A new border pedagogy: Rethinking outbound mobility programs in the Asian Century

Australian universities have implemented outbound student mobility programs focused on the Asian region and hyped them as a 'powerful' educational strategy with the potential to positively transform students through opportunities to acquire intercultural competence. It is assumed students' intercultural competence will give them 'the edge' they need to be successful when working with cultural others across diverse contexts. While outbound mobility programs can build students' intercultural competence, this does not happen just because they study abroad. This chapter presents a new border pedagogy based on the concept of hybridity that is being used to transform an Australian outbound mobility program. The new border pedagogy works by intentionally putting what is 'known' into crisis by constantly blurring and problematising boundaries, binaries and identities. Outbound mobility programs that leverage a new border pedagogy underpinned by hybridity can build students' intercultural competence by encouraging them to embrace potential miscommunication and intercultural conflict.