Unpacking the positioning of being “disengaged” and “disrespectful” in class through nexus analysis: an international student’s navigation of institutional and interactional university norms

Abstract Given the significance of creating an inclusive academic environment for international students, our study examines how three newly arrived international students (a Chinese female and two Korean males) navigated the institutional and interactional norms in an academic orientation class at a U.S. university. Drawing on nexus analysis, we examine student class disengagement at the intersection of discourses in place, interaction order, and historical body. In particular, we focus on how the Chinese international female student was perceived as being “disengaged” and “disrespectful” in class by her Korean graduate male classmates and her female instructor. Such discursive positioning, we argue, was attributed to the interplay of various factors, such as our student participants’ navigation of U.S. classroom participation expectations. Furthermore, we argue that class disengagement should be understood within a wider sociocultural space as such disengagement is interwoven with the broader U.S. classroom discourses and individual participants’ past experiences.