ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I interrogate the dichotomisation of ‘international’ and ‘Western’ students using the Chinese learner as a case study. I explore this further by drawing on research into how notions of scholarship and learning are understood and practised in these two major world intellectual traditions: in Western (here, Anglophone) countries such as the UK and Australia, and in China with its Confucian-heritage intellectual traditions. Rather than identifying supposed ‘differences’ in these cultures, I instead explore similarities and point to the possibilities for learning across cultures in internationalised, transcultural spaces. These learning spaces have been opened up by the unprecedented movement of people and ideas across the world through international education. I discuss how ignorance in Anglophone countries about other intellectual traditions such as China’s, however, means that opportunities for transcultural learning are being lost due to narrow approaches to internationalisation of the curriculum. Teaching and learning approaches continue to position ‘home’ students in the centre and ‘international’ students, whose task is to adopt the behaviours and knowledge of the ‘home’ context, on the periphery.
