Learning experience and academic identity building by master's students in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

This study explores how master's students perceive their learning experiences and build their identities as postgraduate learners. It also investigates how these students’ perceptions affect their aspirations regarding academic careers. By applying the Community of Practice (CoP) framework, this study focuses on three dimensions of master's students’ experience; community, practice and identity. Seventy master's students from one research-intensive university in Hong Kong were interviewed regarding motivations for doing a master's degree and reflections on learning. The interview results showed that master's students build their communities partly around shared academic interests. However, the boundaries of these communities are loose and flexible, due to the nature of master's programmes with their short periods of study and large numbers of part-time students. The study also showed how master's students develop their knowledge and skills through doing research and how they evaluate the prospect of becoming an academic.

KEYWORDS:

• Master’s education
• academic identity
• academic career
• community of practice
• Hong Kong

Acknowledgement

The authors’ sincere thanks go to all of the research participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Early Career Scheme (Grant number: 27601518) (project entitled as ‘106180012 Factors Involved in Master's Degree Pursuit in Hong Kong’), as administered by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong.