Experiences Of American Students Research Articles

Estranged Relations: African American Student Experiences with University Police on a Predominantly White Campus

Estranged Relations: African American Student Experiences with University Police on a Predominantly White Campus

Native American Student Experiences of the Academic Library

Native American Student Experiences of the Academic Library

Shifting Participation Grade Policies to Value More Kinds of Student Engagement

This is a story about discovering a bias that affected participation grades in my Introductory Physics for Life Sciences class. My expectation, that actively engaged students tended to talk frequently in my presence as their teaching assistant, would have erased two students’ outstanding performances if not for the participation grade policies described here. The two students, Diana and Alice (pseudonyms), both appeared to be Asian American women, which prompted a quick check for possible course-wide bias in participation grades by students’ gender and ethnicity. The quick check—a quantitative analysis—suggested that in-class participation by multiple different groups of Asian American women may have been undervalued on average by graduate physics teaching assistants, though this requires further analysis. My perspective of Diana’s and Alice’s top performances along with the informal check connects to published research on Asian American student experiences. I also present practical suggestions for physics educators, who could benefit from critically reflecting on what values and biases may be baked into their grading schemes.

African American student sociocultural adjustment to Thai international higher education

ABSTRACTThis article aims to detail an exploratory study involving African American student experiences in a Thai international programme. This study employed a qualitative case study to explore the adjustment process of African American international students in Thailand. The participants included 15 African American students who were selected through a snowball sampling technique in 2014–2016. The data were collected through semi-structured one on one interviews and analysed through content analysis. The participants reported adjustment difficulties related to their sense of isolation in Thailand, the excessive attention received from their hosts, the appropriate response to said attention, Thai culture and adjustment to academic differences. An analysis of the source of stress, anxiety and conflict among the participants is intended to provide insight into international recruitment practices and facilitating more progressive pre-departure orientation sessions among impending international students.

African American nurses describe pre-licensure education experiences: A qualitative study.

Greater diversity in the healthcare workforce enhances cross-cultural communication, diminishes bias and stereotyping, thereby improving health outcomes for African Americans. Diversifying the nursing profession has been a persistent challenge and the experiences of African American nursing students in not yet well understood. The aims of this study were to describe the experiences of pre-licensure nursing school, and the meaning of those experiences, retrospectively for African American nurses. The sample for this qualitative descriptive study included 14 African American nurses who reflected on their nursing school experiences. A salient theme of standing out emerged from the data with subthemes of being watched and being ignored. Laying low and being noticed emerged as success strategies for nursing school. African American student experiences are complex and at times appear dichotomous. Improving African American nursing student success necessitates the creation of a more hospitable learning environment to mitigate the effects of standing out.

Giving back or giving up: Native American student experiences in science and engineering.

Native Americans are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers. We examine communal goal incongruence-the mismatch between students' emphasis on communal work goals and the noncommunal culture of STEM-as a possible factor in this underrepresentation. First, we surveyed 80 Native American STEM freshmen and found they more highly endorsed communal goals than individualistic work goals. Next, we surveyed 96 Native American and White American students in STEM and non-STEM majors and confirmed that both Native American men and women in STEM highly endorsed communal goals. In a third study, we conducted a follow-up survey and in-depth interviews with a subset of Native American STEM students in their second semester to assess their experiences of belonging uncertainty, intrinsic motivation, persistence intentions, and perceived performance in STEM as a function of their initial communal work goals. Results demonstrate the prominence of communal goals among incoming Native American freshman (especially compared with White male STEM majors) and the connection between communal goals and feelings of belonging uncertainty, low motivation, and perceived poor performance 1 semester later. The interview data illustrate that these issues are particularly salient for students raised within tribal communities, and that a communal goal orientation is not just a vague desire to "help others," but a commitment to helping their tribal communities. The interviews also highlight the importance of student support programs for fostering feelings of belonging. We end by discussing implications for interventions and institutional changes that may promote Native American student retention in STEM.

Intercultural Identity and Intercultural Experiences of American Students in China

The number of international students in China is increasing rapidly, but their experiences in China remain largely unknown. This article reports an intensive longitudinal multiple case study that explores eight American students’ intercultural experiences and the impacts of such experiences on individual identity during their study in a Chinese university in 2010. Data come from monthly interviews and diaries that the students kept. Findings support Kim’s depiction of the processes by which intercultural identity emerges, notably the stress–adaptation–growth cycle and the concurrent processes of acculturation and deculturation. These findings reveal the journey of participants from cultural naivety to an emergent intercultural awareness and cultural critical capacity. Despite considerable ignorance and misunderstanding about China as an exotic “other” at the beginning of the program, all participants underwent some degree of cultural identity shift toward the more “open-ended . . . self–other orientation” of Kim’s “intercultural identity.”

Language Learning in Second Life: American and Turkish Students' Experiences.

There have been several attempts to integrate Web 2.0 technologies including podcasts, weblogs, wikis, and virtual 3D communities into language education thus far. Second Life, a virtual 3D community, might create unique opportunities for language learners specifically in the following ways: As a source of authentic interaction with target language speakers, a venue for language classes, and an autonomous study opportunity for learners. In this context, this study reports Second Life experiences of American students learning Turkish as a foreign language in the University of Florida, the USA and of Turkish students learning English as a foreign language at Gazi University, Turkey. The interviews demonstrated that both groups of students regarded Second Life as a contribution to authentic interaction with native language. Furthermore, the experiences indicated Second Life served as a good bridge for cultural competence and an inevitable tool to foster less threatened learning experiences despite challenges encountered on the way.

Additional complexities: social class, ethnicity, generation, and gender in Asian American student experiences

Despite the largely monolithic descriptions of Asian American students as high achieving model minorities, Asian Americans are a diverse group and their experiences are varied and complex. This article explores the ways that social class, ethnicity, generation, and gender shape the educational opportunities, experiences and achievement of Asian American students. It demonstrates that in order to better serve the unique needs of Asian American students we must examine the ways various identities, and the intersections of identities, inform the experiences of Asian Americans.

Introduction

Introduction

Examining the Ethnic Minority Student Experience at Predominantly White Institutions: A Case Study

The researchers of this qualitative study conducted four focus groups to explore the college student experience of ethnic minorities in an institution of higher education. The purpose of the study was threefold: (a) to examine the experiences of ethnic minority students at a predominately White institution, (b) to discuss the similarities and differences of the experiences among the four groups, and (c) to identify student perspectives on the delivery of student services in the institution. The study examined African American, Asian-Pacific American, Chicano/Latino, and Native American student experiences at a research institution.

Learning Culture: The Education of American Students in Caribbean Villages

It is often said that you have to live in another culture before you can understand your own. But what is it that we learn and how do we learn it? To answer this question this paper examines the experiences of American students living and doing field research in villages on the eastern Caribbean island of Barbados. The students field experiences in a social and cultural world very different from the one they come from shape their attitudes and understanding of race, social class, rural-urban differences, materialism, tourism, and the image and role of America in a developing society. The role of field research as a transformative experience in the students' education is also treated. The educational attainments of an anthropology field program are contrasted with the conventional term abroad in which students are enrolled at a foreign university.

The nature of American student reentry adjustment and perceptions of the sojourn experience

This study investigated reentry adjustment experiences of American students after an extended sojourn abroad. Fifty-eight overseas sojourners were compared to 74 domestic travellers and findings indicated that the returnees from abroad experienced much greater reentry adjustment problems. The results support previous studies which document the existence of the reentry adjustment phenomenon. Results revealed that changes in the individual's value structure are an important factor that is associated with reentry adjustment. This study underscores previous research which states that the reentry transitional period includes positive and growthful aspects for the returnees.

The Introduction and Development of Freud's Work in the United States

The introduction of the work of Sigmund Freud and the development of psychoanalysis in the United States may be viewed in terms of the experiences of American students who had the first direct contacts with Freud and the movement which he led. Early training in psychoanalysis was not systematic. Reading and discusion of case materials, the study of Freud's written works, and especially the discovery of Freudian mechanisms in personal experiences served to convince students of the value of psychoanalysis. Lectures by psychoanalysts to American medical and lay audiences provoked antagonisms but at the same time stimulated discussion and interest, and spite of great resistance to the new ideas, the subject gained an increasing number of adherents. The translation of Freud's works into English was an added impetus. Contacts with nonmedical groups were of equal importance to those with medical groups in popularizing and establishing Freud in this country.