流动视角下跨国教育空间的构建:国际学校案例

The Construction of Transnational Education Space from the Perspective of Mobilities: The Case of International Schools

流动视角下对多元教育空间的理解需要反思教育与不同地理空间和过程间的相互塑造,以及教育流动过程的关系化本质。以广州某典型国际学校为例,通过参与式观察和半结构化访谈等质性研究方法,分析了跨国教育空间构建过程中全球与本土、流动与驻留(stillness)间的张力。研究表明:知识、人、空间等要素以相互依托和嵌套的方式进行跨国流动,将国际学校打造为全方位、多层次的跨国"教育飞地";同时,流动的过程并不意味着是对驻留的否定,两者同时塑造着学校空间。一定程度本土要素的加入并没有动摇学校作为国际教育机构的根基。总体来看,教育资源的整体性跨境流动在物理空间、社会服务和阶层意义上形成了与本土间的隔离。构建于本土的跨国教育未能实现真正的跨文化互动和联系,反而进一步强化了文化的差异和边界的形成。研究对教育地理学的丰富和国际化背景下城市特殊空间的研究具有积极推动意义。

The increasingly diversified and internationalized educational spaces around the world have promoted the vigorous development of geographies of education. In light of vibrant mobilities research, the meanings and connotations of educational spaces have further extended into various non-traditional institutional spaces including families, communities and workplaces, requiring geographers’ reflection on how diverse education spaces are shaping and being shaped differently through different geographical spaces and processes,and the relational nature of educational mobilities. International schools, a bourgeoning but relatively under-examined phenomenon in existing geographical writings, are transnational educational spaces created in specific places by the process of globalization. Taking an international school in Guangzhou as an example, this paper explores the tension between global and local, mobilities and stillness in the international school through qualitative research methods including participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The research shows that: knowledge, peoples, spaces and other elements are transnationally mobilized and transferred in an interconnected manner, making the international school into a comprehensive and multi-level transnational "education enclave";Meanwhile, mobilities do not indicate the negation of stillness. Both the processes of mobilities and stillness are shaping the international school simultaneously. A certain degree of involvement of local elements has not threatened the foundation of the international institution. In general, the holistic cross-border flow of educational resources contributes to the separation from the local in terms of physical spaces, social services and classes. Transnational education based and produced in local fails to achieve real cross-cultural interactions and connections, but further strengthens the cultural differences and boundaries. The present study further enriches studies in the field of geographies of education as well as special urban spaces in contemporary internationalized China.