Narratives of self: identity formation among marginalized groups studying abroad

Abstract

This article calls attention to the complex ways in which study abroad participants make meaning and narrate their experiences abroad. I ask, how do participants understand their study abroad experiences in relation to informing and giving meaning to their conceptions of self? To answer this question, this article uses a qualitative case study approach to explore the voices and experiences of low-income, first-generation, ethnoracially minoritized study abroad participants. Participant counternarratives challenge dominant depictions of study abroad on the basis of white normativity. Findings reveal study abroad as engendering a process of rethinking membership, identity, and belonging for ethnoracially minoritized students with intersecting identities. The findings also point to the complexities that participants face as they grapple with the boundaries and feelings of exclusion that their own countries of origin construct to keep them or other marginalized groups from membership.