recently published paper<\/a>, she explores the meaning of home and home-making processes among international students.<\/p>\n\u00bbHaving both perspectives of campus and private sphere was quite unique and helped me to see also how the students\u2019 personal world beyond the campus actually informed much of their performance on campus,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n
Her work illustrates the importance of considering the \u2018whole person\u2019 beyond the university.<\/p>\n
\u00bbTheir sense of home is stretched. It’s a conflicting time, where they experience freedom and independence in a new way, but also miss their family,\u00ab says Vera Spangler.<\/p>\n
For most of the students in her research, it was the first time living abroad and away from their families. The article unpacks how international students in Denmark discuss their relationships, ties and families from a distance, while negotiating complex emotions.<\/p>\n
Finding the international<\/h3>\n
Vera Spangler herself has been a student away from home. During her undergraduate studies, she spent one semester in Denmark. Her experience was similar to the students who took part in her research.<\/p>\n
\u00bbEven though Denmark and Germany are neighboring countries I noticed big differences between the higher education systems. In Denmark, I was taught in different ways and felt much greater freedom in my learning. Experiencing these differences, I became curious about how learning, studying and knowledge production vary in different places and how, for instance, knowledge and pedagogies also travel with students.\u00ab<\/p>\n
After she had finished her studies in Germany, she came back to study her master\u2019s degree in anthropology.<\/p>\n
\u00bbSometimes it gives me comfort if I read about someone else’s experiences of living in a foreign, different place, and how they navigate that. The paper shows that it can be very tough, and very challenging to study abroad. But there’s also a lot of self-development, in gaining independence, and in a way, a little bit of also growing up as a young person.\u00ab<\/p>\n
Vera Spangler hopes that her research can provide a ground for further critical reflection on internationalization with everyday academic practices, pedagogical approaches and lived experiences of international students.<\/p>\n
\u00bbWe need to critically question what the \u2018international\u2019 is, and as, for example, institutions and lecturers, carefully reflect on who we meet in the classroom. There is not this one international student experience. it is a highly diverse group, and each person is bringing different dimensions to the classroom.\u00ab
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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Vera Spangler has done field work on several international courses at the University of Copenhagen"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Standfirst","subject":"International students","text":"International students are often perceived as deficit learners, not having their previous knowledge recognized by lecturers and students at their host institutions. We need to consider the international student as a \u2018whole person\u2019 beyond just the university, says anthropologist Vera Spangler.","use_post_excerpt":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":false,"contributors":[{"use_registered_user":false,"user":false,"contributor_name":"Magnus Boye","contributor_title":"Kommunikationsmedarbejder, Institut for Naturfagenes Didaktik","contributor_image":{"ID":134841,"id":134841,"title":"Magnus Boye","filename":"img_2185.jpg","filesize":659798,"url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/img_2185.jpg","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/i-det-internationale-undervisningslokale-er-det-de-danske-studerende-der-trives\/img_2185\/","alt":"","author":"5","description":"","caption":"","name":"img_2185","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":134796,"date":"2022-05-25 13:39:43","modified":"2022-05-25 13:39:57","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":2363,"height":2167,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/img_2185-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/img_2185-480x440.jpg","medium-width":480,"medium-height":440,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/img_2185-768x704.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":704,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/img_2185-1280x1174.jpg","large-width":1280,"large-height":1174,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/img_2185-1536x1409.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":1409,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/img_2185-2048x1878.jpg","2048x2048-width":2048,"2048x2048-height":1878,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/img_2185-290x266.jpg","featured-soft-width":290,"featured-soft-height":266,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/img_2185-290x180.jpg","featured-hard-width":290,"featured-hard-height":180,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/img_2185-700x642.jpg","narrow-width":700,"narrow-height":642,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/img_2185-990x908.jpg","extended-width":990,"extended-height":908}}}]},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>When students in an \u2018international\u2019 university program sit in an auditorium, it is not only the meeting of many nationalities. It is a collection of many different teaching cultures, ways of learning and diverse understandings of what characterizes the \u2018good student\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, in Danish higher education the \u2018international\u2019 classroom is dominated by Danish ways of thinking about pedagogy and didactics. This presents challenges, says Vera Spangler, who is a research assistant at the Department of Science Education and part of the research project <a href=\"https:\/\/projects.au.dk\/geoint\">Geographies of Internationalisation.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>During the course of several months of ethnographic fieldwork among international students across various classrooms she has explored their experiences in Danish university life.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI have seen many international students struggle with the Danish university setting,\u00ab says Vera Spangler, who recently published the second paper on her findings.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbLecturers described them as deficit leaners compared to Danish students, and their previous acquired knowledge was perceived inferior.\u00ab<\/p>\n<h3>Learning taken for granted<\/h3>\n<p>The Danish lecturers in Vera Spangler\u2019s fieldwork were used to students who would debate, discuss and engage actively, but most of the international students came with different pedagogical experiences.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the international students expressed that they did not feel they received the guidance and support that they needed from the lecturers to be successful in the program.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI observed, for example, several of the international students struggling with working in groups and getting frustrated with the process as most of them were used to working individually,\u00ab says Vera Spangler.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThis shows how the learning and the situatedness of pedagogy in this \u2018international\u2019 classroom is being taken for granted.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Though labeled international, the classroom was in many ways national, says Vera Spangler.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThe language was English but the teaching, the pedagogies and the implied perception of, for instance, the \u2018good student\u2019 were very much situated in Danish policies and practices.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Both lecturers and students brought with them culturally, national and place-specific understandings of teaching, knowledge and learning. In her research, Vera Spangler found how these understandings come together, meet and merge, but also clash in classroom settings.<\/p>\n<h3>The whole person<\/h3>\n<p>During fieldwork, Vera Spangler spent most of her time in classrooms among the international students. Soon, she also began to explore students\u2019 lived experiences beyond the campus. In her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/eprint\/QAAUXZ2YNDJQVV9C3IQA\/full?target=10.1080\/14649365.2022.2065698\">recently published paper<\/a>, she explores the meaning of home and home-making processes among international students.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbHaving both perspectives of campus and private sphere was quite unique and helped me to see also how the students\u2019 personal world beyond the campus actually informed much of their performance on campus,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n<p>Her work illustrates the importance of considering the \u2018whole person\u2019 beyond the university.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbTheir sense of home is stretched. It’s a conflicting time, where they experience freedom and independence in a new way, but also miss their family,\u00ab says Vera Spangler.<\/p>\n<p>For most of the students in her research, it was the first time living abroad and away from their families. The article unpacks how international students in Denmark discuss their relationships, ties and families from a distance, while negotiating complex emotions.<\/p>\n<h3>Finding the international<\/h3>\n<p>Vera Spangler herself has been a student away from home. During her undergraduate studies, she spent one semester in Denmark. Her experience was similar to the students who took part in her research.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbEven though Denmark and Germany are neighboring countries I noticed big differences between the higher education systems. In Denmark, I was taught in different ways and felt much greater freedom in my learning. Experiencing these differences, I became curious about how learning, studying and knowledge production vary in different places and how, for instance, knowledge and pedagogies also travel with students.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>After she had finished her studies in Germany, she came back to study her master\u2019s degree in anthropology.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbSometimes it gives me comfort if I read about someone else’s experiences of living in a foreign, different place, and how they navigate that. The paper shows that it can be very tough, and very challenging to study abroad. But there’s also a lot of self-development, in gaining independence, and in a way, a little bit of also growing up as a young person.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Vera Spangler hopes that her research can provide a ground for further critical reflection on internationalization with everyday academic practices, pedagogical approaches and lived experiences of international students.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWe need to critically question what the \u2018international\u2019 is, and as, for example, institutions and lecturers, carefully reflect on who we meet in the classroom. There is not this one international student experience. it is a highly diverse group, and each person is bringing different dimensions to the classroom.\u00ab<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Newsletter","lang_select":"en","identifier":"Newsletter","headline":"Get an email with our latest updates","button_text":"Sign up here","class":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":false,"references":false,"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":"4","style":"default"}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":3792,"name":"Student life","slug":"student-life","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3792,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":160,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":15,"name":"News Article","slug":"news_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":15,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":11489,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[{"term_id":5468,"name":"Optional","slug":"optional-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5468,"taxonomy":"translation_priority","description":"","parent":0,"count":672,"filter":"raw"}]},"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/profilepicturevera-1280x1280.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134857"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134929,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134857\/revisions\/134929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}