외국인 유학생의 학문공동체 참여에 관한 내러티브 연구

초록

This article explores international students' participation in academic communities through narrative inquiry. Drawing on the notion of community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991), this study examined how four Asian students enrolled in graduate programs at a Korean university negotiate the sense of membership by participating in different (academic) communities. Data were collected over eight months mainly through in-depth interviews, research journals, classroom observations and students' materials. Narratives collected and analysed in this study illustrated that international students struggled with full participation as a legitimate member into mainstream communities not only due to unequal power relations between Korean native speakers and themselves, but also because of their personal and sociocultural background such as mother tongue, ethnicity, gender and economic status. Even though they were mostly situated at the periphery of community, they also attempted to negotiate and reconstruct their positions and meaningful membership by using their own strategies and learning styles, such as non-participation and silence in classroom. The voice of students enables them to empower and be re-situated as legitimate members within academic communities. It also demands Korean universities to change into linguistically and culturally hybrid academic environments. Implications for institutional and social changes of academic communities, and future research are discussed also discussed in the article.

키워드