A New Border Pedagogy: Rethinking Outbound Mobility Programs in the Asian Century

Introduction

To thrive in what has become known as the ‘Asian Century’ or the projected 21^st Century dominance of Asia, presents unprecedented challenges for Australia (Commonwealth Government, 2012). The Asian Century is an unparalleled invitation for Australian universities to think creatively and imaginatively to design robust outbound mobility programs whereby students successfully engage in ‘border crossing’ (Giroux, 1992) to develop intercultural competencies and skills that better enable them to live together mindfully in the new Century. This invitation

Outbound mobility—when viewed as border crossing—is much more than students simply travelling to, living and studying in another country and experiencing or adapting to cultural change. Rather, it signifies students’ ability to recognise cultural borders and be ready, through prior preparation, to creatively and successful deal with the dissonance that arises when their own cultural experiences and knowledge are at conflict with their new host nation’s different educational and social environments.

Students’ ability to recognise cultural borders requires instruction in contemplative practices that encourage them to develop deep knowledge and skills before, during and after their outbound mobility experience. In other words, they need pedagogical training where they learn mindfulness strategies to listen to and hear what others have to say. They also need to learn and practice how to respond positively to individuals who may have different cultural and linguistic backgrounds by drawing on informed frames of reference. These learned skills can then assist them in adapting—being flexible and empathetic—and embracing an ethnorelative view so they are better prepared to appropriately and effectively communicate in different intercultural encounters.

Few universities, if any, have student mobility programs grounded in the pedagogical notion of border crossing to foster an intercultural competence that prepares students to embrace the inherently multicultural, linguistic and economic plurality of the Asian Century. To actually ‘hear’ someone culturally different, Australian students need mindful learning experiences that require them to critically acknowledge their Western (as well as other), often postcolonial, biases. Otherwise, they will likely engage in ‘othering’ by default, thereby reinforcing and reproducing positions of domination and subordination. This is an initial step towards developing an intercultural competence that prepares students to successfully border cross and embody new identities that contest those taken-for-granted views that dichotomies of otherness are ‘natural’.

A pedagogy that embraces border crossing positions universities well to assist students in understanding that pluralistic social identities are not natural, but actually represent an established social order or hierarchy that needs to be disrupted. A pedagogy where border crossing is the norm, or expected, can potentially assist outbound mobility students in understanding they have agency to contest the practice of ‘othering’. With that understanding, ‘we’ and ‘seizing the opportunities of the Asian Century’ are then already challenged to not mean just Australians, but all peoples in Asia and the world. ‘Together’ is also contested when, ‘to build on our collective strengths and shape our future’ (p iii, Commonwealth Government, 2012) actually implies disrupting colonial narratives and creating new possibilities (Bhabha, 1996).