You Have to Major or Minor in Like Chinese: STEM Student Racialization of International Faculty

• In Event: 4418 - Encompassing Margins: Globalizing Race and Ethnicity

Abstract

This study examines how chemistry and engineering students racialize complaints about international and/or non-native English speaking graduates student TAs and faculty. This study is a product of a large externally funded study on culture and climate factors that impact attrition and retention in chemistry and engineering programs at four-year universities. Based on 33 interviews and 9 focus groups, many students described strengths and weaknesses of faculty as obstacles students must overcome in order to succeed. Students expressed general complaints about instructors of all backgrounds, yet with little to no prompting, a subset of students (all White, Black, and Hispanic, not Asian) attributed their academic difficulties to their nationalities of TA and faculty. These students appreciated learning from faculty and TAs who hailed from around the world, yet claimed to have difficulty understanding their instructors’ accents. Students attributed complaints about their foreign-born instructors’ teaching style to cultural differences. In addition, White students felt like “minorities” in their STEM classes and Black students felt international instructors exacerbated their concerns about the lack of Black American faculty.

Taken together, students articulated the benefits of learning from a diverse pool of instructors, yet seemed unaware of how they racialized the learning process and their complaints about TAs and professors. In addition, some students described how they and their classmates responded to their dissatisfaction with international instructors with varying levels of initiative and engagement. Students skipped class and/or relied on their textbooks or study groups. On the other hand, some students reported paying more attention in class and adjusting to accents over time. Students also attended office hours to increase engagement with instructors outside the classroom. These findings raise many important sociological questions related to ways the process of racialization occurs in the classroom setting.

Authors

• Will Tyson, University of South Florida

• Lakshmi Jayaram, University of South Florida