Graduate students identities in the intercultural practices on a U.S. campus: A Q inquiry

Abstract

In this study with Q methodology, the researcher unites two strands of recent significant intercultural inquiry in higher education institution: students’ experiences in the communities of intercultural practice on campus and student's identity constructed in the community of intercultural practice on campus. The study explores how international and American graduate students position themselves in their intercultural practices on campus. The researcher argues that international and American graduate students perceive their relations with “unstable othering” which has great impact on their discourse and affinity identities constructed in the intercultural practices on campus. The current study suggests using “small culture” approach to uncover the nuances of student’s identity negotiation on a site of students’ unstable othering within an institutional ethnocentric discourse of stabilized othering.