Critical Reflections in International Contexts: PolyEthnographic Accounts of an International Doctoral Research Seminar

As the world becomes more globally interconnected, international partnerships, including those within higher education, have increased. In an exemplar of these international partnerships from an academic standpoint, selected doctoral students and faculty from Australian, Chinese, and Canadian universities participated in an International Doctoral Research Seminar held in China in December 2015. The objective of this seminar was to have academic debate regarding educational reform. A critical by-product of this seminar was the meaning made by the participants from this experience. This paper reviews the critical polyethnographic reflections of the Canadian participants for three salient and influential topics including the role of culture, power dynamics, and organizational systems, all in relation to this international academic partnership experience. These reflections have ramifications for future programs specifically for enhancing the international development of doctoral students under the broader umbrella of international academic partnerships.