A Configuration of Dispositions: Transnational Multilingual Students Seeking Online Information

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Eight
  In Roundtable Session: Computer and Internet Applications in Education SIG: Various Topics (Table 6)

Abstract

This study examined the online information literacy practices of Chinese international students in the United States. Findings suggest that students actively engaged in the recursive, dynamic, and flexible online information-seeking literacy practices that transcended digital and cultural boundaries due to their multilingual capacity and unique social positioning in the online information landscape. This analysis highlights that transnationalism affects students’ habitual configuration of dispositions in information seeking in different ways rather than one fixed transnational habitus. The study also reveals students' challenges in assessing information credibility based on the U.S. online ecosystem. This study will inform engaging, transnationally inclusive, and culturally relevant information literacy curriculum and instruction in U.S. higher education institutions that consider and honor international students’ experience.

Author

• Huan Gao, University of Memphis
  Presenting Author