Theoretical Framework Bank

This resource is a bank of potential theoretical and conceptual frameworks or models that researchers might consider, along with suggested readings to get you started with learning about them and seeing them in research practice. This list is purposefully simplified for beginners and we use the term ‘theoretical framework’ in its broadest sense possible. We recommend that scholars do much more discipline-specific reading before embedding any concepts into their research designs. We also highlight there are disciplinary and epistemological variations in how words like ‘theory’, ‘concept’, or ‘model’ are used for research, which readers should be mindful of.

Please contact us if you have suggestions for new frameworks to add or a paper you would like included as an example.

Theories about ‘experiences’

Theory	Purposefully over-simplified description	Suggested reading(s)
Ecological systems theory	The multiple environmental and social systems that impact on an individuals’ experiences	Original: Bronfenbrenner (1979) Further conceptualisation in higher education: Jones (2017) Example in practice: Elliot et al. (2016)
Multidimensional transition theory	The multi-layered academic, social, and emotional transitions that individuals encounter when moving from one space to another	Introduction: Jindal-Snape & Ingram (2013) Example in practice: Jindal-Snape & Rienties (2016)
Academic resilience theory	Students’ capacity to adapt and develop under uncertainty or adversity	One approach: Holdsworth et al. (2017) Example in practice: Singh (2021)
Rhizomatic transitions	Construction of students’ transitions experiences away from linear pathways towards more fluid, ongoing experiences	Original: Deleuze & Guatarri (1987) Further conceptualisation in higher education: Gravett (2019) Example in practice: Balloo et al. (2021)
Student engagement model	Model of factors that impact students’ university retention and success	Original: Tinto (1975) Example in practice: Rienties et al. (2012)
Liminality	Transitional space that may lead to disorientation or ambiguity	Original: Turner (1969) Example in practice: Parker et al. (2010)

Theories about identities and ‘the self’

Theory	Purposefully over-simplified description	Suggested reading(s)
Student agency theory	Students’ capacity to make choices within the constraints of their lived realities	One approach: Biesta & Tedder (2007) Example in practice: Tran & Vu (2016)
Identity theory	The construction of the self through interactions with experiences and culture	One approach: Hall (1996) Example in practice: Pham & Saltmarsh (2013)
Self-formation	The enactment of agency and development of identity through higher education study	Starting point: Marginson (2013)
Capability approach	Theory that people achieve well-being through their capabilities to be and do what they value	One approach: Nussbaum (2011) Another approach: Sen (1973); Sen (1995) Example in practice: Fakunle (2020)
Possible selves	Approach to understanding individuals’ imagined “like-to-be” and “like-to-avoid” futures	Original: Markus & Nurius (1986) Application to higher education: Harrison (2018); Henderson et al. (2019) Example in practice: Yang & Noels (2013)
Intersectional theory	Framework for understanding how a person’s multiple identities lead to different forms of oppression and discrimination	Original: Crenshaw (1989) Example in practice: Glass et al. (2022)
Critical race theory	Recognition of race as a social construct and how social structures are inherently racist	Starting point: McCoy (2015) Reflection in education: DeCuir & Dixson (2004) Example in practice: Yao et al. (2018)
Critical race feminism	A branch of critical race theory which looks at the intersectional oppressions experienced by women of color	Original: Wing (1997) Example in practice: Jones (2023)
Asian critical race theory (AsianCrit)	A branch of critical race theory focusing specifically on the racialized experiences of Asians	Starting point: Iftikar & Museus (2018) Example in practice: Yao & Mwangi (2022)
Gendered racialisation	The intersecting identities of gender and race	Original: Selod (2018) Example in practice: Karaman & Christian (2020)
Raciolinguistics	The ways that language shapes our thinking about race or racialised practices	Starting point: Alim et al. (2016) Example in practice: Dovchin (2019)

Theories about pedagogies

Theory	Purposefully over-simplified description	Suggested reading(s)
Critical pedagogies	Application of critical theory to education; philosophy of education that focuses on issues of social justice, power imbalances, and domination	Originals: Freire (1970); Giroux (2011) Linked to international students: Khalideen (2015)
hooks’ Engaged pedagogy	Critical pedagogy approach that values relationships between student / teacher, teacher self-actualisation, humanistic approaches to education	Original: hooks (1994) Linked to international students: Madge et al. (2009)
Academic hospitality	Reflection on academic staff as ‘hosts’ to reciprocally support students as ‘guests’	Original: Bennett (2000) Further conceptualisation: Ploner (2018)
Bernstein’s pedagogic devices	Theory focusing on the ways pedagogies represent symbolic control over knowledge	Original: Bernstein (2000) Example in practice: Zeegers & Barron (2008)
Transformative learning	Evaluation of past experience through the acquisition of new knowledge	Original: Mezirow (1991) Example in practice: Nada et al. (2018); Nada & Legutko (2022); López Murillo (2021)
Pedagogy of possibility	Reflections on the ways that pedagogy has the potential to contribute to the ‘service of human freedom’	Original: Simon (1987) Example in practice: Cassily & Clarke-Vivier (2016)

Theories about the curriculum

Theory	Purposefully over-simplified description	Suggested reading(s)
Hidden curriculum	The unwritten lessons learned about normative values, beliefs, ethics, etc. as a result of educational provisions and settings	Starting point: Apple (1989) Example in practice: Kidman et al. (2017)
Internationalisation of the curriculum	Inclusion of international or intercultural elements into the content and delivery of education	Starting point: Leask (2015) Further theorisation: Clifford & Montgomery (2017) Example in practice: Vishwanath & Mummery (2018)
Glocalisation	The blending of global and local elements in the curriculum	Starting point: Robertson (1994) Further theorisation in higher education: Patel & Lynch (2013)
Tourist gaze	Approach to learning about other cultures as a ‘guest’ or ‘tourist’	Starting point: Urry & Larsen (2011) Example in practice: Vinall & Shin (2019)

Theories about society and social interactions

Theory	Purposefully over-simplified description	Suggested reading(s)
Bourdieusian theory	Set of thinking tools for investigating power and the way it impacts individuals and societies through structural constraints	Original: Bourdieu (1979) Helpful guide: Grenfell (2013) Situated in higher education: Heffernan (2022) Example in practice: Xu (2017)
Foucauldian theory	Set of thinking tools for investigating power relationships in society, including how they influence language or practice	Original: Foucault (1977); Foucault (1972) Helpful guide: Ball (2013) Example in practice: Koehne (2006)
Goffman’s ‘performative self’ and ‘stigmatised self’	Set of thinking tools for investigating the ways that people present and manage their identities in social spaces	Original: Goffman (1959) Example in practice: Li (2015)
Gramscian theory	Theory of cultural hegemony – how the state and high economic class use institutions to maintain power	Original: Gramsci (1971) Helpful guide: Mayo (2015) Example in practice: Kim (2011)
Marx’s conflict theory	Theory that conflict exists in society where people compete for finite resources	Original: Rowcroft (2021) Example in practice: Jiang (2011)
Durkheim’s solidarity (and the following structural functionalism)	Society is a sum of its interlinking parts and institutions can be studied to understand their role in maintaining social cohesion	Original: Durkheim (1895) Example in higher education: Bodin & Orange (2018)
Systems theory	Society exists as a set of social systems and subsystems	Original: Luhmann (2012) Example in higher education: Kleimann (2019)
Wenger’s communities of practice	A set of people who share a common interest or practice	Original: Wenger (1998) Example in practice: Montgomery & McDowell (2008)
Holland’s figured worlds	Development of the self in relation to the social types in their surrounding world	Original: Holland et al (2001) Example in practice: Chang et al., (2017)
Engestrom’s cultural historical activity theory (CHAT)	Relationship between the mind and action within an individual’s situated social world	Original: Engestrom (2001) Example in practice: Straker (2016)
Weber’s Social action theory	The way behaviours are shaped and understood through social reactions of others	Original: Weber (1978) Example in practice: Cantwell et al. (2009)
Fraser’s social justice theory	A framework for understanding the causes and mechanisms of justice and injustice	Starting point: Vincent (2019) Example in practice: Briffett Aktaş (2021)
Hall’s Reception theory	Theory about the audience reception and interpretation of communication within their sociocultural contexts	Starting point: Hall (1973) Example in practice: Smyth (2009)
Archer’s morphogenesis	Society has no ‘pre-set’ form, but is constantly developing and changing through activity and individual agency	Original: Archer (1995) Example in higher education: Case (2015)

Decolonial / postcolonial theories

Theory	Purposefully over-simplified description	Suggested reading(s)
Decoloniality	Resistance to the ‘colonial matrix of power’ that affects what we value, our laws, economics, knowledge systems and curriculum	Key author*: Mignolo (2000), (2018) Helpful guide: Maldonaldo-Torres (2011) Reflection in international higher education: Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2021) Example in practice with international students: Bardhan and Zhang (2017)
Quijano’s coloniality of power	How social power relations continue to be dominated by Eurocentric colonialism	Original: Quijano (2000) Example in practice: Udah (2021)
Said’s Orientalism	Negative portrayals and ‘othering’ of ‘the East’ by ‘the West’ which serve to maintain colonial power and assumed superiority	Originals: Said (1978), Tibawi (1965), Djait (1977) Helpful guide: Leonardo (2020) Example in practice: Yao (2018)
Fanon’s Subjugation	Forced dominance of one group over another through (neo-)colonialism and violence	Original: Fanon, (1952) Helpful guide in education: Leonardo & Singh (2017)
Du Bois’ double consciousness	The experience of dual identities in conflict within an oppressive society	Original: Du Bois (1903) Example in practice: Valdez (2015)
Spivak’s epistemic violence	Damage imposed on the knowledge systems of marginalised groups	Original: Spivak (1988) Reflection in international higher education: Stein (2017)
Memmi’s colonial identity	Complex experiences of both being colonised and feeling a sense of identity with the coloniser	Original: Memmi (1957)
Whiteness as futurity	The ways that whiteness and supremacy of Western higher education perpetuates future neo-colonialism	Starting point: Shahjahan & Edwards (2022) Example in practice: Xu (2022)

Theories about culture and multiculturalism

Halliday’s ‘small culture’ theory	The avoidance of a national essentialism of culture through understanding cultural similarities of small social groupings	Original: Halliday (1999) Example in practice: Johansen & Tkachenko (2019)
Bhabha’s third space / hybridity	The sense of ‘limbo’ or ‘in between-ness’ of individuals’ cultural identities	Original: Bhabha (1994) Example in practice: Pitts & Brooks (2017)
Everyday multiculturalism	Reflections on how multiculturalism is experienced in everyday interactions	Original: Wise & Velayutham (2009) Example in practice: Oke et al. (2015)
Flexible citizenship	Theory about the ways globalization have created a “transnational” public	Original: Ong (1999) Example in practice: Fong (2011)
Cosmopolitan agency	The ways an individual may actively seek interactions that render openness, respect, reflexivity in the face of cultural difference	Original: Kudo (2022)

Theories about intercultural friendships or relationships

Theory	Purposefully over-simplified description	Suggested reading(s)
Intercultural friendship framework	Framework for understanding how intercultural friendships develop on higher education campuses	Kudo et al. (2019)
Intergroup contact theory	Theory that biases and prejudices can be minimized through positive contact with people from different outgroups	Original: Allport (1954) More modern introduction: Dovidio et al. (2005) Meta-analysis: Pettigrew & Tropp (2006)
Intergroup threat theory	Theory that encounters between individuals from different backgrounds can lead to discomforts or threatening feelings	Original: Stephen & Stephen (2000) Example in practice: Harrison & Peacock (2009)
Blumer’s symbolic interactionism	Symbolic meaning developed through social interactions and relationships	Original: Blumer (1969) Example in practice: Tran & Pham (2016)
Homans’ social exchange theory	Understanding the motivations and expectations of individuals in social interactions	Original: Homans (1958) Example in practice: Fan et al. (2018)

Theories about mobilities and space

Theory	Purposefully over-simplified description	Suggested reading(s)
Spatial theories	Relations between socially-constructed spaces and times	Original: Lefebvre & Nicholson-Smith (1991) Further theorisation in higher education: Larsen & Beech (2014) Example in practice: Waters & Leung (2012)
Migration infrastructures	Interlinking structures that enable or constrain mobilities	Starting point: Xiang & Lindquist (2018) Example in practice: Hu et al. (2020)
Anzaldúa’s borderlands	Analysis of complex cultural hybridities in border spaces	Original: Anzaldúa (1987)
Ahmed’s ‘encounters’	The meeting points of ‘familiar’ and ‘unfamiliar’ bodies	Original: Ahmed (2000) Further reading: Ombagi (2016)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.