Students’ academic self-formation in local and international higher education: evidence from South Korean students

Thesis

The dominant notions of higher education derived from human capital theory have been accused of disregarding the active agency of students and diminishing the significance of knowledge. Meanwhile, the emerging concept of higher education as student self-formation places emphasis on student agency (Marginson, 2014, 2023a). The process of self-formation within the context of higher education is distinctive by its academic nature, as it highlights deep engagement with knowledge (Ashwin, 2020). While the idea of self-formation has drawn favourable reactions within the discipline, its comprehensive and normative nature has constrained empirical inquiries. To lay the groundwork for self-formation research, the present study aims to develop a theory that can explain what academic self-formation is (RQ1), and how students engage in it (RQ2). While previous researchers have so far almost exclusively focused on international students, the present study expands the self-formation discourse by examining academic self-formation in both local and international higher education (RQ3).

Based on Archer’s (1995) realist social theory, I devised a research design that enables building a conceptually sound and empirically supported theory. On the one hand, the conceptual phase of this study critically reviewed theories/concepts that are relevant to academic self-formation. On the other hand, the study also collected and analysed ethnographic data from thirteen first-year South Korean graduate students, seven being local students in Korean universities and six being international students in the UK. Findings from the conceptual and empirical research reflexively interacted with each other, as a theory emerged.

The findings reveal that the individual students followed unique self-formation journeys. Three themes emerged as key elements in theorising academic self-formation. First, student agency was found to operate in a mediating mechanism, with four manifestations: effort, self-criticism, active conformity, and mobility. Second, academic self-formation was revealed to include the development of disciplinary agency, as seen in students’ repositioning of the self in their perceived self-knowledge-society relationship. Third, the role of mobility in academic self-formation was explained in terms of its link with the multiplicity of the self. The study concludes by integrating these themes into a theory of academic self-formation, and then by summarising the similarities and differences between self-formation in local and international higher education. The theory can contribute to advancing the research programme of self-formation by providing methodological and theoretical tools for future researchers.

Authors: Lee, S

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-x5r97p5bj
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: international student mobility; South Korea; reflexive agency; self-formation; disciplinary knowledge
• Subjects: Education, Higher; International education