Identity Development among Bangladeshi Women Doctoral Students in Chinese Universities: A Study across Different Stages of the PhD Journey

Abstract Book of the 10th World Conference on Teaching and Education

Year: 2026

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Identity Development among Bangladeshi Women Doctoral Students in Chinese Universities: A Study across Different Stages of the PhD Journey

Dr. Nabeal Ummi

ABSTRACT:

This study focuses on the identity development of Bangladeshi women doctoral students in Chinese universities in Beijing based on their experiences. This study aims to investigate the process of identity development for Bangladeshi women doctoral students while pursuing a degree in Beijing. By listening to their voices from their own perspectives, it was examined how they decided to pursue a degree in Beijing, China, what specific struggles they faced as women doctoral students, and how the relationships around them affected their doctoral journey.
It was shown that they struggled as women doctoral students because of multiple reasons in China, having a similar cultural family dynamic, yet being a different country from Bangladesh, considering the economic and technological advancement. In this dissertation, I propose that Bangladeshi women doctoral students suffer from both neoliberalism, which enforces self-development and competitiveness, and the traditional patriarchal system, which imposes traditional roles on them at the same time. Therefore, they have more difficulties and challenges while pursuing their degree because of their multiple duties and roles as a woman, student, wife, and mother, which inevitably conflict with each other. Even so, the experiences as a story are also shown to constantly try to make a meaningful life as women throughout their time as doctoral students, considering this time a transition toward becoming an adaptive human being carrying heavy expectations.
To conduct this study, sixteen Bangladeshi female doctoral students enrolled in Chinese universities in Beijing participated in this qualitative study through their personal narratives. For finding participants, purposive and snowball sampling methods were used. With the consideration that the life course is closely linked with cultural norms in a society, and age is an important factor in norms of Asian countries, the age range for participants in this study was restricted from 28 to 40. For data collection, an uncontrolled conversational interview starting with an open-ended question was used.
To examine their specific struggles and difficulties as female doctoral students in Chinese universities, first of all, three groups were formed based on their motivations to come to China, and then the data were analyzed based on the three phases of doctoral education formed by Gardner (2008). Also, regarding relationship factors, 16 participants were categorized into four groups depending on their marriage status and having a child or not: single without a boyfriend, single with a boyfriend, married without children, and married with children. Based on feminist perspectives, data were analyzed and discussed with comparative and cross-check analysis methods across the three groups in each section. Also, the cultural and social context was considered as well.
The analysis reveals that the more solid their core personal identity is, the less they are influenced by the conflicts during the journey of achieving a degree. However, it shows the tension and dilemma between the eagerness for self-achievement in a professional and traditional lifestyle expected of women, especially with the big influences of relationships around them. In other words, on one hand, women students seek to achieve professional goals and look forward to their own lives as professional scholars. On the other hand, they are expected to live with feminine personalities, earn income to contribute to their family and children, yet still expected to be a perfect wife, and especially, a perfect mothers with their given roles by society.
Therefore, while pursuing their doctoral degree, their two strong senses of self as social identity were conflicted and often made them feel as ‘being in a dilemma as a woman and an international student pursuing a higher degree. The implications of this research will be significant for the understanding of female doctoral students within a different context.

Keywords: Bangladeshi Women Doctoral Students, Identity Development, Neoliberalism, Gender Dilemma, Qualitative Narrative Study