Making Sense of International Students' Experiences when Transitioning to Undergraduate Mathematics: An Exploration of Mathematical Identities

Abstract

International students form a distinct cohort in first-year mathematics courses at many universities across the world. For these students, the transition to university mathematics may demand a significantly higher level of adaptation than would typically be required of students transitioning to university in their home countries. A research-based understanding of their experiences would illuminate challenges and enable host universities to provide effective support for international students as they transition from school mathematics into a university context. This study aims to better understand international student experiences of the transition by focusing on their mathematical identity constructions. Using a critical realist approach to identity, the study illuminates tensions that can arise when cultural understandings of being a mathematics learner interact with the institutional structures of first-year mathematics in a foreign country. The study was undertaken in two phases. In the first phase, seven international students, who were at an advanced stage of their university studies in New Zealand, were interviewed about their learning experiences during first-year mathematics. The second phase involved three different international students who were enrolled in their first year of university mathematics. These three were observed as they participated in the collaborative tutorials that formed part of their first-year mathematics course. For this phase, richness and depth were attained by using data from repeated interviews, observations, and mathematical working. Findings of the study show how the mathematical identities afforded international students by university structures might be threatened when cultural differences restrict access to learning resources. They further show how cultural resources provided by home country experiences can resource resilient mathematical identities that accommodate these tensions. The findings also offer evidence that mathematical identities constructed by international students can shift towards local norms, which can help to resolve tensions in collaborative contexts. I argue that these findings have implications for both teachers of international students and mathematics departments at host universities. I contend that teachers should be mindful that cultural backgrounds may restrict access to some learning resources, and I suggest resources that may be helpful to international students in their classes. I further call on mathematics departments to recognise the difficulties encountered by some international students and to implement structures that might address these.