The cleaning of a greenhouse: power and identity in the discourses of internationalisation

Using the analogy of a dirty greenhouse (Ferrie, 2019), each windowpane can represent a different methodological approach and the researcher’s task is to clean one pane. Discourse analysis is like a pane of glass in the middle of the greenhouse, helping us to look up and see the top of the phenomenon and down to see how that phenomenon is lived out. The phenomenon under discussion for this proposed paper is the internationalisation of education. On a macro level, the discourse on internationalisation has evolved in education, and is now strongly linked to neoliberalism global processes. However, this paper will look at how internationalisation is constructed by stakeholders working in Higher Education in Scotland, during a series of interviews carried out in 2019, focussing on interpretive repertoires (Potter and Wetherell, 1987) and subject positions (ibid). Furthermore, using a Foucauldian approach to discourse analysis (1972, 1980) helped to understand how the creation of subject positions constitutes a complex process in which power and identity overlap in this context. Ferrie, J. (2019). Discourse Analysis: Theory and Practice, lecture notes, Scottish Graduate School of Social Science, University of Glasgow, delivered 27 March 2019Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge. London: Tavistock. Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972– 1977. Brighton, Sussex: Harvester Press. Potter, J., & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and social psychology: Beyond attitudes and behaviour. London: Sage.