Navigating the Third Space: Exploring Stories of Intercultural Competence Development and Use Among Canadian International Teachers in China
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This study focuses on the development and use of intercultural competencies among Canadian international teachers who have worked in complex intercultural settings in China. Using a narrative inquiry approach, the research examines the lived experiences of four participants, highlighting their navigation of cultural differences. Guided by the question—What do the narratives of Canadian international teachers’ experiences navigating complex intercultural situations in China reveal about the development and use of intercultural competencies? —this study examines the stories of teachers who remained in China beyond their initial two-year employment contracts. Third space serves as the conceptual framework to describe and analyze the intercultural complexities within international classrooms. Participant narratives highlight three key themes: frames of reference shift, symbolic competence, and critical cultural awareness. These competencies do not emerge in a linear progression but interact recursively, shaping how educators mediate cultural differences. The findings emphasize the role of critical reflection, reflexivity, and lived experience in intercultural competency development, revealing a dynamic and reciprocal relationship between these competencies and Third Spaces. This study concludes by discussing broader implications for teacher preparation, international school retention strategies, and avenues for further research.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.004 | 0.006 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.027 | 0.017 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.006 | 0.004 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.007 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".