International Pedagogical Structures

International students from Asia studying in English-speaking countries face varying pedagogical challenges. For some, their written English can be dismissed as disconnected. Others can find themselves accused of the poor placement of headings, or worse, of copying sections of one paper for use in another. Asian students studying in countries like Australia maybe positioned as both the victims of exploitation and as agents grasping strategic advantages for upward socioeconomic mobility. When they express thanks for the education they receive overseas they maybe dismissed as Western dupes. They are aware that neoliberal globalism drives the competition for the huge fees they pay. Likewise, they know that this market is a key distributor of the luxury educational goods they now purchase, and a determinant of their quality. However, when they express concerns about the haphazard structuring of pedagogies, they are chastised for not voicing the familiar critiques of neoliberal education policies. Expressing concerns about the mono-cultural, nation-centered framing of university pedagogies, they are dismissed for expressing mere common sense. Further, they find themselves required to confess their many crimes against Western scholarship, and to repent and reconcile themselves with its rules through organised pedagogies of remediation. The ambivalence suggests at least that international students cannot be treated as an undifferentiated, homogenous mass.