Surfacing ‘Southern’ perspectives on student engagement with internationalisation: doctoral theses as alternative forms of knowledge

Abstract

This article explores how knowledge represented in doctoral theses exploring internationalization may be constructed as a source of “Southern” knowledge on international education. The article aims to surface some of the ways in which the knowledge generated by doctoral students could illustrate new perspectives on internationalization, particularly, in terms of knowledge building for the students’ own country contexts. The research conducted a search of all U.K. doctoral theses in the EThOS repository of the British Library, focusing on theses where students had engaged with internationalization. The search generated a data set of theses written in the decade 2008 to 2018, which were then thematically analyzed. In addition to questioning whether thesis knowledge constitutes powerful or empowering knowledge for the student and the Southern cultures they come from, the research indicates that the doctoral theses both reproduced Western knowledge and generated some new perspectives on methodological and thematic constructions of internationalization. The article highlights hierarchies of knowledge and questions whether postcolonial encounters through the PhD can generate knowledge that builds Southern perspectives on internationalization.