Abstract
In their interactions with international students, either at home or abroad, teachers often find themselves speaking on behalf of the nation. Overseas students arrive with expectations created in the international education marketplace, expectations that depend more on a nationalist than on an internationalist outlook. Students also have ideas of national difference acquired through the globalised media. Teachers who seek to critique the nation by deconstructing media knowledge need to consider the ethics of engaging with their students' sense of self-identity and the pedagogical risks of questioning their own authority to speak on behalf of the nation. Internationalising the curriculum means developing teaching methods and assessment instruments which will invite students to reflect on their imaginative journey into ‘new’ and ‘different’ cultures; but it will also require the teachers to reflect on their own conflicting identities and loyalties, and to make that journey alongside their students.