Analysis of Bias in International Education from the Perspective of Intersectionality Theory

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International students encounter more psychological, structural, and social challenges that negatively affect their mental health, academic engagement, and college readiness. Collectively, these challenges have a crucially negative effect on their academic achievement. To be specific, previous researchers often attribute international students' lower academic performance to experiences of sexism or racism alone. However, intersectionality theory suggests that harmful stereotypes can compound and lead to heightened discrimination; for instance, black female students experience significantly more discrimination than white male students, thereby considerably limiting their opportunities to achieve excellent academic success and engage in university social activities. Thus, by reviewing previous findings, the current study argues that the multiple disadvantaged identities of international students compound to negatively affect their academic performance, particularly when they have intersections of both underprivileged gender and race. The current study highlights the critical role of intersectional identities in international students' differential vulnerability, making them more vulnerable to intersectional biases than native students. Furthermore, the up-to-date intervention proposed to promote education equity for international students is discussed. Fortunately, numerous classroom designs attempt to engage international students in classroom education and are deployed to satisfy international students' diverse needs, the most sophisticated of which is the flipped classroom.