Rationales for Research Internationalization Among Honduran University Faculty: A Discourse Analysis
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The internationalization of university research is driven by multiple, overlapping rationales that operate across institutional and individual dimensions and condition how international engagement becomes feasible in practice. This study examines how Honduran university faculty constructs and articulates the reasons for internationalizing their research activities; it identifies the discursive positions that emerge from these accounts. A qualitative–structural approach was used to analyze the discursive data produced in the group meetings convened through with an ad hoc structural sample. The analysis identified and graphically represented five discursive positions configured as a relational structure: (A) Professional Development, (B) Ethical–Political Commitment, (C) Financial Acquisition, (D) Academic Prestige, and (E) Sociocultural Engagement. Together, these positions capture distinct yet interrelated motivations by which faculty members pursue research internationalization. By mapping this relational configuration, the study contributes to the literature by showing how faculty rationales are combined and hierarchized in situated academic practice and provides empirically grounded insights for designing, planning, and managing strategies that align institutional priorities with the diversity of faculty rationales, thereby leveraging their tensions and complementarities to strengthen the effectiveness and sustainability of research internationalization within the university context.
Source: Education Sciences
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,172
OpenAlex ID: W7155225828