(Re)conceptualizing International Student Mobility

Abstract

Although educational border crossings are not new, the creation of innovative theoretical constructs, such as transnational social fields, to examine the flow of students and social networks across national borders is a profound development. Within transnational social fields, a constant flow of ideas and practices is embedded within relationships, offering a framework for addressing evolving associations across borders to better understand how university students construct identities and negotiate social spaces, physical locales, and the geography of the mind. Employing the concept of transnational social fields in an analysis of student mobility illuminates student negotiations by recognizing simultaneity in localities and multiplicity in identities and refuting the generalization or homogenization of student experiences. This article aims to provide a working understanding of transnational social fields and justify adopting concepts that currently reside outside of the existing cross-border education discourse to frame international student negotiations that are not thoroughly explored or understood.