Teachers Initiating Conversations About Race and Racism in a High School Class

This qualitative study explores the techniques, materials and processes of a Black teacher and a White teacher who introduced issues of race and racism in their team-taught high school class. The teachers explicitly put the issues of race and racism on the table, asked questions that challenged students to think about the topics, and used race-related curricular materials and assignments. The teachers' initiative encouraged the students in the class to speak out about the language and meaning of race and racism.     

Borders and Intersections of Possibility: Multilingual Repertoires of Refugee Families in the Southwest U.S.

This study examines the linguistic and cultural intersections of recently arrived Somali Bantu refugee students in South Texas through the lens of border theory. The use of Spanish in the homes of refugee families is explored in addition to ways in which an educator used testimonios to honor students’ migration experiences. Findings show how specific approaches used in schools that affirm both the receiving communities’ and the new arrivals' local knowledge can have a lasting impact on literacy acquisition and resettlement experiences. Findings from this study also illuminate the potential impact of educators who develop a critical, inquiry stance by embedding multiple entry points for students to cross social, cultural, linguistic, and curricular borders in school.     

Diversity and the Modeling of Multicultural Principles of Education in a Teacher Education Program

In this study, we examined preservice teacher perception on the modeling of principles of multicultural education at a university of predominantly White students. Preservice teachers (N = 79) at the end of a multicultural education course responded to a survey based on the principles of multiculturalism. The students conducted an 8-week evaluation of the modeling or integration of multiculturalism in their teacher education classes. Statistical analysis indicated that 95.4% of preservice teachers perceived an integration of instructional principles of multicultural education, whereas 69% perceived integration of curricular principles of multicultural education. Findings suggested that diversity is a critical element of multiculturalism in the teacher education program needing attention.     

A Study of State Social Studies Standards for American Indian Education

In this study the author surveys social studies standards from 14 U.S. states seeking to answer: (a) what social studies knowledge about American Indians is deemed essential by those states mandating the development of American Indian Education curricula for all public K–12 students? and (b) at what grade levels is this social studies content knowledge mandated in public K–12 schools? Document analysis, open-coding, and constant comparison revealed that the knowledge states standards require can be organized into six themes: identification/classification of tribes, distinct tribal cultures, contributions to mainstream U.S. culture, tribal government, connection to environment, and economics/occupations. The findings also revealed that the majority of standards relating to American Indians are directed to elementary grade levels. Standards in only two states, Maine and Montana, cover a breadth of curricular content and require that content coverage to continue K–12.     

Exploring Names and Identity Through Multicultural Literature in K-8 Classrooms

Children's names reflect their gender, culture, religion, language, and family history. Use of students' personal names has the power to positively affirm identity and signal belonging within the classroom and school community. However, naming practices also have the power to exclude, stereotype, or disadvantage students. For many students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, their names can be a source of cultural conflict and a watershed for issues of identity and belonging within the school setting. Through multicultural explorations of students' names, educators can affirm students' cultures and identities, and draw upon these as resources to support learning and development from early childhood through the adolescent years. The purpose of this article is to (a) discuss the importance of a person's name to cultural identity, (b) describe strategies to build multicultural communities in K-8 classrooms through exploration of students' names, and (c) suggest multicultural children's literature and curricular activities to teach about the importance of personal names, and develop cross-cultural understandings.     

Literacy as social (media) practice: Refugee youth and native language literacy at school

Research indicates that immigrant and refugee students benefit from use of their native languages in education. Nevertheless, what this means in practice has infrequently been examined by researchers, and teachers often struggle to find ways to use their refugee students’ native languages as resources that encourage the development of the native languages as well as academic language and literacy in the new language. This small-scale, exploratory project employed an innovative, five-day critical media literacy curricular unit, and then examined how it served as a context for native language and English literacy development. Participants were 14 adolescent newcomers to the U.S. from Somalia, Kenya, Djibouti, and Ethiopia, all speakers of Somali with limited or interrupted formal schooling experiences. Participants had varying but mostly beginning levels of print literacy skills; yet as recent migrants, most used social media to interact with others locally and globally, in multiple languages, oral and written. As described here, our efforts to foster peer-to-peer Somali language communication resulted in multilingual interaction across a range of social and academic purposes in the classroom. These research findings highlight how in-class use of social media analysis can serve to achieve multilingual and (critical) literacy learning aims.     

The Ins and Outs of Succeeding in Mathematics: African American Students' Notions and Perceptions

This article presents the results of a research study that investigated the mathematical experiences of two African American female college students. The study examined the students' perceptions of and responses to their mathematical experiences. The study sought to determine how these students viewed their experiences in mathematics classrooms, particularly their interactions with mathematics teachers and sought to identify factors that contributed to their succeeding in mathematics. The students' stories suggest a need to raise questions about traditional teaching practices that may be oppressive for African American mathematics students. Their stories also engender hope due to the support of caring educators whom they called "good teachers" and who contributed to their success with school mathematics.     

Intercultural communication and US higher education: How US students and faculty can improve: International students’ classroom experiences

Intercultural communication research rarely addresses the perspective of international students, who face challenges as they leave family, move to a foreign place in the US, pursue a degree, and study in a foreign language. Considering these students’ perspectives, US universities, which house large numbers of international students, should consider how they can help these students better adapt to US academic life. To address these challenges, we invited international students at a 4-year tier-one state university to interview, and we qualitatively analyzed their responses to identify how universities can help international students. Our participants noted that US students can befriend them, respect them in the classroom, and learn about other cultures to be more welcoming. Faculty have the most to do to improve international students’ success in the classroom; faculty can grade consistently, communicate outside the classroom, allow time for students to ask questions, help students adapt to US classrooms, speak slowly and eliminate idioms from examples, explain course objectives per industry, share interests and personal information, effectively use class time (particularly final examination weeks), and learn about cultures to better meet students’ needs. Additional research can diversify international students’ needs per their classification (graduate versus undergraduate), home culture, and expectations.     

“Our” Criminals—Israeli Press Coverage of Domestic Political Criminals

The study examined media coverage of Israeli citizens convicted of committing political crimes against the state in order to determine how the media portrays such perpetrators, ultimately to discern what these framing choices suggest about citizens involved in political crimes. In contrast to external acts of political crime for which the explanation provided by the media is clear, mainly that the perpetrator, “the other,” is evil and acting against “us,” this study found that when the perpetrator is “one of us” there is a profound need in the media to find a multidimensional explanation for the act. This study found that the Israeli media applies a personalized news frame to portray each of “our” criminals differently and explain their motivations to the public.     

A review of the acculturation experiences of international students

Universities in Western countries host a substantial number of international students. These students bring a range of benefits to the host country and in return the students gain higher education. However, the choice to study overseas in Western countries may present many challenges for the international student including the experience of acculturative stress and difficulties with adjustment to the environment of the host country. The present paper provides a review of current acculturation models as applied to international students. Given that these models have typically been empirically tested on migrant and refugee populations only, the review aims to determine the extent to which these models characterise the acculturation experience of international students. Literature pertaining to salient variables from acculturation models was explored including acculturative stressors encountered frequently by international students (e.g., language barriers, educational difficulties, loneliness, discrimination, and practical problems associated with changing environments). Further discussed was the subsequent impact of social support and coping strategies on acculturative stress experienced by international students, and the psychological and sociocultural adaptation of this student group. This review found that the international student literature provides support for some aspects of the acculturation models discussed; however, further investigation of these models is needed to determine their accuracy in describing the acculturation of international students. Additionally, prominent acculturation models portray the host society as an important factor influencing international students’ acculturation, which suggests the need for future intervention.     

Analysing change among study abroad students. A novel application of the person-centred approach to alcohol use patterns

This study re-analysed longitudinal data on international students’ alcohol use to demonstrate the practical value of person-centred statistical techniques, such as Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and its longitudinal extension Latent Transition Analysis (LTA). These techniques offer new analytic perspectives, can reveal typologies (i.e., subpopulations characterized by different profiles) and examine change (i.e., transition probabilities) in outcomes of interest. The use of these approaches remains limited in the intercultural research field, however. A step-by-step guide to the use of LCA and LTA is presented. The analyses demonstrate how alcohol use profiles can be identified, how transitions across profiles as students move from home to overseas can be examined and are affected by students' motivation to study abroad and their adjustment to the host environment. The validity for study abroad students of the four-class model of drinker types found in other populations was confirmed. Results, however, challenge the dominant view that most students increase alcohol intake during study abroad experiences, and indicate that moderate drinkers are at greatest risk of transitioning to heavy drinking as they travel abroad. Implications and suggestions for use of these statistical techniques by intercultural research specialists are discussed.     

Culture in acculturation: Refugee youth’s schooling experiences in international schools in New York City

As the number of refugee children and youth across the world continues to grow at an alarming rate, the needs of refugee populations require more and sustained attention. This qualitative study explores the specific academic and socio-emotional needs of refugee students in New York City (NYC), a city that has received refugees and asylum seekers from over 50 countries. Using qualitative research methods and drawing on the literature on refugee students’ school experiences and acculturation theory, in this article we ask how refugee students describe the key features of international high schools that foster students’ academic success, social and cultural integration, and academic well-being. Moreover, we examine how the notion of culture itself can interfere with these efforts.     

Negative side effects of music listening during cross-cultural transitions: Exploring how music hinders cross-cultural (re)adaptation among student sojourners

Although media use has been shown to have benefits in many contexts, including study abroad, it may also hinder cross-cultural transitions in academic sojourns. This study examines how music (as a form of communication media) may interfere with adaptation to the host culture and readaptation to the home culture. Focus groups and interviews with a total of 23 college students (twelve U.S. students and eleven international students) revealed that music hindered sojourners’ ability to interact in social settings, as well as amplified negative feelings while abroad and during reentry. Participants experienced these temporary side effects in conjunction with (or as part of) their purposeful and functional use of music to escape from the social environment and alleviate negative emotions.     

Birds of a feather end up flocking together when studying abroad. Can a university bridge the cultural differences that challenge friendships between Pacific Island students and New Zealand students?

Intercultural friendship formation is a key challenge for international students studying abroad. In an increasingly globalised world, where people regularly engage with others from different cultures, meaningful intercultural friendships are important. However, culture can pose a considerable challenge that hinders the formation of friendships between people of different cultures. This paper explores challenges and insights into developing intercultural friendships between international Pacific Island students studying in Aotearoa New Zealand and domestic New Zealand Palagi¹ students. Similar to other studies, the findings in this study highlight the key challenges connected to cultural differences. These findings are surprising as New Zealand Palagi students would have gone to primary and secondary schools with Pacific Island students and should have had some contact and interactions with them and be more accustomed to cultural differences. Unique to this study is that these international Pacific Island students recognised that universities are in a prime position to champion and promote systemic interventions to assist both international and domestic students to engage with each other in order to promote cultural understanding. Overcoming intercultural friendship development challenges involves creating meaningful intercultural spaces and campus ‘friendship’ events to increase intercultural interactions, raise domestic students’ cross-cultural awareness, and encourage reciprocal intercultural learning. Such activities are likely to enhance the overall well-being of all students and improve the internationalisation of universities with increasingly diverse student cohorts.     

Vive la Resistance! (De)Constructing Classmates in a White Working Class High School

English Language Arts class in a predominantly white suburban high school may seem like an unlikely site for transformational pedagogy. Teachers and students speak the same national language and most of the teachers grew up and were educated in working class communities. Despite these roots, it is far too easy for teachers to forget that our “portfolios of experiences” have created access to middle class cultural values. If teachers unconsciously internalize middle class values, we might unwittingly judge working class students as academically deficient rather than engage in empowering, critical pedagogies. Teachers might reconsider student resistance as a force for co-creating curriculum to empower otherwise marginalized students.

This piece explores the nuances of social class, power, and language through the experiences of a teacher and her 11th grade students as they negotiate two units of study that are heavily laden with social class: poetry and college entrance. Analysis and reflection indicate that students in a white working class high school can benefit from pedagogies that embrace, rather than dismiss, student resistance.     

Impact of Intercultural Communication During Short-term Study-abroad of Japanese Students: Analysis from a Perspective of Cognitive Modification

This study investigates the impact of intercultural communication on Japanese students during short-term study-abroad programmes. Quantitative analysis indicates the students believe study-abroad broadened their views. Semi-structured interviews identify five categories of impact: utilization of English language, interpersonal communication skills, involvement in global society, opening doors to greater possibilities and positive attitudes towards living. To explain these changes, a theory from cognitive behavioural therapy is applied and a cognitive modification model for intercultural communication is proposed. The study presents evidence that intercultural communication can be an opportunity to recognize and modify one’s cognitive appraisals initially grounded in one’s home culture.     

The role of intercultural competence,in the relationship between intercultural experiences and creativity among students

We studied the interplay of intercultural competence, intercultural experiences, and creativity among Russian students from Moscow (N = 272). We expected the students from culturally diverse groups, attending the courses on cultural issues, to be more creative. We based our expectation on the idea that cultural diversity and cultural learning are associated with a higher level of intercultural competence that might contribute to students’ creativity. We measured the intercultural experiences by cultural diversity of study groups (a number of foreign students in the groups and the intensity of friendly contacts with them) and by cultural learning (a number of culture-related courses that students attended). We measured creativity by the “Many Instances Game” from the Runco Creativity Assessment Battery (rCAB). We measured intercultural competence by the adapted scale of Fantini and Tirmizi. We discovered positive associations of intercultural experiences in the university with students’ creativity. Such components of intercultural competence as attitudes and skills (the adaptability of behavior), played an important role in the students’ creativity. The attitudes were positive and the skills were negative, related to the creativity. We also revealed that these two components of intercultural competence mediated the relationship between the intercultural experiences and creativity of students. Based on the results, we discussed the factors of the educational environment which may enhance or prohibit creativity.     

An analysis of friendship networks, social connectedness, homesickness, and satisfaction levels of international students

International students continue to grow in number worldwide, prompting researchers to look for ways to make the study abroad experience more fruitful. One avenue of research has focused on friendship formation, the significant role it plays in the study abroad experience, and the unique friendship combinations made possible by the study abroad experience. International students form friendships with individuals from their own country, from other countries, and from the host country. Research has found that international students often have more friends from their home country; however, research has also demonstrated a relationship between having more host country friends and satisfaction, contentment, decreased homesickness, and social connectedness. The current study looks to further explore these relationships through a social network lens by examining friendship network ratios, strength, and variability of the three friendship groups. A friendship network grid was developed to assess where international students’ friends are from and how strong those friendships are. Eighty four international students completed a survey examining the relationship between friendship networks, social connectedness, homesickness, contentment, and satisfaction. Contrary to prior research, international students did not report having a higher ratio of individuals from their home country in their friendship networks. However, international students with a higher ratio of individuals from the host country in their network claimed to be more satisfied, content, and less homesick. Furthermore, participants who reported more friendship variability with host country individuals described themselves as more satisfied, content, and more socially connected. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Further examining the role motivation to study abroad plays in the adaptation of international students in Canada

We investigated the role self-determined motivation and the goals international students have for studying abroad play in the adaptation of international students. We studied samples of international students from three Canadian Universities at the beginning of an academic year (N = 228) and at the end of the same year (N = 72). The results supported the hypotheses that autonomous motivation to study abroad is a predictor of students’ various adjustment outcomes at different times of the academic year and that the preservation goals have a weaker negative effect upon the adjustment outcomes and this effect is relatively independent from the effect of autonomy. These results are consistent with the previous study of Chinese international students in Belgium and Canada [Chirkov, V.I., Vansteenkiste, M., Tao, R., & Lynch, M. (2006). The role of motivation to study abroad in the adaptation of international students: A self-determination theory approach. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 31(2), 199–222]. The role that gender, marital status and country of origin play in moderating these relations is also studied and discussed. The main conclusion further justifies the importance of motivation in understanding the adjustment dynamics of various groups of migrants.