Lily Lei Ye

Chinese overseas doctoral student narratives of intercultural adaptation

This study aims to explore how Chinese overseas doctoral students adjust to a different academic, social and cultural environment, using Giddens’ theoretical framework of self-identity. The findings indicate the participants proactively used various coping strategies in meeting challenges and adapting to new social environments. Continuity and stability of self-identity were achieved either culturally or academically through self-reflexivity, autonomy, creativity, authenticity and reliance on an ontological identity. The results challenge the grand narrative of essentialised ‘problematic Chinese learners’.

A narrative inquiry into the identity formation of Chinese doctoral students in relation to study abroad

Abstract The present study explores a topic which has been under-studied to date, namely the identity formation of Chinese PhD students in relation to study abroad. Underpinned by Giddens’ ‘reflexive project of the self’, which privileges agency and reflexivity, and using a narrative inquiry approach, it presents four students ‘stories’ collected through semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. In building a picture of the ways in which students’ self-identity is shaped by and shapes their experience of study abroad, the stories illustrate individual agency, motivation, self-determination and reflexivity. In doing so, they challenge the essentialised view of Chinese students as a homogeneous and sometimes problematic group and point to implications for action by the host institutions.

Surviving and Thriving in the New Field: Keeping the Narrative Going

This chapter presents the key findings which describe individuals’ struggles, challenges and coping strategies as they negotiate the meanings of the new field they have entered. It explores how Chinese doctoral students use various strategies to safeguard their sense of ontological security and maintain a coherent sense of self during study in the UK. Many previous studies focus on Chinese students’ unfamiliarity with cultural norms and difficulties with social interaction. The stories of students mentioned in this book, however, provide us with an alternative perspective. The findings demonstrate that the participants not only choose to create their desired life narrative, but are able to maintain this narrative during the course of study abroad, which demonstrates that Chinese doctoral students are by no means homogenous.

Bringing the Future into the Present: Thinking Through Imagined Future Trajectories

This chapter presents students’ aspirations, dreams, expectations and hopes. It interrogates how participants envision their future narratives and trajectories. I follow the same approach when I present other aspects of students’ narratives. The focus of this chapter is to discuss students’ future outlook and career orientation, which forms the substantial content of the reflexively organised trajectory of the self. The narratives of these participants are defined by choice, agency, reflexivity, uncertainty and dilemma. Individually, each story represents a unique life trajectory; collectively, they challenge the dominant discourse of Chinese international students. Students’ verbal accounts illustrate how they construct reflexively an internally referential future trajectory to support their understanding of “whom” they perceive themselves to be in the present.

The Story of Researching Chinese International Doctoral Students’ Identity

This chapter introduces the participants and reflects upon the research methodology. The fieldwork was conducted in the UK and involved 11 Chinese international doctoral students. The main purpose of the fieldwork is to investigate relevant research themes to study, from the students’ perspective, under the broad research agenda of exploring the identity formation of Chinese doctoral students studying abroad. The methodology of the study is broadly constructionist and interpretive. A narrative methodology was used to analyse and present qualitative primary data gathered from narratives through focus groups and semi-structured interviews on the participants’ perceptions, experiences and themselves in relation to culture, language and identity. Both narrative and thematic analyses were adopted to interpret the raw data.

Growing and Becoming: The Expanded Self

This chapter focuses on the impact of studying abroad on participants’ self-identity. The discussion will highlight how the participants interpreted their intercultural experiences in the UK and which issues they identified as significant to their self-definition. Bourdieuian concepts of habitus, capital and field will complement Giddens’ reflexive project of the self in interpreting the findings. Students’ narratives illustrate the various ways in which they negotiate the new intercultural field and forge their life trajectories. Significantly, these narratives move us away from the focus on student adaption to an exploration of agency and identity. The analysis suggests that the participants have actively dealt with the challenges of study abroad, accumulated various forms of capital and achieved personal growth and development.

Learning from the Narratives

This chapter draws the book to a close by providing a summary of the research agenda and the findings in relation to the research questions set out in the introductory chapter. It also highlights contributions to the body of knowledge, and addresses both practical and theoretical implications of the study. In addition, it considers additional matters such as the limitations of the research and potential areas for future inquiry. I finally suggest that university policies and practices need to take into account international doctoral students’ agency, and encourage and facilitate research students to take ownership of their own learning and personal growth.

Setting the Scene for the Narratives to Follow

This book explores a topic which has received very little attention to date, namely the identity formation and negotiation of Chinese doctoral students in relation to study abroad. This book moves away from the focus on student adaption to an exploration of agency and identity, challenging the culturalist and essentialised view of Chinese students as a homogeneous and sometimes problematic group. I first look at what is meant by globalisation and internationalisation of higher education. I then examine the phenomenon of studying abroad, followed by a review of literature on international doctoral students. I point out the importance of researching on Chinese doctoral students. I also outline the specific research questions that guide the study, and then explain the significance of the book project.

Exploring the Self Through Giddens and Bourdieu

In this chapter, the notion of identity is discussed, in particular, the modern development of this concept. I then examine the theoretical framework underpinning the book project. This study is mainly underpinned by Giddens’ (Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age, Polity, Cambridge, 1991) concept of “the reflexive project of the self” in which identity is seen as unfixed, fragmented, socially constructed and reflexive. Consistent with my aim to avoid “othering”, this approach challenges the notions of culture and identity as categorised, essentialised, imposed and united, and departs in important respects from other studies of the intercultural adaptation of Chinese students. Apart from Giddens’ self-identity theory, I mobilise Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of capital, field and habitus to understand students’ social positions and address the issue of structural constraints on individual’s agency and reflexivity.

A Dialogue with the Past: Thinking Through Lifestyle Choices

In this chapter, I report the key findings concerning Chinese international doctoral students’ choice, motivations and decision making in relation to study abroad. This chapter explores how Chinese doctoral students’ decision to study abroad shapes their self-identity. After the introduction section, I present students’ stories to illustrate how they construct and maintain a robust “choice biography” of self-actualisation. Students’ stories demonstrate that their decision to study in the UK is shaped by different motivations. I conclude that participants’ narratives suggest that they are autonomous, self-determined agents whose decisions to study abroad are lifestyle choices, guided by their different goals of self-actualisation and personal development. The students’ active management of their life trajectories disrupts common understandings of Chinese students as a homogeneous group of “passive” learners.