Imagined geographies of learning: student perceptions of what can be learned where

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the ways in which Danish student teachers imagine different countries to be appropriate for different kinds of learning in the context of international student mobility. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper shows how geographical imaginaries are constructed and maintained by educational institutions and social networks. Furthermore, it shows that students ascribe different potentials for professional or personal development to different places. The paper finds that internationalisation practices risk reproducing stigmatised and hierarchical notions of the potential of places and the ‘right’ kinds of knowledge.

KEYWORDS:

• Internationalisation
• international student mobility
• teacher education
• geographical imaginaries
• knowledge hierarchies

Acknowledgements

I want to thank all the participants for sharing their time, reflections, and experiences with me. This research project is part of the project Geographies of Internationalisation, and I thank the project members, supervisors, and colleagues, especially Vera Spangler, for valuable feedback on earlier drafts.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All names and countries are pseudonymised.

2 International service learning (ISL) is a structured academic experience in another country. Students participate in organised service activities and is a way to gain an enhanced sense of responsibility as a citizen both locally and globally (Bringle and Hatcher 2011).

3 Credit mobility is where the stay abroad is typically less than a year and part of a programme of study at a home institution. Degree mobility is where the student study an entire programme abroad (King and Raghuram 2013).

4 I use the term international teaching internship. However, the terminology greatly differs within the field of study e.g., teaching practicum, overseas student teaching, short-term international experience, overseas placement, cross-cultural education internship etc. These cover structured and supervised experiences with teaching in a country different from one’s own. The length and scope of such experiences differ amongst countries and institutions.

5 All names and mobility trajectories are pseudonymised to comply with the Danish Code of Conduct (Ministry of Higher Education and Science 2014), and all country names have been replaced by countries with similar cultural and socio-economic characteristics. Furthermore, participants signed a statement of consent regarding their participation.

6 Denmark previously colonised Greenland. In 2009, Greenland got home rule. While the formal colonial ties have been cut, the shared past is still present in the relationship between Denmark and Greenland (Gulløv 2017). For example, Greenland is part of the Danish Realm (along with the Faroe Islands), and Danish is taught as a school subject (Grønlands Selvstyre 2023).