Transformative learning and international students negotiating higher education

<span style="font-size: 12px;">This chapter aims to explore the theory of transformative learning as a possible </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">explanation for the changes international students make in their journey to </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">negotiate higher education. The chapter is derived from a doctoral study that </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">involved international Chinese and Vietnamese students' adaptation to Australian </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">higher education academic practices (Tran 2007). Within this chapter, trans</span><span style="font-size: 12px;">formative learning is viewed as a changing process in which international students </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">construct reality through revisiting their existing assumptions and moving towards </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">life-changing developments in their personal and professional perspectives </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">(Cranton 2002; Mezirow 2000). It will be argued in this chapter that international </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">students' process of negotiating higher education is a dynamic interplay between </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">challenges and transformative power. Cross-border intercultural experiences are </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">intimately linked to opportunities for self-transformation, and the challenging </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">experiences that international students go through indeed foster the conditions </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">for professional development and life-enhancing changes to take place. Given the </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">current lack of theoretical and empirical research on the transformative power of </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">international students, there is a critical need for more research on the trans</span><span style="font-size: 12px;">formative characteristics of international students and how best to capitalize on </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">their potential. In this chapter, I draw on excerpts from two rounds of interviews </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">with individual international students to illustrate the specific ways in which </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">international students have the capacity to transform their own learning and </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">develop life-enhancing skills. The discussion shows that they experience evolution </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">in professional outlook, attitudes and personal qualities through the process of </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">critical self-reflection and adaptation to disciplinary demands in higher education. </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">The chapter also highlights the contradictions regarding the discursive practices </span><span style="font-size: 12px;">within the current context of international education export.</span>