Theoretical Framework Bank

Compiled below is a bank of potential theoretical frameworks that researchers might consider, along with suggested readings to get you started with learning about them and seeing them in research practice. While this focuses on research about the internationalisation of higher education, it may be applicable more widely to other subjects in education and related fields.

Please note this list is an ongoing work in progress and is not intended to be fully comprehensive. Any suggested additions are welcome, including reference to your own work.

1. Theories about international students’ and staff’s experiences
2. Theories about identities and ‘the self’
3. Theories about pedagogies with international students
4. Theories about international students and the curriculum
5. Theories about culture, society, and social relations
6. Theories about intercultural friendships or relationships
7. Decolonial / postcolonial theories
8. Theories about mobilities

Theories about international students’ and staff’s 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)
Academic capitalism	The increasing commodification of academic work	Original: Slaughter & Leslie (1999) Example in practice: Kim (2017)

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 theory	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 with international students

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)
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 international students and 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 culture, society, and social relations

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)
Communities of practice	A set of people who share a common interest or practice	Original: Wenger (1998) Example in practice: Montgomery & McDowell (2008)
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)
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)
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)
Reception theory	Theory about the audience reception and interpretation of communication within their sociocultural contexts	Starting point: Hall (1973) Example in practice: Smyth (2009)
Flexible citizenship	Theory about the ways globalization have created a “transnational” public	Original: Ong (1999) Example in practice: Fong (2011)
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)
Everyday multiculturalism	Reflections on how multiculturalism is experienced in everyday interactions	Original: Wise & Velayutham (2009) Example in practice: Oke et al. (2015)

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)
Cosmopolitan agency	The ways an individual may actively seek interactions that render openness, respect, reflexivity in the face of cultural difference	Original: Kudo (2022)
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)

Decolonial / postcolonial theories

Theory	Purposefully over-simplified description	Suggested reading(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)
Subjugation	Forced dominance of one group over another through (neo-)colonialism and violence	Original: Fanon, (1952) Helpful guide in education: Leonardo & Singh (2017)
Third space / hybridity	The sense of ‘limbo’ or ‘in between-ness’ of individuals’ cultural identities	Original: Bhabha (1994) Example in practice: Pitts & Brooks (2017)
Double consciousness	The experience of dual identities in conflict within an oppressive society	Original: Du Bois (1903) Example in practice: Valdez (2015)
Epistemic violence	Damage imposed on the knowledge systems of marginalised groups	Original: Spivak (1988) Reflection in international higher education: Stein (2017)
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)
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 mobilities

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)

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