Do the political events and media
change your behavior in treating international people? Or you analyze the
events based on your own perspective?
National and international factors are forming adopting
global perspective of people and through media they analyze the events around
them. I think there are two aspects;
— Before & after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
U.S civilians who, for the most part, perceived themselves as spectators of
global conflict became participants that day.
— Diversification of population (whites, people of color and
immigration), by middle of this century, the white population will drop below
50%.
Most of history student affairs and higher education are
existed outside the international perspective, but now the societal trends and
change drivers shaping them at beginning of this new century, including
technology, diversity, accountability, rising costs and shifting funding
sources, and the impact of the marketplace. In this new world student affairs
must lead not follow.
International Students at U.S. Graduate Schools Climb at
Faster Pace as the figure below; so student
affairs
perspective in future should ask about two things:
What the expectation of International students (Needs, Performance,
outcomes?)
What are the benefits of International students for the US
(Economy, Education, society?)
Love and Yousey analyzed
student affairs and they looked at material from general student affairs
organizations, (ACPA) and (NASPA) and they found:
— Of the more than 1100 analysis only twelve focused on
international education.
— On discussion of collaboration partnerships with other
institutions external agents.
— Lack of attention paid to the issue of globalization and
international dimensions of higher education.
A global perspective for the student affairs professionals
involves:
— Recognizing the interdependency of the nations, societies, and
cultures of the world.
— What is done and decided here in the U.S has implications for
what happens elsewhere (and vice versa).
— Perceiving oneself as a global citizen, as well as an American
citizen.
— Using multiple perspectives when addressing events and issues.
— Recognizing interconnectedness of ecological, cultural, social,
economic, political, and technological systems.
— Appreciating differences in value, belief, and meaning systems
and cultural patterns.
— Seeing things and seeking knowledge of challenges beyond
national boundaries.
— Seeking peace, positive citizenship, human dignity, human
rights, self-determination, and justice here and internationally.
There are many dimensions to adopting a global perspective;
however, two basic and integrated dimensions are (1) Working with American
students to prepare them for an increasingly internationalized world. (2)
Working with international students and adapting our campuses to meet their
needs.
Developing Global Perspective will require time,
commitment, perseverance, and open-mindedness, and the following suggestions
will be helpful to reach this goal;
— Seek Non-American Perspectives.
— Build Relationships with International Students and professors.
Why many international students keep
their opinions and observations about their experience in the US to themselves?
— Develop a Relationship with an International Cyber partner in
Student Affairs.
— Use Professional Associations to Enhance One’s Global
Perspective (NAFSA) & (IASAS).
— Conduct Research on Global Issues in Student Affairs.
— Learn a Foreign Language.
— Participate in Study Abroad or International Travel.
— Be an Advocate for Global Learning on Campus.
Finally, the communities that student affairs professionals are building should
include people and ideas from beyond American borders.
Thanks, Rahman. I appreciate you bringing in your personal perspectives and also the empirical support for recent research to this topic.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your initial comments concerning American reaction to the media and events such as 9/11. I thought your comment about spectators of international conflict becoming participants that day was especially powerful. Sadly, I believe I was one of them. I was young, 18 years old, yet I had no personal concept or opinion about terrorism and international issues until that time. I remember reading about similar "generalized" reactions in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attacks. Many Asian individuals (whether born in this country or not) were automatically stigmatized and labeled as the enemy that day.
As no surprise, I see a major contributor to this being fear and ignorance. People are oftentimes afraid of what they don't know, and it sadly can turn into an "us vs. them" reality for some. I appreciate you tying this tense issue into Student Affairs and Higher Education. Sure, we have cultural centers across campus, but why should diversity centers be a main source of support for our students? Why can't all students access acceptance and support at all of our centers/programs?
In the field of counseling, we are required to take a "Counseling Diverse Populations" course. While this is almost always a powerful, humbling, and incredibly successful experience for students, it's unfortunate that we seem to have one course "set-aside" for diversity, and it is rarely fully integrated in other areas of our program. Even in our textbooks, 98%ish of the chapters are dedicated to the presented material, and oftentimes a section titled "Multicultural Considerations" is tagged on the end of the last page, usually only a paragraph or two.
I think the biggest message I took from your blog is our continued "separateness" approach many college campuses take to working with students. This is in an environment where the bold line between "majority" and "minority" is steadily fading away.
I really appreciate Rahman and Kylie's perspectives here, regarding the need for and value of international education.
ReplyDeleteI found interesting statistical information on the Institute for International Education's website that currently ranks Colorado (into 2010) 29th among U.S. states in foreign student enrollment with 6,980 (a little over 1% of the roughly 690,000 total students enrolled in the U.S.). CU Boulder leads the way with 1,360 students, then CSU at 1,127, University of Denver with 1,081, University of Colorado at Denver with 734, then University of Northern Colorado with 272 (see: http://www.iie.org/en/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors/Data/~/media/Files/Corporate/Open-Doors/Fact-Sheets/State/Colorado2010.ashx ).
Interestingly, among the leading places of origin of foreign students attending college in Colorado was Rahman's home nation of Saudi Arabia (2nd with 13.7% of total foreign students in CO state), along with China (1st at 16.0%), India (3rd- 10.7%), South Korea (4th- 7.1%), and Taiwan (5th-4.3%).
As far as Colorado higher ed. students attending college abroad in foreign lands through 2009, there were 4,463 such students. Although I couldn't find in the reports how our Colorado higher ed. institutions collectively rank as far as sending our students abroad, I did notice that CU Boulder is considered one of the top 25-30 institutions nationwide in terms of most student sent abroad for study, and that Colorado College is one of a handful of colleges (especially small colleges) in the U.S. that has sent some 70% or more of its student body for study abroad during some portion of their respective college careers.