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Full-Text Articles in Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education

Encountering American Higher Education: First-Year Academic Transition Of International Undergraduate Students In The United States, Masha Krsmanovic Dec 2022

Encountering American Higher Education: First-Year Academic Transition Of International Undergraduate Students In The United States, Masha Krsmanovic

Journal of Global Education and Research

This study explored how international undergraduate students perceive their academic transition into American higher education. Schlossberg’s (1984) 4S Transition Theory served as the framework for exploring what academic challenges, if any, international students experience during their first year of undergraduate studies in a new cultural and educational setting. The findings revealed that students’ academic transition into the U.S. higher education was characterized by difficulties in understanding the academic system of their new environment; overcoming educational, instructional and pedagogical differences; building social relationships with domestic students; and receiving the support necessary from the appropriate institutional services.


Self-Segregation, Sense Of Belonging, And Social Support: An Inquiry Into The Practices And Perceptions Of Chinese Graduate Students At An American Mid-Atlantic University, P. J. Moore-Jones Jun 2022

Self-Segregation, Sense Of Belonging, And Social Support: An Inquiry Into The Practices And Perceptions Of Chinese Graduate Students At An American Mid-Atlantic University, P. J. Moore-Jones

Journal of Global Education and Research

Chinese students studying in the United States face great challenges when adapting to cultural, linguistic, and pedagogical differences. Although discouraged in the literature, self-segregation is a practice common among some international students and is especially prevalent in the Chinese community. This qualitative study explored the motivation and frequency of this practice vis-à-vis social support, and its effect on the participants’ sense of belonging. Insider status was employed to conduct focus groups of mainland Chinese students currently enrolled in graduate programs at a Mid-Atlantic University in the United States. Findings from the study explore how administrators, educators, and the students themselves …