The literature often depicts international students as deficient due to poor English language skills and limited participation in class, thus positioning them as lacking in agency or habitually weak. This article reframes international students as resourceful learners by focusing on their academic learning through brokering, that is, help-seeking social interactions. Understood as part of informal learning practices, brokering interactions take place when students seek assistance with unfamiliar academic texts and practices from brokers, that is, those who are able to bridge cultural and knowledge gaps. The article reports on research that investigated brokering practices among ten international English as an Additional Language (EAL) students in their initial semester of study at a New Zealand university. In particular, the article examines the brokering interactions between two participants, Linda, a first-year student, and her broker Emily, a fellow Mainland Chinese student who provided information and advice about various academic tasks and situations. A conversation analytic approach that views brokering as asymmetrical knowledge positions is used to analyse twelve episodes of brokering interactions in Chinese that took place through WeChat, a mobile phone application. Initial analysis reveals that the dynamics of brokering interactions between Linda and Emily were characterized by a display of social solidarity, even as seeker and broker negotiated their knowledge positions over information or advice offered by the broker. The article concludes that peer brokering between same language speakers provides a collegial space in which students exercise agency by utilizing sociolinguistic resources. Thus educational institutions should recognise the importance of international students’ informal academic learning and increase opportunities for EAL students to build and enhance their social connections with peers as part of a holistic approach towards academic support.

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Doctoral education is based on a pedagogical model of apprenticeship where the expert, the more experienced academic, advises or mentors the student. Scholars have recognized the challenges of doctoral supervision due to the intense and individualized nature of the relationship. Based on the author’s personal experiences as a doctoral student and a student advocate at a university in New Zealand, this article highlights the challenges that international doctoral students face with regard to navigating the supervision relationship. The article discusses how student advocacy and peer support played an important role in resolving issues. The article concludes that peer networks are important resources for international doctoral students to make informed decisions regarding complex issues related to doctoral supervision.

The academic challenges of international students, particularly those with English as an additional language (EAL), have been mostly researched in the context of the formal curriculum (e.g. classroom communication styles, reading and writing skills). These challenges include inadequate English proficiency and differing educational expectations, and being isolated from the host community. However, little is understood about students' informal academic learning outside the prescribed curriculum, in particular, their brokering practices. Brokering practices are help-seeking interactions that bridge gaps in the seekers' knowledge and understanding of new cultural practices thus enabling them to access resources they would find difficult to do so on their own. For EAL students, these help-seeking interactions may involve getting others to translate, interpret or explain particular aspects of the host academic environment. In this research, focused ethnography is used to investigate the nature of brokering practices among ten international EAL tertiary students during their initial academic semester of fifteen weeks. Focused ethnography specifically addresses constraints in the research context (e.g. time and access to informants), as well as capitalizes on technological tools such as digital recording devices. In seeking to understand brokering interactions and relationships students have with their brokers, conventional ethnographic methods were adapted, for example, KEYWORDS academic learning brokering focused ethnography informal learning international students methodology 3_TJTM_1.2_Lee_199-218.indd 199 2/7/17 2:46 PM C o p y r i g h t I n t e l l e c t L t d n o t f o r d i s t r i b u t i o n Sherrie Lee 200 Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration digital ethnographic methods were used instead of participant observation. Digital ethnographic methods allows a large amount of data to be recorded and reviewed, a feature of focused ethnography known as data intensity. While this form of intensity has been argued to compensate for a short period of research activity, this research suggests that another form of intensity-relational intensity-is just as important in addressing research constraints. Relational intensity refers to the researcher's ongoing responsiveness to the needs of research participants. The article concludes that future focused ethnographic research should consider both data-related and relational forms of intensity in addressing research constraints.

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