The identity (re)construction of international students in the process of academic literacy acquisition

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the growing number of international students in higher education, few studies have examined these students’ struggles or ideological development process as they enter new communities of practice. This study uses longitudinal ethnographic and autoethnographic methods to examine the experiences of three South Korean international graduate students at a U.S. university. Data included recorded conversations, reflective journals, personal journals, and computer-mediated communication collected during participants’ second and third semesters in the graduate program. The data were analyzed to determine how participants construct, negotiate, and develop their ideologies and positions in the process of entering a new academic discourse community, relating and responding to various ideological discourses and power-laden labels imposed on them. Study findings highlight the dynamic nature of international students’ academic literacy acquisition, and the complex process of their ideological becoming.