“Actually, in my culture…” Identity, positioning, and intersubjectivity in cross-cultural interviews

Publication Name

Australian Review of Applied Linguistics

Abstract

The increasing internationalization of education has brought diversification to university student populations. The demographic changes pose great challenges to interview practice as interviews are increasingly occurring in cross-cultural contexts and often involve participants from diverse cultural backgrounds. Recent research has demonstrated that the cultural identity of the interviewer, in particular, the insider or outsider positioning relative to the participants, can impinge upon the quantity and quality of the collected interview data and research outcomes. In this paper, we go beyond this conception of interviewer as either a cultural insider or outsider to examine how multiple identities and positionings are enacted by interviewer and interviewees in order to achieve intersubjectivity, or common ground, in cross-cultural research interviews. The paper contributes to understanding the complexity of cross-cultural interviews, in particular, the impact of positioning processes on the establishment of intersubjectivity and data construction.

Open Access Status

This publication is not available as open access

Volume

45

Issue

1

First Page

4

Last Page

24

Share

COinS
 

Link to publisher version (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/aral.19040.gro