ABSTRACT
The discourses associated with international students continue to be influenced by the history and geopolitics of international student mobility and are still influenced by Western colonial attitudes. This positioning of international students coalesces around some key concepts including writing about the international student experience, engagement with dominant Western theory and writers’ positionality. Ways of writing about international students can either contribute to perpetuating negative constructions with potentially neo-racist implications or allow an opportunity for an ‘Empire writes back’ approach, which could re-centre international students in international education. This chapter makes suggestions for ways of writing critically about the international student experience, incorporating non-Western research perspectives in writing and developing awareness of our own positionality in writing.
