Umbra Professor Analyzes Study Abroad Through Student Narratives
Umbra Institute professor Christian Tarchi has conducted a study analyzing students’ narratives through a video-log assignment as a source for reflection on their cross-cultural understanding. Professor Tarchi will present his latest findings this August in Cyprus, at the 16th Biennial EARLI Conference 2015, in a paper presentation titled “Assessing intercultural sensitivity: a narrative plot analysis of study abroad students’ video logs,” in collaboration with Alessio Surian of the Univerity of Padova and Colette Daiute of the City University of New York, using Umbra students as part of his subject pool.
Results of the study highlight how both implicit and explicit narration enhance socio-cultural relations. Students use discourse to make sense of their new surroundings and how they fit into them, as well as what they would like to change. Through plot analyses of cultural incident stories, Professor Tarchi and his colleagues offer insight into students’ motivational foci, salient issues, and emerging poly-cultural orientations in their lives as foreign students.
This study is a follow-up to “International students’ intercultural competence and the role of higher education host institution. A qualitative analysis of video-logs,” (Tarchi and Surian, 2014), which was presented at the international Conference Open Spaces for Interaction and Learning Diversities in Padova.
Congratulations Professor!