Educational change and international trade in teacher development: achieving local goals within/despite a transnational context

The study in one country to support the development of education in another is a regular event in the field of contemporary tertiary education, and it is likely to grow as developing countries accelerate their educational development projects and as Western universities seek international student funding. This article reports the case study of a specific teacher development project and examines the degree to which local development goals were met (or not) within an overtly international study experience, and uses the context and findings of the case to develop a discussion about fair academic trade. Because the stake holders in cross-national education are not univocal, it uses a number of different critical lenses to examine the findings and explore the complexities of the learning contract and its outcomes. It then offers a working model that nominates key elements for fair academic trade, and briefly reports on further collaborations that are growing out of the case study.