Pedagogic democracy versus pedagogic supremacy: migrant academics’ perspectives

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates the underexplored area of othering of migrant academics within their teaching context. Nine personal narratives of migrant academics’ teaching were analysed qualitatively for indications of pedagogical othering. Migrant academics indicated the need to align their own pedagogic values and practices with that of their host institutions they work in as they felt their own values and practices were considered less desirable. We argue, from a Gramsci’s hegemonic perspective, that the pedagogic adaptation by migrant academics aimed at improving student learning is not problematic in itself, but more problematic is the inequality of opportunity for migrant academics to contribute to pedagogical decisions which can meaningfully influence the departmental culture. Lack of pedagogic democracy where the ‘home’ academic environment has a monopoly of knowledge and a hegemonic position regarding learning and teaching can compromise the student-learning experience by limiting articulation of alternative pedagogical perspectives by the migrant international academics.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic mobility
• migrant academics
• pedagogic othering
• pedagogic democracy
• international academics

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of the nine authors whose autoethnographic accounts included in their edited book this study draws on. The authors would also like to acknowledge the support provided by their respective institutions that facilitated the work on production of the edited volume on the teaching journeys of migrant academic that this study is based on.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Namrata Rao http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1774-4263

Anesa Hosein http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7325-5640

Ian Kinchin http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5425-4688