Mahboubeh Rakhshandehroo

Drawing on the concept of the Production of Space this article examines how sustainable development agenda was localised—in design, operation and students' lived experiences—in two international education programmes at two universities in Japan. We analysed relevant programme documents, interviews with faculty members, students' reflective notes, as well as the authors' autoethnographic journals. The findings show that the local and institutional context influenced the SDGs curriculum design (representations of space or the conceived space). The virtual and physical learning spaces, the pedagogy and the operation of the programme (spatial practice or perceived space) shaped students' interaction and learning outcomes (representational space or the lived space). As instructors attempted to adopt SDGs in their teaching (through perceived space) and as students tried to gain interdisciplinary knowledge through SDGs (through lived space), both parties negotiated and challenged the programme design shifting the conceived spaces. Our study contributes to a deeper understanding of the localisation of SDGs within the internationalisation of higher education by employing Lefebvre's spatial analysis. This approach reveals the complex socio‐spatial dynamics at play, offering insights into how educational environments are constructed and experienced.

English-medium instruction (EMI) has been rapidly adopted worldwide as a strategy for internationalization, accompanied by a substantial amount of research attention. However, research on EMI has only recently been conducted in Iran. To contribute to the ongoing growing literature, this study explores the attitudes of Iranian students and instructors toward the possibility of implementing EMI in Iran through virtual exchange (VE). In order to determine whether EMI can be used through VE in Iran, a mixed method sequential explorative study was conducted. It has been identified that the linguistic readiness of students and/or instructors is the primary barrier to the success of EMI through VE in Iran because EMI is still in its infancy. In accordance with the literature, systematic support is required at the institutional level. Yet many of the students showed interest in the idea of EMI via VE, even if it was only a short one-session VE lesson, primarily to enhance their linguistic skills and global competencies. This study proposes that integrating EMI through VE at the graduate level may be more feasible. This is because there are already more EMI seminars and classes available, students are self-directed learners, and they may be better linguistically prepared. Regarding EMI access through VE, there were advantages and disadvantages. The benefit of using VE in EMI is that EMI would be accessible even to students living in less privileged locations, but the disadvantage is that the accessibility of the Internet may not be stable, considering requiring a VPN to access some websites. It is hoped that this study will serve as a useful starting point for future research in Iran and similar settings.

Promoting globally-minded Japanese university students has been one of the main objectives of recent internationalization initiatives at Japanese universities. Even though this objective has appeared in numerous university policy statements, it has been mostly associated with enhancing the English proficiency skills of students. Thus, systematized support to internationalize the curriculum seems to be mostly neglected. In the context where formal support is not yet in place, individual practices of teachers would have great value in nurturing students’ global mindedness. Applying an autoethnographic approach, Rakhshandehroo shares her pedagogical practices and examples of lesson activities in two classroom settings – an EFL classroom and a CLIL classroom The author contributes to the literature by creating discussions on promoting global awareness beyond Inner Circle notions of English, nurturing transformative learning of students by collaborative online international learning (COIL), and making bottom-up change through exercising teacher agency.