Narratives of acculturation, enculturation and academic literacies of Peruvian university students that migrated to Lima

• In Event: Education, Identity, and Peace in Marginalized and Conflict-Affected Contexts

Proposal

In Peru, one of the principal tendencies of internal migration is the relocation to Lima by young adults between the age of 15 to 29 years old that have completed their high school studies(INEI/CEPAL, 2022). It is deduced that many do so to continue their higher education studies in high quality institutions, as most licensed and renowned universities of the country are in the capital (SUNEDU, 2021). The search for more academic opportunities show the disparity in the access to education of high quality in Peru, as well as the unequal distribution of resources to the population(Ramírez & Rengifo, 2019).
The students that migrate have to face the challenges of starting their higher education studies and moving to another region. In this period, these young adults will develop an identity from their interaction with new social groups and the start of their path as scholars(Berry, 2019; Weinrich, 2009). Tensions and conflicts will arise as students are expected to both adapt to the demands of academia and bring change to the community of scholars to continue with the process of democratization of higher education(Prior & Bilbro, 2012).

This investigation is oriented to answer the following question: How do Peruvian students that migrate to Lima perceive the friction between these opposite demands from academia in Lima? To answer this question, this study focused on the development of the academic literacy practices of students, which is present in the processes of learning and teaching in university (Navarro, 2021). Literacy is a product of time, space and power relations that influence a specific context (Street, 2003), therefore, it reflects the dynamics and norms present in the academic community. Because students should be able to identify and form themselves as subjects that are actively participating in the processes involving knowledge in academia (Li, 2022), they will have to understand and use the linguistic codes used in that environment. Most studies in Latin America about literacy highlight the relation between the construction of identity and the academic literacy practices (Atorresi & Eisner, 2021; Ávila Reyes, Navarro, Tapia-Ladino 2020; Zavala, 2011; Vargas, 2015).
This research explores practices of the academic literacies of five Peruvian students, 3 men and 2 women, that migrated to Lima to attend a specific private university. Each student came from one of the following regions: Arequipa, Piura, Tumbes and San Martin. A qualitative investigation was carried out to gather the perspectives of students over their migration to Lima, transition to private university and literacy practices. The information was collected with a semi structured interview and a socio-demographic profile, then it was coded to construct a description of events, people and places from the perspective of the participants. This research worked with the students' narratives to have a more complex insight of the identity processes, because it allowed to gather details and show the meaning the subjects give to their own experiences (Creswell, 2007). This focus allows us to comprehend experiences as a continuous process (Noblega et al., 2020) and to understand chronologically an event in retrospective (Barker & Pistrang, 2021). This focus also helps to highlight students experiences and perspectives as well as their adaptation strategies and manifestations of agency, instead of only valuing their academic performance (Ávila Reyes 2021; Ávila Reyes, Navarro y Tapia-Ladino, 2020; Navarro, 2021; Zavala, 2011; Zavala y Cordova, 2010). The cultural psychology and literacy studies framework of this research was designed to analyze the experiences of migration, transition to university and literacy practices from the students interviewed.
The research found that participants are satisfied with their processes of acculturation, academic enculturation and their development of academic literacy practices. They identify that there are verbal and written expressions that are part of the interactions within the community of higher education. They noticed that these forms of communication are present both in and out of the classroom, as they are present used in informal conversations by their peers. Even though they have described some of these expressions as artificial, the participants perceive their use as a positive trait.

The students in this investigation have formed a new linguistic register that they identify as academic. This development of their academic literacy practices is valued positively because they view that it has allowed them to accomplish the academic performance they want. They mention that they would have preferred to adopt more quickly ‘academic expressions’ to get higher grades in their first semesters. For these students, their academic performance is one of the key categories they use to value their overall experience.
One important finding is that they use this new language register in communicative situations that don't demand it, for example, a conversation with their family members. This new scholar identity is used consciously and unconsciously, depending on the situation. In the latter case, some participants questioned this change, but did not reject it. This investigation concluded that the students value their new language register to the point that they use it in contexts outside of academia. This reflects a hierarchy that positions expressions associated with academia, a western institution, as superior from others. The preference for the academic identity in different social contexts supposes an identity loss that is manifested in the growing distance between the participants and their peers from back home.

Author

• Maria Gabriela Flores, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú