Searching for 'a third space’: a creative pathway towards international PhD students’ academic acculturation

Undertaking a PhD is a challenging endeavour. Pursuing a doctoral education in a ‘foreign’ context tends to increase the demands of this intellectual venture. The nature of research-based PhD programmes, often characterised by a lack of formal curricula where academic supervision lasts several years, may add another layer of complexity. Drawing upon an extended version of Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological theory of human development, this paper attempts to offer a greater understanding of both academic and non-academic concerns confronting international PhD students with a view to highlighting their implications for institutional policy and practice. Underpinned by a visual metaphor approach, our research findings advocate embedding the use of ‘a third space’ as a creative pathway and strategy for maximising students’ chances of achieving a successful PhD academic acculturation journey

Beyond the amusement, puzzlement and challenges: an enquiry into international students’ academic acculturation

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.This paper investigates the phenomenological experiences of academic acculturation of selected non-British post-doctoral academics with a retrospective focus on their experiences as PhD students. The participants came from different disciplines and countries of origin to pursue several years of postgraduate research in different British higher education institutions. The typical, yet distinct, experiences of an exceptional group of early career academics offer invaluable insight into the joys, excitement, puzzlement and challenges that international students often encounter as they embark on studying and living in a foreign country such as the UK. Using Urie Bronfenbrenner's bio-ecological theory of human development, our paper presents a theoretical perspective that can help elucidate and offer a greater understanding of what appear to be complex incidences in international students’ experiences. These incidences can, arguably, be crucial to the success or failure of students’ sojourns.The research was made possible through the award obtained from the University of Glasgow’s Adam Smith Research Foundation Seedcorn Fund

Assessment at Transition: Executive Summary

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Assessment at Transition: Report

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Tools for inquiry: the role of thinking skills approaches in developing pedagogy as theory

No abstract available