Towards Ethical Internationalization: a duoethnographic study on Teaching EAP International Students in Canadian Higher Education

• In Event: Higher Education, Beliefs and Ethics

Proposal

This paper examines how Canadian university internationalization strategies discuss international students enrolled in English for Academic Purposes Programs (EAP) and how the absence in institutional documents about international students enrolled in EAP programs impacted in post-secondary language classrooms and student experiences from two EAP educators’ perspectives. Data come from 24 University Internationalization Strategies documents across Canada and drawing from duo-ethnographic narratives from two Canadian University EAP educators. We use critical discourse analysis and critical multiculturalism accompanied with critical internationalization to examine dominant discourses in the strategies concerning EAP students and identify ideas that remain unaddressed. Document analysis is additionally supported by the co-constructed narratives to further discuss the observations and experiences from the two EAP educators regarding issues this ‘invisible’ student group face/encounter from the institutional level. Two main themes emerged from our co-constructed narratives: 1) Native and Non-Native dichotomy in the language classrooms in the era of internationalization and under the name of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Canadian university EAP programs 2) Moving forward seeking ethical internationalization in English language teaching and in English for Academic Purposes programs specifically for the invisible international students from the institutional strategic documents. In this chapter proposal, we have included a brief literature review on faculty perceptions regarding internationalization as our co-constructed narratives will represent two EAP educators’ perspectives in teaching university language courses. In additional, we found that the two educators’ positionalities as a Native English-Speaking educator and a Non-Native English-Speaking educator bring different yet often shared perspectives and observations in the Canadian university EAP contexts.

Findings

We find that internationalization strategies, as discursive artifacts which define and articulate university values and commitments, offer insight into how internationalization is framed in different contexts. In Canada, international students are set as an institutional priority as part of the institutional internationalization strategies. However, international students enrolled in EAP programs are commonly situated in an institutional student status gray zone and are subsequently absent from institutional internationalization strategies documents. These students experience almost no visibility or representation in the internationalization strategies we examined suggesting institutions may be failing to see the nuanced composition of their international student demographic. This reality places international students in this “invisible” group in a vulnerable position where equitable and inclusive student experience is put into question.

In our co-constructed narratives, we were able to focus on highlighting the synergies between the educators rather than focusing on the polarizing differences. Our narratives were able to shed light on the success from the cooperation and collaboration between the two groups of teachers from respective lived experiences from classroom and beyond. We observed and experienced these diverse perspectives in teaching EAP students grew to be more crucial for the international ELL students’ success in preparation for their university studies.

In addition, our co-constructed narratives enabled us to engage in self-reflectivity on a regular basis amid the many competing realities we face as EAP practitioners. This intentional practice drew attention to the ways self-knowledge has deepened our internationalization mindset and is the primary driver of our work with EAP students. It also allowed us to see how institutional internationalization strategies would better represent and serve EAP learners by meaningfully adopting an ethical internationalization practice which affords faculty space to focus on the relational aspects of internationalization.

Conclusion

From both sets of data, we were able to collect for this study, we identified an acute need for the universities to acknowledge not all international students receive the same level of recognition and the support they deserve. This had an additional implication in the classroom practices due to the lack of institutional support that both students and the classroom teachers were able to access. As a result, we argue it is unclear if all international students are receiving institutional support and if they are reflected in the institutional strategic plans to create equitable inclusive multicultural university campuses. As part of future directions of ethical internationalization, we contend 'the language of diversity’ in the Canadian institutional strategies should be now transformed into the act of diversity (Ahmed, 2012). This may be possible by including all international students’ voices in policy development as part of the institutional reflexivity while recognizing the realistic and pragmatic aspects of internationalization and the international students bring to the institutions.

Authors

• Cynthia Eden, OISE - University of Toronto

• Phoebe Kang, University of Toronto Mississauga