In this dissertation, I set out to explore and analyze the experiences of six international students from mainland China (henceforth student-participants), who are currently undergraduate students at a midwestern university in the United States (henceforth Grand Lake University or GLU), alongside the experiences of their four instructors (henceforth instructor-participants). In addition, I aim to investigate interculturality in the teaching-learning context. Participants include four instructors of three different courses (an English as a second language class, business management class, and a college writing class) and six Chinese undergraduate students attending these classes. As a multiple case study (Stake, 1995, 2006), this project comprises two collective case studies, a student-participants collective case study and an instructor-participants collective case study. The theoretical lenses are those of interculturality in education (Dervin, 2016b). I present a literature review where I identify the experiences of Chinese undergraduate students in the U.S. and these of their instructors thematically. I depict both enriching and challenging experiences that crop up during learning and teaching in the U.S. For my data in both collective case studies, I conducted semi-structured interviews as a main data source. I also observed classes for both case studies but conducted participant observations and collected artifacts for instructor-participants collective case study only. Additional data sources were a researcher's journal, field notes journals and email correspondence with both groups of participants throughout the process. I then applied holistic coding (Saldana, 2016) to derive codes and patterns from collected data and transformed them into themes in the findings section of this dissertation. I conducted transcript checks with all participants by sending them interview transcripts and asking for their feedback. Also, in my analysis, I emphasized the experiences of the participants (students and instructors alike) and how they construct intercultural learning and teaching. I discuss the findings from both collective case studies within the motif of transformative internationalization being possible through kindness (Abelmann & Kang, 2014; Loreman, 2011). I show that in order to reach transformative rather than symbolic internationalized learning environment, all voices must be heard. The four instructor-participants demonstrated open-minded approaches towards Chinese undergraduate students and positive perceptions of them, making the multiple cultures of learning they brought to their classrooms an asset rather than a barrier in a variety of ways and to different extents. The instructor-participants demonstrated not only culturally responsive pedagogies but also pedagogies that were interculturally rich and encouraging. Culturally, to the student-participants, kindness seemed to be a crucial factor. Wherever any instances of kindness were offered to them, either directly or indirectly, the student-participants thrived in their communication with instructor-participants and peers, in their social life, and in their evolving ideas about GLU. I also found that student-participants prepared thoroughly for their sojourns and depicted multiple types of motivation to study in the U.S. (including familial pressure and better career opportunities afterwards). I examined their language experiences at GLU alongside their sociocultural endeavors, which turned out to be challenging but educational and enriching. Based on these findings I also suggest directions for future research.
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