Internationalization, Diplomacy, and Beyond: Considering Studying Abroad as a Medium of Learning Through the Lens of Cultural Studies and Public Pedagogy

Abstract

Studying abroad has been emphasised to increase the cultural influence of sending countries and promote international understanding. This study re-examines study abroad as part of the internationalisation of higher education, using concepts of soft power, knowledge diplomacy, public diplomacy, and cultural diplomacy. Specifically, the study highlights the limitations of the conceptual frameworks of ‘nation’ and ‘formal educational opportunities’ in studying abroad, and discusses a perspective on learning that goes beyond the physical space of the university and the formal educational opportunity. Furthermore, this study considers cultural studies and a public pedagogy perspective to examine where and how studying abroad and international learning can occur. Therefore, this research aims to provide a more interdisciplinary perspective on higher education research surrounding the phenomenon of studying abroad, and to examine the academic boundaries that define the field of research on the internationalisation of higher education. The paper concludes that studying abroad and international education should be reconsidered as a ‘medium’ that promotes cross-border learning by understanding culture and social structure.

1. Introduction

Higher education’s role as an agent in enhancing its presence as a collective body of knowledge and expanding its cultural influence is becoming increasingly important. For this reason, many studies on the internationalisation of higher education have been conducted with reference to, or on the theoretical frameworks of, soft power, cultural diplomacy, public diplomacy, and knowledge diplomacy. Underlying this is a vague assumption that many people hold; that is, that the internationalisation of higher education, such as bilateral or regional governance and the exchange of students and researchers across borders, has great significance in terms of international relations, socioeconomics, and culture.

The idea that international educational activities can lead to understanding between nations and peace has only become widespread since the 19th century (Kuroda et al., 2024). Since their establishment, universities have been involved in the movement of students across national borders and internationalisation; it is only since the establishment of the nation-state that they have become deeply involved in national policy within the current framework of nation-states (Yonewawa et al., 2019). Simultaneously, student exchange remains greatly influenced by national policies and bilateral relations, both domestically and internationally. Conversely, a large body of research links the phenomenon of internationalisation, such as studying abroad and international educational activities, to concepts that cannot be expressed in numerical or tangible terms, such as mutual understanding and peace. For example, Waithaka and Maluki (2016) argued that international exchange ultimately emphasises the importance of mutual understanding based on the premise that deepening people’s understanding and appreciation of other people’s perspectives through studying abroad and international education contributes to the mitigation of potential sources of conflict.

There are diverse research results on the cognitive changes that occur in individuals studying abroad and their social significance. For example, Mulvey (2020) concluded that Ugandan students studying abroad at Chinese universities developed positive attitudes towards their host country and acted accordingly. In a study on the correlation between American students studying abroad and their career development after entering the workforce (Mohajeri Norris & Gillespie, 2009), studying abroad was found to influence the participants’ personal growth, worldview, intellectual and cultural interests, and future decisions. Studies have also shown that studying abroad promotes mutual understanding and changes in identity, such as becoming part of the Asian community, through qualitative research on international programmes in English (Shimauchi, 2016), and that making the younger generation, who can understand different cultural systems, into future leaders is the greatest way to ensure peaceful development of the world (Huang & Liu, 2023). As previous studies have shown, the idea of achieving peace through international and cross-cultural understanding (Ebuchi, 1997), and the phenomenon of the complexity of the international context affecting the reality of international student exchange, are intertwined in two directions, and the framework of power and diplomacy still seems to be effective.

This study focuses on studying abroad, which is one of the functions of university internationalisation, and critically examines the view of studying abroad as a form of public/cultural/knowledge/citizenship diplomacy. Specifically, the study highlights the limitations of the conceptual frameworks of ‘nation’ and ‘formal educational opportunities’ in studying abroad, and discusses a perspective on learning that goes beyond the physical space of the university, that is, an informal educational opportunity. Furthermore, this study considers cultural studies and a public pedagogy perspective to examine where and how studying abroad and international learning can occur.

This theoretical study brings a new perspective to the discussion of internationalisation of higher education and study abroad. The idea for this study was inspired by the almost complete cessation of cross-border student mobility under the COVID-19 pandemic, how people continued to come into contact with diverse cultures and ideas through cultural content and media such as popular culture, and how they learned, especially through online transnational cultural fandoms. Cultural exchange and learning have direct links to cultural studies and public pedagogy; these aspects simultaneously highlight the limitations of the current view of studying abroad. In this article, the author attempts to present study abroad through a broad lens by reviewing a wide range of literature: from the diplomacy and power literature that has been used to understand study abroad and student mobility from a macro-perspective, to the literature of cultural studies and public pedagogy, where links to higher education studies are scarce. Educational research has long been interdisciplinary in nature; through an interdisciplinary search of the literature in both English and Japanese, this study examined new perspectives to gauge what has been overlooked by conventional theoretical frameworks in telling the story of study abroad. Therefore, this study aims to provide a more interdisciplinary perspective on higher education research surrounding the phenomenon of studying abroad, and to examine the academic boundaries that define the field of research on the internationalisation of higher education.

2. Internationalisation, Soft Power, and Diplomacy

Educational programmes are not about promoting a particular opinion or way of behaving, but about promoting a whole way of life; they are long-term investments that incorporate many actors, including individuals, and have long-term payoffs (Waithaka & Maluki, 2016). From this perspective, studying abroad and international education can be viewed in the context of soft power and diplomacy. Nye’s concept of soft power is ‘the ability to get what you want by attracting and persuading others to adopt your goals. It differs from hard power, the ability to use the carrots and sticks of economic and military might to make others follow your will’ (Nye, 2003, p. 2), and studying abroad is a ‘means’ of soft power (Atkinson, 2010; Nye, 2004). The argument that studying abroad has potential political and economic benefits, particularly for the host countries of international students (Nye, 2008; Bislev, 2017) is based on Nye’s idea that people become allies of a country when they are exposed to the positive aspects of its culture, and that it is possible to share values; thus, nations that share values are unlikely to be in conflict. Nye stated that ‘in allowing foreign students in their universities, nations build themselves a reservoir of good will, through the bonds of friendship that are established’ (Nye, 2005, p. 41).

For example, the United States promoted democracy and recommended educational exchange programmes as a strategy for effectively engaging in the war of ideas during the Cold War period. According to Atkinson’s empirical research (Atkinson, 2010), student exchange has a positive impact on the direction of respect for the right to speech, the right to political participation, and the rights of workers, and plays an important role in supporting the development of liberal values and practices in rights-based states. In this discussion, however, it is concluded that the US deliberately restricts the construction of soft power by not allowing students from authoritarian countries to study abroad; yet, including these countries could provide an opportunity for the US to spread liberal ideas to regions of the world that are the slowest to democratise (Atkinson, 2010). This is a missionary-like approach to spreading the idea of democracy through studying abroad and international education.

Even in prewar Japan, strategically accepting foreign students from under colonial rule was part of Japan’s cultural policy, which aimed to cultivate elites with a favourable view of Japan (Goodman, 1991), and higher education was politically positioned within cultural policy. On the other hand, because of constitutional restrictions that postwar Japan cannot exercise hard power, it is considered the first country in Asia to have adopted soft power as a diplomatic tool (Mubah, 2019). Therefore, Japan has taken an approach with the hope that people will become bridges of friendship between foreign countries and Japan through education and human mobility, through organisations such as the Japan Foundation, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, Official Development Assistance, and the JET Program (Lam, 2007).

In response to this, Knight argues that international higher education is not a game of winners and losers, and that we need to move away from an ideological power paradigm and towards a focus on knowledge diplomacy, in which the relationship between countries is a two-way, reciprocal process promoting international higher education and research (Knight, 2018b; 2020). Knowledge diplomacy is understood as the role of international higher education, research, and innovation in strengthening relations between countries. Power is often seen as a vertical relationship between countries, but diplomacy is thought of as a horizontal relationship between countries. Knowledge diplomacy also contributes to strengthening relations between countries to address global issues, and international higher education and research are actors in knowledge diplomacy (Knight, 2018a).

However, the fact that the state and higher education institutions are also involved implies that the quality of student exchange is constrained by the bilateral relationship between the two countries. Campus Asia is an example of regional governance, in which an international higher education and research initiative seeks to play a role in strengthening bilateral relations and international engagement. Campus Asia was a top-down project that linked higher education institutions in three countries with strong sociocultural ties, but difficult historical relations: Japan, China, and South Korea. Research conducted on students participating in Campus Asia has reported that they were able to change their negative perceptions of their geographically close but little-known neighbouring countries by gaining a valuable opportunity to learn about their history and culture (Kim, 2017); students were found to gain various skills and attitudes through the programme, such as a willingness to understand, the ability to consider different perspectives, self-expression, initiative, and resilience (Hanada & Horie, 2021). The global governance of education supports students from different countries in learning to understand one another and to work and live together (Asada, 2021, p. 580). Government-led top-down student mobility schemes are effective (Chi Hou et al., 2017); however, in Northeast Asia, where many problems surrounding history, politics, and territory are obstacles, it is difficult to continue with top-down schemes when the regional situation is unstable (Chun, 2016).

If soft power centred on the nation-state and knowledge diplomacy emphasises the network of higher education institutions, then citizenship and cultural diplomacy are citizen-oriented. They include building a foundation of trust between citizens to serve as a flexible and universally accepted means of reconciliation between nations with strained diplomatic relations (Ang et al., 2015). Citizenship diplomacy sees the actors as citizens. The concept of citizenship diplomacy is that ‘every global citizen has the right, even the responsibility, to engage across cultures and create shared understanding through meaningful person-to-person interactions’ (Hanada, 2022, p. 1). It is considered a subset of public diplomacy and complementary diplomacy, and aims to deepen relationships between people through initiatives led by both the government and the private sector, such as international higher education programmes, international volunteer programmes, and exchange programmes led by non-profit organisations (Hanada, 2022).

Cultural diplomacy refers to a broad range of government initiatives, programmes, and discourses designed to promote culture, heritage, indigenous arts, and traditions in a country. It is a set of political initiatives that aim to influence public opinion by appealing to emotions (Kushner, 2006). The difference between cultural diplomacy and citizen diplomacy is that cultural diplomacy is ‘a governmental practice that operates in the name of a clearly defined ethos of national or local representation, in a space where nationalism and internationalism merge’ (Ang et al., 2015, p. 367). In this context, studying abroad, higher education institutions, and individual students are all considered as effective actors in cultural diplomacy.

Culture has a significant impact on the cross-border movements of young people. This extends to a wide range of areas, including popular culture such as music, film, drama, anime, and manga, as well as fashion, beauty, medicine, live events, and cultural experiences that are deeply rooted in people’s lives. Similarly, students who study abroad are also interested in experiencing culture, and studies have concluded that high-quality cultural experiences promote healthy symbolism and strengthen diplomatic relations, and that studying abroad is a nexus of cultural diplomacy (Lin & Chan, 2024). Culture is the motivation for studying abroad, the factor that determines where to study abroad, the element that colours the individual’s study abroad experience, and the medium that fosters international qualities such as cross-cultural understanding and respect. As the postmodern public is generally sceptical of authority, it is best for governments to take a back seat in diplomacy and work with private actors (Nye, 2008), which is also the case with higher education policy. The internationalisation of universities also has this aspect. Schneider (2003) states that popular culture, in particular, is the greatest untapped resource in cultural diplomacy, and it can be an active tool for shaping global public opinion. New forms of pop culture diplomacy have been commissioned by the state and driven by private sectors. Korean pop music (K-POP) is one such example, and the more popular pop culture becomes worldwide, the greater the number of students studying abroad in Korea and the number of tourists (Lee & Zhang, 2021).

As this study examined studying abroad from the perspective of diplomacy, two major issues emerged. These are related to the framework of two boundaries: the state and formal higher education programmes. The first issue related to the national framework is illustrated by the example of Japan’s cultural policy. Pop culture, in particular, has been used to enhance Japan’s international image (Lam, 2007), and is promoted through the discourse of soft power and nation branding. Iwabuchi (Iwabuchi, 2015) points out that Japan’s soft power diplomacy tends to promote unilateral cultural promotion, avoiding exchanges and dialogue that would improve historical animosities affecting relations with other countries, and criticises the country for fuelling competition through the confusion of national branding methods. The standard Japanese idea of pop culture diplomacy tends to rely on naïve assumptions about media culture’s capacity to improve Japan’s reputation abroad and transcend problematic and historically constituted relations between Japan and other Asian countries (Iwabuchi, 2015, p. 426). Tamaki (2019) discussed the position of recent Japanese cultural diplomacy policy and the Cool Japan narrative within the historical reconstruction of Japanese-ness. Japan is a non-Western and non-Asian entity, and the myth of Japan’s uniqueness and essentialism continues to be at the core of its national identity.

However, ties of national identity were forged in the process of nation building in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the idea that cultural subjects exist within bounded territories is facing its limits in the 21st century environment, where cultural diversity and mutual ties exist simultaneously (Zaharna, 2019). Taking the example of ‘Japanese culture’, if we examine the reality of transnational connections in terms of production, distribution, and interpretation, the essentialist approach to ‘Japanese culture’ itself also has its limitations. In the context of popular culture, with its multidirectional flow across national borders, any attempt to impose a unified national narrative on cultural diplomacy has been elusive (Ang et al., 2015). Furthermore, although individuals are important actors in cultural diplomacy, when viewed within the framework of cultural diplomacy, trust between students from different countries tends to be subsumed within the larger framework of trust between national citizens.

Second, international cultural exchange is facilitated by a global cultural market, over which states have relatively little control. As the examples from the case of Japanese manga/anime culture highlighted above demonstrate, international cultural exchange is facilitated by a global cultural market over which states have relatively little control (Clarke, 2016), and the effect of studying abroad is only evaluated in terms of the results within the framework of higher education programmes. The essence of cultural diplomacy is the creation of a ‘shared zone’ (Grincheva, 2024, p. 185) for human contact and the exchange of culture, ideas, and beliefs. Studying abroad is about creating this ‘shared zone’ within official higher education programmes (such as international curricula and international campuses) and students experiencing it. In higher education research, however, the focus is more on the physical experience of studying abroad and international exchange, or ‘learning by experience’ in the context of formal education. There has not been sufficient examination of how people acquire new cultural knowledge in the age of digitalisation or how interested they are in the cultures of other countries. With the global spread of digital technology interconnectivity and complex interactions of diverse actors, cultural diversity has become an essential part of the communication environment. Even though social media is a place for public diplomacy, as Grincheva (2024) stated, there remains a limited understanding of how the digital environment can support the development of mutual trust and long-term relationships. Contemporary students face the difficult task of negotiating their way through a cultural landscape based on decentralised media (Giroux, 2004). In this sense, it is necessary to focus on where and how ‘shared zones’ or learning spaces beyond formal educational programmes exist, and what is being learned there in relation to studying abroad.

3. The Educational Role of Pop Culture from the Perspective of Cultural Studies

‘Culture’ is not just about content or products, but also about ‘collaboratively building a cultural paradigm that increases the happiness of all humanity’ (Ogura, 2021, pp. 203–204), and pop culture can be seen in the same way as something that creates it. UNESCO also states that international education is for the building and maintenance of peace, and presents this as follows:

Education shall be directed toward the full development of human personality and the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace (UNESCO, 1974, p. 2).

As mentioned above, from the perspective of studying abroad as a tool for nation’s power and diplomacy, pop culture is an important attraction for inbound tourism and business, eventually contributing to the nation’s economy. Studying abroad is an inbound activity that is more about learning and promotes understanding, affinity, and a sense of closeness to society, and results in economic benefits. Because of these effects, transnational cultural exchange is progressing. However, both culture and international education ultimately exist as things that contribute to people’s happiness and peace across borders. As Ellis (Ellis, 2014, p. 205) states, ‘Pop culture has a way of making seemingly remote countries “mainstream” and can provide a connection for students that national history or politics might not’.

In addition, although popular culture is created and disseminated across national borders, culture tends to be viewed in terms of concepts such as power and hierarchy under the national framework. While main culture and high culture are strongly linked to education and schools, and seem to belong to the elite, pop culture was certainly formed with a critical stance and resistance to cultural hierarchies as an important foothold; however, at present, it is also being incorporated in various forms in schools and education (Watanabe, 2023). In addition, the implicit thesis of cultural diplomacy, such as Cool Japan, is to raise the number of Japanophiles through the promotion of related pop culture. In the internationalisation of universities, English-medium programmes such as Japan Studies, which study the culture and society of Japan, are widely open to foreign students (Shimauchi, 2016), and are strongly linked to the framework of the country and its power. Even within the fandom of pop culture, some studies suggest that pop culture fandoms show a continuation of traditional social relationships (Zhai & Wang, 2023), and are not completely free from the hierarchy of intellectual membership (Watanabe, 2023).

However, a nation should not deliberately attempt to gain soft power through the spread of its popular culture (Otmazgin, 2012, p. 55). In this study, the author supports the view that ‘culture is an ongoing process and as inherently relational, and communication as a social process of co-production of meaning’ (Ang et al., 2015, p. 377). Research on higher education with regard to studying abroad and international education does not focus on the diverse ways in which students, as recipients of culture, interpret culture. In this respect, cultural studies perspectives are extremely important for conducting research on studying abroad.

Cultural studies can consider audiences as active meaning makers when consuming cultural diplomacy products (Clarke, 2016). Because the effects and impacts of cultural diplomacy cannot be determined in advance (Ang et al., 2015), it is important to have an ethnographic perspective that focuses on the on-the-ground processes driven by actors (Ang et al., 2015, p. 377). In addition, people use and reinterpret ‘deterritorialized’ products of global culture (Appadurai, 1996, pp. 3–4) in diverse ways, which are facilitated by digital media (Clarke, 2016). For this reason, cultural studies propose the need to start by carefully examining the behaviour of existing audiences, with a particular focus on aspects of meaning-making during reception (Clarke, 2016).

In traditional pedagogical considerations, popular culture has been neglected, even though the mass production and consumption of popular art are characteristic of today’s society (Jakubowski, 2018). Conversely, contemporary research on the media and its audience shows changing views of audiences as a homogeneous and unquestioning mass on whom dictatorial media imposes the meaning of texts (Nguyen & Coryell, 2015). The active involvement of pop culture and its fandom in the creation and exchange of culture is diverse. They can also be an alternative force to state power (Wang & Ge, 2023), negotiate against, but sometimes internalise, power (Shimauchi, 2024a), or use a frame of reference that transcends the state framework to reflect on the relevant society and values (Shimauchi, 2024b), and fans are not just consumers of culture, but active creators of culture (Jenkins, 2006). In the next section, the focus will be on fandoms as an informal educational opportunity.

4. Public Pedagogy: Cultural Fandoms as a Shared Learning Space

Pinar (2006) pointed out the dangers of educational research based on the assumption that schools are closed systems and learning only occurs within a predetermined pedagogical process. Although the role of media culture is extremely important for understanding the structure of our society and daily lives, the educational power of popular culture tends to be underestimated. In this context, the academic disciplines of cultural studies and pedagogy critically analyse the various popular cultures and discourses that we experience.

Cultural studies have provided educational researchers with a way to critically investigate the pedagogical aspects of popular culture, and how these spaces reproduce or challenge the usual popular and repressive structures (Sandlin et al., 2011). For example, Giroux (2000) cites the work of Stuart Hall, and sees the educational capacity of culture as broadening our understanding of the public scope of pedagogy and expanding it to multiple sites and spheres. He also states that pedagogy is ‘not simply about the social construction of knowledge, values, and experiences; it is also a performative practice embodied in the lived interactions among educators, audiences, texts, and institutional formations’ (Giroux, 2004, p. 61).

Additionally, this pedagogy can occur in various situations in students’ lives. With the rapid spread of networking worldwide, social media has become an important public education space, and through social media interaction, it has also become a place to understand oneself in relation to others and culture (Reid, 2010, p. 194). For example, Nguyen and Coryell (2015) report that in their choice to study abroad, they used social networks and popular culture to learn more about studying abroad, and that their perceptions of studying abroad and studying abroad destinations were influenced by mass media such as television, films, travel books, and the Internet. Popular culture is a conduit for conversation in social settings; simultaneously, it has a reciprocal relationship with the perceptions and motivations for studying abroad (Nguyen & Coryell, 2015).

Savage (2010) criticises the view (for example, Giroux, 2003) that global capitalism and consumerism have become the protocols of education and popular culture, in which dominant and popular forms of knowledge are often conceived as negative ideologies that act on and corrupt individuals. He also criticises the myopic view of Western culture, and how such a vision silences the anti-hegemonic potential of popular cultural forms as a means of subaltern resistance. When considered in the Asian context, Savage’s criticism seems valid. Popular culture certainly includes consumerism and neoliberalism, and is also greatly influenced by state power and ideology, such as soft power policies and state censorship. However, popular culture also has the potential to resist mainstream norms within the state, to destroy the reproduction of inequality, oppression, and domination, and to transform society. This requires the intervention of teachers, students, and activists (Ford & Jandrić, 2019), and their pedagogical practices should not be limited to schools.

There are many examples of places where popular culture is accepted, consumed, and interpreted as diverse learning spaces in the popular culture fandom studies conducted thus far. For example, Clarke (2016) argued that boys’ love content, a queer media genre currently being produced in increasing numbers, especially in Asia, provides an opportunity to address issues of gender and sexuality in a space outside the norms of one’s own culture. A queer media consumers are interested in understanding and updating their value through consumption, which essentially becomes a space for projecting and resolving personal concerns. When analysing the way in which queer media from Thailand is accepted in Japanese fandoms, Shimauchi (2024b) points out that learning through inter-Asian referencing has led to an updating of the understanding of the self and of objects based on existing national frameworks, and that it has given rise to a way of thinking that connects culture and real society. The consumption of culture has the potential to be either a way of looking at oneself or of looking at society, and is characterised by who consumes what content, in what environment and from what perspective.

The learning brought about by trans-border popular culture is particularly likely to be born within the context of global issues, but also within the contours of culture and society, and within themes that give rise to conflict and negotiation in the process of trans-border exchange. A good example is how queer media such as boys love genre have provided a space for understanding and learning about gender and sexuality. Until now, research has tended to focus on how becoming familiar with popular culture such as K-POP can lead to empathy with Korean society and culture, and is a step towards mutual understanding (Hwang, 2023). However, interest in and learning through Korean popular culture are not limited to the framework of the nation of South Korea, but also encompass a wide range of topics, including feminism, political activism, human rights, and social injustice. Where can we find a place where our familiarity and fondness for popular culture organically connects to our interest in and learning about society and larger groups of issues? The public pedagogical perspective is the only way to determine this.

Social networking sites are important places for shared learning, but they also pose problems specific to networking sites, such as literacy in relation to fake news and conspiracy theories, echo chambers, and confirmation bias. As Jenkins (2006) and other scholars of fan studies have pointed out, the digital world has two sides: it is a new means of communication and a means of learning. Sociocultural life arguably comprises competing, disparate, and diverse pedagogies, knowledge, powers, and interests circulating through fractured and fuzzy-bordered communities, networks, and associations. Learning taking place in this context ‘is likely a messy and splintered process that takes place in wild and complex ways’ (Savage, 2010, p. 112).

Public pedagogy refers to various ways of learning and teaching outside of school, and internalises complex and ambiguous mechanisms and processes (Sandlin et al., 2011). Therefore, further empirical research focusing on the processes and learning experiences in public pedagogy should be conducted.

5. Conclusions

By looking at studying abroad from the perspective of diplomacy, identifying the issues that fall outside of that perspective, and looking at it through the lens of cultural studies and public pedagogy, this study insists that studying abroad is one of the ‘media’ that enables transnational exchange and cross-border thinking, and that it should be seen as part of a continuum of educational opportunities in informal settings. One aspect that can be focused on in this context is culture (particularly popular culture) and the form of learning that takes place in relation to this.

Popular culture is important for tourism, work, and economic benefits from a national perspective; however, it also plays an essential role in helping students to understand the structure of society and everyday life at an individual level. Studying abroad is an activity aimed at allowing students to learn more, and it promotes an understanding of society, an affinity for society, and the formation of a sense of closeness with society. Research into the correlation between studying abroad and pop culture is also a way of examining the connections and negotiations between the everyday sphere experienced through media, such as online and traditional classrooms, and places where people meet face-to-face. By focusing on the individual, studying abroad and the internationalisation of education are the media that make this possible. In previous research, pop culture has been neglected as an academic subject in society, and in higher education research, it has seldom been treated as an aspect of the motivation for and experience of studying abroad.

However, the relationship between popular culture and studying abroad is neither a static one, such as a trigger or motivation, nor a linear, progressive one that leads to educational experiences and deepens learning. Popular culture and education are not separate, but are connected, and are characterised by aspects such as fandom activism, connections with social movements and change, democratic ways of being, and learning communities. Pedagogy enables critical analysis of various discourses related to culture. Pop culture is a subject of pedagogical research and analysis; it is thus necessary to examine how pop culture exists among international students studying at universities, how it differs from educational learning, and how it is related to or divided from formal educational spaces. To achieve this, it is necessary to conduct more interdisciplinary research, rather than just using the frameworks and theories that have traditionally been discussed and used in higher education research. Furthermore, in the global system of knowledge production, there has been an imbalance whereby Western scholarship provides theoretical and analytical frameworks, and the East borrows these theories and frameworks to conduct empirical research. The dynamism in Asia surrounding pop culture and studying abroad also has the potential to fuel theoretical contributions in interdisciplinary fields related to education and cultural studies. Rather than focusing solely on a country’s benefits, such as soft power and diplomacy, or individual benefits, such as the pragmatic career advancement of students, we must consider the seemingly vague vision of mutual understanding among students, personal happiness and empowerment, and, ultimately, world peace.