Theoretical frameworks are essential for guiding research and then lens through which we see our studies. In research related to internationalisation of higher education, theoretical frameworks support with positioning research away from deficit narratives. Compiled below is a list of potential theoretical frameworks that researchers might consider, along with suggested readings to get you strated with learning about them and seeing them in research practice. While this focuses on research about the internationalisation of higher education, it maybe 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 student and staff 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 multilayered 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 identity development 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) |
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: Forbes-Mewett & McColloch (2015) |
Critical race theory | Recognition of race as a social construct and how social structures can be inherently racist | Starting point: McCoy (2015) Example in practice: Yao et al. (2018) |
Asian critical race theory (AsianCrit) | A branch of critical race theory focusing specifically on the racialised 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 intercultural friendships / 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 (2013) |
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 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) |
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 | Original: Said (1978) 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) |
Theories about mobilities
Theory | Purposefully over-simplified description | Suggested reading(s) |
Spacial 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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