“I Had so Many Conflicts in My Mind”: Navigating the Doctoral Journey across Languages and Cultures

ABSTRACT

Situated on the broad landscape of international education and informed by theories of language, culture, and identity trajectory, this longitudinal narrative study unravels an Asian international doctoral student’s story of living and learning in the United States. Using narrative as the research method and form of representation, the paper unfolds her early struggles, agency, and professional growth in her doctoral journey of examining and reexamining language and culture in her life and research. It illustrates how this former EFL teacher constantly negotiates her inner conflicts concerning language and culture and gradually considers herself a legitimate English speaker and an emerging scholar in international education. The discussion highlights the importance of personal agency and collective identity in an international doctoral student’s professional identity construction. It also emphasizes the significance of embracing cultural and linguistic diversity in international education.

KEYWORDS:

• Agency
• Asian international student
• doctoral experience
• identity trajectory
• international education

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the editors and the two anonymous reviewers whose substantial comments helped improve and clarify this paper. I would like to extend my thanks to my research participant Stacy for sharing her story with me. My thanks also go to Dr. James McDougall for thoroughly reading my paper and providing helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).