Peer-Reviewed Article

International Journal of Multidisciplinary

Perspectives in Higher Education
Volume 4, Issue 1 (2019), pp. 1-21
https://www.ojed.org/jimphe Print ISSN
2474-2546 Online ISSN 2474-2554)
___________________________

Reconceptualizing Black Students Going Abroad:

Heritage Experiences in Theory and Practice
Amy Yeboah
Howard University, Washington, D.C., United States
Email: amy.yeboah@howard.edu

Abstract
The lack of participation in study abroad programs by Black students is a
topic of persistent concern yet increasing opportunities has not yielded
significant results. A closer look at study abroad programs identifies a gap in
program offerings and experiences that Black students might actually desire.
Reconceptualizing what Black people value from travel experiences and
addressing students’ primary obstacles going abroad—the financial burden,
fear of anticipated racism, and finding programs of interest (Gasman,
2013)—led Howard University to offer a heritage program approach. This
article looks at how the Young AfricanA Leadership Initiative (YAALI)
fellowship closes the cultural gap that exists for Black students in traditional
study abroad programs.

Keywords: Africa, study abroad, minority-serving institutions, culture,

travel
__________________________________

Introduction
The “dearth” of Black students in international study abroad
programs has been noted both by academics (Gasman, 2013; IIE 201;
Tenseley, 2015) and the national media (Fischer, 2014; Tenseley, 2015).
However, except for marginal improvements at a few universities (Redden,
2018), participation remains low. The failure of programs to attract Black
students, especially at Minority Serving Institutions (MSI), opens the floor

1
for a closer look at the obstacles that impede Black students from taking
advantage of opportunities for international travel and study abroad. An
analysis of the history, trends, gaps, and biases that shape the lived experience
of Black students with respect to international study points towards rethinking
the framework used to design international programming for them. The
Young AfricanA Leadership Initiative (YAALI) fellowship at Howard
University is offered as a case study to examine an alternative “heritage
seeking experience” model that addresses the culture-based realities of Black
students’ fears, expectations, and desires for community building when
engaged in international travel under the auspices of academic institutions.

Why Studying Abroad Matters

Study abroad programs have been a component of the American
higher education system for centuries (Hoffa, 2007; Lucas, 2006; Twombly,
Salisbury, Tumanut & Klute, 2012). One of the first international exchanges
involved 20–30 students from Indiana University who in 1879 took part in
would become annual “Summer Tramps” through Europe (Indiana
University, 2019). Noted as the first faculty-initiated international study
abroad program and involving traveling over 250 miles by foot through
Europe, the program “recognized the importance for faculty and students to
know and teach about other societies; to learn languages; to acquire new
knowledge through direct experiences; and to be sensitive to other cultures”
(O'Meara, 2019). Yet these opportunities were mainly available to white
American privileged or wealthy college students. By the 1920s, alongside a
growing number of faculty-led study abroad tours, Junior Year Abroad (JYA)
programs and the Institute of International Education (IIE) was established.
The latter was a
central coordinating hub to establish political, economic,
and cultural collaboration between students, scholars, and
institutions worldwide… one of the first institutes to
advocate for international exchange, pioneering some of the
earliest scholar and student exchanges between the United
States and countries around the world. (IIE, 2019)
As more and more universities began incorporating study abroad programs at
their institutions, diversity challenges among participants and limiting
opportunities for travel just to Europe remained (Hoffa, 2007). After a brief
suspension in international study during World War II, study abroad programs
later resumed with a revised focus to promote peaceful coexistence between
nations by establishing the first study abroad programs in Russia, Asia and
South America (Twombly, Salisbury, Tumanut & Klute, 2012) Financial
support increased as well, with the Higher Education Assistance Act of 1965
allowing students to use financial aid for study abroad and The Gilman
International Scholarship providing assistance to Pell grant recipients (Bolen,

2
2001; Twombly, Salisbury, Tumanut & Klute, 2012). Even community
colleges reported new entrants into the study abroad world (Hess, 1982).
From community colleges to private 4-year institutions, higher
education continued to expand study abroad opportunities focused largely on
the individual benefits of development. Many research studies confirm that
studying abroad is a rewarding experience that impacts personal growth,
cultural development, intellectual capacity, and educational/career attainment
(Anderson, Lawton, Rexeisen, & Hubbard, 2006; Paige, Fry, Stallman, Josić,
& Jon, 2009; Potts, 2015; Tarrant, Donald, & Lee, 2013). A survey of college
alumni conducted by the International Education of Students concluded that
study abroad programs benefits “can even be sustained over a period as long
as 50 years” (Dwyer, 2004, p. 161). The advantages are also more immediate:
in a quantitative study of 19,100 students who studied abroad, results reflected
that “Four-year graduation rates for African-American students who studied
abroad were 31 percent higher than those who did not study abroad and 18
percent higher for other non-white students” (Bhandari & Belyavina, 2011, p.
9). Yet notably missing from the catalogue of benefits is the academic
experience; it is largely the experiences out of the classroom that students
harken back to when recalling the “soft skills” and confidence gleaned when
negotiating a foreign land.
In 1990 the National Task Force on Undergraduate Education
Abroad, the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), and
Institute of International Education (IIE) published “A National Mandate for
Education Abroad: Getting on with the Task.” This position paper
recommended that “by the year 2000, 10 percent of American college and
university students should have a significant educational experience abroad
during their undergraduate year” (Dessoff, 2008, p. 14). The aggregate
number of students studying abroad has increased dramatically, with a 232%
increase from 1985–86 through 2001–02 (IIE, 2002). It comes as no surprise
to learn that in 2000 President Bill Clinton issued an Executive Memorandum
in support of international education and directed the Departments of State
and Education to recognize and celebrate International Education Week. Nor
did the gains stop there; an additional 250% increase in U.S students
participating in study abroad programs was recorded between 2005 and 2015
(Institute of International Education, 2015). It would seem that study abroad
programs have reached a high watermark on the cusp of 2020. But does a
rising tide lift all boats?
The quick answer is no. The picture painted above of the increasing
appeal of study abroad programs is not uniformly felt by all college students.
Black students in particular seem not as interested in the current model and
understanding why is key for moving the discussion forward if higher
education truly wants to increase the number of Black students involved in
international programs such that they reap the benefits of such travel.

3
Black Students Studying Abroad
The same 1990 study recommended that “diversity in undergraduate
education abroad should be vigorously addressed,” and a closer look at those
dramatic increases reveals that Black student participation in study abroad
programs has lagged (Dessoff, 2008, p. 14). On the whole, African American
participation in study abroad programs has been on the rise, and the
percentage of all students who study abroad at African universities has also
increased. Yet the Institute for International Education’s (IIE) Open Doors
2016 report stated that Black students make up just 5.6% of study abroad
participants, and only 5.8% of study abroad programs are hosted in Africa—
a 25% decrease from 2010 (IIE, 2017). According to Mark Pires in a study
of study abroad and cultural exchange programs to Africa, even though
numbers are really low, he states “Among the small percentage of American
students who have ventured down the less-traveled road to Africa, many attest
to having benefited from an extraordinary, eye-opening, and sometimes
transformative life experience” (2000, p. 41)
The picture gets even more complicated when one looks even closer
at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), with only slightly
more than half of them even offering study abroad programs (Gasman, 2013).
While one might assume that among those HBCUs that have study abroad
programs the logical destination would be Africa, in fact it turns out that the
leading study abroad destination is China. In surveying minority-serving
institutions, the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions (Gasman,
2013) reports that the three main obstacles for students of color participating
in study abroad programs are financial burdens, fear of anticipated racism and
racist encounters abroad, and finding study abroad programs (including
program locations) that are of interest to them. Even though research shows
that African American students hold a strong desire to go abroad, participation
is hindered by fears of fitting in and stereotypes about the study abroad
experience (Gearhart, 2005). Might providing international “heritage
experience” programming that offers a meaningful cultural framework for
Black students to travel to Africa be a clear starting place to “vigorously
address” Black participation in international programming?

Heritage Matters
Historically study abroad programs have been populated by White
Americans of Western European origin travelling to European destinations
(Hoffa, 2007; Lucas, 2006; Twombly, Salisbury, Tumanut & Klute, 2012).
“Since the IIE began collecting data on student racial/ethnic background in
1993, an average of 84% of the total U.S. students abroad are Caucasian”
(Comp, 2008). With such a strong relationship between participants and study
abroad destination, heritage has predominantly been a critical component of
American study abroad programs. Bertrice Szekely (1988) defines heritage
travel experiences as “selecting a study abroad venue because of family
4
background—national, religious, cultural or ethic.” Craufurd Goodwin and
Michael Nacht (1988) argue that students with “Asian, African, Middle
Eastern, and Latin American ancestors, and especially those from working-
class backgrounds, may not be charmed by a rented college in the Oxford
High Street or a villa overlooking Florence” (p. 76). Coming to grips with
offering international travel abroad programs that speak to Black students will
require revising the standard picture of the design and purpose of these
programs that dominates the literature. In examining ways to increase Black
student participation, heritage must be unpacked differently with students
who are not from the host area.
Among the diverse landscape of study abroad programs, Engle and
Engle’s foundational 2003 article, “Study Abroad Levels: Toward a
Classification of Program Types,” developed a level-based program
classification of study abroad program types analyzed across seven areas:
1. Length of student sojourn;
2. Entry target-language competence;
3. Language used in course work;
4. Context of academic work;
5. Types of student housing;
6. Provisions for guided/structured cultural interaction and
experiential learning; and
7. Guided reflection on cultural experience.
Scholars have used this analytical model to understand and improve
study abroad programs. For example, researchers have found that the more
comprehensive and longer the duration of the study abroad program, the better
the language acquisition, cultural competency, and overall experience of the
participating student (Dwyer 2004). Yet lacking in this analysis is attention to
the cultural identity of the traveler. Engle & Engle’s assumption of a
“universal” traveler points to a significant oversight in their classification
system, as differences in who is travelling abroad have profound effects on
the range of possible answers arrived at when thinking about the various
components of what comprises a meaningful international travel experience.
Indeed, if not every student is looking for the same thing out of a travel or
study abroad experience, then what constitutes a “better” experience might
not be subject to a uniform one-classification scheme-fits-all answer.
The assumption of “mono-chromaticity” concerning students
travelling abroad is part of a broader problem concerning imagining
international travel in general. Zim Ugochukwu, the Nigerian founder of
Travel Noire (2018), created her organization in part due to the lack of
Black representation in international travel media. In an interview, she
observed that:
every idea starts with a problem. And ours was quite simple: we
didn’t see travelers who looked like us. Not in travel magazines, in

5
 digital advertisements, or in leading tourism campaigns. (Anderson,
2018)
Things were so bad that a Google image search of “black travelers”
led to numerous web pages featuring black suitcases (Anderson, 2018).
According to Ugochukwu “[i]t turns out there was a simple explanation” for
why: “The travel industry is dominated by the story of one type of Western
traveler” (Anderson, 2018)—a type that unsurprisingly does not speak to the
needs of the typical Black traveller who might otherwise be interested in an
international experience.
Ugochukwu’s experience is illustrative of the Western assumption
that a traveler is typically socio-economically privileged, white, and whose
motives and purpose for travelling are largely for leisure and sightseeing. This
model of the international traveler is the norm not just for travel generally but
for students engaged in international travel for study abroad programs.
Indeed, some of the oldest and largest American study abroad programs use
the language of privilege and leisure to characterize their programs, such as
“The world is our classroom,”1 “Become global leaders,”2 and “Your
Discovery. Our People…”.3 This kind of language is a shorthand for the way
companies shape the structure of their study abroad programs and the type of
mindset they believe attracts a student to participate in the program. Yet these
phrases echo Western ontologies of materialism, recapitulate the axiology of
conquering, and embrace a worldview of control and mastery (Azibo, 1992,
p. 528)—an outlook that unsurprisingly is antithetical to large numbers of
Black Americans whose ancestors were kidnapped, expatriated from their
homeland, and enslaved in the name of western “advancement.”

Research Approach
Today, Africa remains a wellspring of inspiration to the diaspora, and
the continent has come to represent a site of reclaimed history and opposition
to the current world order. In distinguishing the difference between research
methodology – “a theory and analysis of how research does or should
proceed,” and research methods – “listing, interrogating, observing, or

1
“The world is our classroom” is on the main page of the CIEE website.
CIEE is a nonprofit study abroad and intercultural exchange organization that
transforms lives and builds bridges between individuals and nations by sponsoring a
wide variety of opportunities for the exchange of ideas and experiences.
2
“Become global leaders” is the mission of Institute for the International
Education of Students (IES) Abroad. Founded in 1950, IES Abroad is a not-for-
profit provider with 140+ study abroad and internship programs around the world
for college/university students.
3
“Your Discovery. Our People…” is the motto of International Studies
Abroad (ISA). Since 1987, International Studies Abroad (ISA) has provided college
students in the United States and Canada the opportunity to explore the world.
6
looking at data for evidence” (Harding, 1978, pp. 2–3), this project challenges
two common theoretical assumptions: the understanding of the purpose of
travel and the notion of the universal traveler.
The research approach constructed for this study methodologically
uses normative theory to examine the long-view experiences of African
people. While many social scientists instinctually move toward grounded
theory, as an inductive approach to the study of social life, it is derived from
a western sociological framework. The methodological assumptions of
grounded theory, from the field of sociology similar to many of the traditional
disciplines, are rooted in the social reality of biological and racial differences.
The narrative frame taken for this study comes from centering normative
practices out of Africa. As Carr (2006) suggests, this study “must be linked
to the articulation of a genealogy of Africana intellectual work which aligns
disciplinary Africana Studies within a range of normative practices emerging
out of that long-view genealogy” (439). In other words, instead of using
western assumptions to invade a conversation about Black life, what are the
normative practices, languages and ways of knowing that are culturally
centered out of Africa? In examining the lack of participation in study abroad
programs by Black students, this lens orients the reader to a historical and
cultural grounding that extends out of Africa and influences the behavior of
Black people in America.

An African Framework of Travel Abroad

One might imagine in light of the Western model of travel that an
African sensibility does not associate travelling with education. Some might
even say there is not an issue with adopting the notion of a white “universal”
travelling student if there isn’t an alternative tradition to point to. But such a
viewpoint only illustrates the general ignorance of African educational
models, which one might argue even are the source of the notion of studying
abroad.
For African people, ancient and indigenous models of education often
involved a process of attaining wisdom and knowledge through traveling
beyond the typical classroom. Ancient Egyptian writings championed
education, celebrating the fact that “intellectual pursuits constituted the very
fabric of life in Egyptian society… the literate Egyptian was a constant seeker
after the kind of culture which could open up the mind” (Obenga, 2004, p.
245-247). That search for knowledge was not just rhetorical. The pharaonic
determinative for the word “school” shows a foot, indicating that movement
and memory were involved in the education process. As far away as Greece
western philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato spoke of Egyptian scribes as
being both teachers and travelers (Obenga, 2004).
Later in African history, one can find indigenous African proverbs
that extol the importance of seeking and traveling in the acquisition of new
knowledge. An Ethiopian proverb says, “You travel on until you return home;
7
you live on until you return to earth” (Ley, 1999, p. 108), and the Gikuyu
believed that “Traveling is learning” (Press, 2011, p. 80). With a history
rooted in oral traditions, travel becomes essential for the acquisition and
transmission of knowledge. In examining the scholarship around Black
repatriation to Liberia and Sierra Leone on boats in the 19th century, Marcus
Garvey’s Back to Africa movement in the 20th century, and the rise of
diasporic expatriates moving to Ghana during the leadership of Kwame
Nkrumah to escape US racism a quite different conceptualization of the ends
and purposes of “travel” for people of African descent. The conversations
about travel, especially back to Africa, has been a long one. Most recently,
according to Ghana news sources, “[a]bout half a million Africans in the
Diaspora are expected to arrive in the country to take part in “The Year of
Return Ghana 2019”, a historic campaign to mark the end of 400 years of the
slave trade in the country. According to the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA),
out of that number 350,000 participants will come from North America”
(Ghana Web, 2019). Conversations of heritage clearly have become a central
argument in driving participation in such travel opportunities.
In sum, because other cultures and societies interpret the ends of
traveling and the study abroad experience in diverse ways, it is a distortion to
frame “the traveler” as being embodied only by White bodies. People of
African descent often share a different but equally valuable travel experience
that differs from the pursuit of leisure. The sheer fact that the ancestors of
people of African descent were involuntarily brought to the Americas,
enslaved, and prohibited from returning to their homelands has resulted in a
different set of social, political, and even emotional values about travelling
and study abroad.
The historical connection between knowledge and travel for African
people points to a critical gap in the conversation about the disparities in study
abroad programs for black students today. The question should not be about
why the descendants of those taken from their native land are no longer
travelling, but rather what has interrupted the journey for knowledge—and
what would constitute reinstating those ties. To answer the question of closing
the gap for Black students, the construction of the YAALI fellowship program
looked back at the function of travel for people of African descent.

Methods

Howard University has a long-established historical legacy of

creating, sponsoring, and establishing global initiatives directed at studying
abroad (Logan, 1969; Muse, 2002; Stuart, 2007; Journal of Higher Education,
2012). In Howard University: The First Hundred Years (1969), Rayford
Logan spends an entire chapter on the institution’s international activity.
According to Logan, Howard’s interest in Africa stemmed as far back as
1921, when Broad of Trustee members, faculty, and alumni organized
8
discussions about the emergent Second Pan African Congress. Interest in
travel abroad continued to grow at Howard such that by the 1960s, there was
“hardly a nation [in Africa] that has not been visited by persons connected
with Howard University” (Logan, 1969, p. 540).
More recently in 1993, the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs
Center was established to strengthen study abroad opportunities at Howard
University by becoming the official focal point for the university’s many and
varied international activities. Home to over 20 study abroad service
providers, ten faculty-led study abroad initiatives, and five international
fellowship programs, the Bunche Center “serve[s] as the hub and catalyst for
enhancing international engagement for the benefit of the HU community”
(Ralph Bunche Center, 2018). By 2010 Howard University had begun to
institute a university-wide Globalization Fee to address the financial
challenges that prohibit international travel. By providing students with funds
to obtain a passport and scholarship funds for international travel (regardless
of rank and GPA), students were encouraged to engage in any number of
international academic opportunities, including gaining language proficiency
abroad, participating in international conferences and meetings, visiting
international organizations, and of course study, research and travel abroad
(Donaldson, 2010, p. 1). Nevertheless, despite these exciting initiatives in
place to address the challenges of finances and opportunity, low participation
in study abroad programs at Howard University still persisted.
While examining study abroad programs, I became dissatisfied with
prevailing explanations for the lack of Black students’ participation that
centered on economics, personal resistance, or issues related to the culture of
a destination. Analyses that failed to link the identity of the students and the
cultural basis for travel abroad by this population seemed to miss an essential
factor impacting Black student participation and engagement. I theorized
instead that the journey is interrupted by the universalist outlook imposed on
Black students that neither addresses their unique concerns as students of
color nor offered them a compelling alternative to the western rationale for
travel that centered on sightseeing and tourism as its ends. Focusing on racial,
ethnic and cultural awareness related to international travel would, I believed,
offer a compelling alternative answer to the perennial question of how to
increase Black student participation in international programming.
To test my hypothesis and see if the gap for Black students travelling
abroad could be closed without recapitulating the study abroad model that
seemingly doesn’t appeal to Black students, I developed the YAALI
fellowship program in 2014 at Howard University that put a heritage
experience at its core and “humanized” the purpose of travel abroad for people
of African descent. The YAALI fellowship aimed to go beyond the “typical”
study abroad experience for Black students by focusing on the cultural-based
realities of student fears and desire for community building when travelling
abroad.
9
 Data in this study were collected from two sources: pre and post-
travel interviews and student journal entries. Students were first selected for
the fellowship opportunity based on their ability to complete an application
answering general information, provide evidence of maintaining at least a 3.2
GPA, and participate in a pre-travel interview to demonstrate their interest in
Africa and/or Black consciousness. During the pre-travel interview, YAALI
participants were asked to retrospectively examine their purpose for wanting
to travel to Africa, their understanding of YAALI’s purpose, and what they
hope to gain from this travel experience.
After being selected, students were asked how they hoped to
accomplish their goals in order to maximize their travel experience.
Additionally, before students set foot on the continent, YAALI fellows were
required to participate in the reading and discussion of a foundational text
related to the selected country. During the travel journey, participants
answered daily journal questions on the reading of a common text and their
travel experiences. The journal prompts provided to the participants were
related to the heritage host country and the experiences of participants. The
post-travel interview questions returned to the pre-interview questions about
their goals, memorable moments on the trip, and how different elements of
the program impacted their experiences.
The evidence presented is based on four years of data. A clear
majority of the students are Black (99%). Each trip generally cost between
$3,300 and $3,600. About 60% of the students receive partial or full funding
to cover the travel cost from Howard University, and the rest pay out of
pocket. Priority is given to students who have never traveled to Africa, do
not have a passport, are STEM majors, and/or are males. In the past four
years, the YAALI program has not provided course credit.

Findings

I always wanted to go to Africa

In centralizing the question of heritage for Black students at an
HBCU, the question of destination was quickly settled. To ensure cultural
continuity, in addition to addressing divisions that have developed from a long
history of oppression for Black people, Africa was selected as a host
destination. While it is understood that at an HBCU students can study
African history and culture, take courses in African languages, and meet
students from Africa, the opportunity to travel to Africa and connect to the
history, culture, language, and community would be a dream come true for
most (indeed, it is telling that priority is given to those students who have
never traveled to Africa or do not have a passport). Yet it is a dream that Black
students can experience only if they get over their well-documented fears
regarding racist treatment while travelling to white-majority countries. With
IIE reporting in the 2000s, less than 5% of study abroad companies, school-
10
based programs and faculty-led initiatives offering experiences at sites in
Africa, the YAALI fellowship made it a priority to provide heritage
experience opportunities to multiple sites in Africa, diversifying the offerings
beyond that of the most popular African destination of South Africa (IIE,
2017). However, reconceptualizing the purpose of international travel would
require not simply increasing the number of African countries, but also
reframing the orientation of student travelers to counter stereotypes regarding
Africa by foregrounding the heritage experience purpose.

Figure 1: YAALI Logo and Motto

The first step in centralizing heritage was consciously constructing

YAALI’s logo and motto (see figure 1). At first glance, individuals are
compelled to ask, “Why is Africa upside-down?” In attempting to draw
students into thinking about traveling specifically to Africa, YAALI first
focuses on changing the conversation about “the traveler,” starting with
imagery. Both the logo and motto of YAALI stand out as among the most
radical components of the program. Figure 1 illustrates that the positioning of
the continent was inspired by the cover of the Association for the Study of
Classical African Civilizations’ book African World History Project: The
Preliminary Challenge (2002). The authors reference a Pharaonic text that
dates back to ancient KMT, recounting how the Nile flowed downward
toward the Mediterranean and designating the Upper KMT as the southern

11
portion and Lower KMT the northern portion.4 When the Egyptians
envisioned the world around them, they drew maps of that world based upon
their own orientation within their environment, not according to imposed
Western standards. Even though the world is a sphere, without a universal
designated portion physically known as the top or North, fellows are
challenged with confronting their own pre-formed assumptions about the
world’s orientation.
The YAALI motto “Africa on African Terms” calls out a meaningful
challenge to participants to think about how people of African descent see
Africa and the world for themselves. This question is asked during the pre-
interview process, providing the fellows any opportunity to showcase their
understanding of the program's mission. The responses provided by students
are illustrative of the effectiveness of the logo and motto in accomplishing the
intended ends:

The YAALI logo, in a way, represents the freedom African people

have not simply requested but taken back. The logo is represented
as an upside-down continent of Africa because Egyptians described
the now southern parts of Africa as the north in their ancient maps.
There is a powerful statement hidden in the symbol. The logo
demands respect in that it shows the world that they will view
Africa from the African perspective. African people have a voice
and a history that cannot be erased.
The color red represents love. The color black represents the people.
Together, these two colors portray the “love for black people.” As
African Americans, it is imperative that we stay rooted in where we
come from. We must identify ourselves as not only Americans but
also as Africans.
Through critical thinking and self-reflection, the program allows
students to mount a formidable challenge to the contemporary permutations
of a Western state of mind that sees Africa only as the dark continent. With
no right or wrong answer, the question points the students in a direction that
is inward reflective.
Second, we named the YAALI fellowship program in alignment with
the popular Mandela Washington Fellowship program, at the time referred to
by President Obama as the Young AfricanA Leadership Initiative (YALI), a
federal program committed to investing in developing partnerships in Africa
(YALI, 2014). YAALI’s mission was to allow young Africana (African
American, Caribbean, and Latin American) student leaders to learn the skills,
research, and service experiences needed to become global citizens.

4
Ancient people from the Upper Nile civilizations called “Egypt” KMT
(Kemet) which in translates as "Black land."
12
 YAALI’s vision reverses YALI’s destination and allows students of
African descent to return to Africa to accomplish these goals. As one student
put it in a post-travel interview:

I always wanted to go to Africa. Participating in the YAALI

program to Ghana was the highlight of my year. Reading
about W.E.B. Du Bois and his global scholarship is
enlightening. However, visiting his grave, touching his
doctoral robe, and seeing the beauty of Africa, he wrote
about elevates his writing…. I can’t wait to see the South
Africa Mandela spoke of.
Another was even more expansive about how the trip affected their outlook:

When I learned about the Young AfricanA Leadership

Initiative (YAALI), I knew that I had to get involved and
refused to miss out on an opportunity to travel to Africa. As
I applied to be a Ghana 2016 YAALI fellow, I had no idea
how impactful the organization would be in my life. I was
excited to explore my culture and learn about my
connection to the continent, but I gained so much more.
Each trip to Africa with YAALI had a meaning to me, and
they all hold a special place in my heart. In Ghana, I found
God and learned that my success means nothing if I do not
use my platform to uplift other people of the Black
diaspora. The trip was the summer after I lost my father,
and my experience at Royalhouse Chapel in Ghana fostered
my desire to seek a relationship with God. During my first
trip to South Africa, I learned about the power of
forgiveness and strength. My final trip with YAALI, I was
able to travel to Uganda and Rwanda was reminded of my
love for those countries and the continent all over again.
The trip reassured me of my goal to work to eradicate health
care disparities across the Black diaspora and my desire to
travel back to Uganda to work as a physician.
The YAALI program contextualized learning by linking its fellows
to local realities, including community engagement and service-learning
activities. Students have the opportunity to reevaluate their values, vocation,
and personal ethics through reflective journaling assignments and structured
feedback sessions. In contrast to a western sightseeing outlook, the YAALI
fellowship “humanizes” the international heritage experience by linking
fellows to local service-learning activities that both build community and
encourage students to personally reflect on their identity.
At its core, the goal is not to assume that Africa is poor and requires
these services, but to understand that (for example) it is a tradition to bring a
13
gift when visiting someone else’s home. Therefore, the books, dolls, cookies,
diapers, t-shirts, toys, trucks, etc. that students would bring on their travels
represented the small tokens of appreciation brought in exchange for people
sharing their experiences.
As one of the few international programs at Howard University that
travels to Africa, YAALI operates year-round through on and off campus
programming to engage students in learning about their cultural heritage and
building an international community. The cultural learning forums are
required before travel and open to the public. Many students bring their
friends who aren’t traveling to join the discussion, which later on encourages
them to travel on the next trip. To date, YAALI Fellows include a 2016, 2017,
and 2018 Fulbright Scholar, a 2018 Truman Scholar, International Harvard
Fellow, Mellon Fellows, and Gillman Scholars, many of whom never traveled
abroad before until participating in YAALI.

I wasn’t ready. I was afraid.

One cornerstone of study abroad programs Engle and Engle (2003)
discuss is the “context of the academic work.” Traditionally many study
abroad programs provide language training and culturally based enrichment
about the destination county when students arrive or briefly during
orientation. Yet within marginalized communities, “fear” prevents students
from even applying to participate in international travel programs. With fear
in mind, pre-departure educational components were heavily incorporated in
the program structure and disseminated through social media to generate
interest, assuage initial fears, and address any lingering concerns in this area.
The focus of the educational curriculum requirements of YAALI is
to inform and draw students into the historical, linguistic, political, social, and
economic realities that countries in Africa and the African diaspora face.
Before traveling abroad, students spend five months reading a common text
to provide context and the basis for a group discussion about their destination.
Past books have included The Coming by Daniel Black, Born a Crime by
Trevor Noah, In the Fog of the Seasons’ End by Alex La Guma, Kingdom of
Gravity by Nick Makoha, and The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi
Kwei Armah. Books like The Coming by Daniel Black not only offer a helpful
grounding that addresses the fears of students (as one put it, “I always thought
about studying abroad and traveling to Africa, but I just wasn’t ready. I was
afraid. After reading The Coming, I was ready to take this journey back to
Africa”). It also poses complex questions regarding the experiences of
individuals caught up in the African diaspora (according to Love (2017), the
novel “offers us a glimpse into the daily lives of Africans before the
encroachment of enslavement… Throughout its pages, the question of what
was lost during enslavement is answered” (p. 3)). By reading the text before
and during the trip, the students elevated their understanding of their self and
connection with the diaspora, as seen in the following reflection:
14
 Ghana gave me a sense of peace and reassurance in my
destiny and purpose. While on the trip, I fully immersed
myself in the experience of the present. [After reading] The
Coming helped give me the language to articulate would
happen to my ancestors and my strong feelings about
coming back to Africa ... I fell in love with Ghana because
it gave me something much more than a resume builder or
experience of traveling abroad, it gave me LIFE... It was
there in Ghana, surrounded by so many hopes and
possibilities that I reclaimed my self-identity... I returned
through the “Door of No Return,” and I voided to not let
something like this happen to my people again. “Never
again.”
All these books are united in speaking about the human connection
made in Africa. A different reconceptualization of western rationalizations for
travel to Africa is adopted by YAALI in addressing Engle and Engle’s (2003)
sixth component regarding creating “Provisions for guided/structured cultural
interaction and experiential learning guided/structured.” After traveling with
the YAALI program for just ten days dealing with the fear and unknown, the
fellowship then becomes a springboard for students to travel for a semester-
long and consider applying to international graduate programs and jobs.

I Don’t Want to Travel Alone

There is an African proverb that states, “To go fast, go alone. To go
far, go together.” Another critical component of the YAALI is addressing the
fear of anticipated racism and racist encounters abroad (Gasman, 2013). To
address this concern, YAALI participants travel to a country in Africa with a
group of students that share diverse personal experiences but similar heritage
backgrounds, organized by a black-owned travel and tour agency and even
flying on an African owned airline. Not being the only black person abroad
among a group of white participants and traveling to be a part of a majority
instead of a minority population reduced fear. Aligned with Engle and Engle’s
(2003) program classifications, during the trip, YAALI fellows form
meaningful relationships collectively grabble with identity and the historical
legacy of racism domestically and internationally. In the words of one
participant:

Try reading Steve Biko I Write What I Like with a group of

45 Howard students in the middle of Soweto, South Africa,
where Hector Pieterson was murdered. The opportunity to
travel to the motherland with a group of inquisitive and
driven future global leaders from the Mecca helped shape
my perspective on the global advocacy efforts that are so
15
 crucial in our community today… We worked, laughed,
shared memories, hopes and dreams of coming back
together. This experiential learning opportunity helped me
cultivate my knowledge on global health through research
and interactions with the people of South Africa. It was a
truly humbling, empowering and one of the hallmark
experiences of my Howard career.
When students travel to African heritage sites such as Bonwire Kente
Weaving Village in Kumasi, Winnie and Nelson Mandela’s home in Soweto,
or into the rainforest of Uganda with the Batwa Pygmies, the knowledge of
oneself is not only enhanced, but also the relationship between people, place,
and culture are fostered.
Lastly, along with the fear of traveling alone, YAALI also allows
students to unpack the fear and uneasiness about having an unknown ancestral
legacy. In other words, when asked the question “where are you from” abroad
can be fearful when you don’t know or when “America” isn’t a sufficient
response. Driven by the need to continue to seek out new ways of engaging
with ancestral legacies, in 2017, the Sankofa Project was developed as one of
the fellowship activities to make the travel experience more of a collective
family journey. The YAALI Sankofa Project is a genealogical journey into a
fellow’s personal and communal history. Coupled with a DNA/genomic and
ancestral test, this investigation allows students to look into their pasts and to
face the future. Grounded on the concept of Sankofa, which emphasizes the
importance of learning from one’s past, the project encourages students to
“return and get it”—to gather various aspects of their histories to learn about
their present and glean something about themselves.
The words of one participant further highlight the issue:
I never knew much about my African past. But now,
returning home just feel so more real now. Knowing I’m
60% from Ghana…[traveling to] Kwame Nkrumah Ghana,
W.E.B. Du Bois Ghana, Yaa Asantewa Ghana. I’m
Ghanaian. Nobody can take that away from me. My family
is Ghanaian. Nobody in my family has ever traveled to
Africa. No, through me, we are all returning home.
The project includes a family tree (or vine, bush, etc.), artifacts or
images, and historical information dating back three generations or more.
From student reflections like those above, this added component was an
elevating experience. After students return the following semester, they are
required to share their research and experiences in on-campus program that
also invites other students to apply.
All YAALI Fellows are required to construct an international travel
portfolio consisting of a research paper, international travel journal, and
reflections from workshops and activities. At the end of the school year in a
study abroad symposium, fellows share their research projects with local
16
students and faculty and provide presentations about their YAALI
experiences.
It should be noted that engagement is often best measured through
“unofficial” and “organic” mediums. What has been remarkable in the past
four years is examining how fellows take it upon themselves to share their
experiences with others. Students actively post on all forms of social media
(Intragram, Facebook, Snapchat, Tumbler and the YAALI social media
platforms), using the hashtags like #yaalihu, #goingghana, and #sayaali,
sharing their experience with their family back home and friends:
Every day I woke up in South Africa, I was immersed in
unique and unparalleled culture and learning experiences.
Whether we were visiting an elementary school in the
Alexandra township, walking through Soweto to Mandela’s
house, voyaging to the Moruleng Village, “climbing” Table
Mountain, or touring Robben Island, each day overflowed
with invaluable bonding experiences…The open arms from
our South African brethren and the mere fact that we were
back in the Motherland made us feel as if we were prodigal
sons and daughters and not tourist. However, the two
charter buses we lugged around and our impulsive need to
take pictures of the scenic backdrop that is South Africa
begged to differ. South Africa’s breathtaking beauty is
undeniable and is coupled by the beauty of the South
African people. … To encompass the magnitude of our trip
to South Africa would be hard to do without relaying
multiple personal anecdotes and bombarding people with
scores of photographs. Two things can be said about our
trip. First: that none of it would have been possible without
the hard work of Dr. Amy Yeboah, Kaila Holloway,
Brittany Scott, Money-Man Mr. Max, and everyone else on
the YAALI team who worked behind the scenes. Second: I
will be coming back. (Johnson 2017)
Social sharing of experience like this represent a form of assessment that go
beyond conventional program assessment.

Conclusion
The lack of participation in study abroad programs by Black students
is a persistent concern in higher education, and Africa remains unreachable
for many college scholars despite being a wellspring of inspiration for the
Diaspora. This research found it a critical priority not only to increase the
number of Black students traveling back to Africa but to seek out new ways
of engaging with Black travel legacies on many different levels—not only
through sights and sounds but specifically through direct engagement with
their heritage. In 2014 the Young AfricanA Leadership Initiative (YAALI)
17
fellowship was developed for Black students to go beyond the typical study
abroad experience by centralizing culture and providing travel opportunities
to Africa, combatting fear with education, and mapping a collective self-
reflective experience.
YAALI’s work recognizes the importance of engaging with Africa
on African terms as a way to influence student participation in study abroad
programs. In doing so, it starts students on a path that opens up future
opportunities to continue their global travel. In organizing a program focused
on creating global-minded citizens who can use their knowledge and service
to (re)imagine and (re)connect with the African continent, YAALI has offered
Black students at Howard a unique heritage experience that addresses
financial obstacles, speaks to their fears, and most of all offer a purpose that
genuinely interest and engages participants (even more students would join
the YAALI program if limited funds were not an issue). Replicating such a
faculty-lead program at MSI would not only increase the numbers of
programs hosted in Africa but also provide a more unique intimate school
level experience that provides students the opportunity to grow within a
diverse and collaborative group across disciplines. Since YAALI is only open
to Howard University, returning to the University after a trip allows the
students to continue the journey together at school. If replicated at a PWI,
having a faculty-lead group of just Black students could potentially build up
a higher level of pride in a community that feels isolated.
The success of the YAALI program in attracting and holding the
interest of Black students with respect to international travel points a way
forward for MSIs and HBCUs to create their own programs of study that
speak to the needs of their communities. Not following the historical
formulated path early Study Abroad program created to Europe but creating
our own pathways to Africa can potentially increase Black student
participation.

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leaders-initiative-yali

Author bio

Dr. Amy Yeboah, Ph.D. is a daughter of Africa, scholar, filmmaker, and

Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Howard University. Currently, she
teaches courses on Black Film, Education, and Gender. She is an invited
presenter for Scribe Video Center’s Storyville series by the National
Endowment for the Arts, a Mellon Foundation Global Citizen Fellow, and a
former White House Initiative on HBCU All-Star Campus Mentor. As a
filmmaker, Dr. Yeboah’s most recent work, Goodbye to City Schools, focuses
on the impact the closing of schools has on staff, students, families, and
community members in the city of Philadelphia. She has published in the
journal Women, Gender, and Families of Color; Mosaic Magazine; and the
CLA Journal. She has also contributed to and been an invited guest on BET
News, PBS NewsHour, Direct TV, and Mother Jones.

21
Peer-Reviewed Article

International Journal of Multidisciplinary

Perspectives in Higher Education
Volume 4, Issue 1 (2019), pp. 22-35
https://www.ojed.org/jimphe Print ISSN
2474-2546 Online ISSN 2474-2554)
__________________________________

Multicultural Education as a
Framework for Educating English Language
Learners in the United States
Jerry L. Parker
Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, Louisiana, United States
Email: jerry.parker@southeastern.edu

Abstract

This article discusses the value of multicultural education as a framework for

guiding the teaching and learning process in post-secondary education. The
focus centers on English Language Learners in the United States throughout
all disciplines. An analysis of the five dimensions of Critical Multicultural
Education (Banks, 2019) is given along with further commentary on key areas
of focus to best guide both English Language Learners and native-born
students to a better understanding of the course content and each other. The
ideas from this article serve as a starting place for faculty members and
higher education administrators from all over the world and across
disciplines who seek to re-conceptualize their classrooms and/or the college
or university experience to accommodate the ever-diversifying population of
students via research in multicultural education.

Keywords: multicultural education, foreign language education, English

language learners, English as a second language
__________________________________

Introduction
As post-secondary (i.e., community college, trade school, four-year
university, technical schools) classrooms become more diverse each year, a
focus on multiculturalism, diversity, and inclusion in all areas is needed. Such
a focus provides all students with an equitable and equal learning experience
22
and the tools to succeed in the classroom. For the betterment of all post-
secondary institutions, administrators, department heads, faculty, and staff
throughout all countries must learn how to nurture, grow, and strengthen
diversity in their institutions (Hoy & Hoy, 2013). This article seeks to
contribute to the growing body of literature on such topics by suggesting
Multicultural Education as a viable framework for educating English
Language Learners (ELLs) in the United States of America (USA) in
mainstream post-secondary classrooms.
Issues of equity and equality related to gender, race, religion,
sexuality, disability, and socio-economic levels arise daily in all colleges and
universities. However, there is a lot of interest in the lived experience of
students in post-secondary education within the North American context,
particularly the perceived advantages of the opportunity to improve English
proficiency and cultural understanding among English language learners (Ge,
Brown, & Durst, 2019). This article, therefore, serves as a starting point for
scholars around the world, and particularly in Britain, Canada, and Australia,
where multiculturalism and diversity are a growing field of research, seeking
to better guide diverse groups of native and non-native students through the
teaching and learning process in post-secondary education. In the following
sections, I will present a perspective on ELLs, briefly discuss how
Multicultural Education is defined within the context of this article and
present an analysis of the dimensions of Critical Multicultural Education
(Banks, 2019) and how they serve as a viable framework for guiding the
educational process of ELLs in the United States.

English Language Learners in the American Education System

Before delving into the relationship between multicultural education
and English language learners in college and universities, it is first necessary
to establish the educational background of these students. The term English
Language Learner (ELL) refers to a person in an educational setting with a
goal of finishing a course or sequence of coursework and a desired outcome
of advanced competency in English at the end of his or her participation
(Larrotta, 2010). These students usually come to the classroom with previous
experiences in language programs ranging from purely academic to only
enrichment based. These programs also vary between a focus on English as a
Second Language (ESL), English for Academic purposes (EAP), English for
Specific Purposes (ESP), or English for Occupational Purposes (EOP).
Students in any of these programs typically seek to either stay in a country
where they would use English daily, or they seek to only obtain a degree from
that country and return home. The learning of English is thus viewed as either
based on instrumental motivation, meaning it is for achieving a goal and going
home, or integrative value, meaning it is a tool for allowing these students to
join the English-speaking society as a new member (Larrotta, 2010).

23
 Throughout most countries, ELLs are commonly divided grouped
into two main categories, those who are foreign born and those who are native
born (Finn, 2011; Larrotta, 2010). The commonality between both groups is
that members of each do not speak English as a first language and enter into
academic spaces with the goal of improving their English fluency and cultural
understanding in an effort to advance economically and/or socially. In the
United States of America (U.S.A.), ELLs are usually further classified into
four subgroups: special education; general education, but linguistically
unprepared; U.S. born, but lacking consistent education; high achieving, but
linguistically unprepared (Calderon, Slavin, & Sanchez, 2011).

K-12 Education
In the United States, upon enrolling into a school, all students are
subject to state and local regulations, policies, and procedures (Alexander &
Alexander, 2012). It was not until the landmark case of Lau vs. Nicholas
(1974) that K-12 schools and post-secondary institutions officially had to take
action to help students overcome linguistic and cultural barriers to achieve
success in the classroom. Because of this case, a precedence of educational
equality on behalf of ELLs was established. Since then, other cases such as
Castañeda v. Pickard (1981) and Plyer v. Doe (1982), have allowed for a
national push for more effective programs and approaches to educating ELLs.
Because the field is still establishing itself, the process of these students
transitioning from one grade to the next, graduating from high school, and
finally advancing to post-secondary education and/or the job market depends
entirely on the individuals they encounter along their journey. The downfall
of this dependency is that these students’ futures are determined by whether
said individuals are willing to work harder to ensure all of them succeed
instead of merely passing them along just to move them out of their classroom
and eventually the school. For all but the students classified as special
education, there are various educational models such as pull-out programs,
English as a Second Language (ESL) as a class period, Sheltered English as
a Second Language instruction, and Bilingual Education (Howe & Lisi,
2020). While all of these students come to the classroom with varying levels
of fluency, comprehension, and cultural understandings, all of them are
continuously placed into the same classroom. They are expected to achieve at
the same rate.
Current best practices in all subfields of Teaching English to Speakers
of Other Languages suggest the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol,
the SIOP model (Echevarria & Vogt, 2000). The SIOP model is an
instructional framework for organizing classroom instructional practices in
meaningful and effective ways. Because of its broad focus on eight core
components and 30 features, when teachers implement SIOP teaching
techniques to a high degree, the academic achievement of ELLs is increased
(Bell & Bogan, 2013). This model is still relatively new and developing.
24
Likewise, many ELL teachers in the K-12 setting are not properly trained on
how to use it effectively to guide these students to advanced linguistic fluency
and cultural competency and, ultimately, to post-secondary education.
ELLswho do make it to a community college, technical school, or four-year
university still therefore unfortunately underperform.

Post-Secondary Education
Contrary to popular belief and the stereotypes portrayed in the media,
the average English language learner in community colleges and four-year
institutions is not poor, undocumented, nor undereducated (Larrotta, 2010).
ELLs are a very diverse group of individuals. At the post-secondary level,
classrooms are usually filled with a mixture of two main types of ELLs. The
first type is Generation 1.5. These are students who have graduated from high
school, but their reading and writing skills in English are not strong enough
for them to either gain entrance or further succeed in four-year universities.
These students’ linguistic and cultural fluency is highly influenced by
technology and the growth of social media. They are also not fully proficient
enough in English to secure well-paying job opportunities, a comfortable
social status, nor engage socio-politically with the international world. These
students usually go to community colleges where they are mixed in with older
individuals who are either new to the U.S.A. or who have lived in the country
for many years and have decided or now have the opportunity to learn English
(Corral, Gasman, Nguyen, & Samayoa; Olneck, 2004; Reyes & Moll, 2008).
As with the creation of Historically Black Colleges and Universities
(HBCU) before the end of segregation, the Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI)
enrolls well over half of all Hispanic students in the U.S.A. . Contrary to the
name, these institutions also serve large racially, culturally, and linguistically
diverse populations of students beyond those who identify as Hispanic or
Latinx. HSIs share a common mission of cultural inclusion and the
empowerment of all students. They make up 11% of all colleges and
universities in the United States.
For ELLsnot attending an HSI, support for learning English at an
advanced level, adapting to the mainstream culture, and ultimately graduating
depends on various factors such as the geographical location of the school,
the number of students enrolled in the school compared to the number of ELLs
in the program, and the educational values of the current school
administration. There have long been structural barriers that have historically
denied ELLs the opportunity to achieve academically in community colleges
and four-year universities (Kanno, 2015). One major denial is the lack of
investment in resources and research-based best practices that foster linguistic
and cultural proficiency. In non-HSIs, the idea of investing more resources
into refining and further developing programs to help these students is hit or
miss. A large number of higher education administrators and program
leaders/department heads across the U.S.A. traditionally focus more effort on
25
assimilating and acculturating them into the mainstream culture rather than
embracing and celebrating the individual diversity that these students bring to
the classroom (Olneck, 2004; Reyes & Moll, 2008).
Beyond funding, non-HSI usually face issues related to the building
and sustaining of ESL programs (Calderon, Slavin, & Sanchez, 2011). At both
HSIs and mainstream community colleges and four-year institutions, the goal
of ESL programs at the novice and intermediate levels is to provide students
with an understanding of English for survival (Kanno, 2015). The goal of
teaching them at the advanced level is to support their language development
and guide them to the completion of their post-secondary degree, diploma,
technical certificate, and/or a bachelor’s degree.
As the number of ELLs increases, the need for more diverse and
holistic approaches to the teaching and learning process in the United States
is growing (Larrotta, 2010). Current paradigms for educating English
language learners must advance. As post-secondary education in the U.S.A
advances, there is a need to focus on the acceptance of both bilingualism and
biculturalism among ELLs and mainstream students instead of furthering the
notion of pure monolingualism and monoculturalism. The SIOP model is
indeed a strong model of instruction at all levels for ELLs to guide them to
advanced fluency. However, multicultural education as a framework for
teaching and learning has the potential to benefit all of these students across
disciplines if implemented with equity and fidelity because it reaches beyond
just instructional practices to address issues of curriculum, instruction,
assessment, and the overall institutional culture.

Multicultural Education and English Languages Learners

Many educators who are unfamiliar with the term “multicultural
education” believe that it is synonymous with “teaching about various
cultures.” This could not be further from the truth. In actuality, cultural
content inclusion (also known as content integration) is just one dimension of
what makes a true multicultural education (Banks, 2019).
Multicultural Education (MCE) is a progressive approach to the
process of further developing curriculum, instruction, assessment, our
understanding of knowledge, and the maintaining of a positive school
environment. Multicultural education is the offspring of the Intergroup
Education movement pushed by Hilda Taba and her contemporaries in the
mid-1900s (Banks, 2019; Nieto 2017). MCE allows learners to experience a
curriculum that values their home culture and shows that all students can
succeed in the classroom (Banks, 2019). MCE movements can be found in
Britain, Canada, Australia, and the United States of America. All versions
focus on the specific needs of diverse groups of learners in those areas (Nieto,
2017).
As discovered by Kumar (2018), there is typically resistance toward
the embracing of progressive curricular approaches such as multicultural
26
education in the U.S.A. . The main reason is because it is difficult for many
educators to conceptualize how the classroom will look when they are
confronted with ethnically and linguistically diverse groups of learners.
However, as argued by bell hooks (1994):
Multiculturalism compels educators to recognize that narrow
boundaries that have shaped the way knowledge is shared in the classroom. It
forces us all to recognize our complicity in accepting and perpetuating bias of
any kind. Students are eager to break through barriers to knowing. They are
willing to surrender to the wonder of re-learning and learning ways of
knowing that go against the grain. When we, as educators, allow our
pedagogy to be radically changed by our recognition of a multicultural world,
we can give students the education they desire and deserve (44)
MCE is comprehensive in its approach to educational reform because
of the focus on developing all aspects of a school, including classroom
structure, curriculum design, and instructional practices. MCE aims to ensure
that these areas of schooling are all simultaneously connected to both the
mission of the school and its diverse population of students (Banks, 2016;
2019). It aims to develop students who are able to function effectively in a
pluralistic, democratic society. Part of achieving this mission is to transform
the curriculum in order to help students develop the skills needed to
participate actively in constructing knowledge in the classroom.
In order to transform the curriculum, there exist five dimensions of
the school on which educators are advised to focus their efforts: Knowledge
Construction Process, Content Integration, Prejudice Reduction, Equity
Pedagogy and an Empowering School Culture. For ELLs , MCE challenges
how education is done. MCE guides educators to question who is the target
audience being educated and why, while also being cognizant of diversity
among content, learners, process, and the learning environment (Nieto, 2017).
MCE helps students of all nationalities to understand their own culture and
the cultures of other people by means of normalizing cultural values as well
as the dialogue of cultures.
With the recent explosion of technology and the ways in which the
international community interacts , it is more common for universities from
all over the world to consistently search for new and innovative ways to
educate diverse groups of learners registering for courses (Ge, Brown, &
Durst, 2019). Multicultural educators guide students to view education from
a humanist perspective with a focus on the integration of ethnic and cultural
knowledge, cultural reflection, self-regulation, self-development, and
decision-making skills in a cross-cultural situation (Yusupova, 2015).
Multicultural education is thus not limited to English-speaking cultures. It is
valuable in multinational areas, as well.
For example, Ge et al. (2019) argued that Chinese students are being
more exposed to western practices because of technology. Higher education
in the western world is also starting to see an influx of Chinese students. They
27
are bringing their home cultural beliefs which are grounded within centuries
of honor and tradition; however, they are also coming with an open mind and
a willingness to integrate new customs into their daily lives. Interestingly,
because language acquisition is a larger barrier for international students, to
compensate for their lacking proficiency, many Chinese students will focus
on programs in the sciences, engineering, business, and math in an effort to
avoid coursework in the arts and humanities where more writing and speaking
is involved. Likewise, there are some cultural norms contributing to this
decision as well. To counteract this resistance in the U.S.A. classroom, a focus
on the five dimensions of multicultural education provides faculty from all
disciplines with a framework for ensuring these students succeed, regardless
of their major.

Knowledge Construction Process

Knowledge construction is the process in which teachers help
students to understand, investigate, and determine the implicit cultural
assumptions, frames of reference, and perspectives of the discipline they are
teaching (Banks, 2016; 2019). For ELLs , this process involves more of a
clash of cultures in the mind. Because ELLs often isolate themselves in
separate parts of the college or university, away from their peers, they lose
the opportunity to improve their English skills, make social connections with
their classmates, and build their cultural capital (Howe & Lisi, 2020).
Likewise, when among their peers in the classroom, ELLs commonly sit
through courses taught in English but do not thoroughly understand the
content presented to them nor the cultural context in which such content is
important and/or practical.
As the facilitators of the knowledge construction process, teachers
must understand that if the ELL has little previous knowledge about a subject,
his or her construction of new knowledge will be more difficult because they
are simultaneously learning a new concept, aspects of culture, and new
vocabulary words (David, 2010; Meyer, 2000). A prime example would be in
an introductory literature course where The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
is studied. Asking an ELL “What does the word ‘book’ mean?” or “What is a
road?” automatically puts them at a disadvantage if the student speaks a
language that is unwritten or is from a village that is reachable only on
horseback or by hours of walking. They have no conceptualization of these
ideas. However, this does not mean that they cannot discuss the result of
making good decisions. For ELLs to excel academically, each student must
comprehend academic language and use it skillfully. The teacher’s role is key
in modeling academic language and scaffolding it as appropriate during the
knowledge construction process.
To best guide this process, it is suggested that a needs analysis be
done first to gauge students pre-existing language abilities and cultural
knowledge, and then to understand what exactly they need from the course
28
depending on where they plan to go afterward (Larrotta, 2010). Emphasis
should be on humanizing the teaching and learning process and guiding
students to see the connection between the classroom content and their daily
lives. Students best benefit from constructing knowledge through social
interaction rather than in isolation.

Content integration
Content integration describes the ways in which teachers use
examples and content from a variety of cultures and groups to illustrate key
concepts, principles, generalizations, and theories in their subject areas or
disciplines (Banks, 2016; 2019). Content integration is important because it
provides all students with the opportunity to learn about various aspects of the
content they are studying. Successful teachers of ELLs possess knowledge
about culture, the process of learning languages, skills in adapting curriculum,
and an understanding of the sociopolitical effects on their students. They also
continuously integrate culturally relevant content into their course
curriculum. Such integration allows ELLs exposure to proper and regional-
specific styles of pronunciation, word formation, grammar, vocabulary,
complex sentence building, hand gestures, facial expressions, and verbal and
nonverbal communication (Howe & Lisi, 2020).
As it relates to content integration, a focus on textbook content is also
needed (Ge, Brown, & Durst, 2019; Parker, 2019). Textbooks are important
because they are the codification of official bodies of knowledge. Textbooks
traditionally include a specific range of topics deemed important by the target
population of consumers as determined by the publishers via their purchasing
data. There is a risk of having students study only textbook information that
is truly foreign to them. For example, ELLs in California taking a sociology
course will have a vague understanding of the cultural significance of
crawfish, king cake, and poboys in Louisiana without further explanation
from the faculty member about what these things are.
To successfully integrate content into the curriculum, teachers should
start by assessing ELLs background knowledge before they can move forward
with teaching them. One important dimension of integrating content into the
curriculum is the focus on mediating cultural disconnects. This means
embracing these students’ cultures and working to connect them to the course
content in meaningful ways. Such connects allow faculty members to better
teach all students in the course to be accepting of one another. Likewise, ELLs
benefit best from curricula that are based on reading, writing, listening and
speaking within specific spaces (i.e., the classroom, internship sites). Rather
than a generalist approach, instructional plans should include materials that
will be relevant to ELLs after they are done with the course (Larrotta, 2010).

29
Prejudice Reduction
In the classroom, major factors for ELLs are language barriers,
psychological status, the mediating of their past and current models of
teaching and learning, culture shock, and racism toward their new classmates
and those in their community and likewise their experiencing of racism (Ge,
Brown, & Durst, 2019). ELL teachers must be aware of cultural
misunderstandings. For example, Chinese students do not speak in a direct
manner. During class, Chinese teachers often fill in the silence, preventing
Chinese students from speaking. Such situations in the U.S.A. classroom can
make these students appear to be unmotivated or slow learners rather than
expressing their culture.
Prejudice reduction deals with creating attitudes that help students to
develop more positive racial and ethnic understandings of others (Banks,
2016; 2019). This can be done by providing realistic images of ethnic and
racial groups in teaching materials and providing more opportunities for
cooperative learning activities within diverse groups of learners. Anti-
immigration sentiment has fostered a deep divide in this country, and schools
are often the first place where immigrant children get their first exposure to
American culture (Howe & Lisi, 2020). Entering all levels of education for
an ELL causes a lot of anxiety. Typically, their behaviors include speaking
softly and/or hesitantly or not speaking at all. Feelings of embarrassment or
frustration from not understanding what is happening are also very common
because of fear of miscommunication or even panic. Along with cultural
shock, ELLs can also experience language shock where they must cope with
having to learn a new language and culture and likewise be confronted with
the harsh realities of racism and prejudice.
For teachers, a focus on creating an inclusive space which allows
ELLs to actively participate without fear of judgement is needed. An
understanding of their hesitation and quietness needs to be a central focus of
the classroom. Reducing prejudice in the school environment contributes to
the knowledge construction process because it frees up students minds to
learn better. Likewise, in combination with appropriate content integration
into the curriculum, they are provided with a welcoming space to freely
engage in the educational process. However, it is through the instructional
strategies used that the most dynamic multicultural education possible for
ELLs can take place.

Equity pedagogy
When teaching ELLs in post-secondary education, educational
backgrounds must be considered meticulously (Ge, Brown, & Durst, 2019).
In some cultures, the norm of the classroom is rote memorization and teacher-
centered lecturing. Thus, more progressive styles of education further push
these students to academic areas where they are less likely to have to talk.
This is more bolstered when considering these students have to deal with their
30
social life (or lack thereof), housing, and cultural shock associated with living
in their new community.
Equity pedagogies are a multicultural perspective on classroom
instruction (Banks, 2016; 2019). They allow teachers to use techniques and
methods in combination with a positive, anti-racist classroom environment to
facilitate academic achievement for students from diverse racial, ethnic, and
social-class backgrounds. Because students come to the classroom with
various cultural perspectives, a teacher’s understanding of each student’s
home culture and the embracing of culturally relevant teaching is important
to advance their learning.
Effective teachers continuously work to educate ELLs in respectful
and meaningful ways. Things such as simply speaking slowly, annunciating,
and not using idiomatic expressions can alleviate multiple learning difficulties
that they might face (Howe & Lisi, 2020). Cooperative learning also allows
ELLs opportunities to discuss content with native speakers of English in a
safe space, thus improving their language skills (Calderon, Slavin, & Sanchez,
2011). By allowing students to construct bodies of knowledge via their
cultural frame of reference along with integrating appropriate content that is
anti-racist and using effective teaching strategies, the school itself is
transformed into a haven of positive learning for all students. The advised
equity pedagogy for ELLs is culturally relevant (responsive, congruent or
sustaining) pedagogy. A focus on such is needed because it champions the
idea of teaching students based on their cultural strengths being actively
integrated into various aspects of the teaching and learning process.
Moreover, instructional strategies with differentiated instruction that align
with the objectives of the course and continuous formative and summative
assessment are recommended (Larrotta, 2010).

Creating an Empowering School Culture

An empowering school culture and social structure is one that fosters
educational equality and liberation for students of all races, genders,
ethnicities, language groups, social classes, sexual orientations, etc. (Banks,
2016; 2019). From this perspective, the entire school is viewed as a unit that
needs constant change to keep up with the ever-evolving popular culture. All
school personnel strive to create an accepting and accommodating school life
for ELLs to succeed via changes in assessment techniques, the embracing of
inclusivity, and creating cultural norms for students and staff that foster
learning for all students. How teachers and society view ELL’s has a
significant impact on their ability and desire to learn and succeed. Being
sensitive to ELLs not fully comprehending English and/or cultural norms of
the U.S.A both inside the classroom and around campus is the first step to
teaching them. It is therefore ultimately a holistic school approach to
educating them that is necessary for noticeable results and for growth to be
achieved.
31
 To empower ELLs in the classroom would call for all faculty to focus
their efforts on providing a curriculum with a more international and macro-
spherical perspective. Such a curriculum will focus on building cultural and
academic knowledge (Ge, Brown, & Durst, 2019). Likewise, learning ways
of negotiating cultural misunderstandings and creating measures for
mediating them before they become larger issues in and around the university
are needed. For the administration, such a culture calls for continuous faculty
and staff professional development on cultural sensitivity and how to respond
to the educational and social needs of ELLs. Specifically, training workshops
that enable faculty members to gain greater cultural understandings and
relationship-building skills with an emphasis on teaching practices aimed at
educating diverse groups of learners are preferable. Administrators, faculty,
and staff should work together to foster more school-wide dialogues between
faculty and students about issues of personal and professional concern. Also,
a stronger effort to integrate ELLs within all aspects of the university
community would benefit everyone. This can be done via a focus on the ways
in which the division of student affairs could offer or integrate ELLs into
social events, by offering opportunities for counseling, hosting forums on
“know your rights” and how to deal with racism, prejudice, and/or
xenophobia. Most importantly, the developing of a university-wide initiative
aimed at developing a larger recognition and consciousness for global
cultures.

Conclusion
The outlook for post-secondary education internationally calls for an
expected growth in the number of individuals obtaining a degree or
certification. It is definite that the limitations of where the degree is obtained
will diminish as the international community becomes more interconnected.
With the growth of social media, internet recruitment efforts, and online
education, it is certain that linguistically, culturally, racially, gender-based,
and sexuality-based diversity will grow in our classrooms. Faculty members,
administrators, and staff at all levels of post-secondary education must,
therefore, learn to adapt and grow in their tolerance, acceptance, and support
of all of these groups.
English language learners represent one small sub-group of focus in
multicultural education. A reshaping of the overall structure of colleges and
universities in the U.S.A and how this population of students is educated is
important because student interaction in and outside of the classroom helps to
foster an inclusive climate and develop confidence in all students. The result
is the creation of positive relations and better academic achievement for all.
Across cultures, a common finding is the practice of caregivers (i.e.,
parents, teachers, relatives) providing ELLs with models for culturally
appropriate behaviors in conversation and social settings (Reyes & Moll,
2008). Successful multicultural educators of ELLs focus more effort on deep
32
levels of understanding rather than covering the pages in the course textbook
and/or teacher’s guide. Effective multicultural educators consistently use
various instructional practices and integrate diverse and impactful content
into their course curriculum to further student achievement for everyone
enrolled in the course (Aleman, Johnson, & Perez, 2009).
Multicultural educators who serve ELLs understand that, for these
students, they are their only option for success and/or upward mobility in the
future (Calderon, Slavin, Sanchez, 2011). It is common for ELLs to have
parents who do not speak any English, and their only exposure to the English
language and social interaction with native-born individuals is limited to the
time that they are in school.
Critical Multicultural Education views a focus on content integration,
prejudice reduction, equity pedagogies, the knowledge construction process,
and the creation of an empowering school culture as the core of ensuring
educational success for all students. As it relates particularly to ELLs, it is
through content integration and prejudice reduction that they are allowed to
personally relate to course content. Likewise, it is through equity pedagogies
that teachers actively help students to better understand such content. By
embracing equity pedagogies to effectively serve ELLs, multicultural
educators provide an equal and adequate education for all (Howe & Lisi,
2020).
Being cognizant of these three aforementioned dimensions, the
knowledge construction process is thus geared toward assisting ELLs in
breaking barriers in their learning and overcoming cultural hindrances.
Lastly, by creating an empowering school culture, ELLs and others become
the center of the school. By embracing multicultural education as a framework
for teaching ELLs learning thus takes precedence over “just getting through
the course content”. All educational factors that contribute to student learning
are considered and nurtured for everyone involved to obtain their goal of
graduating with a high level of skills and understandings to ensure a positive
future for them and their family.

References
Aleman, D., Johnson, J., & Perez, L. (2009). Winning schools for ELLs. Educational
Leadership, 66(7), 66-69.
Alexander, K., & Alexander, M.D. (2012). American Public School Law. (8th Ed.)
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Banks, J. A. (2016). Approaches to multicultural curriculum reform. In Banks, J. A.
and Banks, C. (Eds.) Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives.
Boston, MA: Wiley.
Banks, J. A. (2019). An introduction to multicultural education (6th Ed.) Seattle, WA:
Pearson.
Bell, D., & Bogan, B. L. (2013). English language learners: Problems and solutions
found in the research of general practitioners of early childhood. The
Journal of Balanced Literacy Research and Instruction, (1)2, 18-23.

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Calderon, M., Slavin, R., & Sanchez, M. (2011). Effective instruction for English
learners. The Future of Children, 21(1), 103-127.
Corral, D. Gasman, M., Nguyen, T., & Samayoa, A. (n.d.). An examination of
existing
and emerging Hispanic-serving institutions’ Latino initiatives and culture.
Retrieved from
https://cmsi.gse.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/MSI_HSIrprtR4_0.pdf
David, J. L. (2010). What research says about closing the vocabulary gap.
Educational Leadership, 67(6), 85-86.
Echevarria, J., & Vogt, M. E. (2000). Using the SIOP model to improve literacy for
English learners. The NERA Journal, 46(1), 8-15.
Education Week. (2016). Every student succeeds act explained. Retrieved from
https://tinyurl.com/ruqoxbw
Finn, D. (2011). Principles of adult learning: An ESL context. Journal of Adult
Education, 40(1), 34-35.
Ge, L., Brown, D., & Durst, D. (2019). Chinese international students’ experiences
in a Canadian university: Ethnographic inquiry with gender comparison.
Journal of International Students, (9)2, 582-612.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress. New York, NY: Routledge.
Howe, W., & Lisi, P. L. (2020). Becoming a Multicultural Educator: Developing
Awareness, Gaining Skills, and Taking Action. (3rd Ed.) Los Angeles, CA:
Sage.
Hoy & Hoy (2013). Instructional leadership: A research-based guide to learning in
schools. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Kanno, Y. (2015). English language learners’ pathways to four-year colleges.
Teachers College Record, 117(120306), 1-44.
Kumar, T. (2018). Advancing culturally relevant pedagogy in secondary methods
courses. Multicultural Perspectives, 20(2), 111-116.
Larrotta, C. (2010). English language learning for adults In C. E. Kasworm, A. D.
Rose, & J. M. Ross-Gordaon (Eds.) Handbook of Adult and Continuing
Education. (199-219). Los Angeles, CA. Sage Publications.
Longstreet, W. S., & Shane, H. G. (1993). Curriculum for a new
millennium.Needham Heights: MA: Ally & Bacon
Meyer, L. M. (2000). Barrier to meaningful instruction for English learners. Theory
Into Practice, (39)4, 228-236.
Nieto, S. (2017). Re-imagining multicultural education: new visions, new
possibilities. Multicultural Education Review, 1-10.
Olneck, M. R. (2004). Immigrants and education in the United States. In J. A. Banks
& C. A. Banks (Eds.) Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education
(2nd Ed.) San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass.
Parker, J. L. (2019). ¿C(o)mm(o)ent se pr(é)sente?: Identifying instanced of
epistemic Racism in French and Spanish introductory textbooks and the
associated culturally relevant teaching practices in Louisiana universities.
(Doctoral Dissertation). Retrieved from Proquest. (22587245).
Reyes, I., & Moll, L. C. (2008). Bilingual and biliterate practices at home and school.
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34
Yusupova, G. F. (2015). Educating young people in multicultural educational
environment of higher education institution. International Journal of
Environmental & Science Education, 10(4), 561-570.

Author bio

Jerry L. Parker, Ed.D. is an instructor in the Department of World

Languages and Cultures at Southeastern Louisiana University (Hammond,
La). He also serves as the Undergraduate Program Coordinator and Director
of the Foreign Language Resource Center. His research expertise includes
Curriculum Leadership, Instructional Leadership, Multicultural Education,
Foreign Language Education, Louisiana Studies, and Caribbean Studies. His
research agenda focuses on understanding in what ways curriculum and
instruction affect the educational success of diverse groups of learners in
academic K-16 foreign language education. Additionally, he focuses on
multicultural aspects of Caribbean Literature and Louisiana Culture.

35
Peer-Reviewed Article

International Journal of Multidisciplinary

Perspectives in Higher Education
Volume 4, Issue 1 (2019), pp. 36-54
https://www.ojed.org/jimphe Print ISSN
2474-2546 Online ISSN 2474-2554)
__________________________________

Who is My Professor? A Content Analysis of Online

Faculty Profiles to Inform Graduate Student Choice
Danielle Zaragoza
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States
Email: daniellezaragoza@utexas.edu
Z. W. Taylor
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, United States
Email: zt@utexas.edu
Jimmy Huynh
University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, Unite States
Email: jimmy.huynh@uvm.edu
Kevin Lema
Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, United States
Email: lemaviko@miamioh.edu

Abstract
As technology has advanced, faculty members have many ways to connect
with current and prospective students. Yet, no extant research has examined
online faculty profiles on institutional (.edu) websites. To inform graduate
student choice literature, we examined a random sample of 1,500 online
faculty profiles across 500 U.S. graduate programs. Findings suggest
assistant and associate professors publish the most informative online
profiles, whereas private for-profit professors and lecturers publish the least
informative profiles. In addition, zero faculty members self-identified their
pronouns, race and ethnicity, or their first-generation college student status
in their biographical statement. Implications for research and practice in U.S.
and international contexts are addressed.

Keywords: graduate students, faculty, technology, Internet, faculty profiles

__________________________________

36
Introduction
To date, sparse research has analyzed graduate student choice. A
Google Scholar (2018) search for “undergraduate student choice” yielded
dozens of peer-reviewed studies across four decades, while a search for
“graduate student choice” produced few studies published in the 21st century.
Strayhorn, Williams, Tillman-Kelly, and Suddeth (2013) examined graduate
student choice of HBCU graduates, while Ramirez (2013) interviewed
Latinas/os to learn of how these students chose doctoral programs. However,
Kallio’s (1995) and English and Umbach’s (2016) studies of graduate student
enrollment decisions are the largest to date.
To begin to this work, this study examines one of the most popular
sources of pre-enrollment information for prospective college students across
populations: the Internet (Burdett, 2013; Daun-Barnett & Das, 2013).
Specifically, we examined a random sample of 1,500 online faculty profiles
published on institutional .edu websites, serving as a potential source of
information for students to understand the “reputation” of “faculty” (Kallio,
1995, p. 115; Olson & King, 1985, p. 312). Filling a large and important gap
in the literature related to graduate student choice, this study will answer two
questions:
1.) Do faculty members publish online profiles on their institution’s
.edu website?
2.) If so, what information do faculty members share about themselves
across institution type, faculty rank, and academic discipline?

Literature Review
This study will expand upon extant research suggesting faculty
members have a large influence over a student’s graduate school preference
(Bersola et al., 2014; Kallio ,1995; Olson & King, 1985; Ramirez, 2013;
Strayhorn et al., 2013). Ultimately, this study seeks to contribute to graduate
school choice literature and articulate what information faculty members
share in their online profiles published on institutional websites, a potentially
influential source of pre-application material for prospective graduate
students, especially graduate students of color (Ramirez, 2013; Strayhorn et
al., 2013).
Researchers have examined students’ decisions to pursue graduate
school from the perspective of enrolled graduate students. Graduate students
have reported a passion for learning, research, and service in a specific field
was a powerful motivator for students to pursue graduate education,
including, but not limited to, the fields of school psychology (Graves &
Wright, 2007), engineering (Matusovich, Streveler, & Miller, 2010), nursing
(Hickey, Sumsion, & Harrison, 2013), secondary music education (Dust,
2006), business (Johnson, 2010), and student affairs (Mertz, Strayhorn, &
37
Eckman, 2012). However, none of these studies have focused on the role of
faculty in the decision-making processes of international students.
Olson and King (1985) and Malaney (1987) first analyzed the
graduate school choice process, finding graduate school choice idiosyncratic
from student to student. Both studies asserted a student’s age, race, gender,
socioeconomic status, and family structure influences a student’s choice to
attend a specific graduate school (Malaney, 1987; Olson & King, 1985). In a
survey study of 303 graduate students at a large, public, Midwestern
university, Olson and King learned “reputation of faculty” and miscellaneous
personal reasons were the most important factors influencing the initial
consideration of the university (1985, p. 312). In the largest study of graduate
school choice to date, Kallio (1995) examined survey data from 2,834
graduate students at the University of Michigan. Kallio asked respondents to
rate 31 institutional or graduate degree program characteristics, with these
characteristics divided into four categories: academic, work, spousal, and
social. Of academic factors informing graduate student choice, Kallio found
“reputation of a department’s faculty” and “quality of teaching” (p. 115) to be
the most influential.
Later, Bersola, Stolzenberg, Fosnacht, and Love (2014) surveyed 540
admitted doctoral students at a public, highly selective research institution in
the Western United States. Their results indicated faculty quality “the most
important factor in the selection of the doctoral program, followed by research
quality, faculty access, and program reputation” (Bersola et al., 2014, p. 525).
When dividing the sample into admitted students and those who eventually
enrolled, Bersola et al. (2014) learned “contact with faculty” was the most
influential factor driving graduate students to enroll at the institution, leading
the authors to assert, “admits who are inclined to enroll would also be more
inclined to interact with faculty” (p. 528). Specific to underrepresented
minorities (URMs), Bersola et al. (2014) also found admitted doctoral “URMs
were significantly more likely to have contact with a faculty member” than
non-URM peers before the enrollment process (p. 529), leading the
researchers to assert URMs “tended to place more importance when choosing
an institution on faculty” (p. 533) than non-URM peers.
However, beyond Olson and King’s (1985), Kallio’s (1995), and
Bersola et al.’s (2014) studies—and other studies specific to certain types of
graduate programs (Johnson, 2010; Mertz, Strayhorn, & Eckman, 2012;
Poock & Love, 2001)—research focused on specific graduate school choice
across disciplines remains limited. Moreover, no extant research has explored
how a faculty member’s presence online influences students seeking graduate
studies as an international student, emphasizing the importance and necessity
of this study.

38
 Methods
Population and Sample
To complete the study, the research team needed to identify
two different populations and samples: the population of U.S. institutions
granting at least a master’s degree and the population of U.S. postsecondary
faculty members. Per the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
(IPEDS), there were 2,092 U.S. institutions of higher education that awarded
a master’s degree or higher during the 2016-2017 academic year. After
performing a power analysis with a 99% confidence level and confidence
interval of 5, the team learned 500 institutions was a sample size large enough
to be generalizable and robust for subsequent quantitative analysis.
After the research team identified the institution population and
sample, the research team explored the total number of faculty members
working in U.S. institutions of higher education granting at least master’s
degrees. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2018),
there were 1.5 million faculty members—across all ranks, including
professors, associate professors, assistant professors, instructors, lecturers,
assisting/teaching professors, adjunct professors, and interim professors—
working in degree-granting U.S. institutions during the 2016-2017 academic
year. Of these 1.5 million faculty members, 53% of faculty worked full-time
and 47% worked part-time. However, per IPEDS, there were 564,558 faculty
members—across all ranks—working at U.S. institutions granting at least
master’s degrees during the 2016-2017 academic year. As a result, the
research team considered 564,558 as this study’s population. After another
power analysis with a 99% confidence level and confidence interval of 5, the
team learned 665 online faculty profiles was a sample size large enough to be
generalizable and robust for subsequent quantitative analysis.
Yet, after an exploratory analysis of the institution and faculty
sample, the research team learned several institutions in the sample only
employed three faculty members in total. These institutions were often very
small (fewer than 500 enrolled students) and offered graduate degrees in niche
fields such as massage therapy, art curation, cloud computing, or wine
making. As the first study of its kind, the research team decided to maintain
the institution sample size of 500 and gather data for three online faculty
profiles per institution, resulting in 1,500 online faculty profiles in this study’s
sample. As a result, this sample size of 1,500 approximately represents a 99%
confidence level and confidence interval of 3, assuming a population of
564,558 faculty members from all ranks working in U.S. institutions granting
at least master’s degrees in 2016-2017.

Data Collection
The research team gathered all online faculty profile data during the
Fall 2017 semester (August through December), understanding many

39
prospective graduate students search for and apply to graduate programs
during the fall semester.
After identifying each institution and faculty sample size, the team
employed a two-pronged randomization technique: one numeric and one
alphanumeric. First, using IPEDS data, the team alphabetized all institutions
awarding at least master’s degrees and then assigned each institution a
consecutive number. Then, the team employed a random number generator—
set to parameters of 1 to 2,092—to randomly assign 500 institutions to the
study’s sample. Assigning a random sample of faculty to the study was more
difficult, as many institutions in the study’s sample did not publish a publicly-
available central faculty directory on their institutional .edu website. This
discovery served as an inadvertent finding, which will be discussed in a later
section of this study.
As a result of a lack of central faculty directories online, the research
team adopted an alphanumeric randomization technique. For 500 institutions,
the research team located the list of graduate programs on each institutional
website and employed a random letter generator to focus on one graduate
program from each institution (i.e., the letter “G” would correspond to
graduate programs beginning with the letter “G,” such as Geology). Then, the
team would assign a random number to the list of programs (i.e., seven
programs beginning with the letter “G” would render a random number
generator set to parameters of 1 to 7) and randomly assign a graduate program
to the study. Then, the team again employed a random letter generator to
identify faculty in that program (i.e., the letter “J” would correspond to faculty
members with last names starting with “J”). If the institution did not offer a
graduate program or employ a faculty member with a certain letter, the team
used the next letter in the alphabet to assign a program and/or faculty member
to the study. After consulting with several subject matter experts, including
current graduate faculty members, the research team agreed this alphanumeric
approach to identifying faculty members was the most appropriate and
feasible method of assigning a truly random sample of faculty members to
this study.
After performing this alphanumeric randomization technique, the
research team learned 189 of the 1,500 faculty members assigned to the study
did not publish online faculty profiles. Table 1 below displays these faculty
without institutional website profiles by institution type:

40
Table 1. Faculty without online faculty profiles on institutional websites, by
institution type (n=189)

Institution type n (% of sample)

Public, four-year 15 (7.9%)

Private, four-year, nonprofit 84 (44.4%)

Private, four-year, for-profit 90 (47.7%)

Total 189 (100%)

As the research team identified random faculty members to assign to

the study, the research team would extract the URL of the online faculty
profile from the webpage, along with any text, images, and videos part of the
faculty profile. The research team uploaded this data to a collaborative online
database for analysis.

Data Analysis
The research team employed content analysis to analyze the data. The
first round of coding required the research team to perform simple attribute
coding (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2014) of the first 25 faculty profiles,
producing three attribute codes: institution type, faculty rank, and academic
discipline. The second round of descriptive coding (Miles, Huberman, &
Saldaña, 2014) required the research team to evaluate the first 25 faculty
profiles separately and then collaborate to compare results. From these first
25 profiles, a preliminary list of nine variables emerged: 1.) picture, 2.) video,
3.) email address, 4.) phone number, 5.) office location, 6.) classes taught, 7.)
curriculum vitae, 8.) hyperlink to a personal website, and 9.) degrees earned.
The research team employed a simple binary coding strategy to code the data
(1=yes, 0=no).
After this first round of coding, the research team performed a third
round of inferential coding (Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2014) to glean
more insight from each faculty member’s biographical statement. After each
research team member performed the third round of coding, the team
collaborated to compare results, producing five inferential codes to describe
biographical statements, including whether the statement was written in the
1.) first-person or 2.) third-person, and the presence of a faculty member’s 3.)
research interests, 4.) research publications, and 5.) professional
memberships. The research team again employed a simple binary coding
strategy to code the data (1=yes, 0=no). In all, each research team member
used 17 codes to analyze each online faculty profile, producing a total of
25,500 observations (17 codes per 1,500 faculty profiles).

41
 Finally, to present the data in a comprehensible and feasible fashion,
the research team needed to decide how to neatly categorize the various
academic disciplines of each faculty member in the study. Initially, the
research team coded over 200 different academic disciplines, and the team
decided displaying data from over 200 academic disciplines was unfeasible.
Moreover, the academic disciplines were often unique to certain types of
institutions, as this study’s sample included faculty members in theology, law,
and medicine programs, even though many institutions in the study’s sample
did not offer one or more of these types of programs. As a result, the research
team sought out a diverse graduate program catalog, which included as many
different academic disciplines as possible, including theology, law, and
medicine. Ultimately, the research team discovered Baylor University’s
(2018) graduate school catalog, which included graduate degree programs in
theology, law, medicine, and a wide range of arts and sciences. Therefore,
online faculty profiles were organized using Baylor’s graduate school catalog,
resulting in each faculty member’s academic discipline falling into one of ten
schools: 1.) arts and sciences, 2.) business, 3.) education, 4.) engineering and
computer science, 5.) health and human services, 6.) law, 7.) music, 8.)
nursing, 9.) social work, and 10.) theology. By using Baylor University’s
(2018) graduate program catalog, the research team was able to categorize
every faculty member’s academic discipline.
A description of the online faculty profiles in this study’s sample
(n=1,311; 189 faculty did not publish online profiles) can be found in Table
2 below:

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of online faculty profiles on institutional

websites (n=1,311)

Institution type n (% of category)

Public, four-year 327 (24.9%)

Private, four-year, nonprofit 894 (68.2%)

Private, four-year, for-profit 90 (6.9%)

Faculty rank
Lecturer/adjunct professor 152 (11.6%)
Assistant professor 387 (29.5%)
Associate professor 352 (26.8%)
Full professor 420 (32.1%)

Academic discipline
Arts and sciences 607 (46.3%)
42
 Anthropology 13 (>1%)
Architecture 16 (1.2%)
Art 59 (4.5%)
Biology 95 (7.2%)
Chemistry 24 (1.8%)
Communications/languages* 31 (2.4%)
Economics 17 (1.3%)
English 72 (5.5%)
Environmental 17 (1.3%)
science/geography/geology 76 (5.8%)
History 33 (2.5%)
Mathematics 14 (1.0%)
Philosophy 12 (>1%)
Political science 65 (4.9%)
Psychology 18 (1.4%)
Sociology 13 (>1%)
Theatre 30 (2.3%)
Miscellaneous**
115 (8.8%)
Business 158 (12.1%)
Education 43 (3.3%)
Engineering and computer science 85 (6.5%)
Health and human sciences*** 43 (3.3%)
Law 46 (3.5%)
Music 74 (5.6%)
Nursing 19 (1.4%)
Social work 121 (9.2%)
Theology

*Note: Languages included Chinese, French, Italian, and Spanish

**Note: The research team created a miscellaneous category for any academic discipline with nine or
fewer faculty profiles in this study’s sample. This category included criminal justice, interior design,
physics, public affairs, and veterinary science.
***Note: Health and human sciences included medicine, pharmacy, and public health.

Delimitations

The research team delimited this study primarily by sample size and
website content. This study gathered a large and statistically significant
institution sample (n=500; 95% confidence level, 5 confidence interval) and
a very large and statistically significant faculty sample (n=1,500; 99%
confidence level, 3 confidence interval). However, this study analyzes online
faculty profiles from U.S. institutions granting at least master’s degrees: It
would be very difficult to discern exactly which courses each faculty member

43
taught from year to year. As a result, some faculty members in this study’s
sample may not regularly teach graduate courses every year. Moreover, this
study only examined U.S. institutions: Future studies could examine
international institutions and articulate how faculty members of international
institutions present themselves on their institutional websites.

Findings

As displayed in the Data Collection section of this study, Table 1 indicated

faculty members working at public institutions were more likely to publish
online faculty profiles than private nonprofit and private for-profit peers. In
total, 63 of the 500 randomly selected institutions in this study did not publish
online faculty profiles, resulting in 189 faculty members without any
information about themselves on their institution’s .edu website. In all, public
faculty members without profiles comprised 7.9% of unpublished profiles,
whereas private nonprofit and for-profit faculty members comprised 44.4%
and 47.7% of unpublished profiles in this study.

Table 3. Online
faculty profile
information on
institutional
websites; by
institution type,
rank, and
academic
discipline
(n=1,311)

44
Table 3 displays institutional information included in online faculty profiles
(n=1,311).

Faculty members at public institutions were more likely to include their

institutional .edu email (85.3%), phone number (78.6%), office location
(64.2%) and the classes they teach (39.1%) than faculty members at private
institutions. However, faculty members at private nonprofit institutions were
more likely to include a picture of themselves (78.4%) and a video (2.2%) in
their online profile than public or private for-profit faculty members.
Associate professors (n=352) were more likely to include a video
(1.6%), their email (84.4%), and their office location (53.7%) than any other
rank of faculty member. Full professors included a picture (81.4%) and the
classes they teach (32.6%) more frequently than any other rank of faculty
member. Across all variables, associate professors published the most
informative online profiles, whereas lecturers and adjunct professors
published the least informative online profiles
Although not all academic disciplines are equally represented
given the study’s random sampling technique, there emerged a wide range of
information included in online faculty profiles from discipline to discipline.
Economics (n=17), chemistry (n=24), and political science (n=12) faculty
members included a picture of themselves in over 90% of their online profiles,
whereas 54.5% of mathematics faculty members did the same. Specifically
focused on contact information across disciplines, over 80% of anthropology
(n=13) and environmental science/geography/geology (n=17) faculty
members included both their email and phone number in their online profiles.
Moreover, every Economics faculty member in this study included their
email, phone number, and office location in their online profile. Inversely,
only 53.8% of Theatre faculty members (n=13) included their email, 18.8%
of Architecture faculty members (n=16) included their phone number, and
20.9% of Law faculty members (n=43) included their office location in their
online profiles.
Information regarding classes was also wide-ranging, as 84.6% of
Anthropology faculty members and 64.7% of Environmental
Science/Geography/Geology faculty members included a list of their classes
in their online profile, whereas 9.3% of Engineering and Computer Science
faculty members (n=43) did the same. In fact, aside from only 1.5% of the
entire sample providing a video in their online profile, only 28.9% of all
faculty members provided a list of their classes in their online profile. Across
the entire sample, pictures (75.8%) were much more prevalent than videos
(1.5%), while emails (74.3%) were more prevalent than phone numbers
(60.7%) or office locations (45.6%) in online faculty profiles.
Table 4 below displays personal information included in online
faculty profiles (n=1,311):

45
Table 4. Online faculty profile information on institutional websites; by
institution type, rank, and academic discipline (n=1,311)

Data suggests few faculty members at any institution included their

curriculum vitae (CV) or a personal website in their online faculty profile.
Faculty members at private for-profit institutions were most likely to include
their CV (22.2%), while public faculty members were most likely to include
a hyperlink to their personal website (11.3%). Private for-profit faculty
members were also most likely to include a list of their earned degrees
(91.1%), a biographical statement (62.2%), and a list of their professional
memberships (37.8%) in their online profile. Inversely, public faculty
members most often included their research interests (52.3%) and a list of
research publications (41.9%). Across all institution types, this study suggests
faculty members at private for-profit institutions published the most
informative online profiles in terms of personal information.

46
 Moreover, tenured faculty members—associate professors and full
professors—included more personal information in their online profiles than
non-tenured faculty members. Perhaps because tenured faculty members have
more accomplished research or scholarly careers, tenured faculty members
were more likely to include CVs, personal websites, earned degrees,
biographical statements, research interests, research publications, and
professional memberships in their online profile than non-tenured peers.
Lecturers and adjunct professors omitted the most personal information in
their online profiles, again potentially speaking to the temporary nature of
their academic employment.
Similar to institutional information, there emerged a wide variety of
personal information included in online faculty profiles from discipline to
discipline. Mathematics faculty members (n=33) were most likely to include
their CV in their online profile, yet these faculty members were of the least
likely to include a biographical statement (39.4%). Art faculty members
(n=59) most often included a hyperlink to their personal website (25.4%),
while zero Architecture, Chemistry, Economics, Sociology, or Social Work
faculty members included a hyperlink to a personal website. Of any kind of
personal information, 78.1% of all faculty members included a list of their
earned degrees in their online faculty profile, with 57.7% including a
biographical statement. Philosophy faculty members (n=18) most often wrote
a 1st person biographical statement (16.7%), while zero Architecture,
Economics, Sociology, Theatre, and Law faculty members wrote a 1st person
statement. Anthropology faculty members most often included their research
interests (92.3%), Theology faculty members (n=121) most often included
research publications, and Music faculty members (n=46) most often included
professional memberships in their biographical statements. Inversely,
Environmental Science/Geography/Geology faculty members were least
likely to include research interests (17.6%), research publications (11.8%),
and professional memberships (5.9%) in their biographical statements.
Across the entire sample, personal websites (8.3%) and CVs (9.6%)
were the elements least likely to appear in online faculty profiles, with faculty
members preferring to include 3rd person biographical statements (50.6%)
than 1st person statements (7.1%) in their online profile. In addition, research
interests (43.6%) were more likely to appear in online faculty profiles than
publications (37.1%) and professional memberships (32.2%). Beyond the
personal data presented in Table 4, it should be noted that 57.7% of all faculty
members included a biographical statement in their online profile. Of this
57.7%, zero faculty members self-identified their pronouns, race and
ethnicity, or their first-generation college student status in their biographical
statement.

47
Discussion and Implications
This study’s data suggest faculty members working in public
institutions publish online profiles more often than faculty working in private
institutions, although private institutions comprised over 75% of the sample.
Here, prospective graduate students seeking information about their potential
faculty members may experience difficulty in learning about or contacting
faculty members at private institutions. Although extant research has
articulated how faculty members share scholarship on social media (Moran,
Seaman, & Tinti-Kane, 2011; Reddick, 2016), faculty members at private
institutions should consider publishing an online profile on their institution’s
website to better inform prospective graduate student choice.
Another important finding was the lack of 21st century technologies
embedded in online faculty profiles: Only 1.5% of the sample included a
video in their online profile (Table 3), while 28.9% included a schedule of
courses they teach (Table 3) and only 8.3% included a hyperlink to a personal
website (Table 4). Consider the information presented in Figure 1 below:

Figure 1. Screenshot of faculty profile with auto-populated current course

schedule

Here, this faculty member included an auto-populated list of their

current course schedule, informing prospective students of specifically what
courses they may take with this faculty member upon their enrollment. In
addition, this faculty member included multiple forms of contact information,
as well as a hyperlinked location of their office, which led to an interactive
map of the Quinnipiac University campus. Also consider Figure 2 below:

48
Figure 2. Screenshot of video embedded into online faculty profile

Although this faculty member did not include any contact

information in their profile, the faculty member did embed a video into the
profile, personally introducing them to prospective students and sharing their
research interests. Figure 3 below represents one of the most informative
online faculty profiles in this study:

Figure 3. Screenshot of informative online faculty profile

49
 This faculty member published a wealth of information and
technology in their online profile, including contact information, a picture, a
hyperlink to their personal website with a link to a CV and other academic
materials, and an interactive auto-populated course schedule. The course
schedule allows prospective students to click on the specific courses taught
by the faculty member, learning more about the course and when the faculty
member has taught the course.
Other generalizable findings include tenured faculty
members publishing more informative online faculty profiles than non-
tenured faculty members, including lecturers and adjunct professors. The
research team hypothesized non-tenured faculty members may be working on
short-term, temporary contracts. Therefore, these faculty members may not
have access to an office (only 13.8% included this information in their
profile), a phone number (22.3%), or an updated list of courses taught
(16.4%). As a result, depending on the program and institution, a prospective
student may experience difficulty learning about their potential faculty
members, especially if the program or institution has embraced lecturer or
adjunct hiring in lieu of tenured faculty hiring. This finding may render it even
more difficult for international students to choose graduate programs, as
international students must study full time to maintain their F-Visa. Without
learning about full-time faculty, these students may feel that full-time study
at a certain institution not in their best interests.
Echoing earlier studies demonstrating the idiosyncratic nature of
graduate school choice (Malaney, 1987; Olson & King, 1985), this study
suggests prospective students may unearth a wealth of information about
faculty members, or little at all, depending on their desired academic
discipline and institution. This finding was uniquely true considering private
nonprofit institutions, as only 6.7% of 894 private nonprofit faculty members
in this study published their CV in their online faculty profile. All 17
Economics faculty members in this study failed to publish their CV in their
online profile, however, 58.8% of these faculty members composed a
biographical statement. This wide range of information—seemingly
idiosyncratic from institution to institution and discipline to discipline—poses
a challenge for prospective students. Ultimately, future research should
explore what faculty data is most informative for student choice, including
how international students explore programs and faculty online.
Finally, in a surprise in the findings, zero faculty members included
their pronouns, race/ethnicity, or first-generation status in their biographical
statement. Bersola et al. (2014), Ramirez (2013), and Strayhorn et al. (2013)
all found faculty members to be influential factors for students of color
seeking graduate education. Moreover, Renn (2010) and Renn and Reason
(2012) have called for more scholarship focused on the enrollment decisions
and experiences of minoritized members of the LGBT community. Data in
this study suggest both students of color and members of the LGBT
50
community may have trouble finding affinity with faculty members at
different programs, due to a simple lack of basic information about faculty
identity. Perhaps more problematic, 189 faculty members did not publish
online profiles, and 25% of faculty members who did publish online profiles
did not include a photo of themselves. In these scenarios, faculty members
may be inadvertently requiring students of color and members of the LGBT
community to make unnecessary or uncomfortable assumptions, such as
judgement of identity based on name alone or an exploration of other online
resources to gather more information.
Extant research has demonstrated gender, race/ethnicity, and first-
generation status are salient student identities at multiple levels of
postsecondary education (Bersola et al., 2013; Ramirez, 2013; Renn, 2010;
Renn & Reason, 2012; Strayhorn et al., 2013). Yet, this study finds faculty
members do not share these identities with their future students. Future
research and practice in the area of faculty development should focus on how
faculty members share their identities and whether prospective students can
gather sufficient faculty identity information to make a well-reasoned
graduate school decision. Without this research and practice, minoritized
students may not be able to make the best graduate school decisions, resulting
in a perpetuation of inequitable access to graduate education for these student
populations.

Conclusion
Akin to early research suggesting graduate school choice is
idiosyncratic across disciplines (Malaney, 1987; Olson & King, 1985), this
study finds faculty members publish a wide variety and quality of information
in their online faculty profiles. Yet, our findings suggest prospective students
seeking graduate schools may be able to learn more about tenured faculty
members and faculty members at public institutions.
However, given the importance of faculty when students of color
choose a graduate school (Ramirez, 2013; Strayhorn et al., 2013), faculty
members in this study may be holding back critical and personal information
about themselves, potentially deterring students of color from applying to a
certain graduate program. Moreover, zero faculty members in this study
disclosed their pronouns or first-generation (if applicable) status, even though
gender and first-generation status are salient student identities from a variety
of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds (Perna, 2006; Renn, 2010; Renn &
Reason, 2012). These findings may also negatively impact the graduate
program choice of international students, as international students may rely
on Internet communications (e.g., email) and information to make their
choice, given their distance from their prospective institution.
Although Internet technologies have rapidly advanced over
the past decades, this study finds many faculty members across the United
States have not embraced this technology as it relates to their online faculty
51
profile published on their institution’s website. As a result, many prospective
graduate students may lack important information when making a decision
that will change the rest of their lives: where to go to graduate school. From
this information, faculty members at all institution types should publish the
most informative online faculty profile possible, paying close to attention to
information understood to influence graduate school choice: the type of
research a faculty member performs and the racial/ethnic background of the
faculty member. By publishing informative online profiles, faculty members
may come into contact with more engaged, more compatible graduate
students, who in turn, will feel as if they made an informed decision.
No more will graduate students think, “Who is my professor?”

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Perna, L. W. (2006). Studying college access and choice: A proposed conceptual
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Poock, M. C., & Love, P. G. (2001). Factors influencing the program choice of
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intersectionality perspective. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 12(1),
23-36. https://doi.org/10.1177/1538192712452147
Reddick, R. J. (2016). Using social media to promote scholarship: Amplify, magnify,
clarify. In M. Gasman (Ed.), Academics going public: How to write and
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https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X10362579
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differences in graduate school choice for Black HBCU bachelor's degree

53
 recipients: A national analysis. Journal of African American Studies, 17(2),
174-188. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/43525455

Author bios

Danielle Zaragoza is a postsecondary associate with HCM Strategists. She

holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Texas Tech University and a
master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Policy from The University of
Texas at Austin.

Z.W. Taylor is a PhD candidate studying Higher Education at The University

of Texas at Austin. His scholarly work focuses on linguistics and technology
in education, in addition to mentoring and disability studies. His publications
can be found in Teachers College Record, Higher Education Quarterly, and
the Journal of International Students, among others.

Jimmy Huynh is an institutional research analyst at the University of

Vermont. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Statistics from the University of
Connecticut and is pursuing a master’s degree in Higher Education and
Student Affairs from the University of Vermont. He is passionate about
making higher education more accessible to all and using assessment to
advance social justice work.

Kevin Lema is a Graduate Assistant of the Rinella Learning Center at Miami

University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Neuroscience from
Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) and is pursuing
a master’s degree in Student Affairs in Higher Education from Miami
University.

54
Peer-Reviewed Article

International Journal of Multidisciplinary

Perspectives in Higher Education
Volume 4, Issue 1 (2019), pp. 55-73
https://www.ojed.org/jimphe Print ISSN
2474-2546 Online ISSN 2474-2554)
__________________________________

How Funding Sources Affect Academic Experiences

and Involvement: Gulf Arab International Students
in the US Across the Disciplines
Dorothy Mayne
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
Email: mayne2@illinois.edu

Abstract

This qualitative case study of female international students from Arab Gulf
countries in the US explores participants’ academic experiences in their
graduate programs and focuses on how it was affected by their funding
sources. Data were collected with participants during spring and summer
semester in 2018 at a land-grant university in the Midwest US. Findings show
that the interactions that participants had based on their funding (or lack
thereof) affected their overall experience and involvement with campus and
the extent to which they had access to campus involvement. The research
finds that having an assistantship or not has some positive effects for some,
has some negative effects for others, is a double-edged sword for some and
quite unimportant to others. The degree to which participants’ funding
affected their experience was affected by how much experience through
assistantships was common in their programs, options for gaining experience
in their fields and integration on campus outside of assistantships,
departmental contexts, and their long-term goals. Additionally, the role of
discrimination in the campus involvement of students from marginalized
identities is discussed.

Keywords: graduate education, campus involvement, external funding,

Arab Gulf, women
__________________________________

55
Introduction
Despite recent declines, Gulf Arab students have had a strong
presence in American institutions of higher education, especially in English
language programs, in the last decade. In the 2017-2018 academic year, Saudi
Arabia was the 4th most common country-of-origin for international students
in the US. Their presence in US institutions of higher education peaked in the
2015-2016 school year with over 61,000 students, but changes in their
government scholarship program have led to a decline in Saudi Arabian
students in the US in the last two years, with their numbers falling 45,000, a
15% decline in overall students from the year before. Kuwait, with just over
10,000 students, ranked 16th most common country-of-origin for the 2017-
2018 school year, and their presence in American institutions of higher
education is growing in a region where most other country’s presence in the
US is declining. Thus, Gulf Arab countries, and especially Saudi Arabia
followed by Kuwait, remain prominent countries-of-origin for international
students in the US.
Gulf Arab students often earn degrees abroad with funding from their
governments or private universities in their home countries. This funding
often does not require or allow students to work, and they must return to their
home countries after earning degrees. The King Abdullah Scholarship
Program (KASP), which started in 2005, funded Saudi Arabian citizens to
study for 12-18 months in IEPs and undergraduate and graduate studies,
including tuition, transportation, and a living stipend. However, recent
changes to the KASP have led to declines in the overall Saudi Arabian
population at US institutes of higher education. The total funding for the
program was cut significantly, and remaining funds have been redirected to
mostly graduate studies in selected fields and only at top 100 universities. The
Kuwait Ministry of Higher Education offers a similar scholarship program to
study in the US. Like the KASP, it covers one year of English language study
and stipulates specific fields of study (MOHE). Private universities in Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, and other Gulf countries also have scholarship programs to
fund their graduates to earn graduate degrees in the US and return to their
institution as faculty members and researchers. Gulf Arab students may also
earn Fulbright Scholarships or other funding to studying in the US. These
funding sources require that students return to their home country after
earning their degrees abroad, so most Gulf Arab students are temporary
sojourners in the US or elsewhere while they complete their studies.
This research explores the role that funding source has on
participants’ experience on campus at a large, midwestern, land-grant
university. The research used a qualitative case study methodology to collect
data about participants’ experiences on campus for an academic year and
draws from interviews with student participants as well as with other
stakeholders, participants’ written academic work, and observations. The
56
study finds that multiple, overlapping factors of participants’ experiences (e.g.
departmental context, individual long-term goals) affect the degree to which
their experience is shaped by their funding sources.
Hosting departments and institutions should recognize that Gulf Arab
students, particularly (because of changes to the KASP) Saudi Arabians, will
become more highly concentrated in specific departments and institutions
where their external funding can affect their overall experience, involvement
on campus, education, and development in their fields. Graduate
assistantships (e.g. being a teaching assistant, research assistant, or working
on campus in an administrative role) can be an essential part of graduate
education in some fields at some institutions, so considering the effect of
external funding has on education and involvement in the program and on
campus is necessary in order to ensure all students have access to the
education available in their departments and resources across campus. The
implications of this study provide insights into these effects and how to
support students who do not gain involvement and experience through
funding sources that require them to work on campus and in their fields.

Literature Review

Astin’s Theory of Involvement

Alexander Astin (1984) developed an involvement theory for
university student development. According to his theory, student involvement
in meaningful activities with the university leads to greater outcomes in terms
of academic achievement and personal development. Astin (1984) defines
involvement as “the quantity and quality of the physical and psychological
energy the student invests in the academic experience” (p. 157). According to
this theory, meaningful engagement with campus (e.g. participating in
registered student organizations, being a research or teaching assistant, etc.)
will impact students’ overall academic experience. Positive interactions with
the university can help make connections that benefit academics. While often
applied to undergraduate students, this theory can also be salient for graduate
students. When applied to international students, the cultural and language
barrier to involvement could affect the degree to which many students believe
themselves capable of, having access to, or desire to be involved with campus.

International Students in the US

Academics. International student adjustment to academics in the US
has been closely tied to language proficiency, and many consider English
language skills to be an important aspect of academic adjustment to
Anglophone universities (Bastien, Seifen-Adkins, & Johnson, 2018; Cheng &
Fox, 2008; Mori, 2000; Olivas & Li, 2006; Sawir, Marginson, Forbes-
Mewett, Nyland, & Ramia, 2012; Zhang & Dixon, 2003). Leong’s (2015)
study of issues faced by 11 international undergraduate students at a mid-
57
Atlantic university found that language barrier was an important issue for all
aspects of life in the US. She writes, “a lack of full fluency of American
English undermined the students’ ability to communicate with peers and
others, occasionally leading to miscommunication and misunderstandings, as
well as the inability to form friendships” (Leong, 2015, p. 464).
Academically, this means that the participants must put in more time into
readings and assignments than native speaking students. Participants reported
feeling like they did not understand assignments well and that they did not
feel confident in asking classmates or instructors for clarification, thus they
were inhibited from building socioacademic networks.
Gulf Arab Students. Research about Gulf Arab students’ issues with
academics has demonstrated that they, particularly Saudi Arabian students,
have a reputation for issues with English language (Alkubaidi, 2014;
Hellmann, 2013; Mustafa, 2012), and particularly with writing and academic
honesty violations (Hellmann, 2013; Madkhali, 2017; Razek, 2014).
Compared to other international students studying the US, students from the
Arab Gulf are more likely to arrive without English language skills proficient
enough to enroll in degree programs (Institute of International Education,
2016). Thus, most Gulf Arab students begin their students in intensive English
language programs before starting degree-seeking programs. Research on
Gulf Arab students in degree-seeking programs has often centered around
English language and writing. In Hellmann’s (2013) dissertation about Saudi
Arabian graduate engineering students’ perceptions of writing, she held a
focus group among instructors from the host institution’s English language
program, and they agreed that Saudi Arabian students are weak in writing.
One instructor says, “We expect that they will need help and lots of direct
instruction with writing… I mean, really, they don’t write well, and we try to
help them with that” (p. 72). Another said, “Writing is not easy for [Saudis].
That’s something I think we can all agree on” (p. 72). Razek (2014) found
that a common strategy for overcoming these issues is receiving outside help
on papers that can sometimes violate academic honesty policies. Additionally,
Razek and Coynery’s (2014) article about Saudi Arabian student efficacy
found that English teachers said that Saudi Arabian students do not socialize
with non-Saudi Arabians and do not get involved on campus.
Discrimination. Throughout the literature about Arab and Muslim
students in the US, feelings of isolation that resulted from discrimination are
a consistent topic. In a qualitative study of veiled Muslim women at an
American university, Cole and Ahmadi (2003) found that Muslim women feel
isolated because others react to them with fear and suspicion, and this led
them to withdraw from campus, which negatively affects their engagement
and persistence. Students may also face discrimination and feel isolated
through a perception of being silenced because of their identities or views
(Garrod & Kilkenny, 2014; Salaita, 2006; Tabbah, Chung, & Miranda, 2016).
Garrod and Kilkenny’s (2014) collection of narratives of Muslim students at
58
a US college includes a narrative that exemplifies this experience written by
a Muslim international student who attended a lecture given by a former US
intelligence officer about Middle Eastern history and US foreign policy. He
asked the speaker what he would recommend to support democratization in
Muslim countries, and the speaker responded that this was impossible because
Islam and democracy cannot co-exist. The student wrote, “I sank into my seat,
my stomach knotted with anger and confusion. I was so immobilized by his
stinging implication that I could not be a true member of this democracy if I
am a Muslim” (Garrod & Kilkenny, 2014, p. 73). He went on to explain that
he feels that people question his loyalty to peace. This story is exemplary of
many stories told by students in the reviewed literature.
While campus involvement is linked to positive academic and
personal development outcomes (Astin, 1984), international students face
many barriers (e.g., English language, cultural differences, the possibility of
discrimination) when attempting to be involved with the wider campus
community. For graduate students, funding sources through assistantships in
students’ departments, whether they are teaching, working with faculty on
research or in a lab, or administrative work, are an important gateway to
campus involvement. Previous research about international graduate students
on US campuses has not explored the relationship between funding sources
and campus involvement.

Methods
This paper is guided by the research question: What effect, if any,
does funding source have on participants’ academic experience and
involvement on campus? In order to explore this question, I used a qualitative
case study design, which allows for a discussion of participants' experience
bounded in a particular location, time, and context. This article is derived
from a larger study that considered participants’ general academic experience
through semi-structured interviews, observations, and text analysis of their
coursework. Through a holistic analysis of the data for the study, funding
source was determined to be a significant factor in participants’ academic
experiences and involvement on campus and in their departments.

Research Context
The research site is a large, land-grant university in the US Midwest.
The community is predominately a college town that is surrounded by rural
areas. While the university has a large population of international students,
Gulf Arab countries are not common countries-of-origins; therefore, there is
not a large enclave of co-cultural or co-national students.

Participants
Participant criteria required that all participants be female international
graduate students from and educated in Arab Gulf countries who self-identify
59
as non-native speakers of English. All participants were considered
international students as they were studying in the US on student visas. I
recruited the participants initially through existing contacts who met the
criteria and then through purposive snowball sampling (Creswell, 2007) via
recruited participants. Institutional Review Board human subjects approval
was obtained for this study. The following chart presents basic information
about the six participants. All names are pseudonyms that were selected by
the participants.
Table 1
Participants’ Basic Information

Name Country Field, Time in Previous Funding Age

Level the US / Education source
Time in
program
Noor Bahrain Linguistic 6 months / BA Fulbright 24
s, MA 1 semester Linguistics
(plans for from
PhD) Bahrain
Fiona KSA, Nutrition, 3 years / BA KASP 26
Jeddah MA 3 Nutrition
semesters from KSA
Nadia Kuwait Architectu 7 years / BA Civil Self-funded 28
re, MA 8 Engineering (2 years) /
semesters from Kuwait TA (1 year)
Sema KSA, Policy 3 years / 3 BS in KASP 26
Riyadh Economic semesters economics
s, MS from KSA
(admitted
for PhD)

Data Collection
The data for this study was collected from several sources: semi-structured
interviews with participants, observations of participants (e.g., while working
or presenting academic work, socializing, or both), written work from
participants’ courses and thesis, researcher’s notes, and semi-structured
interviews with relevant instructors during spring and summer semesters in
2018.
I met with each participant at least five times and as many as more than ten
times throughout the research period. I discussed at minimum the following
topics with each participant: their personal backgrounds, their campus
involvement, their academic experience, and their writing in their academic
programs at the university. The following table summarizes the data
collection with each participant.

60
Table 2
Data Sources by Participant

Name Hours of Text Other

Interviews
Noor 9.5 Four course papers, one of Teaching & social observations
which is the first draft of the
thesis proposal
Fiona 6.75 Four short (1-5 page) Lab observations (including with
assignments, writing related advisor), social observations
to her volunteer research (cinema, restaurants)
project
Nadia 4.25 n/a Images of designs for contests
and coursework
Sema 7.5 Three course papers (~20 Social observations (cinema,
pages each) restaurants, with her father)

Transcription and Data Analysis of Interview Transcripts

I transcribed interview data personally and transcribed the
participants’ words exactly as they spoke them. The data presented is as it was
spoken by the participants with minimal clarifications, which occur in
brackets in the presentation of the data (e.g., if a participant said “I liked it
better there,” I replaced “there” with the specific location to which they
referred, “I liked it better [in California]”).
After individual and holistic readings of data, I coded interview
transcripts first with deductive and then inductive coding as recommended by
Saldaña (2013). Deductive coding was based on my working research
questions and themes from previous research (e.g., English language
proficiency, social connections, discrimination, help-seeking behaviors, etc.).
After coding with deductive codes, I inductively coded the interviews
following Tesch’s eight steps of the emergent coding process, as described in
Creswell (2014). In order to develop inductive codes, I again read all of the
data holistically. Then, I returned to individual data sources and read them
while asking myself the question, “what is this about?” and took notes about
my answer in the margins. After doing this for multiple data sources, I made
a list of all of the topics and organized consistent topics together, in order to
develop what Saldaña (2013) calls “first cycle” coding. After making this list,
I returned to the data to write the preliminary deductive and inductive codes
from the list in the margins while looking for other themes or topics that have
been left out of the preliminary list and added these new codes to the list, in
order to develop what Saldaña (2013) calls “second cycle” coding. During
this process, I found themes that were not often discussed in the reviewed
literature (e.g., funding source).

61
 Next, I brought together data with the same codes into a document
and analyzed the data from multiple participants within the code. At this point,
I assessed my coding scheme for inter-rater reliability with two colleagues.
Because this coding process is iterative, I cycled through these steps multiple
times to develop my final codes. Between iterations of code development, I
cycled between coding on paper and coding in QDA Miner. Once the codes
were finalized, I applied them to the data in QDA Miner, and I used its data
analysis tools to continue to think about the data, including the frequency of
codes and cross-codes and comparisons among participants.

Results

All but one participant in this research received external funding for their
graduate studies. This section will describe participants’ perceptions of their
experiences on campus. The following chart summarizes each participant’s
funding source and their requirements.

Table 3
Participants’ Funding

Name Funding Source Requirement

Noor Fulbright Scholarship Teaching two sections of beginning level

Arabic, including planning, grading, office
hours

Nadia Teaching Assistant Attend sessions / grade / hold office hours for
(internal) 2 sections of architecture history

Fiona KASP n/a – expectation to return to the KSA

Sema KASP n/a – expectation to return to the KSA

Noor
Noor, a Bahraini master’s student in the Linguistics department, was
funded with a Fulbright Scholarship that required her to teach two sections of
Arabic language. The teaching requirement forced her to be involved and
build relationships that she may not have otherwise developed. However, it
was a large factor in her main challenge with adapting to life as a graduate
student, time management. Her Fulbright Scholarship covered her tuition,
provided a living stipend, and required that she return to Bahrain after
graduation. This funding required her to teach two sections of beginning level
Arabic with a total of 10 contact hours a week with her students. When I asked
her if she felt that her teaching took up too much of her time, she answered,

62
“I love teaching Arabic!” Then, she paused and said, “It was hard in the
beginning, but [teaching] makes [being here] better.” When I asked her what
she loved about it, she said: “I like the feeling they give me, you know when
they tell me that they like me or that I’m nice to them, something they don’t
get from their other teachers, I like that.” She went on to add that she loves
watching them go from knowing nothing about Arabic to writing a correct
sentence in such a short time and knowing that she helped them make that
possible.
Noor felt that her biggest challenge as a graduate student was a lack
of time and that this challenge affected her work, academics, and social life.
In a conversation about how she felt that she could only spend one day for
each final paper, she said:
I feel like it wasn’t my fault that I was forced to write a final
paper in a day. I stopped taking responsibility for that
because I was actually busy all throughout the semester…
It’s one of the things that I hate about here. Like back home,
if you know you have a big expectation at the end of the
semester like there is time for that like you have a few
deadlines here and there and then you have big gaps where
you can actually think of something else so if you leave it
until the last minute, it’s on you. Here it’s not on me!
Definitely not on me.
Noor was a first-year graduate student, living away from her family for the
first time. She was also teaching credit hours as a first-year teacher with little
formal teacher training. While she loved teaching, and it was her favorite part
of being on campus, it was a major contributing factor to her issue of time
management.
Of all the participants in this study, Noor was the newest to campus
but the most involved and aware of campus life and culture, and her
involvement was targeted towards Middle Eastern, Arab, Arab-American, or
Muslim people and organizations. She had an opinion about the legacy of the
university’s former mascot, while the other participants were unaware of this
issue. She had an opinion about the graduate assistant strike that took place
during data collection, while the other participants did not. A lot of her
knowledge of campus events and culture came from daily interactions with
her students, who were mostly Arab-American, but much also came through
her interactions and close friendships with other Middle Eastern language
teachers. Her best friends on campus were her office mates who taught Arabic
or Farsi. Having thorough social networks and being engaged with several
campus organizations (Arab Student Association, Muslim Student
Association), Noor explained that all of her connections were with other
Middle Eastern, Arab, Arab-American, or Muslim people by design. In her
first semester, she grew to feel that engaging with domestic students was
tiresome and fraught and that she “always felt that they wanted to argue with
63
me about where I was from but never wanted to listen to what I have to say.”
The final straw, she told me, was a conversation with an American classmate
who suggested that Noor, who did not wear a hijab in the US and dressed in
all western-style clothes, was unwilling to wear a bikini because of where she
was from not because of her own personal preference. She felt that this
essentialized her to her region and not recognizing her individuality. This
conversation came after many other similar ones, but she identifies it as the
time that she decided that she was done trying to engage with peers who did
not have personal experience living in the Middle East. Noor purposefully
withdrew from social connections with people who made her feel the need to
defend her home country and culture and instead focused her attention on
Middle Eastern, Arab, Arab-American or Muslim friends in response to
perceiving combativeness from others.

Nadia
Nadia, a Kuwaiti master’s student in the Architecture department,
was initially financially supported by her husband’s scholarship from a
private university in Kuwait and paid for her own tuition but later became a
teaching assistant in order to get a tuition waiver. She is the only participant
who received internal funding. After several semesters of applying, she was
selected to be a teaching assistant for an architecture history course. When I
asked her why she wanted an assistantship, she told me that it was completely
financial in order to have no longer pay her own tuition. She was not interested
in the work experience and knowledge of her field that she could gain through
this assistantship. “I didn’t want to be a TA. It’s time-consuming,” she said.
Even though the experience was not her motivation, she still learned a lot
from it. Her assistantship required her to attend lectures, grade exams, and
hold office hours. At the end of the semester, with the perspective of being
finished with her degree and being a TA, she said that being a TA helped her
understand and think about the process through which students learn how to
explain the history of design. However, because she is not interested in
teaching, she did not feel that this insight was particularly useful for her.
Initially, in her first semester, though, her biggest concern about
adjusting to life as a student in the US was English language. She said:
The first semester, I was really stressed out – it’s an
American university, and everyone is going to speak English,
and I’m not really good, I’m not sure, and then I realized, oh
no, it’s so easy. I didn’t tell my whole family that I am
studying, I just wanted to see and check myself, and if I’m
doing well, I’m gonna tell them. And actually, I told
everyone the second semester.
Overall, she felt that her undergraduate program in Kuwait was much more
rigorous than her master’s program in the US. She did not engage much with
her assistantship or the people (e.g. students, colleagues, her supervisor) and
64
saw it as a means to an end but did feel that it helped her develop new content
knowledge in her field. Her biggest challenge was learning the necessary
computer programs, and she felt that her assignments took up a lot of her time
but that none of them were difficult. Nadia, who had two children since
moving to the US, felt that any of her academic struggles were insignificant
compared to her struggles raising two small children away from her family in
Kuwait.
Overall, Nadia, who wore the hijab and dressed in all Kuwaiti clothes,
felt that her department welcomed and accommodated her culture, and she
perceived no discrimination in her department. In many ways, she felt like a
cultural ambassador as the first Gulf Arab woman in her program, a role that
she enjoyed. Nadia preferred to not shake hands with or otherwise touch men
and to not be at events where alcohol is present, and she felt that being clear
and communicating this to her professors and classmates eased any potential
issues she may have had. At graduation, students shake hands with the dean
as they receive their diplomas, but she went to the dean to tell him that she
did not want to do that. She said that he was extremely friendly and happy to
accommodate and even suggested practicing other ways to greet her in the
diploma line. While she reported only positive experiences in her department,
she told me many stories of friends in different departments and universities
who felt that they had been discriminated against, and she expressed gratitude
for her department’s welcoming.

Fiona and Sema

Fiona, a Saudi Arabian master’s student in the Nutrition Department,
and Sema, a Saudi Arabian master’s student in the Economics department,
were funded by the King Abdullah Scholarship Program (KASP), which pays
their tuition and provides a living stipend. They were not required to work on
campus, and both had little engagement on campus outside of their
coursework. In one of our conversations towards the end of the year, Fiona
told me that she was happy that she participated in my study because it finally
gave her a chance to have a conversation with an American. Sema also told
me that she had never talked with an American outside of English language
instructors, faculty and staff on matters directly related to her courses. Neither
attended any campus events outside of their programs and were only close
friends with other single female Saudi Arabian graduate students. While much
of their experience on campus was consistent, their departmental contexts
were different, particularly the degree to which their classmates were also
international students and also did not work on campus, which impacted the
differences in their experiences.
Fiona’s program had few international students, and most students
had departmental funding that required them to work on campus. Fiona’s
advisor offered her the opportunity to volunteer in his lab on a new research
project about teaching people with obesity how to manage the nutrition
65
aspects of their weight loss plans. There were no specific time commitments
related to her volunteer work, but she sometimes was overwhelmed when
responsibilities for the research project lined up with her exams. “Sometimes
I think I am working too much, but then I am thankful for this opportunity to
learn,” she said. All of her lab mates for this project were Arab PhD students
who gave her advice that helped her prepare for her final oral exam, among
other things. Her main issues in her graduate program were stress around
cultural missteps (e.g., being reprimanded by a professor for using her first
name, not knowing how to be formal in emails or how to politely make
requests). She felt that her ‘foreigner’ mistakes (including English language
issues) were noticeable in her department because most students were
domestic.
In contrast, Sema was a student in a program with mostly
international students, and, as a cost recovery program, all students were fee-
paying, and none had internal funding. She felt that in her program, English
language was not an issue for her because her English language skills were
better than most students in her program. Her biggest academic struggle was
with mathematics. After her first semester, she was put on academic
probation, obtained a math tutor, and studied math hours every day. Her
efforts paid off as she raised her GPA enough to be removed from probation
and graduated on time.
Sema and Fiona both felt that they did not experience discrimination.
Fiona, who did not wear a hijab, said, “no one can tell where I am from, so
they don’t know when they should discriminate me” with a laugh. Sema, who
sometimes wore a hijab and sometimes did not, felt that she received positive
discrimination (e.g., people paying for her bill at cafes and restaurants) when
she wore her hijab and none without it. In their daily lives, though, they did
not have meaningful interactions with many people outside of similar identity
dimensions from which to perceive discrimination.

Discussion

The degree to which participants’ funding affected their involvement on

campus and academic lives was affected by several factors: how much
experience through assistantships was common in their programs, options for
gaining experience outside of assistantships, the balance between domestic
and international students, the degree to which the program was academic or
professional, and their long-term goals.

Funding through Teaching Assistantships

Having a teaching assistantship does not lead to one single outcome.
The type of teaching assistantship (e.g. a single instructor of a small course
vs. a grader who holds office hours for a large course) and the students’
interest in teaching are important factors in determining the effect that the
66
teaching assistantship has on the student. Noor and Nadia’s funding required
them to work on campus, which gave them experience and insights into their
fields and campus that benefited their development in their fields and
facilitated their involvement in their departments but also required their time.
Noor’s Fulbright Scholarship required her to teach two sections of beginning
level Arabic language classes. This took a great deal of her time, but it also
gave her access to rich social interactions and a sense of leadership and
purpose. Noor spent a lot of time with her students, and class sizes were small
and emphasized interaction, so her experience as a teacher has exposed her to
aspects of undergraduate culture and life that the other participants were not.
This position also connected her to other language teachers and forced her to
be involved with Arabic language and cultural events on campus.
While teaching was a central part of Noor’s experience on campus,
the same is not true for Nadia, who studied for years without any funding prior
to becoming a teaching assistant. Nadia had already established a social
network of other Arab women and spent most of her time with her family
prior to becoming a teaching assistant, and she maintained these social habits.
Once she started the assistantship, she changed little about her interaction with
campus other than to work her required hours. Noor’s teaching assistantship
required much more interaction between her and her students while Nadia’s
did not require much student interaction unless students came to her office
hours.
Furthermore, their different goals with the teaching assistantships and
longer-term goals affected how they saw their teaching assistantships. Noor
wanted to teach Arabic, and she hopes to continue teaching Arabic and
English once she returns to Bahrain. For Nadia, it was a means to an end rather
than the goal itself, and she did not perceive the experience to have much
impact beyond thinking more about undergraduate education in her field.
Thus, having a teaching assistantship in one’s department can affect a
graduate student’s experience on campus and facilitate their involvement, but
this effect will depend on if the student perceives the experience as valuable
and their interest in relationship building. Additionally, the type of course and
the specific role of the assistantship are important factors.

External Funding without Work on Campus

King Abdullah Scholarship Program. Without working in their
departments or on campus, students do not automatically have an entry point
into experience in their fields and relationships like those that come from
formal involvement through work required from internal funding. Sema and
Fiona are both funded by the KASP. While on campus, they had no
assistantships or responsibilities outside of their academic work. The KASP
requires reporting to the scholarship program, but there is little interaction
unless the student faces significant problems. Neither of them was involved
with campus activities outside of the classroom and made close friendships
67
only with other single female Gulf Arab students. Given the opportunity to
volunteer, Fiona made social connections with PhD students in her field who
were able to provide her with insights and advice that helped her with her
academics. Not being involved with her department or campus through an
assistantship made Fiona an outsider with her peers because most of her
classmates had assistantships that provided experience and social connections
in their field, but volunteering helped bridge this gap. For Sema, who was a
student in a program that had mostly international students, all of whom did
not have assistantships or work on campus, not working on campus did not
separate her from her peers, but she did not make any social relationships with
them and instead was surrounded by other women from her region who also
did not work on campus.

Effect of Departmental Context

Overall, the degree to which participants’ funding affected their
experience was affected by aspects of their department, namely how much
experience through assistantships was common in their programs, options for
gaining involvement outside of assistantships, the balance between domestic
and international students, and the degree to which the program was academic
or professional. In a department where most students have an assistantship,
not having one can have a more pronounced impact than not having one in a
department where most students also do not. In the Linguistics program, 72%
of students have assistantships, mostly teaching language courses, which
provide teaching experiences and practical insights into the field, so Noor
would have stood out from her peers if she did not teach. Other students in
Fiona’s department, Nutrition, have research assistantships where they gain
technical skills and research experience that she did not have the same access
to. For Sema, however, this is not the case because she is in a cost recovery
program, and none of her classmates have internal funding or work on
campus.
The balance between domestic and international students in a
department also impacted participants’ experience on campus. Fiona felt that
she and the mistakes that she made with language and culture stood out
because most of her classmates were domestic and did not make such
mistakes. Sema felt that being in a program with mostly international students
helped her not stand out as she adapted because the program explicitly
provided cultural information, and she was confident in her English language
skills compared to her classmates. Noor in Linguistics and Nadia in
Architecture did not report English language or cultural issues that had a
negative impact on their experiences, and their departments were balanced
between domestic and international students.
The degree to which a program is academic or professional, another
important aspect of departmental context, also impacted participants’
experience. Nadia (Architecture) and Sema (Economics) were in programs
68
that are more professional than the other participants’ programs. Their
programs emphasized technical skills and taught students how to use
computer programs or statistical analysis, which is more straightforward than
the learning required in a more academic field. For example, in Linguistics
students must learn and operationalize debates over epistemology, how to
make an argument appropriate for different audiences in the field, and more.
Academic issues around learning technical skills can be different from
academic issues around designing research.

Effect of Long-Term Goals

The degree that not having an assistantship or gaining experience and
involvement in their departments through assistantships is significant to each
participant is also dependent on their long-term academic and professional
goals. Sema was admitted to the PhD programs that she applied to but was
not offered funding, and without any funding from the universities or her
government, she was not able to enroll in any of the programs. Sema had no
work experience in her field and may have been a more competitive applicant
for funding with such experience. For Fiona, not gaining experience through
assistantships was likely not significant because she will be competing for
jobs with other Saudi Arabians who also likely did not gain experience
through assistantships because they also had KASP funding.
For Noor and Nadia, who had teaching assistantships, the effect of
the experience gained depended on their long-term goals. Noor aspired to
teach Arabic and English language and linguistics, and her experience as an
Arabic teaching assistant is significant because it is in-line with her long-term
goals. Nadia hoped to work for a design firm, where her experience as a
teaching assistant for architecture history courses is irrelevant. The effects of
working or not working depending on participants’ long-term goals and how
potential work experience gained through assistantships are related to those
goals.

Discrimination and Involvement

This research highlights the relationship between campus
involvement and discrimination. Fiona and Sema, who were not involved with
non-Arab students beyond attending classes together, did not report perceived
discrimination. Their lack of campus involvement is consistent with Razek
and Coynery’s (2014) findings that Saudi Arabian students do not become
involved with campuses where they study. Noor was eager to build
relationships with different people at first, but being involved with the general
campus community exposed her to perceived discrimination. Specifically she
perceived the people wanted to tell her about what is wrong with her home
culture and put her in the position to defend it, which she found
uncomfortable. Previous literature has found that wearing a hijab on US
69
campuses can be isolating and attract discrimination (Cole & Ahmadi, 2003),
but this was not the case for the participants in this research. This could be, in
part, because of the environment of the research setting and the political
environment in the country at the time of data collection (e.g., the Muslim
immigration ban was announced during data collection, and there was
activism on campus against this policy, so domestic students could have been
more motivated to support visibly Muslim students during data collection than
at times when previous research was conducted). Nevertheless, this research
shows that being more involved on campus gives more opportunities for
students from marginalized identities to face discrimination and that they may
find solace in social enclaves.

Conclusion
Funding source or having or not having an assistantship was a
complicated variable in participants’ academic experience and overall
involvement in their departments and on campus. It is a variable that has an
impact, with pros and cons, depending on many other overlapping factors. It
is not “bad” for Noor that she has to spend so many hours a week preparing
for and teaching Arabic even though time is her biggest challenge. It is not
“good” for other participants that they had more free time but gained less
practical experience. The data reveals that having an assistantship or not has
some positive effects for some, has some negative effects for others, is a
double-edged sword for some, and quite unimportant to others. According to
Astin’s (1984) Theory of Involvement, students who have meaningful
participation with their departments and academics have more positive
outcomes and more personal development. This research shows that students
with external funding who are not involved with their departments or campus
through assistantships may not have the same opportunity for academic
achievement and development compared to their peers who are involved with
campus through internal funding.

Recommendations
In the context of departments where most students have
internal funding, it is important to recognize the difference in experience
between students who work on campus and students who do not. While
teaching or research work may not be required in a program, instructors,
faculty and advisors should consider the impact of a student who does not
gain any experience or involvement through assistantships in departments
where internal funding through assistantships is common. This is important
both for students to gain experience in their fields but also for their
involvement in their programs, which can facilitate positive academic
outcomes. Offering experience through a volunteer opportunity, like Fiona’s
advisor offered her, or required practicums, are great ways for students to gain
some experience and make connections without internal funding. Even when
70
it is not possible or desirable to offer volunteer opportunities, faculty and staff
should understand that the experience of graduate education is different for
students without work on campus when it is the norm in that department for
students to work on campus. This factor may be relevant for counselors,
students’ instructors and advisors, students’ department administrators, and
staff to be able to understand students’ experiences and integration. For
departments where working on campus is common for graduate students,
special efforts should be taken to help students who do not work on campus
develop connections with classmates and faculty. In many cases, much of
graduate education occurs outside of the formal classroom, so supporting
students who do not have access to social networks and involvement through
work experiences is necessary to promote equity of educational opportunities.
Discrimination should be acknowledged when promoting the
involvement of students from minoritized races, religions, and other identity
groups. If students feel that engaging with campus will be an opportunity to
be discriminated against (as Noor did), they will withdraw from the general
campus community. For many students, general integration on campus is not
desirable. Thus the best practice of encouraging student engagement with as
much of campus as possible is sometimes problematic. This highlights the
important role of campus enclaves based on marginalized identity dimensions
(e.g., organizations and centers based on religious, ethnic or racial, gender,
and other identities as relevant). The absence of discrimination (as
experienced by Fiona and Sema) is different from an integrative and friendly
environment (as experienced by Nadia). While some students may enjoy
educating their departments about their culture was (as Nadia did), not all
students want to have the role of informal cultural ambassador, and their
culture and preferences are not generalizable to other students from their
region or country. While campus involvement has many positive outcomes,
general involvement is not a cure-all for all students, and the potential to face
discrimination should be considered when encouraging students to be
involved.
Future research on the effect of funding within the same
graduate program can help illuminate our understanding of how work on
campus contributes to the overall experience as a graduate student. Because
much varies from program to program, research that explores the experiences
of students in the same program but with different funding sources and
students who work on campus and students who do not, including
international and domestic students, would contribute to the field’s
understanding of the relationship between funding and student experiences.
Finally, while much research about international student experiences focuses
on language issues, this research highlights the other kinds of issues that
international students may have. While language and culture differences are
important and overlap with many other factors that students experience, they
are not the only issues that international students may face.
71
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Razek, N. A. (2014). Academic integrity: A Saudi student perspective. Academy of
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Author bio

Dorothy Mayne earned her PhD in Education Policy, Organization and

Leadership from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her
Masters in Cross-Cultural and International Education from Bowling Green
State University. Her research explores cultural adjustment and human
development theories in higher education settings. She has taught teacher
education courses and study abroad courses at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign and taught teacher education courses and English as a
Foreign Language in Turkey and Madagascar.

73
Special Feature Article

International Journal of Multidisciplinary

Perspectives in Higher Education
Volume 4, Issue 1 (2019), pp. 74-88
https://www.ojed.org/jimphe Print ISSN
2474-2546 Online ISSN 2474-2554)
__________________________________

The Dual Roles of Higher Education Institutions in

the Knowledge-Economy
Beverly Barrett
University of St. Thomas, Houston, United States
Email: beverly.barrett@jhu.edu
Abstract

There are dual roles of higher education institutions as recipients of higher

education policy and as agents for change in the knowledge economy in their
regions and in the world. In the case of academic institutions within the
European Union, they are primarily the recipients of policy change
influenced by the European level. Secondarily, they are agents of policy
change in the knowledge-based economy, which is of increasing importance
in the 21st century. This is a new kind of regional integration, influenced by
Europeanization and intergovernmentalism in higher education policy, with
the ultimate objectives for economic competitiveness and social cohesion
attained by recognition of qualifications. The success of the European
Commission’s study abroad program, Erasmus, is provided as background to
the development of the Bologna Process, for which there have been mobility
objectives in higher education. The opportunity for greater mobility in
international education corresponds with ongoing trends in globalization.

Keywords: Bologna process, Europeanization, higher education institutions,

intergovernmentalism, international mobility
__________________________________

74
 The Europe we are building up is not only the one of the euro,
of the banks and of the economy; it must be a Europe of
knowledge as well. We must strengthen and build upon the
intellectual, cultural, social, and technical dimensions of our
continent. These have, to a large extent, been shaped by its
universities, which continue to play a pivotal role for their
development. The Sorbonne Declaration (excerpt), May 25,
1998

Note: The following is an excerpt from the book Globalization and Change in Higher Education: The
Political Economy of Policy Reform in Europe, Chapter 4, “The Dual Roles of Higher Education
Institutions in the Knowledge Economy.” The original article is available from Palgrave Macmillan,
Springer Link.

Introduction

In a historical institutional perspective, this chapter presents the policy

processes of Europeanization (top-down and state-responsive) and
intergovernmentalism (bottom-up and state-driven) and their application to
higher education policy. Since the Bologna Process began in 1999, the
European Commission is a partner alongside the 48 countries in the European
Higher Education Area (EHEA). This chapter presents the dual roles of higher
education institutions in the knowledge economy and the objectives for
increased mobility in the social dimension of higher education. This EHEA
commitment to student mobility objectives through the year 2020 is described
within the Bucharest Communiqué (EHEA 2012a). Institutional changes of
recent years place higher education policy in the context of the European
Commission’s economic growth strategy Europe 2020, which outlines the
motivations and benchmarks for a region that is “smart, sustainable, and
inclusive” (European Commission 2016b).
The place of higher education institutions in the economy and society
has dual roles, contributing to their significance as agents of change. Higher
education institutions are both recipients and agents of change in the political
economy context. Initially, the Bologna Process and Europe 2020 objectives
highlight that higher education institutions are intended to be recipients of
change in the policy process. Ultimately, higher education institutions are
intended by stakeholders (academic, public, private) to bring about change
through increased knowledge of graduates leading to enhanced
competitiveness in the global economy. Sociological and historical
institutional perspectives frame the analysis of Europeanization (Schmidt
2005; 2009b) and intergovernmentalism (Pierson 1996; Moravcsik 1998).
The EHEA is placing more emphasis on making higher education
institutions agents of change. This is aligned with the intentions of the Europe
2020 economic growth strategy of the European Commission, which was
launched in 2010. The communiqués of the EHEA ministers at Bologna
75
Process conferences state that the following are intended policy outcomes of
higher education institutions as agents of change (Bologna Process Secretariat
2016):
− Increased social cohesion nationally and regionally together with
economic growth
− Increased social mobility and opportunities for employability within
the country
− Increased opportunities for academic and professional mobility
internationally
A primary challenge in Social Sciences research is attributing these
economic and social outcomes to higher education policy reform. The
outcomes may come from fiscal policies or monetary policies that incentivize
economic growth, or other variables that are not identified in the research. A
second challenge is the relatively long time -- years, decades, or generations
-- that it takes to see effects of higher education policy reform. Because states
and markets fall short in providing productive-use systems over the long term,
communities depend on institutions (Ostrom 1990:1). The policies of higher
education are a hybrid of state and market interests, reflecting neither the state
nor the market alone in their governance (Dobbins and Knill 2009, 2014).

A new kind of regional integration through higher education

The coordination of higher education policy in the EHEA aligns with
the economic growth strategy of Europe 2020 for the 28 EU Member States.
The headline target of the strategy for higher education is the attainment by
40 percent of graduates, 30-34 years-old. In turn, they will be equipped to
contribute knowledge in the socioeconomic dimension within the region and
globally. The Strategic Framework for Education and Training outlines the
priorities of the European Commission (European Commission 2016c). These
strategies provide an informative context for the 20 additional countries in the
Bologna Process that are not in the EU. The emphasis on higher education
attainment serves as a proxy for a wider range of measures (Tyson 2016).
These wider ranges of measures include:
− Secondary school preparation
− Higher education access requirements
− Nontraditional routes to higher education for first-generation
students
− The appeal of the curricula and degree requirements for higher
education
The Bologna Process is a response of internationalization to the
pressures of globalization and, with it, comes changing conceptions of the
modern university (European Commission 2011; Eurydice 2012). The idea
behind the Bologna Process drives a new kind of regional integration,
supported by discourse and a vision that is socially constructed as it unfolds
(Christiansen 2001; Nokkola 2007). The motto of the European Union, “unity
76
in diversity,” is especially true for the regional integration of higher education
policy. Over history, regional integration in higher education was pursued by
policy entrepreneurs shaping the historical institutions of the EU. The
entrepreneurs included their policy priorities along with broader initiatives in
regional integration (Corbett 2005; Dinan 2014).
An important, increasingly supported initiative for European
education has been the Erasmus international student exchange, established
in 1987 by the European Commission. The success of Erasmus gave
momentum to the 1998 Sorbonne Declaration -- formulated by the education
ministers of Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom -- which paved
the way for the Bologna Process that created the EHEA (Neave 2003a:33,
2003b). Erasmus was initially proposed in 1986 and ultimately adopted in
1987 by the European Commission as the EuRopean Community Action
Scheme for the Mobility of University Students (Erasmus). Over three
decades, the initiative has evolved into Erasmus Mundus and, later, Erasmus+
Plus, to include students and exchanges beyond Europe. The mobility of
students in Erasmus, for semester or year abroad study, paved the way for
harmonization of higher education degrees across countries.
Erasmus demonstrated the need for a single system of transferable
credits (ECTS), for rules on the recognition of qualifications
(Lisbon Convention), and for quality assurance to be underpinned
by common principles (the European Standards and Guidelines) as a
basis of trust between higher education systems (Tyson 2012).
Beyond the Bologna Process and Erasmus, there are regional programs for
higher education, lifelong learning, vocational training, and ongoing student
exchanges in Europe. Additional educational programs of the EU include
those for Vocational and Education Training (VET) such as Grundtvig and
Leonardo, those for languages such as Lingua and Socrates, and those for
young students such as IRIS and Petra.5 The education policy initiatives of
the European Communities include the COMmunity programme for
Education and Training in Technology (COMETT) and Erasmus.
Globalization and internationalization have been shaping Europe, and
the commitment to higher education reform is an outcome resulting from
these pressures in recent years. As countries have joined the EU and the
EHEA they have brought distinct traditions and values that affect their views
of higher education. The EU is “becoming” rather than “being” (Moravcsik
2005:350), and this applies to the region beyond the 28 Member States. The
agenda and space of the EHEA have been socially constructed through
discourse (Nokkola 2007:221), and they are complementary to the

5
Comett and Grundtvig are vocational adult education programs. Leonardo da Vinci
is European Community vocational training and lifelong learning. Lingua and
Socrates are language training programs. IRIS is Improvement through Research in
the Inclusive School. Petra is European Community vocational training of young
people in preparation for adult and working life.
77
construction of the European economic agenda and space (Rosamond 2002).
Sociological institutionalism explains that regional scripts of appropriate
behavior are acted out as norms that become established in these public spaces
(Risse 2007).
This emphasis on the European social model reflects a policy
concern with developing human capital (or ‘intangible assets’) as
the basis of European competitiveness. It also reflects a recent
tendency within EU policy circles to make claims about those
elements of a European model that should remain robust in the face
of globalisation (Rosamond 2002:171).
Tracing the development of educational policy through a historical analysis
of regional integration explains how the region arrived at international
cooperation in the higher education dimension, which has synergistically
advanced regional integration in Europe. Regional integration since the start
of the European project considers the three central dynamics that are
explanatory factors throughout this book: competitive economic pressures
through globalization, domestic politics through intergovernmentalism, and
sociological and ideational processes stemming from the EU and European
institutions through Europeanization. Considering globalization, advanced in
communications and technology bring speed to most elements of daily life
and bring additional pressure to governmental priorities. Because of
intergovernmentalism, countries coordinate domestic policies through
intergovernmental bargaining. Because of Europeanization, European level
leadership influences the national level of policy implementation through
legislative procedures (Schmidt 2002, 2009b). National cooperation
generated by intergovernmentalism and social norm diffusion resulting from
Europeanization are dynamics that have driven the policy process in higher
education reform. The complementary influences of intergovernmentalism
and Europeanization have effected policy reform to varying extents within
each country.
The traditions in the relationship of the state to the governance of
higher education vary across the region of Europe (Dobbins and Knill 2009,
2014; Heyneman 2009, 2010). The Bologna Process countries inside and
outside the EU are influenced by the higher education governance of states in
their geographic proximity (Scott 2002). There are traditions in higher
education corresponding to various social models particular to regions, such
as Anglo-Saxon, Continental, Mediterranean, Central and Eastern European,
and Scandinavian. The institutional nature of the EU itself is challenged by
the results of enlargement, immigration, nationalism, and security, among
other concerns that have arisen since the process of integration, began after
World War II. Through each stage of EU enlargement, Member States that
joined the European Community brought along higher education traditions.
The policy entrepreneurs influenced the higher education traditions and
created the social constructs upon which institutions that implement policies
78
were built (Hall and Taylor 1996:951). Broader economic and governance
policies unfolded in the region through treaties that impacted countries and
their higher education institutions.

Europeanization and intergovernmentalism In higher education policy

Historical institutionalism frames the policy relationships across
levels of governance that make evident both intergovernmentalism and
Europeanization in the Bologna Process. Although they are unique
phenomena moving in different directions, they both influence the progress
toward reforms at the institutional and national levels. To distinguish between
intergovernmentalism and Europeanization: Europeanization is the overall
regional influence of Europe acting on national and institutional levels
(Schmidt 2009); intergovernmentalism is led by the states to make policy at
the European level (Moravcsik 1998, 2005). The internationalization of
higher education through Europeanization is part of the process of building
the EHEA (Bache 2006; Batory and Lindstrom 2011). Scholars describe
Europeanization as a top-down effect from the EU on the Member States that
affects national institutional structures and national policy-making processes
(Schmidt 2009:204-206). While Europeanization is distinct from European
integration, they influence each other in a dynamic relationship (Schmidt
2009:211; 2005). European integration in the context of
intergovernmentalism is Member State-driven. Europeanization operates at
the supranational level that influences the national level.
Depending on national circumstances, intergovernmentalism or
Europeanization may be a stronger policy process. The higher education
institution stakeholders or constituencies are important influences. The
academic institutions, the state in the public sector, and the market in the
private sector are the key stakeholders in modern European universities
(Regini 2011). The theory of liberal intergovernmentalism put forward by
Moravcsik claims that the states have led the initiative for international
cooperation (1998). An analysis of policy implementation across levels of
governance emphasizes the importance of the national level due to the
“domestic nature of Bologna reforms" (Veiga 2012:389). Within social and
economic policy spaces, Europeanization has been taking place at the national
level, which in turn influences the institutional level. "The point is that the
examination of Europeanization effects (positive integration, negative
integration, and ‘framing’ integration) linked to the implementation of a
single policy framework (Bologna Process and Lisbon Strategy) deals with a
policy area where European policies require incremental changes in national
frameworks" (Veiga and Amaral 2006:293).
The Europeanization top-down influence of the Bologna Process, in
which the direction of agency proceeds from the greater region to the state, is
explained for Portugal and Spain. These countries incorporated European
standards alongside their domestic reforms that had taken place before the
79
start of the Bologna Process. In Portugal, the policy processes incorporated
the principles from the domestic University Autonomy Act (1998) with
subsequent domestic laws on higher education policy. In Spain, European
principles were incorporated into the domestic LOU: Ley de Ordinación
Universitaria (2001) and the amended LOMLOU Spanish Law of Universities
(2007).
The dynamics of intergovernmentalism work in a contrary direction
where agency proceeds from the state to the greater regional initiative. Both
directions of influence, Europeanization and intergovernmentalism, are
complementary dynamics in regional integration and coexist, albeit with some
imbalance, in each national circumstance.

Figure 1. Reciprocity between the Influences of Europeanization and the Influences of

Intergovernmentalism: Higher Education Institutions’ Role as Recipients of Change. Europeanization
from institutions influences EHEA participating countries and higher education institutions.
Intergovernmental from EHEA countries influences the European level policy and higher education
institutions.

Europeanization does not take place consistently across countries in

Europe (Bulmer and Radaelli, 2004). The Bologna Process is a soft power
policy, and there are not political ramifications for noncompliance other than
reputational effects. The Open Method of Coordination (OMC) that emerged
from the Lisbon Strategy in 2000 is a mechanism to deliver this policy
cooperation in higher education. Challenges exist in implementation because
an enforcement mechanism is lacking. Soft policies such as the EHEA, ERA,
Lisbon Strategy, and Europe 2020 have weaknesses in policy coordination
since there is no governance enforcement (Amaral 2011). Alberto Amaral,
founding director of the Portuguese national accreditation agency, concludes
that:
Building a strong Europe will probably need stronger
mechanisms for coordinating policy implementation and an
80
 agreement of member states on clear objectives for those
policies. Eventually, policy implementation will become
more coordinated, not only at the level of national
interpretation but also at the pace of implementation.
Whatever the future, the present turmoil resulting from the
economic crisis will result in significant changes in
European policy implementation (Amaral 2011:47).
Intergovernmentalism explains the expansion of national cooperation in the
regional policy domain of higher education in Europe (Neave and Maassen
2007). The origins of explanations for this international cooperation relates to
neofunctionalist principles, which explained the first efforts toward regional
integration in the mid-20th century. When the Treaty of Rome came into
effect in 1958, Ernst Hass completed the neofunctionalist treatise The Uniting
of Europe. The two principles that Haas contributed to neofunctionalism
remain relevant to why countries pursue intergovernmental policy in recent
years:

1. Integration progresses when organized economic interests

pressure governments to manage economic interdependence to their
advantage by centralizing policies and institutions.
2. Initial decisions to integrate economically create economic and
political spillovers– unintended or unwanted consequences of earlier
decisions – which are the major force propelling regional integration
further forward (Moravcsik, 2005:351-352).

The spillovers that resulted from integration in functional areas

continued to expand through the decades until reaching the policy domain of
higher education. The active role of the state in intergovernmental policy
cooperation shows:
Major steps toward regional integration results, as does global
economic integration, from a three-step process: (a) national
preferences develop in response to exogenous changes in the nature
of issue-specific functional interdependence; (b) interstate
negotiation proceeds on the basis of relative bargaining power; and
(c) delegation to supranational institutions is designed to facilitate
credible commitments (Moravcsik 2005:358).
These three steps explain the response of European national governments and
higher education institutions to the exogenous influence of globalization and
the continued negotiations to define the steps forward.
After having agreed to a “grand bargain” at the international
negotiating table, policies are changed at the national level when it comes to
implementation. To understand the political and economic influences on
policy implementation and international coordination, it is necessary to
consider the explanatory power of political institutions and the potential for
81
compromise. Political institutions may shape outcomes by providing or
withholding resources and by representing political parties that convey values
and a policy agenda (March and Olsen 1989). Institutions are here defined on
multiple levels of governance: the supranational level of the EU, the national
level of the state, and the sub-national level of the higher education institution.
Through an institutional approach, one identifies the underlying processes and
mechanisms that contribute to institutional change. However, scholars attest
that there remain many unexplained factors to investigate in explaining
institutional change (Olsen 2009:27).
Institutional arrangements are usually a product of situation-specific
compromises. They fit more or less into a coherent order, and they
function through a mix of co-existing organizational and normative
principles, behavioral logics, and legitimate resources (Olsen
2009:18).
Given the Member States’ proactive position in intergovernmental theory, the
state's influence in an upward governance direction toward the supranational
level of European initiatives. The European political entities, such as the
Council of Europe and the European Commission, influence the higher
education institutions (Bach 2006:236; Keeling 2006). The influences of
Europeanization, and those at the national level of participating countries in
the Bologna Process, influence, in turn, the higher education institutions’
governance. Institutions experience dual pressures from both supranational
and national levels. Figure 3.1 shows the path of the agency from the Member
States to the European institutions and the higher education institutions.
Figure 3.2 shows the role of higher education institutions as agents of change
in the region as they build European economic competitiveness.

Figure 2. Higher Education Institutions’ Role as Agents of Change. Following the influence
of European institutions and EHEA participating countries on higher education institutions, the
institutions influence European economic competitiveness and social cohesion. HEIs are
recipients and agents of institutional change.

82
International mobility in higher education
Around the world, the internationalization of higher education has become a
21st century objective for increasing numbers of higher education institutions
(Martens et al. 2014; Spring 2009). There is growing interest in the
internationalization of curriculum and the mobility of students, which
provides a complement for mobility of labor in the EU common market.6
In fact, every substantial policy document of the Bologna Process
explicitly emphasizes student mobility as both a means to establish
the EHEA as well as an indicator to measure its success in terms of
competitiveness and compatibility. As a central policy outcome, the
trajectory of student mobility can thus be viewed as a benchmark
against which to measure the success of Bologna reforms (Fulge
and Vögtle (2014:68).

Student mobility as a goal in the Bologna Process was emphasized at the

EHEA Bucharest Ministerial Conference in April 2012 (EHEA 2012b). Their
mobility strategy presented that set the objective for 20 percent of students to
spend a period of study abroad by the year 2020.7 Higher education
institutions are agents of mobility by providing opportunities for students and
researchers to study and to work beyond their home country. There are
administrative barriers such as quotas limiting enrollment and higher tuition
costs for international students; however, the mobility of students and the
international recognition of academic credits and degrees are expected to
enhance educational quality, student learning outcomes, and economic
development (EHEA 2012a, 2012b). The discourse in the Bologna Process
and the EHEA proclamations reveals that mobility is a value. The importance
of mobility is specified by the Bologna Declaration (1999) and the Prague
Communiqué (2001):
Promotion of mobility by overcoming obstacles to the effective
exercise of free movement with particular attention to:
· for students, access to study and training opportunities and related
services
· for teachers, researchers, and administrative staff, recognition, and
valorisation of periods spent in a European context researching,
teaching, and training, without prejudicing their statutory rights.
(Bologna Declaration, 1999)

Ministers are affirmed that efforts to promote mobility must be

continued to enable students, teachers, researchers, and

6
Beginning in 2017 the United Kingdom will negotiate its ability to access the
European Single Market as part of the process of the British exit from the EU
(Brexit).
7
European Higher Education Area Ministerial Conference. 2012. “Mobility for Better
Learning: Mobility Strategy 2020 for the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).”
83
 administrative staff to benefit from the richness of the European
Higher Education Area, including its democratic values, diversity of
cultures and languages and the diversity of higher educational
systems. (Prague Communiqué, 2001)
Diversity of educational experiences through an international study period is
highly desirable in today’s global society in order to develop adaptability to,
and understanding of foreign cultures (Spring 2009). The inherent influence
of globalization is pressure for internationalization of higher education that
encourages students to spend at least some of their educational experience
beyond their home country in order to cultivate an international perspective
through living abroad. This diverse academic experience is expected to
provide greater preparedness for graduates when looking for employment in
the global knowledge economy. Personal knowledge of various countries and
their cultures and traditions is an important strength for students seeking
employment in the knowledge economy (Martens et al. 2014).
The Erasmus exchange program has provided students with a period
of study abroad since 1987. The Marie Curie Action programs, which began
in 1996, support the mobility of researchers. These programs make Europe an
attractive place to study and to research. There is competition within Europe
and internationally for locations to study and to research. Beyond the region
of Europe, China and India have been increasing their students’ enrollments
in the higher education systems of the U.S. and the EU. The growing student
and researcher diaspora of Chinese and Indians provides new networks of
information sharing and transmits knowledge through informal channels of
policy diffusion. A joint report of the Migration Policy Institute and the
European University Institute compared mobility challenges and
opportunities for the EU and the U.S. (Fargues et al. 2011). These two regions,
among the most economically advanced in the world, together receive the
majority of the world’s migrants who seek relocation for education and
employment opportunities.
The limited availability of funding at the individual, national, and
regional levels is a barrier to educational mobility. The European Commission
is committed to the mobility of education and to providing funds through the
flagship higher education program Erasmus. The European Commission-
funded study abroad scheme has been among the most lauded policy
programs, providing for limited periods of study abroad for a semester or an
academic year. There was a debate during the second half of 2012 over the
appropriate level of Erasmus funding for the EU Multiannual Financial
Framework (MFF) 2014–2020 (European Commission 2012h). In the EU’s
MFF 2014–2020, the early announcement of the initiative Erasmus+ Plus was
one of the only programs to have received an expansion and a budget increase.
At the end of 2013, then-director General for Education and Culture,
Androulla Vassiliou, announced Erasmus+ Plus, a program to include

84
countries beyond the EU in the educational exchange beginning in 2014.8 The
number of Erasmus students per year has increased from 3,264 in the initial
academic year 1987–1988 to more than 250,000 in the academic year 2011–
2012. There was steady progress toward the 3-million-student mobility target,
which was reached in July 2013 (European Commission 2013d). Other
regions of the world have simulated higher education mobility programs from
the EHEA and Erasmus, and outcomes thus far provide lessons for
understanding successes and challenges.
The dual role of higher education institutions as recipients and as
agents of change makes them important as subjects of analysis in political
economy and policy reform. Europe’s recent history of regional integration
and international collaboration in higher education have contributed to the
role that the region plays in the world and to the conception of global
governance of knowledge. The emphasis on higher education attainment
reflects a recognition of 21st-century society and economy, increasing the
importance of knowledge and human mobility. This may be attributed to the
growing reliance on technology and the prominence of the services sectors,
which often require advanced skills through education. Recognizing the
distinctions between attainment and quality, an assessment of the political
economy factors that influence higher education attainment is presented in the
following chapter.

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Author bio

Beverly Barrett, PhD, is an international policy specialist, educator, and

researcher in higher education policy and international political economy.
Presently she is the Master of Public Policy Administration (MPPA) Advisor
at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, USA. With a focus on
institutional change and public policy, she researches regional integration,
economic development, governance, and international trade. She is author of
Globalization and Change in Higher Education: The Political Economy of
Policy Reform in Europe, about the Bologna Process with case studies of
Portugal and Spain, published by Palgrave Macmillan.

88
Peer-Reviewed Article

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Higher Education

Volume 4, Issue 1 (2019), pp 89-110
https://www.ojed.org/jimphe
Print ISSN 2474-2546 Online ISSN 2474-2554
__________________________________

Workshopping in Online Courses: Insights for

Learning and Assessment in Higher Education
Niroj Dahal
Kathmandu University, School of Education, Hattiban, Lalitpur, Nepal
Email: niroj@kusoed.edu.np
Shesha Kanta Pangeni
Kathmandu University, School of Education, Hattiban, Lalitpur, Nepal
Email: sheshakanta@kusoed.edu.np

Abstract
Designed to explore effective pedagogical uses of the Workshop activity tool,
which is native to Moodle learning management system, the study reported in
this article was an action research. Using the standard steps of planning,
intervening, assessing effectiveness, and information sharing, the study
sought to identify the best ways to engage students in the process of learning
and peer assessment by using Workshop as a learning and assessment tool.
After identifying some challenges against students learning during the
submission and peer review process, this article highlights some key strengths
of the Workshop activity application, based on our study. Then it discusses
the application’s key affordances for conducting peer and self-assessment, for
enhanced engagement in learning, and for the development of higher-order
skills such as analysis and evaluation. We conclude by noting that effective
use of the tool demands teachers' careful attention to issues such as time
provided, peer allocation, and students’ skills for effective tool use.

Keywords: Workshop activity, online learning, action research, peer-

assessment, self-assessment.

Introduction
Digital learning platforms and a vast array of tools that they provide
have become a normal part of higher education across the world. Even in
developing countries like Nepal, as instructors who have been using web-

89
based delivery of courses for nearly a decade, we have been using different
approaches for student assessment, such as uploading a file (e.g., .doc, .docx,
.ppt, .pptx, etc.), administering quizzes, assigning written work, using
collaborative wiki, giving choices in the Moodle learning management system
(for choosing presentation topics as per priority of first come first served), and
involving students in forum discussion. Significantly, in spite of the rich array
of tools used for diverse types of teaching and learning activities/approaches
at Kathmandu University, an institution that is arguably on the leading edge
of academic technology in Nepal, until this study was designed and
implemented, few interactive learning technologies were used for learning
and assessment. We wondered if popular tools do not facilitate effective
involvement of students in self- and peer-
assessment, reflective writing, and feedback
from and interaction with the instructor. Or, is
it that instructors do not prioritize interactive
modes of learning and teaching so they do not
need such technologies? Is it instead that
available technologies are not well designed to
facilitate interactive learning and teaching?
Which of the available tools, especially those
integrated within learning management
systems or otherwise easily usable, can best
facilitate interactive teaching/learning?
Given the above gaps and questions about the availability and
effective uses of technology for interactive learning--or, more precisely, the
need to develop effective uses of available technology for interactive
learning--we selected the Workshop application to address the gap and need.
As a native tool for learning and assessment integrated within Moodle, a
learning management system (LMS), Workshop allows course facilitators to
design and implement interactive learning assignments, such as reading
discussions, reflection on term papers, and various forms of reflective writing
in formative assessment9; it provides a number of affordances for developing
interactive learning, reflection, and higher-order thinking in learners. As we
explored the pedagogical and educational potentials of the interactive tool that
we selected, we designed this study to explore its effective use for instructor-
, self-, and peer- centered assessment and for reflective learning among
students at our institution. The study also sought to understand how to
improve for instructor-, self-, and peer- centered assessment and for reflective
learning among students at our institution. The study also sought to
understand how to improve the quality of feedback before publishing final

9
Formative assessment is the key to a quality pedagogical process (David & Debra,
2016). Such assessments help students identify with how well they have learned a
topic, what their strengths are, and what they can improve on.
90
grades assessed by peers by assigning grades on the basis of the quality of
students’ work and the thoughtfulness of peers’ feedback. The purpose of this
study was to promote the use of online assessment tools--for which we
selected Workshop Activity--for learning through peer review in online,
distance, and face to face modes of learning and assessment.
To explore the potentials and uses of the interactive learning/teaching
tool systematically, the following research questions were asked: What are
the challenges of using Workshop as an assessment tool for teachers and their
students in the e-learning platform? What potentials of a tool like this could
teachers explore most easily? How could they use such tools to enhance
interactive learning, peer assessment, and reflection on learning? Our key
findings show that self- and peer-assessment activities provided in Workshop
Activity tool facilitates significantly and enhances students’ evaluation of
their own and peer activities based on the set of criteria (rubrics) provided by
the course facilitator(s). Findings also shows that students engage in their own
knowledge, learner accountability, meta-cognitive skills and a dialogical,
shared model of teaching and learning. In other words, this is an influential
way to increase students’ awareness of their active role in the learning
process. As Boud (1995) stated, the peer-assessment that we did created two
main benefits: a) making decisions about the standards of performance
expected, and b) making judgments about the quality of the performance in
relation to these standards. The other side of this coin is, which is self-
assessment, also helped to greatly reduce the course facilitator’s evaluation
effort, as a part of this job is meaningfully handed over to the students
themselves. We did find that, as Tousignant and DesMarchais (2002) argued,
students’ perception of themselves is not as accurate as their actual
performance. For reasons like this, we need to find a way to balance this
strategy with some other approaches to meet the desired learning. For
instance, McMillan and Hearn (2008), suggest correct implementation of
student peer- and self- assessment to encourage inherent motivation,
internally prohibited effort, a mastery goal direction, and more significant
learning through higher-order thinking. The authors point out a schematic to
explain the meaning of peer- and self-assessment, where three aspects are
illustrated: a) self-judgment (Zimmerman, 2002), b) learning targets, and
instructional correctives and c) self-monitoring. All these aspects are
important engines to improve students’ higher-order thinking (Anderson,
2001). Yet, all in all, as we report in this article, Workshop tool as an
application facilitating peer, self, and instructional feedback, as well as
interactive and reflective learning, exemplifies the benefits of using such tools
for teaching/learning in our web-based and web-enhanced era.

Method
This action research took place in the context of the researchers' own
teaching practice focusing on course ICT in Mathematics Education for M.
91
Ed. first semester. Action intervention and its effectiveness were observed
throughout the semester. The study was completed after the action research
cycle demonstrated in the different phases I-III. Firstly, Phase I, the study
focused on identifying the existing problem in answering the outlined
research questions. This leads to determine the type of intervention needed.
Secondly, in Phase II, we trained the students and course facilitators on the
use of the Workshop Activity. Thirdly, in phase III, we analyzed the result
through interaction with participants and observed their self-reflection on the
online protocol of e-learning site. Further, students involved in the
researchers’ own courses are key participants of the study. To expand the
horizon of study at the institutional level, all the course facilitators and
students who were eager to learn and use Workshop into the e-learning system
were selected for major action intervention such as training to use the tools
and outcome evaluation. As the action intervention took place in the
researchers’ own context of teaching practice, it involves the participation of
colleagues. Table 1 below shows the aspects (rubrics) used in the study.

Table 1
Aspects for peer Assessment on the Essay e-Research Conceptualization

Headings 1 point 2 points

Introduction and Minimal idea Arguing with

Evolution development citation

Conception and Minimal idea Arguing with

Misconceptions development citation

Opportunities Minimal idea Arguing with

development examples

Challenges Minimal idea Arguing with

development examples

Ways forward Minimal idea Arguing with self-

development reflection

Total Points Total Marks =10

92
Table 2
Total Number of Students Participated in the Study
Program Male Female Total

Master in 43 10 53
Mathematics
Education

Data Collection
A variety of data-collecting instruments were used to collect both
qualitative and quantitative data to serve the purpose of answering the
outlined research questions (can be seen in appendix section). To find the
answer to the research questions, a survey, telephone calls, and informal
discussion sessions were conducted. In the process, an orientation was also
given to course facilitators to set up the tool and use the tools in their online,
distance and face to face modes of courses. All processes were recorded and
reported. However, data collection was not a fixed strategy in this study; we
took it as an iterative process of action throughout the problem identification,
exploration, and evaluation period of the study.

Findings and Discussion

In this section, findings from each phase of the action research cycle
are presented, interpreted, and discussed. Discussion focuses on illuminating
various applications of of Workshop in online course platforms and its
pedagogical implications for higher education, especially for online, distance,
and face to face mode of delivery. In doing so, we focus on interactivity, self-
and peer- assessment, and reflective learning.

Opportunities of Workshop Activity

It was very pleasing to know about students' experiences with peer
review assignments. However, different informants were heavily loaded by
their own conceptualization of the assignment since it was an alluring task for
them. In general, we, as researchers, cannot expect exactly similar perceptions
among and between different students. As per our planning, we conducted a
survey and interview in relation to Workshop. Moreover, all of the students
agreed that peer review was a worthwhile activity for learning and peer
assessment. Most of the students perceived that the peer review assignment
was the best opportunity for them to correct and to be corrected on their own.
In addition, when peer assessment is enabled, the tool allows
instructors to allocate students a certain number of submissions from their
peers to assess. They obtain a score for all opinions, i.e. aspects, which are
added together with the grade for their timely submission. This is used as their
final grade (Alexander, Argent, & Spencer, 2017). Thus, the main feature of
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the Workshop is to encourage students in assessing the work of their peers
and learn from each other to promote collaborative learning. Activities that
engage students in learning through self- and peer- review processes allows
students to assess strengths of their classmates’ submission and have an
enhanced understanding of the subject matter presented in the text (Dahal,
Luitel & Pant, 2019). In addition, the feedback and suggestions they get from
their peers provide them additional and often comprehensive views of their
personal effort. The comments from their peers can point out areas for
improvement in their work, which may be difficult for students to identify on
their own. On the other hand, when the self-assessment is activated in
Workshop, a student may be allocated their own work to assess. The grade
they receive from the assessment of their own work will be counted into the
grade for assessment, which will be added together with the grade for
submission and used to calculate their final grade. This activity enables course
facilitator(s) to see whether students can find out the strengths and
weaknesses of their own work and revisit them impartially.
Further, Self-assessment strategies are students’ inward journeys of
their activities, whereas peer-assessment strategy forces students to consider
not only their own respective activities but also their classmate's activities. By
doing self-and peer-assessments, multiple metacognitive skills are worked out
by the students that enrich higher-order thinking skills. Hence, peer learning
transform learning platforms into places where one can see the birth of critical
thinkers, who can evaluate the pros and cons of different ideas or points of
view (Spiller, 2009). In answer to this, Wang, Liang, Liu, and Liu (2014)
proposed a strategy to arbitrate what they called the non-consensus, i.e., when
two or more students do not agree with a reasonable evaluation of a particular
activity. Accordingly, Shiba and Sugawara (2014) proposed a trust network
model to assess mutual evaluation students within groups, which can be
randomly arranged and rearranged during each semester in higher education.
More specifically, our research participants claimed that the whole
process of activities facilitated them not just to observe their ways of writing,
but also to improve their proficiency in writing by reviewing peers’ work.
Similarly, some of the students agreed that peer review helped them to
develop a culture of sharing ideas for learning in a collaborative format. In
the process of peer review, some of them got new ideas, were exposed to new
vocabulary and sentence structures, and learned new ideas about comparing
and contrasting. In brief, according to the majority of the participants,
Workshop in relation to self- and peer- review/assessment provides
opportunities for learning by reflecting on self and others' ways of writing and
expressing ideas.

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Challenges of Workshop Activity
The participants felt that peer review was interesting, as well as
challenging. Most of the participants agreed that the process of Workshop was
facilitating. However, it was very difficult to justify their level of write up.
According to participants, marking/grading information, content-based
analysis, time restraints in completing the process, being liberal, lack of
understanding of aspects (rubrics as listed in Table 1) were all challenges
faced by the students. Grading peers was tough for some of them because they
worried that their peers might complain about the mark they receive. On the
other side, for a single assignment, they were compelled to put in double effort
(Dahal & Dahal, 2015). In most of the traditional assignments, students
simply submit their work to the course facilitators, but in this process, it is
mandatory to review one or more peers. It demands that they be
knowledgeable in all aspects of the assignment and in fare judgment skills
too.

Workshop Activity: Students as Reviewer

When course facilitator(s) set up the Workshop Activity in their
course block in LMS and moves to the submission phase, students can start
submitting their work. If the course facilitator(s) sets up the sample
submission, students can review the sample before they submit, helping them
to easily navigate the feature when they are ready. A majority of the students
submitted two types of files either online text or file attachment. After the
submission phase is over, the assessment phase starts which allows students
to begin the peer-reviewing. It should be noted that another important phase
is to set the aspects (rubrics see in Table 1) for evaluation or conditions,
including how students will be providing feedback or justifying the grade that
they give to peers. While analyzing, we found, students tried their best to
evaluate being strict on provided aspects. Comments and feedback are also
significant for some particular cases. However, many students did not address
each aspect of the evaluation they were asked to. They simply provided 100%
marks, and their comments and feedbacks were so generic, which indicated
to the researchers that favoritism may have played a role, instead of giving a
rationale for their peers’ assessment, they simply awarded 100% marks to
their friends. Further, while analyzing scores, comments, and feedback, the
students did not care about each aspect set for peer assessment. Each comment
and even overall feedback were too generic (can be seen on the snapshot of
the written work reviewed by the peer under the heading of Workshop
Activity: Students as Reviewer).

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96
 Thus, major attention to be given in this kind of activity would be
fairness in marking, commenting, and providing feedback by one student to
others whom they evaluated. Avoiding favoritism and biases would be other
obstacles to take care of by course facilitator(s). For this, course facilitator(s)
can strictly inform students about their grades for assessment (those who do
not provide detailed comments/feedback will get a low score for assessment).

Workshop Activity for Course Facilitators

For this study, we found that the course facilitator(s) has a greater
role in designing, creating, and implementing the activity. The course
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facilitator(s) need to take time to set the activity both conceptually and
technologically with possible aspects for evaluation. However, once the
activity is set with all necessary components such as instruction for
submission, instruction for assessment, guidelines for scores, deadlines for
both submission and assessment and sample submission, etc., the role of
course facilitator(s) is minimized. However, manual or automatic allocation
of submission for peer assessment and switching to different phases of the
activity should be carefully executed for the smooth functionality of the
activity.
Further, this kind of activity reduces course facilitators' workload of
keeping grade records, allocating submissions for peer review, grading,
commenting. Likewise, the average calculation of overall grades for both
submission and assessment is also automatic. Therefore, a huge manual
workload for the course facilitator(s) is minimized by implementing such
activity for learning and assessment either for less number of students or a
higher number of students at each level.
However, some of the course facilitator(s) did not set the activity because
they felt email communication was as easy. Rather, they distributed students'
submissions via email to others and collected their review responses.
Following are reasons from the study that the course facilitator(s) did not
implement Moodle-based Workshop activity:
● Lack of time to learn the new tool;
● Uncertain about how the system works;
● Comfortable with email communication to students.
In addition, another interesting feature is about the ability of the course
facilitators to include grades for submission and assessment. If course
facilitator(s) wish not to grade they need to accept what peers have graded or
they can add their grades to individual students. Finally, to mitigate the
tendency of students favoring their peers by giving 100% score while
assessing peers, teachers can set anonymity by hiding author’s and reviewer’s
name while doing random allocation for review. When students cannot see
the name of the author and reviewer, they feel more comfortable making a
fair evaluation - issues on e-Research in relation to online learning culture
(Pangeni, 2017). Therefore, teachers need to be sure about all the processes
of setting the activity.

Workshop Activity Promotes Cognitivism and Radical Constructivism

Firstly, cognitive theory is aligned with the development of a person’s
thought processes while reviewing self-and peer-work. It can be broadly
defined as the act or process of knowing and acting (Belbase & Sanzenbacher,
2016). As per this theory, learning happens when knowledge in the world of
knowledge world is transformed into a learner’s mind and is stored. Further,
knowledge is gained through experience or modification of pre-existing
knowledge to adapt to the changing environment while reviewing peers’
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work. In addition to that, this theory focuses on the mind and attempts to show
that usually, the information is received, assimilated, stored, recalled and act
accordingly (Dahal, 2019). According to cognitivist, learning can be acquired
by reviewing peer and self work and then processing and remembering the
information. Among various software which can support such learning
processes by reviewing peer and self work, Workshop in Moodle is one of
them.
Secondly, constructivism motivates learners to share their own ideas,
expand their knowledge by utilizing their experiences, think critically on new
ideas and experiences, reflect upon changing some of their ideas, and create
a meaningful learning environment while reviewing peers' work (Huang,
2002). In a constructivist view of learning, learners construct, reconstruct and
deconstruct their own understanding by reviewing peers' work by
experiencing things and reflecting on those experiences. Also, constructivist
believes that there is always more than ways of writing while reviewing peers'
work, and learners try to write from more than one perspective (Ellerton &
Clements, 1992). For this, learners must ask questions, explore and assess
what they know while reviewing peers’ work. Radical constructivism states
that knowledge cannot be transmitted from one person to another person but
instead, learning occurs by the process of “learning by doing” while reviewing
peers’ work on the basis of given aspects (as shown in Table 1). Regarding
the role of teachers aligned to radical constructivism, it shift from being an
evaluator to facilitating the evaluation process by providing learning and
assessing environment, so, as learners evaluate peers' work as per the given
aspects. Further, learners were free to express their opinion(s) to their peers'
works as per given aspects. As a researcher, we allowed learners to evaluate
peer work: they were enthusiastic throughout the process started from
submission to evaluation. Even more, they were eager to share their
evaluations procedural as per given aspects. Sometimes, though they made
mistakes while evaluating peer work through the activity, they did not hesitate
to come forward with their difficulties. It was good to know that they were
learning from their mistakes aligned to given aspects while evaluating peer’s
work. We tried to make the learners centered approach of evaluation. It could
help learners to become active constructor followed by the evaluator of
knowledge and not only a passive recipient of knowledge (Dahal, 2019).

Workshop Activity: Reflection of Researchers

In this section, researchers reflect the lessons they learned through
this active research process. First of all, it was easy to set the icon and different
setting options in the Workshop in LMS. However, after the setting phase was
complete, we could not shift to the submission phase. We consulted various
tutorials available online, but none of the tutorials were relevant. We were
about to give up, after a week-long search and exploration of each of the
aspects and underlying tools of activity settings when we discovered the
99
hindering factor: It was the bulb icon which we initially thought was just an
indicator of the phases. However, when we hovered a mouse on the bulb icon,
we discovered the "Switch phase." In fact, it was accidental learning. We did
not get the idea from other resources in our quick search. As indicated in
settings, the system did not function with "automatic switching."
When we discovered the icon and its function, we were happy to
move ahead. We conducted individual orientations to a few other course
instructors involved in the research process. Some of them agreed and learned
the process but later, they did not implement it. None of the course
facilitator(s) of other courses implemented this kind of activity with that
reason, we could not involve other faculties as planned in the study.
Implementation of the activity in a graduate course was excellent for
learning a new way of students' assessment for online, distance, and face to
face mode of teaching. It has given us many insights.
● A new method of engaging students in learning. This was never tried
in the past.
● Workshop provides the base for both learning and assessment.
● An ease of keeping track of the peer review process and assignments.
● Effective when authors and reviewers are anonymous.
● Essential tool for online and distance mode of teaching and learning
in higher education.
● Content-wise, students can learn from peers, and if they have the
ability, they can make insightful comments and provide feedback for
peer's improvement.
● When course facilitator(s) are busy in their usual academic affairs,
they may set such peer review activities to engage students.
● To start setting up and switch to different phases of the Workshop,
course facilitator(s) need to pay full attention to learning the software
and implementing it.
Thus, we enjoyed learning through this research process. This activity
could be implemented in any courses offered in higher education anywhere--
whether online, distance, or face to face--as an effective tool to engage
students for peer- and self-assessment.

Context, construction, and reflection of workshop activity

phases. We completed different phases: the Setup phase, the Submission
phase, the Assessment phase and the Grading and Evaluation phase and
finally closed the activity. In the first phase, teachers need to set up all of the
options given in the activity phases. Once all components of each of the
options are carefully set up, setting up phase is complete. Then course
facilitator(s) needs to manually switch to submission phase using the light
bulb icon. In the submission phase, instruction for assessment and allocation
is important. Course facilitator(s) set aspects (as shown in Table 1) of
evaluation to assess submissions, and they also set the process of allocation
100
which can be random or manually selected. In this phase, course facilitator(s)
may allow students to submit late. We had five aspects set in a course. For
ease of students' peer-assessment, we indicated marks to use for each aspect.
We also selected random distribution, which automated the allocation of
submissions for peer-review. Likewise, in the assessment phase, facilitators
had no role. Students were engaged in reviewing, grading, commenting and
providing feedback to their peers.
Before closing the activity, the last phase was grading the evaluation
phase. We graded each student’s assessment with final remarks for course
facilitator(s) and then the system automatically re-calculated final grades for
assessment and submission depending on the weight defined in the settings of
grade and grading of the course facilitator(s). Course facilitators must write
concluding remarks to complete this phase and switch to closing the activity.
Here, we noticed an important feature that without passing to the closing
phase, grades are not displayed into a grade book of the students.
Thus, there are many important tools in Workshop that support both
students and course facilitator(s) in the teaching and learning process.
However, if the course facilitator(s) do carefully navigate and set up the
process, they may find it hard to implement as many course facilitator(s) in
many contexts tend to resist change. They may feel overburdened at the outset
while mastering the Workshop. However, this tool would contribute to change
learning culture (Pangeni, 2016) in higher education by facilitating the
learning as a part of assessment.

Workshop Activity: Participants’ Experience

Self and peer review was a new experience for participated students.
They enjoyed completing the process of peer review, followed by an
assessment. They expressed self-realization about their own level of
performance such as the use of standard language, depth of content, clarity of
the work, development of an arguments, fairness in distinguishing friends’
level of performance, ability to know their own drawbacks, and performing
back to back work. Also, the challenge of being critical to and comparing
their own work with their peers. Some of the participants shared that this was
their first experience with peer review, so they did not have any other
instances to compare with peer review in the Workshop feature of LMS. As
such, some of the participants felt comfortable but some were confused as to
how, when and what to do. Nonetheless, the overall experience of all
participants was to say such Workshop provides opportunities for learners as
it is indicated in the opportunities section. Further, learning by comparing
one’s own work with peers in a similar task, learning by knowing others' ways
of doing assignments, and even comparing the ability of grading among
friends.
Regarding submission and review, students indicated generic
experiences. As they reported, there was no problem with uploading their
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work within the due date. All the participants made successful submissions of
their work on time. However, one of the participants made a mistake by
uploading the wrong file. As there was no editing options available to replace
the submission, he could not correct his submission. Later he requested the
course facilitator(s) to make necessary corrections and assign the review of
his work to other friends. Some of the participants experienced a hard time
with the peer review as they were assigned three peers to be reviewed. They
felt it was an overload of work to review three peers' work at a time. Likewise,
it was hard to review peers' work by comparing with previously learned
concepts, relate the ideas as the process of learning, and review the depth of
the contents. However, some participants clearly mentioned that it was easy
because of the clear review guidelines and indicated aspects for the required
marking.

Conclusions and Ways Forward

The major action goal was to explore the practice of creating
Workshop in e-learning courses by replicating the same process. From this
study, we noticed that such activities are somehow meaningful for learning at
a higher education regardless of the nature of the courses.
Although this research was short termed, it has been meaningful to
understanding problems and taking initial interventions to solve those specific
problems on the Moodle-based assessment system. Through the initial
intervention of this action research, Workshop is introduced and examined for
its functionality and effectiveness. Our observation is that in addition to the
usual forms of assignments such as uploading a file (e.g., .doc, .docx, .ppt,
.pptx, etc.), administering quizzes, assigning written work, using
collaborative wiki, giving choices in the Moodle learning management system
(for choosing presentation topics as per priority of first come first service),
and involving students in forum discussion, Workshop is unique. A major
insight is that it is functional, creating no problems, easy to implement, helps
course facilitator(s) to reduce their workload, and empowers students in
learning by reading and evaluating peers' work.
In multiple ways, such activities are beneficial for both students and
course facilitator(s). Therefore, the future focus should be to implement such
an assessment tool in all the courses at least one time in a semester. However,
all course facilitator(s) need technical orientation to implement the tool.
Likewise, such research would be informative if continued for a longer period
that can cover the practice of such assessment tool in all courses and all
semesters of a program, so that course facilitator(s) can see how it works from
multiple perspectives in diverse nature of courses and activities. Additionally,
we also contributed to create synergy among students and the course
facilitator(s) for learning by using the self- and peer-review process and
motivate them with the Workshop. Finally, the longer study would confirm

102
its effectiveness in all the courses to be offered in upcoming semesters in
higher education.
Further, technological tools for Workshop is innovative with the
power to change pedagogical practices, and the major challenge lies with the
course facilitator(s) because they lack technical skills to design, create and
implement the activity. To strengthening Workshop, in-house faculty training
sessions are required for course facilitator(s) for support to start with. It is not
hard to create and implement such activities for quality learning purposes. It
is vital to understanding the creative and innovative nature of assessment that
enhances a higher order of thinking regardless of the nature of learning subject
and context in higher education.
It is noted that there are both opportunities and challenges in
Workshop in the Moodle system, the biggest challenge being that many
course facilitators are not aware of this important and useful feature of
Workshop. As a result, students are missing this very useful tool of peer- and
self- assessment for learning in higher education. Therefore, KUSOED, as
well as other universities throughout the world, can train all course facilitators
to design, create and use these types of activities for peer- and self-
assessment. For that universities can offer in-house faculty workshops and
professional development sharing sessions. Such events would encourage the
course facilitator(s) to learn new ways of student assessment. After creating
Workshop in the LMS, course facilitator(s) can conduct orientation sessions
for students on the use of the Workshop.

References

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to principles and practice, reading. New York, NY: Garnet Publishing Ltd.
Anderson, L. W. (Eds.). (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing:
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Appendix
Workshop Activity as a Tool in LMS
As described in Moodle documentation, Workshop Activity is a powerful
self and peer assessment activity. The documentation on Workshop Activity
settings explains the different options available, for example, students submitting
their own work and then receiving a number(s) of submissions from other students,
which they will assess according to the course facilitator's specifications or rubrics
(aspects). Even more, they may also assess their own work if the facilitator(s) allows
this option. Text may be typed directly into Moodle's editor, or files of any type may
be uploaded. The course facilitator(s) can decide whether to show or hide the
identities of the students when assessing is taking place. Two grades are given and
appear in the Grade book: A grade for the student's own submission and a grade for

104
the quality of their peer assessment. The workshop is primarily a student-focused
activity; however, the course facilitator(s) may guide the students by providing
example submissions for them to try out before assessing their peers and at the end
of the Workshop Activity the course facilitator(s) may publish some good (or less
good) examples as references.
Protocol Review of Workshop Activity in Moodle
Workshop Activity
It is an activity for peer assessment, where students submit their work using
online text or uploaded files (e.g., self-reflection). Thereby, student's submissions
can be reviewed by other students (peers), themselves, or the course facilitator(s). In
this regard, students receive two grades in the grade book i.e., submission grade (how
was the peer-rated), assessment grade (for timely submission). However, students can
review their ratings and comments from their peers.
Workshop Module Phases
The following phases (1-5) of snapshots were adopted from the course protocol
used by Kathmandu University School of Education for the online, distance, and face
to face mode of study in Master, M Phil and Ph.D.
1. Phase 1: Setup

105
2. Phase 2: Submission

106
3. Phase 3: Assessment

4. Phase 4: Grading Evaluation

107
 5. Phase 5: Closed

Features of Workshop Module Phases

1. Can only be in one phase at a time;
2. Can manually switch between all phases and automatically switch between
some phases.
Workshop Assessment Special Notes
● Students are required to submit work;
● Facilitators cannot edit student responses directly;
● Students will not see an average rating per item;
● Students ratings and comments can be seen in Moodle online protocol of
courses.
Guidelines used for Interview
1. What did you feel when peer review assignment was assigned to you?
(Opportunities and Challenges)
2. Were you able to submit the assignment in time? If no why? If yes, was
there any problem?
3. Were you clearly aware about the assignment? What to do? How to do?
When to do?
4. Were you clear about assessment instruction (different aspect of review)
5. Did you notice any lacking in review instruction?
6. Did you enjoy assessing peers? Yes how? No why?
7. How did you assess peers submission?
8. What was the base of marking?
9. Please describe what you learnt through peer review?
10. Do you have any suggestions or feedback regarding peer review?
11. How will be Workshop can be used effective? Any suggestion?

Sample Interview Transcribed

Question Initiation: Please share, what did you feel when peer review assignment
was assigned to you? (Opportunities and Challenges)

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Response: Google sketch up was a bit challenging and since I was not so much into
ICT, I found it a bit harder, but later, when our teacher introduced us with
ICT classes and taught us about the procedure, I found it much easier. I continued
with discussion and through ‘Need’ I completed the task. Even more, I got to see
each other’s writing, and marked it as well. This really was a good opportunity to
learn new ideas through sharing of ideas.
Question: Were you able to submit the assignment in time? If no why? If yes, were
there any problems?
Response: Yes, I did and submit assignments on time. Excluding some few friends
who had a problem in understanding the procedure, almost all did submit
on time. Particularly, with me, there was no any issue.
Question: Were you clearly aware about the assignment : What to do? How to do?
When to do?
Response: About the procedure, I was clear enough because though I did not use
Computer for Maths purpose in particular, I was familiar with its use, and
when I was guided once, it was no longer a problem for me. I found it really
interesting to use ICT even in maths because this was something totally new
experience for me. I was not at all clear about the concept of Peer Review and was
wondering whether we would have discussions or something else. I had completed
the assignment though, and was just waiting for further instruction. Later, when we
were told that we would even mark our peers’ assignments, I was excited about it
because this was a totally new practice for me. we conducted the whole process
along with discussion.
Question: Were you clear about assessment instruction (different aspect of review)?
Response: Yeah… I was pretty clear about the instruction but then we marked
it basing what I got to read from our peers good marks for the good ones.
Question: Did you notice any lacking in review instruction?
Response: Nothing as such because I got the instruction pretty clear and aspects
were ranked from 1 to 5 with the range of 1-2 points. It was all marked according to
the quality of our peer’s writing.
Question: Did you enjoy assessing your peers? Yes how? No why?
Response: Yeah it was a real pleasure to have an opportunity to mark our peers for
the first time, as it was always teachers who had this opportunity, so I did enjoy the
process thoroughly.
Question: How did you assess peers submission?
Response: I went through peers’ assessment thoroughly and then marked it
according to the quality of their work as said earlier: good marks for the
good ones. I was not aware of any guidelines as such as I just marked our peers on
the basis of our reading.
Question: What was the base of marking?
Response: The writing itself and as it was focused on Geogebra, I just looked for its
presence the most. I focused on the content and gave more importance to
the content itself. Even more, I used the marking instructions given.
Question: Please describe what you learnt through peer review?
Response: I felt that we get to learn many things through discussion and sharing of
ideas. For instance, when I read my friends assignment when they go
through my writing, I obviously get to learn something new. The learning process
was overall a good one.

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Question: Do you have any suggestion or feedback regarding peer review?
Response: I don’t think I have any because the process, personally for me was very
good and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Question: How will be Workshop can be used effective? Any suggestion?
Response: It was over all very interesting and fruitful, yet again, I felt that if we
were given an opportunity to showcase our individual talent making use of the
software, I guess it would have been more effective.

Author bios

Niroj Dahal, M Phil is working in the position of Research Assistant at Kathmandu

University School of Education under NORHED Rupantran Project. Prior to that he
has been working as a visiting faculty member of Kathmandu University School of
Education (KUSOED) and Kathmandu University School of Arts (KUSOA),
Hattiban, Lalitpur, Nepal in M. Ed in Mathematics Education, M Phil and Bachelor
programs as well as visiting faculty member of Nepal Open University (NOU) under
Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, Manbhaban, Lalitpur, Nepal in M Phil
programs. Areas of his research interests are ICT in Education, Mathematics
Education, Open, Distance & e-Learning, STEAM Education focusing on
Technology & Mathematics and ICT & e-Research. For more than a decade, he has
been teaching graduate and undergraduate students. Also, he has been continuously
participating in more than a dozen national and international conferences, workshops,
and seminars. He has published articles in a variety of national and international
journals in the field of mathematics education by integrating ICT tools.

Shesha Kanta Pangeni, PhD is an Asst. Professor of Educational Leadership at

Kathmandu University School of Education under the Department of Educational
Leadership. He has been professionally involved in the field of education for more
than two decades in Nepal. He also worked as a guest researcher at Oslo Metropolitan
University (OsloMet), Oslo, Norway for a year during his PhD exchange visit. His
Ph.D. was funded by The Norwegian Program for Capacity Development in Higher
Education and Research for Development (NORHED) and the PhD project was
related to web technology in higher education. Areas of his research interests are
Educational Leadership, Mathematics Education, Web Technologies in Higher
Education, Online and Distance Learning, and ICT in Education. He has presented
many international conference papers in Asia, Europe, and America. His past journal
articles and conference papers were focused on ICT in Education, Online and
Distance Education, Digital Leadership, Online Learning Culture, and e-Research
Methods.

110
Peer-Reviewed Article

International Journal of Multidisciplinary

Perspectives in Higher Education
Volume 4, Issue 1 (2019), pp. 111-135
https://www.ojed.org/jimphe Print ISSN
2474-2546 Online ISSN 2474-2554)
__________________________________

Challenges Faced by International Students at

Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Ashiq Ali Shah
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Email: ashiq.shah@kpu.ca
Alexander Lopes
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Email: alexander.lopes@email.kpu.ca
Linah Kareem
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Email: linahtk@gmail.com

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the challenges international students face

during their studies at Kwantlen polytechnic university. The research focused
on the English language, study-related and financial issues, and adjustment
to life in Canada. The participants were 25 females and 38 male students of
18- 35 years old from China, India and the Middle East. The materials
included a challenges questionnaire, coping and religiosity scales,
adjustment in Canada and religious involvement scales, and a demographic
questionnaire. The data were collected at three campuses of KPU. The main
challenges reported by the majority of international students were high tuition
fees, high rents, part-time work, and missing the families. Most international
students liked small class sizes, were satisfied with the education, felt
comfortable communicating with professors, were welcomed by their peers
and had adjusted to Canadian culture. In general, international students who
used both emotion-avoidance and problem-focused coping strategies were
better at facing challenges.

Keywords: Challenges, International students, three nationalities, Canadian

University

111
Introduction
The life of a student can often prove to be a challenging one. Being
inundated with the stress of tuition, class responsibilities, maintaining a social
life, and managing finances is a heavy burden on almost anyone. Now
imagine this lifestyle in a land where very little is familiar. The language
serves as a barrier, the culture is different than any that you are familiar with,
the people are largely unknown to you, and your social support is an ocean
away, a life typical of an international student (Russell, Rosenthal, &
Thomson, 2010). These difficulties are compounded because, despite the
general perception that North American culture is based around diversity,
there exists a mindset that Eurocentric culture is superior to others. Hence,
those who come to be a part of North America may feel pressure to conform
to the homogeneous cultural climate (Hsieh, 2007). A narrative study
conducted with a Chinese woman studying in America asks a question of what
it is to be invisible. She responds that to be invisible does not mean that
something does not exist. Instead, it is the social structures that force people
to be invisible and voiceless (Hsieh, 2007). For her being different implied
that she could not be a part of the group leading her to internalize a negative
self-perception as a marginalized person (Hsieh, 2007).
Unlike its other Western counterparts like the UK, U.S., Europe, and
Australia, Canada was not the first choice for international students a couple
of decades ago. The rapidly changing geopolitical world circumstances have
necessitated a shift toward the internationalization of education at the
Canadian universities. Some research indicates that international student
program are driven by financial benefits for universities. The income from
international students in the United Kingdom, for example, makes up for
almost a third of all the earnings of universities and colleges (Brown & Jones,
2013). However, a more valuable benefit is found in a diversity of culture and
mind that international student programs provide.
While the U.S. has experienced a decline in international students,
primarily due to Trump’s administration’s anti-immigration and racist
policies, the number of international students at Canadian universities has
increased exponentially. A big majority of these students come from the new
emerging economies in South and South-East and Middle East regions. The
latest enrolment data show that international student enrolment at Canadian
universities has risen by 11 percent in the year 2016 (Universities Canada,
November 15, 2017). Almost all provinces across the country saw a rise in
international student enrolment; however, British Columbia was ahead of all
other provinces with a 15.6 percent increase. Kwantlen Polytechnic
University has seen a 174% increase in the number of international students,
especially from India in the Fall semester 2017.
As international students come from diverse regions of the world,
they also bring their cultural traditions and academic mindset to the host
112
culture. The differences in the culture and the traditions of the international
students and the social and academic environment of the educational
institutions in Canada create a heterogeneous mixture of idiocentric and
allocentric values (Triandis, Leung, Villareal &Clack, 1985) of individualist
and collectivist cultures. This presents a challenge for the academic staff how
to bridge the expectations of international students and academic standards of
the institution. This point highlights the importance of research being
conducted for the benefit of these students. Some research studies show that
while there is a large volume of international students in Canada, they face
cultural and linguistic barriers (Arthur & Flynn, 2011; Ge, Brown & Durst,
2019), difficulties in connecting to host communities and perceived employer
discrimination (Scott, Safdar, Desai Trilokekar & El Masri, 2015; Ge et al.,
2019). A study by Brown and Jones (2013) on incidences of racism against
international students found that out of a group of 153 international students,
a staggering 49 had experienced some form of racist assaults, which were both
verbal and physical in nature. The authors suggest that universities should
focus on how international students adjust to life on the campus rather than
on financial gains (Brown & Jones, 2013).
For international students, it may feel hard to bridge cultural
differences at the beginning (Baklashova & Kazakov, 2016), and the language
may be a daunting barrier to get to know people in a new environment and
the local students (Jenkins & Galloway, 2009). In addition to linguistic and
cultural barriers, another big challenge for international students is to build
social relationships with domestic students (Elturki, Liu, Hjeltness &
Hellmann, 2019). Other more difficult challenges may include having to
supplement or pay the entirety of their tuition by finding work in a place and
a job that is completely unfamiliar.
In addition to language and social barriers faced by international
students, the study by Russell et al. (2010) on how international students adapt
to their unfamiliar surroundings found three patterns of responses. These
patterns included positive and connected, unconnected and stressed, and
distressed and risk-taking. The majority of students (nearly 60%) reported a
style of adaptation that was a positive one — implying that they were
adjusting well to their new environment. However, the remaining students
reported their general affect and attitude towards their situation as stressful
(Russell et al., 2010). As previously mentioned, research suggests that more
than the everyday challenges of being a student or feelings of homesickness,
it is feeling cut off from social support that results in a negative outlook for
international students (Hsieh, 2007).
Furthermore, there might be certain unique challenges faced by
international students studying at universities in different provinces of
Canada. For example, the students studying at the universities at Eastern
Canadian universities have to acclimatize to extreme weather conditions but
may encounter more friendly and welcoming folk, whereas students studying
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at the universities in Quebec may experience prejudice and discrimination in
addition to harsh weather conditions. The situation at the universities in
Western Canadian provinces might provide opportunities to international
students in a somewhat different context.
The aim of this study was to investigate what challenges international
students face as well as the way in which they respond to those challenges
during their studies at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), one of the
leading universities in Western Canada. Specifically, we focused on English
language challenges, study-related issues, financial challenges, and
challenges related to adjusting to life in British Columbia. The hypotheses of
our study pertaining to these challenges included:
(1) Students from China will report more language-related challenges
than students from South Asia and the Middle East.
(2) Students from Middle Eastern countries will report more study-
related challenges than South Asian or Chinese students.
(3) Students of South Asian origin will report more financial
challenges than then Middle Eastern or Chinese students.
(4) Female international students will report more adjustment issues
than their male counterparts.
We examined the coping methods international students might
employ when facing challenges. For our purpose, we looked at the problem
focused and emotion-focused coping. We formulated the following
hypotheses.
(5) Chinese students will report using problem-focused coping more
than Middle Eastern and South Asian students, and; Middle Eastern students
will report using emotion-focused coping more than Chinese and South Asian
students.
We further examined religiosity to see differences in the religiosity
of international students belonging to different nationalities. We wanted to
know whether religious beliefs and practices of international students would
be helpful in dealing with the challenges. Our hypotheses included:
(6) Middle Eastern students will score higher on religiosity than
Chinese and South Asian students, and religious practices will be helpful for
international students to deal with the challenges.
In addition, we were interested to see relationships between
religiosity and two types of coping strategies. We expected that international
students who are religious would use more emotion-avoidance coping rather
than problem-focused coping. We hypothesized that:
(7) Students who score high on religiosity will report using more
emotion-avoidance coping, but less problem-focused coping.

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Method

Participants
The participants were 25 female and 38 male international students
in the age range of 18- 35 years who were enrolled in an undergraduate
program at KPU. The participants included 22 Chinese, 26 Indians, and 15
Middle Eastern nationals. Their study year and the duration of stay in Canada
ranged from 1-7 years. The participants had diverse religious backgrounds
including 18 Muslims, 20 Sikhs, 4 Hindus, 4 Buddhists and 17 with no
religious affiliation.

Materials/scales
The materials used included three scales; a challenges questionnaire,
a coping scale, and a religiosity scale. Besides, one item adjustment in Canada
and religious involvement rating scales and a demographic questionnaire
were also used.

Challenges scale
A group of four senior undergraduate students attending an upper-
level course on ‘cultural psychology’ formulated statements on challenges
faced by the students, especially considering the unique situation of
international students at Canadian universities and in everyday life situations.
The statements covered different areas pertaining to the life of an international
student including English language, study-related issues such as coping with
the stress of school work, interaction with the local classmates and
communication with the professors, adjustment to the university
environment, financial challenges, accommodation and transportation
challenges, daily recurring situations (e.g., contact and interaction in the
community), finding part-time work, social support, local climate,
experiences of discrimination and adjusting to life in British Columbia. The
statements were scrutinized for the appropriateness of the content, language
and intelligibility by the principal investigator and two research assistants. A
hundred percent agreement was used for the selection of the statements.
Finally, a total of 30 statements were selected called ‘Challenges scale.’
There were 20 positive statements like, “I find it easy to maintain my
expected grade” and ten negative ones such as, “I am overwhelmed by my
school work.” Each statement had a five-point Likert type scale with the
evaluative categories of ‘strongly agree,’ ‘agree,’ ‘neither agree nor disagree,’
‘disagree,’ and ‘strongly disagree.’ The minimum score on the scale was 30,
and the maximum was 150. The higher the score the greater the challenges
encountered by the participants.

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Coping scale
The Brief COPE (Carver, 1997), which is a short version of the
COPE, was adapted and used to measure coping strategies used by
international students. The original Brief COPE includes 28 items with 14
subscales containing two items each; however, the factor analysis of Brief
COPE showed four distinct factors. The items of the scale are scored on a
four-point Likert type scale. We selected 19 items suitable for our study which
included 11 items of problem-focused coping and eight items of
emotion/avoidance coping. The items of the scale had a five-point Likert type
scale. The minimum score on the scale was 19 and a maximum of 95. Carver
(1997) has recommended that researchers use scale flexibly as it suits their
research design. An example of problem-focused coping is, “I try to come up
with a strategy about what to do,” and that of emotional/avoidance coping is,
“I seek emotional support from others.” The internal consistency reliability of
the coping scale was .613.

Religiosity scale
The religiosity scale consisted of nine items, which were scored on a
five-point Likert type rating scale. Four items were adapted from Ashdown,
Homa, and Brown's (2014) religious identity scale, which measured
interdependence and attachment to the religious group, content and meaning
of being religious, and self-categorization as being religious. Five other items
were added of which four pertained to satisfaction with one’s life and one
item to allow for religious non-affiliation. The religious non-affiliation item
was reverse coded. An example of a religiosity item is, “My religion is an
important part of my identity.” An item measuring one's satisfaction with life
is “I live my life according to my ideal,” and the item on religious non-
affiliation is, “I do not belong to any religious faith.” The internal consistency
reliability analysis of the religiosity scale showed an alpha of .655.

Demographic questionnaire
A demographic questionnaire was designed to collect information on
international student’s age, gender, a program of study, religious background,
type of financial support, year of study, and the duration of stay in Canada. A
five-point Likert type rating scale, ranging from “not at all” to “always,” was
included on the demographic questionnaire to measure the religious
involvement of internationals. The demographic questionnaire also included
another five-point Likert type rating scale on which the participants were
asked to rate how well they were adjusted in Canadian society. It ranged from
‘very poor’ to “very well adjusted.” The type of financial support included
three options, namely, ‘scholarship,’ family support,’ and ‘self.’ The
participants had the choice to select one or more than one option.

116
Procedure
The participants for this study were recruited at the Kwantlen
Polytechnic University Surrey, Richmond, and Langley campuses.
International students were contacted in-person by the research assistants
around students’ meeting areas, e.g., libraries, international office, cafeteria,
through friend’s circles at the three campuses. In addition, university
professors were requested to allow recruiting international students from their
classes. Online recruitment was another avenue for recruiting. Posters and
advertisements were placed on KPU’s International Students Page and the
notice boards of the university campuses. International students taking
psychology courses were able to sign up through the SONA system of
psychology lab. The purpose of the study was explained to the participants
and then a consent form was handed out to them which informed them on the
confidentiality of their data, that there was no harm to them regarding their
participation and that they could withdraw from the study at any time if they
so desired. After signing the consent form, participants were given the
research questionnaire and were told to indicate their level of agreement with
each statement by selecting a number on the five-point rating scale. They were
also asked to complete demographic information towards the end of the
survey. Participants were told to complete all the sections of the questionnaire
and were assured that their responses will remain anonymous and will be used
only for research purposes. International students taking psychology courses
were entitled to a bonus credit towards their eligible courses. In the end, they
were handed out a debriefing form that explained the actual purpose of the
study and had the contact information of the principal investigator to be
contacted for any future inquiries and on the outcome of the study. This study
was approved by the ‘Research and Ethics Board’ (REB) of KPU.

Results
The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics to obtain
information on the demographic information and the most important
challenges encountered by international students at Kwantlen Polytechnic
University. The data were also analyzed with one factor between-subject
analysis of variance on the total challenges scores of three groups of
international students for differences in challenges faced by them. One factor
between subject analyses of variances were also computed on the scores of
three groups of international students for differences on each item of the
challenges scale. To find out differences in religiosity and religious
involvement of three groups of international students and whether they differ
in their use of problem-focused and emotion-avoidance coping strategies, one
factor between subject analyses of variances were performed. A multiple
regression analysis was computed employing challenges score as the criterion
and problem-focused, emotion-avoidance copings, religiosity, and religious
involvement as the predictor variables to find out what predictors are
117
employed by the international students to deal with the challenges faced by
them.
The data were analyzed to compute the mean and standard deviations
on the scores of international students on individual items of the challenges
scale. A mean of more than 3.5 was used as a cutoff score to determine a
significant challenge faced by international students.
The results showed the highest mean score, Mean = 4.47, S.D. = 0.89
on item 22 (I think it is unfair that international students pay a higher rate for
education). The second highest mean, Mean = 4.33, S.D. = 0.86 was observed
on item 30 (I receive support from my family back home) and the third highest
mean score, Mean = 4.31, S.D. = 0.73 was on item 6 (I like the small class
sizes at Kwantlen). The fourth highest mean, Mean = 4.25, S.D. = 1.03, was
on item 29 (I miss my family). Other challenges faced by international
students in the order of the highest mean scores were, item 1, Mean = 4.06,
S.D. = 0.83 (I have a good understanding of English language), item 2, Mean
= 4.03, S.D. = 0.77 (I am welcome by my peers), item 19, Mean = 3.98, S.D.
= 0.90 (I am happy with the education received in Canada), item 28, Mean =
3.92, S.D. = 1.16 (I miss my country), item 4, Mean = 3.90, S.D. = 0.89 (It’s
difficult to find affordable rent), item 21, Mean = 3.85, S.D. = 1.02 (I would
enjoy the experience of part-time work), item 9, Mean = 3.79, S.D. = 0.95 (I
feel comfortable to communicate with my professor in the class), item 23,
Mean = 3.73, S.D. = 1.18 (Given the opportunity I would like to live on
campus), item 20, Mean = 3.71, S.D. = 0.85 (I need to financially supplement
my education), and item 26, Mean = 3.61, S.D. = 0.95 (I have adjusted to the
culture of Canada).
The results of one factor between subject analysis of variance on the
total challenges scores of three groups of international students in Table 1
shows a significant difference for three groups of students, F (2,60) = 6.292;
p < .003. The effect size, η2 was 0.17. This means 17% of the total variance
was explained by the variation in the independent variable. The mean
challenges score of Indian students was highest 109.46, followed by the
students from Middle East 106.27 and Chinese students 103.0. This shows
that Indian faced the greatest challenges among the three groups of
international students. The posthoc comparison using Tukey HSD indicated
an only significant difference between Indian and Chinese students, mean
difference = -6.46; standard error = 1.8, p < .002.

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Table 1: One-way, Between-Subject ANOVA on the challenges scores of
international students from China, India, and the Middle East studying at
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), Surrey, BC.

Source of
Sum of
variance
Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
Between 498.161 2 249.080 6.292 .003
Groups
Within Groups 2375.395 60 39.590
Total 2873.556 62

One factor between subject analyses of variances were performed on

the scores of three groups of international students for all 30 items of
challenges scale. The result showed significant outcomes for items 1, 5, 6, 8,
9, 17, 22 and 27. The findings on other items of the scale were not significant.
The results on “good understanding of English language” (item 1) indicated
a significant difference for the three groups, F (2, 60) = 4.9, p< .01, η2= 0.14.
The mean score of Indians was highest (M = 4.31, S.D. = .88) followed by
the Middle Eastern (M = 4.26, S.D. = .59) and the Chinese (M = 3.6, S.D. =
.78). This means that Indians had a better knowledge of English language
compared to Middle Eastern and Chinese students.
The “preference to live alone” (item 5) showed a significant
difference between the three groups of international students, F (2, 60) = 3.67,
p< .03, η2= 0.11. The Indians had the highest preference to live alone (M =
3.38, S.D. =1.4) followed by Middle Eastern (M = 2.87, S.D. = 1.1) and the
Chinese (M = 2.45, S.D. = .96).
The international students also differed on “liking for the small class
size” (item 6), F (2, 60) = 3.46, p< .03, η2= 0.10. Indian students liked the
small classes most (M = 4.5, S.D. = .76) followed by the Chinese (M = 4.3,
S.D. = .56) and the Middle Eastern students (M = 3.9, S.D. = .79).
For some international students “classes were stress free” (item 8)
compared to others, F (2, 60) = 12.33, p< .0001, η2= 0.29. Indian students
feelings of classes as stress free was highest (M = 4.15, S.D. = 1.0), whereas
Chinese students scored least (M = 2.81, S.D. = 1.0) and Middle Eastern
students had almost the same score as the Chinese (M = 2.86, S.D. = 1.0).

119
 There were also differences among international students regarding
how “comfortable they felt communicating with their professors” (item 9), F
(2, 60) = 4.14, p< .02, η2= 0.12. The results showed that Indian students felt
most comfortable to communicate with their professors (M = 4.1, S.D. = .86),
followed by Middle Eastern (M = 3.87, S.D. = .91) and the Chinese students
(M = 3.3, S.D. = .95).
An interesting finding was observed regarding the difference among
international students on the “extent of pressure they felt to succeed” (item
17), F (2, 60) = 4.42, p< .01, η2= 0.13. The Chinese students had the highest
mean on feeling pressure to succeed (M = 3.86, S.D. = .63), followed by
Middle Eastern students (M = 3.66, S.D. = 1.17), whereas Indian students felt
the least pressure to succeed (M = 3.00, S.D. = 1.23).
Differences were also found on item 22 regarding “higher tuition fees
for international students which they thought was unfair”, F (2, 60) = 4.3, p<
.01, η2= 0.13. Indian students had the highest score on the unfairness of higher
tuition fees for international students (M = 4.8, S.D. = .46) followed by
Chinese (M = 4.2, S.D. = .93) and the Middle Eastern students (M = 4.1, S.D.
= 1.18). International students also differed on their liking of Vancouver
weather, F (2, 60) = 6.86, p< .002, η2= 0.19. International students from
Middle East liked Vancouver weather most (M = 3.8, S.D. = .99) followed
by Indian (M = 3.69, S.D. = 1.12) and by the Chinese students (M = 2.68,
S.D. = 1.04) respectively.
One factor between subject analysis of variance on the problem-
focused and emotion-avoidance coping scores of three groups of international
students were not significant. However, one factor between subject analysis
of variance on the religiosity scores of three groups of international students
indicated a highly significant difference, F (2, 60) = 21.15, p< .0001, η2=
0.41. The Middle Eastern students were most religious (M = 36.40, S.D. =
2.35) followed by the religiosity scores of Indians (M = 31.11, S.D. = 4.47)
and the Chinese (M = 26.13, S.D. = 6.04).
One factor between subject analysis of variance was also performed
on the religious involvement scores of three groups of international students,
which also showed a highly significant difference regarding religious
practices of international students, F (2, 60) = 27.73, p< .0001, η2= 0.48. The
Middle Eastern students were found to be most religiously involved (M =
4.53, S.D. = .63) followed by the religious involvement of Indians (M = 3.03,
S.D. = .99), whereas the Chinese students were least religiously involved (M
= 1.90, S.D. = 1.30).
A t-test for independent samples was conducted to find out gender
differences in the challenges faced by female and male international students.
The outcome of the analysis was not significant indicating that female and
male students did not differ on encountering challenges during their education
at KPU, t.05 (61) = -.079, n.s. This outcome is contrary to our hypothesis that

120
 female international students will face more challenges compared to their
male counterparts.
We also performed a multiple regression analysis using the
challenges scores as the criterion and problem-focused coping, emotion
avoidance coping, and religiosity as a predictor to determine what variables
would be useful predictors of challenges encountered by international
students. The outcome of regression as depicted in Table 2 was significant, F
(4, 58) = 5.12, p< .001. Table 3 shows the multiple correlation of R = .511,
R2= .261 and adjusted R2= .210. (standard error of estimate = 6.0; Durbin-
Watson statistics = 1.9). Table 4 indicates that the only significant predictor
of challenges faced by international students found was problem-focused
coping with a significant beta value, β = .374, t = 2.915, p < .005. This means
that problem-focused coping was an effective way for international students
to face the challenges.

Table 2. Multiple Regression analysis, F value, Degrees of freedom, and

Significance
of F for the predictors of challenges faced by international students at KPU.

Sum of Mean
Model Squares df Square F Sig.
1 Regression 749.929 4 187.482 5.120 .001a
Residual 2123.626 58 36.614
Total 2873.556 62
a. Predictors: (Constant), Religious involvement, Religiosity, Emotion-
avoidance coping (EA), and Problem-focused coping (PF).
Dependent Variable: Challenges scale

Table 3: Multiple correlation coefficients, standard error, and Durbin-

Watson
Statistics for predictors of challenges faced by international students at
KPU.
Adjusted R Std. Error of Durbin-
Model R R Square Square the Estimate Watson
a
1 .511 .261 .210 6.05097 1.986
a. Predictors: (Constant), Religious involvement, Religiosity, Emotion-
avoidance coping (EA), and Problem-focused coping (PF).
Dependent Variable: Challenges scale

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 Table 4. Unstandardized and Standardized Coefficients, and t Values for
Multiple-Regression Analysis of predictors of challenges faced by
international students at KPU.
Standardi
Unstandardiz zed
ed Coefficie 95.0% Confidence
Coefficients nts Interval for B
Std. Lower Upper
Model B Error Beta t Sig. Bound Bound
1 (Constant) 69.60 8.357 8.3 .000 52.880 86.337
9 29
RIa -.427 .818 -.090 - .604 -2.064 1.210
.52
2
a
Religiosity .265 .199 .237 1.3 .187 -.133 .663
34
EAa .188 .244 .098 .76 .445 -.301 .676
9
PFa .610 .209 .374 2.9 .005 .191 1.029
15
b. Predictors: (Constant), Religious involvement (RI), Religiosity,
Emotion-avoidance coping (EA), and Problem-focused coping (PF).
Dependent Variable: Challenges scale

Correlation coefficients were also computed to see the relationship

between religiosity and problem-focused, emotion-avoidance strategies and
the challenges faced by the international; and also between involvement in
religious practices and problem-focused versus emotion-avoidance coping by
the participants. The results showed a significant correlation between
religiosity and the use of emotion-avoidance type of coping, r = .293, n = 63,
p < .01. This is consistent with our hypothesis that religiosity of international
students will be related to their emotion-avoidance coping approach. There
was also a significant correlation between religiosity and problem-focused
coping, r = .304, n = 63, p < .008. This outcome is unexpected as we assumed
that religiously involved internationals would score low on problem-focused
coping. The correlations computed were all one-tailed.

Discussion
The findings of this study revealed that international students
studying at Kwantlen Polytechnic University encountered a number of
challenges while being in Canada. The responses of international students
indicated that their main concern was the high tuition fees compared to local
students, which they found unjust. Moving to a new country is itself costly
122
and charging high tuition from international students may overburden them
financially. Research studies on international students elsewhere also found
that the cost of tuition was ranked highest amongst other problems cited by
international students (Robertson, Line, Jones, & Thomas, 2010). This shows
that irrespective of the country of stay, the international students feel
overburdened by the high education cost. The financial woes may be felt more
by the students coming from underdeveloped or developing countries or by
those not sponsored by their governments.
The next important issue indicated by international students was the
support they receive from their families back home. Family support plays a
huge role in the lives of international students, especially at the beginning of
their studies in a new country. After leaving their countries and without much
social support in a new country, a considerable majority of international
students report feeling isolated and lonely, especially in the early months of
their arrival (Sawir, Marginson, Deymert, Nyland, & Ramia, 2008). The
majority of international students also indicated that they missed their families
and country. The sheer distance of North America from the countries of their
origin may be a psychological factor in the perception of international
students that they are far away from their families and home country. Our
view is consistent with the findings of Mooney, Sherman and Presto (1991),
which found the perception of the distance from home as one of the four
contributing factors in the adjustment of female college freshmen. The
feelings of loneliness represent international students’ deep attachment to the
values, the culture, and social relationships which they left behind may be a
formidable challenge for them to connect with the people in the new
environment (Elturki et al., 2019). Strong feelings of missing one’s family
and the country may have a negative emotional impact on the wellbeing of
international students adding to their hardship compared with domestic.
Of positive note is that participants in our study mentioned that they
were welcomed by their peers, which means that they did not encounter social
barriers while connecting with their classmates, whether they are local or
international. Connecting with other students would be beneficial for
international students in many ways. This can help internationals to develop
a sense of belongingness, reducing their feelings of isolation and increasing
their engagement in the broader social context (Sherry, Thomas & Chui,
2010).
International students also showed their liking for small classes at
KPU. The maximum number of students in a class at KPU is 35. The positive
feelings of students toward the educational setup of an institution can have a
positive impact on the learning of the students. The small class sizes promote
a more interactive teaching-learning atmosphere and support students’
participation in in-class activities. International students who are new to the
educational system in Canada may find it difficult to learn in big lecture halls
with minimum chances of contact with the professors and their classmates.
123
Small classes at KPU also foster group work and interactions among students
and professors which may help students to achieve their educational goals.
Empirical findings are supportive of our idea, which found that students who
were in small group learning achieved higher grades on the final exams when
compared to students who learned individually (Guadet, Ramer, Nakonechny,
Cragg, & Ramer, 2010).
A positive experience of participants in our study was their
satisfaction with education as the majority of them reported that they were
satisfied with the education they are getting in Canada. A diverse
postsecondary education in Canada that involves not only lecture-style
teaching but also includes group work, class activities, project work,
experiential learning, and community-based programs may be novel and
enriching experiences for the international students. As the Canadian
educational system encourages the active involvement of students in learning,
this may give the internationals to explore and utilize their potential, leading
to their satisfaction. The international students’ liking for the small class sizes
at Kwantlen may be another reason for their liking of education in Canada.
As against our expectations, international students reported having a
good understanding of the English language. This may be because of the fact
that people all over the world have considerable exposure to the English
language through the mass media, internet and the entertainment industry. In
addition, technological advancements and high tech challenges make the use
of the English language indispensable. The educational systems around the
world are incorporating learning of the English language as part of their
education. English language courses during the orientation period at KPU
might have been helpful in acquiring English language competency by
international students. Another reason for this outcome may be a greater
number of international students from India who come with a background of
English medium instructions. The high scores of Indian students might have
masked the responses of other international students, for example, from China
who faces problems with the English language (Ge et al., 2019). There might
also be differences in the competency between spoken and written language
as a study by Sherry, Thomas and Chui (2010) shows that students in their
study emphasize spoken language barriers far more than written language
problems.
Participants in our study, however, faced the challenge of living off
campus and they expressed the desire to live on campus (KPU does not have
hostel facilities). Living on-campus is more affordable as off-campus housing
is more expensive. By living on-campus international students can avoid
paying high rental and save some money for tuition and other daily expenses
(Calder, Ritcher, Mao, Burns, Mogale & Danko, 2016). Campus living also
offers a unique living and learning atmosphere that promotes academic
achievement, enriches a student’s academic experience and promotes one’s
intellectual and self-development (Mohd Najib, Yousaf & Tabassi, 2015).
124
Living on campus means easy access to the commons, computer labs, athletic
facilities, and sporting, social, and cultural events.
The majority of the participants in our study struggled to find
affordable housing in local communities, a huge problem for internationals at
KPU. After opening its doors to international students and lacking on-campus
residences, it has inadvertently put international students in a precarious
situation. Although the international student office of KPU assists
internationals in finding reasonable rent, rental accommodation in the
surrounding areas of KPU campuses is expensive. Expensive off-campus
living may drain the limited financial resources of international students,
which may adversely affect the overall quality of their lives. The expensive
off-campus rental housing seems to be a problem for the international students
in Western Canadian cities as some studies show that international students
end up spending more than 30% on their income on off-campus rent (Calder
et al., 2016).
Many participants in our study expressed the desire to work part-time
to supplement their education. Finding part-time work may pose a
considerable challenge for the internationals in an unfamiliar social
environment. Part-time work may help international students to pay school
tuition and rent, and meet their daily needs (Calder et al., 2016). Through part-
time work, international students can also gain Canadian work experience
during their studies that may increase their chance of finding a job later.
However, the temptation to work lures some internationals toward a pitfall
they may not be able to anticipate. In many cases, they become the victim of
exploitative local small businesses that entice vulnerable students in need of
money to illegal work. These students are paid just a fraction of the minimum
wage under the table for long work hours. These students mostly stay away
from their classes and end up failing their courses.
International students also reported that they have adjusted to the
Canadian culture. This is a good sign of their ability to settle down in a new
environment. A good understanding of the English language, to be welcomed
by their peers, their ability to communicate with their professors, their
satisfaction with the education they are receiving, and their feelings of being
supported by their families might be important factors in their adjustment in
the Canadian culture. Still, the negative impact of financial hardship in the
form of high tuition fees, rental costs and other personal challenges cannot be
ignored.

In-depth comparisons among nationalities

The differences in the responses of three groups of international
students on the challenges scale and on the individual items of the scale show
some important contrasts regarding the challenges faced by them. Among the
three groups of international students, Indians faced the most challenges
compared to the Middle Eastern and Chinese students. The specific socio-
125
cultural background of three groups might be one of the reasons for these
differences. The differences among Indians, Middle Eastern and Chinese on
the individual items of challenges scale indicated that Indians had a better
knowledge of the English language, preferred to live alone, like small classes
at Kwantlen, found the classes as stress-free and felt comfortable
communicating with the professors.
On the other hand, Chinese students had weak knowledge of the
English language, found classes as stressful, had difficulty communicating
with their professors and experienced discrimination compared to the other
two nationalities. The significant challenge the Chinese students faced was
the pressure to succeed. Taken together, feeling intense pressure to succeed
while finding the classes less stress-free by the Chinese students can be
understood in the backdrop of Chinese cultural traditions (Lin & Qinghai,
1995). In the Chinese cultural tradition of filial piety, parents have high
expectations from their elder children, especially the male children who are
regarded as the successor of their father and are expected to take care of their
parents and younger siblings (Matsumoto & Juang, 2017). The Chinese
students take their studies seriously and work hard to succeed (Neuby, 2012).
The Chinese students are also supported by their parents, many of whom
downgrade their way of living in order to offer their kids a shot at education
to obtain the ''Chinese Dream'', which is the ideal lifestyle valued by the
Chinese population. This is an understandable reason for the high
expectations of parents toward their children. This results in students working
astonishingly hard to study and to overwork to an unhealthy level. However,
unfortunately, for some students, the pressure and stress associated with
school is just too much to handle and pushes them to commit suicide or to
simply quit school (Lin & Qinghai, 1995).
The highest scores of Middle Eastern students on ‘overwhelmed by
schoolwork’, ‘exhausted at the end of the school day,’ ‘and ‘school work
makes me anxious,’ and their lowest scores on ‘liking for small classes,’ and
‘it is easy to maintain my expected grades’ supports our hypothesis that
Middle Eastern students will face more study-related challenges. Also, their
lowest scores on ‘high tuition fee,’ ‘affordable rent,’ financially
supplementing one's education,’ ‘part-time work’ indicates their lack of
financial concerns as they are sponsored by their government, which pays for
their tuition, rent and the cost of living.

Internationals coping strategies

Our hypotheses regarding the difference between different national
groups of international students on the use of problem-focused and emotion-
avoidance coping strategies were not confirmed. We assume that the three
groups of internationals might have employed both types of coping strategies
to face challenges. Some supporting evidence comes from a study by Wang
(2009), indicating that one of the reasons for the resilience of international
126
students was their use of a broad range of strategies to cope with their
difficulties. Similarly, a study by Khawaja and Stallman (2011) found that
international students use their personal experiences and strategies to cope
with the challenges they face. Another study found that although international
students faced adjustment and academic problems, faculty and staff
overstated those (Jenkins & Galloway, 2009).

Nationalities and religiosity

Our hypotheses pertaining to the differences in the religiosity of three
groups of students were supported. The internationals from the Middle East
were more religious and also more involved in religious practices than the
Indians and the Chinese. The majority of Middle Eastern students come from
Muslim majority countries where the majority of the population practices
religious rituals on a daily bases (Nassar‐McMillan & Hakim‐Larson, 2011).
Religiously involved individuals were found to show resilience in the face of
risk factors (Werner & Smith, 1989) and were better at coping with the
difficult life circumstances (Donelson, 1999). A study by Zullig, Ward and
Home (2006) indicated that students who described themselves as spiritual or
religious consistently reported greater self-perceived health. Religious
individuals have healthy lifestyles and they are better able to overcome
everyday life stresses (Benjamins, Ellison & Rogers, 2010; Koenig King, &
Carson, 2011; McCullough & Willoughby, 2009; Park, 2007). Religiosity
may also act as a buffer against a number of physical and psychological
problems, such as physical health (Rippentrop, Altmaier, Chen, Found and
Keffala, 2005), anxiety (Koenig, 2009, 2012) and depression (Koenig, 2009;
Shah, 2017; Siddiqui & Shah, 1997).

Gender and challenges

Contrary to our expectation, we found no difference between female
and male international students on the challenges faced by them. We assume
that irrespective of the gender, the international students who come to Canada
for postsecondary have the desire to learn and achieve their goals. They try
hard to adjust to the cultural environment of Canada and to excel in their
studies. Our view is in accordance with the finding by Baklashova and
Kazakov (2016), which indicated that after facing a series of transitional
difficulties at the beginning of their studies, these problems motivated
international students to develop strategies to meet these challenges.

Coping strategies and challenges

The multiple regression analysis using challenges scores as criterion
and emotion-avoidance and problem-focused coping, the religiosity of the
participants, and their religious involvement as predictors found problem-
focused coping as the only predictor of challenges. This means that problem-
focused students face issues head-on and try their best to overcome them
127
(Khawaja and Stallman, 2011; Wang, 2009). Research shows that while
facing challenges to adapt to the new culture, coping strategies and the ability
to deal with stress was very helpful for international students (Deardorff,
2006; Gebhard, 2012). It was also found that international students’ use of
coping or stress-resistance resources were related to their satisfaction with
personal and university life (Mak, Bodycott, Ramburuth, 2015). This
suggests that the best option for international students without the family and
the familiar social support system is to use their efforts and potential to face
challenges.
The correlational findings indicated that religiously students oriented
reported using emotion-avoidance coping while facing challenges. This
finding is in line with previous research that also found a positive correlation
between religiosity and avoidance coping (Krok, 2016). We assume that
religious individuals seek comfort in turning to prayer in the face of adversity
rather than making the adversity their primary focus. Contrary to our
hypothesis, students who were religious also used problem-focused coping.
Our results do not explain why religiously involved internationals have used
both types of copings. However, consistent with our findings, a study by
Alsahafi and Shin (2017) demonstrates Saudi students’ active use of various
coping strategies to improve their language competencies, time management,
and mixing with other students.
Other research studies on the link between religiosity and coping
styles have differentiated between different problem-solving styles which
show diverse role religion plays in problem-solving process (Pargament,
Kennell, Hathaway, Grevengoed, Newman, & Jones, 1988); a problem-
solving style which involves active personal exchange with God
(collaborative); a style in which the individual waits for solutions from God
(deferring); and a style in which people believe that they have the choice to
direct their own lives (self-directing). Research by Park (2005) has also
indicated that associations between religion and adjustment are quite broad,
vary across time and are mediated by meaning‐making coping. The
relationship between religion and wellbeing seems to be quite robust as
religious involvement promotes healthy wellbeing and helps people cope with
life stressors (Yendork, & Somhlaba, 2017). These studies can be helpful in
understanding the two-way relationship between religiosity and emotion-
avoidance coping on the one hand and religiosity and problem-focused coping
on the other in our study. Lastly, our prediction on a positive correlation
between religiosity and the ability to face challenges was confirmed.

Limitations
The results of this study represent the sample of international students
who may not be representative of international students studying at Canadian
universities for a number of reasons. Finding participants for this kind of
research poses an immense challenge, especially when the institutions refuse
128
to help in any way. Also, international students are very apprehensive when
it comes to signing things like consent forms and taking surveys, so when one
manages to locate international students, there is a good chance that they will
not be interested in partaking in the research. Finally, any research on
international students is at the mercy of the international student
demographics population i.e., if the vast majority of international students are
from a specific country (e.g., Indians at KPU and Chinese at Simon Fraser
University, SFU), getting an even distribution of nationalities poses an even
greater challenge. Moreover, international students make up a small portion
of the total population of a university so the participants’ pool is small by
default.
Because some students report a better understanding of English than
others, the comparison between nationalities might not be as accurate as, for
example, Indian students may have had a stronger understanding of the
questions than did the Chinese students. In addition, because of the language
issues for some international students, the data on some social-psychological
nature of questions might not be truly reflective of their actual feelings.

Recommendations and implications

We suggest that educational institutions may survey their
international students on what services they need most. As international
students pay a higher tuition fee compared to local students, more services
should be offered to them.
In order to facilitate the adjustment of international students in
Canada, educational institutions should make deals with community partners
to provide reasonable assistance to international students such as sports
tickets, discounts, and free invitations to social events.
The universities should make arrangements with the government
agencies to facilitate visa services, work permits, family visits and provide
legal services to help them. There is also a need for workshops to explain to
the international students the health benefits and coverage available to them.
Also, providing good counseling and psychological services may preempt
psychological and emotional problems they might face during their studies.
These services for international students may lessen their burden and
unnecessary stress enabling them to focus on their studies.
To reduce the chances of their alienation, attention should also be
paid to improve the social life of international students through creating
opportunities for their participation in social and cultural activities on a
regular basis. The institutions should have some programs to connect
international students with the local students and the community. The
community members may host international students on the eve of social and
religious festivals to create a sense of inclusiveness in them.
As some international students faced stress to succeed, it is necessary
for the university to promote communication between professors and
129
international students. Regular meetings between international students and
their professor may provide them the opportunity to share their problems with
the faculty. This will also help the faculty to understand the issues faced by
international students and timely help may be provided to them. Regular
meetings between students and professors create learning from experience
opportunity where students learn from their professors’ experiences and get a
better insight into the Canadian education system.

Broader implications for higher education

The fact that international students in our study were from the Asian
countries implies that the outcome would be relevant to the educators and the
students in these countries. A major outcome of our study is related to the
benefit of the host country's language. Internationals, who had English
language proficiency, had better adjustment and integration into the
educational system as well as the social life in Canada. More generally, this
suggests that international students should have some prior knowledge of the
language of the country where they would like to pursue their studies. Besides
its advantage in academia, it helps one to connect with the local people and
become familiar with the culture of the host country. Knowledge of the
language will enable internationals seeking part-time jobs to support their
studies as many of them so desired.
The satisfaction of international students with an education in Canada
may be relevant to the educators in the developing countries that follow
traditional methods of instructions and learning that involve the one-sided
passive transmission of information and rote memorization. The educators
and the administrators in the developing countries may introduce some
components of experiential learning used at Canadian universities on a trial
basis to see their impact on the learning of the students. This may include
actively involving the students in learning through group work, class activities
and discussions, individual as well as group presentations, and community
engagement through practicum and small research activities. The goal of
these diverse learning approaches is enabling the students to relate and apply
the learning materials to their everyday life experiences. Acquainting the
students with diverse learning practices will not only benefit the students in
their own countries but would also prepare them for future foreign studies.
One of the issues which have generated some controversy among the faculty
and the administration of Kwantlen Polytechnic University was the suspicion
of plagiarism and cheating on the part of international students. Those who
were familiar and/or were themselves part of the education system in the
developing countries and came to Canada as immigrants knew the underlying
reason for it. It was the habit and practice of rote memorization of the learning
materials by some internationals which resulted in the literal reproduction of
paragraphs after paragraphs from the books/online resources, which caused
this controversy. This is an important issue which the students and educators
130
from developing countries may attend to by practicing some of the
aforementioned experiential approaches. Some educationists from the West
have attempted to introduce diverse methods of teaching over rote
memorization with considerable success (Richmond, 2007).
The findings of our study also suggest that communication with
professors is instrumental in the success of students. Communication with the
professors both in class and during their office hours can resolve educational
and personal issues faced by the students. As internationals are a
heterogeneous group belonging to different nationalities and cultures,
communication helps professors as well to understand their specific issues
leading to a direct and problem-focused solution.
That’s being said, introducing diverse teaching-learning methods in the
developing countries may not be a straightforward exercise as in Canada,
where the faculty has the prerogative of academic freedom. The majority of
the developing countries have a top-down process of governance and decision
making. Except for minor sundry issues, any major change in the
dissemination of instructions at the learning institutions might require
political-administrative directives. In few known cases after introducing
improvements in the educational system, these were rescinded because of a
lack of resources, preparation and proper preparatory work. Nevertheless,
with worldwide open communication, online courses and teaching, emerging
new economies, and shrinking of the borders the gap between the developing
and developed worlds may also shrink.

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Siddiqui, S., & Shah, A.A. (1997). Siddiqui-Shah depression scale (SSDS):
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Triandis, H. C., Leung, K., Villareal, M., & Clack, F. L. (1985). Allocentric vs.
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Veraevel, L.N. (2014). Canadian post-secondary students, stress and academic
performance-A socio-ecological approach. Electronic thesis and dissertation
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Werner, E., & Smith, R. (1989). Vulnerable but invincible: A longitudinal study of
resilient children and youth. New York: Adams, Bannister, and Cox.
Yendork, S., J., & Somhlaba, N. Z. (2017). 'I am happy because of God': Religion
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Author bios

Syed Ashiq Ali Shah, Dr Phil, is a professor in the department of

psychology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, BC, Canada. He has also
worked at the universities in Germany, Pakistan and Malaysia. His research
interests include social-psychological issues, cross-cultural differences in
human behaviour, development of indigenous scales and the role of religion
and spirituality in human behaviour. He has published in the areas of
prejudice and stereotypes, social attitudes, depression, child abuse, drug
abuse, culture’s impact on human behaviour, spirituality and religiosity in
psychotherapy. He is the consulting and associate editor of a number of
international Journals.

Alexander Lopes, BA, is a graduate in psychology from Kwantlen

Polytechnic University. He has worked as a research assistant in different
research projects including challenges faced by international students at KPU.
He is currently pursuing a degree in specialized nursing. He has
multidisciplinary interests with regards to research.

Linah Kareem, BA, is a graduate in psychology from Kwantlen Polytechnic

University. She has worked as a research assistant in research project on
“challenges faced by international students at KPU.” She is working as a
student advisor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

135
Book Review

International Journal of Multidisciplinary

Perspectives in Higher Education
Volume 4, Issue 1 (2019), pp. 136-139
https://www.ojed.org/jimphe Print ISSN
2474-2546 Online ISSN 2474-2554)

__________________________________

Transforming Education Outcomes in Africa:

Learning from Togo
Editors: Johannes Hoogeveen & Mariacristina Rossi
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
Date: 2019
ISBN: 10.1007/978-3-030-12708-4
Pages: 100

Reviewed by: Derrick Grubb, Morgan State University

(degru1@morgan.edu)
__________________________________

No matter where one lives in the world, education is significant to one’s life.
Education impacts one’s income, life choices, health, development of family,
and community. It has the capacity of transforming one’s life. Johannes
Hoogeveen of the World Bank, and Mariacristian Rossi, et al, have researched
education in Togo, focusing on student enrollment and learning outcomes.
Togo’s educational challenges are comparable to other sub-Saharan African
countries allowing for research to be replicated. There was significant data
available for analysis. Their book, Transforming Education Outcomes in
Africa, is relevant for those who want to know what impacts education on the
continent and what may be possible solutions.
The five-chapter book starts off by examining primary education in
Togo. The effects on political upheaval and economic decline in the 1990’s
led to limited spending in the public sector overall impacting the quality of
education. This caused parents to opt for private schools significantly more
than public schools. The lack of economic support for education created a
void which ultimately caused limited hiring, dependence on “contract
teachers” who worked for minimal income and were less qualified than civil
servants. After this period of economic decline and political upheaval, the
Togolese people began to send their primary aged children to public school

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in greater numbers more consistently. Between the years of 2000 -2005 school
enrollment significantly increased. Because of limited spending in the public
sector, private school enrollment further increased for those that could afford
it, along with local initiative schools, Ecole d’Initiative Locale (EDIL)
particularly in rural areas. Prior to the start of the 2008-2009 school year, the
government of Togo abolished school fees and enrollment increases
continued. It was suggested by the authors that increased enrollment reduced
inequalities. Data from the Nation Yearbooks of School Statistics and
performance on the Programme of Analysis of Education Systems (PASEC)
were used for analysis. The authors suggested that free education gave rise to
increased enrollment and over time a reduction in inequalities.
The PASEC results seemed to suggest that there were challenges to
the quality of education. With that concern school resources were examined
such as the drivers of performance, school aspects, and non-school aspects.
The analysis of Questionnaire des Indicateurs de Base de Bien-etre (QUIBB)
survey of household data (non-school aspects) revealed consistent
inequalities between the various regions of the country. The predominantly
low income region of Savanes has a higher student to teacher ratio, higher
student per classroom, less spending per student, and less salary per student
compared to more middle income regions. Comparatively the data is
reminiscent of Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities as he examined inner-
city schools and the disparities they faced. Though in the case of the United
States one must consider race and class.
Enrollment by school type, wealth of households for those (6-11) who
are not enrolled, enrollment by region, region of those (6-11) not enrolled,
students per teacher, per classroom, a place to sit, access to water, salary
spending per student, and investment spending per student are all analyzed.
Regression results from stochastic frontier analysis are also used.
Chapter four the authors investigate individual learning outcome
drivers via the Survey and Delivery Indicators (SDI). Data captured here
examined student and teacher knowledge of grade four. Although there had
been a steady increase of students into the school system, many failed to
acquire basic skills and many teachers showed skill deficiencies.
The SDI key results examined student learning outcomes via French,
math, and non-verbal reasoning. In all categories private school students
performed better on all test (66% average French score out of 100, 52% math
score out of 100). Accounting for teacher knowledge, again private school
teachers scored highest (49% out of 100).
Teacher effort was examined. School absent rate, classroom absence
rate, time spent teaching per day compared to scheduled teaching time per day
show abysmal results. Resource availability i.e. student-teacher ratio,
textbook availability, teaching equipment availability, and infrastructure
availability all were low, negatively impacting student learning overall. The
data again is suggested to be similar to other countries. The authors concluded
137
that the increase in student enrollment meant an increase in teachers that were
not adequately prepared to teach.
The authors concluded by assessing four challenges and suggesting
solutions in chapter 5 “What can be done?” First, there is a “stock and flow
problem”. Existing teachers (stock) need to upgrade their content knowledge
and pedagogical skills. Future teachers (flow) must be better prepared at the
college level. The authors offered that, “Higher quality individuals will need
to be attracted to teacher colleges, with better salaries and conditions, changes
that will have major fiscal consequences.”
What is meant by “higher quality individuals” is not spelled out here
but is surely a curious choice words to call teachers. Nonetheless, the authors
seem to suggest more rigor in the pre-service stage for these individuals.
Likewise the in-service cadre must be upgraded without disrupting schooling
in real time and is affordable. A cascading model is suggested where a group
of teachers are centrally trained and they become trainers of their peers. This
approach will be attached to evaluations that identify the needs of teachers.
The option of scripted instruction, though criticized as stultifying, may give
structure to teachers who lack rigor of instruction and have inadequate
training. A fourth approach could be the use of e-learning. This approach
would be dependent on the capacity of the school structure to handle such
technology as well as schools being equipped with the technology.
One glaring question is what impact does the French language have
on the Togolese people’s lived experiences? The national languages of Togo
are Ewe and Kabiye out of 39 distinct languages, though the official language
of an African people is French, a non-indigenous language, a holdover of the
effects of colonialism. The use of French as the lingua franca of school
learning does not make it so for the language in one’s household, community,
and region. How does this influence performance in school by all
stakeholders, students, teachers, and administrators?
If wealth affords one the opportunity to send one’s children to better
equipped schools to learn and be tested in French, then enculturation is the
driver for education which all Togolese may not have signed up for. The
French language may very well be a barrier itself that negatively impacts the
education of the Togolese people overall. If French is the lingua franca of
Togo, how did this come to be and how does it impact education overall? If
an indigenous language is the primary language at home and French is used
predominantly in school, then the language of school is actually a second
language and would lend itself to some explanation as the challenges to
achievement in school, not the quality of the educators or the ability of the
children.
A systematic search for solutions through the Problem Driven
Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) was suggested. Its four elements 1) aim to solve
particular problem relevant to local contexts via 2) the creation of an
environment that encourages experimentation and positive deviance, which
138
gives rise to 3) active, ongoing and experiential learning and iterative
feedback, doing so by 4) engaging broad sets of agents to ensure that solutions
are viable, legitimate and relevant (pg 95). The authors suggest that Togo is
uniquely placed to adopt this approach. This approach lends itself to
qualitative research in which one can investigate how math is learned in local
communities, what language is most used, and what language should
instruction be given in. Furthermore what are we educating children for? This
process affords each school, community, and region the opportunity to
identify its needs and to consider how to innovate and experiment to make
education meaningful for the Togolese people. Overall this book will give the
reader much to consider for the continued education development for African
countries in the age of neocolonialism.

139
Book Review

International Journal of Multidisciplinary

Perspectives in Higher Education
Volume 4, Issue 1 (2019), pp. 140-142
https://www.ojed.org/jimphe Print ISSN
2474-2546 Online ISSN 2474-2554)
_________________________________

Theories in Adult Learning and Education

Author: Belanger, Paul
Publisher: Farmington Hills, MI: Barbara Budrich Publishers.
Date: 2011.
ISBN: 978-3-86649-362-9
Pages: 107

Reviewed by: Al Zain Al Husein, Morgan State University

(alzainalzain@hotmail.com)
__________________________________

The book starts with the rejection of the notion of “inventory learning”, which
posits that learning has certain age limitations, specially claiming that people
over 30 years are unable to pursue education. Instead, the book promotes the
idea of life-long learning to replace the concept of inventory learning. The
book categorizes adult education as a field of practice and academic
discipline. As a field of practice, Belanger explains that adult education
provides learning opportunities for adults. As an academic discipline, adult
education identifies the conditions that support or constrain adults’ learning.
The author provides two important questions to address the state and
conditions of adults’ learning. These questions are: what is specific about
adult learning? How can adults be motivated to take part in adults’ learning
and education? Furthermore, the book examines the international trends of
adults’ participation in learning.
The intended audience of this book are post-secondary students,
educators, colleges professors, high school teachers, principals and other
school/university-based educators. In the first part of the book, the author
introduces the three major theories of learning. The author labels these three
theories as theories of general learning, behaviorism, cognitivism,
constructivism-socio-constructivism. After the discussion of the general
learning theories, the book presents learning theories that focus specifically

140
on adults’ learning. The author devotes more time and effort to inform the
intended readers about the theories of adults’ learning. The book assigns terms
to the adults’ learning theories as humanist theory, experiential learning and
transformative learning. In the second part of the book, the author addresses
the issues of participation in adults’ learning from empirical and analytical
perspectives. The focus of the book is on the differences in adults’ learning
participation rate globally based on criterions such as age, gender, basic
education and occupation. In other words, the author provides an explanation
to the international trends of adults’ participation in learning.
The book takes a form of study guide that offers not only an overview
of adult learning theories, but also engages the intended readers in exercises
to examine the text closely. The organization of the book doesn’t follow the
traditional chapters classification, but the book has two parts, each part
divided into numbers such as 1, 2 ,3 and so on. The book also challenges the
intended readers with tasks to highlight some important literature on adults’
learning and participation globally. The feature of study guide appeals to
educators across the globe. This book is relevant to international education,
specially to the international adults’ education.
In part one, the book explores the theories of adults’ learning to
provide a frame of reference to understanding and improving the development
of adults’ learning. The author initiates the discussion about the learning
theories by offering a useful visual illustration to simplify the concepts of
learning theories and its main, original authors. For example, behaviorism
learning theory associated with authors such as Watson, Thorndike, and
Skinner. Cognitivism has authors such as Bruner and Gagne, while social
cognitivism associated with Bandura . Constructivism learning theory
associated with authors Vygotsky, Piaget, while social constructivism
associated with Lave and Wegner. The author follows the exploration of the
learning theories with exercises. The purpose of these exercises is to invite
the intended readers to engage deeply with the learning theories and to review
the literature related to adult learning.
Unlike the traditional chapter books, this book represents the genre
of study guide. The book is divided into two parts, each part takes on a single
concept of adult learning. After the explanation and exploration of a learning
theory, the author provides key concepts of the learning theory, visual
illustrations, charts and exercises to aid the intended readers to understand the
theory and its sub-concepts. The exercises also encourage the readers to
reflect on their own life-long learning experiences. Moreover, the author
challenges the intended readers with tasks. The tasks reinforce the
understanding of what are the learning theories and how these theories can
help educators understand adult learning. the charts are useful in providing
pedagogical implications of each learning theory. The key concepts define the
learning theory by stating the key words associated with each learning theory.

141
In part two, Belanger, the author describes the trends of adults’ learning
participation internationally. The author considers two perspectives to examine
the question who participate and in what kind of activities related to adult learning
globally. The two perspectives are empirical and analytical. In the empirical
perspective, the author uses the international adult literacy survey to explore the
trends of adult learning participation. However, in the analytical perspective, the
author focuses on social, socioeconomic, cultural and institutional factors that
impact adults to participate in learning.
Belanger’s book is a great reference to both students and educators who
are involved in adults’ learning and teaching. As a useful reference, the book
offers explanations on applying theories into practices in adults’ education. The
book employs methodology that makes the reading easy and enjoyable. The
strength of the book is its organization. The author organizes the book differently.
Unlike traditional chapter books, Belanger divides the book into two main parts,
part one and part two. The author devoted each part to deal with one issue in
adults’ learning. This book is recommended for pre-service teachers, community
college teachers, undergraduate and graduate students who intend to work with
adults’ learners. The book is also recommended for any educator who are
involved in teaching and learning because of the clear explanation of the learning
theories.
One potential weakness of this book is that it departs from the traditional
organization of the chapter books. As study-guide book, the intended readers will
read two parts, both parts of the book are too long with many theories and
concepts. The intended readers must read two parts, but both parts of the book
are too long, and require carefully reading and connecting many theories and
concepts. Critical reading is required for this book; however, the length of each
part may impede such critical reading. Moreover, the book discusses the adult
learning theories as well as the international trends of participation of adults in
learning. The book appeals to educators globally. In countries where basic
education for adults is unattainable and unfeasible, this study guide will
encourage educators in these countries to recommend educational policies that
consider and include the importance of adults’ learning. The book introduces and
advocates for the concept of life-long learning. In underdeveloped and some
developing countries, the concept of life-long learning doesn’t take the center
stage among the legislatures. The book encourages educators in these countries
to pay attention to adults’ learning and to the concept of life-long learning to
recommend educational policies that advocate for more resources to adults’
learning. As in many African and Middle Eastern countries, adults’ learning and
life-long learning have not taken seriously by the policymakers. The alienation of
educators from the policy making processes in such countries affects the state of
adults’ learning and the participation of adults in learning. In addition, the
literature in adults’ learning in these countries is very scarce. Higher education
systems in countries where adults’ learning and the idea of life-long learning are
viewed as peculiar, need to advocate for and to add the discipline of adults’
learning to their curricula.

142
Book Review

International Journal of Multidisciplinary

Perspectives in Higher Education
Volume 4, Issue 1 (2019), pp. 143-145
https://www.ojed.org/jimphe Print ISSN
2474-2546 Online ISSN 2474-2554)

__________________________________

Higher Education Pathways: South African

Undergraduate Education and the Public Good
Editors: Paul Ashwin and Jennifer M. Case
Publisher: African Minds Cape Town, South Africa.
Date: 2018
ISBN: ISBN: 978-1-928331-90-2.
Pages:

Reviewed by: Kanika Jackson, Morgan State University

(kajac19@morgan.edu)
__________________________________

Higher Education Pathways is an interesting read for higher education

practitioners and educational researchers, especially those interested in access
and historians. This informative book offers the reader insight into higher
education’s transformative influence on people and society in a historically
segregated system such as South Africa. Divided into three parts, the book
begins with a historical context about the South African higher education and
the damaging effects of apartheid, especially for Black and coloured students.
Next, the authors provide understanding around access and institutional
culture. Third, the authors discuss student experiences, outcomes and
implications of the current system.
One of the most salient topics in this book is the pervasive inequality
prevalent in South Africa. Readers will learn how inequality stemming from
colonialism and apartheid impacts social life and education for South
Africans. The book also covers the period when students were protesting
South African higher education system with the movements – #RhodesMust
Fall (RMF) and #FeesMustFall (FMF).
Chapters 2 through 5 of Higher Education Pathways discusses the
relationship between higher education, the state and society as well as
funding. The authors detail the different policy timeframes emanating from

143
South Africa’s democratic period and how it has shaped the political economy
of public higher education. Additionally, these policies have created concerns
regarding accessibility plus the relationship between higher education and the
labor market in South Africa. Furthermore, the authors explore undergraduate
education and the notion of “public good” as well as the relationship to social
inequalities, poverty and educational outcomes. The authors discuss the
overarching purposes higher education service and the societal contributions
made by South African graduates from poor backgrounds.
In the second part of the book, chapters 6 details the different
perspective South Africans have regarding accepting the cost of higher
education based on positive future results. In Chapter 7, the authors compare
issues pertaining to accessibility, availability and attainability in higher
education systems across the continent and world. The authors review and
compare higher educational systems in Finland, France, Senegal and Nigeria.
The authors in Chapter 8 use the Capability Approach as a framework
for considering the kinds of educational experiences best for human well-
being and fulfilment. Within this framework, the authors take a closer look at
black students from rural and township areas and how they overcome
hardships. The authors then review the data regarding how these students’
educational experiences might potentially contribute to social transformation
in society.
In chapters 9 through 11, the authors provide readers with a literature
review synthesizing the ways students engage with South African education
and form a sense of identity; connections between institutional culture and
academic changes at universities; and student experiences. Within the review,
the authors compare the literature to gauge whether existing theoretical
assumptions within international works applies to South African education.
The third part of Higher Education Pathways, Chapters 12 and 13
examine issues of access. In Chapter 12, readers will explore how low-income
students navigate their education without financial assistance. Also, readers
will explore the student voices in the #FeesMustFall protest, a movement
stemming from displeasure with access to South African higher universities.
Chapters 14 through 16 provide readers with data regarding
curriculum structures and transformation intended to provide equitable
education for students such as academic staff development and social
experiences for students. The authors detail a drab experience, where students
perceive the university as a place of personal struggle and campus life causes
anxiety.
Offering a different perspective, chapters 17 through 20 cover the
experiences of university graduates. In Chapter 17, the authors review
literature including results from labor force surveys and graduate destinations
studies, which reveals race persistently influences graduate employment.
In Chapter 18 and 19, the same authors take an in-depth look at two
narrative studies regarding student experiences before and during their time
144
at the university. In Chapter 19, the authors compare the graduate
employment trends in several sub-Saharan African countries.
Lastly, in Chapter 20, the authors focus on the graduate outcomes
from engineering in South Africa and Brazil to gain understanding about
how undergraduate education contributes to the public, or common, good of
society.
In conclusion, Higher Education Pathways is a must-read for anyone
interested the nuances of higher education, including disparities and systemic
issues, institutional culture, inequality in access, student experiences, social
movements and changes to curriculum. Although focused on South Africa,
data from this book could be used to make a comparison to higher education
in America, as there are many similarities such as unequal access and
systemic issues worthy of discussion. A weakness of the book is a lack of
detailed next steps for this research. The author provides a very general
suggestion for remaining work needed around this subject, but not enough for
a reader to effectively contribute to the field. Also, there are several references
to education “transforming society,” but little specifics about what this really
means. However, despite those minor weaknesses, Higher Education
Pathways is a good-read.

Author bio

Kanika N Jackson is a doctoral student studying Higher Education

Administration at Morgan State University. She is also a Coordinator of
Intercultural Engagement at the Community College of Baltimore County and
an Adjunct Professor of Communication at the University of Baltimore and
Towson University.

145