Internationalization at Home seeks an international / intercultural learning experience for all students and staff, and is central to the important debate on values and outcomes in Internationalization in Europe (Beelen and Jones, 2015). Aligned with broader equality and diversity policies and practices (Caruana and Ploner, 2010) it is concerned with social cohesion within as well as between societies. This study takes a narrative approach, known for its insights into questions of self as well cultural complexity (Trahar, 2011) exploring the experiences of a higher education practitioner and two ‘home’ student-participants over a three-year period. It asked whether participants developed a sense of self-in-the-world (Killick, 2013) and if so, what might facilitate or hinder this process. Killick’s multi-dimensional concept refocuses the debate around global citizenship on questions of self and relations with others, rather than behaviours and attributes. Grounded in a non-essentialist conception of culture, sense of self-in-the world is not dependent on crossing national borders but in engaging with otherness in all we do. Narrative interviews took place with each participant each semester, moving from semi-structured interviews to more loosely guided conversations (Trahar, 2011). A combination of thematic and dialogic narrative analysis (Riessmann, 2008) was used for analysis. The former served to capture how the themes from the literature were constructed in the interviews and how they evolved; the latter allowed a consideration of the themes in the light of the research context and relationship between the participants and myself. The narratives suggest that take-up of opportunities to internationalise one’s experience depends on a number of factors including family background, previous educational experiences, ties between ‘home’ and existing social networks, motivations and personal qualities. They reveal that the ‘internationalised’ campus is not a level playing field for home and international students and staff, with stereotyping, discrimination, ‘othering’ commonplace. Ultimately, however, for the participants, they are stories of personal growth, which can be mapped against established modes of intercultural development (King and Baxter Magolda, 2005; Bennett, M. 2004). Although the initial focus was on students, it became apparent that the critical dialogue taking place was integral to the process, and my personal and professional learning emerged as an important contribution. The study has implications for curriculum delivery, specifically relationships with students and the importance of critical reflection. It contributes to the move from ‘symbolic’ to ‘transformative’ internationalization (Robson and Turner, 2007) through the small but necessary personal transitions of individuals.

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