Afterwords: Opportunities and challenges for transnational and international curriculum studies, schooling, and higher education

In the domain of transnational higher education in Southeast Asia, the various spaces of academic discourse are sometimes neither totally independent but probably an interface or intersection of national, international or transnational spaces. These spaces could be filled with gaps, conflicts, disconnections and discontinuities in educational governance and experiences. Although Europe’s socio-political contexts are very different from those that prevail in Asia, a parallel trend is discerned under the influence of the European Union, towards encouraging “the ‘Europeanness’ in teachers’ work and mobility as a goal”. Whereas transnational and international curriculum inquiry touches upon, within, and across national and regional boundaries, there are various approaches to, and forms and paradigms of, curriculum inquiry. Several principles of a critical transnational curriculum for immigrant and refugee students are proposed, namely, viewing diversity as a learning opportunity; adopting a translanguaging approach; highlighting civic engagement as curriculum experiences; and fostering multidirectional aspirations. Copyright © 2021 selection and editorial matter, John Chi-Kin Lee and Noel Gough; individual chapters, the contributors.