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This paper uses mixed methods to explore perceptions of international-mindedness within two case study schools in Istanbul, Turkey: a national school with mostly Turkish students and an international school with students from many nationalities. Using a conceptual framework developed by an international education programme, the authors critically analyse pillars of international-mindedness: multilingualism, intercultural understanding, and global engagement. Findings reveal that the national school was striving to overcome limitations of homogeneity, while the international school struggled to address its assumptions that a heterogeneous population alone would be enough to encourage intercultural understanding. Neither school had developed clear conceptual links among multilingualism, intercultural understanding, and global engagement. Thus, deliberate efforts are needed to provide students with experiences that foster international-mindedness. Other researchers and educators can use this framework and associated methods to examine how international-mindedness is implemented in different schools in other regions of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the 'internationalisation' that is currently observed in English universities is driven, whether directly or not, by economic and financial rationales associated with a particular neo-liberal discourse of globalisation into which higher education has been subsumed. This is particularly true for the recruitment of international students into English universities. We present a case for the recasting of the higher education internationalisation agenda in terms of Sanderson's existential internationalism. Such an agenda promotes inter-cultural understanding over financial motives and demands a focus on personal engagement with the Cultural Other. We report on the findings of two studies of Chinese students studying at English universities to examine the extent to which their experiences reveal evidence of a context that could support such a personally transformative internationalisation. We find that, far from illustrating the potential for development of genuinely international communities, these students' accounts are commonly of marginalisation, indifference and 'otherisation' that lead instead to social and cultural withdrawal into national groups and a heightened sense of national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]