Based on two representative cases drawn from a larger multi-sited ethnographic project, this study examines the process of identity construction among Chinese international students in the U.S.A., focusing on how the students (re)negotiate their subject positions vis-à-vis their home and host societies. Building on a conceptualization of the…

This duoethnographical study explores the experiences of the two authors, Joanna and Sarah, as international students in the United States that do not quite fully fit in any of the categories described in research literature. Using a Borderland theoretical approach, the authors explore the in-between spaces at the intersections of their identities…

In response to calls for more individualized research on international student mobility (ISM), this article reports on a hermeneutic phenomenological study into the lived experience of two participants, one from Inner Mongolia, China and one from Ecuador, who migrated internationally for higher education. Within a constructivist epistemological…

A growing body of scholarship has examined different aspects of the international student experience in higher education institutions, yet few studies have critically interrogated the very concept of the "international student" itself. In this article, we consider the different ways in which politico-legal practices of boundarymaking…

While international education has long been characterized by mobility, the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted our attention to immobility when thousands of international students have experienced immobility in various ways, one of which is being stuck in their home countries. This paper records how the new situation of immobility challenged an…

This qualitative study utilized a constructivist grounded theory approach to understand how rural students engaged with people in their home community as it related to before, during, and after their study abroad experience and what impact that engagement had on their experiences. Participants included 15 students who self-identified as being from…

There is a scarcity of scholarship that sheds light on international doctoral students' identity construction in quotidian encounters beyond the formal curriculum. In this autoethnographic study, based on my diary entries, via a socio-constructivist lens, I teased out my multidimensional identity construction by referring to situations, activities…

Studying overseas may offer myriad riches of extraordinary experiences, especially due to the opportunities to immerse into a different academic culture. However, for some, the difference may be a hurdle that brings them into a mental roller coaster along with their academic career. In this reflective paper, against the backdrop of my overseas…

International education has focused on the learning processes of minority, low-income college students and learners of color. This study analyzes the experiences of nine minority, first-generation U.S. undergraduates from a four-year college in the southeastern U.S. who pursued study abroad and Global Studies during 2015-2022. Global Studies is an…

Asian and Asian American students comprise 7.5% of all participants in U.S. study abroad, compared to 9% Hispanic, 4.7% African American or Black, and 71.2% White students. However, beyond one large-scale study of academic outcomes, only three studies--all with fewer than four participants--have investigated the study abroad experiences and…

Reflecting upon self-identity is important for teachers and teacher candidates, many of whom have different backgrounds from their multicultural, multilingual students. In this study I analyze data from cultural excavation activities completed by ten teacher candidates during study abroad in Peru, in which they critically reflected upon their own…

The PhD students in this study create a sense of being at home as part of their own way of being themselves. Their programme requires and allows considerable autonomy in how they choose to be with the people around them. Different to common expectations of the 'international student', their nationality and its 'culture' being apart from the…

With the development of internationalization in higher education, an increasing number of Sino-Foreign cooperative education institutes have been established in China over the last two decades. These institutes offer English-medium instruction where English is the working language for students to conduct various academic tasks. Based on a case…

The experience of participating in a mobility program is both enriching and shocking. While facing different identities and asymmetrical relations of power, the international student from the Global South is forced to reanalyze his or her identity in the world. The politics of racialization and the dichotomy between the politics of belonging and…

International students are aspirational and expectant of their learning improving the quality of their life. The stress from academic pressure and acculturative challenges exasperates them from fully experiencing a quality higher educational experience. Despite this, they continuously strive to learn and adjust as they construct their academic…