“Every student has their own hopes for college:” The role of culturally responsive advising for international and immigrant students

• In Event: Experiences and Reflections of International Students

Proposal

As higher education institutions (HEIs) diversify, students from non-dominant cultures find themselves on campuses unprepared to support them (Chang et al., 1999) or unwelcoming (Lerma et al., 2020), creating a cultural mismatch between institutional norms and students’ norms (Stephens et al., 2012). HEIs have been pushed to adjust their student support services (e.g., advising) to affirm students’ different experiences, with limited success (Heng, 2016; Museus, 2021).

Although cultural mismatches occur for many students in many domains, this study examines cultural mismatch for Chinese international (CI) and Chinese American (CA) first-year undergraduates in advising. Leveraging qualitative vignettes that follow 20 CI and CA students through their first year, I answer the following:

1. Which advising behaviors contribute to an experience of cultural match or mismatch for CI and CA students?

2. What is the role of culturally responsive advising in students’ first-year experiences?

Literature Review:

Recent scholarship (e.g., Lee & Metcalfe, 2017; Schell, forthcoming) finds multiple types of cultural mismatches between advisors and international students, particularly Chinese students. A larger body of scholarship focuses on students’ of color unsatisfactory advising experiences (Allen & Smith, 2008; Vianden, 2016). Scholars uniformly fail to address specific advising behaviors that create cultural mismatches or generally unsatisfactory experiences. To date, there have been only two attempts to classify advisors’ behaviors as supportive/unsupportive: NACADA’s “Advising Inventory” (Winston & Sandor, 1984; 2002) and Smith and Allen’s (2006) inventory of important advising behaviors. Both inventories identify behaviors based on the literature, rather than student identification, and neither have been cross-culturally studied. These scholarly gaps must be addressed to implement improvements to advising.

Conceptual Framework:

For CI and, to a lesser degree, CA students more acculturated to European American norms (Berry, 1997), cultural mismatches in advising may stem from different expectations regarding: (1) who to involve in one’s decision-making (i.e., individualism vs. collectivism); (2) ideal forms of emotional expression (i.e., being excited vs. calm); and (3) the amount of exploration students should undertake (i.e., cultural differences in emerging adulthood) (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Tsai, 2007; Arnett, 2000; Nelson et al., 2004). Cultural mismatch theory suggests that students experience negative outcomes from culturally unresponsive advising, including lack of belonging, lower engagement, and lower levels of satisfaction with their HEI’s support (Stephens et al., 2012; Stephens & Townsend, 2015).

Research Design:

My study follows 20 undergraduates (11 CI, 9 CA) through their first year at a West Coast research university. After being recruited by the HEI’s Admissions Office, students completed: (1) journal entries after advising meetings to document advising behaviors (average per student = 1.7); (2) three ~45-minute interviews, in which students expanded on their journal entries and how advising impacted them; (3) quarterly academic transcripts; and (4) quarterly “activities lists.” Vignettes, which triangulate both primary (i.e., 1, 2) and secondary (i.e., 3, 4) data sources (Wilks, 2004), provide an ideal methodology for understanding an individual’s beliefs and responses to a specific experience.

Findings:

In response to my first research question, students across both groups identified many of the same behaviors, but perceived these behaviors as culturally matched or mismatched based on their acculturation to European American norms. For example, students noted that their advisors encouraged exploration, but often failed to provide guidance on how to explore. Although many CA students were familiar with exploration through their schooling, CI students were not. Emmaline (CI) recounts her frustration that her advisor presumed familiarity: “If a topic interested me…my advisor could point to a course, rather than just saying, ‘You have time to explore and take classes.’ That’s unhelpful. How do I do that?”

The idea of “interest” Emmaline mentions was another culturally mismatched behavior for CI students. 90% of all students noted that their advisor inquired about students’ academic interests during their first advising meeting. While CA students were more accustomed to these questions, CI students initially found them new and challenging. As the school year continued, however, the idea of academic interest became more familiar to CI students. Vernon (CI) reflected on this change: “It’s nice I’ve grown into the rhythm of ‘properly’ doing school. My mindset was originally just focused on doing my best every class. As the year went on, I don’t care as much about studying always, but having fun in class too.”

While CA students appreciated that advisors let them “lead the conversation,” CI students felt daunted by this expectation of leadership. Xania (CI) recalls “many awkward pauses” in her advising meetings because she did not know what she “could ask or what [her advisor] could help with.”

Most students also noted that advisors did not inquire about non-academic topics. This finding was not perceived as a cultural mismatch per se; both CI and CA students desired more holistic advising conversations, but for different reasons. These differences warrant inclusion here. While students from both groups struggled to identify extracurriculars, the idea of extracurriculars was foreign to many CI students. As Bobby explains: “Developing our hobbies isn’t common in [Chinese] high school because you’re using all your time on college prep. I don’t know how clubs work in the U.S. I applied for several, but only got into one.” For CI students, the competitive nature of clubs only fueled vexation because they wanted to pursue clubs to explore interests – a value supposedly prized by their HEI – and make friends with domestic students.

In response to my second research question, CI students – who more often experienced cultural mismatches in advising than their CA peers – struggled more to integrate into diverse communities, were less able to identify supportive resources on campus, and were less self-efficacious in navigating academically.

Implications:

Advising is an interaction during a critical transition period in which small shifts have far-reaching effects on students’ experiences. Findings reveal that advisors struggle to make these shifts for their Chinese diaspora students, which has negative implications. This research contributes to understanding how HEIs can better support these groups of international and immigrant students, which is important to attendees of CIES.

Author

• Emily Petruzzelli Schell, Stanford University