The Educational Journey of a Ph.D. Student: From Iran to the United States
Location
1048
Format Type
Event
Format Type
Paper
Start Date
January 2018
End Date
January 2018
Abstract
International students possess a wealth of knowledge and experiences they can share with their host institutions. However, to facilitate such exchanges of knowledge, deeper understandings of the challenges they face in their journeys to, and stays at, their schools are needed. With this descriptive case study, I seek to contribute to this body of knowledge by exploring the ways in which a Ph.D. student perceived his experience of journeying from Iran to the U.S. and his struggles to begin his academic and private lives at a large urban university. To analyze the data, which were semi-structured interviews, posts on a social media account, and personal communication, I turned to Spivak’s notion of marginality as a theoretical framework. The findings indicated the participant’s academic journey involved a rapid shift from the center, where he had a prestigious job and a comfortable life, to positions characterized by relatively more marginality as he took up dual roles as a Ph.D. student and ESL methods instructor. Constant comparative analysis of the data further indicated he consistently maintained a positive outlook, even in the face of a series of challenges such as providing a home for family and the need to take a rushed and perilous trip to obtain his visa. In addition, he viewed all his experiences, including the negative ones, as offering positive learning value. He considered that his own beliefs and actions had been, and will continue to be, responsible for the successes in his private and professional lives.
The Educational Journey of a Ph.D. Student: From Iran to the United States
1048
International students possess a wealth of knowledge and experiences they can share with their host institutions. However, to facilitate such exchanges of knowledge, deeper understandings of the challenges they face in their journeys to, and stays at, their schools are needed. With this descriptive case study, I seek to contribute to this body of knowledge by exploring the ways in which a Ph.D. student perceived his experience of journeying from Iran to the U.S. and his struggles to begin his academic and private lives at a large urban university. To analyze the data, which were semi-structured interviews, posts on a social media account, and personal communication, I turned to Spivak’s notion of marginality as a theoretical framework. The findings indicated the participant’s academic journey involved a rapid shift from the center, where he had a prestigious job and a comfortable life, to positions characterized by relatively more marginality as he took up dual roles as a Ph.D. student and ESL methods instructor. Constant comparative analysis of the data further indicated he consistently maintained a positive outlook, even in the face of a series of challenges such as providing a home for family and the need to take a rushed and perilous trip to obtain his visa. In addition, he viewed all his experiences, including the negative ones, as offering positive learning value. He considered that his own beliefs and actions had been, and will continue to be, responsible for the successes in his private and professional lives.
Comments
Breakout Session D