Narrative Formation of Students' Identities in Kurdistan University

The present study has aimed to investigate changes in students' attitudes and believes that ultimately lead to the formation of their final identity after entering the university. Hence a qualitative narrative approach has been used. The statistical population comprised all students of Kurdistan University in Iran. Using convenience sampling, 14 students who volunteered to participate in the study and express their narratives were selected. Data was collected using semi-structured interviews, which continued to reach a theoretical saturation. The duration of the interviews varied from 40 to 60 minutes. The Braun and Clark method were used to analyze the data and achieve the main themes. The main issue in this study was the changes in students' believes and the formation of their identity in different fields, which were influenced by several factors. According to the results, the main extracted themes are: political identity, spiritual identity, scientific identity and social identity of students, which has been formed as a result of attending university in a different way than the time of arrival.