Student subsidy of the internationalised curriculum: knowing, voicing and producing the Other

Abstract

This paper explores cultural production in online internationalized education. The analysis samples interactions in an MBA unit offered online by an Australian university to a student group including enrolments through a Malaysian institution. The analysis highlights moments where ethnic/national cultures or cultural differences were invoked in texts to enrich the curriculum by design. In this case study, such 'student subsidy' was actively encouraged as a vicarious asset made possible with the internationalized student group. To this end, small mixed groups for assessable online discussion were allocated to precipitate such cultural interchange. The analysis displays who voiced what claims about whose culture, the grounds for legitimation of such claims, and the kinds of cultural categories thus produced. The discussion then reflects on the degrees of insulation typically produced between cultural categories and how this failed to reflect the students' interconnected worlds evident in the enterprise of online internationalised education.