The enactment of agency in international academic mobility : a case of Chinese female PhD students in Australia

• Published in: Australian educational researcher Vol. 48; no. 4; pp. 757 - 770
• Main Author: Xu, Xing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Asians; Chinese; Chinese culture; Chinese students; Correlation; Data Analysis; Decision Making; Doctoral candidates; Doctoral programs; Doctoral Students; Education; Educational Environment; Educational Policy and Politics; Educational Psychology; Females; Foreign Countries; Foreign Students; Gender; Gender Differences; Graduate students; Higher education; Identity formation; International Education; International students; Interviews; Learning; Mass Media; Personal Autonomy; Qualitative research; Self Concept; Stereotypes; Student Attitudes; Student empowerment; Student Mobility; Teaching and Teacher Education; Transformative Learning; Validity; Womens education; Australia; China; Queensland Australia; New South Wales Australia; Agency in mobility; Female PhD; Australian higher education; Identity; In-betweenness; China
• ISSN: 0311-6999; 2210-5328
• DOI: 10.1007/s13384-020-00411-x

Despite widespread discourse subordinating the female PhD as a third gender in the Chinese media, little is known about how this cohort conceptualises themselves, especially in an international context. Based on a qualitative investigation into 10 Chinese female doctoral students in Australia, this study examines their enactment of agency in international academic mobility. Drawing on the notions of 'agency in mobility' and in-betweenness, this article shows that Chinese female PhD students demonstrate three forms of agency. Their agency influences how they judge, utilise, produce and imagine relations, symbols and activities in the in-between space, which in turn gives shape to their enactment of agency. This study challenges the validity of the idea that the Chinese female PhD is a sexless third gender and illuminates the dynamic reciprocity between agency and the in-betweenness in shaping their transformative doctoral student identity. [Author abstract]