An International Bildungsroman: Narrative Explorations of Women International Students' Experiences in Preparing to Enter the Academic Job Market

International students represent a vital component of U.S. campuses and play a major role in the diversification and internationalization of U.S. higher education. With international enrollment, particularly at the graduate level, seeing an upward trend after the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States will continue to produce a large number of international graduates with PhD degrees, many of whom seeking to enter the U.S. academic workforce they have been trained and prepared for. Women international PhD holders traditionally experience more challenges and hurdles when transitioning from their doctoral programs to professional academia, posing the question on how to best support these academic transitions that feed the pipeline for international faculty at U.S. higher education institutions. There is an overall lack of research focusing on post-graduation career pathways for international students, with particularly few studies looking at international women’s transitions from being students to joining the academic workforce. By better understanding the transitional experiences of international women PhD students, insights into the ways in which institutions can better support this student population are gained. Employing a narrative design, more specifically one of a Bildungsroman, this qualitative study is grounded in the educational journeys of seven women who obtained their doctoral degrees as F-1 international students at U.S. higher education institutions. Through narrative interviews, data was collected and subsequently analyzed. The theoretical framework guiding this study emerged from a Borderland approach to theory, and resulted in a model of transitional mattering throughout anticipatory socialization. When talking about transitional experiences, feelings of marginality and mattering play a central role in shaping all phases of the transfer and socialization process. The ways in which the women interviewed felt like they did or did not matter throughout their transitions from doctoral programs to aspiring to enter professional U.S. academia informed an addition of internal mattering to the model of transitional mattering, and further produced themes around the importance of choice when it comes to career trajectories, the importance of the role of advisors and mentors, as well as the support from a network and community of peers. The implications of this study include an increased focus on taking into consideration international students’ career aspirations and giving them choices throughout career advising, an increased awareness of the specific needs of women international students, the specialized training of career advising staff as well as faculty advisors and mentors, and finally an increased focus on the promotion and facilitation of internal mattering among international graduate students.

Embargo status: Restricted until 06/2028. To request the author grant access, click on the PDF link to the left.