“C’est Compliqué!”*: A Critical Exploration of how African International Students in France Negotiate Aspects of Power, Identity and Agency

Abstract

This thesis explored the experiences of two African international students in France during their first-year master’s program, specifically highlighting aspects of identity, agency and power. African students are particularly drawn to France to pursue higher education degrees because of the future prospects for improved pro-fessional opportunities and also the desire to help improve the quality of life in their home countries. Despite common French language proficiency and similar educa-tion systems, these students face particular challenges due to socio-historic stand-ing with regard to France’s legacy of colonialism in Africa. This critical study aims to advance understanding of how these students negotiated identities and used agency in their encounters with power discourses in their new social environment.

By way of critical qualitative approach, I gathered data during one school year from two African students through semi-structured, in-depth, narrative inter-views conducted in French. The participating students were chosen on the basis of their status as new international students from the African continent studying civil engineering in their first year at a university in France. They were interviewed for sixty to ninety minutes, five times over two semesters. This method allowed the par-ticipants to express and reflect upon the perceptions of their experiences in the new host context. After transcription, the data was coded inductively allowing themes to emerge under the constructs of identity, agency and power.

The major themes that dominated the students’ narratives were related to be-longing, discrimination and financial insecurity. Critical incidents were identified which uncovered the participants’ flexibility as they negotiated identity options, agency as they resisted negative imposed identities and power as they retold expe-riences related to stereotyping and racial discrimination. The findings were ana-lyzed within the frameworks of Critical and Postcolonial, Decoloniality, Critical Race Theories as well as Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice, namely, field, habitus and capi-tal. Unexpected findings included experiences with discrimination and racism, the role of faith as capital and the influence of intrinsic motivation, national and imag-ined identities and the educated habitus influencing the participants’ academic and social experiences as African international students in France.

This study was significant as it exposed the challenges and socially unjust experiences international students of color face while studying in France. Addition-ally, it provided a nuanced view of these students’ personal experiences by spot-lighting aspects of identity, agency and power as crucial components related to well-being. This information could be useful to university teachers and administra-tors in France who consider the successful adaptation and fair treatment of this stu-dent population to be important.