Transforming the self, transforming the relationship? Understanding the impact of study abroad programs on Australia-Indonesia relationship-building
Abstract
Study abroad programs between Australia and Indonesia have grown significantly in recent decades through a framework of 'international education as public diplomacy'. In Australia, there has been a stark increase in the number of students travelling to the 'Indo-Pacific' region, largely the result of funding made available through the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's, 'New Colombo Plan' (NCP) scholarship scheme since 2014. Yet, despite this increase in Australian outbound mobility to the region, and Indonesia's prominence as a destination, gaps remain in scholarly accounts of how study abroad might be a transformative experience for Australian students and Indonesian host communities, or how they might contribute to bilateral relationship-building afterwards. An assumption emerges across the literature that a student 'self' will be positively transformed by a study abroad experience, then build upon this personal transformation by making positive contributions to the Australia-Indonesia relationship. Further, existing research on study abroad often overlooks host community experiences, resulting in limited scholarly understanding of their perspectives, and a literature largely framed by perspectives from the Global North.
In this research I present a case study of the longest-running facilitator of study abroad programs to Indonesia, the Australian Consortium for 'In-Country' Indonesian Studies (ACICIS), to speak directly with students and host communities about their experiences of NCP-funded study abroad programs to Indonesia. While existing literature has often focused on the 'impacts' and 'tangible outputs' of study abroad, gaps remain in understanding the subjective, lived experiences of students and hosts in study abroad programs. Paying greater attention to the ways students and hosts experience change in their own lives can expand scholarly accounts of how processes of transformation might arise from study abroad programs, and how those transformations may move from an individual to a broader community or bilateral level. In examining the labour students and hosts perform to transform themselves, their 'small acts' in the community, and the affective forces they are unable to account for, I argue for a more encompassing conceptualisation of transformation in study abroad that moves beyond 'impacts' and 'outputs'. By elucidating student and host pathways of transformation, this research contributes to academic literature in international education, anthropology and Indonesian studies, interrogating whether individual transformations lead to collective, bilateral transformations. In doing so, this research aims to contribute not only to scholarly literature, but also to government and university policy setting for future Australia-Indonesia study abroad programs, such as those offered through ACICIS and the NCP.