Abstract
Edited by Professor Mary Hayden, Interpreting International Education serves as neither obituary nor valedictory, but seeks to celebrate the remarkable lifetime (and on-going!) contribution of Professor Jeff Thompson to the theory and practice of international education over a professional marathon spanning half a century.
For the reader, both expert and neophyte, the book offers a stimulating, engaging, and at times entertaining journey into the field of international education. Opening with a moving tribute penned by the late George Walker, the main body of the book is divided into two parts: the first offers a set of deeply analytical commentaries on the ‘fundamentals and concepts’ of international education, while the second finds itself grounded in the task of ‘interpreting international education in practice’. In ‘interpreting’ international education, the 17 contributors offer a richness of analysis, reflection, and commentary on the ceaseless dynamism of international education, with the implicit expectation that there is no logical terminus for this journey. While Professor Thompson’s direct voice may be missing, his influence is woven into every thread in the warp and weft of this multihued tapestry.
The quality of the writing in the book’s chapters ranges from engagingly effective to intellectually exceptional. Rizvi’s elegant prose describes the science-driven epistemic and moral virtues of a ‘morally robust’ international education. MacKenzie’s satirical ‘week in the life of an international education school principal’ offers a darkly humorous view of the tensions and contradictions that abound in international education schools. There are thought-provoking reflections on values, democracy, freedom, universalism, pluralism, and cultural hegemony, all of which demand close reading and deep reflection.
International education emerges as a highly pluralistic human undertaking that is culturally diverse, mercurial by nature, expansionary by endeavour, and evolutionary in its developmental trajectory. Ironically, in its earliest form international education was perhaps most easily definable by what it was not: local, context-specific, and quintessentially national and parochial (Walker, Bunnell, Hill, MacDonald). At the time of its ‘spiritual’ birth a century ago, international education sought to serve both an ideological and a pragmatic purpose: promoting world peace, while also meeting the educational needs of elite, globally peripatetic, expatriate families for whom local schooling was linguistically, culturally, and academically inappropriate or inaccessible (Hill, Bunnell).
Many of the volume’s contributors point to the subsequent and dramatic evolution of international education from this early niche mission into a sprawling and chaotic global undertaking, one that defies repeated efforts at producing a single, unifying and comprehensive definition. There are some truly inspiring observations employed to highlight this dilemma. Haywood’s metaphorical invocation of quantum physics serves as a science-driven glimpse into the perhaps unknowable and contradictory nature of international education. Is international education any or all of the following: a ‘World House’ (McKenzie), a set of frontier-crossing ideals driven by science (Rizvi), a pragmatic solution to the education of peripatetic children (Hill), an agent of evolutionary change for national education, a tool to facilitate social mobility or perpetuate privilege for local elites (Haywood, Tate), or the international cloning of historic names for profit (Haywood)? One finds echoes of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Mission Statement: that ‘other people, with their differences’ may also be right. International education, like quantum particles, can be different things to different people, depending on one’s perspective.
There are some helpful tools on offer to make sense of this ‘quantum state’. Haywood’s ‘five lenses’ offer a very practical taxonomic mechanism to view international education from a variety of perspectives, each with its own claims to legitimacy or authenticity. Fisher reminds us of the importance of context, both cultural and geographical; effective practices in one incarnation of international education may fail miserably in others. McKenzie shows how culturally specific approaches and practices might be woven into international ideals. Pearce reminds us that for each of us, reality, and by extension international education, is perceived intuitively and subjectively.
The book serves to draw the reader into the passionate and thoughtful debates that animate research in international education. There are questions that remain unexplored or unclear. The definition of ‘education’ is left largely unexamined, no doubt because this lies beyond the scope of the book. What is meant by ‘international’ in both theory and practice may require further scrutiny, as it increasingly influences education in local, national, and regional contexts. Is international education an idea that informs a lesson plan or a strategic plan, a teacher’s outlook or student demographics? The timing of the book’s publication dates some of the narrative. For example, the on-going impact of COVID-19 on world affairs, particularly in the ways that it has reshaped patterns of human movement globally, while Friedman’s ‘McDonalds’ theory of conflict avoidance is challenged by the on-going war between Russia and Ukraine (MacDonald). The reassertion of hard nation borders and the resurgence of overt expressions of nation-state sovereignty may need further examination (Tate), and the suggestion that international education might be deemed subversive in some national contexts also needs further attention (Haywood).
The ambiguity in international education, made explicit by many contributors, is perhaps most meaningfully illustrated in Tate’s invocation of Goodhart’s Anywhere-Somewhere dichotomy (2017), coined originally to make sense of the divisive debates of Brexit. The Anywheres here are seen as purist ‘universalists’, driven by ideology, intolerant of compromise; they see international education as a form of accreditation-legitimised orthodoxy, with a mission-driven imperative to infuse international mindedness into its global citizens. The Somewheres, on the other hand, are the local, culturally, nationally, and geographically grounded pragmatists for whom international education offers a highly profitable means to an end that is driven by social mobility, access to further/higher education, and career opportunities. Both camps are highly aspirational, both claim to be part of the international education ‘world’, but differ beyond recognition in outlook, purpose, and values. We are warned, however, to avoid simplistic dichotomisation: the manifold iterations of international education in schools may actually fall on a spectrum between these extremes (Williams-Gualandi).
Citing UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s withering observation during Brexit about ‘global citizens of nowhere’, Sylvester and Tate both hint at the existence of a more confronting dichotomy in international education: ‘Everywhere’ and ‘Nowhere’. As a ubiquitous human activity, education Everywhere has been touched by the ‘international’, at least at some level. Conversely, the purist advocacy for internationally-minded global citizens of a world nation-state is an unrealisable ideal that crosses borders in a way that the state-bound citizenry of the real world cannot; it is found Nowhere.
The book leaves us with the problematic notion of the plurality of the ‘other’, in international education so memorably invoked in the IB Mission Statement. Collectively, the contributors point out the evolving cultural, spiritual, economic, and political tensions and fragmentations that infuse the very fibre of international education in its practice around the world. With its multiple identities, international education may be a sanctuary for the global elite, an agent of social change, a destroyer of minority cultures, or a business opportunity. One might argue for a plurality of international educations, each distinct in form and function, and each with its supportive body of research (Binge). And in a time of ‘alternative truths’, at what point does the ‘other’ fall outside the defined scope of ‘legitimate’ international education, and who renders that judgement?
The inestimable value of this book for the thoughtful reader therefore lies not in its completion of a definitive interpreting of international education, but in its effective demonstration of the complexity of the task itself in unsettling times (Hayden). International education, viewed through the many lenses adopted by contributors, from Anywheres to Somewheres, Everywheres to Nowheres, is emerging as a potentially wicked problem for humanity, defying definition, categorisation, and quantification (Rittel and Webber, 1973). The world’s nation-states and businesses are now paying close attention to this world-spanning enterprise, with its expanding influence, ever-evolving ethos, and deepening complexity. The struggle for mastery is evident. The pioneering work of Professor Thompson, so meaningfully celebrated in this book, must continue and with greater urgency than ever before.