Professional identities of lecturers in three international universities in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia: multilingual professionals at work

Evison, Jane; Bailey, Lucy; Taylor, Pimsiri; Tubpun, Tida

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of internationalisation on the professional identities of lecturers at three international universities in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia. Higher education in SE Asia faces significant pressures to change because of the potential dissonance between emerging forms of global competition between higher education Institutions and established conceptualisations of higher education. We examine how, during focus groups, lecturers negotiated contested understandings of being an international professional; in all three institutions, they conveyed a pragmatic understanding of the relationship between financially-driven internationalisation agendas, their own personal belief systems and the realities of their multilingual pedagogic practices. The extent to which being international was the primary normative identity for academics differed across locales and there were different competing sources of professionalism. We propose a ‘cline of internationalism’, which allows us to conceptualise restrictions placed upon academics’ agency to pursue an actively international professional identity.

Citation

Evison, J., Bailey, L., Taylor, P., & Tubpun, T. (2019). Professional identities of lecturers in three international universities in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia: multilingual professionals at work. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2019.1608814

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 15, 2019
• Online Publication Date: May 16, 2019
• Publication Date: May 16, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 9, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 17, 2020
• Journal: Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education
• Print ISSN: 0305-7925
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-3623
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 1-19
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2019.1608814
• Keywords: International, Internationalisation; Professional identity; Multilingual; Higher education
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2035423
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057925.2019.1608814
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=ccom20; Published: 2019-05-16