Abstract
In the United States, colleges use the internationalization of their student body as a conduit to achieving greaterdiversity. Not only has the attraction of international students become a priority for many universities regardlessof size or location, universities administrators are often also quick to point to the increasing number ofinternational students as evidence of their commitment to diversity efforts. This paper explores African studentmothers’ experiences with the US higher education system by examining both the structural environments andthe socio-cultural burdens and constructs that affect and shape their learning and adjustment challenges inpredominantly white US universities. It argues that while individual behaviors and attitudes may present seriouschallenges to the adjustments and full integration in US colleges, it is largely the structural and institutionalarrangements and policies (both written and unwritten) that often prove difficult to navigate. Drawing on theexperiences of twenty-three women from a predominantly white Midwestern university, it demonstrates thatpolicies and arrangements that place the distribution of material, social and academic resources on students’ability to network in unequal social environments often place extra burden on the African graduate studentmother studying in US higher institution; how these students in turn respond, interpret and negotiate theirexperiences will be highlighted.
Highlights
In the United States (US), higher education institutions have increasingly used diversity as a cornerstone of their mission statements and in their efforts to attract students from different backgrounds
Such a separation has some implications for relations of gender in many universities where the faculty and the professoriate have historically been structured for the life of the male scholar, requiring re-adjustment to accommodate the realities of the lives of females who, at the very same time that they are coming into their own as academics, have their biological clocks ticking
It has argued that apart from the fact that things have hardly changed for women more generally, the challenges faced by the foreign international African student mother whose gender and region is stereotyped in the popular imagination of the US academe can be more daunting
Summary
In the United States (US), higher education institutions have increasingly used diversity as a cornerstone of their mission statements and in their efforts to attract students from different backgrounds. Policies and arrangements that place the distribution of material, social and academic resources on students’ ability to network in unequal social environments often place extra burden on African graduate student mothers studying in US higher institutions. To this end, the extent to which the organizational policies and practices of host institutions and departments shape the daily experiences of this group of international students and how they in turn respond, interpret and negotiate their experiences will be highlighted
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