International student mobility has garnered significant attention in higher education research. Despite this attention, a fundamental question persists in the field: What does it mean to be an 'international student', as perceived by the students themselves? This article presents the findings of a phenomenological qualitative study to delve into…

We examined the critical task of emerging adulthood--identity development--via analyses of trajectories of identity exploration and commitment over the college years, as well as whether narrative processing of important events during this period served as a mechanism of identity exploration and commitment. We took advantage of a unique and…

Based on self-reflective narratives, our study focuses on the lived experience of four Greek primary school teachers who are acknowledged for their personal commitment to environmental education. Their experience was narratively explored through recurrent conversations with them to bring out aspects of their identity and practice. The study was…

Academic failure is commonplace in higher education. Some students persist and go on to complete their courses. However, some do not, and this can create problems for themselves and the institutions in which they are enrolled. If we could understand students' lived experiences of academic failure and persistence, it may be possible to design…

Distinguishing between the us and them of the military and civilian is a clearly delineated binary. Yet, if the line demarking military from civilian is obvious, it is far from finite. Within this demarcation or border lies the veteran. One who has traversed both sides of the line and yet no longer belongs to either side. Veterans belongs to both…

This paper explores the intricate relationship between identity and language use in a multilingual university context by analyzing a Filipina international student's narrativized accounts of her experiences in a Hong Kong university. The findings suggest that the international student's identity negotiation and language practices vary markedly…

Individuals narrate stories to explain how they became who they are, forming their own narrative identity. Highly disruptive experiences such as child maltreatment (CM) may be challenging to integrate into the life story and even to narrate coherently just by themselves. To test these potential effects, we divided a total of 171 students at an…

Identity research focuses on multiple processes capturing how adolescents form and maintain a sense of self. However, identity content (the "what" of identity) might impact associations between identity and the association with well-being. We examined this potential role of content (i.e., valence and life domain) in two studies, focusing…

This study explores narratives about critical moments in mathematics learning written by K-8 pre-service teachers' (PSTs) in the United States over a 20-year period. These critical moments, such as a single memorable task, course, test, or comment from a teacher, had a powerful and sustained impact on PSTs' mathematics identities, which they…

Brazilian writer Carolina Maria de Jesus (1914-1977) was born in a rural community and spent most of her life in a slum. Despite this, her literary work achieved remarkable editorial success, having its value recognized by critics and academic circles. This paper analyzes Carolina Maria de Jesus's autobiographical narratives in the light of John…

This study focused on Finnish leaders who participated in a training program called "Positive Leadership Training". The purpose of this study was to enhance the general understanding regarding the emergence of positive leadership in leaders, as they themselves described. A narrative research approach was chosen, and the data were…

Self-identification is essential to the mediation of educational outcomes, however the selective self-identification of students as an artist remains a relatively unexplored area of research in art education. This project uses qualitative narrative analysis to deconstruct the life stories of university-level art students, to examine formative…

This study examines how students' identities are co-constructed through educational experiences. We analyzed narratives of fifth and seventh grade students from two private alternative schools in the Czech Republic. The findings reveal that students identified with friends, had positive relationships with teachers and the school, and experienced…

Motivated by growing trends to require doctoral students to be supervised by panels rather than single supervisors, our study investigates how these resulting structural changes affect students' and supervisors' agency and the co-construction of their identity. Using role theory as a framework to analyze the narratives of a matched sample of…

This article presents a study that examined the historical social narratives of 14-17-year-old Finnish-speaking adolescents in Finland and transnational settings. Our goal was to research what kinds of narratives young people would tell when they were asked to write the history of a group or nationality most suitable for them. The research…