Digital Resources in “Boundary Crossing”: A Study of Intercultural Learning in Higher Education
Mengjie Jiang, Palitha Edirisingha, University of Leicester, United Kingdom
Abstract
This study analyses international students “boundary-crossing” activities and appropriation of digital tools and resources during intercultural learning experience. Students who participated in the research are considered sojourners – temporarily living in the UK academic and cultural environment. The paper employs two theoretical approaches – the appropriation of cultural resources drawing on Pachler et al. (2010), and the model of boundary crossing (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011), which provides an alternative route to understand appropriation of digital tools to fulfil a bridge function.
Such theoretical approaches allow an interpretation that boundaries carry learning potential through the spectrum of transformative learning where students are seen as active agents shaping their learning trajectories. This paper contributes to the debates around the deficit view of internationalisation, portraying international students as “victims” or “problems” which creates a dichotomy between the learning strategies of Asian and Western students. This study highlights that international students’ intercultural leaning experience involves ongoing engagement with social networks and artefacts. There is also an aspect of the expansion of the international students’ capacity at a personal level and their strategic agency to appropriate digital tools to cross different sociocultural contexts such as bridging political, cultural and language differences.
Abstract in Chinese
本文探索跨文化学习中对数字工具和资源的跨界活动和分配挪用。参加研究的学生暂时居住在英国的学术和文化环境中, 可以被视为旅居者。本文借鉴了两个理论方法: 一是借鉴了Pachler, Bachmair, 和Cook提出文化资源分配和挪用, 以及Akkerman和Bakker提供的跨界模型。这两个理论为理解分配挪用数字工具来实现桥梁功能提供了一个新的途径。
采用这样的理论方法, 学生被视为塑造他们学习轨迹的积极推动者, 而边界可以通过变革性学习来提供学习潜力。此理论对围绕国际化的赤字观点的辩论 (将国际学生描绘为’ ‘受害者’ 或 ‘问题’, 从而将亚洲和西方学生的学习策略二分法作出了贡献。该研究强调，国际学生的跨文化学习经历涉及与社交网络和人工制品的持续互动，个人的能力和动力感得到扩展，进而适当挪用数字工具来跨越不同的社会文化环境（例如弥合政治，文化和语言差异）。
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