This book examines the extent to which studying and living overseas enable returning graduates to enhance their professional work and contribute to community development. It assesses the transformative potential that returnees are assumed to have in terms of capabilities and skills acquired through an international education. This book is based on a research study on Vietnamese overseas graduates who have returned to Vietnam. It examines the complexity of competing aspirations, responsibilities, identities and cultural dynamics in these returnees' professional, intellectual and civic environments.

Provides a systematic approach to evaluating the transformative impact of international education Clarifies the types of knowledge, skills and attributes that are useful for returning overseas graduates Presents the challenges of attaining economic and social development for a transitional economy like Vietnam

Autorentext
Dr Lien Pham is a lecturer at the Graduate Research School, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. She received her PhD in Sociology from Macquarie University, Sydney. Her research interests and publications are in the field of education, development and civil society in developing countries, particularly in South-East Asia; political sociology; and critical social theory. She has conducted extensive research on educational policies for multilateral development agencies in the Asia-Pacific region and public policy evaluation for Australian government organisations.

Inhalt
Part I Theoretical orientation: Citizenship, capital and capabilities.- 1 International education: A potentiality for ethical development.- 2 Sen-Bourdieu frameowork: Conceptualising normative agency.- Part II From theory to praxis: A sociological analysis of capabilities in Vietnamese international graduates.- 3 Applying the Sen-Bourdieu framework.- 4 Encountering the Vietnamese habitus.- 5 Priorities, motivations and expeactions of returnees.- Part III Empirical observations in the three 'fields'.- 7 'Intellectual' field: Education reformers and conformers.- 8 'Civic' field: Negotiating the ideals of community, citizenship and commmunity work.- Part IV Conclusion.- 9 Conclusion: Implication for theory, policy and practice.