Negotiating Professional Legitimacy: Digital Immigrant Lecturers in Intercultural Communication

Julia Magdalena Wuysang, Ira Patriani, Arkanudin, Adi Tri Baldi Sinambela, Rahmawati and Feibe Engeline Pijoh
Additional contact information
Julia Magdalena Wuysang: Universitas Tanjungpura Pontianak
Ira Patriani: Universitas Tanjungpura Pontianak
Arkanudin: Universitas Tanjungpura Pontianak
Adi Tri Baldi Sinambela: Universitas Tanjungpura Pontianak
Rahmawati: Universitas Syiah Kuala Banda Aceh
Feibe Engeline Pijoh: Universitas Negeri Manado

Technium Social Sciences Journal, 2026, vol. 88, issue 1, 73-93

Abstract: Digital transformation in Indonesian higher education, as part of the Global South, is reshaping not only learning technologies but also communicative norms and professional relationships between lecturers and students. This study explores how digital immigrant lecturers experience and negotiate intercultural communication with digital native students. Four interrelated issues are examined: tensions between demands for digital adaptation and established professional experience; differences in communicative norms and expectations; negotiation of professional identity, face, and legitimacy; and uncertainty in digital communication that affects trust and academic relationships. Existing literature on digital immigrants has largely framed adaptation in terms of technological competence or generational divides, while communicative experience and the negotiation of professional legitimacy in Global South contexts remain insufficiently understood. The study adopts a qualitative design with an interpretive phenomenological orientation and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), involving 25 digital immigrant lecturers as primary participants and 12 digital native students as contextual participants. Data were collected through interviews, non-participant observations, and document analysis, using Critical Intercultural Communication as the analytical lens. Findings show that adaptation is an interpretive and relational process involving digital uncertainty, intercultural tension, professional face negotiation, and the reconstruction of academic legitimacy. The study introduces Communicative Negotiation of Professional Legitimacy, reconceptualizing digital adaptation as a communicative process through which professional position, identity, and legitimacy are negotiated in Global South higher education.

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://techniumscience.com/index.php/socialsciences/article/view/13852 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tec:journl:ojs:13852

DOI: 10.47577/tssj.v88i1.13852

Access Statistics for this article

Technium Social Sciences Journal is currently edited by Tasente Tanase

More articles in Technium Social Sciences Journal from Technium Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tasente Tanase ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).