International Graduate Students: Agency, Intentionality, and Socialization Reciprocity

Using grounded theory methodology, this study explored the development and implementation of a Cultures and Languages across the Curriculum initiative in a residential college at Michigan State University. With a focus on international graduate students, our investigation led us to knowledge-building communities and to patterns of behavior that we have conceptualized as socialization reciprocity. We note two key characteristics of the knowledge-building communities created within the Cultures and Languages across the Curriculum program are agency and intentionality, and these can only be realized by starting from the premise that the contributions of all participants are essential to the community. We argue this is in contrast to the not uncommon assumption that the cultural, linguistic, and pedagogical knowledge of international graduate students is somehow deficient.