International student perspectives on graduate advising relationships.

Abstract

International graduate students experience a number of unique challenges as they transition through their training programs. Surprisingly, relatively little research has been conducted on perhaps one of the most crucial predictors of international students’ retention and success within their graduate programs: the advising relationship. Using a total of 367 diverse students who responded to a universitywide survey of international students, the authors were able to use quantitative and qualitative analyses to (a) support the adequacy of the Advisory Working Alliance Inventory (L. Z. Schlosser & C. J. Gelso, 2001) for measuring alliance factors in advising relationships for international students; (b) show that some ratings of alliance were lower than a comparison group of U.S. domestic students; (c) determine that alliance ratings had minimal association with grade point average, gender, or college-level area of study, but were substantially associated with advising satisfaction and desire to change advisors; and (d) reveal themes in advising experiences reflecting constructive and destructive advising experiences. The social justice and future implications of the results are consistent with many historical and contemporary emphases in counseling psychology.

Ethnic and mainstream social connectedness, perceived racial discrimination, and posttraumatic stress symptoms.

“…A total of 383 completed surveys (144 [a response rate of 16%] from University A and 239 [a response rate of 36%] from University B) were used for the subsequent data analyses. The combined response rate was 28%, which is comparable to response rates reported in the literature through online data collection among intemational students (e.g., 15% [Rice et al, 2009]; 26% [Wei et al, 2008] …”

Peer relationships in counseling psychology training

“…Studies on the supervisory relationship have revealed unique needs of students of color (e.g. Burkard et al, 2006), international students (Rice et al, 2009), and LGB students (e.g. Burkard, Knox, Hess, & Schultz, 2009) in the training environment.…”

Socialization as sensemaking: a semiotic analysis of international graduate students' narratives in the USA

“…Arriving on a US campus, foreign sojourners experience culture shock (Ward, Bochner, and Furnham 2001), and often have difficulty understanding or speaking American English (Dao, Donghyuck, and Chang 2007). Older graduate students may feel a loss of social status (Seo and Koro-Ljunberg 2005), and may struggle to establish rapport with their American professors and students (Rice et al 2009). Yet, making up an impressive 11% of all graduate students in the country (National Center for Education Statistics 2010), foreign nationals who complete their graduate and professional programs in the USA bring revenue to their host states (Siegmund 2009), contribute to US innovation (Chellaraj, Maskus, and Mattoo 2005), and some become enduring friends of the United States when they return home (National Association for Foreign Student Advisers 2003).…”