Experiences Of Chinese Students In Higher Education In The Southeastern United States PDF Download

This dissertation investigates Chinese undergraduate student engagement at U.S. universities. Over the past decade, the number of Chinese students studying in the United States has increased dramatically, but scholars have yet to concentrate on these student experiences or on the dynamics of their interaction with host institutions. Dominant media and institutional narratives often understand these students within a “problem” framework and as presenting a challenge to liberal arts values. The resulting discourse is far too simplistic. In this dissertation, what I deem misperceptions and misunderstandings arise from gaps that exist between American (mis)understandings of Chinese student academic behaviors and Chinese student (mis)understandings of American higher education expectations; between the institutional perception of Chinese student engagement and the reality of Chinese student engagement; and between Chinese international student spaces and American student spaces on campus. Based on field research that includes participatory observation and interviews with students, teachers, and university administrators, this dissertation addresses four sets of questions revolving around student goals and motivations, academic engagement, friendship networks, and student enclave formation and how we might gain a more complex picture of Chinese student experience. Findings indicate how Chinese student engagement behaviors are conditioned by multiple factors such as socio-economic background, language confidence, institutional policies, and subtle discrimination. Moreover, these students are not passive consumers of U.S. education, but active collaborators in the creation of campus cultures. Chinese students are not dis-engaged; rather, their specific forms of engagement—including within the ethnic enclave and on Chinesebased social media—are often invisible to host institutions. In order to achieve the goal of international student success and global learning, a first step for institutions is to become familiar with the expectations and lives of all students on their campuses, trying to bridge gaps between the institution and the individual.