“Is it because I’m international?”

Unpacking experiences of “international instructors” via critical communication pedagogy as aligned with cultural wealth

Bibliographic Data

ID21539734
AuthorsYea‐wen Chen (0000-0001-7771-9871, San Diego State University, corresponding author), M Wiant Cummins (0000-0002-9189-0023, The University of Texas at Arlington), Christina E Saindon (Communication, Theatre, and Media Arts, Queensborough Community College-CUNY, Bayside, U.S.A.), Dacheng Zhang (0000-0001-6410-4544, Arizona State University)
Year2022
Volume71
Issue2
Pages125-144
Publication date2022-04-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCommunication Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0363-4523 • E-ISSN: 1479-5795
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/03634523.2021.2021587
OpenAlexW4220664013
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited39

Given the relatively invisible yet growing presence of international academics on U.S. campuses, this study investigates the lived negotiations of “international instructors” across disciplines via critical communication pedagogy (CCP) as aligned with a pedagogy of cultural wealth. We place “international instructors” within quotation marks to challenge a territorial linear logic of the world, and also to facilitate a new space for rethinking academic labors and capitals. Aligned with a pedagogy of cultural wealth, CCP with key commitments to identity, power, culture, and language in the context of pedagogy is an appropriate lens to examine the lived experiences of “international instructors” as outsiders within U.S. academia. We analyzed interviews with 10 self-identified “international instructors” during the 2017-2018 academic year. Our analysis, guided by salient clusters of CCP commitments aligned with unpacking otherness as cultural wealth, identifies three overlapping themes: (a) salient status and wealth of “international instructors” as cocultural members; (b) mundane and repeated communication behaviors reflecting/resisting Eurocentric structures; and (c) distinctive cultural capitals and “international instructors.” Working together as an interracial and multinational team, we conclude by discussing pedagogical and practical implications for theorizing otherness as cultural wealth and renewing commitments to internationalization at home in solidarity with “international instructors.”

Critical pedagogy · Higher education · Intercultural communication · Intercultural learning · International education · Internationalization · Negotiation · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Solidarity · Communication in Education and Healthcare · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Higher Education Practises and Engagement · Law