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Abstract
In international student mobility literature, international students have been categorized as either having or not having agency. Researchers calling international students “agents” define agency as “the capacity of international students to deal with the challenges” associated with a new environment, a new language, and a different academic context. However, “agency” can be interpreted in a different way: as the “resisting of norms and realities” (e.g., Scott, 1985). This thesis investigates the role and nature of agency in the formation of the academic identities of international doctoral students at an Australian university. Eight international doctoral students participated in this study. Each was interviewed seven times over the period of a year, with my own autoethnography also contributing to the study. Using a constructivist-grounded theoretical approach, the data collected was utilized to develop a story of international student mobility and academic identity formation. This was analyzed and interpreted using a number of different theories, including Bourdieu’s (1977) social field theory, Phillipson’s (1992) notion of linguistic imperialism, Said’s (1978) idea of “geographic imaginaries,” Butler’s (1990) performance theory, as well as agency theories (e.g. Hitlin & Elder (2007)). The findings of the study indicate that: the participants have been influenced by many familial, social, and academic factors to embark on international studies and, while they develop their academic identities in the process of doing a PhD, they do not consider themselves to be academics even upon completion of their programs. Further, this study provides clear evidence that the notions of agency currently found in the international student mobility literature are deficient. This research suggests that rather than students being considered as either having or not having agency, the agency that each student exercises can exist on a continuum ranging from “strategic choices aimed at self-advancement” at one end, to “improving the world/ pushing back against some aspect of ‘the system’” at the other.