The Intersection of Transnationality and Scholarship: Self-Positioning and Teaching, Research, and Service Practices of Three Transnational Teacher-Scholars

There is an increasing number of transnational faculty who work outside their home countries, yet little is known about their transnational social fields and how their transnationality may intersect with their scholarship practices. This interdisciplinary qualitative study explores the self-positioning and teaching, research, and service approaches of three foreign-born, transnational teacher-scholars in the United States. Data was collected through a written questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. In addition to questions about their cross-border ties and teaching, research, and service scholarships, the participants were asked to narrate several critical incidents from their transnational lived experiences and to describe a significant personal artifact they owned. Positioning theory and the concept of non-place migrant identity were used to identify participants’ self-positioning in relation to place and their teaching, research, and service scholarship practices. Grounded in a social constructionist paradigm, the data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The study provides further empirical support that transnationality and scholarship shape one another as transnational teacher-scholars use their transnational past and present as an asset and a form of capital in their teaching, research, and service scholarships. Findings also reveal that transnational teacher-scholars position themselves at different points on the continuum of non-place identity and belonging. The study concludes with recommendations for encouraging transnational student-teachers and faculty to realize and capitalize on the strengths they bring to the academy.