More effort needed to decolonise the exchange experience

In March, the University of Botswana posted on its website that it will be receiving 17 teacher students and three staff members from the University of Cincinnati in the United States.

The student teachers and academic staff will be part of an exchange programme to learn about Botswana’s education system.

This is one of many similar initiatives meant to spearhead the internationalisation agenda in Southern Africa. Other recent exchange programmes in the region include the Uukumwe Project, launched by the Pacific Lutheran University in the US last year, and various programmes that take place annually organised by organisations such as Council on International Educational Exchange, or CIEE. The list is long and involves organisations, universities and students from across the world.

It is a given that internationalisation which, at the most basic level, involves integrating global dimensions into educational institutions and seeks to create ‘global citizens’ is a crucial component of higher education in the 21st century.

But the big question for many African observers, in particular students and former students, is: Are initiatives that promote internationalisation, such as exchange programmes, not rigged to perpetuate unequal power relations reminiscent of the colonial era?

Unequal participation

The first problem with exchange programmes between the Global South and North lies in unequal participation. Students and staff from the Global North are simply in a better financial position to engage in such programmes, while those in the Global South travel less because of limited resources.

This is according to Nico Jooste and Savo Heleta in their academic article titled, ‘Global Citizenship Versus Globally Competent Graduates: A Critical View from the South’.

Many African students and staff who travel to exchange programmes in Europe and the US only do so through Global North financing. Their participation in an exchange programme is, therefore, dependent on the decisions of Global North countries about partner universities and the format, structure and length of the exchange.

In contrast, Global North students and staff seem to have more options. Simply put, the lack of financing not only reduces the number of African students and academic staff who can travel for exchange programmes in the Global North, it also limits their choices in terms of where they can go.

What if more exchanges were done online?

Doing exchanges online can, in some Global South countries, drastically increase the number of students who can participate, thus doing away with financial barriers created by the need to travel.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmacy students from South Africa and the US participated in a virtual peer exchange project. Research into the exchange programme conducted by Velisha Ann Perumal-Pillay and others found that the “project was a unique way to conduct exchange programmes via a virtual platform, and bypassed challenges of traditional exchange programmes”.

The study notes that, through technology, “more students in diverse geographic locations can be exposed to various perspectives and healthcare experiences with international students”.

It has to be noted, however, that, even if many exchange programmes were to be done online, students and staff in some African countries would still be excluded due to poor internet connectivity.

Perpetuation of Western norms and values

Exchange programmes, if not structured properly, are just one of the many ways in which norms and values from the Global North can supersede those of people in the Global South.

Nico Jooste and Savo Heleta, also mentioned for their work on internationalisation earlier on, write at length about attempts to create ‘global citizens’ through the internationalisation process. Exchange programmes fall under such attempts because they aim to create citizens who can fit in easily with the learning cultures and situations from other countries.

On paper, exchange programmes seem like a good way of creating ‘global citizens’ but the scholars make this nuanced observation: “An important question that the proponents of global citizenship tend to ignore is whose values and norms will guide global citizens. The world is a complex and diverse place and different continents, regions, countries, and even communities within countries have different customs, values, norms and standards that guide their lives and interactions.”

They go on to state that Western norms dominate attempts to create global citizens, and are presented as global and universal, which promotes the myth of Western superiority. There is, thus, an urgent need to ensure that exchange programmes are structured in a way that does not promote Western culture and norms at the expense of other cultural values.

The Norwegian example

The danger of placing importance on Western values and norms ahead of those of others, especially in the context of exchange programmes, is twofold: it can result in attempts to subdue local values, but also it can actually result in a student from the Global North failing to learn from local contexts because they think their way is superior.

A perfect example of exchange students that totally disregarded the local approach can be found in research conducted by Berit Johannessen and others titled, ‘Topics Norwegian Nursing Students are Concerned with during Clinical Placement in an African Country: Analysis of Reflective Journals’.

Johannessen and others did research on nursing students from Norway who worked at a hospital in Malawi as part of an exchange programme. During their exchange period, the students wrote reflective journals. The reflective journals were e-mailed to their supervisors in Norway for feedback.

Johannessen and others used the journals to conduct the study. In the journals, one student wrote: “Everything is random and things are not planned. There is a problem when it comes to being systematic … It is very frustrating to come from Norway and to this mess. I feel that nothing works.”

Referring to local nurses, another student wrote: “It is really a cold relationship between patient and nurse. They have a lot to learn when it comes to empathy and ethics.”

But, perhaps the most telling submission came from a student who summarised their exchange experience by saying: “I feel I have learned a lot about how one should not treat patients.”

It is highly likely that the students in question, whose remarks were made anonymous in the research, were not able to learn much from the exchange programme because they constantly compared local ways to their own and thought their way was superior.

Further, the students were clearly judgmental and the authors of the study also made similar observations. Wrote Johannessen and others: “The students in this study seem to have a low degree of cultural competence as they have few reflections on cultural values but, instead, a clear tendency to be judgmental of the local nurses.” The authors recommended that “students need to be better prepared before sending them for studies abroad”.

Exchange programmes in Southern Africa

Exchange programmes can be an important tool for internationalisation if structured correctly. However, academic work on exchange programmes and internationalisation shows there are a lot of gaps which need to be addressed, particularly regarding power relations.

Much work is being done regarding decolonisation of education in general, but not enough emphasis is being placed on decolonising the exchange programme experience. Decolonising such initiatives is important because exchange programmes are an integral part of the internationalisation process and, thus, an avenue through which Global North dominance can persist if left unchallenged.

Zachariah Mushawatu is a freelance journalist. He recently completed a masters thesis on academic freedom at the University of Bergen, Norway, and is also the former national spokesperson of the Zimbabwe National Students Union, or ZINASU.