ERIC Number: EJ1463636
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0142-5692
EISSN: EISSN-1465-3346
Available Date: 0000-00-00
African International Students, Work Integrated Learning and (Im)Possible Selves in Chinese Higher Education
British Journal of Sociology of Education, v46 n2 p237-254 2025
This article explores a small number of African international students' narratives on their identity work through work-integrated learning (WIL) in Chinese higher education. Applying a sociological use of the 'possible selves' concept to interview data, the findings show that individual participants accumulate a pool of like-to-be, aspire-to-be and like-to-avoid selves through navigating their WIL programs, which are reflective of the sociocultural, where the physical spaces young people inhabit (e.g. nation-states, family, schooling and employment) contribute to what selves are (im)possible for them, which are probable, which are ideal and which are feared. This study moves beyond the overwhelming dominance of the pragmatic and utilitarian aspects of WIL as merely enhancing student employability and competitiveness in current research, as I articulate the value of WIL in critical awareness raising and sense of (professional) self-making, which is an important, yet often hidden, outcome of WIL.
Descriptors: Foreign Students, Work Based Learning, Foreign Countries, Self Concept, Identification, Consciousness Raising, Student Experience, Career and Technical Education, Colleges, Undergraduate Students, Graduate Students
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Africa; China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1School of Humanities, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China