ARP: Action Research Plan

BLOG 1:

Nancy Arthur (2017) explores ways in which ownness is on international students to integrate into English speaking universities. International students experiences are bound by specific influences on identitarian issues such as race, social class, gender, and perceptions of the destination country (ibid 888).  In particular, for international students, ‘quality of academic life, and sense of belonging is strongly allied to the academic supervisory relationship’ (ibid 889).

Lacking international perspectives can perpetuate racialized bias, leading to dissatisfaction regarding educational life (888). It is suggested that simply bringing home+ international students together is not sufficient to “foster meaningful cross, cultural interactions in academic environments (Leask and Carroll 2011). Faculty need to encourage mutual learning and encourage shared leadership in discussion of curriculum content (Arthur 2017, 889).

If students are ‘given opportunities to interact at level (sic) deep enough to foster intellectual and social engagement, they are more likely to feel a sense of belonging…’ (ibid 889). At UAL, international students are given the option of attending weekly ‘Language Development’ classes While this can relieve academic staff and home students of concern for integration, passing over problems of cultural integration to external staff, complex issues of cultural integration can be reduced to an issue of language that the individual student needs to ‘overcome’. As my own recent attendance to a language development session demonstrated, issues are not limited to literal ‘translation’ between languages, but can also be a problem of context; volume; colloquialism; discipline specific technical terminology; painful self-consciousness; or exhaustion from the hard concentration required.

Most students are concerned with making friends and ‘fitting in,’ issues exacerbated by physical distance from home that can lead to ‘strong feelings of isolation and failure’ (Johnson and Sandhu 2007 in Arthur, 2017, 889). Indeed, student capacity to manage perceived academic and psychosocial demands is strongly linked to social support (Fritz, Chin, and DeMarini 2008; Zhang and Goodson 2011 in Arthur 2017, 889). Help-seeking behaviours can vary across cultures, as do support practices and perceived stigma of seeking help (Arthur 2017, 890).

Local (home) students may not be so driven to form allegiance across cultural divides as internationals (ibid 891). Arthur gives a number of reasons:

• Home students often have friendship/ family groups and no need to extend their social circle.
• International students can be positioned as ‘others’, due to intolerance of diverse practices, or racism.
• Competition for academic achievement, seeing some as ‘inferior’ or unequal (Heng 2016; Marginson 2013 in Arthur 2017).
• Different norms for demonstrating knowledge (e.g. passive versus active participation) mean students may be treated as ‘invisible’ in classroom interactions, and dismissed in group assignments (Arthur 2017, 891)

While local students may focus on the exotic ideas of travel+ exchange to increase cultural competencies, they may benefit from instruction and support fostering positive interpersonal interactions with present international students (ibid 891-2)

Reference:

Arthur, N. (2017) Supporting international students through strengthening their social resources Studies in Higher Education 42:5 pp 887-894 AVAILABLE Accessed: November 5^th 2025