Self-in-the-world identities: Transformations for the sojourning student

Abstract

This chapter illustrates how UK undergraduate students on a semester study abroad programme in Australia experienced space and location as a driver and an inhibitor to their identity development. As students whose first language and previous experience of higher education and of international travel arguably offered stronger preparedness and familiarity with their new study homes, their lived experience offers a different lens through which to view the international student experience. This chapter makes extensive use of the participant’s voice to show how the serendipitous spaces they each inhabit impacts upon how they experience and identify themselves in the world. The importance of spaces and the people who inhabit them, as shown in the participant narratives, suggests a need for greater attention to framing university spaces which will better facilitate the development of the intercultural self.