Making the Tacit Explicit: Rethinking Culturally Inclusive Pedagogy in International Student Academic Adaptation

The article proposes an approach, broadly inspired by culturally inclusive pedagogy, to facilitate international student academic adaptation based on rendering tacit aspects of local learning cultures explicit to international full degree students, rather than adapting them. Preliminary findings are presented from a focus group-based exploratory study of international student experiences at different stages of their studies at a Danish business school, one of Denmark’s most international universities. The data show how a major source of confusion for these students has to do with the tacit logics and expectations that shape how the formal steps of the learning cycle are understood and enacted locally, notably how learning and assessment moments are defined and related to one another. Theoretically, the article draws on tacit knowledge and sense-making theories to analyse student narratives of their encounter with the Danish system. A framework is offered to help teachers conceptualise, and excavate, the tacit dimensions of local learning culture of which they may not be aware, and reflects on how and when these might best be communicated to international students