East African Transnational Adolescents and Cross-Border Education: An Argument for Local International Learning

ABSTRACT This contribution outlines the current research on many of the positive benefits of cross-border education as well as some of what we know about student experiences. The authors also highlight some of the limitations of the study-abroad research to date (too White, too American, too European), and suggest that it is time to consider different sorts of “international” experiences; these potentially include crossing into local multilingual and multicultural communities as well as examining a fuller range of experiences for members of diaspora communities. By challenging common ideologies about international education, they suggest that it might be pedagogically better, more practical, and more ethical to find local international sites for all, and for future educators in particular.