‘Doing’ interculturality through multilingual identities: Language fluidity in the internationalisation of higher education in Finland

This study investigates the way(s) teachers and students from international degree programs at a Finnish university negotiate the roles of languages in the internationalisation of higher education and the interplay between interculturality, language and identity in relation to such roles. The data include focus group discussions with teachers and students, students’ online forum entries and group discussion reports. The participants assigned contradictory and fluid roles to languages for ‘doing’ interculturality, including: English as full or partial enabler; Finnish as (in-)dispensable; Other foreign languages as hindrance. The authors identified potentially problematic identities such as ‘partial speakers’ and ‘owners’ of Finnish. The participants who displayed a specific form of open-ended interculturality tend to perceive the fluid or partial roles of languages and identities, which exposes a greater complexity of multilingualism. The authors recommend universities to promote a common but diverse ownership of languages to encourage stronger internationalisation.