Crossing Borders: A Narrative Inquiry into the Experiences of International Graduate Students

• Author / Creator

  Oyelana, Olabisi

•                                                                                               Abstract
  

  In response to the global needs for nursing faculty, and nurses at leadership and advanced clinical practice roles, aspiring students from different countries come to Canada for their graduate nursing education because of the positive reputation and the numerous perceived advantages of the education system. However, many international students come from different social, historical, political, cultural, and educational backgrounds that deeply influence their learning experiences in Canada. Working from a space of the inquirer’s personal experience, the aim of this inquiry was to understand the experiences of international graduate nursing students across time, place, and social contexts. The focus was to unravel the following puzzles: What stories across social, historical, political, cultural, and educational borders shaped our identities? How did our experience in Canada shift our lived stories? Four participants were invited from a Master of Nursing program at a university in Western Canada. Attending to relational ethics, I lived relationally in series of conversations alongside participants on a virtual platform for over a year. Conversations were recorded and transcribed verbatim. My narrative beginnings, participants’ conversations, artifacts shared, and my detailed field notes formed the basis for our narrative accounts. Multiplicity of borders and identity making, border making, border crossing, and border dwelling were the four sustaining threads that resonated across our accounts. These four threads provided insights into our lived experience and our shifting identities across borders. Our stories offered insights into the tensions and the day-to-day challenges that international students face during their learning in Canada. Being aware and acknowledging these experiences could be a step towards addressing the issues of inequity and exclusion in higher education institutions.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Crossing Borders
  • Narrative Inquiry
  • International Graduate Students' Experience
  • Internationalization of Canadian Education
  • Diversity
  • Minority Students

• Graduation date

  Fall 2022

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-6v6g-5b68

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Library with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.