As international graduate students, the authors propose this work-in-progress project to better understand the “historically accumulated, culturally developed, and socially distributed resources” of the academic identity construction of...
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Version 2.0 - published on 21 Feb 2023
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This research was funded by the 2021 CILMAR Seed Grant. The link to the presentation can be found here.
As international graduate students, we propose this work-in-progress project to better understand the “historically accumulated, culturally developed, and socially distributed resources” of the academic identity construction of international students from a graduate program in Engineering Education. Inspired by the call for DEI initiatives, we have the perception that constructing an academic identity challenges our values, feelings, languages, and behaviors originated from and sustained by our characteristic cultural backgrounds. Our perspective stands on the Funds of Identity theoretical framework, considering that a person or group builds their identity through interactions with the social environment, which forms various resources to draw on in different moments of life. To answer the research question of how international students in the engineering education program construct their academic identities, we are conducting a phenomenological study to identify the shared resources and struggles of five students from different nations. We hope that, with the final results of this study, the departments, faculty members, and other graduate students will understand how our particularities and needs as international graduate students affect the successful construction of our academic identities, which also inspires the empowerment of marginalized communities.
If you are interested in applying for the CILMAR Seed Grant, information can be found here: https://purdue.edu/ippu/cilmar/research/seed-grants.html. Applicants should be employed and/or pursuing a course of study at Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus.
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Citation: Wei, S., Vargas-Ordonez, C. E., & Li, T. (2022). “At the Bottom of the Food Chain”: Constructing Academic Identity in Engineering Education as International Graduate Students. Intercultural Learning Hub (HubICL). https://hubicl.org/publications/168/2
YouTube presentation link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4KHaKZPsHs