1st Edition

International Student Engagement Strategies for Creating Inclusive, Connected, and Purposeful Campus Environments

    124 Pages
    by Routledge

    124 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book responds to the growing calls among international educators, activists, and students themselves to pay closer attention to the qualitative dimensions of international students’ experiences at U.S. colleges and universities. This book outlines deep approaches to the academic and social integration of international students at U.S. colleges and universities. It describes concrete examples of strategies to enhance the international student experience across a wide range of institutional types, and explores actions that have enabled colleges and universities to create more inclusive, connected, and purposeful campus environments for international students. It fleshes out the effects of these actions through the first person narratives of international students themselves. It focuses on reinforcing an institution’s existing strengths and capacities to help academic leaders at these institutions to develop comprehensive strategies that will enable the creation of inclusive campus climates for international students.The book combines evidence derived from the national Global Perspective Inventory dataset, the experiences of institutions at the forefront in developing effective strategies, as well as first-person narrative experiences of international students to illustrate the real-life consequences of institutional policies, practice, and programs.One of the aims of this book is to take readers on a journey, from community colleges to liberal arts institutions to large public flagship research universities, from rural parts of the U.S.to highly-populated urban areas in order to raise questions about the impact of the surge of international students in these environments and about the corresponding challenges that confront senior administrators seeking to strengthen and deepen connections for the students. The book explores some of the actions that universities and colleges across the U.S. have taken to create more inclusive, connected, and purposeful campus environments for their international students, placing particular emphasis on the importance of tapping and reinforcing each institution’s existing strengths and capacities in the development of strategies that will enable it to create more inclusive campus climates for current and incoming international students, and engaging in active collaboration with all departments and offices across the campus, with the larger community, and most important, with the international student community itself.

    Foreword Fanta Aw Introduction. Strengthening Campus Commitments to International Students 1. Recognizing and Addressing Cultural Diversity in the Classroom 2. Engaging International Students in Campus Leadership 3. Friends, Peers, and Social Networks 4. Family Relationships, Technology, and Social Media 5. Campus Contexts That Foster a Sense of Belonging 6. Recommendations for Practice The Authors Index

    Biography

    Chris R. Glass is an Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations and Leadership at Old Dominion University. He has been actively involved in national efforts to identify educational experiences that contribute to international students' positive development. He is a lead researcher on the Global Perspectives Inventory (GPI) which examines the relationship between educational experiences and global learning outcomes based on survey responses of 70,000 undergraduates, including over 5,000 international students at 135 American colleges and universities. Rachawan Wongtrirat holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration with a concentration in International Higher Education Leadership from Old Dominion University, a M.Ed. in Educational Psychology from Chulalongkorn University, and a B.Ed. in Business Education from Kasetsart University, Thailand. Wongtrirat is a former EducationUSA adviser and the Program Officer for the Advising and Education Services Unit at the Institute of International Education (IIE) Southeast Asia office in Bangkok. Wongtrirat has given presentations at national and regional conferences such as NAFSA: Association of International Educators, Colonial Academic Alliance Global Education Conference, and the EducationUSA East Asia & Pacific Regional Conference. Stephanie Buus current research interests center around the influence of internationalization processes on the higher education systems of the United States and the European Union. She has participated in study abroad programs at the high school, college, graduate school and post-doctoral levels in several countries and spent more than a decade working as an international researcher at institutes and universities in Denmark and Sweden. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Stephanie received her Ph.D. in Scandinavian Languages & Literatures from the University of California, Berkeley and holds an Ed.S. from Old Dominion University. In August 2014, Stephanie

    "This book provides much to think about, and would be useful for people in a number of different positions within academia. It is a welcome contribution at a time when faculty and administrators are engaging with the question of what it means to have increasing numbers of international students in college, university, and seminary classrooms."

    Reflective Teaching Journal

    "This book will be of great value for new professionals entering the student affairs field on campus as international student advisers. It may also play a constructive role in informing campus policy debates swirling around the recruitment of international students."

    International Educator

    “Given the increasing rise of international students in US colleges and universities as well as throughout the world, this book provides an easy to read, yet thoughtful analysis of international students’ experiences. Unlike most observations on the international student population, Glass, Wongtrirat, and Buus ground their work on solid, empirical data based on international studnets' first-hand accounts, institutional case examples, and the latest related research in the field. I recommend this book for scholars of international higher education as well as the increasing number of practitioners working with this growing and significant college student population.” -Jenny Lee, Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of Arizona

    “International Student Engagement is an excellent contribution to one of the most important topics in international education today. The book’s firm grounding in the research literature is interwoven with the voices of international students to provide researchers and practitioners alike a rich resource on integrating international students into campus life.”-Christine A. Farrugia, Senior Research Officer and Manager of Open Doors®, Institute of International Education

    "Glass, Wongrirat, and Buus masterfully connect the best practices of student interventions in higher education with lived experiences of international students on campus. This book both encouraged and challenged me to enhance domestic and international student integration effort on my campus by identifying and making purposeful connections with institutional strengths." -Jin Abe, Associate Professor, Center for Global Education, Hitotsubashi University, Japan, Foreign Born International Educators SIG

    "One of the challenges that international educators often face is to build a welcoming and inclusive community for international students on their respective campuses. This book offers insightful strategies and best practices for creating an engaging, collaborative and integrated programming model that can help advance internationalization on your campus. A must-read!" -Ravi Ammigan, Director Office for International Students and Scholars, University of Delaware, Chair, Knowledge Community for International Student and Scholar Services, NAFSA: Association of International Educators

    “This is the first book of its kind to provide a holistic approach to the important and timely subject of inclusion and integration of international students and the structural forces at play. The authors draw from first person narratives, case examples of effective institutional practices and policies, and curricular and co-curricular initiatives to illustrate the myriad of ways to effectively engage international students and transform educational environments. The book gives voice to the international student experience and provides tangible and concrete examples of effective practices.

    Every practitioner working with international students and committed to enhancing the student experience should read this book." -Fanta Aw, Hust Senior Professorial Lecturer, School of International Service, American University, President and Chair of the Board of Directors, NAFSA: Association of International Educators

    "This volume offers a refreshing take on the academic and social integration of international students on US campuses and how their presence can be leveraged to make for a richer experience for them, as well as for the rest of the campus community." -Harvey Charles, PhD, Vice Provost for Int’l Education, Northern Arizona University; President of AIEA

    "The number of international students continues to increase on U.S. campuses, presenting an increasingly pressing challenge on how to integrate these students into campus life. International Student Engagement admirably addresses this challenge by providing ample examples of what institutions across the United States are doing to support and integrate international students during their educational experiences. A must-read for all who work with college students!" -Darla K. Deardorff, co-editor of Building Cultural Competence and author of Demystifying Outcomes Assessment for International Educators, Duke University