
Theoretical frameworks are essential for guiding research and the lens through which we see our studies. In research related to the internationalisation of higher education and international students, theoretical frameworks support with positioning research away from deficit narratives.
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.
- Theories about international students’ and staff’s experiences
- Theories about identities and ‘the self’
- Theories about pedagogies with international students
- Theories about international students and the curriculum
- Theories about culture, society, and social relations
- Theories about intercultural friendships or relationships
- Decolonial / postcolonial theories
- 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) |
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