Where Are We, When Are We, and Who Are We to Each Other? Connectedness and the Evolving Meanings of International Educat
Focusing on a new branch campus in South Korea of an American university, this paper examines connectedness and social identity for students who are already international by virtue of their secondary education abroad, as they return “home” for higher educ
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Where Are We, When Are We, and Who Are We to Each Other? Connectedness and the Evolving Meanings of International Education Karen E. Rosenblum, David W. Haines, and Hyunyoung Cho
Abstract Focusing on a new branch campus in South Korea of an American university, this paper examines connectedness and social identity for students who are already international by virtue of their secondary education abroad, as they return “home” for higher education. Such already international students are part of a relatively invisible population, excluded from aggregate calculations of “international students.” Drawing on a decade’s work on student diversity at the main US campus, a year at the Korea campus, and a range of written accounts from students in both campuses, this research considers their identity and connectedness from the perspective of a basic set of coordinates: which “where” are we, which “who” are you (or me or us), and how will that matter for our interaction? Keywords Social identities • Stigma • Returnee
The idea of social identities – that is, of identities tied to membership in social groups and categories and at least theoretically separable from personality – now stands as a focus that spans the social sciences and educational research. From its somewhat humble origin in the social science concepts of status (a position in a social structure), role (the acting out of status), and definition of the situation (initially in Berger & Luckmann, 1966; Goffman, 1959, 1967; Mead, 1934; Simmel, 1971; Thomas, 1923), social identity now serves as a way to unpack a broad range of social phenomena, from social movements (e.g., Nicholson, 2008) to ethnic and sectarian conflict (e.g., Peacock, Thornton, & Inman, 2007) and stratification (e.g., Tilly, 2005). While social identity is understood to be complex – simultaneously fluid and stable, singular and multiple, situated and perduring, negotiated, K.E. Rosenblum (*) • D.W. Haines • H. Cho George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017 L.T. Tran, C. Gomes (eds.), International Student Connectedness and Identity, Cultural Studies and Transdisciplinarity in Education 6, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2601-0_10
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manipulated, and imposed – it is arguably the preeminent consideration in contemporary studies of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, and sexuality. Framed most simply, social identities follow from the determination of a basic set of coordinates: which “where” are we, which “who” are you (or me or us), and how will that matter for our interaction? Such coordinates intrinsically affect connectedness – social identities are sites, virtually locations, from which we connect, fail to connect, or refuse to connect with one another: from birth to burial, social identities are the “stuff” of household, neighborhood, church, culture, nation, and globe. Interpersonal connection, intimacy, and the mutual presence of authentic selves often require “fighting through” the multiplicity of ex
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