‘Going global’: comparing access to global learning experiences in the online social networks of Turkish-Dutch, Moroccan-Dutch, and native-Dutch youth

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the potential of online environments as spaces for young people to develop intercultural competences by studying how otherness is created online and how this holds potential for learning. While online communication is an increasing part of young peoples’ lives, not much is known about how young people use their online social networks to connect with culturally diverse others and whether such interactions create opportunities for learning. Using social network analyses and discourse analyses of self-reports, we compared Turkish-Dutch, Moroccan-Dutch and native-Dutch youth regarding: 1) the geographical dispersion and ethnic diversity of their online social networks and 2) how they reported on their online interactions and the opportunities for global learning. Young people from these communities differed in how they connected online and how they reflected on interactions in which they were confronted with different perspectives. We suggest a re-examination of the notion of global learning, paying more attention to the highly varied experience of ‘global’ youths’ perception of interactions with different others, as well as what the learning potential of ‘going global’ entails.

KEYWORDS:

• Global learning
• online social networks
• cross-ethnic comparison
• mixed methods
• intercultural interaction

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Vandana Gill and Genia Bettencourt, who generously provided us with comments and feedback on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Suzan Kommers

Suzan Kommers is a PhD student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and specialises in internationalisation of higher education. She is passionate about researching how students can be supported in broadening their perspectives to become interculturally competent citizens and learners.

Mariëtte de Haan

Mariëtte de Haan is full professor Intercultural Education at Utrecht University. A recurring theme in her research is how normative traditions of learning and education relate to more spontaneously created environments for learning, including those in digital worlds.