Internationalisation at Home through Critical Virtual Exchange

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This publication represents a significant milestone in my ongoing journey to critically examine the assumptions underpinning virtual exchange practice. As a white European academic who has spent years researching technology-enhanced learning, I've had to confront uncomfortable truths about how even well-intentioned educational interventions can perpetuate the very inequalities they claim to address. Developing the critical virtual exchange (CVE) framework has been both intellectually challenging and deeply personal. It required me to interrogate my own positionality and acknowledge that much of what we consider "best practice" in internationalisation reflects Global North priorities and epistemologies. This paper, co-authored with colleagues from Brazil, embodies the collaborative, cross-cultural scholarship I believe is essential for genuine change. I'm particularly proud that we centre examples from the Global South learning with and from the Global South—a deliberate disruption of conventional knowledge flows. The concept of "gesturing towards" decolonisation reflects my commitment to epistemological humility; we don't claim to have arrived, but we're committed to the journey. This work also connects to my broader scholarship in critical digital pedagogies and, increasingly, critical AI literacy. The questions we raise here about power, access, and whose knowledge counts are equally urgent as artificial intelligence reshapes education. The EDIA principles (equity, diversity, inclusion, access) that ground CVE must also inform how we integrate AI into teaching and learning. In the spirit of ubuntu—"I am because of you"—this publication exists because of my co-authors, the educators implementing these exchanges, and the students whose voices we sought to amplify. My hope is that it inspires others to move beyond virtual exchange as a logistical convenience toward CVE as a vehicle for social justice.

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