Exploring Turning Point Narratives of International Exchange Students to Identify the Experiences That Promote Perceived Growth and Identity Development

Abstract

Student exchange experiences can promote personal growth and identity development, but little research has explored the types of events and associated responses that support this development. The current study aimed to explore turning point narratives of international exchange students to identify the types of experiences and individual-level factors that are perceived to promote growth and identity development during exchange. Participants were 92 Australian and 95 French university students who had completed an international student exchange program. Participants reported a turning point experience during their exchange, and these responses were coded for event type, meaning-making, narrative coherence, emotional tone, and perceived growth. The most commonly reported turning point events involved recreation and exploration, relationships, cultural learning, and mastery experiences. Higher levels of meaning-making and narrative coherence and a more positive emotional tone were all predictors of perceived growth from turning point experiences. The findings suggest that there are common turning point experiences that occur during exchange and that supporting students to make meaning from their experiences may promote better program outcomes.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 6 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.