Negotiating Metacognitive Learning Strategies in a Multicultural Graduate Classroom: A Case Study of MA in Education Students at an International Liberal Arts University for Women

Abstract

The aim of this qualitative case study was to examine the negotiation and transformation of metacognitive learning strategies of female postgraduate students from different countries, language and education backgrounds in a multicultural Master of Arts in Education program in an international liberal arts university for women in Chattogram, Bangladesh. The study was based on an interpretivist paradigm and social constructivist lens to investigate how learners' planning, monitoring, and evaluating processes change as they move from teacher-centered and examination-oriented schooling traditions to a graduate pedagogy that focuses on discussion. Qualitative data were collected and manually reflexively themed from multi-cohort samples of individual semi-structured interviews (N = 13), participant-driven photovoice submissions, and a focus group discussion. The results yielded three main themes: (1) Tactical Scaffolding and Environment Engineering in Response to Pedagogical Shock, in which participants materialized planning through physical workspaces and used generative artificial intelligence (AI) as a real- time cognitive and linguistic scaffold to address the text anxiety; (2) From Monolithic Truth to Epistemological Pluralism through Peer-Mediated Disagreement, in which sustained intercultural peer dialogue moved participants away from authority-dependent models towards contextual, pluralistic knowledge construction; and (3) Affective Self-Regulation and the Re-Anchoring of Education as a Civic Resilience Strategy, in which self-regulation extended beyond cognitive loops to include well-being practices, identity reconstruction, and a civic reorientation towards community empowerment. The study overall questions individualistic, purely cognitive Western models of metacognitive regulation by showing that metacognitive regulation in multicultural higher education is a socially distributed, culturally situated, affectively mediated and

11 technologically supported practice. The findings have significant implications for the theoretical and pedagogical aspects of supporting international students, the ethical use of AI, and culturally sustaining education in the Global South for the graduate level.