ABSTRACT
Internationalisation of schooling is an inevitable practice in many Global South countries such as Indonesia. Undoubtedly internationalisation can become a space where new ideas and initiatives in education take place. However, there are some questions pertaining to its practices. Critics on internationalisation of schooling have focused on the extent to which it has become a tool that perpetuates social and economic inequalities in different contexts. Other critics also question the extent to which the internationalisation process has prolonged inequalities between Global North and South countries. This chapter aims to explore an underresearched area of internationalisation of education by exploring the experiences of Indonesian teachers in international kindergartens. Using postcolonial theories, this chapter attempts to see how a select group of Indonesian teachers negotiate their local and international cultures and at the same time identify the hybrid area resulting from this negotiation. The finding illuminates the politics of belonging in which the teachers’ construction of their identities mirrors the global politics between the South and the North. The findings also suggest how international kindergartens perpetuate the making of both national and international elites. The finding is expected to provide some direction for internationalisation that is more sensitive to global inequalities between the South and the North, as well as social inequalities within the country where the international kindergartens are situated.
