'Global competence' of minority immigrant students: hierarchy of experience and ideology of global competence in study abroad. Issue 1 (2nd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Doerr, Neriko Musha
• Is Part Of: Discourse. Volume 41:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 83
• Page End: 97
• Publication Date: 2020-01-02
• Subjects: Border-crossing -- cultural background -- global competence -- ideology -- minority immigrant students -- study abroad; Education -- Periodicals; Education -- Australia -- Periodicals; 370.5
• DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2018.1462147
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0159-6306

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In this article, I analyze implications of recent calls to increase minority students' participation in study abroad. I argue, although these calls aim for inclusivity, they frame study abroad as the only way of fostering 'global competence' and imply that minority students lack it. I also highlight the oft-erased global competence nurtured in minority immigrant students' experience. My ethnographic researches of three study abroad trips show that bi/multicultural and bi/multilingual minority immigrant students studying abroad already had global competence and utilized it to enrich their experience. I attribute the lack of acknowledgment of their global competence to the elitist legacy of study abroad, emerging regimes of mobility, and current neoliberal conditions that position races hierarchically. I then suggest new approaches to global competence and study abroad.