Working Title
East meets West: How different cultures affect International Students
Topic Description
I will be exploring the stress and challenges faced by international students in American Universities. Focusing on the language barrier, cultural differences and discrimination that are met by international students and how we can aid them to gain a better experience. As an Asian-American student, I am just curious about how much of each culture my own family incorporates and what kinds of advantages it gives me.
Research Question
There has been an increase in the number of international students at American universities. Why apply to American universities? What are some stresses that the families will face? How do cultural differences affect how the families deal with this stress and anxiety? What are some hardships they face once they attend Universities? How are these stressors anxiety and mental health challenges increasing in international students? Does online learning still present the same challenges as in person?
Theoretical Frame(s)
The college experience is different for international students and domestic students alike but as COVID has hit we are now experiencing online classes. How would being online have affected these students have these challenges increased or decreased? International students faced cultural and language barriers while having to adjust to new living environments where they are not able to rely on their families as much. In the Research, Cultural Differences in Online Learning: International Students Perceptions, by Liu et al., it has shown that cultural differences will not affect the student's performance in online classes and that language barrier are still present but there are other factors such as time zone differences, plagiarism, etc that can affect a students performance. The study had shown that people have tried to categorize the cultural differences between Western and Eastern education but was faced with many criticisms as they can be biased. In Eastern education, the teacher has absolute authority and students are not encouraged to challenge their knowledge while in Western education students are encouraged to participate in conversations and ask questions that challenge their teacher’s knowledge. This difference in educational systems will greatly affect international students as this they would not participate in class discussions as they will be afraid of asking “dumb” questions.
The topic of international students is not often talked about or known as the students themselves are not willing to speak up about their own experiences. This topic is interesting to me as I am interested in seeing how being Chinese-American will affect my experience and what similarities and differences there will be for me. The question of whether culture plays a role in the college experience, what makes American Universities more appealing to international students, and how has privatization affected both domestic and international students financially are important questions that I hope to find some answers to. Recently due to COVID and the Trump administration, there have been changes and awareness made about minorities bring to my attention about the international communities among college communities.
What academic theories or ideas will be used to frame the discussion or help you analyze case studies? Where do you find that term in the literature?
What other terms or ideas do you get from your readings that will be useful for analysis? Discuss the literature that helps you will support your analysis.
Case(s) or Examples
In the article, “The Chinese Mother’s American Dream”, Karin Fischer has told the stories of Chinese students and their family's efforts to send them to study abroad just for better opportunities in their lives. As mentioned in the article in China your score on the national college-entrance exam will determine everything from which majors to choose to even what colleges you are allowed to apply to. This differed drastically from American Universities while they will require test scores (SAT) but there are other factors that can appeal to colleges such as extracurricular, volunteer hours, teachers recommendations, and personal essays. For example, Mengru had taken the SAT several times trying to bring up her score but on top of that, she still needs to keep up with the Chinese national curriculum. Her parents want her to take both the SAT and GaoKao which will give her more opportunities as she will be able to apply to both American and Chinese Universities.
Also in the book Indebted by Caitlin Zaloom, she pointed out the concept of “nested silence” where the parents hid their financial situation from their children in order to allow their children to pursue higher education. The same can be said about international students as their tuition is double of domestic students, their families will try to lessen their stress of learning in a new environment by letting them focus on their studies. Would this then send them down different pathways? Or will they fall victim to the party pathway mentioned by Armstrong & Hamilton?
In the book, Paying for the Party by Armstrong & Hamilton they mentioned that those in affluent families are able to afford more, from SAT preps to college expenses. The same can be said of Chinese households as many people start preparing to study abroad as early as 9 years old. Showing that there are cultural similarities and differences, as it doesn't matter if you are an international student or not that there will always be those tiger parents that will send their kids to prep schools and take the SAT multiple times just to boost their scores. A difference I see is that while American students need to focus on both the English and Math portions while the Chinese students will need to focus solely on the English portion as the Math taught in their education system is far more advanced than ours. To them, they can easily earn an 800 on the Math section of the SAT (when the full score of SAT was 2400).
Discuss at least one specific example that is well documented and will help you explore your question. You can discuss several possible examples.
Working Bibliography in MLA 8 format
Fischer, Karin. “The Chinese Mother's American Dream.” Chronicle.com, 2015, www.chronicle.com/article/The-Chinese-Mothers-American/231239.
Ma, Yingyi. “Analysis | China's Education System Produces Stellar Test Scores. So Why Do 600,000 Students Go Abroad Each Year to Study?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 17 Dec. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/17/chinas-education-system-produces-stellar-test-scores-so-why-do-students-head-abroad-each-year-study/.
Redden, Elizabeth. “Inside Higher Ed.” International Enrollments Drop by 16 Percent, 16 Nov. 2020, www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2020/11/16/international-enrollments-drop-16-percent.
Xiaojing Liu, et al. “Cultural Differences in Online Learning: International Student Perceptions.” Educational Technology & Society, vol. 13, no. 3, International Forum of Educational Technology & Society, 2010, pp. 177–88.
Ying Yi Ma. Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education. Columbia University Press, 2020, doi:10.7312/ma--18458.
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