“I want to have their research culture”: Challenges and Strategies among Indonesian Doctoral Students at Overseas Universities

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the challenges and strategies through meaningful
experiences from their narratives of four Indonesian doctoral students studied at overseas
universities. The main focus was to explore four Indonesian doctoral students’ lived
experiences overseas in several aspects such as personal, social, and academic life. This study
also described the students’ challenges in conducting their research overseas as well as the
strategies they used to face the challenges and the supports they received during their study.
This study employed a narrative inquiry method with three-dimensional narrative inquiry
space; interaction, continuity, and situation to better understand lived experiences and research
journey of each individual in an educational context. The main source of data was an in-depthinterview
series developed by Seidman (2006). The interviews were analyzed by using
thematic analysis developed by Braun and Clark (2006). The findings showed that several
themes emerged from the interviews. They were an adaptation to a new environment, research
topic and research problem, relationship with supervisors, access to research facilities, and
supports from universities.