Thirteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Social-movement focused educational scholarship is still somewhat limited and marginalized, especially as it intersects with international tertiary education. Rather, it has focused on the educational value of social movements in adult and informal educational contexts. This raises important questions regarding formal education within international educational programs often following a neoliberal curriculum focus, and the potential contradictions in the assumed acquisition and utility of foreign cultural capital. With the increasing international mobility of students as consumers of education and transmitters of “global cultural capital”, this research interrogates how social movements are critically conceptualized and interrogated in formal educational settings and what that may mean in terms of global cultural capital. This is especially important in educational destinations where social movements are typically “hidden” or marginalized in public discourse. This research draws on interview and survey data of international students from various countries studying in the Japanese university context on their perceptions, experiences and study of social movements/activism in their countries of origin and in Japan. It was found that the majority of students have not been exposed to instruction or critical academic inquiry related to social movements, particularly in the recent globalized context. Also, their understanding of social movements as legitimate civil society participation is often limited, negative and uncritical. This particular area of focus of educational scholarship is important as increased mobility through international students contributes to the global transmission and reconfiguration of cultural capital, and norms, and those students become potential global citizen “catalysts” and leaders in their regions.