Engaging Underrepresented International Students as Partners: Agency and Constraints Among Rwandan Students in the United States

Abstract

As international student mobility expands and student populations grow increasingly diverse, there is a need to engage underrepresented international students as partners to better understand their lived experiences and co-construct supports for navigating the opportunities and constraints that accompany mobility. This article presents findings from a multisited ethnography that examines the experiences of scholarship recipients from Rwanda pursuing undergraduate degrees in the United States. Drawing on spatial and transnational theories, the study illuminates how student engagement is constrained by conflicting expectations, representations, and relationships and highlights how students exercise agency as they navigate their international education experiences. In drawing attention to the diversity of international students’ spatial imaginaries, the study provides a starting point for universities to develop deeper and more sensitive understandings of mobile students’ differences.