Supporting Their Brilliance: International Students’ Dismantling Structures of Global Racism at a Community College

• In Event: Voices of Disruption: (Co)Constructing Educational Possibilities Through Intersectional Collaborative Frameworks of Resistance and Imaginings

Abstract

International Students (IS) attending community colleges hold vast knowledge based upon their prior educational achievements and lived experiences. Their presence enriches college communities; yet, despite their strengths and contributions to the college community, they experience educational realities that reflect deficit minded frameworks (Anayah & Kuk, 2015; McNair, Bensimon, & Malcom-Piqueux, 2020). This study, conducted at an urban community college, aimed to not only understand the intersectionalities and experiences of IS from the perspective of the students themselves; it also engaged students in co-crafting and co-conducting research through Participatory Action Research (PAR). International student co-researchers drew on their lived experiences to create an alternative research space where the research design and process was shaped by the students themselves (Mitra, 2012: Fine & Torre, 2021).

Critical Theories such as Transformative Praxis (Freire, 1970), Desire Based Indigenous Theory (Tuck, 2009) and Critical Race Theory (Delgado & Stefancic, 2012; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) were used to foreground the expertise of students. Student co-researchers designed, triangulated, collected, and coded data from photovoice pieces, desire-based writings, surveys, video interviews, focus group meetings and podcasts.

The data reveal that IS students feel neglected when it comes to gaining equal access to the same educational support opportunities afforded their American classmates. International students are often not included in state, federal, or local support services such as financial aid, state transfer agreements, merit grants, housing, and shelter support allocations–yet international students are required to pay three times the cost of tuition. International students often struggle to find safe housing, pay for books, as well as gain access to food and transportation. This study revealed that limiting access to support services relegates IS to the margins of the community college (García, Garza, & Yeaton-Hromada,2019). IS voices are rarely, if ever, heard despite the wealth of experience, ability, and prior knowledge they bring to the campus.

Student co-researchers shared their findings that show that exclusion on the basis of IS status undermined their right to equal access to education as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1949, Article. 26). Furthermore, by excluding these students from support services, historic and racialized inequities in education are perpetuated (Lau, Garza, & Garcia, 2019). Student co-researchers discovered that most of the international students at the college with black or brown skin are excluded from the educational opportunities given to US citizens. Students report experiencing exclusion and separateness based not only upon their immigration status, but also within intersecting racist social constructs ubiquitous in the U.S. educational systems (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Museus, Ledesma, & Parker, 2015). Student co-researchers likened this treatment to be akin to the way people of color were treated in pre-civil rights America (The Civil Rights Act, 1964; Wafula, 2023).

This PAR not only sheds light on inequitable institutional barriers to International and ELL students’ success (McCambly, Aguilar-Smith, et. al., 2023), but it also collaboratively took action to push for change in policy and practices, resulting in increased support for International and ELL students (Alvarez, 2023).

Author

• Tara Gully-Hightower, Massasoit Community College