Academic Socialization and Scholarly Identity Development in the Intercultural Context: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study of the Experiences of English as an Additional Language (EAL) Asian International Doctoral Students in Hong Kong

Description

Doctoral education has been expanding exponentially on a global scale. Universities around the world have been active in attracting international students from abroad to diversify their doctoral student population. However, despite the increasing scholarly interest in international doctoral students’ experiences, few studies have focused on international doctoral students in non-Anglophone countries. With the increased mobility of linguistically and culturally diverse students within Asia for their pursuit of higher education in recent years, there is a clear need to understand Asian international doctoral students’ educational experiences in the Asian context. The proposed research project will investigate English as an Additional Language (EAL) Asian international doctoral students’ academic socialization and scholarly identity development during the course of their doctoral studies in Hong Kong where English serves as the medium of instruction in higher education. In particular, the study will examine the role of their language experiences and intercultural communication experiences in mediating their academic socialization and scholarly identity development in the intercultural context. By employing a qualitative approach, the proposed study seeks to understand how EAL Asian international doctoral students perceive their academic socialization during their doctoral studies in Hong Kong; how they negotiate their scholarly identities in relation to their participation in different formal and informal activities (e.g., supervision meetings, interactions with faculty members and fellow doctoral students, academic conferences, research seminars, research fieldwork, coursework, academic writing/speaking courses, dissertation writing, and research publications); how they exercise their agency in navigating their doctoral studies; how their academic writing and speaking experiences in English as a lingua franca shape their academic socialization experiences; how their intercultural communication experiences (e.g., intercultural supervisory relationships) mediate their negotiation of scholarly identities; and how their academic socialization and scholarly identity development evolve over time. A conceptual framework, which draws on theoretical constructs from multiple academic disciplines including graduate student socialization (education studies), language socialization (applied linguistics), intercultural communication, intercultural adaptation (communication studies), identity and agency (sociology), will be used to inform the study. It is underpinned by an overarching sociocultural perspective which views doctoral students’ learning as embedded in particular social, cultural, linguistic and historical contexts and conceptualizes their scholarly identities as being an integral part of their academic socialization. With a longitudinal qualitative research design, the project will involve data collection to be conducted over a three-year period at three universities in Hong Kong (i.e., one first-tier comprehensive university, a second-tier comprehensive university, and a third-tier university). 60 EAL Asian international doctoral students will participate in the study (20 students from each university). Multiple rounds of in-depth individual interviews (combined with the use of photo-elicitation and time-lining) will be conducted to elicit rich accounts of their academic socialization experiences and scholarly identity development over different stages of their doctoral studies. The findings of the proposed project will have significant empirical, theoretical and practical implications. Specifically, the study will make an original empirical contribution to our understanding of EAL Asian doctoral international students’ academic socialization experiences in the Asian context. With respect to its theoretical contributions, the study will develop a conceptual framework for investigating the nuances and complexities of EAL Asian doctoral international students’ academic socialization and scholarly identity development in the intercultural context from a multidisciplinary perspective. In practical terms, the proposed study will offer informed suggestions regarding how international universities can offer structured support systems to EAL international doctoral students in terms of their academic socialization, academic writing and speaking development, intercultural competence development, and scholarly identity development. It is hoped that the findings of the study will not only empower and give voice to EAL Asian doctoral international students in non- Anglophone contexts, but also raise awareness of the importance of creating an equitable, socially just, and inclusive environment for an expanding population of linguistically and culturally diverse international doctoral students in the Chinese context and beyond.