“There are rules you have to know”: International students, domestic student gatekeepers, and the hidden habitus of the university

• In Event: International student pathways, roles, and outcomes

Proposal

As more universities turn to internationalization, interest in engagement between international and domestic students has increased (Knight, 2015). Higher education practitioners have launched initiatives to explore and improve intercultural contact for better integration of international students into campus life. However, simply bringing international and domestic students together on campus does not necessarily result in meaningful interaction between them (Leask, 2009). Studies of university initiatives to bring students together have shown that they often adopt a deficit approach dependent on international students’ “adjustment” to the host culture, overlooking the need for adjustment to be a two-way exchange (Leask, 2009; Lee, 2010). This study draws on focus group data to consider how international students encounter unwritten rules or a “hidden habitus” which create challenges for their successful integration and interactions in the university context.

Drawing on Bourdieu’s (1990) concept of habitus, we argue that institutions are not neutral spaces. They often take an assimilationist perspective to student diversity, taking for granted that students will seamlessly adapt to university life regardless of their backgrounds. In this study, we use the term “hidden habitus” in the university context to describe the unwritten expectations, rules, and behaviors everyone seems to know. Hidden habitus regulates the positive and negative experiences of students in which they learn about “power and authority, what and whose knowledge is valued and what and whose knowledge is not valued” (Leask, 2010, p. 207). These unwritten expectations are invisible, but they determine the ways in which individuals act with and evaluate each other, and thus indirectly influence the “individual’s ability and performance in the formal curriculum” (Smith, 2013, p. 22). In this paper, we claim that domestic students are better socialized to understand the hidden habitus of the institution. They consciously or unconsciously enact unwritten rules in their cross-national interactions, thus taking the role of gatekeepers. In contrast, international students may struggle to engage in academic and social life of the university due to lack of familiarity with the hidden habitus of the institution.

To understand how the hidden habitus of the university regulates interactions between international and domestic students, this study employed secondary analysis of focus group data from a study conducted at a large U.S. university. Our analysis centered on the following research questions: (1) How is “hidden habitus” communicated (or not communicated) to international students? (2) What role do domestic students play in enacting “hidden habitus” in their cross-national interactions with international students?

Prior to the secondary analysis conducted for this study, 71 domestic and 50 international students participated in focus group interviews about their interactions in undergraduate and graduate classrooms. During the initial analysis of the focus group data, themes arose regarding “habitus”, but these were not pursued as a core feature of the original study. For this paper, two researchers who were not part of the original study independently coded the focus group transcripts. Approaches including in vivo coding, process coding, and emotion coding were used in the first coding cycle (Miles, Huberman, & Saldana, 2014). These types of coding are especially relevant to our study as we explore intrapersonal and interpersonal student experiences and actions. Second cycle coding involved grouping initial codes into smaller categories of themes. Finally, hidden habitus was identified as a key concept emerging from the data and deductive analysis was applied to explore this theme in the focus group transcripts.

This study found that although students are aware that unwritten rules regulating student experiences exist, for international students, they remain a puzzle to be solved. International students reported difficulties navigating university expectations including scheduling meetings with professors, working in groups in the classroom, and wading through the bureaucracy of program requirements. Domestic students saw their international student peers as timid and lacking knowledge of the unwritten rules of the university. They described themselves as better positioned to succeed at the university and tasked with helping international students navigate the system. Thus, we understand domestic students as cultural gatekeepers better-socialized in the hidden habitus of the university while international students are expected to assimilate into university life.

The findings of this study have important implications for scholars of international higher education and for university faculty and administration. As described by Leask (2009) and Lee (2010), we found that the narrative of international student integration among students themselves reflected expectations for international students to assimilate rather than the need for universities to also adjust to the international student. Domestic students became gatekeepers by enacting this narrative in their interactions with international students on campus. We advocate changing the narrative about the role and contributions of international students to emphasize the valuable knowledge and experiences they bring rather than viewing them from a deficit perspective. This will require shifting the mindset of universities toward international students and creating inclusive intercultural programming that places domestic and international students on equal footing.

Authors

• Zhuldyz Amankulova, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

• Laura Seithers, University of Minnesota

• Christopher Johnstone, University of Minnesota