“Once a Teacher, Now Invisible”: Reimagining Professional Identity in U.S. Education Among International Student Spouses

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Feminist Practices/Emotional Labor: Examining Intersectional Educator Identity

Abstract

This study centers the narratives of international student spouses (ISSs) on F-2 visas in the United States, who often face legal exclusion and institutional invisibility. While many held professional roles before migration, they experience structural erasure, financial dependence, and limited access to education and employment. Using narrative and thematic analysis, this research explores how ISSs navigate identity, belonging, and constrained agency across gendered and institutional contexts. The findings challenge narrow definitions of internationalization in higher education and call for inclusive policies that recognize ISSs as integral to academic communities. Their voices reshape understandings of mobility, recognition, and educational equity.

Author

• Parya Jangjou Tazehkand, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign