Paper short abstract:

Mutual migration and cooperation of inter-contextual teams trigger both individual and institutional change. An empirical study contributes to a more endogenous development of education through international partnerships.

Paper long abstract:

Since post-colonial times the colleges and universities of South Asia play an important role in the establishing and development of their countries. But although these institutions are worldwide recognized and well connected, most of the universities in their education-methods still preserve their special heritage given by the specific history of their society.

Year by year a huge number of highly skilled young South Asians, when returning to their home-countries, carry new influences and knowledge from their particular academic diaspora all over the world. In many cases this new knowledge is strongly linked with the context across the homeland. But the apparent differences in understanding education touch the established self-image of the South Asian institutions. This leads to tensions and discussions between those who share new experiences and those who do not. To tensions between modernity and tradition.

The analysis of changing educational systems and international affairs needs a space- and context-dependent understanding of knowledge. This is why the contribution asks for the innovative potential for methodological and behavioral changes through global synthesis. Or more practical: How should we create and manage educational partnerships in order to support a more endogenous development?

A qualitative case study as part of the DAAD funded Teacher Training Procect of Freiburg (Germany) and Rajshahi (Bangladesh) analyzes the processes and negotiations of individual and local viewpoints and social practices. The interface of this interaction is a multi-contextual Community of Practice. Necessarily this type of partnership expands the established Actor-Network-Theory by the ethnographical perspective of Cultural Geography.