scholarly journals Practicing the Rhythms of an International Doctoral Student’s Life through Compassion, Connection, Commitment and Creativity: Enactment of Learner Agency

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Mao

International doctoral students live with more uncertainty than most academic populations. In this essay, I attempt to provide a framework for living an international doctoral life by reflecting on my academic studies and personal living practices, drawing on van Lier’s (2008) notion of learner agency. Living a rhythm of life through compassion, connection, commitment, and creativity could holistically benefit the academic studies and wellbeing of international doctoral students.

2021 ◽  
pp. 102831532110420
Author(s):  
Xuan Pham ◽  
David Bright

The purpose of this paper is to unpack the meanings and implications of mobility through the experiences of a group of Vietnamese women who decided to do doctorates in Australia. Drawing on the Deleuzian concepts of rhizome and becoming, our analysis of interview data suggests that mobility is made of multiple connections and is in constant movement, extending often reductive “push-pull” discussions of academic mobility. Each aspect shaping mobility connects to another that is multiscalar and multitemporal, where family, education ideologies, gender norms, economic globalization, neoliberalization within higher education, and the histories and biographies of mobile people come together. Power relations are immanent within structures associated with these connections and the women and mobility come together to create aspirations for educational, professional, and personal becoming. The paper offers a more nuanced understanding of international academic mobility rather than relying on economic perspectives and invites innovative approaches in supporting international doctoral students.


Author(s):  
Grace Ukasoanya

With an increase in precarity globally, there is a need to emphasize proactive self-management of the PhD process for international doctoral students. They may better manage their PhD training journeys if approached as a quest for life career construction. This chapter contributes to research that situates PhD training experience in self-construction of career. The author highlights the self-work that international doctoral students undertake as they construct life careers through a PhD process. She concludes that international doctoral students begin to design their careers from the PhD application process and continue throughout the space and span of the training. She recommends that the counseling field explore different ways to use self and career design approaches to develop self-management orientation resources for international doctoral students.


Author(s):  
Kathleen P. King ◽  
Lu Norstrand ◽  
Julie A. Leos

As an increased number of international students join College and University classrooms across the United States, their transition and acclimation to campuses has received attention over the past few years, particularly, in the areas of preparation and acculturation. This topic is important because faculty mentors can play a pivotal role in the professional development of international doctoral students. This article addresses these needs with a model which integrates adult learning and mentoring strategies to support international doctoral students. The model includes developing the skills which not only international graduates, but all graduates will benefit from in the 21st century. The significance of this model is its contribution to develop the valuable capabilities of proactive, problem solving, self-directed learners/academics able to self-reflect and navigate different cultural environments than their own. The discussion also provides future research recommendations.


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