International graduate students' difficulties: graduate classes as a community of practices

This study explores the factors that cause international graduate students to
struggle and these students’ ways of dealing with such problems in light of
sociocultural theory, which views learning as a social and cultural act. The
findings show that graduate classes function as communities of practices in which
classmates and professors mutually engage with each other, share a repertoire and
engage in joint enterprises. The practices were not always transparent to
international students, which became a source of difficulty and often led them
to feel excluded. Peripheral participation comprised a significant part of some
students’ learning process and identity formation, but it allowed them to
participate in course-related activities as fully as they felt comfortable doing.
This study suggests a need for more sensitive and dialogical efforts by educators
in higher education to provide better learning environments for international
learners.