Unpacking English as a foreign language PhDs’ return mobility and identity (re)construction at Chinese universities: A qualitative case study

Abstract

Using qualitative case study as a method, the researchers collected data from four PhD returnees specializing in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and inquired about their experiences of teacher identity (re)construction after their return to Chinese universities. The collected data demonstrate that these participants have encountered various challenges in complying with Chinese higher education practices; their unique insider/outsider experience and the contribution that they can make to internationalization of the university culture and pedagogy are undervalued, while they often feel unsupported to develop their research profile. This paper contributes to the current research into EFL PhDs’ mobility and their teacher identity (re)construction in the context of the internationalization of Chinese universities. The challenges and issues raised here may have commonalities with those faced in other international tertiary education settings, where EFL PhD students gain their qualifications overseas and return to a career in EFL in their own country.

Keywords

PhD returnees English as a foreign language teachers identity (re)construction Chinese universities return mobility

Introduction

China’s reform and opening up has had a remarkable influence on the development of its universities. Under the influence of globalization, more and more teachers at Chinese universities have chosen to study for their PhDs in western developed countries, and an increasing number of these overseas scholars choose to return home with their PhD degree and resume their careers in Chinese universities. Their professional life after return is very likely to be different from what they remember, since great changes have happened while they were studying in a host space for a few years. Recently, research attention has turned to returnee scholars’ mobility and experiences of returning to their homeland (Li and Xue, 2021), but there are few studies focusing on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) returnee scholars’ teacher identity (re)construction at Chinese universities.

In the following section, the literature related to transnational talents and their mobility is discussed, and the relationship between language learning and identity construction is reviewed as a background for the researchers’ exploration of EFL returnees’ complicated identity negotiations and (re)construction when they come back to their home space. The details of how this project was conducted are then summarized. Finally, the findings are presented and discussed, and suggestions for supporting the identity development of the EFL PhD returnees and internationalization of China’s higher education are offered.

Literature review

Transnational talents in the times of mobility

Living in a liquid world (Bauman, 2000), people have greater freedom of movement. With the globalization of academia, scholars are more likely to develop their knowledge and qualifications outside their home country. Recently, some countries, including China, have taken active measures to attract overseas PhDs to return home, since ‘a highly educated workforce is a prerequisite for sustaining economic growth in modern knowledge-based economies where research and innovation drive economic expansion’ (Tremblay, 2005: 197). Issues that these returnee scholars usually face include changing social and economic circumstances and the pressure to succeed and advance in their careers (Tran and Bui, 2021). As they adjust to their new lives, their transnational mobility impacts on their identity (re)construction (Easthope, 2009). For example, based on a qualitative study of undergraduate and postgraduate Chinese students who returned from the UK after completing their degrees, Wang (2022) argues that these returnees’ transnational identity is a fluid and ‘in-between’ process of self-formation, as their agency interacts with the four key dimensions of intercultural competence, reconstruction of locality, diaspora consciousness and mixed feelings of belonging.

Mobile academics need to be adaptable, like chameleons. Earning their academic or identity capital overseas can help them to find their place in multicultural organizations, but also may present difficulties when they have expectations that exceed the mold they return to. The international mobility of academics can be seen as a form of ‘becoming’, and it is not a finite process (Tran, 2016), but is full of tensions. Based on the empirical evidence, it is found that Chinese student returnees’ transnational in-between identity, including undergraduates, graduates, and PhDs, is characterized by an ‘in-between mobility’, seeking compromises and connections between the polar extremes of essentialist and non-essentialist approaches to identity. In such an identification process, the changing dynamics of agency play a pivotal role in (re)shaping multiple identity pathways as temporal outcomes of mobility (Wang, 2022).

Academic returnees in Chinese universities

In Chinese universities, there is a huge demand for top talents from overseas, since more and more PhDs are choosing to come back to build their careers. The government has focused on recruiting highly skilled returnees (Hao and Welch, 2012), since China’s higher education practice needs to keep pace with the higher education systems in developed countries. However, some critics observe that China has not been able to attract ‘the very best of the Chinese scientists and academics who studied and lived overseas to return fulltime’, though this may be a subjective judgment made from the writers’ point of view (Zweig and Wang, 2013: 590). It is reported that Chinese returnees who specialize in the disciplines of liberal arts and humanities may experience frustration when they come home, since ‘[in China] the liberal arts and humanities have been seen more as spiritual pollution than useful knowledge’ (Louie, 2006: 14).

Previous studies reveal that there is a complex process of teacher identity (re)construction for academics returning to Chinese universities. For instance, the first author’s (2019) autobiography offers an individual perspective on the challenges to an academic returnee’s identity (re)construction, arguing for the need to set up in-between, shared spaces for returnees and local scholars at Chinese universities. These returnee scholars are under pressure to achieve international publications in order to integrate successfully into their home space (Lu, 2019; Xu, 2022). Ideally, PhD returnees should be seen as knowledge carriers and producers, supported by national migration and innovation policies in Chinese universities (Yang and Welch, 2010). In turn, they need to (re)construct their identities, including their teacher identity, changing and developing according to specific circumstances and research contexts.

Identity construction is related to language acquisition, and learning English is a process of identity construction in a particular social-cultural context (Norton, 2016). The English learner makes ‘an investment in [their] own social identity, which changes across time and space’ (Norton, 1997: 411). EFL learners, including the EFL returnees at Chinese universities, have to ‘position themselves between two (or more) languages and incorporate these languages into their sense of who they are and which social groups they belong to’, in an imagined hybrid space (Nguyen, 2019: 40). A study of a cohort of Chinese returnee scholars’ language practices in teaching and research and their identity construction during their early career years found that these scholars struggled to construct their professional identities while teaching English in the context of students’ needs, institutional policies, and their past experiences. These returnees were found to be ‘rootless’, possessing inadequate social and cultural capital locally. Thus their collaboration was limited and they had difficulties developing sufficiently robust language competency to publish bilingually (Xu and Ou, 2022).

English as a foreign language learning and teaching, at home and abroad, has helped returnees to perceive their culture as well as their ‘lived space’ (Lefebvre, 1991) from an Other perspective. Ideally, after returning, their voices should not be ignored, but respected as part of a dialogue between scholars from top universities and their peers from universities in developed countries. Theoretically and practically, ‘such a dialogic encounter of two cultures does not result in merging or mixing. Each retains its own unity and open totality, but they are mutually enriched’ (Bakhtin, 1986: 7). In these inter/cross-cultural communication practices, EFL returnee scholars can act as ‘canaries in the coalmine’ (Ryan and Carroll, 2005: 9), since they are more sensitive to reforms and critical changes in Chinese universities, so their voices should be heard and valued.

Research questions

The context of this study is the hybrid space of language learning, in which EFL returnee scholars seek to (re)construct their teacher identity at Chinese universities, bringing new learning and skills into their home space and adapting to the limits and possibilities of teaching and researching there. In this study, four EFL PhD returnees’ experiences of mobility and their teacher identity (re)construction are reported and interpreted. The participants are engaged in teaching EFL in the School of Foreign Languages at Chinese universities. Chinese universities as employers expect that academic returnees will bring innovation to teaching, as well as producing international publications to help their universities earn a higher international ranking. One of the main concerns for the participants is how to teach their EFL courses effectively; they also face the pressure of academic publication and the responsibility of serving their communities.

How these EFL PhD returnees face challenges and what they expect their universities to do are relatively unknown. This study will address this knowledge gap from the perspective of their identity (re)construction. Specifically, the following questions are explored in this study:

1. How do these returnees negotiate their teacher identity before and after they return to Chinese universities?

2. What are these returnees’ expectations of their Chinese universities when they are (re)constructing their teacher identity?

Methodology

Participants

The participant recruitment was initially conducted at an international EFL education conference held in 2017 at Shanghai, China. The first author, a PhD returnee specializing in EFL education, invited the returnee attendees to join this project; over 10 EFL returnees showed willingness to join. Finally, four participants were chosen to discuss the details of their practices as returnees in Chinese universities, reflecting on their teacher identity (re)construction and their perceptions of the internationalization of Chinese universities. For an average qualitative case study, the researchers typically choose “no more than four or five cases” to study (Creswell, 2007: 76), since a small sample allows them to develop rapport with the participants.

The four participants are EFL PhDs returning from universities in developed countries. Two of them graduated from the Schools of (English) Linguistics, and the other two graduated from the Schools of (English) Education. They had worked as EFL teachers at Chinese universities for years before they went abroad to do their degrees, and they were placed in the Schools of Foreign Languages after returning at their universities. Their brief profiles are provided in the table below (Table 1).

Table 1.

The brief profiles of the participants.

Name	Gender	Age	Years of PhD study	Venue of overseas university	Years of teaching before departure	Years after return	Location of university
Jane	Female	36	3	Sydney	2	3	Yunnan province
Jason	Male	44	4	Melbourne	10	4	Hubei province
Lulu	Female	40	3	Sydney	4	6	Hubei province
Rose	Female	39	5	New York	2	4	Anhui province

Data collection and analysis

A formal written letter was provided to the volunteers, inviting them to participate in this project, and outlining the aims and practical aspects associated with its progress. The participants gave their informed consent before the project commenced, and they were assured that the documents they provided voluntarily would not be released to a third party without their permission. Their privacy was guaranteed, and their real names changed to protect their privacy. An ethical clearance was undertaken to ensure that the researchers followed ethical regulations, and that these participants knew the research process and the measures to protect themselves.

The data collection did not start straight away; the researchers waited for about 1 year after receiving the volunteers’ consent letters and then sent them the interview questions. One reason for this delay is that the researchers and the participants were aware of the possible influence of reverse culture shock (Gaw, 2000), which is often an inevitable part of returning home after a long absence. The researchers agreed to wait until these participants settled into their new lives, so that they could reflect on their teacher identity (re)construction objectively. The participants agreed that they needed time to examine and reflect on the process of their teacher identity (re)construction as academic returnees.

The data collection was conducted through semi-structured interviews, informal online talks, and the researchers’ observations and reflections. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and translated from Chinese into English by the researchers. Next, the translated texts were sent to the participants for re-checking meanings. The researchers have kept in contact with the participants and developed rapport with them. Analysis of the data was a reflexive process for the participants and researcher; this required ‘a critical attitude towards data, and recognition of the influence on the research’ (Brewer, 2000: 127). The researchers’ reflexivity aimed to catch the authentic meanings within the internal worlds of these participants.

Findings and discussion

Return mobility and being a returnee teacher

The returnees reported that they faced many academic and life pressures when doing their PhD degree in a host space. Then, when they completed their studies, the decision of whether to leave or stay in the host country was not straightforward. The participants reported their hesitations:

Doing a PhD degree is not just my personal business; it is the business of my family. ... The reason for my return is to be with my family, since my husband is in China. (Jane)

I had a chance to migrate to Australia. … Yet I decided to return, and the primary reason is my Chinese cultural and national identity … I did not have a sense of belonging there … I want to serve my nation; and my parents will not allow me to stay there. (Jason)

I felt lonely and did not feel I belonged there. I am the only child in my family, and … there are many other reasons. (Rose)

The returnees’ negotiations regarding returning or staying demonstrated their strong attachment to Chinese family and culture. The centripetal forces pulled these PhDs to return to their former lived space. As returnee teachers, the participants reported that they came back with confidence in their professional knowledge, and they had a strong desire to continue their teaching career and devote themselves to their homeland’s development. Their reflections on teacher identity express their attitudes to their professional identity.

Studying overseas shifted me … I feel the importance of doing research and I am starting to like it, which often pushes me to reflect on my identity as a teacher, and … how I can contribute to my motherland’s development. These reflections have reconstructed my teacher identity. (Jason)

My PhD supervisor always encouraged me to think independently, and this is crucial for my current teaching … A good teacher is a navigator, rather than an authority. A good teacher needs to update knowledge; otherwise, she/he will be replaced. (Lulu)

My overseas PhD study has had a strong impact on my research and teaching, and the influence will last all my life. I witnessed western teachers’ practice of their profession … I was deeply impressed by their integrity and equality … They like teaching and care about their students, and they fully understand the course that they are teaching and … use the latest materials. (Rose)

These returnees’ overseas experiences acted as a mirror for them to examine and assess their self-growth as returnee teachers, and inspired them to reflect on how to be a better teacher and professional scholar after returning. Here, three participants describe their experiences:

I was deeply affected by my supervisor, professionally and ethnically, and he … showed me how to a good teacher and scholar … Now I focus on helping students to think critically and develop their imagination … I feel that my teaching will provide students with a better education. (Jason)

My overseas study was an opportunity to re-evaluate myself … I often dream of becoming a better teacher since then … I am influenced by my supervisors. (Lulu)

Teachers at Western universities usually design a student-centered curriculum, and they respect students … and grow with them. To me, they are good teachers; they gave me a positive image, and … I am deeply affected by them. (Rose)

We perceive the world through ‘the time/space of the self and through the time/space of the other’ (Holquist, 2002: 35). The participants’ reflections revealed that their overseas lived and research experiences helped them to re-examine their roles of being an EFL teacher and a scholar at Chinese universities. They were motivated to (re)construct their teacher identity after returning to their universities. However, they also faced challenges in their familiar but now strange workplaces as PhD returnees, and sometimes they felt critical towards their lived space after returning.

Challenges of (re)constructing teacher identity at home

Returning as a PhD scholar at Chinese universities is not easy; the participants admitted that they encountered various challenges in the process of their teacher identity (re)construction. For instance, they had to go through cross-cultural readjustment, which is the common experience for most returnees when facing previously familiar surroundings after living in a different environment for a significant period of time. Specifically, the primary challenge is the switch in their roles in the lived space (Lefebvre, 1991). These returnees would prefer to live as ordinary scholars, like when they were in the host space. However, this was not possible, given their professional positions and the expectations of them. Jason and Rose both revealed that they had a difficult time after returning.

After returning, I soon left University X and transferred to University Y … University X is a polytechnic university, and I feel that it does not pay attention to arts and social sciences, and it does not value returnees in EFL education, so I left there. (Jason)

I felt depressed due to the differences in salary, life quality, and the workplace, and I felt lost and even regretful. My research work was suddenly interrupted … It was like moving into another country … People always asked me why I returned, but I am afraid to discuss this, since to outsiders my returning means I could not survive and stay in the USA … but I chose to return myself. (Rose)

The participants were strongly influenced by reverse cultural shock, and they found it difficult to adjust to the practices of teaching and research at Chinese universities. This finding is a reminder to university authorities to be aware of returnees’ need for time and support to adjust and integrate into the local educational community.

In addition to reverse cultural shock, there were the challenges of teaching EFL courses to students and publishing papers, two essential tasks for all academics at Chinese universities. Reflecting on this, the participants complained about Chinese universities; their complaints included inadequate research atmosphere, limited library/research resources, poor administrative management, unfair international publication assessment policy, and more.

At University Y, the research atmosphere is not good … I hoped that experienced local scholars could help me integrate into the local academic field, but I could not get much help; the internationalization of my university is not so good, and returnees are not cared for; its library resources are limited. (Jason)

Jason also reported that EFL education as a discipline is not highly valued, and this was echoed by other participants.

At University Y, EFL education as a discipline is not given enough attention, which is also the case in many other Chinese universities. (Jason)

My school does not support English linguistics … The school heads just pay their attention to English literature, since they are interested in it and they are professors of English literature. The PhDs specializing in English linguistics are lecturers, so they do not have the say … The school heads do not provide us with a good academic setting. (Jane)

When addressing teaching, the participants complained about their heavy teaching workload; they expected that their workload would be reduced so that they could have more time to do research. For instance,

I am always preparing my teaching … My teaching workload is 15 hours per week, and this is too much, so I have no time to do my research work … I need to survive first. (Rose)

The returnees’ experiences opened up a window for examining the current state of EFL education in Chinese universities. Very often, the EFL course has been compulsory for undergraduates and postgraduates, and this means that these returnees, like other local EFL teachers, had to undertake heavy teaching loads, which consumed much of their time and energy, with little to spare for doing their research.

The participants complained that they experienced loneliness both emotionally and academically. This is different from the loneliness that they experienced when doing their degree overseas and living far away from their family. Returning home, they felt loneliness of a different order, since they did not find a welcoming academic community, which disappointed and frustrated them. Academically, they felt they were marginalized, as their research directions did not align with local scholars’ research focuses such as English linguistics and English literature.

Here we still feel that we cannot be understood … For instance, it is difficult to match my research directions with those of my local peers. (Jason)

My school … has not established academic communities and appointed suitable leaders yet. The academic communities … should attract scholars with similar interests so that they help each other to grow … I have felt very lonely for a long time … For instance, I used post-structural theories to analyze the EFL education policy, yet this is not mainstream in China; the ethnography method that I used is not widely accepted either … There are differences in research scope, paradigms, research theory and designs. I applied for funds a couple of times but failed… I nearly lost my direction. (Lulu)

The participants’ academic loneliness was compounded by spiritual loneliness. For instance, Jason confessed that he was spiritually lonely and helpless, except for keeping up his writing, since this is the only possible and effective approach to his survival.

I often feel like I am sitting in a prison, and … after returning, I never went abroad for any conferences … Yet, I kept sending emails to overseas scholars and dream of having a face-to-face talk with those scholars one day. I am like an academic orphan … I hope to grow up quickly, but here nobody would help me (I am almost crying now) … I have to keep writing myself, and this is only way to my self-salvation. (Jason)

This feeling of separation and loneliness was similar to the first author’s (2019: 664) description:

As an early career scholar, I desperately needed help to move forward on my academic journey. I felt that nobody around me could understand me, so I had to face all the difficulties alone. Many times, walking on the campus alone at midnight, I looked up at the stars, reminding myself to overcome all the difficulties little by little, believing that they would be resolved.

After returning home, the returnees struggled in two spaces: one was their real lived space in their Chinese universities, and the other was their imagined space, which was very often similar to the international research space where they lived and obtained their degree. In their current lived space, they were afraid of being seen as different and being criticized by local peers, being seen as ‘Other’ (Koh, 2012). Therefore, they stayed quiet to protect themselves.

My family often reminded me that I am working and living in China now, and the interpersonal relationships are rather complicated, so I prefer to be quiet … I even dare not share my publications to peers in case they feel that I am showing off. (Jason)

While they dreamed that they could find an ‘in-between space’ (Bhabha, 2004) to allow their hybrid identity constructed overseas to grow, they were faced with the reality of their lived space, where they were expected to perform as ordinary local Chinese scholars, yet in EFL teaching and research, as returnee teachers, they were also pressured to do better.

Expectations of teacher identity (re)construction

Talking about their expectations of teacher identity (re)construction, the returnees expressed criticism of policy and management at their university. They noted that all researchers, including soft-skill researchers like returnee scholars in EFL education, should be valued, and that Chinese universities should provide better services for them. For instance, the participants wished that their suggestions, such as simplifying administrative procedures, would be accepted by the authorities at the administrative level.

A teacher’s research work should be highly valued … The administrative faculty need to provide better services for us … I do not even have an office … I feel rather disappointed and have no sense of belonging here … In the future, probably more Chinese scholars will return, and a good university should pay more attention to them, since they may change the future of Chinese universities. (Jason)

Administrative departments should provide services… However, here the administrators are in charge of management, and they often issue various regulations and procedures, but this leads to low efficiency, and they do not provide much support. (Lulu)

These participants proposed that an inter/cross-disciplinary research model should be accepted, though it has not been widely recognized in the Chinese academic community.

Returnees in my academic field are not highly valued. My school leaders do not care about us, and they do not support us to attend academic conferences … They need to … establish a community and encourage more academic exchange activities; they should encourage more PhD scholars to make research plans and finish projects. (Jane)

I am looking forward to joining an appropriate academic team … However, it seems that here the inter/cross-disciplinary model of practice and research is new … There should be more inter/cross-disciplinary collaborations. (Rose)

Two participants mentioned the principles of freedom and the search for truth in academic writing, and they proposed that more academic freedom should be afforded to returnee scholars, and that they should be trusted. For instance, Jason reported that he sometimes was misunderstood in his critical writing.

More academic freedom and trust should be given to us; as returnee scholars, we write critically, and that is for the sake of research, since we were trained to be critical scholars overseas … As a returnee scholar, I love my nation, and the only reason for giving a critical opinion is to push national development. (Jason)

Generally, the academic settings are becoming better; but more trust should be given to academic returnees for research. There should be more dialogues with different opinions about ways of searching for academic truth. (Rose)

These participants were not satisfied with their universities’ policies of academic publication assessment, which often simply use ‘SSCI/A&HCI-indexed’ as a standard to evaluate the quality of a scholar’s international publications. They acknowledged that Chinese universities have developed quickly, and that top Chinese universities need to establish their reputation internationally, so a large number of high-quality international publications are required (begging the question of whether publication in SSCI/A&HCI-indexed journals is the sole criterion of high quality). The participants regarded this policy as utilitarian and controversial. They complained that in some Chinese universities academic works published in non-SSCI/A&HCI journals such as ESCI-indexed journals were not recognized and even were regarded as useless, which is detrimental for local scholars and returnee scholars’ professional growth.

The current assessment policy should be revised, since it is simplistic and unfair to evaluate the quality of an article simply based on whether the journal is SSCI/A&HCI-indexed. There should be more criteria to judge its value and quality, and to examine a scholar’s contribution. (Jason)

Many Chinese universities’ publication policies are too utilitarian, and they have paid too much attention to SSCI/A&HCI-indexed journals. (Rose)

Talking about their future academic plans, the returnees said that they have to fit doing research into their everyday life if they want to keep moving forward throughout their lives. Although the returnees did not feel satisfied with the assessment policy, they did not and dare not give up their international publication efforts. Facing publication stress, they have to publish works in the so-called high-quality journals in order to survive; otherwise, they felt they would perish as academics (Lu, 2019).

Motivated by their cultural and national identity, they want to localize research and integrate their teaching and research practices in China’s higher education reform and national development. In this way, they hoped to (re)construct their teacher identity as returnee scholars in their motherland.

I am planning to collaborate with international scholars … and to borrow external ‘power’ from international scholars to develop myself. This can ensure that I am on a right path and never lose myself. I also plan to co-author with local scholars, and try to take the lead in this process, and set up more interactions with them, and this will be my contribution as a returnee. (Jason)

Returnee scholars should never keep away from the Chinese academic field … They need to localize and learn from the academic field … and cannot stop and feel complacent … Chinese scholars have a feeling for their nation and family, while western scholars are famous for being ‘critical’, so they can learn from each other. (Lulu)

Some returnee scholars used their knowledge and expertise to do their research into China’s current reform and development; in this way, they hoped to find a path for their academic future.

I have started my supervision work with masters-level graduates, and … to me this is a way to strengthen and update my research practices. I contacted my PhD supervisor and discussed it with local peers, and we are planning to collaborate on a book. I have listed three feasible plans: the first is to publish more SSCI-indexed papers … The second is to integrate myself into Chinese academic field … and the third is to apply for a national level research fund. (Jane)

I have kept my trajectory and also entered the local academic field. I did my post-doctorate research collaborating with a well-known local scholar … I wrote Chinese stories and published them in English journals, so that China, including Chinese people and China’s higher education practices, could be understood internationally. (Jason)

The returnee scholars expressed their wishes for the future development of Chinese universities and their teacher identity (re)construction and professional development.

I am confident … my return mobility as a scholar will be accepted one day. … I wish the academic atmosphere could become freer. Now Chinese universities are emphasizing the quality of teaching … but research work should never be ignored … I want to learn more research methods and publish more papers, and successfully apply for funds. (Jason)

I wish that the university administrative departments can respect and … provide more support to returnee scholars. My university can go with the tide of world development and recognize more academic publications that are international. (Lulu)

It can be seen that these returnee scholars were actively integrating themselves into their university space and they hoped that they can make certain contributions to their university development. Meanwhile, they also wished that their university could provide a suitable space for them to grow as they were still ‘new’ PhDs at the early stage of their academic career. In this process, they hoped that they could be treated as early career academics and could be given more time, space, and support to grow professionally.

Discussion and reflections

As a globalized language, English is widely used and accepted, including in China. Ideally, EFL returnee scholars, as international scholars with English as their linguistic capital, should be expected to play a critical role in the internationalization of China’s higher education, setting up a multicultural and multilingual academic community. By publishing internationally, returnee scholars can be acknowledged as internationalized scholars with particular cultural and linguistic capital (Bourdieu, 2002). Having been immersed in an English/Other culture for years, although they remain strongly attached to their Chinese national and cultural identity, they are likely to have constructed a different or hybrid identity, which can help them to bring unique or different insights to local scholars and university authorities. Their insights, informed by their experiences of diversity, should be respected, rather than being seen as a form of ‘spiritual pollution’. Higher education institutions may ‘run the risk of loss of competitive advantage’ (Dhir, 2005: 362) if the diverse and different voices that returnees offer are neglected.

The return mobility of EFL academics can bring more opportunities for the reform and development of English-related disciplines at Chinese universities. Returnee academics can motivate and inform local scholars by publishing research articles in an inter/cross-disciplinary mode. Internationally, inter/cross-disciplinary research is a strong trend in academic discourse. At Chinese universities, the English-related disciplines need to break through previous disciplinary boundaries and be integrated with other disciplines. In this process, language can be viewed as ‘a skill and a productivity tool, [and] learning one or more languages is seen as an investment in human capital that can bring economic benefits’ (Aggarwal, 2017: 133). English as an international language can be added to or combined with other disciplines as part of the international profile of top Chinese universities.

Executives at Chinese universities should take the initiative to set up a dialogic internationalized climate in their schools. At a macro level, as Chinese universities face the challenge of establishing international reputations, it is time to build academic in-between spaces for scholars, including returnees. Setting up such academic in-between spaces will challenge the dominant Confucian and other Chinese traditional cultures, so university executives need to lead the reform from the top down. They do not need to worry about the erosion of Chinese traditional culture, since a truly dialogical space is enriched by differences (Marchenkova, 2005).

In these in-between academic spaces, inter/cross-disciplinary dialogues will make positive contributions to scholarly reform and development at Chinese universities. EFL returnee scholars, as well as local scholars and other international scholars, do not need to give up their individuality and differences in order to learn from others. Such academic dialogues and inter/cross-disciplinary collaboration can be a route for teachers’ professional development and identity (re)construction. Inclusive, dynamic, and diverse in-between academic spaces are the birthplace of inter/cross-disciplinary innovation, which will push Chinese universities’ development and internationalization.

When talking about EFL returnees’ integration and identity construction, the importance of their agency in the process of their identity (re)construction should be noted. Negotiations take place interactionally where particular subject positionings are contested; here negotiable identities refer to ‘all identity options which can be contested and resisted by particular individuals and groups, although not all identity positions are equally negotiable’ (Blackledge et al., 2008: 546). It is very likely that these returnee scholars may have experienced intense identity negotiations before they returned home (Ai, 2015), and they may have already constructed a hybrid identity after experiencing in-between life away from China. They may have fully understood that one’s identity is ‘in dynamic movement within a broader ecology and in constant interaction with other human and nonhuman actants’ (Li and Lee, 2023: 2). An individual, including a returnee scholar, lives in an era of liquid modernity. Returnee academics may choose to project themselves as mobile or hybrid, though they have returned to Chinese universities. If they are not happy with their lived space, or if they find that there is no fitting ‘transnational communities of practice’ (Guo and Lei, 2020) at their Chinese universities, they may choose to leave again, since identity is a dual process of ‘identification’ and ‘negotiability’ (Wenger, 1998: 188). As such, Chinese university authorities need to pay more attention to returnee scholars’ everyday practices and recognize their lived space as often contradictory and unsettling. At the same time, the returnees need to realize that, although their everyday academic life in China feels ordinary, ‘the contradiction at the heart of everydayness – [is that] everything changes’ (Lefebvre, 1987: 10). That is, these EFL returnee scholars need to be patient and confident in the fluid process of their identity (re)construction, while exercising their agency.

Conclusion: An unfinished story

Chinese universities still ‘remain far from world class’ (Zweig and Yang, 2014: 262), so returnee scholars, including EFL returnee academics, are expected to help higher education authorities to see themselves and their international peers more critically and reflexively. These EFL returnee academics can play an important role in Chinese universities’ institutional identity (re)construction, as well as their peers’ identity (re)construction. The way that institutions such as universities present to outsiders is an important consideration, since the perceptions of those who ‘are located outside us in space’ are valuable ‘because they are others’ (Bakhtin, 1986: 7). These returnees, in the setting of internationalized education, have a unique, in-between position as both insider and outsider; their double vision can be a lens for critical re-assessment, which can be painful but should not be dismissed. It is this very in-between position that makes them a valuable asset to their institution, and should be drawn upon in a supportive, constructive way by creating, as suggested earlier, inclusive, inter/cross-disciplinary centers of research and teaching.

As this study has revealed, the returnees’ teacher identity (re)construction remains unfinished. When concluding this paper, the researchers were informed of recent changes for the participants. Jason has left University Y and transferred to another top university located in Shanghai, China, as he believes that his new university in a metropolitan city will be more open and more inclusive. He believes that this move would be better for his research and his contribution to the country. Lulu went to a famous language university in Beijing as a visiting scholar, and she will stay there for 1 year, doing her research project with a reputable Chinese language professor, aiming to combine what she has learned in Australia with language-related topics in China. Rose went to the USA as an exchange scholar, and she will stay there for 1 year, teaching Chinese language as a volunteer and continuing her research. Jane stays in Yunnan province, since she has recently witnessed some changes in her university and school, and she has published a few papers in SSCI-indexed journals, which has given her confidence in her future professional identity development. No matter where these EFL returnee scholars choose to live and work, they stressed that they would like to serve their homeland, since they value their Chinese cultural and national identities, and their mobile identities can never be separated from them. They expect more positive changes from top down so that they can use their linguistic capital to serve EFL education and research.

Limitations and suggestions for future research

There are two limitations in this study. First, although the researchers sought to maintain objectivity, only four returnees were interviewed. A quantitative project is needed so that data can be collected from more participants in future research. Secondly, this study focuses on the EFL returnee scholars’ teacher identity (re)construction, and they cannot be seen as representative of returnee scholars in other disciplines and sciences in Chinese universities. There is much space for other researchers to explore.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The researchers’ thanks go to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on earlier versions of this article; the researchers also thank the participants for sharing their lived experiences.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by Shanghai University of Finance and Economics under Grant [No. 2019110115] and [No. 2021120046].

ORCID iD

Bin Ai

References

Aggarwal

(2017) Developing linguistic diversity management in teaching IB: introduction to this issue. Journal of Teaching in International Business 28(3–4): 133–136.

(2015) Living in-between: A narrative inquiry into the identity work of a Chinese student in Australia. Life Writing 12(3): 353–368.

(2019) Pains and gains of working in Chinese universities: An academic returnee’s journey. Higher Education Research and Development 38(4): 661–673.

Bakhtin

(1986) Response to a question from the Novy Mir editorial staff. In: Emerson

Holquist

(eds) Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1–9.

Bauman

(2000) Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Bhabha

(2004) The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.

Blackledge

Creese

Baraç

, et al. (2008) Contesting ‘language’ as ‘heritage’: negotiation of identities in late modernity. Applied Linguistics 29(4): 533–554.

Bourdieu

(2002) The forms of capital. In: Biggart

(ed) Readings in Economic Sociology. Oxford: Blackwell, 280–291.

Brewer

(2000) Ethnography. Buckingham: Open University Press.

10.

Creswell

(2007) Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

11.

Dhir

(2005) The value of language: concept, perspectives, and policies. Corporate Communications: An International Journal 10(4): 358–382.

12.

Easthope

(2009) Fixed identities in a mobile world? The relationship between mobility, place, and identity. Identities: Global Studies in Power and Culture 16(1): 61–82.

13.

Gaw

(2000) Reverse culture shock in students returning from overseas. International Journal of Intercultural Relations 24(1): 83–104.

14.

Guo

Lei

(2020) Toward transnational communities of practice: an inquiry into the experiences of transnational academic mobility. Adult Education Quarterly 70(1): 26–43.

15.

Hao

Welch

(2012) A tale of sea turtles: job-seeking experiences of Hai Gui (high-skilled returnees) in China. Higher Education Policy 25(2): 243–260.

16.

Holquist

(2002) Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World. London: Routledge.

17.

Koh

(2012) In-between’ Asia and Australia: on the politics of teaching English as the ‘other’. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 33(2): 167–178.

18.

Lefebvre

(1987) The Everyday and Everydayness. New Haven, CT: Yale French Studies, 7–11, 73.

19.

Lefebvre

(1991) The Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

20.

Lee

(2023) Transpositioning: translanguaging and the liquidity of identity. Applied Linguistics. doi: 10.1093/applin/amad065.

21.

Xue

(2021) Returnee faculty responses to internationalizing “academic ecology” for creating world-class universities in China’ elite universities. Higher Education 81: 1063–1078.

22.

Louie

(2006) Returnee scholars: Ouyang Yu, the displaced poet and the sea turtle. New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 8(1): 1–16.

23.

(2019) Publish or perish in social science? Tension, challenges and opportunities for Chinese academics in the humanities and social sciences. Asian Journal of Social Science 47(4–5): 484–507.

24.

Marchenkova

(2005) Language, culture, and self: the Bakhtin-Vygotsky encounter. In: Hall

Vitanova

marchenkova

(eds) Dialogue with Bakhtin on Second and Foreign Language Learning: New Perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc, 171–188.

25.

Nguyen

TTT

(2019) Translanguaging as trans-identity: the case of ethnic minority students in Vietnam. Lingua 222: 39–52.

26.

Norton

(1997) Language, identity, and the ownership of English. Tesol Quarterly 31(3): 409–429.

27.

Norton

(2016) Identity and language learning: back to the future. Tesol Quarterly 50(2): 475–479.

28.

Ryan

Carroll

(2005) Canaries in the coalmine’: international students in western universities. In: Carroll

Ryan

(eds) Teaching International Students. Improving Learning for All. London, UK and New York, NY: Routledge, 3–10.

29.

Tran

(2016) Mobility as ‘becoming’: a Bourdieuian analysis of the factors shaping international student mobility. British Journal of Sociology of Education 37(8): 1268–1289.

30.

Tran

Bui

(2021) International graduate returnees’ accumulation of capitals and (re)positioning in the home labour market in Vietnam: the explorer, the advancer or the adventurer? Journal of Education and Work 34(4): 544–557.

31.

Tremblay

(2005) Academic mobility and immigration. Journal of Studies in International Education 9(3): 196–228.

32.

Wang

(2022) The transnational in-between identity of Chinese student returnees from the UK: mobility, variations and pathways. British Educational Research Journal 48: 536–555.

33.

Wenger

(1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

34.

(2022) An autoethnographic narrative of the diasporic experience of a Chinese female PhD returnee’s entry into the domestic academic job market during COVID-19: an ecological environment perspective. Asia Pacific Education Review 23: 245–255.

35.

(2022) Facing rootlessness: language and identity construction in teaching and research practices among bilingual returnee scholars in China. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 1–16. doi: 10.1080/15348458.2022.2060228.

36.

Yang

Welch

(2010) Globalisation, transnational academic mobility and the Chinese knowledge diaspora: an Australian case study. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 31(5): 593–607.

37.

Zweig

Wang

(2013) Can China bring back the best? The communist party organizes China’s search for talent. The China Quarterly 215(3): 590–615.

38.

Zweig

Yang

(2014) Overseas students, returnees, and the diffusion of international norms into Post‐Mao China. International Studies Review 16(2): 252–263.