Based on two representative cases drawn from a larger multi-sited ethnographic project, this study examines the process of identity construction among Chinese international students in the U.S.A., focusing on how the students (re)negotiate their subject positions vis-à-vis their home and host societies. Building on a conceptualization of the…

Educators can help adult learners experience identity transformation and initiate lifelong learning by designing curriculum centered upon transformative learning objectives (TLOs) and experiential learning competencies (ELCs). TLOs point learners to the specific ways of thinking, feeling, and being in the world to which a course or other learning…

In this qualitative study, 26 university students reflected on their experiences in domestic or international study away programs. Utilizing a sociocultural developmental framework, we examined perceived changes in identity in relation to salient aspects of the sociocultural context and social interactions during and after study away. Students…

This study builds on education abroad, global citizenship, and short-term travel programs literature by examining students' experiences traveling on short-term programs overseas in the Global Majority. The term Global Majority, in this study, is defined as regions worldwide that have historically seen low student participation rates for academic…

This paper reports on a study that investigated Australian pre-service teachers' (PSTs) experiences in mobility programs undertaken in Santiago, Chile. Through the methodological lens of sense-making, our analysis aims to further current understandings of international teaching practicums and to examine how discursively (re)produced binary…

Although the complexity of identity transformation among Chinese-speaking international students (CSIS) has been emphasized in previous research, there is a perceived linear and causal pattern between studying abroad and being intercultural. This pattern of thinking results in the risk of treating all the CSIS as the same in each cohort of…

A key challenge for international students in the United States is a readiness to study and live in a culture that is vastly different from their own. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of the lived experiences of Brazilian students studying in the United States six months after returning home. Thirty-three Brazilian students…

This paper discusses the dynamic and complex dimensions of 'becoming' a cosmopolitan teacher educator through an overseas study tour. It employs autobiography as a research method to interpret the experiences of an overseas study tour, and how it has engaged the teacher educators in self-reflexivity of their negotiation of multiple identities:…

The present study seeks to offer insights into how former study abroad students, temporally beyond the period of initial re-entry into their home environments, perceive Spanish as a foreign language in their lives now. This post-sojourn period is explored within the framework of the L2 Motivational Self System (Dörnyei, 2009) and the expanded…

This project investigated the learning process and outcomes of a study abroad course in England and France that focused on dramatic social shifts in the world war eras. Well-established adult learning theories provided the course framework, and this study examines the characteristics and elements contributing to transformative learning. Eleven…

Since the early 21st century the number of doctoral students leaving their own country to study abroad has risen significantly adding to swelling numbers of domestic students. The process of doctoral studies has been acknowledged as identity transformation, a process of "becoming" for domestic students and international students. What…

This paper focuses on an Australian university short-term study abroad programme in India part-funded by the Australian Government New Colombo Plan -- an initiative that facilitates transformative people-to-people encounters. Our chief interest is extending our reach, through photo diaries and interviews, to understand how participants'…

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…

Opportunities for working, volunteering, and studying abroad have become popular in higher education as vehicles for the development of cultural awareness and global citizenship. However, such experiences on their own do not guarantee the development of such attributes. What appears to be essential to maximizing the benefits of educational…

This article illustrates the author's transnational learning experiences in a China-Australia 2 + 2 articulation programme. Transnational articulation programme is being actively adopted by many Chinese universities to enhance the diversity of educational structures as a response to the growing trend of internationalisation of higher education.…