Listening to agent agendas in student exchanges

The paper is based upon a research study of short-term student exchanges. The study took place from 1996-2000, and comprises seven classes of students from six Danish business schools. Short-term student exchanges in terms of EU funded exchanges and local school exchanges are means to develop the students’ understanding of their own cultural background and of foreign cultures. The research study is an attempt to look at internationalisation and student exchanges from a student perspective. Thus the structural aim and the structural framework are considered given elements. The study is based upon institutional scepticism and placed within the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism. The methodology applied is qualitative, grounded theory, and the data originate from diaries, semi-structured interviews and semi-open questionnaires. The findings show that the students have their own exchange agendas. On the basis of the findings, four methods are developed with the purpose of including student agendas in exchange curriculum building. The student inclusion is based upon Giddens’ structuration theory combining and integrating structure and agency.