ABSTRACT
The aim in this chapter is to stretch the boundaries created by the currently dominant global imaginaries about the internationalisation of higher education (HE). In so doing, this chapter pays particular attention to how (international) students’ adaptability to HE is understood in relation to languages education. Dominant global imaginaries about internationalisation continue to support a unidirectional system in which students from so-called ‘developing’ countries should aspire to be integrated into more ‘developed’ ones (cf. Andreotti, 2015). This unidirectional adaption is reflected, for example, in the unquestioned expectation that in – largely Western – higher education institutions’ (HEIs), internationalisation processes should concentrate their efforts on helping full-fee paying ‘international’ students ‘adapt’ by becoming proficient in English as a second language. This conceptualisation neglects to consider the potentially reciprocal adaptation approaches that may enhance the linguistic skills of all students – international and domestic – alike. Indeed, against this backdrop, HEIs have largely overlooked the role of languages education in preparing all graduates to reciprocally engage in transnational, translingual dialogues. The availability of national, government and supra-governmental reports from around the world as well as numerous scholarly publications concerning internationalisation and the state of languages education in HEIs provide ample data for international comparison. Critical appraisal of these sources through the lens of critical, decolonial perspectives provides a suitable starting point to begin articulating philosophical, onto-epistemological stumbling blocks standing in the way of imagining relationally reciprocal pedagogical approaches to (language) education. The chapter concludes by considering alternative imaginaries that may support a multidirectional understanding of inclusion for all.
