environmental degradation, and political instability as characteristics of the South. Rarely do faculty-led courses examine how the spatial and historical legacy of colonialist power structures continues to play a powerful role in today's processes of globalization.
Drawing upon experience at Agnes Scott College, this essay presents a case study of an integrated and decolonizing approach to global learning. As part of its SUMMIT initiative, Agnes Scott requires all first-year students to take a required, interdisciplinary faculty-led study away course. This introduction to global learning is not a one-time exposure to global perspectives but, rather, the starting point of a comprehensive, scaffolded set of curricular and co-curricular experiences that center on the local impacts and challenges of globalization and migration, and connect with a campus-wide focus on how intersectional effects of race, gender, and sexual identity shape students' learning, and the teaching practices of faculty.
This decolonizing approach to global learning draws on Agnes Scott College's long history of providing access to education abroad for one of the most diverse student demographics in the US. The college enrolls 1,000+ students representing more than forty-three states and territories and close to thirty countries. Over forty percent of the college's students are Pell-eligible and approximately a third are first-generation college students. There is no racial or ethnic majority, with about a third of the students identifying as Black or African American, and a third White. A significant number of students identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community and as belonging to various religious groups. Up to fifteen percent of incoming classes have been international
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students and the college continues its proactive international enrollment efforts despite the current geopolitical climate.
Agnes Scott has always centered study abroad through extensive participation in direct exchanges and a small set of faculty-led courses every year. With its creation of the SUMMIT global learning and leadership development program in 2015, Agnes Scott implemented a strategic and campus-wide focus on global learning that has not just changed study away but has set the stage for ongoing efforts at decolonizing the curriculum. SUMMIT connects global learning with the general education curriculum and with a range of campus-wide co-curricular programs anchored in college-wide global learning outcomes which address global themes, processes, and systems, skills essential for global engagement, and the relationship between dominant and marginalized cultures, subcultures, or groups (see SUMMIT course description below for details).
All students begin their global learning in the first year by taking two semesters of a foursemester language requirement and, in the Spring, a semester-long, four-credit global learning course with a one-week faculty-led immersion experience in March. In subsequent semesters, students expand their global learning by taking at least one required interdisciplinary global elective course. The courses that meet this breadth requirement of general education (SUMMIT in STEM, Social Sciences, or Arts and Humanities) must centrally address power systems that cross or transcend national borders, and at least one must focus on the critical examination of relationships, interactions and outcomes among dominant and marginalized cultures, subcultures, or groups. Faculty members who design these global general education courses go through a rigorous course development sequence where they learn about and share perspectives and teaching activities rooted in critical and decolonizing pedagogical positions developed through feminist, postcolonial, poststructuralist, critical race, critical linguistics, and cultural studies. For instance, faculty preparing to teach Global Journeys courses or Global Study Tour courses engage with Paolo Freire's work on critical pedagogy; with Frantz Fanon's critique of colonialism and racism; with Edward Said's dissection of orientalist thinking; and with the work of feminist geographer Doreen Massey, among others.
Within the same global learning framework, students also have access to a wide range of subsidized semester-long study abroad experiences at affiliated universities and colleges around the world and are encouraged to seek out global internship experiences. Students who take at least two more global elective courses beyond the global breadth requirement and participate in independent study or internship abroad can declare a global specialization, awarding them a global learning medallion and a transcript notification.
Designing Decolonization Through Interdisciplinary Faculty-led Study Away
Global Journeys, the semester-long, four-credit course required of all first-year students, anchors Agnes Scott's approach to decolonized global learning. Every Spring semester, the
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college offers up to fifteen sections. All sections feature a one-week, faculty-led global immersion experience halfway through the semester. Faculty, from across the arts and humanities, social sciences, and STEM areas of the college, design this course as an introduction into interdisciplinary liberal arts learning and as a foundation for a sustained, critical analysis of globalization. The overall course structure adapts college-wide global learning goals for all sections:
Identify, explain, and analyze global themes, processes, and systems: students will be able to identify and describe through at least two different examples how globalization relates to the particular section topic and analyze its impact on the journey's destination.
Critically examine the relationship between dominant and marginalized cultures, subcultures, or groups: using specific examples from their journey's course and the immersion experience, students will be able to compare and contrast the impact global processes have on dominant and marginalized cultures.
Demonstrate knowledge and skills essential for global engagement: students will be able to evaluate some of the historical, political, economic, scientific, and cultural forces that shape global processes and outline topics for future research and analysis; students will develop their ability to engage across differences; based on their interactions with and their learning from community members at the journey's destination, students will critically reflect on their own values, ethics, and assumptions.
Additionally, four common interdisciplinary topical clusters create content cohesion across all sections:
Identity: self/culture/other Imperialism/colonialism/diaspora Globalization Why Travel? The ethics of travel. With the various sections addressing topics and sites as varied as "Music and Identity in the Navajo Nation;" "Cultural and Political Crossroads in Central Europe;" "Fashion and Globalization in Milan, Italy;" "Marine Biology in Croatia," and "Arts and Political Resistance in Chile," the common topics prompt faculty to address how imperialist and colonialist legacies shape the manifestation of globalization regardless of the site and discipline. These common topics also form the basis for the central role of community engagement in course design and itinerary development. The faculty leaders and the college's faculty-led programs coordinator share with the third-party providers the learning goals and common topics. Given the emphasis on the diverging impact of globalization on dominant and marginalized groups, faculty leaders and providers collaborate to identify interlocutors, presenters, and local guides that represent these different voices and perspectives and enable students to engage with the place-based legacy of colonialism.
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Faculty leaders plan their courses and their travel segments in the context of a year-long, multi-part workshop series that enables them to share teaching practices and assignments. Through the discussion of scenarios and peer-to-peer teaching sessions, faculty expand their pedagogical toolkits to integrate the development of intercultural competencies, practices of intentional reflection, and effective on-site teaching activities that allow students to recognize and critique how today's globalized world relies on the spatialized patterns of colonial/colonialist history. A group of fifteen upper-class students are selected to support faculty's work through an annual competitive process. These students participate in a semester-long two-credit internship course where they learn about intercultural pedagogy, group dynamics, and leadership styles. As student leaders they assist the faculty and co-leader throughout the semester and help the firstyear students to establish intentional connections between their learning experiences in this course and their academic plans for the following three years.
The college-wide global learning goals, the common topics with their focus on community engagement, and the intensive course development process provide the foundation for a facultyled study away experience that disrupts the traditional divide into service-learning courses in the Global South, and culture and civilization courses in the Global North. A specific example will offer further evidence.
The semester-long course "Cultural and Political Crossroads in Central Europe," whose travel segment leads students to Hungary, Slovakia, and Austria, addresses the region's cultural, political, and historical developments, with an emphasis on the manifestations of colonialism, and by centering commonly marginalized voices. Students learn about the colonialist and imperialist practices of the Russian, Ottoman, and Habsburg Empires. They also study global systems by taking a closer look at how these particular manifestations of colonialism were connected to the more widely known and taught British colonialist practices that shaped much of the Global South. In addition, by learning about Central Europe as an important point of origin for mid-19th century mass migration to the US, students acquire a richer understanding of the formation of diaspora communities. Case studies telling the experiences of Jewish, Catholic, and Muslim immigrants from this region allow a glimpse into the dynamic and shifting conversations about identity in the US (see Zahra, 2016). In doing so, students recognize larger, global similarities and differences within imperialist and colonialist practices.
Throughout the semester, students engage with the region's history and culture through the perspectives of Austrian, Czech, Slovakian, and Hungarian authors, filmmakers, and artists. For instance, Czech/Austrian writer Franz Kafka's novel The Penal Colony provides a perspective on the common topic of colonialism and, especially, on the violent practices underpinning colonialist regimes (see Goetschel, 2015). Short stories by Roma and Sinti authors offer insights into social inequality and ongoing colonialist practices within today's European Union (Lakatos, 2015). This awareness of imperialist and colonialist structures also shapes the on-site travel
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experience, from the choice of tour guides to the travel infrastructure. Participants in this course do visit some of the well-known tourist sites in cities such as Budapest and Vienna, but they do so by intentionally and critically identifying and deconstructing colonialist power structures. In Budapest, students learn to see the city through the eyes of a representative of the Roma community. In Vienna, students stay in a hotel operated by recently arrived refugees and asylum seekers and learn about the city's history and architecture through the eyes of a recently arrived migrant.
Such forms of intentional community engagement try proactively to undermine a colonialist power structure whereby students from a relatively privileged higher education background "observe" and "study" local people. Additionally, in European destinations the voices and perspectives of migrants and refugees provide a critical lens through which to perceive historical and cultural sites.
Another example of a Global Journeys Course, "Fashion and Globalization in Milan, Italy," emphasizes this shift in perspective by foregrounding the role of migrant North African laborers in the global fashion industry and the cultural appropriation of African design by European and US American fashion companies.22 Such intentional course design foregrounds what historian Dipesh Chakrabarty described as the crucial post-colonialist practice of "`provincializing Europe,' the critical task of exploring how [European] thought, which is now everybody's heritage and which affects us all, may be renewed from and for the margins" (Chakrabarty, 2000: 16). These margins can be situated in the Global South, as demonstrated by Agnes Scott's Global Journeys course "Art and Political Resistance in Chile," where students identify and engage with forms of political agency expressed through combinations of indigenous and international art forms and artistic collaboration. But, as shown in the discussion of the European-focused courses, they also need to be identified in the Global North. Agnes Scott's global learning curriculum explicitly acknowledges that the US is part of the globe and that domestic destinations such as the Navajo Nation, New Orleans, Puerto Rico, or New York allow for an examination of the legacies of colonialism closer to home.
A decolonizing perspective on global learning also requires a critical look at the intersection of climate change and social justice. The unequal ways in which the impact of climate change unfolds across the globe are a legacy of colonialist practices (Bonneuil, 2015). Regardless of their own social backgrounds and history, by participating in study away courses, students participate in an educational system that relies on the ongoing extraction of fossil fuels that enable long-distance flights and on the frequently violent competition for the rare minerals that power the hardware through which we connect virtually. These are global problems that
22 "European Control of African Textile Industry," ANWO, online, available at: https://anwouhuru.org/european-control-of-african-textile-industry/
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must be addressed by global learning curricula. In Global Journeys courses, the common topic of "Ethics of Travel" prompts students to consider their own lifestyle choices and to acknowledge the responsibility that comes with the opportunity to combine traveling and learning; students can participate in a series of competitive sustainability-related education activities in which they learn to calculate and compare the carbon footprint generated by their study abroad travel with global emissions profiles. Students also design ways of mitigating the environmental impact of their travel through lifestyle adaptations such as dietary changes and using public transportation.
Scaffolded reflection activities before, during, and after the travel segment of the course enables students to develop and apply their decolonizing perspective in multiple ways. Before traveling, students engage with the history and culture of the respective destinations, paying specific attention to the contemporary effects of globalization and colonialist legacies. Students across all sections engage with cultural texts, such as Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place, which serve as foundation for discussing the intersecting effects of identity formation, traveling, colonialism, and globalization, and prompt students to reflect on their own involvement in these global power structures.
Post-travel reflections across all sections provide students with a powerful space for comparing and evaluating their learning. On return, students meet with peers to discuss how they engaged with common topics in the respective locations. For instance, students who traveled to New York City, the Navajo Nation, Ecuador, and Central Europe will compare their observations of contemporary global and globalized communities across the boundaries that usually divide the Global South and the Global North. Through these reflections students also develop an understanding that the meaning of place in the context of the global must be seen not as a fixed and bounded geographical entity but, in the words of feminist geographer Doreen Massey, as "particular moments in...intersecting social relations, nets of which have over time been constructed, laid down, interacted with one another, decayed and renewed" (1994: 120). Rather than seeing the global as antithetical to the local, students begin to recognize the global as a crucial matrix for studying and learning about themselves and their more immediate environment in contemporary and historical frameworks.
The cross-sectional reflection sessions draw on and underscore the value of interdisciplinary course design and teaching. Faculty also provide examples of the modes of inquiry common in their fields. By combining these brief forays into critical thinking in the arts and humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences, with a pedagogy rooted in the critique of power, faculty enable students to experience a first-year global learning course as a transformative and impactful introduction into liberal learning.
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Beyond the Classroom
In the same spirit, in the co-curricular arena, Agnes Scott takes advantage of the rich international diversity of the greater Atlanta region for students to explore some of the ongoing local impact of these colonial dynamics, such as the challenges of immigration. For example, students engage in community-based projects with Global Growers, a local organization connecting the agricultural talent of the local refugee community to opportunities in sustainable agriculture. Students also worked with El Refugio, an organization supporting ICE detainees. Opportunities for advocacy, such as a training workshop on Latinx Social Activism in Georgia, allow students to put their learning into action. Guest speakers such as Richard Blanco, who read from his memoir The Prince of Los Cocuyos, and Isabel Wilkerson, who discussed her book The Warmth of Other Suns, connect students' learning with relevant public debates. Films and panels further broaden understanding of these complex topics.
In the area of internationalization research, Agnes Scott College emphasizes culturallyinformed assessment through the use of the Global Pathways Study, GPS (Peifer and Meyer-Lee, 2020). The GPS is a longitudinal, multi-institutional, mixed-method study that examines students' growth and change over their college years as well as one and five years post-graduation. The GPS takes an integrative approach incorporating students' preexisting traits, experiences, and behaviors, institutional variables, and college experiences. The GPS also compiles extensive information on demographics, identity, including ethnic identity, self-efficacy, personality traits, cognitive empathy, academic and occupational outcomes, global experiences, intercultural competence, and mental health. This multi-pronged tool examines the impact of both campus and travel-based exposure to global topics and the intersection between individual and institutional variables. This methodology encourages data-informed decisions that take into account how students are impacted by their experiences.
As a college for women and other marginalized genders, Agnes Scott's approach to both curricular and co-curricular global learning strives to take into account the intersectional impact of race, gender, and sexual identity on global issues. For example, there are numerous predeparture student-led panels on topics like "Black students' perspectives on study abroad," or for Muslim students, or queer students, and these have contributed to sending students for semesters abroad in proportionate diversity. The college undertook extensive responses to the impact of President Trump's travel ban on vulnerable populations and attends to the specific global learning needs and challenges of undocumented students. Both faculty and students have specific preparation to create brave spaces for difficult dialogues to process issues of power and privilege within the context of global learning. The college has sent faculty and staff on their own global learning immersion experiences to support their development of innovative studentcentered pedagogies, as well as to numerous workshops and conferences offered, or by bringing experts to campus. Agnes Scott is learning many lessons for the overall ongoing, never-ending
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project of decolonizing global learning and internationalization which could be transferable outside of the College's current innovation experiment.
WORKS CITED
Blanco, R. (2014): The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood, Harper Collins, New York Bonneuil, C. and J-B, Fressoz (2015): The Shock of the Anthropocene: The Earth, History and Us, Verso, New York Chakrabarty, D. (2000): Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ Fanon, F. (1961): The Wretched of the Earth, Grove Press, New York Freire, P. (2014): Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition, Bloomsbury, New York and London Goetschel, W. (2015): "Franz Kafka's `In Der Strafkolonie',"The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, 90 (2), 3 April: 8186, online, available at: doi:10.1080/00168890.2015.1038495 Kafka, F. (2017 [1941]): In the Penal Colony, Sheba Blake Publishing, New York Kincaid, J. (1988): A Small Place, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY Lakatos, M. (2015): The Color of Smoke, New Europe Books, Williamstown, MA Massey, D. (1994): Space, Place, and Gender, U of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis Peifer, J. and E. Meyer-Lee (2020): "Centering Culture in Intercultural Competence Development Assessment," Global Impact Exchange, Summer: 24-26 Redden, E. (2019): "Study Abroad Numbers Continue to Grow, Driven by Continued Growth in Short-Term Programs," Inside Higher Ed , 20 December, online, available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/11/13/study-abroad-numbers-continue-grow-drivencontinued-growth-short-term-programs Said, E. (1979): Orientalism, Vintage Books, London Wilkerson, I. (2010): The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, Knopf Doubleday, New York Zahra, T. (2016): The Great Departure: Mass Migration from Eastern Europe and the Making of the Free World, Norton, New York
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The middle of what? East of where? The region's very name is based on a European view of the world, and it is a European view of the region that shaped it. The Europeans used ink to draw lines on maps: they were lines that did not exist in reality and created some of the most artificial borders the world has seen. Tim Marshall, Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics The emphasis in this section shifts somewhat to the impact of colonization on specific countries and regions in a variety of historical times and circumstances. The impact of the colonial experience shaped national and regional development, created countries, and deconstructed communities. It has cast a long shadow that continues to impact upon both colonizers and colonized. Colonialism shaped the world and distorted the ways in which people and nations relate to each other. While the great empires belong to history, the legacies remain in the psychologies of the world, have become empires of the mind. Understanding that reality is a necessary prerequisite to seeking to get beyond the burden of those legacies.
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EXPLORING MYTH-MAKING IN PROMOTING AFRICA AND EUROPE TO ALL STUDY ABROAD STUDENTS: THE PROBLEM OF COLONIZATION AND DECOLONIZATION IN MAKING THE FRENCHSPEAKING WORLD
Andrew Palmacci French and World Art Appreciation Teacher, Arlington Catholic High School Graduate Student in International Higher Education, Lesley University
Myths of My Youth
My own journey to study abroad was born somewhere in mid-Middle School, in French class. Glossy, color photos of chateaux in textbooks, a project on oceanographer and environmentalist Jacques Cousteau, and class meal wherein I contributed a salade niçoise, replete with potatoes lovingly chosen with my mother from the supermarket in the apartment complex where I lived in New York City's Lower East Side, far from the fields of the Côte d'Azur. Later, in college, when a friend recommended David Sedaris' memoir, Me Talk Pretty One Day, I could see in mine a similar trajectory to gain the perceived lack of culture by Americans in "Europe" or "France" (Sedaris, 2000).
Expanding the Myth
After I had spent a semester in Paris and taught English in Bordeaux for a year, I embarked on an MA in French at Middlebury College in Vermont. There, I quickly fell in with an international crowd of students and professors, several of whom were from, had lived in, or taught about, through film, theater and literature, African-French or African-Caribbean countries in the francophone world. These included Guadeloupe, Guinea, Cameroon, Benin, Burkina-Faso, and Algeria. These countries are all part of the history of, and were subject to the problematic at best, and brutal at worst, French colonialism, and, in the case of most, decolonization/postcolonialism. Algeria experienced, perhaps, the most ill effects of this process which are still felt in this Maghreb nation and by its descendants living in France.
My experiences in Paris and Bordeaux had opened my eyes to the multicultural and multiracial, if not totally equitable or tolerant, nature of French society, something that intrigued me and reawakened a sense of social justice and appreciation for diversity that was a significant part of my personal and academic schooling up until high school.
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Moving Beyond the Myth of Africa
At Middlebury, I sought to make good on the opportunity I found in living in France for making the learning of French more than just a goal to "talk pretty" but to broach the topic of diversity in education, politics, literature, music, film, and in my personal human relations. Africa became a place of wonder, myth-made in films I watched in a "Cinema of Minority" course on Black African and Caribbean movie-making; in plays I read, analyzed, and performed in a theater class; in becoming acquainted with the novelist Tierno Monenembo (in residence at the French School) through an African literature course, through reading his then just-published, Renaudot Award-winning book Le Roi de Kahel (itself a story of colonialism), and interviewing him about customs in his native Guinea. This exploration of francophone African countries was a result of our work on a play by Koffe Kwahulé, an Ivorian playwright.
In this way, I went from the construct of "Africa," from interactions and cultural artifacts seen in France, to being further attracted by that myth at Middlebury. There, at about the same time, I also engaged in classes and informally in on-campus life in learning about the differences, between African countries, and peoples, tribes within countries. Understanding these tribes and their lands was often more reliable in understanding boundaries than the artificial country lines that colonizers had put in place (Woolf, 2018: 18).
Myths for a New Generation
In my work as a high school French teacher, things have come full circle. I make sure to show a Google Images search of Loire Valley chateaux to my students when we talk of the history of France and Leonardo da Vinci's design for Francois I's Renaissance-era royal palace.
Equally, there are cultural units on Haïti and Sénégal, where I have the students read poems of place like Anthony Phelps' "I come from a faraway island" and show videos of the natural parks outside of Dakar; I present a biography on Amadou and Mariam, the "Magic Couple" from Mali, along with their hit Sénégal Fast Food, hitting on both present tense -ER verb conjugation, and the difficulties of immigration, and the problem of paradise, respectively.
But, so far, I haven't really delved into the specter of colonialism: Why do all these distant countries speak French? Or of the sin of slavery in the Caribbean, brought about by European merchants in trade with West Africa.
Does Myth Become Fetish?
One may ask, and I sometimes ask myself, does showing attractive photos and encouraging students to visit when they get to college amount to unethical myth-making, or worse, fetishization? Unethical, for one, because study abroad, especially for students of color, can be rife with difficulty and far from the comfort and safety of a classroom in Arlington,
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Massachusetts; learning French language and francophone cultures from a textbook and sources culled by me, a white, European-descended American. (Sample, Peterson, Friday, 2018: 16). One of these reasons can be a syndrome of "not for people like me" (Blanton, Roy, 2018).
Does not fully introducing students to the horrors of the slave trade and colonialism in the spread of French across the five continents amount to a sort of whitewashing of history?
The antidote to this is to present both the positives and negatives, the realities, of these constructs (Europe, Africa), in authentic resources such as videos, music, film, news articles, and literature. And it's equally important to present a full picture of colonization and decolonization (colonialism and post-colonialism).
In this manner, a well-rounded picture is shown of particular countries in a way that still engenders the desire to study the language further and, hopefully, to visit.
Allegory of the Cave
A reference from philosophy and literature that I find particularly apt for the process of going from marketing and teaching the constructs of Europe and Africa to informing and enlightening students about individual countries and the "real" experience of living or studying there is Plato's allegory of the cave from his work The Republic. (Plato, Allen, 1965). In Brigham's article in The Journal of Global Citizenship and Education Equity (Brigham, 2011), this idea of the transformative and reflective power of education is invoked through reference to this work. Specifically, the act of living and engaging in education abroad is seen as "exiting the cave," followed by reflecting on how one's perspective has changed, gaining a wider view of the world with the help of faculty in coursework, and study abroad staff in programming. I think this is the hope and ideal of anyone who has gone abroad themselves, experienced a transformation in perspective and is now looking to work or is working in international education.
Latter-Day Caves
Another cave for a white person to exit, and especially a white educator, is white privilege, an issue I have been aware of for some time. The depth of the issue was underscored in a keynote speech by the author of White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo, at the New England White Privilege Symposium at Lesley University in 2019. While I am still grappling with the implications raised in the speech, I recognize, and have recognized from a young age, the importance of being an ally to minorities and people of color throughout the world.
"Beyond Race Awareness: White Racial Identity and Multicultural Teaching" (Lawrence, 1997) uncovers the process of the "awakening" of White teacher education students to their own privilege and the adopting of methods to make their teaching more multicultural to empower students of all colors. I think this, in a way, represents another "exiting of a cave."
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There is also a further awakening in the teaching of French as a world language and the understanding of francophone cultures. La francophonie, the French-speaking world that we know today, came about largely through empire building, enslaving of native peoples, and subjugation of other lands. There is no easy way to explain or show this to students, especially K12 learners, but we must, as world language educators, at least present the facts in articles, documentaries, and post-colonial literature.
Conclusion: Reflecting on Myths and Allegories and Action Plan for Further SelfEducation
As a firm believer in the transformative power of education and study abroad in personal, professional, and academic growth, akin to Plato's allegory of self-discovery, I will continue to teach world languages and cultures and to advocate for international higher and K-12 education. While doing this, it is imperative that I keep in mind my own biases, blinders, and barriers to helping others make their own exit from the cave of monolingualism, monoculturalism to bilingualism and multiculturalism.
This includes teaching and advocating for discovery and learning about customs, contexts, and realities in specific countries and regions, as well as being particularly sensitive to white students' possible approach to Africa as a "wound," or students of color's approach to Africa or other countries as a "homecoming," and to the possible realities of reactions from locals on the ground (Woolf, 2018: 18, 20-21). In addition, the experience of students of color in Europe can be tinged by racism but also encouraged as a historical welcoming spot for racial minorities, so students see themselves as part of a proud tradition of people of color traveling abroad for artistic, political, and academic reasons (for example, James Baldwin or Josephine Baker) (Sample, Peterson, Friday, 2018: 14). I also need to be careful not to fetishize these places by painting them in broad strokes or focusing on only the positive and appealing aspects. This means presenting colonialism and post-colonialism in all its ugliness and problematic nature.
Further, I need to be aware of my own white privilege not only as general good practice, but also an educator; an educator of students of color; an educator of language in a multicultural world; and an educator of a language that spans racial identity, in French and Francophone cultures. As a personal note, I also feel the need and look forward to the opportunity, when working in education abroad in the French-speaking world, to spend time in Africa (North; the Maghreb; and, sub-Saharan, West Africa), and to make personal connections to place and people, possibly through colleagues and professors I met while a graduate student at Middlebury College. In this way, those who helped lead me out of the cave of monolingualism can also lead me out of the cave of myth to a deeper understanding of the particularities of place in Africa.
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WORKS CITED
Blanton, L. and P. Roy (2018): Brief on Global Education and Minority Serving Institutions in US Higher Education, P. Roy, ed., 4 12, Diversity Abroad, online. available at: http://www.pamelaroy.net/uploads/5/0/8/2/50825751/msi_brief_final__web_.pdf Brigham, M. (2011): "Creating a Global Citizen and Assessing Outcomes," online, available at: https://search-ebscohostcom.ezproxyles.flo.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsoai&AN=edsoai.ocn756650202&site=edslive&scope=site Diangelo, R. (2019): White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism, Allen Lane, London Lawrence, S. M. (1997): "Beyond Race Awareness: White Racial Identity and Multicultural Teaching" Journal of Teacher Education, 48(2): 108117, online, available at: doi: 10.1177/0022487197048002004 Monenembo, T. (2008): Le Roi de Kahel, Éditions du Seuil, Paris Plato. (1965): Republic, D. J. Allan ed., Methuen London Sample, M., R. Peterson and N. Friday (2018): "The Education Abroad Experience at Minority Serving Institutions and HBCUs," Brief on Global Education and Minority Serving Institutions in US Higher Education, P. Roy, ed., 1316, Diversity Abroad, online. available at: http://www.pamelaroy.net/uploads/5/0/8/2/50825751/msi_brief_final__web_.pdf Sedaris, D. (2000): Me Talk Pretty One Day, Little, Brown and Company, Boston Woolf, M. (2018): "Africa in the American Mind: The Invention of Space in Study Abroad," Brief on Global Education and Minority Serving Institutions in US Higher Education, P. Roy ed., 1722, Diversity Abroad, online. available at: http://www.pamelaroy.net/uploads/5/0/8/2/50825751/msi_brief_final__web_.pdf
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CRICKET, COAL, AND COLONIALISM
Michael Woolf CAPA: The Global Education Network
Introduction: Making Connections
Appropriation of the wealth of others is a prime motivation in the imperial enterprise. It is not, however, the sole factor in a complex conjunction of causes and consequences. In one form or another, the notion that that there are perceptible stages of "civilization," aligned with religion and/or race, offered a justification for the exercise of colonial authority. In a model, which envisaged movement along a spectrum towards "progress," missionaries and teachers followed in the footsteps of military and commercial power. Paternalism paradoxically coexisted with repression.
European motivations were rarely single or simple. Agencies of colonialism ranged from purely commercial to ostensibly religious and idealist. They also changed; in India, the transition to British government control encompassed the commercial interests of the East India Company but were not solely defined by them. David Livingstone (1813 1873), explorer and missionary, summarized the often paradoxical roots of Empire: "I go back to Africa to try and make an open path for Commerce and Christianity" (University of Cambridge, 5 December 1857, cited Brown, 2008: 203). Thomas Pakenham summarized Livingstone's view of British imperialism as: "a triple alliance of Mammon, God and social progress" (Pakenham, 2004: xxiv). The pursuit of wealth coexisted with evangelical enthusiasm.
Extractive colonialism enabled European countries to exploit natural resources while creating markets for their own goods. The diamond mines of Africa, and the sugar cane plantations of the West Indies, for example, offered riches that primarily funded European rather than local development. Extracting that wealth required cheap labor--the cheapest was supplied by slavery and supplemented by indentured workers of Indian and Chinese origin.
Exploration and the attraction of the exotic was also a motivation in some earlier examples of European colonial adventures. During the reign of the English Queen Elizabeth 1st (1533 -1603), officially sanctioned piracy financed the voyages of Francis Drake (c 1540- 1596). As well as trading slaves and raiding Spanish shipping for treasure, Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe in a single voyage (1577-1580). In the ages of discovery, the functions of explorer, merchant, and buccaneer were interwoven.
Global politics and power struggles between European nations was another driver of colonization, particularly in the nineteenth century. In pursuit of prestige and control, locations
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were occupied and defended not necessarily for intrinsic value but because of their strategic geographical position.
Another objective was to bring a version of "civilization" to indigenous populations based upon racial, developmental, or religious superiority. By way of example, Spanish expansion, from 1478 for three centuries, aligned military power with religious conviction as the Inquisition spread doleful intolerance across the world. The British empire embraced a perverse sense of racial superiority enhanced by popular notions of eugenics and social Darwinism. By the late nineteenth century, a more quasi-idealistic paternalism emerged. Missionaries carried bibles; colonial administrators carried cricket bats and balls, the paraphernalia of the game. These were tools of "evangelical colonialism" to be employed in the task of civilizing the "primitive."
Ideology and emotion permeate the ways in which we think about colonialism. History, seen through bifurcated lenses as white-black, bad-good, immoral-moral, obscures nuances and ambiguities. A task, then, is to render the topic opaque. Bad people have done good things and good people, bad. Things are not simply good or simply bad, wholly true, or wholly untrue. The spirit of Harold Pinter informs these arguments:
There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false" (Pinter, 2005). In pursuit of complexity, I contrast and compare two places far from each other in every respect. Nevertheless, the West Indies and Appalachia demonstrate how stereotyped identities are invented to validate inequities, The West Indies is a loose collection of independent countries with as many differences as similarities. Appalachia is a region with fluid, invented borders, a paradoxical landscape made by myth and forged in imaginations in tension with each other. Cricket in the West Indies and coal in Appalachia offer ways of exploring the impacts of colonialism that connect and disconnect, that demonstrate similarities and distinctions. A cricket ball and a lump of coal are concrete objects of ambiguous significance that take us beyond the constrictions of ideology and the tyranny of emotion.
It's Not Cricket: Post-colonialism in the West Indies
Cricket is subject to much ridicule. American comedian and actor Robin Williams called it "baseball on Valium." In its purest international format, it is scheduled to last for five days. A draw is not an unusual result because the contest cannot be resolved in that time. A commentator in 2018, observing what he felt was undue haste in an England versus Australia match, noted that: "This game is going at 100 miles an hour. It'll be over in two or three days at this rate." No cricket aficionado found this proposition risible.
This might suggest that cricket is not a matter to be taken seriously: an English eccentricity mysteriously adopted in those parts of the world oddly infected by what Rudyard
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Kipling called "flannelled fools" (1902). Those were the cricket-loving young men, mostly from elite Public schools 23 like Eton or Harrow and the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, who administered the British Empire in its heyday. It would be an error, however, to underestimate the significance of the sport in the legacy of evangelical colonialism.
Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Siri Lanka, West Indies, and Zimbabwe are very diverse locations though most have English as one of their official languages. They were also, with varying levels of status, colonies within the British Empire.24 Collectively, with England, they make up the International Cricket Council (ICC), the global governing body of the sport, founded in 1909 as the Imperial Cricket Conference by Australia, England, and South Africa. There are two major organizations with origins in British colonial history that persist into the present: the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of countries, and the ICC. This institutional legacy signifies an historical intimacy between cricket and empire.
The West Indies exemplifies a curious legacy of colonialism. Fittingly the name itself derives from a mistake. Columbus believed that he had reached the Indies, islands southwest of India. It is also assumed that the ex-British colonies are English-speaking, Christian, with Black African origins. The realities are far more complex. The multiethnic nature of many of the islands means that African roots are not a unifying force. Black diaspora consciousness impacts on sections of the population in Rastafarianism, politics, and cultural production. However, as regional identity it creates what Anton Allahar calls "erased peoples" (2005: 126). As Simon Lister notes: "There had been a strong Indo-Caribbean culture in the West Indies for 150 years. Indians are the largest single ethnic group in Guyana and Trinidad" (2015: 311).25
The West Indies lacks ethnic or religious cohesion. About half of the population of Trinidad and Tobago are Hindu. The islands are spread out over a thousand miles, with distinctive identities, and, sometimes, the insularity of an island ethos.26 The British made a futile attempt to create a national structure through the short-lived West Indies Federation (19581962). There are only two surviving transnational, postcolonial institutions: The University of the
23 An explanation is called for. Public schools in England are, perversely, private elite schools where cricket was used to teach young men the disciplines of order, courage, and conformity. The word "Public" was used to distinguish them from Church schools at the time of their foundation. Winchester was founded in 1382, Eton in 1440, Harrow in 1572.
24 The West Indies is an exception in that it is not a single country, but a diverse set of independent nations colonized by Britain and other European states.
25 In Trinidad and Tobago, for example, about half of the estimated population of 1,400,000 is of East Indian origin and Hindu in religion (World Population Review, February 2020. https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/trinidad-and-tobago-population/ ).
26 Guyana is the only nation within the West Indies that is not an island. It adjoins the northern mainland of South America and is the only English-speaking country in South America.
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West Indies and the cricket team. Of the two, ironically, the greatest popular cohesive force is cricket, a legacy of colonialism.
Colonial administrators imported cricket for recreation and out of nostalgia for home. In the literature of geographical displacement, cricket symbolizes a constructed notion of Englishness. In "Dreamers," the poet Siegfried Sassoon contrasts deprivation in the trenches of WWI with dreams that reconnect the soldiers to home:
I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats, And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain, Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats (Sassoon, 2007 [1918]: 8). Cricket also carried a coded behavioral message intended to inculcate upper class British values. The historian Cecil Headlam was in the "Oxford Authentics," a team that toured India in 1902-1903, and precisely understood that role: "Cricket unites...the rulers and the ruled. It also provides a moral training, an education in pluck and nerve, and self-restraint, far more valuable to the character of the ordinary native than the mere learning by heart of a play by Shakespeare or an essay by Macaulay" (cited Guha, 1997: 177). Prashant Kidambi argued that the "sport forged the imagined communities of empire and nation" (2019: xii). Cricket taught restraint and hierarchy; the authority of the umpire was unchallenged by gentlemen players. The phrases "play the game" and "it's not cricket" relate to an ethical system. As a metaphor, "play the game" is an injunction to act within an unspoken, inherited code based around ideas of fairness, ironic in the colonial context perhaps. "It's not cricket" indicates that actions outside of that code are unacceptably deviant.
Resistance
Cricket was successfully implanted in most of the colonies of the British Empire and became popular with the residents or, at least, with those with time to engage in the game. It became a badge of identity for local elites. In appropriating the game, a hierarchy emerged that was, ironically, defined through the standards of the occupiers. Significantly, however, as expertise in the game increased, it also evolved as a symbolic form of bloodless resistance. Postindependence, a great West Indian team emerged that dominated world cricket for almost 20 years, through the 1970s and 1980s. Fast bowler Michael Holding gained the nickname, Whispering Death.
Before the emergence of that team, the sport in the region was frequently described as "calypso cricket." There were great individuals, but the perception was that there was an innate lack of seriousness or team cohesion. It aligned with a stereotype of West Indian identity: cheerful but irresponsible, lovable but lax, enjoyable but unprofessional. Factors such as a lack of funding, significant distances between the countries, low wages paid, and the absence of an effective infrastructure which could improve young players were subsumed in a racially informed
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stereotype. The idea of "calypso cricket" implied that the team played for fun and without discipline because it was their nature to do so.
The English captain Tony Greig, prior to the 1976 West Indian tour of England, infamously said "You must remember that the West Indians, these guys, if they get on top are magnificent cricketers. But if they're down, they grovel, and I intend...to make them grovel" (Riley, 2010). That Greig was born in South Africa intensified racial innuendoes. "Grovel" implied subservience, while "these guys" imposed a collective racial identity, although the team included players of Indian descent. A stupid, incendiary remark reverberated throughout the West Indian team as their captain, Vivian Richards, noted:
Guys felt very belittled at the time, they felt what was said wasn't about the sport itself, it was more personal than anything else. We felt it was derogatory especially since Greig came from South Africa, a country under apartheid...let them grovel, especially coming with a South African accent was hurting (Riley, 2010). This event highlighted the political significance of that team within West Indian postcolonial history. Stevan Riley's film Fire in Babylon demonstrates that the players were fully aware of the implications. They were, as Michael Holding said, "representing something more significant than cricket." Vivian Richards said: "We had a mission... we believe in ourselves. We are just as good as anyone." The batsman Gordon Greenidge put it succinctly: "A group of Black guys being successful...people couldn't believe it was possible." The team celebrated "victory against our colonial masters."27 A considerable body of literature examines the role of cricket in postcolonial narratives. In a classic work, Beyond a Boundary (1963), the West Indian historian, activist, and commentator C. L. R. James (19011989) credits the emergence of a postcolonial West Indian sensibility to the pride taken in the cricket team; the unifying factor in a fragmented group of nations. National pride was reclaimed from imposed subservience. The crowds of fans from India, Australia, the West Indies, South Africa and elsewhere who celebrate a victory over England experience emotional independence. Throughout much of the British empire, cricket became the means by which some sense of national identity was created and sustained. In Pakistan, as in the West Indies, it was arguably the primary, perhaps the only, expression of that identity: "As most of the country fell apart, cricket was one of the few elements of Pakistani life that seemed to guarantee unity and offer triumph" (Oborne, 2004: 76). Similarly, "for many Indians, their cricket team is the nation...a symbol of national unity" (Kidambi, 2019: viii).
27 The Hindi film Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) presents a fictionalized victory for the colonized in a cricket match against the colonizers in rural India in 1893. It further demonstrates the power of cricket as a mode of resistance. Available with subtitles at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTNZ6248tBM
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There is an obvious irony in that cricket, a legacy of colonialism, became a symbol of resistance to colonialism. In the context of India, Kidambi argues that "by a curious historical twist, a sport that defined the identity of the former colonizers is now the ruling passion of the country that they conquered" (2019: vii).
Of course, postcolonialism must be studied from wider perspectives that go far beyond what happens on a cricket pitch. However, even if you cannot stand the game and are bemused by the rules, it is important to understand that a match between England and the West Indies, or India, or Pakistan is much more than a sporting contest. It is an assertion of national identity and a means of subverting the idea of innate racial superiority of white over black.
Players perform together in various international leagues and competitions, but when they represent their countries, they participate in a contest that reflects connection and disconnection, a colonial history, and postcolonial consciousness. In short, the narrative of postcolonialism is incomplete without an understanding of that bizarre, bewildering, thing we call cricket.
The Strange Case of Appalachia
The colonization of the West Indies was driven by sugar cane. Coal created a quasi-colony in the strange case of strange Appalachia. Appalachia simultaneously resides within and outside of America. In one version of the region, it is uniquely connected to myths of national origin wherein the perceived simplicity of frontier values persists, as if immune from the imperatives of modern America. It is also perceived as primitive space within which violence is unrestrained by the norms and conventions of the developed world: a paradoxical combination of Rousseau and Hobbes, simultaneously marginalized, demonized, and romanticized. Appalachia is created at the intersection of mind, myth, and history, ambiguous space subject to invention and reinvention.
Separation and isolation28 are critical elements in the idea of Appalachia as a quasicolony. The region is defined as "primitive" and, therefore, in need of improvement. The commercial motivation of outside companies and agencies are, as in the case of the West Indies, justified by an apparent commitment to a form of evangelical colonialism: industrial, social, and religious development. The residents of Appalachia, conceived of as mostly white in the popular imagination, were "a breed apart" (Isenberg, 2017: 226), endowed with degenerate innate characteristics. As the ex-slaves in the West Indies were infantilized and rendered racially inferior by the English masters, so white Appalachians were racialized: "ignorant and full of superstition
28 That "isolation" is part of a stereotypical construct. As Richard Drake notes, "By 1890, the Appalachian area with its great mineral wealth had been integrated into the nation's transportation system by a series of rail corridors" (Drake, 2001: 133). It is true, however, that the miners and their families were not beneficiaries of these systems of mobility; they were designed to serve capital not people.
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and bloodshed and murder and liquor and hook-worm and ghosts and early deaths" (Dickey, 2005: 42).
The stereotypical figure of the hillbilly is at the center of the ways in which Appalachia is imagined. The figure is not a product of social and economic conditions but representative of innate, inherited, ethnic degeneracy. Paradoxically this coexists with the converse stereotype of connection with myths of American origin. The figure embodies the ambiguous ways in which rural space is represented both as innocent and pure and as a place of dark, unfathomable danger. This traditional archetype is found throughout European literature from, for example, Dante's The Divine Comedy (1320) to the Brothers Grimm's Hansel and Gretel (1812). It persists not only in the gothic excess of Deliverance but also in the more jocular context of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods: "The woods were full of peril--rattlesnakes and water moccasins and nests of copperheads, bobcats, bears, coyotes, wolves and wild boar; loony hillbillies destabilized by gross quantities of impure corn liquor and generations of profoundly unbiblical sex" (Bryson, 2015 [1997]: 12).
The Politics of Naming
Names associated with Appalachia represent stereotypical denigration at the expense of history. The term hillbilly probably has roots in Ulster Protestantism support for King William, but any sense of a historical context has long been replaced by derogatory associations, a combination of stupidity and violence. The diminutive form also serves to infantilize and ridicule.
Popular representations enforce this stereotype. Perhaps the most well-known is Li'l Abner in the long-running cartoon by Al Capp (19091979). Abner lived with a family of "loveable" grotesques in the fictional Appalachian village of Dogpatch. The location expresses recurrent animalistic associations. Abner remained 19 years old throughout, and like the other males, he was lazy, ill-educated, and dim-witted. The Beverley Hillbillies offered a slightly more nuanced picture in that it may be argued that the simplicity of the Clampetts satirize urban values.
However well-intentioned the creators of Abner, Beverley Hillbillies, and many others, may (or may not) have been, they employ reductive and demeaning stereotypes. Sensitivity towards minorities has not impacted upon the image of the hillbilly. A mainstream representation of Blacks or Jews that drew upon prejudicial stereotypes would cause major outrage. The hillbilly, in contrast, is consistently demonized and ridiculed. Terror and laughter coexist.
The hillbilly identity has also ironically been appropriated in Appalachia as a form of marketable commodity, simultaneously performed and subverted, most famously and successfully by Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton. Stereotypes of Appalachia are also sold as a regional brand; redneck resorts and hillbilly experiences lure tourists to a commercialized and sanitized version of American roots.
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Redneck is an even clearer example of a term divorced from history. Only the pejorative meaning persists. However, it also symbolized the miners' struggle to unionize in the early 1920s, as described by Robert Shogan: "Most took to...tying around their necks a red bandana, which soon became the hallmark of the insurgent army, leading both friends and foes to refer to them as `rednecks'" (Shogan, 2004: 169). A symbol of collective resistance became instead a term that, like hillbilly, indicated naivety and stupidity. A history of labor activism is largely erased, and identity is defined through the disdain of outsiders.
Interlocking, overlapping, contradictory versions are enforced by the tendency to treat the large and varied region of Appalachia as if it were a single entity. In practice, distinct areas have diverse geographical features and historical experiences. The transformation of people into types fails to recognize that Appalachia is complex space; contested identities coexist with potent myths and narratives in conflict.
J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy is, as the title suggests, a lament for a version of the past. Vance asserts that "the culture of Greater Appalachia is remarkably cohesive" (Vance, 2017: 4) and "blended a robust sense of honor, a devotion to family, and bizarre sexism" (41). Elizabeth Catte offers an impassioned critique in What You are Getting Wrong About Appalachia: "Far from being monolithic, helpless and deranged...Appalachia is radical and diverse" (Catte, 2018: 15). Catte also writes out of anger: "There are people here who deserve...liberation from their pain and shame, to see their lives and history as something other than an incoherent parade of destruction and wretchedness" (52). Of Hillbilly Elegy, she says: "This is how places and people become caricatures of themselves" (60), and that Vance "got famous by selling cheap stereotypes" (93).
Appalachia is both geographical space and a set of ideas. In that respect, it resonates with other mythologized spaces. The west (in lower case) is simply a direction dependent on the perspective from which it is viewed. In contrast, the American West is highly mythologized space which informs national narratives and relates to concepts of Manifest Destiny and US exceptionalism. Similarly, in a global context, east (in lower case) is simply a direction that depends upon your location. It is simultaneously the Orient: a dreamed landscape within which we construct the exotic.
Many versions of Appalachia focus on deprivation and poverty. For a myriad of reasons, not least because it has not benefited from its own natural resources, the region has lagged behind the rest of America: "Appalachia's poverty rate continues to be higher than the rest of the country" (Appalachian Regional Commission, 20 August, 2018). However, in the popular imagination, social and economic difficulties are rarely seen as a consequence of appropriation and destruction of physical and social environments. They are instead symbols of innate deficiencies. Appalachia is defined by poverty, and poverty by Appalachia.
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That simplistic idea coexists with an alternative and equally reductive myth expressed by, among many others, Alan Lomax in his film Appalachian Journey (1991): "People came bearing strains of the Norse adventurer, the Celtic fantasy, and of the Protestant Revolution that helped to free mankind from the old tyrannies of kings and emperors." The region is "a main source of the American imagination." Appalachia, thus, represents "a closeness to nature and the land; authenticity and purity" (Harkins, 2004: 6); and, simultaneously, the obverse of that myth: "inbreeding, domestic violence...primitiveness, savagery" (Harkins, 2004: 7).
This reenacts archetypal ambiguities in the urban-rural divide. In one version, city life is pressured, competitive, self-centered, hostile, and inhospitable. In contrast, rural space represents innocence and a means of reconnecting with nature. In the other, the city offers order, modernity, and protection from the dark dangers lurking in wild, undeveloped spaces. Two symbolic journeys, both envisaged in James Dickey's novel Deliverance, emerge. In the first, the natural world restores protagonists to a form of Edenic innocence wherein they rediscover values lost in urban environments. In the second, protagonists enter what they imagine is a haven of unspoiled space and discover nightmarish primitivism. "Development" represents improvement and, conversely, corruption.
Anticolonial Struggles
Appalachia is more than the sum of its stereotypes. The history of the region is full of rebellion and rebels, from mine wars to roving pickets, Mother Jones to Widow Combs, Black Lung and Brown Lung movements. Appalachians have resisted the domination of mining companies and, in response, have been characterized as innately violent and ignorant. The assumption is that these Appalachians, much like primitive Africans, have to be taught how to enter into the developed world and, thus, to accept subservience to the power of external corporate interests.
Resistance to this quasi-colonialism is exemplified by the Battle of Blair Mountain (25th August to the 2nd of September 1921). Around 10,000 miners participated in "the largest example of class war in US history" (Nida, 2015):
Far from being enslaved mules or ghostly souls who acquiesced their damned fate, coal miners in the region launched one of the most dramatic rebellions in American history...Appalachian coal miners turned the Battle of Blair Mountain into the largest armed insurrection in the US since the Civil War (Biggers, 2006: 157). However, the image of striking miners at war with agents of corporate capitalism sits uneasily with the idea of a classless America. That the miners were a multiethnic force, including Italian immigrants and African Americans, contradicts the notion of white Appalachia. Demonstration of collective, working-class solidarity plays little or no part in the formation of American national myths.
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The Battle of Blair Mountain was an act of anti-colonial resistance; it is largely hidden history.
I Owe My Soul to the Company Store
The history of Appalachia is profoundly linked to the exploitation of its natural resources by outside corporations. The American Association based in London was one of the largest of these absentee companies. On May 16, 1973, Ralph Nader wrote to Sir Denys Flowerdew Lawson, Chairman of the American Association:
The American Association controls...over one hundred square miles of coal-rich land in Appalachian Mountains... his region is famous for a sad paradox: human misery and abject poverty atop and amidst some of the world's most abundant mineral deposits. The explanation is regrettably simple. Appalachia is a colony. The people there do not own the wealth. Large outside corporations like the American Association do (cited Lewis, 1978: 72). Several mechanisms ensured social control of the colonized. The foremost was the creation of towns in which miners and their families were dependent on the company for many aspects of their lives. Their housing was owned by the company; they were frequently paid in "scrip," a form of currency that could only be spent at the company store. The system ensured that it became almost impossible to acquire savings and, therefore, some level of independence. Carl Sandburg's ballad "Company Town" describes the consequent dependency: You live in a company house, You go to a company school, You work for this company, According to company rules. You all drink company water And all use company lights, The company preacher teaches us, What the company thinks is right (cited in Shogan, 2004: 33). A similar scenario is expressed in Merle Travis's song "Sixteen Tons": You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store (1946). Direct control was exercised through violence and intimidation, particularly in the first two decades of the twentieth century. The Sheriff of Logan County, Don Chafin, paid by the mine operators to repress union activists, asserted that "there is no law in West Virginia except the law
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of the coal operators" (cited Shogan, 2004: 5). The law and the interests of the mine owners were indistinguishable. Mine owners employed a private army, the Baldwin-Felts agency, to subdue resistance: "the agency had gained a nationwide reputation for its dedication to union busting" (Shogan, 2004: 18).
Mine owners also exploited the "Red Scare" that followed the emergence of the Soviet Union. Leaders of the labor movement were characterized as alien outsiders determined to bring class warfare and chaos to the region. Many labor leaders in the first decades of the 20th century did indeed have their origins in foreign lands. Samuel Gompers (18501924), the founder and president of the American Federation of Labor, was a Jew born in the East End of London. Eugene Debs (18551926), one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World, was the son of French immigrants. Joe Hill (18791915) was born Joel Emmanuel Hagglund in Sweden. Mary "Mother" Jones (18371930) was born in Cork, Ireland.
Furthermore, there was no tradition of political collectivism. Many miners saw themselves as independent agents. The rural economy was based around "subsistence-barter and borrow" farming (Salstrom, 1994: 56) which encouraged neighborhood cooperation but was also driven by an entrepreneurial ethos. Class consciousness and collective action were not part of the fabric of social organization.
In another sense, there is something un-American in the idea of class conflict. It conflicts with a dominant myth in which, through hard work and diligence, it is possible to rise above poverty, to share in an "American Dream." However, the hidden history of Appalachia subverts that archetype. "Order" is less a social good than a system of control. External powers stifle opportunity. Radical traditions of resistance reflect an ongoing struggle for independence and self-determination.29
However, other perspectives complicate that view of Appalachia. Undoubtedly industrialization brought environmental and social damage: natural devastation, the erosion of community, and the undermining of traditional lifestyles. Nevertheless, there is a danger in romanticizing "authentic" Appalachia. Pre-industrial Appalachia was not Arcadia for many but a place in which life was difficult; poverty was the reality of many subsistence farmers; access to medical services and educational opportunities were limited. Life was not lived in an Edenic paradise.
Crandall Shifflett contests a binary distinction between rural bliss and industrial degradation. He asserts that:
29 A tradition of resistance persists in community activism in contemporary Appalachia. The work of The Highlander Center directly undermines the racist, reactionary stereotype: "We develop leadership and help create and support strong, democratic organizations that work for justice, equality and sustainability...to build broad movements for social, economic and restorative environmental change." https://www.highlandercenter.org/
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Most miners' families appear to have preferred the coal town to the world they had left...They harbored few misconceptions about the countryside and life on the farm which has been and continues to be idealized in American writing as a wholesome, harmonious, burden-free way of life. In fact, life in the countryside deteriorated in the nineteenth century into a desperate struggle to make a living (Shifflett, 1986: 50). The impact of the dominance of coal was certainly deeply damaging but it was not only damaging. The enigmas of Appalachia undermine simplistic interpretations.
Conclusion: Unearthing Paradox
Cricket and coal offer specific insights into the paradoxes of colonial and postcolonial narratives. "Post" in post-colonialism does not mean after. Colonialism persists in concrete consequences, institutions, edifices, and behaviors.
Regional identity within the West Indies is fragile in political and economic terms. West Indian immigrants to the UK in the 1950s built some sense of cohesion as a reaction to prejudice and discrimination that knew nothing of the nuances that distinguished Jamaica from Trinidad or Guyana from Barbados. The defining factor was blackness. However, the force that unifies identity across the islands, and with West Indian emigrants, is perceptibly expressed in support for the cricket team. Since May 2019, thirty-five players from four different countries and two island conglomerates have represented the West Indies.30 British colonialism failed to bring these disparate entities together in political institutions and, at the same time, forged a symbolic unity through cricket.
Appalachian identity is also a product of narratives in apparent contradiction. In the first, the region has suffered from exploitation by external agencies. Environmental damage within Appalachia is a visible legacy. At the same time, Appalachia is envisaged as unspoiled space uniquely connected to the origins of the nation. As a consequence, an Appalachian trail was created that conforms to those expectations by avoiding industrial blight. Even when it opened in August 1937: "It fell short of the actual southern end of the Appalachian Mountain chain by 150 miles and the of the northern end by nearly 700" (Bryson, 2015: 43). By 1950 the Trail had been moved again to avoid increasing degradation of the landscape: "Overdevelopment...necessitated...moving the start to...the protected wilderness of the
30 Nine from Barbados, ten from Trinidad and Tobago, six from Jamaica, four from Guyana, two from the Windward Islands, and five from the Leeward Islands. Information extracted from a variety of sources including West Indies Cricket Board and ESPN and current as of 2020: https://www.google.com/search?q=west+indian++players&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=sEjdOLFDvt1 j7M%252CvFnBzjVHPsN3EM%252C%252Fm%252F098knd&vet=1&usg=AI4_kRH_IBfyXtMeL7aalnNio_x1dLZNg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwilgOuSu8zqAhW7WxUIHZiRD68Q_B0wE3oECAkQ Aw&biw=1200&bih=655&dpr=1.5#imgrc=sEjdOLFDvt1j7M https://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/country.html?country=4
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Chattahooche National Forest" (Bryson, 2015: 44). The Appalachian Trail is an invention that
represents one idea of the region by obscuring another.
West Indian and Appalachian identities were forged in colonial experience. The struggle
to emerge from under that burden demonstrates the persistence of that legacy. Narratives of
coal and cricket reveal layers of ambiguity buried under the weight of stereotype and myth. We
are, therefore, necessarily archaeologists seeking to unearth complex realities, erased histories,
silenced voices.
WORKS CITED
Allahar, A. (2005): "Identity and Erasure: Finding the Elusive Caribbean," Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 79, October, 125 134 The Appalachian Regional Commission (2019): online, available at: https://www.arc.gov/appalachian_region/TheAppalachianRegion.asp Biggers, J. (2006): The USA of Appalachia: How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture and Enlightenment to America, Counterpoint, Berkeley Branscome, J. (1976): Annihilating the Hillbilly, Appalachian Press, Huntington, West Virginia Brown, S. J. (2008): Providence and Empire: Religion, Politics and Society in the United Kingdom, 1815 1914, Pearson Education, Harlow Bryson, B. (2015 [1997]): A Walk in the Woods, Transworld Books, London Catte, E. (2018): What you are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, Belt Publishing, Cleveland, Ohio Dickey, J. (2005 [1970]): Deliverance, Bloomsbury, London Drake, R. B. (2001): A History of Appalachia, University of Kentucky Press, Lexington Gaventa, J. (1980): Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley, Clarendon Press, Oxford Guha, R. (1997): "Cricket, Caste, Community, Colonialism: The Politics of a Great Game," The International Journal of the History of Sport, April, 1(14): 174- 183 Isenberg, N. (2017): White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, Atlantic Books, London James, C. L. R. (1963): Beyond a Boundary, Hutchinson, London Kidambi, P. (2019): Cricket Country: An Indian Odyssey in the Age of Empire, Oxford University Press, Oxford Lewis, H. M., L. Johnson, and D. Askins eds., (1978): Colonialism in Modern America: The Appalachian Case, 1-11, Appalachian Consortium Press, Boone, NC Lewis, H. M. (1978): "Introduction: The Colony of Appalachia," in H. M. Lewis, L. Johnson, and D. Askins eds., Colonialism in Modern America: The Appalachian Case, 1 -11, Appalachian Consortium Press, Boone, NC Lister, S. (2015): Fire in Babylon: How the West Indies Cricket Team Brought a People to its Feet, Yellow Jersey Press, London Nader, R. (1973:) Letter to Sir Denys Flowerdew Lowson in H. M. Lewis, L. Johnson, and D. Askins eds., (1978): Colonialism in Modern America: The Appalachian Case, 16 May, 72, Appalachian Consortium Press, Boone, NC Nida, B. (2015): "Battle of Blair Mountain," 4 September, online, available at: https://www.redneckrevolt.org/single-post/2016/07/24/BATTLE-OF-BLAIR-MOUNTAIN Oborne, P. (2004): Wounded Tiger: The History of Cricket in Pakistan, Simon and Schuster, London Pakenham, T. (1994): The Scramble for Africa, Abacus Books, London Pinter, H. (2005): Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech, online, available at: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2005/pinter/25621-harold-pinter-nobel-lecture-2005/ Riley, S. dir., (2010): Fire in Babylon, online, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYoLFTZZSto
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Salstrom, P. (1994): Appalachia's Path to Dependency: Rethinking a Region's Economic History, 17301940, The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington Sassoon, S. (2007): The War Poems of Siegfried Sassoon, Echo Library, Teddington Shifflett, C. (1986): "Coal Towns: The Company Mining Towns and Appalachian History," in L. Jones ed., Reshaping the Image of Appalachia, 46 51, Berea Appalachian Center, Berea Kentucky, Shogan, R. (2004): The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America's Largest Labor Uprising, Basic Books, New York Stoll, S. (2017): Ramp Hollow: The Ordeal of Appalachia, Hill and Wang, New York Vance, J.D. (2016): Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, William Collins, London World Population Review (2020): February, online, available at: https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/
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AGAINST LINGUISTIC IMPERIALISM: A CASE FOR MORE LINGUISTICALLY INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE STANDARDS AND REQUIREMENTS WITHIN THE DISCOURSE OF ACADEMIA
Achala K. Dissanayake CINEC Campus, Colombo, Sri Lanka University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
Introduction
As an academic hailing from a South Asian country where English is spoken as a second language, if I wish to pursue higher studies in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, I will be required to furnish a certificate to prove that my English language proficiency level is on par with the language requirements of the university for which I am applying. One of those certifications is the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) which would rate my proficiency level in the English language along a nine-point scale, nine representing the "Expert User" category which is considered equal to "native-like speaker." As an IELTS test taker, I will have to answer questions set by "testing specialists in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US" (British Council, 2019: 1). I would also be warned that if, in the writing component of the test, I use any features of Sri Lankan English (SLE), or any variety of English other than British English (BrE) or American English (AmE) "in terms of spelling, grammar and choice of words," I would be penalized. In the Listening component of the test, I would be tested on my ability to comprehend "a mix of native speaker accents from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and US" (British Council, 2019: 13). This is in spite of the fact that, within the academic discourse, the range of accents, to which I will be exposed in a foreign country, will be much wider than those above which only contain the dominant varieties of English.
On the one hand, these language requirements, plus the areas on which the language test focuses, are practical; if an academic wishes to engage in a course of study in the English medium in a country where English is spoken as the native language, s/he would definitely require a particular proficiency level in the medium in which the course is taught. On the other hand, one can argue that the penalization of the use of non-dominant varieties of English in an IELTS examination is linguistic imperialism. At a moment when academia is characterized by cultural and linguistic diversity and English is "less a language than a basic academic skill for many users around the world... an international lingua franca of research and scholarship" (Hyland, 2009: 4), the question as to why students are required to display their ability to adequately perform using only dominant varieties of English, is a source of bafflement. More significantly, the IELTS examination, along with many other language tests, contributes to gate
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keeping practices that ensure the exclusion from the realm of academia of speakers of "nonstandard" varieties of English and their potential contribution to knowledge.
Language tests of this nature are also an example of when "knowledges, academic practices and education systems" are pervaded with "colonial and neocolonial ideologies." IELTS examinations are a component of "Western models of education" which constitute Western conceptions of curriculum, pedagogy, and language (Hickling-Hudson, Matthews, Woods, 2001: 7). Such Western education models are similar to the one that existed in Kenya in 1952, as recollected by Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o (2004): a system that valued and rewarded the use of accurate English but humiliated and corporally punished the students who used their local language, Gikuyu, in school. High school and university entrance required high proficiency in English. The differences that exist between then and now is that no one is physically punished anymore. They are punished, nevertheless, in the form of a reduction of marks that leads to them being deemed unworthy of membership within academia. The second difference is that Thiongo's recollection is almost seventy years old. In the twenty-first century, we live amidst similar power inequalities, subjugation based on language. Thus, linguistic preference in academia, when looked at from a postcolonial perspective, calls for the revision of such examinations like IELTS to adjust according to the reality of the nature of the usage of English around the world as highlighted in theories such as World Englishes (WE) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). This paper argues for linguistic equality within the academic discourse in the form of the acceptance of different varieties of English in academic contexts.
The first section of the paper introduces the two different theoretical perspectives of WE and ELF which argue in favor of the inclusion of varieties of English in academic writing. Next, it discusses the disputed terms of "native speaker" and "English-speaking countries" with specific reference to the text IELTS: Guide for Teachers (British Council, 2019). Then, the perpetuation of monolingual practices through pedagogies is highlighted. Subsequently, whether the refusal to accept varieties of English in academic contexts is deliberate or accidental is discussed. Finally, attention is given to literature that has highlighted how this exclusion based on language/varieties of English can be overcome.
World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca in Academic Contexts
Being one of the earliest proponents of WE theory which argues for the recognition of the plurality of the English language and the consideration of each of these individual varieties of English as being on par with each other, Kachru (1996), in his Three Concentric Circles Model, classifies the different varieties of English into three categories. The norm-providing or Inner Circle varieties are those spoken in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Englishes spoken in Malaysia, South Africa, Zambia, Jamaica, and Sri Lanka are normdeveloping. Outer Circle varieties of English such as those spoken in China, Egypt, Indonesia,
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Zimbabwe, and Saudi Arabia belong to the Expanding Circle and are norm-dependent (Kachru, 1996: 137-138). Further, Kachru criticizes the inability of current paradigms of pedagogy to keep pace with the challenges posed by the emergence of a variety of Englishes. The criticism made here targets the designing of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses and examinations intended to test international competence in English which do not take into consideration the fact that there is not one, but several varieties of the English language. The same observation applies to examinations such as IELTS and to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses which continue to pressurize international students studying in universities in the UK, the US, and Australia, for instance, to be able to mimic native speakers of BrE, AmE, or Australian English (AusE) in their academic writing.
Another perspective that endeavors to "understand and confront the sociolinguistic challenges of a rapidly changing world" (Seidlhofer, 2009: 243) is that of theories pertaining to the use of ELF. ELF is defined as "a `contact language' between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communication" (Firth, 1996: 211). Another more inclusive definition of ELF, according to Jenkins (2011), is provided on the website of the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE): ELF is an "additionally acquired language system which serves as a common means of communication for speakers of different first languages." Jenkins (2011) observes that this particular definition is more suitable than the one offered by Firth's since "native English speakers," by which she means speakers of BrE, are not excluded from ELF in this definition. Instead, the native speakers themselves are assumed to be using ELF as an "additionally acquired language system" (Jenkins, 2011: 927). ELF researchers believe that "anyone participating in international communication needs to be familiar with, and have in their linguistic repertoire for use as and when appropriate, certain forms (phonological, lexicogrammatical, etc.) that are widely used and widely intelligible across groups of English speakers from different first language backgrounds" (Jenkins, 2006: 161).
In her discussion of the use of ELF in academic contexts, Jenkins is critical of the blind eye that is turned by universities which are classified as international towards the use of English as an academic lingua franca. She highlights that the language requirements of international universities are determined with examinations that uphold native English, seemingly construing "the concept of `international' as the international distribution of native English" (Jenkins, 2011: 926). This preference for dominant varieties of English is not necessarily restricted to universities located in norm-providing countries in the Three Concentric Circles model. Even students studying in Sri Lankan universities can be pressured to mimic dominant varieties of English in their academic writing. A case in point is Canagarajah's observation regarding the teaching of English in Sri Lanka. He observes that, in Sri Lanka, it is "either `standard American' or `standard British' English that is treated as the target for conversational and literate purposes in
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educational institutions" (Canagarajah, 2006: 588). This is regardless of the fact that, according to David Graddol, native speakers "lost their majority in the 1970s," and English in future will be "a language used mainly in multilingual contexts as a second language and for communication between non-native speakers" (cited Canagarajah, 2006: 588-589). These observations highlight that the concept of the "native speaker" is now fraught with controversy which in turn implies the obsolescence of the expectation of foreign students to strive to achieve "native speaker-like" competence in the English language.
Of Native Speakers and English-speaking Countries
If the notion of a "native speaker of English" is contested, what does the phrase "Englishspeaking country" mean? Does this term include countries that use English either as a second language or a foreign language? Or is the phrase used only in reference to countries where English is a first language? Seemingly, both these terms together refer to speakers of Inner Circle, norm-providing varieties of English used in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The question remains as to the grounds on which Englishes that belong to the Outer and the Expanding Circles are excluded from what is perceived to be "correct English" acceptable in academic contexts.
The exclusion of these Othered varieties of English is once again evident in the description of the texts used in the IELTS examinations as "authentic" material taken from "books, journals, magazines and newspapers," all of which have been selected "for a nonspecialist audience" produced by users of dominant varieties of English. Furthermore, the General Training IELTS examination requires the test takers to "read extracts from newspapers, advertisements, instruction manuals and books," which have been selected on the basis that they are "materials test takers could encounter on a daily basis in an English-speaking country" (British Council, 2019: 3). The fact that Englishes belonging to the Outer and Expanding Circles too can be found in printed material including the ones mentioned above receives no acknowledgement by the specialists that prepare the IELTS tests.
Authentic material that proves the use of SLE in journalistic writing is available on the South Asian Varieties of English (SAVE) Corpus. The sentences "A Nepali director approached us at the last minute to discuss about a co-production," "The committee will comprise of experts in construction," and "Mr. Sambandan also requested for a parliamentary debate" are examples of the usage of the SLE prepositional verbs "discuss about," "comprise of," and "request for" in Sri Lankan newspapers. Furthermore, the sentences "How should family members discuss about the disease with the patient at an initial level of diagnosis?" (Kuruppu et al., 2017: 14) and "In considering about sex and age group, percentage of male respondents with computer knowledge is higher than the female respondents" (Moragolla, 2016: 1) are excerpts that consist of SLE prepositional verbs taken from the Ceylon Journal of Medical Science (2017) and The Journal of
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Social Statistics (2016) respectively, both of which are academic journals published in Sri Lanka. The use of texts that consist of such features of a non-dominant variety of English in an IELTS examination would be considered worthy of ridicule by some. Similarly, if a test-taker were to include these prepositional verbs in either the Writing or the Speaking components of the IELTS test, they would be penalized under the "Grammatical range and accuracy" criteria (which amounts to twenty-five percent of marks) and receive a low overall band score for simply producing a morphological unit that is a feature in their local variety of English. Against this backdrop, not only does SLE receive no recognition as a variety in its own right, Sri Lanka too seems to be considered as a "non-English speaking country," despite the fact that, although English is used and taught as mainly as a second language, a portion of the population considers English to be their mother tongue.
Monolingual Pedagogies
The IELTS: Guide for Teachers highlights the possibility that exists for IELTS teachers to "bring the outside world into their IELTS classes by using a range of authentic source materials adapted to test preparation" (British Council, 2019: 1). This possibility arises as a result of the topics covered in IELTS being "both interesting and contemporary, and based on real world contexts" (14). This, to my mind, seems to be a dangerous suggestion to be made to IELTS instructors since unsuspecting English teachers in Sri Lanka who prepare their students to face the IELTS examinations might use, as "authentic source materials," texts that include features of the exact same varieties of English that the IELTS examination paper setter and markers are inclined to shun. The purpose of the IELTS: Guide for Teachers is to minimize exactly that by informing teachers in advance of the varieties that are acceptable and the ones that will be rejected in the context of the IELTS examinations.
Guidance of this nature given to teachers is not limited only to IELTS. Precedents have been set by other examinations which take place with the involvement of the British Council in Sri Lanka. Two such cases in point are the London Ordinary Level Examinations and the Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT). In their book titled GCE English Language: A Study and Revision Course for O Level, Cripps and Footman advise ordinary level students against the use of New Englishes in their examination. They specifically state that "for the purposes of GCE Examinations, standard British English will be most relevant" (Cripps, 2002: 176). This advice given to Ordinary Level (O/L) students resonates with advice given to teachers in The Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT) Course: Modules 1, 2 and 3 (Spratt, Pulverness, and Williams, 2011). This book is intended for teachers of English to speakers of other languages who are preparing to face the TKT examinations. According to this book, second language learners make errors due to two reasons. The first one of them is "interference or transfer" (44). The term interference has been described as the "influence of the learner's first language (mother tongue/ L1) on the second language
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(L2)." In addition, when learning a second language, students "work out, organize and experiment with language they have learnt" which may lead to language learners making "developmental errors" (44). These errors are considered to be part of the learner's "interlanguage" (44) which is defined as the "learners' own version of the second language which they speak as they learn" (44). But such errors become "fossilized" (44) due to "lack of exposure to the L2...their "conscious or unconscious lack of motivation to improve their level of accuracy, or the fact that they cause no problem in communication" (45-46). When errors are "fossilized," they remain unchanged in the language repertoire of the learner (62-3).
The advice given to teachers via this book are examples of steps taken to assure that English language teachers interpret potential features of a particular variety of English (maybe their own variety of English!) as errors. Therefore, IELTS is not the only English language test that shows reluctance towards acknowledging other varieties of English. An entire structure of examinations chooses to disregard the diversity of English, by warning students of the dangers of using local, "non-standard" varieties of English in their writing. Advice given to teachers ensures the reinforcement and the perpetuation of this linguistic division.
Exclusion: Deliberate or Accidental?
The diversity that academia is presently characterized by has not slipped unnoticed by organizations such as the British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia, and Cambridge Assessment English that currently own IELTS. In IELTS: Guide for Teachers, the linguistic heterogeneity that exists in academia has been acknowledged. The number of students studying abroad has "multiplied over the last 30 years" (British Council, 2019: 13) which, in turn, has "transformed life in educational institutions" (13). In addition to "an increasing student intake of non-native speakers of English...more and more universities [in English speaking countries] recruit staff internationally." Furthermore, in "non-English speaking countries," organizations tend to use English as "a common language of communication." As a result of these developments, an increasing number of people are "teaching, studying and working with others who speak different varieties of English" (13) [emphases mine]. The IELTS teachers' guide specifically indicates that the use of English as an international language within academic contexts is not singular and is not identical with the way English is spoken by a native speaker of BrE. However, despite the identification of this reality, the IELTS tests are prepared with little or no acknowledgement of the nature of the usage of English in the world today.
This nonchalant disregard for the plurality of English on the part of the structure of the IELTS examinations comes across as a surprise since the validity and reliability of the test is ensured through keeping abreast with advances in "applied linguistics, language pedagogy, language assessment and technological capabilities" (18). The IELTS research programme, funded by IDP: IELTS Australia, and the British Council makes sure that there is a continuing
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relationship between IELTS and the "broader linguistics and language testing community" (18). Despite these claims, IELTS tests pay no attention to the diversity that characterizes the use of English in day-to-day contexts in general, and in academic contexts in particular.
Way Forward
Many suggestions have been put forth by applied linguists as a recourse to this existing linguistic ideology surrounding the current use of the English language the world over and within the academic discourse in particular. Pedagogies that incorporate positive attitudes of acknowledgement of the diversity and plurality of the English language is one such suggestion. To achieve this outcome, teachers are advised to "fully embrace the complexity of English and facilitate the development of global literacy" (Matsuda and Matsuda, 2010: 372). They suggest that teachers make their students aware of forms and functions of the dominant varieties as well as the non-dominant ones along with the risks involved in deviation. The teaching of dominant varieties to students is suggested and the students are at liberty to "appropriate them, if they so choose." Students should also be made to understand the privileged status enjoyed by the more accepted varieties of English so that they make use of these without "valourising the privileged societies." Through making available to students the knowledge about the forms and functions of non-dominant varieties, students become more sensitive to the fact that language users "naturally deviate from the perceived norm." Not to make students open to "alternative uses of English...works against the goal of helping students develop an accurate understanding of how the English language works and how it changes over time." In addition, teachers and researchers are advised to play a "greater role in challenging the undue privileging of the dominant discourses that have been institutionalized as the status quo" (Matsuda and Matsuda, 2010: 372-373).
Canagarajah (2006) holds that the sense of false complacence created through the idea that "knowledge of the vernacular is solely sufficient for minority students" would "ignore the reality of multilingualism demanded by globalization." Therefore, he suggests codemeshing as an alternative to using/teaching only what he terms as Metropolitan Englishes (ME), a term he uses to refer to varieties spoken in England, the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Codemeshing is an alternative to considering that Metropolitan English is for formal purposes, while the other varieties are for less formal situations. Codemeshing is the mixing or the merging of these varieties in a single piece of writing. He suggests that minority students master not only the dominant varieties of English but should also know "how to bring in their preferred varieties in rhetorically strategic ways...to bring them together to serve their interests" (598-599).
In a description of the WrELFA project on the official ELFA Project website (University of Helsinki, 2020), the "effective academic text" is described as "hing[ing] more on the quality of its contents, the strength of its argument, and the coherence of its rhetorical organization than the
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details of correctness relative to Standard English." This description raises the question regarding whether form is more significant than content or vice versa. Based on these observations, one of the ways in which this linguistic binary can be done away with is by focusing more on intelligibility and less on grammatical accuracy as, in academia, the contribution to knowledge is of more value than the accuracy of the form in which the contribution is expressed.
Conclusion
This paper argues for the inclusion of WE and features of ELF in the pedagogy of the English language and in examinations such as IELTS which have, hitherto, propagated the acceptance of certain dominant varieties of English at the expense of other "non-standard" varieties of English. This argument was made against the backdrop of the heterogeneity that is a feature of the use of English within academic contexts. Thus, diversity remains unacknowledged to date in the language requirements which have to be met by students/academics from the Outer/Expanding Circle who wish to apply for university entrance in countries which belong to the Inner Circle.
Specific attention was paid to the IELTS examination and the IELTS: Guide for Teachers, since this particular language test, though considered an internationally accepted and globally applicable measure of English proficiency, is an example of a Western model of education that refuses to recognize academic linguistic diversity. This refusal takes place despite the claims made by IELTS for keeping in line with advances in applied linguistics and language pedagogy.
Furthermore, these monolingual practices/language preferences are perpetuated via advice given to teachers of IELTS and similar examinations conducted with the involvement of the British Council in Sri Lanka. This paper therefore argues for the discontinuity of this subtle form of linguistic imperialism to embrace the actual nature in which English is used within academic contexts so that, not only would WE be recognized, but also the speakers of these nondominant varieties of English would be included in the internationally relevant discourse of academia.
WORKS CITED
Bernaisch, T., K. Koch, J. Mukherjee and M. Schilk (2011): Manual for the South Asian Varieties of English (SAVE) Corpus, Justus Liebig University, Department of English, Giessen British Council (2019): IELTS: Guide for Teachers Manchester, UK Canagarajah, S. (2006): "The Place of World Englishes in Composition: Pluralization Continued," College Composition and Communication, 57 (4): 586-619 Cripps, E. and F. Caroline (2002): GCE English Language: A Study and Revision for O Level, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Firth, A. (1996): "The Discursive Accomplishmnt of Normality. On `Linga Franca' English and Conversation Analysis," Journal of Pragmatics, 26: 237-259
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Hickling-Hudson, A., J. Matthews, and A. Woods (2001): Disrupting Preconceptions: Postcolonialism and Education, Post Pressed, Queensland Hyland, K. (2009): Academic Discourse: English in a Global Context, Continuum International Publishing Group, London Jenkins, J. (2006): "Current Perspectives on Teaching World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca," TESOL Quarterly, 40 (1): 157-181 Jenkins, J. (2011): "Accommodating (to) ELF in the International University," Journal of Pragmatics, 43 (4): 926-936 Kachru, B. B. (1996): "World Englishes: Agony and Ecstasy," Journal of Aesthetic Education 30: 135-155 Kuruppu, D. C., C. N. Wijeyaratn, N. Gunawardane, and I Amarasinghe (2017): "Development and Validation of an Instrument to Measure Informational Needs of Breast Cancer Patients in Sri Lanka," Ceylon Journal of Medical Science, 54(1): 917 Matsuda, A. and P. Matsuda (2010): "World Englishes and the Teaching of Writing," TESOL Quarterly, 44 (2), 369-374 Moragolla, U. (2016): "Sri Lankan Youth and their Disclosure to Computer Literacy: Review Social Statistics," Journal of Social Statistics, 03(01): 1-8 Seidlhofer, B. (2009): "Common Ground and Different Realities: World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca," World Englishes, 28 (2): 236245 Spratt M., A. Pulverness, and M. Williams (2001): The TKT Course Book: Modules 1,2,3, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Thiong'o, Ngugi wa. (2017): "Decolonising the Mind," in J. Rivkin and M. Ryan eds., Literary Theory: An Anthology, 1226-1150, Wiley-Blackwell, Hoboken, NJ University of Helsinki (2020): Research Page, online, available at: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/english-as-a-lingua-franca-in-academicsettings/research/wrelfa-corpus Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE), (n.d.): online, available at: https://www.univie.ac.at/voice/
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GLOBALIZATION, FUNDAMENTALISM, AND AFRICAN IMMIGRANTS IN MILLENNIAL INDIA
Tinaz Pavri Spelman College
Introduction
Seven decades have passed since India's independence from the British in 1947, 73 years in which India has changed beyond recognition in so many realms--social, economic, cultural, political. No doubt globalization and economic liberalization since the 1990s have brought in their wake the most rapid of changes, drawing a line between post-global India and its pre-global past. In many ways, understanding India through this lens is more meaningful than the lens of colonialism and post-colonialism, although of course India's history as a former colony continues to define its present.
India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru initiated the mixed-model economy in 1947, and that quasi-socialist model which integrated elements of socialism with capitalism reigned in India until the first steps towards economic liberalization started to be taken in the late 1980s. Since that time, India has seen decades of accelerated economic growth and a steadily increasing volume of foreign direct investment. Industries like telecommunications and transportation (hitherto held by the public sector) are being transferred to the private sector. In the new millennium, the evidence of these decades of economic liberalization is seen in the foreign companies setting up home, and global brands have permeated most Indian cities large and small. As a result of accelerated urbanization, provincial cities like Pune that remained in the shadows of megalopolises like Mumbai now themselves have several million residents and are important IT hubs.
This new openness fostered by economic liberalization and globalization has brought the world to India after decades of relative isolation after independence, when travel was restricted and goods and services decidedly Indian. Today, as a recent Pew study noted, India is a top source in both gaining and sending international migrants, its expanding economy attracting a global workforce that includes the IT sector for the first time since independence (Connor, 2017).
It would seem logical to assume that this transformation would also bring about a seachange in India's traditional cultural and social mores, propelling them towards progressive global norms: diversity, inclusion, racial and gender equality. This is especially the case because much of the world, and especially its millennial generation, has seemed to coalesce around these global human rights norms.
In the "new India" the reach of television and social media has exploded, reaching first the middle-classes and now deep into India's slums, with hundreds of channels available from all
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over the world. As more Indians entered the middle and affluent-class and traveled all over the world in ways not possible for previous generations, as access to global brands and digital and social media intensified, the question arose about how this urban (and to a lesser extent, rural) transformation would impact civil society and values. In earlier work (Pavri and Rotnem, 2009), we asked questions about which fault lines in society (particularly in urban India) the new changes had laid visible, whether across caste, class, religion, or education. On the other hand, what signs pointed to a society that would embrace global millennial norms as it moved forward? We concluded that study on the side of hope, arguing that India's long-established democratic traditions and its extant plurality of religion, ethnicity, community, and language would lead to a society that confronted fault lines and sought to heal them. We maintained that the remedies to social ills would be sought in the courts, in the political area through legislation and at the micro level within society itself--individuals, schools, families, clubs, social media, and entertainment.
Today, however, the scenario is much less sanguine, and fault lines have widened rather than narrowed despite the economy's generally upward trajectory. To add to the equation, the new millennium has seen a transformation in India's political landscape, propelling forward the radical Hindu fundamentalist political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by the nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Old understandings of the secular, progressive nature of India's democracy have been torn asunder as the BJP has pushed through increasingly antiminority and anti-Muslim legislation that has alienated hundreds of millions of Indians, while attracting more in support.
In this article, I raise questions about the extent of India's tolerance, spread of civil society, and global millennial values in the post-independence era. Has economic liberalization and its concomitant allowing of access to hitherto unknown global horizons through the explosion of media, travel, and immigration aided the country in confronting and addressing questions of equality, diversity, race, ethnicity, and religion? Have global strides on issues of gender and inclusivity begun to impact and change values in India? Although great divides still exist between rich and poor, upper and lower caste, one would expect that the overall socio-economic transformation might serve as an equalizer, if not in actual incomes, then at least in social norms, expectations, and beliefs, hewing them towards a more progressive turn. Despite the recent turn towards a Hindu fundamentalist politics, has this happened?
I focus on the issue of immigrants, and in particular "visible" immigrants to India in recent times, those from the African continent. I examine the treatment of these immigrants in a supposedly more "global" India. I ask whether the country has afforded protections to them that are in keeping with both its long history and roots of tolerance, and its new status as economic powerhouse and would-be global power that ostensibly operates within global norms of civil society, human rights protections, and millennial ideals. I also ask whether their treatment has
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been influenced by the strident nature of fundamentalist Hindu nationalism that is playing out on India's political stage today.
India's History of Tolerance
Many have written about the tolerant nature of India's majority cultural-religious identity, Hinduism. Scholars have noted that the religion's own considerable diversity of belief that encompasses different Gods and Goddesses in all their diverse physical and behavioral avatars has led to general societal tolerance over the centuries (Dasa, 2012). To be sure, elements within Hinduism like the rigidly defined caste system have also bred great intolerance. But it is an accommodating Indian society, in general, that has seen conquerors like the Muslim invaders of the 15th century and the millions of Muslim converts become a part of the fabric of the country itself. India has played a welcoming host to refugees like the Parsis, Zoroastrians who fled Persia's shores in the eighth century A.D. to settle in India since a thousand years. More recently, it has taken in up to 100,000 Tibetan refugees along with the exiled Dalai Lama, who set up home in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala in 1959. The country has had links with the outside world even before the conquests of northern India and Afghanistan by Alexander the Great's armies in 327 BCE; there is indication of scholarly exchange with Chinese and Japanese scholars since before the Common Era (Liu, 2010).
In the post-colonial period, the legacy of nonviolence of Mahatma Gandhi, which defined the Indian independence movement, underscores the generally pacific nature of the country's historical response to international provocation. Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India's first prime minister (1947-1964), continued the tradition of seeking the moral high ground. He became a founder in 1956, along with Josip Broz Tito of the former Yugoslavia, and Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The movement tried to place its members out of the dangerous realm of the developing bipolar world, looking instead to maintain neutrality in their dealings with the world, and therefore assume a role of "honest broker" between the two developing Cold War camps (even though it should be said that in reality many members, India included, were more sympathetic to the Soviet Union than the US). Nehru, a dreamer, visionary, poet, and philosopher, made a deep impact on the newly-independent country that is only recently starting to unravel under the onslaught of Hindutva, the regressive Hindu-first philosophy of the ruling party.
India, then, has seemed to have been proud of a history that was tolerant of outsiders, immigrants, refugees, and others. In the post-independence period, it had developed an ethos of equal co-existence among the different cultures, languages, religions, and ethnicities within its borders. However, the twin forces of millennial globalization and the rise of Hindu fundamentalism have laid bare all that India held dear as a post-colonial country, threatening its secular and democratic identity in a way no adverse force since colonialism had done.
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Africa and India: A Historical Perspective
An African presence in India is not new. Such a presence has been noted since the sixteenth century. The Siddis of Karnataka state, for instance, are said to have been brought to India from Southeast Africa by the Portuguese between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries (Prasad, 2002). There are other African-descended people who are counted as some of the country's protected "tribes" under the "scheduled tribe" denotation of the Constitution which provides for certain minorities to be afforded governmental protection and affirmative action. On the other hand, Indians were taken to British colonies in Africa as indentured servants, many remaining for generations in countries like Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Nehru was a champion of Africa, and the image of Indians and Africans as part of a larger family was promoted in the early decades of independence (Park, 1965). Mahatma Gandhi's ties to South Africa were never forgotten by Nehru, and India was steadfast in not recognizing the apartheid regime in South Africa. In fact, until the end of apartheid, Indian citizens were not allowed to travel to South Africa, and Indian passports had a stamp that allowed travel to all countries "except South Africa and Israel," the latter in supposed solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Because of Nehru, the non-aligned community of nations consistently pressured the United Nation's General Assembly to take action against the apartheid regime and authored many condemnations of prevailing racism with reference to South Africa in particular and in the world in general (Reddy, 2019). When Nelson Mandela wrote that "India became the beloved spokesman for voiceless masses not only of our country and Namibia, but of people like ours throughout the world," he was acknowledging Nehru's consistent support for African countries' struggles and his own idealist outlook in international relations (Srivastava, 1996).
Nehru's daughter Indira Gandhi, who became Prime Minister in 1966, continued Nehru's policies towards Africa. India continued to maintain close and cordial ties to the continent, and particularly to the former British colonies in Africa like Nigeria and Kenya, through the Commonwealth community and through the large Indian diaspora settled in many parts of the former British-ruled Africa.
As economic liberalization gathered steam in the 1990s and trade within Commonwealth countries began to count for less and less of the total trade India did with the world, India's interest in the Commonwealth group of nations began to wane. By the 1990s, India's relationship with the US had gone through a "restart," and the bilateral US-India relationship was becoming increasingly important. Subsequent Indian prime ministers sometimes neglected to attend Commonwealth meetings or send adequate representation (Murthy, 2018). Despite this, the Commonwealth arena remains a unique space where the former British colonies come together to support each other on a range of issues in a collegial setting. It is also an arena that routinely brings Asian and African countries together through a common historical experience.
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Recent African Immigration to Indian Cities
In the context of this larger history of India-Africa ties, of an African presence in India for centuries, and the close relationships fostered by Nehru and others between India and African countries, the treatment of Africans in contemporary India is especially saddening.
My focus in this article is on African immigrants who have come since the country's economic opening and economic acceleration. I chose 2005 as the start of my study as economic growth and reforms had had time to become entrenched by that time, and India was well into its "new India" phase. Globalization had taken hold, and foreign multinational companies were making a pathway to India in numbers hitherto unseen, making inroads into many industries that had been protected under the old mixed-model economy under both Nehru and, later, his daughter Indira Gandhi. India was seeing, by this time, the first of the global franchises taking hold. McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Subway, and countless others all rapidly became favored by India's new globalized "aspiring classes." Also, during this time, the steady stream of Indians who had gone overseas to study and do business, a well-defined diaspora in Europe and the US, became a veritable deluge, creating upon their return a greater cultural mixing within India's borders, unseen during the protectionist Nehruvian and Indira Gandhi eras.
The presence of foreigners was also becoming more visible, as more people from all over the world came to India to do business and gain employment, particularly in the Information Technology sector. For instance, in the period of just one year, 2009 to 2010, Indian work visas granted to foreigners in major global cities like Beijing and San Francisco doubled in number (Gotipatti, 2012). Additionally, India became a top destination for the world's migrant population (Connor, 2017).
Within this context, my hypothesis was that India's historical tolerance would simply translate into a "modern" version, expanding to include new presences, new groups, new ideas and entities. However, in the case of African immigrants, it does not seem to have done so. Over the past two decades, Africans have emigrated to India to study at universities and colleges and for pursuing business interests as the Indian economy has strengthened. Some are in the garment trade, making their home in Goa or Mumbai ("Why are Nigerians leaving India's Goa state?" 2013). Currently, there are around 50,000 Nigerians alone living in India (Soumya, 2013), and other African immigrants from Kenya, Ghana, Uganda might make up another 50,000. There are student associations trying to look after the needs of students from their particular country, for instance the Association for Ivory Coast Students in India, other broader associations such as the Nigerian Association of Bangalore and the umbrella Association of African Students in India. Higher education in India is cheap relative to global alternatives that offer courses in information technology and other sought-after fields, and English is widely spoken, making it an attractive destination (in theory) for African students.
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Many African immigrants, and indeed their governments, have documented and protested against discriminatory and racist treatment that they have received from universities and colleges, government officials, landlords, taxi drivers, restauranteurs, and club owners. Some African students who come to India discover that the universities they are coming to are fraudulent or unaccredited. They find that the Indian government is unconcerned with their plight and fellow students treat them as second-class citizens. They have trouble finding adequate housing, as many landlords will refuse to rent to them. Others have reported being stereotyped and accused of drug dealing and have suffered violence at the hands of Indians. Some have even been killed in violent racist attacks (Soumya, 2013). In 2016, a Congolese teacher of French died after an altercation with three men. He was beaten to death (Hindustan Times, 2016). Africans have reported living in fear during these times, with some choosing not to go out of their residences to avoid drawing attention.
In general, the BJP government has not been sympathetic to the plight of African immigrants, an extension of its lack of empathy and suspicion towards non-Hindus even within the Indian context. In addition, the regressive Indian traditionalist model that the BJP promotes negatively judges the mixing and socializing of African students, their dress, manners, and culture. In 2014, Delhi's law minister Somnath Bharati ordered a raid on African immigrant residences on the outskirts of the city, and when the police did not follow through on his orders, he himself barged into residences and abused the African residents. When challenged by the media, Bharati attempted to justify his actions by accusing (without any proof) the victims of drug dealing, echoing the pervasive negative stereotyping of Africans in India (Ghosh, 2014). In March 2015, cabinet minister Giriraj Singh made a racist joke about Africans that was widely reported in the press and that drew the ire of the Nigerian consulate in New Delhi, who issued a formal rebuke (Ghosh, 2015).
Recently however, India has been keen to promote itself as a destination for technological training and science education to foreign students. The Indian government has promised 50,000 scholarships to African students studying in India in an effort to reach out to African countries and make amends. It also hosted a summit of African heads of state in 2015, with a view to expanding trade with the continent (Stacey and Singh, 2017). Not surprisingly, the African heads who attended the summit sang the praises of first prime minister Nehru rather than the current BJP government, who they view as suspect. Jacob Zuma, South African president, underlined "the historical ties that bind us over the last century, emphasizing particularly the role of two of your visionary prime ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi" (Basu, 2016). But they continued to be wary of the current government and issued warnings as to its treatment of Africans in India.
By many accounts, as globalization has intensified, as jobs are being created and the world is represented more and more in India, hostility to non-Indians, and particularly to certain
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immigrants like those from Africa, seems to have increased. This is the opposite of what we had hypothesized. There is contrary evidence in other spheres as well; for instance, as women's profiles in public life have increased in India's globalized cities, there has also been an increase in violence towards them. Coinciding with the entrenchment of the BJP government and their particular brand of "Hindutva," the rape of women and minor girls has become a national crisis. For instance, there were widespread demonstrations and national soul-searching in 2012 after the shocking gang-rape of a collegian in a bus, and this has continued with each horrific rape to make the news in the years since. Hindu-Muslim tensions and riots have seen the worst increase since the partition riots of independence.
There have been cases of violence, humiliation, discrimination against and intimidation of African immigrants reported in a handful of cities/regions where one finds the largest concentrations of them, for instance in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, and in Goa. Two recent cases that became flashpoints for the African community were the murder of an African in Goa and the arrest and humiliation of several African women in Delhi for supposed drug smuggling, a charge later dropped for lack of evidence (Five Men Arrested, 2017).
When questioned about the pervasive racist and discriminatory treatment meted out to these foreigners, police and officials often dismiss these allegations by stating that the people in question were drug traffickers or criminals and were therefore arrested or denied services or entry into establishments in order to thwart their illegal activity. The reality is much more complex and includes at its heart a conscious and unconscious racism that many Indians, particularly (but not solely) those without formal education, have carried around without question. Whether because of a long-held caste system that was often based on skin color, the legacy of colonialism, or whether Indians in general have been used to a relatively racially-homogenous society even amidst ethnic diversity, many Indians have not learnt to value each human being regardless of their look, color, religion, and culture as inherently equal, in a way that is now instilled in citizens of many other countries, Western liberal democracies, for instance. Although a democratic polity whose constitution enshrines equal rights for all citizens, Indian culture at many levels has continued to be understood and displayed by Indians on the basis of stratification and hierarchy. Making matters worse, there is no systematic public education about the ills of racism, as has existed for many decades in multicultural Western societies. Indians' notions of racism have never been challenged and there are generally no consequences to racist beliefs, speech, and actions in terms of social disapproval or loss of jobs or status. Sadly, one must conclude that the early Nehruvian high-mindedness never filtered down to rank-and-file Indians.
As mentioned earlier, India initiated a mixed-model economy after independence. Imports were strictly controlled to protect fledgling Indian industries, and many industries remained state owned. Trade was restricted and travel to other countries was difficult for the average Indian.
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Until the opening of the economy in the early 1990s under the Congress government of P.V. Narasimha Rao, India had remained relatively isolated from global influences (Panagariya, 2005). With the economic opening and the increasing pace of globalization in the next two decades, Indians became exposed for the first time to an onslaught of global and globalized ideas and influences--business, economy, culture, media. The average Indian was becoming aware of the extent of global diversity, including racial diversity, for the first time. Indians were also more mobile than ever before, millions traveling from remote villages to globalizing cities for jobs, displaced from lives that were familiar but closeted. Some scholars like Maria Misra have explained the recent violence against different populations in India (women being violently raped, foreigners attacked and discriminated against) as a backlash against a fast-changing world that challenges the parameters of hierarchies that were established, known, and accepted in the past (BBC Four, 2015).
Recourse and Redress
Globalization has also brought in its wake a greater awareness of previously hidden discrimination, bias, patriarchy, and hypocrisy in the ranks of Indian society, both rural and urban. Indian media, historically bold and independent, has exposed many acts of violence against marginalized communities and provided multiple and continuous fora for discussions. Collective outrage has been expressed on numerous television shows and in digital media and newspaper editorials. However, our faith in this powerful media exposure of injustice must be tempered by the increasing reluctance of many media houses to criticize the governing party and Prime Minister Modi; indeed, entire television channels and newspapers now hew towards the ruling party line.
Indian women are speaking out against powerful men more boldly. In 2013, a junior staffer charged her boss, the powerful editor of Tehelka, a well-known multi-media platform, of rape and the case is being tried in the courts (Tarun Tejpal trial, 2020). This might not have been possible even a decade ago, both in terms of the victim speaking out or the powerful male perpetrator being charged.
Recent court victories by the LGBTQ+ community, wherein in 2019 the Supreme Court overturned a centuries-old colonial law that had effectively criminalized gay sexual activity, point to institutions reasserting their proper oversight role in policy. And the power of individuals and influence-makers should also not be ruled out: in 2015, prominent Indian artists including writers, actors, and filmmakers returned prestigious national awards as a visible protest against what was being viewed as a climate of increasing intolerance in India, one aided by the BJP (Ansari and Sharma, 2015). Indians are hence indeed examining themselves and their values to understand recent acts of violence against women, young girls, Africans, lower caste Indians, Muslims, LGBTQ+ individuals, and others, that have shamed the country. In fact, an examination
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of recent public opinion polling on Indians' values undertaken by the highly regarded Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung indicates some surprisingly progressive values on key issues of caste, religion, and women's rights (but not LGBTQ+ rights) held by those polled (Pavri, 2018).
Conclusion: An India Failing its Own Values?
While the story of India in the twentieth century was its emergence from colonial rule to an independent country with a resilient (if quasi socialist) economy and a democratic polity that was the envy of the developing world, the story of millennial India has been of unprecedented transformation that has included both economic growth and political upheaval that fosters xenophobia, fundamentalism, and a rejection of its founding ethos of secularism and inclusion.
The take-over by the BJP of the political landscape has destroyed the independence party of Nehru and Indira, the Indian National Congress. This has been a double-edged sword, because although the Congress had become widely reviled for its corruption, it still staunchly supported lower-caste Indians, religious and other disenfranchised minorities, and the lower class. Now, there is hardly any national political party remaining that can oppose the BJP.
On Nehru's deathbed, his oft-used poetry book lay open at Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." It is just as much evident today, as it was then, that India still has "miles to go." The forces of globalization and the forces of nationalistic Hindutva have converged to unleash old mindsets, stereotypes, hatreds, and discriminations against "the other," including women, religious minorities, lower castes, and other races. Africans, once cherished as friends and allies with a common history, have borne the brunt of this brutal new India, along with these marginalized groups.
In the end, I believe that the tolerant nature of India's history and culture will eventually reassert itself as the displacements of globalization become more familiar, and the consequences of radical politics become more bitter and unacceptable. For every wrenching incident of religious riot, rape, or violence against immigrants, there are strong voices of opposition in the media and in the public.
However, it cannot be denied that for now, globalization has created hitherto unknown tensions in India's cities and towns that are often resulting in the denial of civil and human rights of women, religious, racial and sexual minorities, immigrants and groups that are conceived of as out of the mainstream, the "other." Another wild card is the open question of how lasting will be the damage done by the ruling BJP party's regressive and fundamentalist politics and policies? Will India overcome this current political assault on a wide swathe of liberal values, or will it succumb? The jury is still out, but as I asserted earlier, I hold out hope for the long term, even as the medium-term appears bleak.
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WORKS CITED
Ansari, H. and S. Kanika (2015): "And it Continues: 24 More Filmmakers, Writers Return Awards," Hindustan Times, 6 Nov., online, available at: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/and-it-continueskundan-shah-saeed-mirza-join-award-wapsi/story-t7guKRzkGv7ZrsTY6vOMZJ.html Basu, I. (2015): "African Leaders Praise Nehru Despite Blackout," Huffington Post, 30 Oct., online, available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.in/2015/10/29/africa-leaders-nehru-modi_n_8429136.html BBC Four (2015): "Storyville to Broadcast Interview with Convicted Delhi Gang Rapist," online, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/storyville-indias-daughter BBC News India (2013): "Why are Nigerians Leaving India's Goa State?" 18 Nov., online, available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-24903230 Concrete Jungles (2012): The Economist 29 Sept., online, available at: http://www.economist.com/node/21563412 Connor, P. (2017): "India is a Top Source and Destination for World's Migrants," The Pew Research Center online, available at: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/03/india-is-a-top-source-anddestination-for-worlds-migrants/ Dasa, G. P. (2012): "The 33 Million Gods of Hinduism," The Huffington Post, 6 Aug., online, available at: www.huffingtonpost.com/gadadhara-pandit-dasa/the-33-million-demigods-o_b_1737207.html "Five Men Arrested in India over Attacks on Africans," (2017): Al Jazeera, 28 Mar., online, available at: www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/03/men-arrested-india-attacks-africans-170328145205405.html Gandhi, G. (2016): "Nehru Was a Leader of Shining Veracity," Hindustan Times, 26 May, online, available at: www.hindustantimes.com/columns/nehru-was-a-leader-of-shining-veracity/storywRUi7gWjcgmZVuurjWKwFN.html. Ghosh, D. (2015): "After Sonia shocker, Minister Giriraj Singh Pleads `Off The Record'," NDTV , 1 April, online, available at: http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/minister-giriraj-singh-says-if-my-comments-hurtsonia-or-rahul-gandhi-i-apologise-751434 Ghosh, P. (2014): "Delhi Government Raid on African Immigrants Exposes Indians' Racial Animosity towards Blacks," International Business Times, 3 Feb., online, available at http://www.ibtimes.com/delhigovernment-raid-african-immigrants-exposes-indians-racial-animosity-toward-blacks-1552901 Gottipati, S. (2012): "Expats flock to India Seeking Jobs, Excitement," online, available at: http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/08/expats-flock-to-india-seeking-jobs-opportunity/? Hindustan Times (2016): " Congolese Man Killed in Delhi," online, available at: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/congolese-man-killed-in-delhi-for-african-students-racial-tauntsnever-end/story-ltocBXCICmb90y1IImMIpN.html Liu, X. (2010): The Silk Road in World History, Oxford University Press, Oxford Murthy, C. S. R. (2018): "India and the Commonwealth: Redirecting the Relationship," Carnegie India, online, available at: https://carnegieindia.org/2018/04/11/india-and-commonwealth-redirectingrelationship-pub-76054 Panagariya, A. (2005): The Triumph of India's Market Reforms: The Record of the 1980s and 1990s, Cato Institute, Washington DC Park, R. (1965): "Indian-African Relations," Asian Survey, 5 (7): 350-358, online, available at: doi:10.2307/2642294 Pavri, T. (2018): "Is India Becoming More Liberal? Globalization, Economic Liberalization and Social Values," Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective, 13(1), online, available at: https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/jgi/vol13/iss1/8/ Pavri, T. and T. Rotnem (2009): "Hope or Hype in the New India? Poverty, Affluence, Democracy and Ennui," Virginia Review of Asian Studies, online, available at: https://virginiareviewofasianstudies.com/archived-issues/2009-2/ Prasad, V. (2002): Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity, Beacon Press, Boston Reddy, E. S. (2019): "Pandit Nehru and the Unity of the Oppressed People of South Africa," online, available at: http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/pandit-nehru-and-unity-oppressed-people-south-africa-esreddy
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Soumya, E. (2013): "Africans Decry Discrimination in India," Al Jazeera 12 Feb., online, available at: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/2013/11/africans-decry-discrimination-india201311139485418912.html Srivastava, P. (1996): "Jawaharlal Nehru's Perception of Africa," India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, 1 July, 21-30 Stacey, K. and J. Singh (2017): "African Students Fear the Festering Racism on India's Streets" Financial Times, 2 Apr., online, available at: https://www.ft.com/content/84e015d2-15d7-11e7-80f413e067d5072 Tarun Tejpal trial: "HC Defers Cross-Examination of Victim Till February 2020,"online, available at: https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/jan/08/tarun-tejpal-trial-hc-defers-cross-examination-ofvictim-till-february-2086460.html
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EXTENDING COLONIAL CRITIQUES BEYOND SERVICE LEARNING IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: THE CASE OF FLORENCE, ITALY
Julie Ficarra SUNY Cortland
The historical imagery of colonization traditionally centers a white, European colonizer abjectly exerting their will on non-white, local subjects. When we think about education abroad programs, and which type could potentially run the risk of generating similar aesthetics and unequal relations of power, international service learning comes to mind. This is because international service learning programs operate primarily in the Global South, and, in line with education abroad trends more broadly, student participations are predominantly white, and the communities that they serve, predominantly non-white. Fortunately, over the last decade, several education abroad scholars have sought to problematize the raced power dynamic that can be created by juxtaposing primarily white students as helpers and local people of color as in need of help. Indeed, the slice of the literature that discusses colonization and decolonization in education abroad focuses, almost exclusively, on international service-learning programs.
Colonial critiques of some international service-learning programs are justifiable and, in some ways, perhaps more acute. However, my dissertation research in Florence, focused broadly on the impact of US study abroad on local people, suggested that many of the same critiques of international service learning in the Global South can be applied to the US study abroad occupation of Florence, Italy. In the pages to follow, I will introduce my dissertation project, followed by a summary of the somewhat sparse empirical literature on the impact of education abroad on host communities, and then data from my Florence case study which will illustrate, from local perspectives, what could be considered colonial formations. I will close with a call to action to push analyses of colonization in education abroad, across destinations and program types, to the forefront of our collective research agenda.
This case study is taken from my larger dissertation project which seeks to problematize a disconnect between the liberal humanist education abroad rhetoric our institutions often use to claim mutuality and cross-cultural exchange as goals (or outcomes) and the practice of education abroad assessment which tends to center almost exclusively on the student participant. I see this both as a practitioner problem, in that, at so many institutions, our assessment efforts still focus largely on student satisfaction, but also as a scholarly problem, in that when we turn to the evaluation literature, what we find is a focus on student-centered outcomes, whether they be academic or experiential. In my view it is impossible to claim that education abroad programs achieve cross-cultural exchange, or that we know what is being exchanged, when host community voices are not included in assessment efforts. Making space for host community
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voices, histories, perspectives, and potentially critiques of education abroad is a decolonial project.
Empirical literature focused on the experiences of host communities is sparse and somewhat disparate; many researchers are faculty writing about their own education abroad programs and publishing in disciplinary journals. However, there is a critical mass building in the international service-learning literature around engaging host communities. Marianne Larsen's (2016) edited volume is an important attempt to bring this work together in one place. Many authors in Larsen's volume use empirical data to suggest that, in international service learning, the unequal relations of power that situate students as helpers and local communities as in need of help perpetuate historical colonial legacies and limit opportunities for mutually beneficial engagement.
Many recent studies evaluate community impact using US student and/or faculty data, and do not engage directly with hosts regarding their experiences. For example, Caldwell and Purtzer's 2015 study of nursing students on a ten-day service learning program in Honduras sought to gauge community impact but did so by administering written questionnaires to US program participants. From this, they concluded that their method was a "first step in not only designing a transformative and long-term student learning experience but also a parallel process of transformation in faculty and others that is, hopefully, benevolent in nature toward the host community" (582). This work prioritizes the experiences of students, then faculty, with the hope that what they are doing is at least benevolent towards their hosts; a rather low bar for community engagement in education abroad programs and evaluations.
Others draw more critical conclusions based on their data. For example, Elliot's 2015 study identified a "dearth of partnership culture" (121) on the program in question, but again did so through reviewing the verbal, written, and enacted narratives of US student participants. Why are researchers asking US students how they think they are impacting the host community and not directly engaging the host community to garner their perspectives firsthand? Some research, including Shroeder et al.'s (2009) work on Appalachian State University's programs, reported that they attempted to interview local partners but found that they were resistant to admitting any negative impacts to affiliates from the partner school. This points to another shortcoming of much of this research. Those who are engaging in this work are often doing so within their own institutional partnerships, and their partners may be, understandably, reticent to provide critique.
Because much of the empirical work on host community experiences are taking place within the context of international service learning programs, there are a number of representative gaps. Firstly, service learning programs are designed around service, which creates or exacerbates a power hierarchy between locals and students and implies a certain willingness amongst hosts to engage with students in particular ways. These programs typically take place in the Global South, where still a very small minority of US students are studying
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abroad. So, we know very little about the experiences of the majority of host community members, that is those who engage with US students on typical (non-service orientated) programs in the Global North.
The Florence Case
In response to these gaps, I chose Florence, Italy as one of the two research sites for my dissertation project. The small city center of two square miles is inhabited by about 60,000 locals and around 10,000 visiting students at any given time, according to local estimates. According to the Association for American College and University Programs in Italy (ACCUPI), there are over fifty US institutions that run programs or have a brick-and-mortar presence in the city in addition to the many provider organizations that also operate there. I cast a wide net in trying to recruit what I term "intentional hosts," that is, local professors, education abroad administrators, and host families to participate in the study, and, in the end, interviewed thirty-one local hosts including eight faculty, seventeen study abroad administrators, and six host mothers who were affiliated with eight different study abroad organizations in the city.
I conducted in-depth qualitative interviews, which lasted anywhere from thirty to 120 minutes, and I spent a total of six weeks in the field. My interview protocol focused on six elements of host engagement with US students: their motivation to engage, methods of engagement, instances of harmony and dissonance that result from that engagement, how hosts make sense of their interactions with visiting students, and what they see as outcomes of being a host. I transcribed the forty hours of interviews and used Saldana's (2013) first and second round coding technique to analyze the data. This process revealed codes, categories, and subcategories that I then used to construct linkages between the data.
Living in the City
While the data extrapolated in the Florence case study was vast, there were three categories in particular that illustrated potential coloniality. The first is hosts' experiences of living in the city and sharing it with thousands of visiting students. Thirty-one of the thirty-five hosts I interviewed talked about how locals are being priced out of the city center or that it is so lucrative to rent your apartment to students that they can no longer justify living in the apartments that have been family homes for generations. One professor shared that, while she would love to live in the apartment where her mother and grandmother were born, she decided to rent it to a US study abroad center for visiting students and live outside the city with her family. She described being torn because on the one hand she is grateful to be able to have this passive income, but on the other, regrets not being able to raise her children where she grew up.
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Study abroad administrators talked about how difficult it is to find housing for the growing number of students they host; they described there being a lot of competition among providers which drives up cost. Airbnb, VRBO, and other short-term rentals agencies now consume quite a bit of the market which makes it even more difficult to find and retain housing. Additionally, local faculty and host mothers spoke about trash in the city, and how the constant turn-over of students each semester means that large bags of trash are not disposed of properly. Ten local hosts talked about how students tend to sit on church steps and eat and how that attracts birds who "leave their mark" on the steps, which causes the ancient steps to wear more quickly. One faculty member said, "I don't think students understand their environmental impact on the city, not to mention how disrespectful it is to sit on the steps of this sacred church."
On a more positive note, host mothers spoke very positively about the experience of hosting US students in their home, and how it has provided cultural enrichment to them and their families. They of course had some negative experiences to share but these were few in comparison to the stories of long-lasting connections. However, few students chose to live with a host family because they often come to Florence with friends and want the freedom of living together in an apartment.
Working in the City
Hosts also talked about how US student presence impacts their work life. All eight local faculty members with whom I spoke talked about how difficult it is to get a faculty position at an Italian university, and how many of them teach multiple courses for various US study abroad centers. Four of the faculty felt that US students may be academically unprepared because they might, for example, take a Renaissance art course to fulfill a general education requirement, not because they are legitimately interested, or have any background knowledge in that area.
I was surprised that one center director said that it is his expectation that any faculty member he hires adapt to an "American way of teaching." He said, "the Americans are already dealing with culture shock. If they were taught the Italian way, it would bring them too much stress; they wouldn't be successful." He explained how he sees himself and his faculty as "guests in the American system." He said, "even though I am in my country, I am a guest." Yet despite the challenges of this situation, the faculty, as well as study abroad administrators and host mothers, talked about the profound impact that the study abroad industry has on the local economy, not just for educators, but for business owners as well.
Communicating in the City
Local hosts also talked about communication, or lack thereof, between themselves and US students. Many hosts perceive there to be a strong resistance among US students to learn or
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speak Italian and a strong expectation that everyone they encounter in the city will speak to them in English. One study abroad administrator told a story about how a student once asked her "why does everyone here speak Italian?" to which she responded, "because we're in Italy." This attitude builds resentment amongst local students, many of whom realize that in order to study in the US, or any non-Italian speaking country, they have to be fluent in English, yet many American students come to Florence with no qualms about not knowing the local language. Of course, their lack of Italian skills contributes to US students remaining together with other English-speaking peers, creating what many hosts referred to as "American bubbles." All hosts admitted knowing where US students hang out together at night and said that locals actively avoid these places because of the students' reputation for drinking and being noisy.
Colonialism?
While the tensions between US students and their local hosts in Florence are evident, is colonialism a relevant analytic framework for understanding the engagement between locals and US students in Florence? If part of the work of decolonizing study abroad is to understand and identify our embedded assumptions, a good place to start is with our historical understanding of colonialism that juxtaposes colonizers who are European, white, male, heterosexual, and Christian with the colonized without at least one of those identities. But if we take some of the more nuanced aspects of the colonial relationships, we can see some modern colonial manifestations developing within the study abroad encounter in Florence.
Starting with what Alexander and Mohanty call "cartographies of knowledge" (2010)-- where knowledge lives, whose knowledge counts, who is given positions of knowledge power--it is clear that despite US students choosing to study in Italy, hosts perceive that an Italian education is not really what students seek. US institutions expect Italian faculty to use US pedagogical styles and meet US students where they are academically. Further, some institutions in Florence are hiring US faculty to teach US students in US owned buildings within the city, essentially sheltering them from having to engage with any locals at all.
Hosts report a widespread resistance amongst US students to use the local language and an expectation amongst students that English will be spoken everywhere by everyone. Many hosts reported feeling that this is arrogant and disrespectful. Yet, they concede that English proficiency is tied to their own economic wellbeing. I asked hosts "if you could reduce the number of US students studying in the city by half, would you?" Ninety-five percent of all hosts, even those who were most critical, said no. Granted one host said no because he thinks that students add needed cultural diversity, youth, and energy to the city, but all the others said no because it would mean that they, and many others, would likely be out of a job.
In terms of land, or physical space, many hosts expressed a feeling of loss; the increased cost of living, caused by the influx of visiting students and tourists and what they see as an
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uninhabitable city center, has literally pushed them out of their ancestral homes. However, some hosts expressed leaving willingly and being grateful for the opportunity to make money from renting their apartments, while others have chosen to pay the high price to stay in the city center. Yet, returning to the question of whether or not colonialism is a meaningful way to understand what is happening in Florence, is there anything more classically colonial than being pushed off of your land so that it can be economically exploited by outsiders?
None of this is meant to say that there is not decolonization work that needs to be done within education abroad programs in the Global South. Things like white savior complex, poverty porn, and orphanage tourism are real problems that manifest primarily in that part of the world. The point here is that there are other manifestations of colonialism in the more popular study abroad destinations that have a very real impact on the lives of local hosts. The best way to understand these impacts is not by asking US students or faculty how they think they impact the local community, but by asking hosts about their lived experiences directly. In doing so we are acknowledging the agency that hosts have to tell their own stories; this is an important first step in decolonizing study abroad. The next step is of course acting on what they say, even if it may mean prioritizing their needs over students' wants.
WORKS CITED
Alexander, J. and C. T. Mohanty (2010): "Cartographies of Knowledge and Power: Transnational Feminism as Radical Praxis," Critical Transnational Feminist Praxis, A. L. Swarr and R. Nagar eds., 23-45, SUNY Albany Press, Albany, NY Caldwell, P. and M. A. Purtzer (2015): "Long-Term Learning in a Short-Term Study Abroad Program: Are We Really Truly Helping the Community," Public Health Nursing, 32(5): 577-583 Elliot, M.L. (2015): "Critical Ethnographic Analysis of `Doing Good' on Short-Term International Immersion Experiences," Occupational therapy international, 22(3): 121-130 Firenze. (n.d.), online, available at: https://www.citypopulation.de/en/italy/toscana/firenze/048017__firenze/ Larsen, M. ed., (2016): International Service Learning: Engaging Host Communities, Routledge, New York Saldaña, J. (2013): The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers (2nd ed.), SAGE, London and Thousand Oaks, CA
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DECOLONIZING EDUCATION ABROAD: CHANGING THE NARRATION OF AFRICA
Hermella G. Tekle The George Washington University
Across the Western world, international education has gained popularity among students and institutions. Creating and educating globally minded citizens has been a priority for institutions that involve "being aware of responsibilities beyond one's immediate communities and making decisions to change habits and behavior patterns accordingly" (Schattle, 2009, cited in Sharpe, 2015: 227). To this regard, education abroad, a broad term that encompasses traditional study abroad, exchange, short-term faculty-led programs, and service learning, has been a prominent means of preparing students to develop globally minded outlooks and cultural competencies (Salisbury, 2010; Jorgenson and Shultz, 2012; Punteney, 2019). Sharpe (2015) categorizes education abroad into two pedagogical concepts: it is transformative because students can learn about new cultures and beliefs, and it allows experiential learning with the real world compared to traditional classrooms. From these theoretical frameworks, education abroad is indeed transformative and prepares globally minded students. Nonetheless, it is imperative to analyze the practicality, diversity of destinations, and program curricula to determine if education abroad authentically creates a new global outlook for students.
The historical motive of education abroad in the US played a critical role in promoting American nationalism and global citizenship through volunteerism and study abroad. The current model of study abroad in which undergraduate students take classes for academic credits emerged in the 1920s (Punteney, 2019). Although the goal of the programming has adapted over time, the prime goal of enhancing learning opportunities has remained the same. Following the World Wars, study abroad was considered a critical pedagogical method to develop global citizenship and peacemaking (Noddings, 2005). After World War I, institutions, religious groups, and peacemaking organizations found creative ways to engage their students to learn about the world beyond the US borders (Lee, 2012). The establishment of the Institute of International Education in 1919 by Nobel Peace Prize winners Nicholas Murray Butler and Stephen Duggen paved the way for the future of international education (IIE, 2020). Although World War II put a halt in efforts, the US found strategic ways of promoting and strengthening diplomatic ties, including education abroad.
Nonetheless, critics argue that "peacekeeping" looked at through the lens of American exceptionalism manifested neo-colonial ideologies. For example, following World War II, the
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Council on Student Travel31 received decommissioned warships as donations from the US Department of State (Zemach-Bersin, 2007; Lee, 2012) in response to the limited means of traveling abroad. Critics argue that the purpose was to take student "ambassadors" to Europe to "improve international relations...and cultivate cultural awareness at the same time" (Covell, 2007, cited in Zemach-Bersin. 2007: 17). Using students as ambassadors also played a role in the historic and current focus on Eurocentric programs.
Unpacking Eurocentric Programs
The predominant focus and perceived value of Eurocentric programs idealizes Western nations and diminishes the worth of non-Western nations (Zemach-Bersin, 2007; Sharpe, 2015). Although the 1950s and 1960s saw a gradual increase of interest in Africa, Asia, and South America (Lee, 2012), Europe continues to be the most popular destination. According to the Institute of International Education's 2019 Open Doors report, in the 2017-18 academic year, 341,751 US students studied abroad, during which Europe hosted half of the study abroad for academic credit. China, the seventh most popular destination, hosted 11,613 of US study abroad students; the continent of Africa only hosted 14,416 students (IIE, 2019). The negative and often false narration on media, university outreach materials, and curricula presents the cultures and educational systems of non-Western countries, particularly countries in Africa, as inferior and inadequate.
The call to increase participation in nontraditional places is not a new phenomenon in the field of international education. Advocates in the field, Hoffa and DePaul (2010) call for equal participation and diverse destinations in order for education abroad to reach its full potential (Punteney, 2019: 103). The US government has also endorsed this idea; the Lincoln Commission report (2005) proposed to expand the number of diverse locations for study abroad, particularly in developing countries. Similarly, the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization recognizes US colleges and universities that make "significant, well-planned, well-executed, and well-documented process toward comprehensive internationalization" (NAFSA, 2020). Even so, with these initiatives and calls to increase participation in nontraditional locations, the representation of non-Western countries continues to draw upon colonial representations.
Post-colonial theory challenges the legacies of colonialism and portrayal of non-Western nations by serving as "one of the most compelling influences on the West's interpretation of and interactions with people from different (mainly non-Western) cultures" (Echtner and Prasad, 2003, cited in Coton and Santos, 2009: 193). Post-colonial scholarship draws attention to "oppressive power relations between host and visitor, through practices that maintain the visitor
31 The Council on Student Travel later merged with Council on Correlation of International Educational Enterprises to establish the present-day Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE).
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at the center and reify notions of the host as the needy other" (Sharpe, 2015: 228). Frequent rhetoric among privileged participants, whose goal of studying abroad in African nations is "to make a difference" or "help poor countries" (Cook, 2008; Palacios, 2010), creates a neo-colonial attitude nurtured by American exceptionalism and pomposity among participants who see themselves as missionaries out to "improve" the world. There is nonviable practicality when participants distinguish themselves from the host country and people.
In exploring post-colonial theory, there is also a rather romanticized side of education abroad, where African countries are labeled "exotic" and "adventurous." Urry (1992) describes it as the tourist gaze, where visitors distinguish themselves from the "other," which leads to differentiation and separation from the host community and country. The tourist portrayal calling for adventure in safari, discovering ancient wonders in Egypt, or riding a camel in the Sahara Desert undermines the different learning outcomes that students can gain from studying in African countries. The self-serving pursuit topped with educational tourism creates a "kind of voyeurism in which privileged young Americans go to observe relative poverty in a developing country" (Woolf, 2006: 136). As the theoretical objective is to promote international understanding and develop cross-cultural skills for participants (Salisbury, 2010), education abroad professionals should challenge this notion when students do not assimilate with the host country's culture and people, but instead, try to "change" them.
Are Students Neo-Colonists?
Post-colonial scholars critique "global citizenship" as a vague term used by higher education institutions to disguise the power structure of American exceptionalism and position participants as neo-colonist by labeling them as "global ambassadors" (Zemach-Bersin, 2007; Caton and Santos, 2009; Jorgenson and Shultz, 2012). The neo-colonialist rhetoric is present in national fellowship scholarships such as the US State Department's Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program. The Program Overview webpage of the Gilman Scholarship defines its mission of supporting students with limited financial means as "providing them with skills critical to our national security and economic prosperity." This rhetoric, like many others, makes students "not only dependent on US supremacy but are educated to actively endorse and advance US interest while studying abroad" (Zemach-Bersin, 2007: 17).
Talya Zemach-Bersin (2007), in Global Citizenship and Study Abroad: It's All About US, provides a personal interview with a student named Patrick, who in 2006 studied abroad in Ghana. Patrick, a White, male American, was asked to be "Chief of Development" or Inconswahane in the native language for the small village he was visiting (Zemach-Bersin, 2007). Recalling his time in Ghana, Patrick shared that he "felt like a god" and "I think of that village as my home in Africa, for sure" (Zemach-Bersin, 2007). When students return from study abroad, they habitually describe their experience as "life-changing." It could genuinely be so;
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however, context is essential, and one should wonder if such experience, like Patrick's, was a reproduction of neo-colonialism tendencies. In Patrick's case, he learned the opposite of education abroad's intention, which is to learn new cultures, gain global perspectives, and develop open-mindedness (Schattle, 2009).
Similar to Patrick's cringeworthy god-like experience in a developing nation, students are used as a tool for American propaganda. Thus, education professionals ought to be cognizant of their White privileged students' goal of studying abroad for White Savior purposes, a term used to describe White people "helping" people of color in a self-serving manner (Brown, 2013; Onyenekwu et al., 2017). The portrayal of the African continent and its people as the nadir of human civilization is present from study abroad marketing materials to the curricula. White Savior represented and discussed as the "unintentional, passive, `colorblind' or dysconscious racism" (Brown, 2013: 131) promotes a tone-deaf outlook by impeding an authentic dialogue on oppression and privilege.
Africa is not a Country
Learning is an active and meaningful process that asserts that "learners actively construct or create their subjective representations of objective reality, and link new information to prior knowledge" (Power et al., 2017). Engaging students in active learning by doing meaningful activities such as self-assessment, reflection, questioning, and engaging in dialogue will result in a high-level understanding and appreciation for the continent. The curricula in US higher education institutions must have a factual narrative of colonization and how it destroyed, stole, and diminished African countries' resources and cultures. Through analytical reflections, students should be encouraged to question their assumptions and biases before they embark on programs to African countries. As the intent of education abroad is to transform the way students perceive the world, students, particularly White students, should reflect on their societal position and understand the gruesome truth and illegality of colonization. Changing the narration of African countries and its people starts with the pure knowledge that Africa is a continent that has fifty-four diverse countries.
Higher education institutions have the responsibility of creating individuals who are mindful and aware of the world. Students should be empowered to see the world, particularly developing countries, from a non-White lens. Institutions must employ Black faculty who specialize in African studies as outside researchers, scholars, and practitioners bring in their own biases and assumptions no matter how well-intended or objective the research claims (Wilson, 2008). A 2017 study from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found that faculty members are predominately White, even more than their students. The study found that seventysix percent of faculty members in the US were White (NCES, 2017). Although the number of Black faculty members has increased over the past decade, Black faculty at high-ranking universities is
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significantly lower than the average of 5.2 percent (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 2007).
Also, faculty members should be cognizant of the representation of African countries in their curricula (Onyenekwu, 2016). For instance, African studies should not focus on media portrayals of the continent as an impoverished, drought-stricken, and backward continent. Institutions must implement a post-colonial approach by including an accurate representation of the continent that produced fearless leaders, freedom fighters, and icons such as Emperor Menelik II, Madam Yoko, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela, Fela Kuti, to name a few. The postcolonial theory is a crucial step for institutions to "identify and critique the rationalizations and expressions of the White colonial mindset" (Onyenekwu et al., 2017). Thus, institutions and international offices should analyze and question their existing curricula, promotional materials, resources, and student participation.
The Portrayal of Africa in Media
The paucity of representation and the negative portrayal of developing countries in outreach materials such as brochures, one-pagers, and social media pages are some of the contributing factors to the low participation of students studying abroad in Africa. The human sight, long thought as the "noblest of senses" (Urry, 1992: 174), changes the way students perceive a particular host destination. The mental influence of the eye as elaborated in Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature by American philosopher Richard Rorty provides human's visual reflection and assumption about the world:
It is pictures rather than propositions, metaphors rather than statements, which determine most of our philosophical convictions...the story of the domination of the mind of the West by ocular metaphors (1980, cited in Urry, 1992: 174) The hegemonic depictions of African countries in outreach materials often show people living in huts plagued with poverty and corruption despite the existence of modern life. Poverty porn (Glick, 2015, cited in Onyenekwu et al., 2017) alludes to the idea that the subjects need to be saved or rescued by the West. The myth of civilized vs. uncivilized nations branded as "the people inhabiting these [North and Sub-Saharan Africa] legendary lands are characterized by their enduring peasant simplicity" (Coton and Santos, 2009: 194). The value of studying abroad in Africa is then commercialized to students to imagine themselves exploring exotic places or helping the poor. The treatment of students as consumers (Sharpe, 2015) results in the motive of becoming a global citizen with flawed entitlement among participants. Like Patrick, students thus differentiate themselves from the host country by regarding themselves as the savior of the locals. Diverse representation in outreach materials is crucial not only to change the narration of non-Western nations but also to motivate marginalized students to study abroad. According to an
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Open Doors report, seventy percent of US students who studied abroad for academic credit in 2017-18 were White; ten percent Hispanic or Latinos; eight percent Asian, Native Hawaiian, or Other Pacific Islander; six percent Black or African-American; four percent Multiracial; and 0.5 percent American Indian or Alaska Native. When promotional materials predominately include images of White upper-to-middle class students, it is impossible and disconcerting for marginalized students to relate and imagine themselves studying abroad.
Leveraging Technological Tools to Decolonize EA
For better or worse, the world is changing, and so should traditional programs. By utilizing websites, social media, and other technological tools, faculty members should implement a reflective dialogue and narration about the continent. The popular Twitter hashtag The Africa The Media Never Shows You depicts correct and positive stories of Africa in a meaningful postcolonial fashion (Twitter, 2019). Perhaps the most critical aspect of this hashtag is that it is created by Africans to show the authenticity of the continent and challenge the false stereotypes of the West. Creating an environment for students to learn about African countries will enable them to understand the culture and diversity of the continent.
Before March 2020, the idea of virtual learning, working, and living through a pandemic would have seemed unimaginable. Virtual programming has become more critical for institutions to continue their operation despite COVID-19. Now more than ever, scholar-practitioners have the opportunity to generate new ways of gaining international experiences. However, a virtual program may not provide the full experience of in-person study abroad opportunities. Many scholars in the field argue that, to appreciate and understand another culture and its norms authentically, one must be exposed to, and immersed in, that culture (Henthorne and Panko, 2017).
Nonetheless, higher education institutions can adapt to the current environment and implement virtual programming. One approach is for institutions to invest in tools such as Adobe Captivate, which creates 360 virtual realities walkthroughs (Adobe, 2020). There are also affordable video conferencing tools that institutions could use to make virtual exchange programs available for faculty and students. These tools will allow institutions to generate training and mentorship opportunities with faculty from African countries. For instance, the Aspen Institute Steven Initiative recently announced a virtual exchange opportunity called Connected Classrooms (Steven Initiative, 2020). The effort would enable twenty-five faculty members from Morocco, the U.A.E., and the US to implement exchange using the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) model32. Although the Steven Initiative only focuses on the Middle
32 COIL is an innovative method of teaching and learning developed and promoted by the State University of New York System (SUNY).
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East and North Africa region, the Connected Classrooms effort is exemplary for institutions to adopt with African countries. These technological tools and initiatives can start the process of changing the narrative of African countries and allow institutions to produce global-minded citizens.
Conclusion
As the world becomes more interconnected than before, thanks to social media and technological tools, it is encouraged that institutions incorporate student cross-cultural awareness through self-assessment and reflection. This effort also includes promoting nonEurocentric programs, employing diverse faculty members, and expanding African studies. Education abroad should foster global citizenship and prepare students to be globally competitive through acknowledgment and respect for other cultures. By implementing postcolonial theory, higher education professionals and faculty members are encouraged to assess their own biases and assumptions, to internalize the critical role they play in shaping the next global leaders. Education abroad professionals should observe and challenge their traditional ways of promoting programs, including the representation of students and countries in outreach materials. Institution leaders should also analyze their institution's mission statement and the pragmatism of their campus internationalization efforts. By encouraging self-assessment, reflection, and dialogue, students will be able to understand themselves in relation to cultures and countries that are different from the US by stepping out of their comfort zone.
WORKS CITED
Adobe Captivate (2020): online, available at https://www.adobe.com/products/captivate.html Brown, A. (2013): "Waiting for Superwoman: White Female Teachers and the Construction of the `Neoliberal Savior' in a New York City Public School," Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 11 (2): 123164 Caton, K. and C. A. Santos (2009): "Images of the Other: Selling Study Abroad in a Postcolonial World," Journal of Travel Research, 48 (2): 191-204 Cook, N. (2008): "Shifting the Focus of Development: Turning `Helping' into Self-Reflexive Learning," Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices, 2(1): 16-26 Henthorne, T. L. and T. R. Panko (2017): "Cuba: The New Frontier of Study Abroad Programs for US Students," Journal of Teaching in International Business, 28(3/4): 168187. Hoffa, W. and S. C. DePaul eds., (2010): A History of US Study Abroad: 1965-Present, Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, The Forum on Education Abroad, Carlisle, PA Institute of International Education (2019): "US Study Abroad Student Profile, 2017-18," Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, online, available at: https://www.iie.org/Research-andInsights/Open-Doors/Data/US-Study-Abroad/Student-Profile Institute of International Education (2019): "US Study Abroad Destinations, 2017-18," Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, online, available at: https://www.iie.org/Research-andInsights/Open-Doors/Data/US-Study-Abroad/Destinations
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Jorgenson, S. and L Shultz (2012): "Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in Post-Secondary Institutions: What is Protected and What is Hidden Under the Umbrella of GCE?" Journal of Global Citizenship and Equity Education, 2(1): 1-22 Lee, M. (2012): "The Complete History of Study Abroad," Go Overseas, online, available at: https://www.gooverseas.com/blog/history-study-abroad Lincoln Commission (2005): Global competence and National Needs: One Million Americans Studying Abroad, Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Fellowship Program, Washington DC Mcclure, K. R., K, Szelenyi, E, Niehaus, A. Anderson, and J. Reed (2010): "We Just Don't Have the Possibility Yet: US Latina/o Narratives on Study Abroad," Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 47 (3): 367386 Mukherjee, M. (2012): "US Study Abroad from the Periphery to the Center of the Global Curriculum in the Information Age," Policy Futures in Education, 10 (1): 8189 NAFSA (2020): The Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization, online, available at: https://www.nafsa.org/about/about-nafsa/senator-paul-simon-award-campus-internationalization National Center for Education Statistics (2017): Digest of Education Statistics, online, available at: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/2017menu_tables.asp Noddings, N. (2005): "Global Citizenship: Promises and Problems," in N. Noddings, ed., Educating Citizens for Global Awareness, Teachers College Press, New York Onyenekwu, I. (2016): "Traveling to Non Traditional Destinations: Recommendations for American Students Studying Abroad in Africa," Mid Western Educational Researcher, 28 (1): 93-102 Onyenekwu, I., J. Angeli, R. Pinto, and T. Douglas (2017): "(Mis)representation Among US Study Abroad Programs Traveling to the African Continent: A Critical Content Analysis of a Teach Abroad Program," Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 29 (1): 68-84 Palacios, C. M. (2010): "Volunteer Tourism, Development and Education in A Postcolonial World: Conceiving Global Connections Beyond Aid," Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 18 (7): 861878, online, Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09669581003782739. Punteney, K. (2019): "Education Abroad," in The International Education Handbook: Principles and Practices of the Field, 99145, NAFSA: Association of International Educators, Washington DC Power, R. (2017): "Six Learning Theories," in M. Ally, D. Cristol, and A. Palalas eds., I Am Learning: Mobilizing and Supporting Educator Practice, 189202, International Association for Mobile Learning, online, available at: https://iamlearning.pressbooks.com/chapter/six-learning-theories/ Salisbury, M., M. Paulsen, and E. Pascarella (2011): "Why do All the Study Abroad Students Look Alike? Applying an Integrated Student Choice Model to Explore Differences in the Factors that Influence White and Minority Students' Intent to Study Abroad," Research in Higher Education; Journal of the Association for Institutional Research, 52(2): 123-150 Sharpe, E. K. (2015): "Colonialist Tendencies in Education Abroad," International Journal on Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 27 (2): 227234 Smith, S. (2018): "Instagram Abroad: Performance, Consumption and Colonial Narrative in Tourism," Postcolonial Studies, 21(2): 172191 SUNY (2020): Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), online, available at: http://coil.suny.edu/ The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (2007): "Black Faculty in Higher Education: Still Only a Drop in the Bucket," online, available at: https://bit.ly/2ZndU5q Twitter (2020): "The Africa The Media Never Shows You," online, available at https://twitter.com/african_tweets/status/342763377464078336?lang=en Urry, J. (1992): "The Tourist Gaze `Revisited'," American Behavioral Scientist, 36(2): 172-186 Wilson, S. (2008): Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods, Fernwood Pub. Halifax, Canada Woolf, M. (2006): "Come and See the Poor People: The Pursuit of Exotica," Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 13(1): 135146 Zemach- Bersin, T. (2007): "Global Citizenship and Study Abroad: It's All About US," Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices, 1(2): 16-28
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SECTION 5: THOUGHTS ON DECOLONIZING EDUCATION ABROAD
To decolonize and not just diversify curricula is to recognize that knowledge is inevitably marked by power relations [and] to ask difficult questions of ourselves. Priyamvada Gopal
This final section is not intended to be any kind of conclusion. It is, instead, an attempt to synthesize and reflect on some of the issues raised by the writers in this Occasional Paper, particularly as they relate to our work in education abroad.
Decolonization is, as these essays demonstrate, a complex and challenging process requiring imagination and creativity to implement. It indicates a field of introspection and reassessment, a way in which we might look critically at what we do and how and why we do it. The term "decolonization" has become ubiquitous, but how are we to ensure that it is more than just a label without real substance, or a fashionable buzzword to which we merely pay lip service?
For advocates, "decolonization" is simply about ensuring that curriculum design, content and delivery are truly inclusive and do not always elevate just one voice, one experience, one way of being in the world. Yet, as Michael Woolf notes, while there may be a dominant shared goal, rooted in social justice and the desire to create greater equality, there is not, clearly, a set of discernible steps that lead towards some imagined state of grace; nor is it a necessary outcome of a pre-determined agenda. In the concluding essay, Martha Johnson identifies inherent biases in education abroad that need to be unearthed and deconstructed in the post-pandemic world.
This then is an invitation to agree, disagree, challenge, disturb, and disrupt our assumptions. We might, in that process, unearth ambiguities, enrich our discourse, and bring greater clarity to the work to which we are collectively committed.
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Michael Woolf CAPA: The Global Education Network
Someone said: `The dead writers are remote from us because we know so much more than they did.' Precisely, and they are that which we know. T. S. Eliot Tradition and the Individual Talent
A Spirit of Humility
The aspiration to decolonize teaching and learning draws upon the notion that knowledge is not neutral. All that we know is conditioned by time and place, and builds upon, amends, or discards what has gone before. We comprehend the world differently than our forefathers did. The next generations will certainly redefine those things we now believe to be true and create an alternative reality.
This should not be confused with progress. History is demonstrably not marked by stages of improvement. If it were, humanity would have learnt from the barbarity of The Hundred Years' War. Instead, much ingenuity was spent in the following centuries in refining the tools of cruelty. We would also now be wiser than Socrates when, in practice we just have more information. The notion of progressive improvement is delusional. Approaches to the reform of knowledge should be made, therefore, in a spirit of humility.
Decolonization, in a historical sense, addresses the legacy of the imposition of European control over "less developed" regions and nations broadly from the 1880s to the 1960s. At the center of colonial thought is the notion of a hierarchy in which races, religions, nations, systems, or customs are deemed superior to others. Decolonization is driven by a need to acknowledge and correct some of the profound injustices embedded in the assumed superiority of White, male, Christian, European or American, values. The imperative is to unearth bias and validate the significance of alternative voices, histories, and traditions.
The Curricula of Education Abroad
Decolonizing education abroad requires more than revising curriculum or reviewing assumptions embedded in disciplines. These are, however, important steps in the process, as these examples demonstrate.
History
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Recognizing the validity of other voices is critical in the decolonization of history. Therefore, a history of the Vietnam War would, through another lens, be seen as the War of Franco-American aggression. A key issue is whose history is being privileged. Hallie Rubenhold in The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (2019) offers an example of how the periphery can be moved to the center. Her focus is on the victims who are commonly, and falsely in at least three cases, characterized as "prostitutes" and, thus, not "worthy" of attention. Instead, Rubenhold restores the individual significance of these forgotten, denigrated women. John Woolf's study The Wonders: The Extraordinary Performers Who Transformed the Victorian Age 33 similarly shifts focus to performers in the "freak show." They are presented as people with agency, voice, and personality, beyond stereotype. The decolonizing message is that these voices also matter.
Applying these principles to the historical narratives of colonization adjusts emphases to include those whose traditions, customs, histories are submerged under the weight of dominant narratives. Studies of colonial Africa, for example, would look beyond European perspectives, and deeper than national borders which were, for the most, invented by the colonial powers without reference to the identities of those who lived there. At one level, then, there is a history of Nigeria; there is also the histories of peoples and communities who transcended the artificial construct of the nation. It is not necessarily a simple matter to validate those given that the sources of information may be more elusive, buried under the dominant narratives that record colonial policies and practices.
Readjustment of unjust marginalization is at the heart of the process. There are often controversial political implications, of course. Objections may be explicit and reactionary, or more subtle as was the case when Black History Month was launched in Britain. On the one hand, this was welcomed as an attempt to bring into focus the long and significant contributions made by Black people in Britain. However, there was simultaneous resistance on the grounds that designating a month a year to Black History created another form of marginalization.
Decolonization is a complex, emotion-laden, aspiration; it would be foolhardy to propose simple solutions. Nuanced thought and respect for a diversity of perspectives is a requirement, not the arrogance of unexamined convictions.
Situational Learning In education abroad, teaching students that the places in which they study are multi-
dimensional is another decolonizing strategy. An objective is to go beyond the tourist gaze and to deconstruct stereotypical representations of national identity. In CAPA's programs, students learn
33 Published in UK as The Wonders: Lifting the Curtain on the Freak Show, Circus and Victorian Age, Michael O'Mara Books, 2019
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that urban spaces reflect multi-layered conjunctions of people and histories. In London, they encounter multicultural populations and transformed neighborhoods that subvert the colonial icons, in monuments and architecture, seen at the center.
The art and architecture of Florence similarly represents centuries of development, a story of longevity and continuity. In contrast, students may compare that to the perceived brevity of American history. However, students learn that politically, America is almost a hundred years older than Italy: a perspective that disrupts assumptions and offers an alternative narrative. Within a short distance from the city, there is also a substantial Chinese population revealing that the region is far more diverse than it may at first appear. The high art and culture of Italian civilization masks the brutal persecution of Roma, and a history of fascism, colonialism, and racism. In short, an ethical and intellectual imperative is to represent hidden histories which impact upon current reality.
Decolonization involves seeing the past and locations in which we teach as multi-layered. Silenced or ignored voices are validated and represented. The conclusion is that there is no history but many histories.
Literature Literature is critical to decolonization. It is a primary means of giving voice to those who
have been silenced or muted. Fiction, poetry, and drama have had critical functions in resistance to colonialism as a mechanism for creating and affirming identity. As a discipline, it requires the kinds of analysis that reveal subtexts and implicit meaning. Ironically, the dominant tools for academic decolonization are precisely those disciplines threatened by political privileging of STEM subjects.
Literary studies, in response to decolonization, reads the "canon" with a more nuanced sense of context and adds other voices. Questions beyond aesthetics need to be asked: what assumptions are shared between writer and reader? What points of view are dominant? How does time and place condition the works studied, and so on? Decolonizing the syllabus reveals that which may be unstated. In that sense, it broadens what we teach. More crudely, however, it may also be used as a tool for curriculum censorship, a means of exclusion.
A conventional, conservative resistance to decolonization of the literature curriculum often circles around Shakespeare and other canonical figures. The argument is that students need to study Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens et al. if they wish to have some kind of knowledge of literature.34 It is too simplistic to dismiss these arguments as merely reactionary. This is not an either/or proposition. It is a kind of philistinism to deny the enriching experience of studying the great works of the Western tradition. However, it is perfectly reasonable to argue that other
34 This is the subject of Julie Schumacher's hilarious satire The Shakespeare Requirement (2018).
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voices can be integrated into syllabi and, further, that the canon can be read in a more nuanced manner that does not denigrate the work, but that offers diverse perspectives.
For example, Shakespeare's The Tempest is, on one level, about colonial control. Prospero's domination of Caliban can certainly be seen as White enslavement of a marginalized, racialized figure. One possible response is to omit the play from the syllabus because it carries distasteful implications. Another possibility is to discuss colonial structures, while also considering what the alignment of magic and power tells us about perceptions in early seventeenth-century England. Students may also consider that the play was written at around the same time as the King James Bible, the apex of English rhetoric. Racial stereotypes can be found in Othello, The Merchant of Venice, sexism in many plays, most obviously in The Taming of the Shrew. If we were to exclude works of which we disapprove because of messaging that is considered offensive, we would probably only teach a very limited number of Shakespeare's plays.
On the same grounds, a significant number of authors could be edited out of literary studies. A small sample includes Rudyard Kipling, on the grounds of his admiration for the British Empire; T.S. Eliot, because of anti-Semitism in some of the poems; William Faulkner because of his stereotypical portrayal of African Americans in his early novels; Ernest Hemingway, again on the grounds of racism and anti-Semitism; William Golding because of his implied endorsement of colonialism; the dramatist Eugene O'Neill, often accused of stereotyping African Americans. All, incidentally, were recipients of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Alice Walker might also be subject to exclusion on the grounds that she has been accused of anti-Semitism and endorsement of Holocaust denial theories. F. Scott Fitzgerald would not pass approval, nor would Graham Greene, or Evelyn Waugh. In fact, the number of authors who had offensive opinions or who represented them in their work is legion. Therein is a significant nuance, however. Representation of offensive views is not the same as promoting them. However, that distinction does not matter much if you take the view that decolonizing literature means eliminating books that contain attitudes that might upset students because they contain views perceived as colonialist, homophobic, racist, sexist etc. One approach to decolonizing curriculum is exclusionary; the other is revisionary. Metaphorically, you may burn books or read them more carefully.
Decolonizing curriculum is a process, not an event, and it raises questions that are not intellectually or ethically simple. However, curriculum is not the sole focus. We also have an obligation to examine the profession of education abroad itself.
Measuring Quality: Comprehensive Internationalization
One measure of excellence in higher education is the idea of "comprehensive internationalization." NAFSA's Comprehensive Internationalization: From Concept to Action
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(Hudzik, 2011) is a key text in the promotion and dissemination of the concept. The scope of the document is US higher education, but it also asserts that "the worldwide globalization of higher education brings a commonality of motivations and issues to internationalization...an institutional imperative, not just a desirable possibility" (5-6). The publication argues that "to be a higher education institution of distinction in the twenty-first century requires systematic institutional attention to internationalization" (10). Quality and distinction are measured by the level of internationalization enacted by the institution.
The American Council on Education offers a similar perspective: "Comprehensive internationalization...is a strategic, coordinated process that seeks...to position colleges and universities as more globally oriented and internationally connected....increasingly, internationalization is...a central feature of a quality education (2019)."
Comprehensive internationalization is an aspiration rooted in American higher education. There may be good reasons for this. After World War II, the US pioneered education abroad as a mechanism for creating learning opportunities that integrate with, and enrich, undergraduate degree programs. The standards by which these programs should function are defined by the Forum on Education Abroad in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Overseas organizations and institutions that hope to attract education abroad students are required to align, to a substantial degree, with quality standards generated in the US.
While there is an inevitability about this, we should also acknowledge that this has neocolonial implications. American influence and wealth enforce specific requirements on higher education elsewhere, regardless of the norms operating locally. Quality is defined by the degree to which overseas institutions meet American expectations.
This is not necessarily bad or good. It simply is. However, universities in the Global South, for example, may well have other priorities that should not be regarded as inferior. The university can be a means of creating economic strength in a particular country, region, or area. The growth of universities may be fueled by the need to enhance national development. Priorities may be rooted in a regional mission: to provide continuing education for local industry and local organizations, to create employment, to improve facilities; in short to support and improve the immediate community; objectives that were, by the way, behind the establishment of Land Grant institutions in the US. Through the lens of comprehensive internationalization, those aspirations are indicative of secondary status. Distinction and quality are measured by a capacity to adopt standards that require resources not necessarily available outside of wealthier systems. It takes serious cash to define your community as international. Education abroad is an expensive commodity open to a relatively wealthy or privileged elite. Attending conferences abroad is costly and difficult for faculty and administrators from many countries. Recruiting international faculty to work in universities in the Global South is problematic if local salaries and
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conditions are judged inferior to those at home. In short, these activities are resource dependent. If "systematic institutional attention to internationalization" is the critical measure of quality, we are, unintentionally and unconsciously perhaps, creating a hierarchy based upon wealth.
Alien Worlds
There are other neo-colonial resonances in the language of education abroad discussed elsewhere in this volume. Taking students out of their "comfort zone" is frequently lauded as a pedagogical benefit. In this manner, overseas space is evaluated against an American norm which is more comfortable, less challenging. The same assumption is expressed in the notion that, at the end of their overseas studies, students need to be helped to "re-enter." This is a metaphor drawn from NASA and describes the dramatic return, splash down, of astronauts from perilous space. In practice, most education students have spent enjoyable time in attractive places. However, "re-entry" tells another story: students have survived engagements in alien spaces and are returning to a place of security against which other places are measured.
The idea of "cross-cultural" experience further suggests that students necessarily encounter barriers. This constructs "culture" as a problem that education abroad professionals will help students negotiate. It assumes that differences are more significant than similarities and implies that students will struggle in unfamiliar environments. Furthermore, the idea that in going abroad students have gone from one culture to another is based upon a naive view that cultures and countries are the same thing, a demonstrably false interpretation of our reality.
These concepts collectively imply that "abroad" (wherever it is) is different and problematic space. Students perceive unfamiliar locations by reference to US norms. A postcolonial ideology, in contrast, asserts that other nations are of equal value. Hierarchies based upon perceived foreign characteristics are constructs not realities. The world elsewhere is not alien. Our similarities may be more significant than our differences. The language of education abroad does not consistently align with those beliefs.
The Decolonization Agenda: Towards a Conclusion
In education abroad, American values and perspectives are privileged by, among other mechanisms, soft power, wealth, quality criteria, and the dominance of the English language. Standards to which others need to adjust are made in America. Perhaps, some level of neocolonialism is inevitable. US health and safety standards are, for example, critically important to universities, students, and their parents. However, decolonization is not an absolute condition. It is a process in which the curriculum can be broadened to include other voices and perspectives, and the language of education abroad can be revised to avoid hidden bias and unexamined assumptions.
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Colonialism no longer exists as a system of global order. However, it remains a means of understanding power imbalances. It also exists as a metaphor for attitudes and behaviors that reenact inequities. Colonial attitudes are found not only in the minds of reactionaries; remnants may also lurk unacknowledged even in the work of those committed to cosmopolitan and internationalist ideologies. As international educators we may not be able to reform or alter as much as we might like, but we do have an ethical imperative to unearth neo-colonial attitudes even if, in so doing, we are exposed to our own failings.
WORKS CITED
American Council on Education (2019): "Comprehensive Internationalization," online, available at: https://www.acenet.edu/Research-insights/Pages/Internationalization/ComprehensiveInternationalization.aspx# Eliot, T. S. (1919): "Tradition and the Individual Talent," online, available at: https://www.bartleby.com/200/sw4.html Gopal, P. (2017): "Yes, We Must Decolonise: Our Teaching has to Go Beyond Elite White Men," The Guardian, 27 October, online, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/27/decolonise-elite-white-men-decolonisingcambridge-university-english-curriculum-literature Hudzik, J. K. (2011): "NAFSA's Comprehensive Internationalization from Concept to Action," online, available at: http://ecahe.eu/w/images/1/1f/Comprehensive_Internationalization_-_NAFSA.pdf Rubenhold, H. (2019): The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Boston MA Schumacher, J. (2018): The Shakespeare Requirement, Knopf Doubleday, New York Woolf, J. (2019): The Wonders: The Extraordinary Performers Who Transformed the Victorian Age, Pegasus, New York
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THE DECOLONIZING OF STUDY ABROAD
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Martha Johnson The University of Minnesota
What does it mean to decolonize study abroad? The term "decolonizing" has become popular in academia since the early 2000s, but the term can be ascribed different meanings and varies in its use and application. Strictly speaking, decolonization is the process of undoing of political colonialism. The term refers particularly to the dismantlement, during the second half of the twentieth century, of the colonial empires established prior to World War I throughout the world.
Decolonization essentially names the process of the complete removal of the domination of non-indigenous forces within the geographical space as well as in the social and cultural institutions of the colonized. It also, however, refers to the intellectual decolonization from the colonizers' hegemony and metanarrative subjugating the colonized. In other words, decolonization can refer to a discourse that seeks to address issues of power in institutional and cultural forces that retain dynamics related to colonization or social injustice. This second definition is particularly relevant to my exploration of the topic as it applies to study abroad.
Postcolonial studies, specifically in literature, have long been concerned with the role of travel and exploration narratives in creating the rest of the world for what has been historically been classified as Western civilization. This framework provides a useful structure for considering the endeavor and history of travel in general, and study abroad and exchange specifically. In this essay I will discuss two possible approaches to the relevance of consideration of decolonizing study abroad. The first is in terms of decolonizing who participates and the second is in relation to where and how we send students.
In an era of public and grand commitments by US institutions to internationalization and to education abroad, it is easy to forget the history and traditions of the venture. The notion that everyone should, or even should have the ability to, participate is a recent and radical shift. The
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history of American study abroad, is, after all, grounded in privilege. The grand tour of Europe for young ladies whose wealthy families sought to "finish" them, the sowing of wild oats for young men...this history exposes America's angst and inferiority complex in relation to Europe, the epicenter of art, history, literature, or "culture," as it were. The roots of study abroad from an academic basis are in the liberal arts, languages, and the humanities. Even in the case of those areas of study where there has always been a clear rationale for pursing study abroad, the overarching assumptions of the privilege associated with pursuing such majors likely undermines the seriousness of the venture.
From a diversity perspective, participants have been predominantly white to the extent that the vast majority of predeparture and orientation materials have failed to include specific resources for racially diverse students. Participants are expected to be able-bodied and healthy, capable of achieving assimilation and independence with ease. They have been assumed to come from families supportive of the venture and possess a minimal level of travel savvy.
The identity of privilege is one that is hard for many Americans to accept. The American identity is reliant on a belief in equality, despite ample proof of the fallacy of the assumptions that underpin this belief.
Similarly, we have approached higher education in the US, and certainly study abroad, with the same flawed assumptions as to access and motivations. And so, as we seek to change the nature, goals, and demographics of the project, it is imperative that we address the most basic assumptions and biases about who and how.
As education abroad in the US grew in mission and participation in the 1980s and 1990s, the emerging doctrine was heavily influenced by the first generation of campus-based study abroad professionals. These pioneers were largely drawn from the faculty and needed only one qualification: experience abroad. The end result of the singular nature of these practitioners was a field dominated by primarily Caucasian men from the languages and social sciences, in many cases ex-Peace Corps participants, language faculty, and the odd British academic expat to add a posh accent.
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Perhaps unintentionally, and despite succeeding in pushing education abroad from the margins to the center in many cases, an unintended consequence was the establishment and, thus far, preservation of a set of assumptions and biases, based on their own experiences, that would come to create a mythology of sorts as to what constituted the "best" study abroad. So, what biases did they bring? These include an assumption that longer is always better. That foreign-language locations are inherently better than English, or that the curriculum should always be grounded in culture. And finally, that the students should always bring a spirit of altruism as a required motivation.
While their numbers are dwindling as they retire, you can still here the nostalgic rants at conferences, lamenting the trends towards the inclusion of business and STEM fields, and pining for the days when the "right" kind of students went abroad. Such rhetoric is not necessarily consciously elitist. These same colleagues would swear to a great commitment to broadening access, but their failure is to see the assumptions of privilege that so many of their arguments rely upon.
There is a general failure to understand that, as US higher education has moved towards broader access and inclusion in general, there has been an important shift in the motivations involved in the overall project and in the choices of degrees and majors. The idea that a student can approach their university education with talent, interest, or personal fulfillment as their motivator exposes the essence of privilege. That is not in any way to denigrate students fortunate enough to choose based on interest, but rather to point out that any system that values their motivations over more utilitarian motivations of other students is problematic.
It is equally problematic to assume that individual benefit is a lesser motivation. In other words, why is the implication that study abroad might be about skill development bad? And does this resistance expose our discomfort with including those students with potentially different ideologies in our venture? As America has had to take a hard look at its divisions and the lack of dialogue across identities and segments of society, it becomes clear that few opportunities, even
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at a University, exist that foster and create space for a conversation that truly brings students from differing experiences, identities, and ideologies together.
Study abroad programs are, we increasingly find, that space. And that is due in large part to the changing nature of who is participating. Therefore, the opportunities to use the cohort to foster conversations that do not happen "back at home" becomes an opportunity unique to the heterotopic and liminal spaces of study abroad.
Conversely, there has been growth in equity and diversity structures in US higher education. The leadership and educators involved in this work on campus may not have studied aboard themselves and often project their own biases regarding the intent or interest of their education abroad colleagues. There is a discord and disconnect that can be challenging to bridge.
Recent evolutions in participants and curriculum are, on the whole, positive. The profile of participants is changing at an unprecedented rate that offers access to programs abroad across the curriculum and student body. There is, however, a danger to entering into this brave new world of study abroad for all without care and intentionality.
Opening up study abroad to those who are ideologically different may not be something we like doing and yet it is our obligation as educators, despite the fear that some motivations feel at times in direct conflict with the philosophy and goals that education abroad professionals have in mind. The reality is that much of the growth is from disciplines who have come to believe that in an increasingly global economy global skills are not just desirable but necessary, and employability is a responsibility of the academy. And is that necessarily bad? Or is it a fair expectation of a venture that is massive investment of both time and money? And if it is a fair expectation of higher education in general, then why not hold study abroad to the same expectations?
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These goals do not exist in opposition and are not a "zero sum game," one does not have to be at the cost of the other. The first step in decolonizing study abroad is to challenge and subvert ideology that excludes any student from participation.
This is where the second concern for the decolonization question needs to be addressed and carefully considered in education abroad program design. Biases and value judgements are equally pervasive in terms or where students should go. As was the case with the colonial explorers, the rhetoric from US institutions, not to mention the funding from many scholarship programs, such as the Gillman Scholarship program, prioritizes study in so-called non-traditional destinations. The focus needs, perhaps, to shift to decolonizing the actual practice of education abroad.
There has been a rush of program development, and generous funding made available, explicit to programs and study in the "developing" world, the Global South, or "non-traditional" locations. And yet such ventures usually fail to adequately address the essential question of "why?" These are indisputably diverse locations offering unique curricular and cultural opportunities. But to prioritize location, without intention or understanding and acknowledgement of history and complexity, is negligible and arguably might ultimately reinforce culturally imperialistic or neocolonial attitudes on the part of students towards these locations.
There are markers or facets that are common across countries classified as postcolonial that are agreed upon. Postcolonial theorists refer to a specific set of conditions common to countries and regions in the process of decolonization that are useful in considering engagement on a political, economic, or cultural level.
The first is cultural complexity. Postcolonial locations are cultures that, by definition, exist on minimally two, but in many cases three or more levels at all times. And while we Americans think we understand multiculturalism, ours, with the exception of slave or "coolie" descendants, chose citizenship rather than being colonized, resulting in a completely different dynamic regarding race and power. The resulting ability of people to develop the tendencies of the "mimic man," what Albert Memmi defined as a member of the colonized culture who takes on the attributes of the
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colonizer, can effectively mask dominated cultures to the visitor (Memmi, 2003). Complex social stratification such as designations of class or tribe may not be obvious. Race is often less about color than ethnicity and codes that are not easily discerned.
In all modern postcolonial nation-states, there a is a narrative of the evolution and journey towards independence, but the nature of that varies widely and is often contested. Whether a civil war, peaceful process, and a source of pride, or in many cases unresolved, the nature of decolonization informs the present.
In most cases, national language or languages will have been marginalized. Citizens of the postcolonial state who have achieved economic success will be bilingual or trilingual. Their individual access, however, to education and ability to speak the language of power and business, will relate to their family, education, and positionality.
The post-colonial dynamic relates heavily to patterns of emigration and necessarily outward looking societies. The shifts in economic success or failure are often incredibly recent and fast. Modernization and a shift a to global engagement and perspective before national and/or regional reconciliation is not uncommon. In 2003 Fintan O'Toole argued that Ireland had gone from premodern to postmodern without ever being modern.
Colonial isolation can result in either a reality of, or desire for, homogeneity based on a romanticized notion of national or cultural identity. Postcolonial cultures may associate immigration with loss of power and culture based on colonial histories.
And finally, the category is by definition temporal and not permanent. As a result, the anxieties around national culture and identity become even more urgent and profound as identities are being created and recreated, constantly in a state of flux.
Ironically, many of the previously noted features ultimately result in destinations that are some of the most alarmingly comfortable and misleadingly easy or attractive for education abroad. The legacies of colonization and deference to dominant powers create environments that
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present as conducive to cross cultural learning while often masking complexities and realities below the surface.
The surface level operates at a deceptively comfortable, or at least navigable, level. These are often places where the Western "rules" have been successfully interpolated and imbedded, particularly, in business, institutions, and education, to a degree that visitors feel they can easily discern cues and mores. Meanings, however, may be much higher context. For instance, costuming in a white coat by a white student in Africa suggests experience and power regardless of the individual's actual training or qualification. The act of wearing the white coat is not neutral but rather reflective of histories of the imposition of Western medicine and development projects.
Democracies and nation states have often been established through a transition marked by heavy intervention of the colonial powers that previously controlled their politics. Few such transitions made space for indigenous models of governing or practices. As a result, practices may be as exclusionary and corrupt as under colonial rule.
Sites are often modern and on par with the student's standard of living. And while insights into the existence of cutting-edge hospitals or customer service in India can provide excellent exposure to cultural relativity, the student may not gain exposure to inequities that are still prevalent in the culture.
Homogeneity, whether by isolation or choice, can result in a culture that is open to outsiders on one level but very insular on another. Students may find friendships and relationships particularly challenging in cultures that have developed a fair distrust or deference to outsiders. This can lead to isolation and the creation of American "bubbles" while in-country.
Visitors can also often communicate to a high level in the languages of the European colonizers such as English, French, or in the case of Latin and South America, Spanish. Students and travelers may not be aware that they never interact in the local languages of emotion, creativity, and intimacy.
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Popular destinations are touted simplistically as the "English speaking" world. The label invites interrogation. It does not necessarily translate to places where everyone speaks English, although students may work under that assumption. More accurately it is a term that designates places with historical and contemporary power structures that conducts the majority of education, business, and politics in English. This assumption, however, proves faulty upon greater scrutiny. The Dail (or Irish Parliament) conducts all business in Irish, and the Indian central government conducts business in Hindi.
From a linguistic perspective India provides a useful case study. The official first language is Hindi with English as the second. The modern state of India, however, identifies 447 "living" languages with 30 spoken by more than a million native speakers. 122 additional languages are spoken by more than 10,000 Indians. Therefore, not only is English not the first language, but current efforts in education prioritize and require Hindi. As India gains popularity for education abroad, the assumption of its status as an English-speaking destination is increasingly called into question.
Maps of India from 1700-1792 list French, Portuguese, and British language zones. Yet India is still viewed through the lens of British colonization. There are issues in relation to French and Portuguese culture, language, and influences that complicate India's history and geopolitics. Additionally, there are numerous local dialects and multiple religions, not to mention a caste system.
For better or worse, English language and bureaucracy are two of the most uniting cultural factors. And the truth is India is a place where language offers the opportunity to potentially communicate at a very high level. To miss, however, the cultural cues that language does not address or that do not translate is to miss much of the story. The same postcolonial dynamics that enable India to compete in Thomas Friedman's "flat world" make it a problematic location prone to cursory or surface contact.
African language families provide an equally complex insight. Individual languages on the African continent are estimated to be as many as 3,000. About a hundred of the languages of
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Africa are widely used for inter-ethnic communication. Arabic, Berber, Amharic, Somali, Oromo, Swahili, Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba are spoken by tens of millions of people. If clusters of up to a hundred similar languages are counted together, twelve are spoken by 75 percent of Africans as a first or additional language, and an additional fifteen by 85 percent.
Nigeria alone has over 500 distinct languages, although the official language remains English. In what will likely continue as a political trend, South Africa has 11 official languages.
The percentage of US students studying in the post-colonial world pre-pandemic was 52 percent.
So, what are we to do and how are we to reconcile the reality for the intrepid group of US students going to India for a week to study social change, gender, or supply-chain management? How do we decolonize the venture in a postcolonial destination? The imperative for educators must be to consider and develop resources and strategies to help students move past that cursory level of comfort described. We must enable and empower faculty headed to these locations to gain some level of understanding and familiarity with the dialogue of postcolonization and decolonization.
The same aspects that make these locations deceptive also often make them uniquely fascinating and significant. Decolonizing the approach and assumptions associated with travel in these destinations is an imperative.
In conclusion, who goes abroad and how they go will change and must. The challenge for the next generation of international educators is to identity fair and relevant practical desired outcomes, to honor the investment of the students and their families, and to simultaneously maintain our diligence as educators and interculturalists. It is our responsibility to ensure that students engage with place, people, and environment responsibly and intellectually, with a sense of history and an eye to the future.
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WORKS CITED Friedman, T. L. (2005): The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York Memmi, A. (2003): The Colonizer and the Colonized, Earthscan, London O'Toole, F. (2003): Critical Moments: Fintan O'Toole on Modern Irish Theatre, Craysfort, Dublin
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