Higher education, english, and the idea of ‘the west’ globalizing and encountering a global south regional university, discourse studies in the cultural politics of education

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Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education

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Higher education, English, and the idea of ‘the

West’: globalizing and encountering a global south regional university

Phan Le Ha

To cite this article: Phan Le Ha (2018): Higher education, English, and the idea of ‘the West’: globalizing and encountering a global south regional university, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2018.1448704

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2018.1448704

Published online: 09 Mar 2018.

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Higher education, English, and the idea of ‘the West’:

globalizing and encountering a global south regional

university

Phan Le Ha

Department of Educational Foundations, College of Education, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

ABSTRACT

This article is about ‘global south’ actors and global south–global

south interactions in the context of the internationalization of

higher education (IHE), with a focus on a Vietnamese university

and the mobilities of students moving through this educational

space It discusses in what ways this university sees its

multi-layered association with the Philippines as a bridge, a catalyst that

could fulfill its aspirations for internationalization which is largely

attached to English, ‘the West’, the idea of ‘the West’, and

becoming global The article shows how the participation in and

consumption of such aspirations/desires by new IHE players could

reproduce and widen social inequalities between and within

‘ global south’ actors but also bring about (unexpected)

possibilities and transformations in a context of considerable

educational mediocrity It points to the contradictions inherent in

these developments and the ways in which these developments

may feed into uneven access to and experiences of IHE.

KEYWORDS

Global south;

internationalization; Asia; Vietnam; the Philippines; mobility; English; desire

The global south, desire, and higher education

English as a global language, the internationalization of higher education (IHE), and the movement of people and ideas have been central to the understanding of the changing landscape of higher education (HE), with Asia playing a significant role in the picture These global forces, factors, and processes have not only transformed ‘old’ players but also created new actors and stakeholders of HE, particularly those in the global south (Barnawi, 2018; Collins, Sidhu, & Yeoh, 2014; Ho, 2014; Jenkins, 2014; Knight, 2014; Ma,

2014; Phan,2017; Robertson & Komljenovic,2016; R Yang,2012)

‘Global south’ as a geographic, conceptual, social, and geopolitical term has been employed to conceptualize and examine practices, strategies, logics, and markets of HE and IHE in the context of post-1980s north–south and south–south interactions, whereby ‘old’ and ‘new’ players, driven by and driving varied aspirations of HE and IHE, have formed complex, multi-layered, multi-directional relationships These players include governments, tertiary institutions, branch campuses, local and international stu-dents, and academics ‘Global south’ has predominantly been defined as territories

CONTACT Phan Le Ha halephan@hawaii.edu

https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2018.1448704

geographically located in ‘Africa, Central and South America, and Asia’ (Robertson & Koml-jenovic,2016, p 2), and as being ‘relational’ and ‘social’ largely with regard to economic development (p 2) For Robertson and Komljenovic, global south also embodies certain marginalized communities and individuals within the boundaries of ‘global north’ who

do not enjoy social and economic advantages deemed equivalent to the ‘developed’ status of their developed economies In this sense, ‘global south’ means communities and individuals of certain social, political, racial, and ethnic status within ‘global north’ Following Robertson and Komljenovic’s (2016) focus on marginalized communities and individuals, I have focused on a group of actors from the global south They are individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds in provincial, remote, and agricultural areas, who can access HE following varied IHE aspirations and social imaginaries Included in this study are lower-tier institutions whose desires for IHE and recruitment strategies have matched with those individuals’ desires to pursue international education These popu-lations and entities, both in the geographical global south and north, are among new targets of HE recruiters and brokers They are, too, new players and actors in HE and IHE spheres This phenomenon is increasingly discussed in the literature (Baas,2014; Ortiga,

2015,2018; Robertson,2013; Robertson & Komljenovic,2016; Song,2016; Yang,2018) Desires in the context of global English and IHE have been engaged with as a concep-tual and theoretical tool from diverse disciplines, ranging from philosophy to economics, gender to identity studies, psychology to marketing, geography, and anthropology to criti-cal literacy and education (Collins et al.,2014; Motha & Lin,2014; Nonaka,in press; Taka-hashi,2013; Yang,2016) Desires are seen as being many things including being socially (co)-constructed, institutionally shaped, relational, collective, personal, initiated, self-determined, market-and-politics driven, culture-specific, value-informed, and identifi-cation-bound Desires, hence, are manifested in aspirations and promises of, dreams and fantasies about, and associations with a certain future and quality of life and experi-ences enabled by English, HE, and IHE I have also argued that desires can be condition-specific, detached, work-in-progress, involving, and adjusted, as individuals’ experiences, exposures, and circumstances change and are transformed and/or do not resemble one’s initial imaginations (Chowdhury & Phan,2014; Phan,2017)

This article interrogates how desires attached to English, English-medium instruction (EMI),

‘the West’, the idea of ‘the West’, IHE, and global mobility can reproduce and widen social inequalities between and within groups and individuals in the global south It also shows in what ways participation in and consumption of such social imaginaries could bring about (unexpected) opportunities and transformations to the aforementioned new players While universities in Asia seek to emulate notions of becoming global through association with such social imaginaries, I argue, students themselves see these as desirable features of HE regardless of their uneven qualities Likewise, while students’ desires can be exploited, they can also co-construct new narratives of desires and possibilities I have termed, conceptual-ized, and theorized this very phenomenon as ‘transformative mediocrity’ (Phan,2017)

English, ‘the West’, and the idea of ‘the West’ in the internationalization of HE

Globally, countries, territories, and their universities under varied conditions have fueled their IHE aspirations with English and EMI They have consumed, consolidated, and

reproduced the by-default global status of English in implementing education reforms and IHE initiatives They exercise a preference for a particular ideology and variety of English that could best serve their IHE agendas and that they regard as being

‘wanted’ by students Systems of HE have promoted the development of EMI programs and partnerships with overseas universities, almost invariably through the import and export of English and English language products and services, the majority of which are from and/or associated with Western-English-speaking countries The projection of IHE largely aligns with the intensity of EMI and the extent to which institutions are com-mitted to English on all fronts At the same time, IHE policies and practices have been criticized for intersecting with Westernization, the reproduction of colonial Self-Other dichotomies, neo-colonialism, neo-imperialism, and neoliberalism, and by the complex-ities concerning the dominance of English (Altbach, 2013; Barnawi, 2018; Choi, 2010; Jenkins,2014; Knight,2014; Phan,2017; Phillipson,2009) These complexities, nonethe-less, include the increasing ownership of and multi-layered attachment and responses to English

The English–IHE entanglement, hence, while embodying and generating social segre-gation, social class widening, and the racialization of English language speakers, could also enable empowerment, growth, agency, self-determination, and multi-directional identity formation processes ( Baker,2016; Chowdhury & Phan,2014; Clifford & Montgom-ery, 2014; Marginson & Sawir,2011) As further demonstrated, these complexities could self-transform and/or be transformed into unexpected conditions leading to liberation, increased self-esteem, and opportunities among marginalized agents of IHE and IHE, in the midst of embedded risks and uncertainties This population is increasing in HE, as clearly shown in this special issue

To bring all these different threads together, I now interrogate the IHE vision, strategies, and practices of Mountain University (MU) (pseudonym), a regional university in Vietnam, a fast-expanding HE player in the global south I also observe international students’ mobi-lities and experiences in this new ‘global south’ IHE space I explore how all these happen-ings can enable low socioeconomic background students to realize and achieve their education dreams, who otherwise would remain ‘little people’ in poor areas in various parts of the global south Embedded in these discussions and arguments is the essential role of English, and global south actors’ desires for and appropriation and exploitation of the idea of ‘the West’, whether imagined, cultivated, real, distorted, or symbolic Built further on my earlier work (Phan, 2017), this article puts at the center of inquiry the roles played and cultivated by often ‘unexpected’ and ‘untraditional’ new players of IHE

MU: the place and its internationalization

MU is one case study in my multi-sited multi-year project on the IHE in broader Asia that also includes the Middle East Mountain is also the name of the province where

MU is based Within Mountain, there is a city, semi-rural, surrounded by mountains, and home to ethnic minorities in the region The city is fast growing, although Moun-tain as a whole is still classified as a poor area in need of much support MU has a large student body, about 30% of which are from ethnic minority backgrounds and low socioeconomic farming backgrounds in Mountain and from the surrounding provinces

MU has played an important role as one of Vietnam’s strategic regional universities

I did not approach the university randomly I chose it based on my knowledge about the overall internationalization environment in Vietnam I was curious about how a regional university would participate in IHE and whether it would come up with any dis-tinctive strategies compatible with its location and local status I also chose MU particularly because of its dynamic yet allegedly notorious range of activities frequently brought to my attention during data collection Several scandals related to the University’s internationa-lization had been reported by the media, with rather unfavorable comments from govern-mental authorities The University’s dynamic range of activities was seen as being problematic and somewhat damaging to Vietnam’s internationalization efforts, particu-larly because of its association with the Philippines, a perceived low-quality commercia-lized global south HE system I noted the following comments from several officials (not from MU) during my fieldwork and at professional meetings in Vietnam, when I mentioned

MU as an IHE active player

• There is little quality there because they collaborate with institutions in the Philippines.

• While everyone is going with Western universities or at least with universities in Japan, Sin-gapore, or Malaysia, Mountain relies on the Philippines for internationalization It’s all about money, easy entry, easy exit.

• What kinds of students would pay to study with international programs offered by Mountain and universities in the Philippines? Their students can’t even use English well Money-oriented, all for commercialization, and only low quality students would go for such programs.

• We don’t accredit those programs and we don’t know anything about the quality of such programs We’re not responsible if students pay, graduate and their qualifications don’t get accepted by employers We’ve warned students in advance.

One may wonder why a semi-rural, agricultural, and faraway mountainous place like Mountain could become a destination for international education MU, in particular, has been one of the most dynamic institutions in Vietnam in terms of IHE (interview data, notes taken at conferences and seminars in Vietnam between 2011 and 2016) It has also been active and proactive in implementing the government’s initiative to import cur-ricula from foreign universities to diversify its programs, teaching staff, and student body What stands out from MU are its Advanced Programs introduced since 2005 using EMI cur-ricula transferred and/or adapted from foreign universities including those in the US One strategy adopted by MU as a whole has been to reach out to universities in the ASEAN region, mostly those in rural and semi-rural regional areas of the Philippines, Thai-land, Indonesia, and Laos It has identified the Philippines in particular as a source country for staff and student recruitment to stimulate its English-medium Advanced Programs MU has developed strong and sustained relationships with institutions in the Philippines for the past decade Staff members from universities in the Philippines have been employed

as consultants for English language and international US-informed curricula and programs

at the University

So alongside doing internationalization the usual way, meaning going directly with the West which is what many other institutions in Asia and in Vietnam often do, Mountain has been pushing its internationalization agendas towards the Philippines It sees this neigh-boring country as a bridge, a catalyst that could fulfill Mountain’s aspirations for interna-tionalization I elaborate this point in the subsequent sections

Mountain University member

MU is an umbrella university with affiliated member universities located close to one another Although the data collected were from colleagues working across several member universities within MU, I focus specifically on one member university, referred

to as Mountain University Member (MUM) hereafter The data reported were collected through in-depth semi-structured face-to-face and phone individual interviews with 10 colleagues (working in various MU campuses) between 2011 and 2013, face-to-face and phone follow-up individual discussions with five colleagues, two of whom were from the previous group, who worked at MUM (between 2013 and 2015), two focus-group dis-cussions with five international students and six international students respectively (in 2014), and regular email communication with one international student (between 2014 and 2016) This student reached out to me after the first focus-group discussion to learn more about my research and to share with me her everyday experiences in Mountain All these students are from Southeast Asian countries

The data collection (2011–2015) with colleagues from MU and MUM was based on open-ended questions focusing on the participants’ perspectives, understandings, experiences and practices of IHE in general and with regards to their institution in particular The questions also specifically asked them to discuss their institution’s con-ceptualization, vision, strategies, and justifications of its approach to IHE over the above period Because of concerns about confidentiality, I am not going to specify which participants I spoke to on what occasion The data collected with 11 international students focused on their journeys to Mountain, their experiences in Mountain, and at MUM

Out of my several trips to Mountain, the one I describe below was special because

we almost got lost and had to take a detour when the main road leading to MUM was closed for construction The following excerpt gives a sense of the surroundings

of the university

So many bumps on the narrow road I saw cows, buffalos, and chicken A woman was burning straws and branches on one side of the road The smoke was flying high, bringing with it the scent of the countryside Closing my eyes, I was letting myself daydream and inhale every wisp

of smoke out there …

The taxi driver must have been very patient because of the confusing directions given to us from the various local people we had approached in the area, although we were only a few kilometres away from the university It had taken us an hour and 45 minutes to move back and forth and across villages surrounding the university, to drive along a very narrow and rocky path parallel with the railroad, and to get lost at village intersections where directions

to the university were based on knowledge of the position of very specific objects along the way We were supposed to turn left as soon as we saw a round-shaped pond; we had

to turn right three more times before we could see a blue wall surrounding a house on the left; and we would then need to drive past vegetable farms until the main road appeared

in front of us … (Fieldnotes, December, 2014)

Starting with the Philippines while reaching out to Southeast Asia

The colleague participants explained why MU and MUM identified the Philippines as their best ASEAN strategic long-term partner

The Philippines has it all: English (American-English) and American-like HE

The availability of English, particularly American-English, and American-like HE in the Phi-lippines were described as the PhiPhi-lippines’s comparative advantages in the ASEAN region The colleague participants also considered American-English and American-like HE as a desirable combination This combination would be attractive to their own students in Vietnam, students from the Philippines, and other students in ASEAN countries that are similar in terms of economic development such as Laos, Indonesia, and Cambodia These places have been Mountain’s recruitment targets These participants, hence, regarded English and American-like HE to be central to Mountain’s internationalization agendas, which would involve forming an English-speaking environment in Mountain, promoting Mountain as a whole to an international audience, and creating opportunities for local students and staff to be internationally exposed

The association of the Philippines with American-English and American HE was consist-ent in my interviews Some colleagues described this US connection as key to attracting many students from Korea and Japan to the Philippines (see Ortiga, this issue) Therefore,

it would be ‘highly beneficial’ and ‘strategic’ for Mountain to be indirectly linked to that connection by building strong relationships with institutions in the Philippines

• The Philippines has English and these days English is the weapon When I visited it, I saw many Japanese and Koreans learning English at language centres there That gave me an idea and pushed me to come up with plans to create something similar at our university If you have teachers and students from the Philippines you can attract many students (Col-league 1)

• The Philippines is close to America in many ways such as their English Yeah, they speak American-English, their universities and people are familiar with US education and so they have a lot that we can learn from And our university and students need to be exposed to English as much as possible Not everyone can go overseas, but everyone can learn English from home, particularly if we bring students from the Philippines here (Colleague 4)

• Our students benefit from having international students on campus You know that most of our students here come from the countryside or rural areas, and so interacting with foreigners, any foreigners, would be great for them Students from the Philippines are good at English and

so they can teach our own students English and inspire them to learn (Colleague 6)

English is central to internationalization, but not all Englishes are equally desirable (Tupas,2015) That the Philippines had a colonial connection with the US ironically puts

it in an advantageous position As I have argued in my earlier work, colonial ties with Britain and the US tend to be celebrated, commercialized, and exploited in various aspects and domains of internationalization (Phan,2017) These very ties have continued

to set countries and institutions apart In today’s growing commodification of HE, they have become sought after ‘goods’, as this article further shows Ortiga (this issue) also dis-cusses the commerciality of coloniality in the IHE of the Philippines

Internationalization, oddly, has turned colonial ties into desirable symbols and an exploitative space that almost every agent can benefit from varying degrees, as elaborated below

We work with the Philippines (and other ASEAN countries) via ‘the US’ because we are all attracted to this shared idea of US and Western education.

MU as a whole has participated in the Vietnamese government’s Advanced Program initiative launched in 2005 to boost Vietnamese universities’ capacities in teaching, research, and international integration Under this initiative, Vietnamese universities have been assisted by American universities to create English-medium programs using so-called American modern methodologies, curricula, and instructional practices MUM, specifically, has been paired up with Sunshine University (pseudonym) in the US

to develop its English-medium Advanced Program Academics from MUM have received some training from Sunshine regarding EMI course deliveries, but several participants reported the training was rather limited However, they saw the Advanced Program as a catalyst for transforming their university and its internationalization trajectory Recogniz-ing Mountain students’ rather low English proficiencies and its lack of academics who could deliver content courses in English, MUM had to think strategically regarding sustain-ing this program once the fundsustain-ing for the initiative ended In this very context, the Philip-pines came into the picture

While seeing partnerships with the Philippines as facilitating its internationalization agendas and enhancing its domestic competitiveness, MUM also positions its tie with Sun-shine as a selling point to attract Filipino institutions and to set the tone for its IHE MUM had first traveled to the Philippines (and later to Indonesia and Laos) to promote its Advanced Program and highlighted the Sunshine tie as being its most tempting element, summarized as follows:

Come to Vietnam to study Sunshine University curriculum and be exposed to international opportunities while paying small fees or competing for scholarship awards.

Both MU and MUM have employed Filipino staff to help with activities required English including teaching in international programs, proofreading paperwork and documents, advising students, curriculum development, and facilitating international relation activi-ties Filipino/a staff has also served as recruitment agents for Mountain and have helped solidify partnerships with institutions back home

Informed by its IHE strategies with the Philippines, MUM has also formed partnerships with Indonesian institutions and made efforts to attract fee-paying international students from Indonesia and Laos It has invited academics from Indonesia to Mountain, for example, to teach in English a portion of its Sunshine curriculum, and then encouraged these academics to promote its Advanced Program and the Sunshine connection to stu-dents in Indonesia

In addition to the above strategy, MUM has also developed English-medium exchange programs with ASEAN institutions The MUM–Sunshine tie has proved to work in MUM’s favor The presence of ASEAN students in these exchange programs is another advantage MUM is now drawing on to further enhance its image and internationalization agendas

The Philippines are so similar to Vietnam

Colleagues in Mountain referred to MUM’s ASEAN-oriented approaches as being vital to their IHE It, hence, identified institutions in the Philippines that share this sentiment The participants elaborated on their perceived similarities between Vietnam and the Phi-lippines, between the nature of MU in general and that of many universities in the Philip-pines, and between people in the two countries

• There are so many universities in the Philippines, and many of them are also regional like our university They are also interested in internationalization and in developing partnership with universities in the ASEAN region They seem to like Vietnam, maybe because we are more similar to them than other countries (Colleague 5)

• Regarding economic development, the Philippines is similar to or even behind Vietnam, so it

is not arrogant and can look up to Vietnam as a good model Moreover, our international pro-grams are in English and use American-based curricula, something that students in the Philip-pines are attracted to (Colleague 1)

• ASEAN countries are encouraged to work together, but we know where we are and we know

it is very difficult to have students from Singapore and Malaysia come to us because their edu-cation systems are much more advanced They have so many good foreign universities there already But the Philippines is different If we have students from the Philippines here we can also attract students from Laos, Cambodia, rural Thailand, and rural Indonesia These countries and places are still poor and so the living standard in Vietnam is reasonable for their students.

We shake hands with those who want to do the same with us (Colleague 2)

• Our university is located in a rural agricultural area Our strengths are agriculture, forestry, and climate change As a developing country with a high percentage of people doing agriculture the Philippines needs to develop its workforce in all these areas Given these similarities and needs, we want to introduce our international programs to students there Our Philippine col-leagues have been helping us promote and recruit These colcol-leagues are very helpful and so similar to Vietnamese people (Colleague 3)

As seen in these interview excerpts, a perceived power hierarchy among ASEAN countries appeared to be a factor influencing Mountain’s and MUM’s internationalization strategies These Mountain colleagues were interested in partnerships in which they could maintain a good bargaining position and play a significant part in the development

of joint activities They did not see collaborations with universities in Singapore and Malaysia

as being realistic, compatible, and fruitful When it comes to Thailand and Indonesia, a col-league specifically mentioned ‘rural Thailand’ and ‘rural Indonesia’ as being on par with Mountain and places where Mountain could recruit students and establish relationships These Mountain colleagues appeared to be realistic and aware of their own university’s pos-ition as well as its own strength and distinctive identity as a regional university locating in a rural agricultural area They highlighted its emphasis on climate change, agriculture and for-estry, the very areas that the Philippines and rural areas in Southeast Asia can relate to Therefore, they saw investment in these areas as a stepping stone in their overall IHE

Via partnerships with the Philippines we can recruit students and

internationalize our campus

The participants also explained in what ways reaching out to ASEAN institutions had been

an effective strategy to enhance Mountain’s and MUM’s domestic competitiveness and status They rationalized how focusing on the Philippines as a strategic partner could enable them to reach out to other ASEAN countries

• While other institutions are busy competing among themselves for domestic students, we think bigger Why not look out to other Asian countries for students, and why limit our capacity locally? This outlook is shared among many of us here and we want to put it in practice ASEAN is our primary focus, while our core partnership is with the Philippines (Colleague 2)

• We focus on the Philippines but we are now expanding to other countries like Indonesia and Laos We have already had international students from all these countries I can say that we’re quite ahead of most universities in Vietnam regarding recruiting fee-paying degree-seeking students from ASEAN Our own students have been motivated by this international aspect (Colleague 5)

• When I did my postgraduate study overseas I had ASEAN classmates, and we have recently reconnected and developed collaborations to promote our institutions and to continue our work on rural development across the region This way our own campus gets enriched and internationalized while things are affordable You know, we’re not like universities in Hanoi

or Ho Chi Minh City with abundant resources and great locations, but we have our unique characteristics too Working with ASEAN institutions helps us focus on our uniqueness Insti-tutions in the Philippines are more ready to work with us in our English-medium programs via which we attract ASEAN students (Colleague 7)

The case of MUM is a good example of employing internationalization for both collab-oration and competition purposes: seeking collabcollab-orations with ASEAN institutions to enhance its domestic competitiveness, seeking collaborations with the Philippines to set apart its advantages regarding English from other institutions in non-English-speaking countries such as Indonesia and Laos Again, the package combining English, internatio-nalization, international students, and English-medium programs is no longer anyone’s sole weapon This global south regional university in a rural agricultural area of Vietnam has been proactive in engaging with this package

So, all in all, English, the association of English with the Philippines and America, the attractiveness of US-informed curricula, many similarities between Vietnam and the Philip-pines, the perceived hierarchy among countries and institutions in ASEAN, and the need to push Vietnamese students to learn English are the main reasons driving Mountain’s and MUM’s strategies to place the Philippines at the heart of their internationalization visions Such strategies, unfortunately, were often intepreted as commercialization and low-end internationalization by the media and by governmental authorities in Vietnam,

as seen in the accounts I presented earlier They have, therefore, received little recognition

International students pursuing American-informed education in a

regional Vietnamese university in a mountainous area

Come to Vietnam to study Sunshine University curriculum and be exposed to international opportunities while paying small fees or competing for scholarship awards.

This recruitment motto has appeared to work well for MUM According to the focus-group discussions I had with 11 international students from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Laos, they had been very enthusiastic about the link to Sunshine University They come from poor to average background families The four Filipino students had been in Mountain for nearly two years – the longest, compared to the three students from Laos and the five students from Indonesia The Indonesian students had just arrived for several weeks when I met them

Only the four Filipino students and one student from Laos were able to communicate in English comfortably, while the other two Laotian students were not ready for extended conversations in English and all the Indonesian students were still taking English courses before they could start the main program Out of the five Indonesian students,