Roopa Desai Trilokekar

Biography

"Roopa's professional career has been focused on international education. She first became interested in these issues as an international student returning to her home country and was subsequently exposed to the formal profession through her work with the Fulbright Commission in India where she facilitated academic exchanges between Indian and US academics and students. In Canada, she has worked mainly at the institutional policy level in internationalizing curriculum and student learning experiences. Her attempts to bridge the gap between research, policy and practice in the field, led to the publication of national conference proceedings, with two esteemed colleagues, Dr. Glen Jones and Dr. Adrian Shubert, titled: Canada's Universities Go Global (2009). The two specific areas of her current research interest include government policy in international education and a critical understanding of the study abroad student experience. Questions that concern her include: how national characteristics influence the nature of higher education policy making, especially in highly decentralized federalisms such as Canada. She is struck by the absence of any persuasive research and formalized policy coordination mechanisms within the education policy processes. With regards to the student international learning experience, she is troubled with the assumptions made about student learning outcomes and the growing popularity of a competency based learning model. She wonders why defining features of the nature of the international learning experience such as students’ particular identities and locations and their diverse personal experiences are left largely unexplored."

Research Interest

internationalization of higher education as government and institution policy, higher education policy making, internationalization of curricula, teaching and learning, student experiential learning through international education, internationalizing pre-service and in-service teacher education, intercultural and cross cultural education and learning.