Transformative Learning through Racial Encounters: International Students’ Critical Reflections in U.S. Higher Education

• In Event: Transnational Student Experiences within Higher Education: Developments and Possibilities

Abstract

Since study abroad is often pursued as a strategy to enhance individuals’ marketability in the global knowledge economy, more critically oriented outcomes that could foster thinking and actions aimed at advancing social justice in an interconnected world are often overlooked. Addressing this gap, this interpretive phenomenological study explored how 19 international students in U.S. higher education experienced transformative learning across cognitive, emotional, and conative dimensions through their encounters with race and racism. The findings revealed that such encounters served as disorienting dilemmas or critical events that facilitated participants’ cognitive understanding of structural injustice, deepened their emotional empathy toward others, and motivated conative shifts, including intentions or actions to translate new perspectives into practice.

Author

• Sarang Kim, University of Oklahoma