“Every Student Has Their Own Hopes for College”: The Importance of Culturally Responsive Advising for First-Year Students

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Diverse Perspectives for Disrupting the Status Quo Realities of Discriminations and Injustices (Table 28)

Abstract

As universities diversify, non-dominant culture students find themselves on campuses unprepared to support them or steeped in European American norms. Advising can cultivate students’ belonging or reify the cultural mismatch students feel when their personal norms do not match their institution’s norms. Leveraging vignettes following 20 Chinese American and Chinese international undergraduates through their first year, this study identifies advising behaviors that contribute to cultural (mis)matches and examines the role of culturally responsive advising in students’ first-year experiences. Findings show that students across both groups identified similar advising behaviors (e.g., encouraging exploration), but Chinese international students perceived those behaviors as culturally mismatched. Culturally unresponsive advising negatively impacted students’ satisfaction with their university’s support and academic and social self-efficacy.

Author

• Emily Petruzzelli Schell, University of Colorado - Boulder