Challenges to Stereotypes of International Students’ Prior Educational Experience: undergraduate education in India

TLDR

Teaching and learning for international students in Australia has largely been framed by a cultural‑deficit view that portrays their prior education as rote, teacher‑centred, and lacking critical thinking, a stereotype increasingly questioned, especially for students from Confucian‑heritage cultures. This study investigates the validity of these stereotypes for Indian international students by reviewing literature on Indian higher education and analysing the undergraduate experiences of postgraduate students at a large Australian university. The authors conducted a literature review of Indian higher education and performed an analysis of the undergraduate learning experiences of a cohort of postgraduate students. The findings show that while some stereotype elements hold, most cultural‑deficit assumptions are misleading, and a contextualised perspective better captures the diversity of Indian undergraduate learning.

Abstract

ABSTRACT The discourse concerning teaching and learning for international students in Australia has been dominated by a cultural‐deficit approach. Proponents of this perspective argue that many international students bring with them learning experiences which are inadequate in the Australian context. These experiences have favoured rote, reproductive, surface, teacher‐centred and dependent approaches to learning; which lack analytical and critical perspectives; and which have occurred in contexts dominated by examinations and substantially lacking in educational resources. More recently, other research has challenged these stereotypes of international students, particularly regarding students from Confucian‐heritage cultures. This paper examines these stereotypes in relation to international students from India, through the use of a review of the available literature on Indian higher education and the analysis of the undergraduate learning experiences of a group of postgraduate students studying at a large Australian metropolitan university. It concludes that while some aspects of the stereotype may apply to Indian undergraduate education, most aspects of the cultural‐deficit perspective are problematic in that context, and a more contextualised approach is of greater use in understanding and describing the diversity of undergraduate learning in India.