Abstract:
This study examines the university experience of First in Family (FiF) I-Kiribati scholarship students who left their home country (Kiribati), and crossed international borders to undertake undergraduate study in six different countries (e.g., China, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Morocco, Hawaii, and Australia). This study has four Research Questions (RQs). One of the RQs focuses on collecting data that show why the Kiribati government sends I-Kiribati students to undertake higher education overseas. Other RQs examine the motivational factors that drove FiF I-Kiribati students to apply for a scholarship and pursue study overseas; supports they received while they are away in the host countries; and the challenges they encountered during their undergraduate student journey.
The study uses three different methodological approaches to gather data. These are document analysis, autoethnography and te marooro (Kiribati dialogic cultural practice). Since no concept could combine the three different methodologies, I chose to use the making of te itera as a metaphor to make sense of the methods. Te itera is a headdress that has three parts (yellow, red, and green). Metaphorically, yellow represents document analysis while red represents autoethnography. Green is equated to te marooro because this one takes a lot of work compared to other selected methodologies. However, when these parts are crafted together, they make one fundamental new knowledge of the word ‘te itera’.
