Finding the right fit or fitting what is found? Contextualising connections between international student mobility and quality in teacher education

Abstract

The political promotion of international student mobility in the Nordic countries is underpinned by claims about its contribution to quality enhancement in higher education. Yet, this link is scarcely elaborated and is an understudied issue empirically. This article presents the findings of an interview study exploring the recontextualisation of this policy discourse by micro-level actors in Norwegian teacher education. Analytically, it employs quality perspectives to unpack the ideas that underlie the planning, learning process and envisioned outcomes associated with mobility. The article finds that quality is associated with clearly envisioned personal and professional outcomes of mobility; yet, it is also shaped by unclear notions about the learning process involved and constraints set by the practical possibilities for organising it. The article argues that the malleability of quality and the uneasy nature of student mobility in teacher education involves a risk that mobility becomes instrumentalised and loses its educational value.