Working Group 5 meeting (Fred Dervin & Anu Härkönen)
Peripheral Perspectives on Interculturality for studyabroad: Inspirations For Europe
The goal of this event is to discuss the ‘interculturality’ of research on interculturality for study abroad. Research on the topic in Europe is increasingly criticized for being too Eurocentric and/or Westerncentric; and lacking ‘real’ interdisciplinarity. This event aims to promote the exchange of new knowledge for research on the topic in Europe.
We use the phrase peripheral perspectives to refer to knowledge and methodologies from outside the ‘mainstream’ used by researchers working on interculturality for study abroad. The idea of the ‘mainstream’ can be understood in different ways. Here it refers to individual researchers’ comfort zone, within their own field(s), language(s), preferred paradigms, approaches and models, geographically-based knowledge and methodologies, etc. How could we borrow from and include (more) peripheral perspectives in our work? During the event, three plenary speakers will explain how they do and see research on interculturality in study abroad from different geo-political, scientific and ideological perspectives.
We will discuss the presenters’ experiences of including knowledge and methodologies from outside their ‘own’ mainstream: testing and experimenting with different ideas, methodologies, perspectives; looking for inspirations from other fields and parts of the world, etc.