This qualitative study examines how notions of sociopolitical membership and belonging are constructed in conversations about cultural difference. Drawing upon nine months of participant observation, informal conversation, and interviews with transnational youth at two U.S. high schools during the 2013-2014 academic year, my analysis highlights…

Why do some study abroad students improve their intercultural skills, while others revert to less sophisticated ways of making sense of cultural difference? Both intercultural competence theory and transformative learning theory attempt to explain why student intercultural learning occurs, but they only provide partial answers. Building on our…

After Japan's annexation in 1879, Okinawa came under the unprecedented influence of Japanization. This research examined how learning in Hawai'i influenced the Okinawan sense of identity of 11 Okinawan students. Grounded theory analysis of interview transcripts indicated that students became more conscious as Okinawan through encounters and…

This paper outlines an ongoing qualitative review of themes that have emerged across the various session of the "Paint Your Life" program which was developed over the last 15 years. The author discusses the potential for "Paint Your Life" to disrupt hegemonic discourse about art, artists, and community development. Based on the…

US third culture kids (TCKs), or those who spend a significant amount of their developmental years in other countries, often repatriate for college. However, the TCK population is typically invisible on US campuses, and understanding of their journeys is lacking. Using as lenses Erikson's stages of development (1963, 1968, 1997) and the…

The present qualitative study sought to explore the relationship between English language learning and identity reconstruction from the viewpoints of Iranian language learners. The data were collected by means of focus-group interviews with forty-five male intermediate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). To define the concept of…

Purpose: This paper aims to theorize observations as an American professor that schools are a morally formative culture for all students, but international students especially. Formative because schools mold students' right or wrong behaviors as dictated by the culture. The purpose of the authors' examination into international students'…

This research examines the understandings and experiences of mono-cultural, mono-lingual local students in relation to intercultural interactions within small group learning activities at university. Bourdieu's concepts of field, habitus and capital are employed to illuminate a number of barriers to intercultural interaction. Using qualitative…

We examine school choices made by western expatriate parents in post-colonial Hong Kong in order to understand the essence of imagined global citizenship and its implications for existing ethnic and class inequalities in the education system. Responding to changes in the global job market, a small but increasingly visible group of parents are…

The authors in this qualitative study examined international students' cultural and social experiences using data collected through case studies and semi-structured, in-depth, informant style interviews. Participants were all international students (n = 18), mostly postgraduate from Asian and Far Eastern countries studying at a British higher…

Findings from this qualitative research study suggest that some international students view social and academic interactions not simply as mediums for absorbing requisite sociocultural and academic norms, and discipline knowledge, but also as stages for expressing their varied identities. As a result, whenever students' ability to present their…

In this qualitative study, we examine the impact of family migration on intergenerational learning, especially in relation to the transmission of cultural values and practices. Drawing on data collected through in-depth case studies with migrant Polish children and their parents, we explore the influence of intergenerationality on children's…

This article examines the role of international service-learning (ISL) in facilitating undergraduates' exploration of their conceptions of self (i.e., self-exploration). Conception of self refers to the use of values to define one's role in a social/cultural group or organization and in society, and to determine current actions and future…

Social work educators are responsible for ensuring that future practitioners are culturally competent and have the ability to work effectively with people from different backgrounds. The purpose of this article is to address the current limitations in measuring cultural competence and to report the results of a qualitative study examining…

This study elucidates the experiences of HBCU (historically Black colleges and universities) students who are racially Black, but differ in nativity and nationality from their Black American peers. The purpose is to examine Black HBCU international students' sense of belonging on campus. This study engages qualitative individual interviews with…