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3 | Ausgabe 05 | 2018 | 2. Jg. Reasoning
“Is internationalisation
in education a
borderless education
or a cross-border
education?“
Literature
Liessmann, Konrad Paul (2012):
Das Lob der Grenze. Kritik der
politischen Unterscheidungskraft.
Zsolnay Verl. 2012
Knight, Jane (2015): Updating
the definition of internationali-
zation.
ojs/index.php/ihe/article/view-
File/7391/6588
social standards are important players
in this context.
Borders may be conceived as a place
for friction, but also as a place for
constructive meetings. They may even
make people curious: driven by the
wish to find out what is on the other
side, people are made to cross borders,
to look beyond the borders. Borders are
places where people of different cul-
tures, different religions, different lan-
guages, different ethnic origins and not
least different socio-political and edu-
cational realities can meet and share
their diverse points of views, exchange
their ideas and experiences.
Borders only become manifest through
their transgression. There is no trans-
gression without borders and no bor-
der without transgressions. In this
regard, borders are dynamic entities,
show different degrees of permeability
or may shift, reappear elsewhere or dis-
solve at best.This permanent process of
making, removing and remaking bor-
ders depends to a considerable extent
on our ability to critically reflect on
the emergence and reasons of borders,
whether as political, symbolic or psy-
chological boundaries. Open-minded-
ness and curiosity towards the new, the
strange and the foreign are premises
for a deeper thinking about borders
and the implications they might have
for the development of attitudes pos-
sibly marked by prejudices and stere-
otypes.
Is internationalisation in education a
borderless education or a cross-border
education?
How does international cooperation at
HEI relate to these complex con-
siderations about borders? What
do we mean when we
advocate the inter-
na t i ona l i s a t i on
of HEIs? What
brings international cooperation to the
fore? Boundlessness or the surmount-
ing/overcoming of borders? Is interna-
tionalisation a borderless cooperation
or a cross-border cooperation?The for-
mer term acknowledges the disappear-
ance of borders while the latter term
actually emphasizes their existence.
Does this issue’s title give a possible
answer to this question by offering a
third space represented by the hyphen?
Once again we are exposed to the
question of definitions. Jane Knight‘s
intention was to develop a definition
for internationalisation which would
work for many different countries, cul-
tures, and education systems:
Internationalisation at the national,
sector, and institutional levels is defined
as the process of integrating an interna-
tional, intercultural, or global dimension
into the purpose, functions or delivery of
postsecondary education.
This definition covers some key con-
cepts of internationalization: it is an
on-going process, which aims at inte-
grating/embedding all three dimen-
sions mentioned above in policies and
programmes at national, sector and
institutional level so that it remains
central and sustainable.
Internationalisation is changing the
world of education
Furthermore, internationalisation as
such is not an objective, it represents
instead a tool for students, teachers,
researchers and administrative person-
nel to acquire international and inter-
cultural competences. The overall aim
of internationalisation is to enhance
the skills and abilities of
our students, to train
them for their profes-
sional field on the one
hand, and to make
them discover differ-
ent ways of thinking and reflecting
which could have a sustainable impact
on their lives on a more general level.
Physical mobility to partner insti-
tutions in and outside of Europe as
well as ”,
integrating international, intercultural
and global dimension in the curricu-
lum and in the teaching and learning
process, can present such opportuni-
ties and foster even the development
of transferable skills such as openness
to new ideas, resilience and ambiguity.
Such skills prepare for cultural, ethnic,
and linguistic diversity in society and
in education.Globalisation as a process
affects internationalisation through
new technologies, economy, people,
values, ideas etc. across borders. Thus,
globalisation is changing the world of
internationalisation, whereas interna-
tionalisation is changing the world of
education (see ibid).
The new edition of the PH OÖ Mag-
azine with the title “Border-less” gives
insight to the internationalisation
efforts carried out by the PH OÖ in
close cooperation with international
partner institutions, strongly sup-
ported by colleagues, students and the
rectorate.
The articles cover a broad field of inter-
national activities outlining the profes-
sional and personal benefits for those
who take the risk to sur-
mount borders (national
as well as personal/
mental borders) and to engage in
unknown educational realities as well
as societies. For the protagonists of
such international projects, this often
means growing in personality, gaining
self-confidence, overcoming linguistic
borders, comprehending differences in
social, cultural and educational realities
that require reflection and (re-)action:
those experiences may provoke restruc-
turing of mental orientation systems,
deconstruction of preconceived ideas
and reconstruction of other and new
perspectives on the world, in particular
on the world of education.Those expe-
riences, nonetheless, may also affect
professional conduct in concrete ways,
and may lead to the integration of new
concepts in teaching and assessing both
at the tertiary level and in school. In
this regard, we wish to thank the two
international partners who have con-
tributed to our Magazine with their
articles on the effect of internationali-
sation on the development of students,
lecturers and institutions.
Mag.a Roswitha Stütz ist Leiterin
des Instituts für internationale
Kooperationen und Studienprogramme
an der Pädagogischen Hochschule
Oberösterreich.
Illustration: Jelena Ojo