What’s in a name? A theoretical exploration of the proliferation of labels for international education across the higher education sector

Across the higher education sector international education has been described as experiencing a “crisis of identity.” The recent proliferation of new terms advanced to label “internationalization,” it has been suggested, represents little more than “tautology.” Here, we address questions posed by de Wit regarding this phenomenon: “Why is it new labels are emerging?” “What do they mean?” “How are they used?” And, “will they advance the debate on the future of internationalisation?” We argue the phenomenon of renaming highlights a deep unease among scholars and points to the need for further theoretical consideration of the subject/agent nexus in the context of internationalization. First, with Strauss (1997), we argue the renaming phenomenon reveals more about those attributing the labels than that which they name. Second, drawing on positioning theory we argue renaming “internationalization” can be equated to reflexive positioning in the context of uneven distributions of power across contested storylines. As such, current efforts to rename “internationalization” are not necessarily tautological; rather, they could be integral to systematic changes in understandings, activities, dispositions, and rationales across the higher education sector.