Mapping Global Research on International Student Agency: A Scientometric Review

Abstract

In light of the paradigm shift in the scholarship of international students that increasingly emphasizes students’ agentic participation, the topic of international student agency has attracted increasing attention. This scientometric paper outlines the research intellectual map, including an overview of publications, major contributors, and research foci, using a combination of CiteSpace and Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling between 2007 and 2024. The findings reveal a growing research interest in international student agency, especially since 2017. However, despite the efforts of leading and emerging contributors, collaboration remains relatively weak, signaling the need to strengthen collaboration so that scholarly conversations keep pushing scholarly boundaries and facilitate informed policymaking. Moreover, it identifies four research foci: experiential transformation, intercultural communication, community of practice, support and strategy. This study complements the existing qualitative literature review and provides valuable implications for further research.