By Pei-Wei, Isaac, and Leah
Design Challenge
How can we create an environment which supports international students’ ability to cope with the challenges of life in State College and studying at Penn State?
Research Methods
- Design questions relate to the research question (include the protocol in the posting) informed by a personal researcher who is also an international student (personal reflections) and the book Becoming Qualitative Researchers by Glesne (1992)
- Interview 2 international students each
- Conduct one-on-one face-to-face interviews, using the designed question protocol, with volunteer international students and audio recorded if possible.
- Each researcher will document their interviews
- Compile information from all interviews to determine areas of concern and suggested solutions
- Find sources from other university sites to gain more information to learn how they address these issues
- Develop a proposed solution to the design challenge
Summary of research
Isaac Interview:
Personality may play a big role in the impact of culture shock on individuals. My informant said that her initial move here was emotionally traumatic, inducing agoraphobic like symptoms which kept her mostly housebound for years. Even going to the library was a stress inducer. Going to restaurants where choices would have to be made about unfamiliar food was also something to be avoided. Contrastively, my informant reports having a foreign roommate who was far more adventurous, actively seeking opportunities for socialization. A second problem reported by my informant was communication, which went beyond simple difficulties with speaking and listening. Being expected to express and support opinions on the spot in class when one comes from a culture that encourages students to read, reflect, and write before speaking can be a major cause of dissonance and frustration for international students. In my informants word: “The one thing I realized after I came here is that this is a really verbal culture. If you can express yourself verbally enough, then you are okay…But if you cannot express yourself verbally then you are a dumbass.” But for foreign graduate students the most serious problem problem reported by my informant is professors and advisors who lack experience, understanding, and patience working with second language learners. My informant reports there have been numerous cases of students asked to drop out of a class by professors because their English was not good enough. In one case, a foreign student who already had 22 publications in English to their name was told by his advisor that he needed to take ESL writing classes. My informant reports that patronizing tones and micro-aggressions by professors can make communicating with them about problems very difficult for foreign students. My informant suggests that Penn State should research the lived experiences of foreign students at its institutions. “We really need to understand how they socialize in this institution when they come. Don’t just welcome the money. welcome the students, in providing enough support.”
Pei-Wei Interviews:
Basically, I interviewed three international people on campus about challenges they have regarding to life in State College and studying at Penn State. All questions brought about negative responses. They all felt being so far away from home and experience different culture is not as pleasant as what they imagine. They came to America where everything is so different than where they came from. Even though they try to adjust to the environment and learn new ways of living, they felt so frustrated without getting support or finding useful resources easily. Language is the big barrier for them to communicate with others and participate in either academic activities or social gathering. The reactions people present decrease their confidence in speaking English and gave them pressure to say what they think. Although Penn State is a large university with growing body of international students from a variety of countries, international students do not feel the sense of belonging and felt difficult to get involved in American society. They normally hang out with students from other countries because they are in the similar situation and understand each other. The reason for not able to become friends of Americans is not their choices but Americans are not good hosts to actively invite them or try to know them. The view of thinking oneself first or not being friendly to others is really against cultural values of most international students. This unfriendly environment including people, facility and curriculum gives international students hard time to succeed and need to struggle to find their own ways to survive or being appreciated.
Leah Interviews:
I interviewed two international students, one who is part of a national program and one who came here on her own. Responses to the questions were mixed, but common themes emerged. While both utilized the university in providing housing support, they both found the options expensive and not ideal. There was no support for either of them in learning about the campus and bus system and both relied on other international students in helping them navigate life in State College and Penn State. One student did not know about all the organizations and resources available to her until a long time after she was here. Another area of concern was in the area of assignments and professors. Since English is their second language, it takes them much longer to complete assignments and they don’t always understand everything the professor is saying as they sometimes talk too quickly. They both felt international students find comfort in associating with one another, but yet both felt students were missing out by not venturing outside their community.
Current Understanding of the Problem
International students face many challenges when coming to Penn State to live and work. These challenges can be grouped into several categories: a) acquiring housing and apartment mates, b) language challenges which impact classroom assignments, participation, and understanding of professors lectures and course expectations, c) finding their way around campus and learning what resources are available, and d) feeling accepted, appreciated and included by their American peers.
Next Steps
- Compile a list of the interviewees’ suggestions of the problems.
- Research other universities to see what type of support they provide.
- Create a plan to address our findings and the design challenge.
References
Glesne, C., & Peshkin, A. (1992). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. White Plains, NY: Longman.
Zach Lonsinger says
I found it interesting that two groups chose a design challenge focusing around international students, and it appears both groups have discovered an all-around lack of resources for international students. This is a shame. But the more I read through these findings, the more I started to ask – well what resources are in place for American students? Are there any resources in place to help U.S. students with housing or the bus system? And if so, why wouldn’t these be suitable for international students or can they be adapted to the needs of international students? Maybe there isn’t even any resources for U.S. students and your group may have discovered a larger problem at play here.
Brandon says
I beg to differ, it isn’t that there are no resources. As a matter of fact, there are resources in place both through Penn State and through student groups and communities. I think what both of our groups have found is that the problems of international students are more varied, complicated, and personal than a centralized set of resources can address.
I look forward to seeing the way this research develops, and hope the findings of our two groups might complement each other further down the line.
Audrey Romano says
Some of the feelings your interviewees expressed relating to hostility and unwelcomeness from instructors and peers really breaks my heart, especially thinking back to my mom’s experience immigrating to the US from Hong Kong as a student. It’s not just a problem at Penn State or universities, but a huge cultural problem, period. We, as Americans, are very hostile to international/immigrants, despite our roots. The diversity at Penn State and State College/Centre County isn’t very strong, in general. There are pockets of international communities that are operating businesses and churches and have communities related to those, but the student community turns over at a quicker rater, so there isn’t enough time to keep a core community operating. It’s a tough and complex problem that I’m interested in seeing how it develops.
Katie Bateman says
I think a lot of the things, Leah in particular found, are not all that dissimilar from nationalized graduate students. As a first year who was new to State College, I found many of the same issues- what services are available to me, where do I live, what’s this bus thing, etc. And I know I am not alone in this feeling- a peer was in the HUB for the first time just a few weeks ago. I relied on the people in my program who luckily are quite friendly. Is the cultural boundary one that Penn State needs to become more like international environs or do international students need to be indoctrinated into the culture of Penn State? Somewhere in the middle?
Priscilla Taylor says
I’m interested in how this design challenge evolves and how it relates to the other group’s challenge that also focuses on international students. One of the interview responses mentioned the challenges that arise from faculty and advisors. I wonder if there is a way to address that in your challenge like maybe a module of some sort with student-created videos that address these issues or including faculty in the later phases of the challenge.
Scott P McDonald says
I was going to suggest something similar. I wonder if there are really two challenges here – one to support international students and another to educate Penn State faculty and staff about how they can work better with international students.
Adam says
I think he acculturating aspect in terms of expressing thoughts and opinions is crucial. I’m not sure who or how you help international students who aren’t used to this social more but I’ll be interested in seeing how your design addresses this. Good luck!
Michael Sean Banales says
I think there’s an interesting challenge in working with educators to educate them on how to most effectively teach international students. Thinking from my own experiences, I would have utilized such training pretty heavily. Even now I still worry I’m not being as effective as I could be when helping international students. I wonder if any such resources are even available?
Koun says
It was interesting to see how your group’s interview on the difficulties that international students have in State College overlap with our group’s understanding, but at the same time have different focus; our group was more focused on the time period when they tried to gather information/resources to prepare for their transition. I look forward to seeing how our solutions differ at the end.