CROSSING MULTIPLE BOUNDARIES AND THE MEANING OF HUMAN AGENCY

This paper depicts a way of conceptualizing identity change through my experience as visiting scholar in the United States for one year. This identity change was firstly triggered by studying abroad itself, subsequently strengthened by contents of class. According to my study of educational philosophy that I had been accustomed to until then, the concept of “self” was regarded as a generic term which was the presupposition of education. However, faced with a complex situation in the United States, I observed myself in classes in many ways and found my devotion to building up my identity comparing with ‘the others.’ Under the influence of the contents of the classes, I found a kind of similarity between a method of post-modernism – especially, Derrida’s several notions (Derrida, 1987; 1991) – and my reactions to the class practices. In the discussion that follows I try to interpret my experience with the lens of human agency of Michael Oakeshott (Oakeshott, 1975), which may help both educators and learners rethink the identity change in multi-cultural situations that represents a form of boundary crossing.