International graduate students of science in Japan: An ethnographic approach from a situated learning theory perspective

With situated learning theory employed as a theoretical framework, the purpose of this dissertation is to clarify learners' needs by focusing on practices of international graduate students (IGSs) in a science lab in Japan, rather than confining the study to their language needs. For that purpose, I shed light on how IGSs participate or are not able to participate in the lab community of practice (CoP) in detailed and concrete manner.; IGSs' ways of participating in a community are examined by focusing on the following points. First, I illustrate how access to lab practices is socially organized, by analyzing how two IGSs were able to access machines or not. Further, I also show how their trajectories of participation (crossing or moving among various formal and informal activities) were different and how these differences facilitated or restricted their access to scientific resources. Second, inspired by recent theorization of Dreier and Lave from a situated learning perspective, I illustrate participation as the crossing of multiple CoPs. In doing so, I argue for trajectories of participation as unique and multiple ways of participation, rather than participation as a linear process from newcomer to oldtimer or from peripheral to full participation in a CoP. Identity formation is also reformulated as discovering and constituting one's unique self through crossing multiple CoPs, rather than merely as becoming a member in a CoP. Further, I show that identity formation may be regarded not merely as adjusting the relationship among multiple communities within individuals, but as the practice of organizing new linkages among communities and of reconstituting CoPs.; The above points showed how to design a learning environment which will address IGSs' needs. For example, how to arrange participation in multi-layered activities and various mutually constituted occasions for IGSs is critical for responding to IGSs' broader needs such as accomplishing research. In brief, design of learning environment for addressing needs can be formulated as designing resources, social organizations, and opportunities that support the members' participation in a CoP and thus their access to the CoP's practice.