ORCID Profile
0000-0001-6543-6559
Current Organisation
Deakin University
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Specialist Studies in Education | Comparative and Cross-Cultural Education | Education Systems | Higher Education | Gender, Sexuality and Education | Teacher Education and Professional Development of Educators | Technical, Further and Workplace Education | Teacher Education: Vocational Education And Training | Ethnic Education (excl. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Māori and Pacific Peoples) | Secondary Education | Public Health and Health Services not elsewhere classified | Educational Policy, Administration And Management | Education Studies Not Elsewhere Classified
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Expanding Knowledge in Education | Gender Aspects of Education | Education across cultures | Education and Training Systems Policies and Development | Teacher and Instructor Development | Education policy | Specific Population Health (excl. Indigenous Health) not elsewhere classified | Vocational education and training | Women's Health |
Related Links
Publications
Student Mobility, Connectedness and Identity
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Date: 24-11-2016
International student connectedness with local teachers and peers: Insights from teachers
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Date: 24-11-2017
Students’ Experiences of Teaching and Learning Reforms in Vietnamese Higher Education
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 29-10-2020
From ‘somebody’ to ‘nobody’: International doctoral students’ perspectives of home–host connectedness
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Date: 24-11-2017
Internationalization with VET Character: Key Emerging Issues
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2017
Post-study work for international graduates in Australia: opportunity to enhance employability, get a return on investment or secure migration?
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 09-07-2020
‘I’m not like that, why treat me the same way?’ The impact of stereotyping international students on their learning, employability and connectedness with the workplace
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-01-2016
Leadership in international education: leaders’ professional development needs and tensions
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-01-2020
The consumer rights of international students in the Australian vocational education and training sector
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-2019
‘Agency in mobility’: towards a conceptualisation of international student agency in transnational mobility
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 28-03-2017
Internationalizing Higher Education (HE) in Vietnam: Insights from Higher Education leaders – an exploratory study
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 08-02-2016
Abstract: – The purpose of this paper is to increase knowledge of the key drivers, and challenges, of the internationalization of Higher Education (HE), especially in the transitioning economy of Vietnam. – An exploratory qualitative research design used semi-structured interviews. Nine senior institutional leaders from five Vietnamese universities were interviewed. Thematic analysis, informed by the literature, was undertaken on English-translated transcripts. – The findings shared senior HE leader perspectives on how internationalization of HE in Vietnam was being conceptualized and operationalized, as well as insights as to how these processes might be improved. Further research to monitor the success of internationalization processes in Vietnam, and beyond, is recommended. – This was an exploratory qualitative study including nine interviews with senior HE leaders from Vietnamese Universities. Exploratory findings only are shared. – No previous studies exploring internationalization of HE in Vietnam have been located. Vietnam is a nation in economic transition from a state-based to market-driven economy, and is different culturally, economically and socially, to its Asian neighbors. Internationalizing HE is considered essential to the global integration and development of Vietnam.
‘Responsibility in mobility’: international students and social responsibility
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 20-06-2016
Beyond the ‘normal’ to the ‘new possibles’: Australian students’ experiences in Asia and their roles in making connections with the region via the New Colombo Plan
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2018
DOI: 10.1111/HEQU.12166
Chapter 4: Turning the Spotlight to International Students’ Internal Negotiations: Critical Thinking in Academic Writing
Publisher: BRILL
Date: 2011
‘I changed my strategy and looked for jobs on Gumtree’: the ecological circumstances and international graduates’ agency and strategies to navigate the Australian labour market
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 05-11-2020
Affinity spaces and the situatedness of intercultural relations between international and domestic students in two Australian schools
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 28-03-2022
International students in the first years of senior secondary schooling in Australia: Longing for belonging
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2021
Digitalisation of the Teaching and Learning for International Students in Higher Education: A Systematic Review
Publisher: STAR Scholars Network
Date: 04-08-2023
DOI: 10.32674/JCIHE.V15I3.4799
Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, digitalisation in the international higher education sector was underlined by migration to online delivery across different educational contexts. However, research into the execution of digitalisation together with its impacts on the teaching and learning of international students in higher education is scattered and fragmented. This study aims to systematically review articles related to these topics based on a four-step refined process: initial search, filtering, screening, and in-depth review. Thirty-five identified articles were used to examine (1) the main forms of digitalisation of teaching and learning for international students, (2) the digitalization-related experience of international students in learning, (3) the opportunities of digitalisation of teaching and learning for international students and (4) the challenges of digitalisation of the teaching and learning for international students. Based on the findings, we discuss the implications of capitalizing on digital technologies and refining pedagogies in online and blended modes of delivery.
Teacher interactive and reflexive positionings in accommodating international students: implications for teacher professional development
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 23-03-2018
‘I am really expecting people to judge me by my skills’: ethnicity and identity of international students
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 09-01-2017
Appropriation of foreign approaches for sustainable development and transformational changes in Vietnamese vocational education
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 17-10-2018
DOI: 10.1108/HESWBL-04-2018-0053
Abstract: Vietnam’s 11th National Party Congress prioritised integration, modernisation and industrialisation as the new key orientations for Vietnam. It outlined Vietnam’s integration with the world, not only economically, but also in terms of the social, cultural, educational, scientific and technological areas that can support social and economic development and sustainability. Vocational education has been recognised as pivotal to the nation’s sustainable workforce development and transformational changes. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how foreign approaches and practices have been filtered and appropriated to bring about sustainable development and transformational changes for Vietnamese vocational education. The paper is derived from a study that involves documentary analysis, observation and semi-structured interviews with vocational learners and staff across three different vocational education and training (VET) sites in Vietnam. The overall study includes three vocational education providers and 22 participants altogether, but this paper involves observation and semi-structured interviews with eight participants, including one leader, two teachers and five students. It focusses on a Germany-funded vocational college in the northern central area of Vietnam that came under the management of the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, and the local province where the college located. The findings of the study show a critical need to develop a new “Vietnamese VET pedagogy” that filters international influences and flexibly and creatively combines them with the existing local pedagogy. To meet the local and global demands and bring transnational changes for Vietnamese vocational education, new VET pedagogies need to align with both Vietnamese historical and political situations, especially the emergent demands of the open market socialist economy and to capitalise on international influences – Confucian, French, Soviet and Western. Such a balance will ensure Vietnam makes use of both international forces and local strengths for sustainable development and transformational changes rather than passive dependence on foreign practices. The research provides valuable insights into the appropriation of foreign practices and principles in Vietnamese vocational education. However, it focusses only on three vocational education sites in central Vietnam. Further studies with larger scale of participants and across a variety of vocational education settings including public and private institutions, community centres and family workshops will offer broader findings related to this important topic. The study suggests practical implications for institutions to deal with the challenges associated with the adaptation of international forces into the vocational education context in Vietnam. It outlines the transformational changes in pedagogical practices related to the increased requirement to move from the traditional didactic teaching to more self-directed learning, to meet the requirements of a modern vocational education system. This study provides unique insights into the practices and challenges of filtering foreign VET practices and principles to bring about transformational changes in Vietnamese vocational education. It, therefore, responds to the paucity of literature in this area. In addition, it examines internationalisation in Vietnamese VET, an under-researched area in the field of internationalisation of education as most of the literature in this field concentrates on the higher education sector.
Public Diplomacy and Social Impact of Australian Student Mobility to the Indo-Pacific: Host Countries’ Perspectives on Hosting New Colombo Plan Students
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 09-01-2021
Abstract: Learning abroad is a primary dimension of internationalization of higher education, but little is known about the social impact of learning abroad. While a significant body of the literature in international education has examined learning abroad from the student and academic perspectives, how host communities, especially in the Indo-Pacific, perceive the social impact of hosting students from an Anglophone country like Australia is underresearched. This study addresses this critical gap in the literature by exploring the social impact of Australian students’ learning in the Indo-Pacific from the host perspective. This article emerges from an ongoing study on Australian students’ learning in the Indo-Pacific via the New Colombo Plan (NCP), the Australian government’s signature initiative of student mobility and public diplomacy. It focuses on data from 32 interviews with host organizations, including industry firms, small businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and education institutions, in China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam. The study shows that not only does the Australian government position the NCP as a strategic public diplomacy tool to build lasting relationships with Indo-Pacific countries, but receiving countries also view the NCP as a catalyst that facilitates the execution of their international agenda. The study identifies four main forms of social impact associated with Australian students’ learning abroad in the Indo-Pacific, perceived by the host communities: (a) strengthening bilateral and international ties (b) fostering student-to-student, university-to-industry, and university-to-university partnerships (c) strengthening community engagement through service-learning and (d) enriching host organization’s training capacity, human resources, and awareness of their own values.
Being and becoming an international student: the inter-relation between language socialization and identities
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 29-08-2022
DOI: 10.1515/EDULING-2022-0004
Abstract: This article draws on Lefebvre’s production of space to understand the cultural negotiations and underlying meanings of being and becoming an international student. Rich and multiple data sources including video/audio recordings of classroom interactions, field notes, interviews, diaries, and institutional documents from a Vietnamese student’s participation in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and mainstream courses in a New Zealand university (NZU) were drawn upon. The findings of this study show that the student’s engagement in both the new social space and academic environment of NZU is mediated through negotiations and reflections of her Vietnamese-ness and constant comparison of the host culture with that of Vietnam and how her experience of navigating the social space of New Zealand influences her perceptions of Vietnamese-ness. International students’ socialization is mediated through engagement with materialities of space, mastering the norms of their social space, participating in activities, and reflecting on their own life and learning trajectories.
Being and becoming an intercultural doctoral student: reflective autobiographical narratives
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 08-04-2015
“Induction and off you go”: professional development for teachers in transnational education
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 18-02-2021
Internationalisation of Vocational Education and Training
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-01-2013
Abstract: Competency-based training and training packages are mandatory for Australian vocational education and training (VET). VET qualifications are designed to provide learners with skills, knowledge, and attributes required for Australian workplaces. Yet, toward the end of December 2011, there were 171,237 international student enrolments in the Australian vocational education sector. VET currently ranks second behind the university sector by volume of international student enrolments in Australia. The flow of international students into Australian vocational education, their erse learning characteristics, and their different acquired values have created new challenges as well as possibilities for teachers to transform their pedagogic practices and contribute to reshaping the pedagogy landscape in vocational education. Drawing on interviews with 50 teachers from VET institutes in three states of Australia, this article discusses the emergence of international vocational education pedagogy that enables international students and indeed all learners to develop necessary skills, knowledge, and attributes in response to the new demands of the changing workplace context and global skills and knowledge mobility. This article addresses a number of important issues concerning the interrelationship of international pedagogy and learner-centered education, notions of productive and inclusive pedagogies, transnational skills mobility, cultural ersity, and internationalization within the context of the Australian VET sector. Finally, the significance of these issues to educational providers and teachers across different educational levels and national contexts is discussed.
Professional Development for Teachers Working with International Students
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-11-2017
Integration of Work Experience and Learning for International Students: From Harmony to Inequality
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 17-01-2017
Abstract: The integration of work experience and learning in tertiary education is a complex issue for different stakeholders, including students, institutions, and employers. The provision of course-related work experience for international students is far more challenging as it involves issues of visa status, different cultural expectations, recognition/misrecognition of skills and experiences across cultures, English language competency, and local employers’ attitudes toward international students. Even though there is a significant body of scholarly research on work-integrated learning in tertiary education, empirical research on this issue related to international students remains scarce. This article responds to a critical gap in the literature by examining the provision of course-related work experience for international students from both the teachers’ and students’ perspectives. It is derived from a 4-year research project funded by the Australian Research Council that includes 155 interviews with staff and international students and fieldwork from the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector. Drawing on Bourdieu’s notions of habitus and field as conceptual tools to interpret the empirical data, the research found work-integrated learning is unevenly distributed and inconsistently implemented across institutions. The article addresses the complex interplay between the student habitus and the habitus within the institutional field and the workplace field in shaping international students’ work-integrated learning access and experience. Practical implications for institutions on how to improve access and experience to course-related work experience for international students are discussed in light of the findings of this research.
Teacher Professional Learning in International Education
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2018
Embracing prior professional experience in meaning making: views from international students and academics
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 05-2010
Committed, face‐value, hybrid or mutual adaptation? The experiences of international students in Australian higher education
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-2011
Academic literacies of international students in New Zealand library environments
Publisher: Intellect
Date: 10-2020
DOI: 10.1386/TJTM_00020_1
Abstract: This article is based on a study that explores international students’ understanding of academic literacies in New Zealand library environments. The article aims to provide insights into international higher degree students’ (IHDSs’) understandings of their academic literacy practices in library environments. To address this issue, the study utilizes an interpretative framework drawing from Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory. Despite a significant body of literature on international students, little is known about the interaction of this cohort with the academic library, and limited information is available on IHDSs’ academic literacies in New Zealand library environments. Our article responds to this critical gap in the existing literature on international students. The findings of the study underscore the importance for librarians, learning advisors and academics to consider international students’ characteristics, language proficiency, learning styles and interests in designing teaching techniques and effective support for this cohort.
Inequalities and Agencies in Workplace Learning Experiences: International Student Perspectives
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 31-10-2016
Mediating teacher professional identity: The emergence of humanness and ethical identity
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-2013
Internationalisation of the curriculum in Vietnamese higher education: mediating between ‘Western’ and local imaginaries
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 29-10-2021
Building experience, opportunities, and the resume: motivations of students participating in learning-abroad programmes through the New Colombo Plan
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 23-03-2020
Mediating transnational spaces: international students and intercultural responsibility
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 04-05-2017
Transformative learning and international students negotiating higher education
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 12-11-2012
Precarity, fear and hope: reflecting and imagining in higher education during a global pandemic
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-04-2023
A Qualitative Investigation Into Chinese International Doctoral Students’ Navigation of a Disrupted Study Trajectory During COVID-19
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 15-09-2021
DOI: 10.1177/10283153211042092
Abstract: This study delves into emic perceptions of Chinese international doctoral students’ navigation of a disrupted study trajectory during the 2019 coronavirus pandemic. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with students and the conceptual framework of bioecological systems theory and needs-response agency, the article reveals a nuanced picture of how activities, relations and roles nested in a PhD study trajectory are impacted by and respond to the crisis. Specifically, the pandemic has instigated a ripple effect upon PhD study that is embedded within a complex system of person−environment factors in the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem and macrosystem. Confronting these changes and challenges, the students enact needs−response agency to cope with these impacts so as to restore stability. The study concludes with some practical implications for related stakeholders in the bioecological system to generate conditions and support for students to harness possibilities for growth amidst and beyond the health crisis.
International Student (Dis)Connectedness and Identities: Why These Matter and the Way Forward
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Date: 24-11-2016
Competency-based training, global skills mobility and the teaching of international students in vocational education and training
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-2013
International students in transnational mobility: intercultural connectedness with domestic and international peers, institutions and the wider community
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 20-08-2016
‘There's a much bigger world of science than just Australia': Australian students’ development of disciplinary knowledge, transferable skills and attributes through a New Colombo Plan short-term mobil
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 22-03-2021
Current English Education in Vietnam: Policy, Practices, and Challenges
Publisher: Springer Nature Singapore
Date: 16-09-2023
The international student experience in New Zealand: Connecting research and practice
Publisher: Intellect
Date: 10-2020
DOI: 10.1386/TJTM_00017_2
Understanding the symbolic capital of intercultural interactions: a case study of international students in Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-07-2015
Post-Graduation Work Visas and Loopholes: Insights into Support Provision for International Graduates from the Perspectives of Migration Agents, Universities, and International Graduates
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 21-05-2022
DOI: 10.1177/0193841X221098211
Abstract: Background: Major host countries of international students such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US have introduced post-study work rights as a strategic policy to both enhance their destination attraction and support international students’ post-graduation work experiences. While this policy is generally welcomed by both host institutions and international students, little is known about the support mechanism for the growing cohort of international student graduates who stay in their countries of study on temporary graduate visas, especially in relation to major concerns such as post-graduation work, visa application, and migration pathways. Objective: This article fills an important gap in the existing literature. It aims to assess the role of universities in supporting their international alumni on temporary visas. Research Design: It is derived from a study that includes 50 interviews with university staff, agents, and international graduates. It uses positioning theory as a conceptual framework. Results: The findings of the study raise concerns about the scope of university advice. It reports loopholes which legitimize the practices of migration agents to the conditions that enable them to exercise their exclusive rights in providing work-migration nexus advice to international students and graduates, making this cohort vulnerable to exploitation of unethical agents. The study provides the evidence base to develop recommendations for related stakeholders in improving the post-graduation experiences of international student graduates who remain in the host countries on temporary visas.
Knowing, acting and becoming: Australian students’ curriculum-specific learning through a New Colombo Plan short-term mobility program to Japan
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 22-06-2022
Chapter 4 Turning the Spotlight to International Students’ Internal Negotiations: Critical Thinking in Academic Writing
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Date: 2011
From imagined community to imagined social space: The case of three international students
Publisher: Intellect
Date: 10-2021
DOI: 10.1386/TJTM_00036_1
Abstract: Drawing on the concepts of imagined community and production of space, this article introduces the concept of imagined social space to understand hopes, dreams, worries, fears, sadness and happiness of three international students who have left their homelands to study in an unfamiliar academic social space. Data from qualitative in-depth interviews with three focal participants from an ethnographic study in a tertiary institution are presented to show that students’ desires, goals and future aspirations are determined by the interplay between social relationships and social conditions governing the social space. The findings of the study give insights into the development of an academic social space framework to capture the dynamic interactions of students’ investments, positionings and negotiations in their imagined space that can shape and reshape their identities.
grandparents as educators and carers in China
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 02-2009
Abstract: Many grandparents play a significant role as educators and carers of children in the preschool years. Recently, this role has become the focus of much early childhood research as challenges facing grandparent carers and grandparent-headed households increasingly become an economic and social issue. Using survey data from China we explore the role of grandparents who have a primary care responsibility for a young child and discuss this contribution to the family in relation to quality of care and education. We argue that grandparents play a significant role in terms of home education of the young, workforce support for young parents, cultural identity within families and community capacity building. Grandparents are therefore deserving of more sustained attention from policy makers and educators when considering the young child's developmental environment.
Mobility as ‘becoming’: a Bourdieuian analysis of the factors shaping international student mobility
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 10-06-2015
The Nexus of English Education and Graduate Employability: The Need to Re-Position and Modify the Approach to English Education
Publisher: Springer Nature Singapore
Date: 16-09-2023
Hybridity in Vietnamese universities: an analysis of the interactions between Vietnamese traditions and foreign influences
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 03-10-2017
‘Let go of out-of-date values holding us back’: Foreign influences on teaching-learning, research and community engagement in Vietnamese universities
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-12-2020
Ubuntu in adult vocational education: Theoretical discussion and implications for teaching international students
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-04-2019
‘Get Foot in the Door’: International Students’ Perceptions of Work Integrated Learning
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-01-2016
New developments in internationalisation of higher education
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 15-06-2023
‘Employability in context’: The importance of considering contextual factors in reimagining employability through Australian student mobility to the Indo‐Pacific region
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2021
DOI: 10.1111/HEQU.12303
Abstract: Australia has shifted its student mobility agenda since 2014 with a commitment to see learning abroad in the Indo‐Pacific region, rather than in traditional destinations such as anglophone countries, as a ‘rite of passage’ for Australian students' future life and career. While there has been rich literature on the impact of outbound student mobility from Australia to anglophone countries, critical inquiry is warranted regarding how Australian students' learning abroad in the Indo‐Pacific affects their employability and career directions. This article responds to this paucity in the literature. It is derived from a larger research project, including a survey of 1,362 New Colombo Plan alumni. Unlike dominant conceptualisations of employability focusing largely on the role of disciplinary knowledge and soft skills, this study found affording different perspectives, connections and opportunities and the increased knowledge about the Indo‐Pacific have been critical in shaping Australian students' employability and career orientations. The findings of this study provide the empirical base for the development of the concept, ‘employability in context’, which underscores the importance of moving beyond the conventional discourse about employability and taking into account the contextual factors in conceptualising employability.
How do teachers learn to teach international students? Teachers’ informal professional learning in international vocational education
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 27-06-2023
Looking inward or outward? Vietnam higher education at the superhighway of globalization: culture, values and changes
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-2017
Engagement with Asia via the New Colombo Plan
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 02-05-2019
Educational reciprocity and adaptivity: International students and stakeholders
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 22-12-2017
Repositioning and Modifying the Contemporary Approach to English Language Education for Vietnamese Graduate Employability Enhancement
Publisher: Springer Nature Singapore
Date: 16-09-2023
The nature of teacher professional development in Australian international vocational education
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 07-01-2020
Pathway from vocational education and associate degree to higher education: Chinese international students in Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 13-02-2014
“Building the business model” or “Broadening our international perspectives”? Staff positioning on the values of hosting international students in the Australian school sector
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2022
Teaching and Engaging International Students
Publisher: STAR Scholars Network
Date: 15-08-2020
Abstract: International student mobility has been increasingly subject to turbulences in politics, culture, economics, natural disasters, and public health. The new decade has witnessed an unprecedented disruption to international student flows and welfare as a consequence of the COVID-19 outbreak. COVID-19 has laid bare how fragile the current transactional higher education model is, in Australia and in other major destination countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. This health crisis hitting international education presents a range of challenges for host universities. In such a fallout, the connection between university communities and international students is more critical than ever. This connection is vital not only to university’s operations and recovery but more importantly, to international students’ learning and wellbeing. This in turn will have longer term impacts on host countries’ and universities’ sustainable international recruitment and reputation as a study destination. Therefore, it is timely to reflect on how we view and conceptualize the way we engage and work with international students. This article presents a new frame for conceptualizing the teaching, learning, and engagement for international students, which emphasizes people-to-people empathy and people-to-people connections. Conceptualize Student Connection Through Formal and Informal Curriculum Dis/connection has been argued to play “an important role in shaping international students’ wellbeing, performance and life trajectories” (Tran & Gomes, 2017, p. 1). Therefore, it is important to frame international student connectedness not only within the context of formal teaching and learning on c us, but also in a broader setting, taking into account the dynamic, erse, and fluid features of transnational mobility. Some of the primary dimensions of international student connection vital to their academic and social experience and wellbeing have been identified as: • Connection with the content and process of teaching and learning• Bonding between host teachers and international students• Engagement with the university communities• Interaction between domestic and international students and among international peers• Integration into relevant social and professional networks, the host community, and the host society• Connection with family and home communities• Online and digital connection Based on interviews with around 400 international students, teachers, and international student support staff across different research projects, I identified four main principles underpinning effective engagement and support for international students. Most participants stressed the importance of understanding international students’ study purposes, needs, expectations, and characteristics in the first place in order to meaningfully and productively engage with and cater for this cohort (Tran, 2013). Second, effective teaching of and engagement with international students is based on understanding not only their academic needs but also other aspects that are interlinked with their academic performance, including pastoral care needs, mental health, employment, accommodation, finance, life plans, and aspirations. Third, a sense of belonging to the content of teaching and learning and the pedagogy used by teachers is essential to international students’ engagement with the classroom community. In this regard, connection is intimately linked to international students being included and valued intellectually and culturally in teaching and learning, and in being treated as partners (Green, 2019 Tran, 2013) rather than ‘others’ in the curriculum. Fourth, to position international students as truly an integral component of c us communities, it is essential to develop explicit approaches to engage them not only academically and interculturally, but also mentally and emotionally, especially during hard-hitting crises in international education such as the 2019–2020 COVID-19 outbreak, the 2003 SARS epidemic, and the 2001 September 11 attacks. Productive Connectedness The lack of engagement between international and domestic students is often identified as a primary area for improvement for universities that host international students, especially in Anglophone countries (Leask, 2009). While international education is supposed to strengthen people-to-people connections and enrich human interactions, ironically it is this lack of connection with the local community, including local students, that international students feel most dissatisfied about in their international education experience. To support and optimize the learning and wellbeing of international students, productive connectedness is essential. Productive connectedness is not simply providing the mere conditions for interaction between domestic and international peers (Tran & Pham, 2016). These conditions alone cannot ensure meaningful and real connectedness but can just lead to artificial or surface engagement between international students and the host communities. Productive connectedness is centered around creating real opportunities for international and local students to not only increase their mutual understandings, but importantly also to reciprocally learn from the encounter of differences and share, negotiate, and contribute to building knowledge, cultural experiences, and skills on a more equal basis. In this regard, productive connectedness is integral to optimizing teaching and learning for international students. Teaching and Learning for International Students Over the past 15 years, I and my colleagues have undertaken various research on conceptualizing the teaching and learning process for international students, an evolving and dynamic field of scholarship (Tran, 2011 Tran, 2013a, 2013b Tran & Nguyen, 2015 Tran & Gomes, 2017 Tran & Pham, 2016). Figure 1 summarizes the six interrelated dimensions of teaching and learning for international students emerging from our research: connecting, accommodating, reciprocating, integrating, “relationalizing,” and empathy. Connecting It is critical in effective teaching and learning for international students that conditions are provided to engage them intellectually, culturally, socially, and affectively. Curriculum, pedagogies, and assessment activities should aim at supporting international students to make transnational knowledge, skills, experience, and culture, as well as people-to-people connections (Tran, 2013). Accommodating Effective teaching and learning for international students cannot be achieved without an effort to understand their purposes to undertake international education, their cultural and educational backgrounds, their characteristics, their identities, and their aspirations. Good teaching and learning practices in international education are often built on educators’ capacities to tailor their curriculum and pedagogies to cater to international students based on an understanding of their study purposes, backgrounds, and identities. Reciprocating Reciprocal learning and teaching is integral to international education (Tran, 2011). It is centered around positioning international students as co-constructors of knowledge and educators as reciprocal co-learners (Tran, 2013b). It refers to extending beyond mutual understanding and respect for ersity, to validate and reciprocally learn from erse resources, experiences, and encounters of differences that international classrooms can offer. This is vital to making international students feel included and valued as an integral part of the curriculum and the university community. Integrating Integrating refers to the purposeful incorporation of international ex les, case studies, materials, and perspectives into the curriculum. Strategies to ersify the teaching and learning content and pedagogies are closely connected with de- Westernizing the curriculum and moving away from Euro-centric content (Tran, 2013a). Integrating contributes to enriching students’ global awareness, world mindfulness, and intercultural competence, which are central to internationalizing student experience and outcomes. “Relationalizing” “Relationalizing” is crucial in assisting domestic and international students to develop open-minded and ethno-relative perspectives. Engaging students in a comparing–contrasting and reflexive process about professional practices, prior experiences, and cultural norms in different countries represents a critical step in assisting them to develop multiple frames of reference and build capacities to relationally learn from richly varied perspectives and experiences that an international classroom can offer. Empathy International students’ sense of belonging to the classroom and university community significantly depends on the empathy local teachers and students display toward them. Teachers can develop activities that enable students to develop an understanding and empathy toward what it feels like to be an international student in an unfamiliar academic and social environment, studying in a language that is not their mother tongue. One of the teacher-participants in our research shared an activity she used to help all students develop empathy:I asked for volunteers, I’d speak to them in English and they had to answer in their language. The group had to try and figure out from their body language and tone of voice what they were actually saying to me...But what I try and make them understand that part of the reason we’re doing that, not in English, is because it’s like excluding the local students and it’s making them look like foreigners and to understand the challenge. Conclusion Effective practices in engaging, teaching, and learning for international students enrich the international classroom community and optimize learning for all, including international and domestic students and teachers themselves (Carroll & Ryan, 2007 Tran, 2013b Tran & Le, 2018). Good pedagogical practices in teaching and learning for international students depend on teachers’ commitment to step outside of their comfort zone and take on a new learning curve (Tran, 2013). It is, however, vital that internationalizing teaching and learning and building intercultural interactions among students from erse backgrounds and—in particular between international and domestic students—should be prioritized at both program and course development levels, making them explicit in course objectives and assessments (Tran & Pham, 2016). It is crucial to have a coherent whole-institution approach toward a purposeful, transformative, and empathetic internationalization of teaching and learning content, pedagogies, and assessment, one that is supported by the broader institution’s core goals about internationalizing the student experience and graduate outcomes. An internationalized program of learning for international and domestic students alike should prioritize enhancing their abilities to learn from global encounters, abilities to connect and empathize, skills to navigate intercultural relationships, and skills to capitalize on opportunities and also to deal with pressures and challenges. Importantly, the teaching and learning for international students needs to be built on an approach emphasizing people-to-people empathy and people-to-people connections.
Unpacking academic requirements: international students in Management and Education disciplines
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 09-2008
Work-Integrated Learning for Enhancing Graduate Employability: Moving from the Periphery to the Centre of the Curriculum
Publisher: Springer Nature Singapore
Date: 2019
Making visible ‘hidden’ intentions and potential choices: international students in intercultural communication
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-2009
Re-imagining teachers’ identity and professionalism under the condition of international education
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 16-03-2015
Teacher Professional Development Under the Impact of Internationalization in VET
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2017
Impacts of Global Forces and Local Demands on Vietnamese Higher Education
Publisher: Springer Nature Singapore
Date: 2019
It is not O.K to think that you are good just because you have graduated from overseas: Agency and contextual factors affecting Vietnamese returning graduates
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-01-2022
DOI: 10.1111/IMIG.12954
Abstract: Over the past decade, a growing number of graduates, originally from key source countries of international students such as China and Viet Nam, have returned home after graduation from overseas universities. In particular, there seems to be a recent surge in the number of international graduates heading home due to the high unemployment, tightening migration, rising national protectionism and emerging challenges, exacerbated by the COVID‐19 pandemic, in major host countries such as Australia, the UK and the United States. While there has been emerging empirical research on international returning graduates’ contributions to their home country development, little is known about graduates’ own perceptions of the impacts of the contextual factors on their homecoming decision and their home labour market navigation. Draving on a qualitative study, this article responds to this critical gap in the literature by conceptualising returnee employability as a dynamic interactive process between multiple forces in the host and home labour markets and broader socio‐economic contexts, and between these forces and returnee agency . It identified interrelated contextual factors in the host and home contexts that drive Vietnamese graduates home, including challenges in securing migration, and insecure job prospects facing them in Australia and simultaneously, greater employment and business opportunities at home. In particular, the study found that contextual factors such as sector characteristics, types of employers, economic performance and cultural practices create an institutional environment, in which returnees’ agency is enacted, resulting in different returnees’ labour market navigation experiences and employment outcomes. Significant recommendations for key stakeholders in both home and host countries to support international graduate employability are provided.
Internationalization in VET: An Overview
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Date: 2017
International graduate returnees’ accumulation of capitals and (re)positioning in the home labour market in Vietnam: the explorer, the advancer or the adventurer?
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 19-05-2021
Students' intercultural development through language learning in Vietnamese tertiary education: a case study on the use of film as an innovative approach
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-12-2013
Visualizing the Reality of Educational Research Participants Using an Amalgamation of Grounded and Positioning Theories
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 13-05-2019
Abstract: This article discussed the development of a framework that visualizes the ontological reality of educational research participants that is incumbent on existing grounded and positioning theories. The proposed framework constructs the ontological reality of participants from qualitative data collected in semi-structured interviews. This framework results in a visual representation of the educational participant’s reality. The article discussed how the use of versioning improves the auditability and replicability of the framework. The stepwise approach of this framework makes it an ideal candidate for automation, desirable to an emerging generation of qualitative researchers from the social sciences, including education and nursing.
Rite of passage into the teaching profession? Australian pre-service teachers’ professional learning in the Indo-Pacific through the New Colombo Plan
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 18-08-2021
Unpacking the devaluation of international students and moving towards the humanisation of international student experiences
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 24-10-2023
Examining space, silence, and agency in language socialization of an international student in the EAP and mainstream courses
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-07-2022
DOI: 10.1002/TESQ.3164
Abstract: This article draws on the concept of the Production of Space (Lefebvre, 1991) to interpret the silence of one female international student from Japan in two semesters of study in a New Zealand Tertiary institution. Data from an English for Academic Purposes course and mainstream courses, and from various sources including video/audio recordings of classroom interactions, interviews, diaries, field notes, institutional documents are presented. The findings show that silence is produced by the academic social space in three aspects of perceived, conceived, and lived. The new perceived space of learning positioned the focal student as unfamiliar in her new habitat. The conceived space also silenced the focal student because the conceived space exerted socio‐academic norms in which the in idual was not invested. Finally, the lived space produced a silent in idual in the sense that she appeared as less powerful in her interactions with other peers because her sociocultural and linguistic capabilities were not on a par with those of other peers. The study concludes that space is an active, dynamic, and social being that regulates the in idual's interactions and that silence should be understood in relation to one's positioning by the social space, and the appropriation of space by the in idual in social space. Notably, despite being positioned as a silent in idual by the academic social space, the international student exercised agency both to respond to her specific temporal needs in the host learning context and to realize her future aspirations.
COVID-19, geopolitics and risk management: Towards framing a reciprocal, coordinated, responsive and empathetic international education sector
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 27-03-2023
DOI: 10.1177/14782103231163480
Abstract: Geopolitics is shaping the international education landscape. International education has trationally been used as a tool to boost transnational cooperation, foster multilateral and global ties, and reduce tensions between nations. Such a role has been eroded and international education has been weaponised in the context of escalating political turbulences and disputes over the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the relationship between Australia and China, with international student flows interrupted due to COVID-19, is overshadowed by escalating geopolitical tensions in the Indo-Pacific region. Based on a qualitative study, this article examines stakeholders’ views on the responses of the Australian international education sector and universities to emerging geopolitical tensions. The conjuncture of geopolitics, COVID-19 and Australia's former government responses magnified a sense of crisis for universities and the international education sector as it was at risk because of their financial reliance on international students. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for the framing of a reciprocal, coordinated, responsive and empathetic international education sector to mitigate geopolitical risks and ensure more sustainable and ethical development for the sector.
“Employability in context”: graduate employability attributes expected by employers in regional Vietnam and implications for career guidance
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-07-2022
DOI: 10.1007/S10775-022-09560-0
Abstract: This article examines how graduate employability is viewed by employers in six economically disadvantaged mountainous provinces in Vietnam. The study reported in this article identified continuous self-learning, resilience, adaptability, devotion and empathy for the local people and local community to be among the main employability attributes expected of graduates in regional Vietnam. The findings of the study raise the importance of context situatedness in looking at employability and show how employability is characterised by the local structural conditions, demographic features and socio-cultural norms. The study provides significant implications for career guidance and graduate employability development, especially in relation to regional areas.
Students’ Academic, Intercultural and Personal Development in Globalised Education Mobility
Publisher: Springer Singapore
Date: 2016
Youth agency in public diplomacy: Australian youth participation in outbound mobility and connection building between Australia and the Indo-Pacific region
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 26-12-2021
Internationalization, Student Engagement, and Global Graduates: A Comparative Study of Vietnamese and Australian Students’ Experience
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 05-10-2018
Abstract: The article provides comparative insights into Vietnamese and Australian students’ experience of internationalization of the curriculum. We explore how local arrangements for curriculum internationalization in Australia and Vietnam enable and/or constrain students’ in idual agency in taking control of their knowledge and skills to become skilful and culturally sensitive professionals and citizens. The article is part of a 4-year empirical study that includes 15 semistructured interviews with academics and nine focus groups with 40 students in both countries. We use practice architecture theory to interpret whether and to what extent students can be the key actors in internationalizing the curriculum and the factors that nurture or restrict their participation in this process. The article provides important comparative perspectives on students’ experience of participating in curriculum internationalization in Vietnam as a developing country and an international education importer and Australia as a developed country and an education export provider.
International graduates on temporary post‐graduation visas in Australia: Employment experiences and outcomes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 11-08-2022
DOI: 10.1002/PSP.2602
Abstract: While a growing body of literature focuses on international students, their post‐study experiences and employment outcomes when they are on temporary graduate visas in the host country are under‐researched. The article addresses this critical gap by investigating international graduates' employment experiences and outcomes. It is derived from a study that includes 50 in‐depth interviews with employers, graduates and related stakeholders, and a survey with 1156 international graduates from 35 Australian universities . The study widens the lens of the discourse around international student graduates operating in a labour market which is overgeneralised by high‐skilled and low/unskilled segments. It shows that international graduates engage with a complex labour market which can see them work in or out of their professional disciplines in multiple forms of full‐time, part‐time, and casual jobs. In particular, the findings indicate that international graduates on post‐graduation visas who studied Information and Technology are more likely to secure employment in their field of study and spend less time to gain the first job in their area of expertise than those in Business and Engineering. This finding underscores the various effects of the structural conditions in different industries on international graduates' employability. The study also provides substantial insights into the increased vulnerability, deskilling, and precarity experienced by international graduates as migrant workers on temporary visas in the host country. It highlights a concern not only for the students, who place a premium on the acquisition of work experience, but also for host institutions and key destination countries and their delivery on promise in such a competitive international education market.
Language and learning advisors as a valuable but under-recognised workforce in higher education: a Bourdieuian analysis of their professional development in international education
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 26-07-2019
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