A Bourdieusian exploration of international students' WeChatting experiences in China: a habitus of digital learning

Digital media is increasingly incorporated into international students' learning journeys. However, few studies have explored international students' use of WeChat in their learning journeys in China. Using Bourdieu's thinking tools, this qualitative study explores 45 international students' experiences of using WeChat in their everyday learning practices. Findings show that participants' initial learning stage saw the emerging habitus of WeChatting, generating their dispositions of classificatory schemata and reflexive thinking. Their continued navigation of WeChat as a mobile learning tool reinforced their digital dispositions through ontological complicity with the doxic field of WeChat. Moreover, flexible and malleable dimensions of participants' digital dispositions were found in correspondence with the precarious, dynamic nature of WeChat. This study enriches existing literature about international students' digital transitions from a sociological perspective. It offers implications for institutional support of international students' learning journeys in the Chinese and global higher educational contexts.