Identifying and Supporting Vulnerable Campus Populations in times of Crisis Across the Local-Global Continuum

by HOLA@HAJINKIM.COM | Oct 19, 2020 | Articles

Posted: Monday, October 19, 2020

By: Louise Michelle Vital, PhD  – Assistant Professor, Lesley University
Mahauganee D. Shaw Bonds, PhD – Independent Researcher and Consultant

Introduction

This article will use the COVID-19 pandemic to contextualize international learners as a vulnerable campus population, and recommend promising practices for emergency preparedness that helps reduce these vulnerabilities.

The Local-Global Continuum

The local-global continuum helps us to understand that phenomena can have both local and global implications (Darian-Smith and McCarty, 2017).  It is useful for understanding how conditions observed locally are not unique to the local context but provide an awareness of similar circumstances globally. The COVID-19 pandemic presents an issue that has both local and global implications. For instance, it has illuminated existing health disparities among minoritized communities in the United States, an outcome of structural racism. Egede and Walker (2020) explained that structural racism encompasses “the ways in which societies foster discrimination through mutually reinforcing inequitable systems” (para 2). In their reporting of the COVID-19 crisis, Human Rights Watch (2020) described the contextual factors related to structural racism that is experienced in communities of color: It shows up in discriminatory healthcare outcomes (Keshavan, 2020), disproportionate policing of Black and Brown individuals leading to increased detention and exposure to the virus (Green & Gaston-Hawkins, 2020), insufficient access to water for Native Americans (Baek, 2020), greater percentage of “COVID essential” workers of color in occupations requiring close contact with others (Chambers, 2020), and poor perinatal outcomes for mothers of color (CDC, 2019). These local health-related realities underscore how minoritized populations, often underrepresented in policy and planning in the United States and abroad, have experienced deepened disparities during the COVID-19 crisis.

Campus Crisis: Impact to Global Education

Campus crisis management scholars classify crises into three levels: critical incidents, campus emergencies, and disasters. COVID-19 registers as a disaster, and thus has caused significant disruption to campus operations. Most crises only interrupt business locally, but COVID-19’s global impact makes it a larger crisis than most educators will experience in their entire careers.

In past disasters, we have witnessed nations come to each other’s aid. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic, every nation is impacted; thus, placing the response focus squarely on domestic populations and needs, rather than international support. Instead of opening borders, the pandemic has justified the closing of borders. This uniform international response not only dictates which people can access college campuses, but guides decisions about campus operations as the crisis continues. As COVID-19 began to disrupt operations, the initial campus responses—and the scramble to remedy the unintended consequences of that response—uncovered the most vulnerable subpopulations within higher education.

For instance, at the outset, attention was turned to where COVID-19 was first detected in China. Initial concern quickly led to xenophobic targeting of students of Asian descent (White, 2020). Those perceived to have Chinese ancestry experienced “verbal harassment, shunning, and physical assault” (Noel, 2020, p. 3) in the United States and across the globe. Further, COVID-19 has been referred to as “Chinese flu” and “Wuhan virus” by the U.S. president. These incidences have contributed to the othering and stigmatization of students of Asian descent (Lau, 2020; Reny and Barreto, 2020).

The pandemic has led to a critical juncture for the practice of global education, domestically and internationally, during a crisis (Altbach and deWit, 2020). The move to online instruction revealed the depth of educational inequities experienced by students across the globe (Bassett, 2020) who did not have access to personal computers, WIFI, and other resources necessary for academic success. Student mobility was affected; students studying abroad had to contend with travel restrictions and border closings (Al Jazeera, 2020), suspension of visa services in the U.S. (NAFSA, 2020), and government procedures for the repatriation of students or support for international students who decided to remain in their host countries (Marinoni and van’t Land, 2020). As these restrictions continue for the foreseeable future, approaches to international student recruitment will be changed in the United States, especially in light of the frenzy caused by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s now-rescinded decision that newly admitted international students would not be allowed to enter the country if their Fall 2020 courses were taught entirely online (Stuart and Sands, 2020).

Vulnerable Student Populations in U.S. Higher Education

There are two ways to view vulnerability within U.S. higher education as related to the COVID-19 response. The first is through the extensive scholarship on college-going students, their barriers to collegiate access, and their disparate campus-based academic and social experiences. This literature highlights students who are demographically marginal within the U.S. higher education system. This includes Black students, indigenous students, and other students with non-dominant racial and ethnic identities, international students, first-generation college goers, those who identify as LGBTQ+ or religious minorities, and students with disabilities, among other non-dominant subpopulations. Many of the challenges that marginalized students face related to college matriculation are exacerbated in times of emergency. Identifying student struggles in times of normal operation helps institutional leaders to identify concerns that are likely to surface during emergency operations.

The second way to identify vulnerable students is using the same social vulnerability measures used in disaster response (Flanagan, 2011). Made for use with the general population in any locale, social vulnerability encompasses multiple socioeconomic and demographic factors that are known to influence people’s ability and willingness to heed emergency warnings and instructions. While there are some factors institutions already record, like those related to socioeconomic status, disability, and race and ethnicity, there are others that may be harder to track, like family composition, language proficiency, type of housing, and transportation access.

Although institutions may not have all of these data points about their students, they have enough information on the campus climate and the student population to identify students with identity markers that are marginal in the campus environment. These are the students whose experiences administrators need to take into account when working on emergency management plans.

Lessons Learned

In the context of global education, COVID-19 has revealed new challenges and opportunities. Rather than waiting for a return to what was true before, we should view this “new normal” as an opportunity for reimagining the global education profession during and post-crisis.

As the new academic year begins, global education staff, indeed the entire institution, must update strategic plans and conduct analyses of existing units and services to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends (SWOTT) uncovered by COVID-19, including stakeholder impacts. Attention should focus on social justice implications, remote experiential learning and training, research productivity, international student recruitment and admission, and employee livelihood among other key issues.

Institutional decisions will need to be made regarding education abroad programs as there are still considerable border restrictions for most of the world. Given the competencies gained from possessing global perspectives, campus based global education practitioners should incorporate more “internationalization at a distance” (Mittelmeier, Rienties, Gunter, and Raghuram, 2020) activities in their curricular and co-curricular offerings. For example, they can leverage the virtual opening of borders (Sallent, 2020) to provide increased access to faraway places that might not have been accessible to some students pre-COVID-19.

Overall, the COVID-19 pandemic is a complex crisis that has disproportionately affected minoritized subpopulations, especially international students, and an array of institutional structures within higher education. Understanding the local-global continuum provides us with perspective to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on global education practices and the related implications for this work and for those served by educators across borders.

References

Al Jazeera (2020, June 3). Coronavirus: Travel restrictions, border shutdowns by country. Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/coronavirus-travel-restrictions-border-shutdowns-country-200318091505922.html

Altbach, P.  G., & deWit, H. (2020). Postpandemic outlook for higher education is bleakest for the poorest. International Higher Education, 102, 3-5.

Baek, G. (2020, May 8). Navajo Nation residents face coronavirus without running water. CBS News. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-navajo-nation-running-water-cbsn-originals/

Bassett, R. M. (2020). Sustaining the values of tertiary education during the COVID-19 crisis. International Higher Education, 102, 5-7.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019, September 5). Racial and ethnic disparities continue in pregnancy-related deaths. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0905-racial-ethnic-disparities-pregnancy-deaths.html

Chambers, L. (2020). Data show COVID-19 is hitting essential workers and people of color hardest. Data for Justice Project and ACLU Massachusetts. Retrieved from https://data.aclum.org/2020/04/07/covid-19-disproportionately-affects-vulnerable-populations-in-boston/?ms_aff=MA&initms_aff=MA&ms_chan=tw&initms_chan=tw

Darian-Smith, E., & McCarty, P. C. (2017). The global turn: Theories, research designs, and methods for global studies. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Egede, L. E., & Walker, R. J. (2020). Structural racism, social risk factors, and Covid-19—A dangerous convergence for Black Americans. New England Journal of Medicine. Retrieved from https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2023616

Green, C. R., & Gaston-Hawkins, L. A. (2020). Policing and COVID-19 disparities: Discrimination, racism, and xenophobia [Commentary]. Psychiatric Times. Retrieved from https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/policing-and-covid-19-disparities-discrimination-racism-and-xenophobia

Human Rights Watch (2020, June 10). US: Covid-19 disparities reflect structural racism, abuses. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/06/10/us-covid-19-disparities-reflect-structural-racism-abuses 

Keshavan, M. (2020, June 9).‘The direct result of racism’: Covid-19 lays bare how discrimination drives health disparities among Black people. STAT News. Retrieved from https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/09/systemic-racism-black-health-disparities/

Lau, J. (2020). Coronavirus sparks a rising tide of xenophobia worldwide. Times Higher Education. Retrieved from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/coronavirus-sparks-rising-tide-ofxenophobia-worldwide

Marinoni, G., & van’t Land, H. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on global higher education. International Higher Education, 102, 7-9.

Mittelmeier, J., Rienties, B., Gunter, A., & Raghuram, P. (2020). Conceptualizing internationalization at a distance: A “third category” of university internationalization. Journal of Studies in International Education, 1-17.

NAFSA (2020, August 14). COVID-19 restrictions on U.S. visas and entry. Retrieved from https://www.nafsa.org/regulatory-information/covid-19-restrictions-us-visas-and-entry

Noel, T. K. (2020). Conflating culture with COVID-19: Xenophobic repercussions of a global pandemic. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 100044, 1-7.

Reimers, F. M., & Schleicher, A. (2020). A framework to guide an education response to the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020. Harvard Graduate School of Education and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Retrieved from https://learningportal.iiep.unesco.org/en/library/a-framework-to-guide-an-education-response-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-of-2020

Reny, T. T., & Barreto, M. A. (2020). Xenophobia in the time of pandemic: Othering, anti-Asian attitudes, and COVID-19. Politics, Groups, and Identities, 1-24.

Sallent, M. (2020, July 9). Tourism in Africa: Virtual safaris kick in as countries slowly open to tourists. United Nations, Retrieved from https://www.un.org/africarenewal/web-features/coronavirus/tourism-africa-virtual-safaris-kick-countries-prepare-reopen-tourists

Stuart, E., & Sands, G. (2020, July 24). US won’t allow new students into country for online-only classes. CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/24/politics/ice-newly-enrolled-students-online/index.html

White, A. I. (2020). Historical linkages: Epidemic threat, economic risk, and xenophobia. The Lancet, 395(10232), 1250-1251.

Learning in the time of COVID-19: Lessons From Teachers

by HOLA@HAJINKIM.COM | Oct 19, 2020 | Articles

Posted: Monday, October 19, 2020 
By: Andrew Palmacci, M.A, Graduate Student – Lesley University
Louise Michelle Vital, PhD, Assistant Professor – Lesley University 

As practitioners within global education, we recognize the need to ensure the continuity of our instruction during the uncertainty brought by COVID-19. With the pandemic as a backdrop, we take a narrative approach to discussing teaching in the midst of a global lockdown. We conclude with a discussion of the lessons learned for both individuals and organizations through the experience of pivoting for COVID-19. 

Ruminating our Reactions

Professor in Global Education

In my role as professor, I ask my students to consider how global dynamics inform our profession. Teaching in a globally focused graduate program presented a unique experience, as the seriousness of COVID-19 became apparent worldwide. My initial response was to minimize change, demonstrate competence in teaching, and deliver a high-quality experience for my students. However, while attempting to role model for students how global education practitioners support students in need, I too was making sense of COVID-19. Questions I wrestled with included: How do I convey the appropriate message for international students whose distance from their families and home countries were now seemingly more distant, when I too was concerned for my family members who live outside of the U.S.? How do I help students make sense of the xenophobic centering of COVID-19 from senior U.S. officials, when my country of ancestry has also been criticized by the U.S. government ? How do I keep my students engaged during the transition to online learning, when their thoughts, like mine, were focused on the potential effects of the health crisis to loved ones? Eventually, I shifted, giving myself permission to acknowledge that we were indeed in a place of uncertainty. I learned to be okay with not knowing answers to students’ pressing questions, removing assignments because we all needed a mental break, and extending deadlines for course assignments. Perfection was not attainable—or wanted—and I had to be okay with things not being okay for the foreseeable future. 

High School Re-Tooled

As a graduate student during the pandemic, the major change was not seeing my class in person. One assignment was changed from journaling about an in-person experience repositioning the student as the “other” to journaling about our implicit biases and reaction to documentaries about different cultures. My professor took pains to make assignments more feasible, time- and content-wise. Concurrently, COVID-19 and government directives necessitated a shutdown of the high school where I work as a teacher. I engaged students in the Manie Musicale de Mars with digital brackets and by watching selected music videos from around the Francophone world. As we transitioned to online learning via the already in-place Google Classroom and Suite, this softened our landing. Another invaluable resource for my classes were virtual tours. One student travel company offered them through in-country tour directors, who presented via slideshow on cultural and historical points—and even gave cooking lessons. I learned that students adapt highly successfully to online resources that bring the world to them in one click, drastically reducing costs for “visiting” cultural sites. As Spring 2020 unfolded, my teacher self took pages from my graduate professor’s book. She modeled for me how to globally educate in a crisis. As a result, I took a stance of support, gratitude and intentionally holistic distance teaching with my high school students, both domestic and international. I extended deadlines on some assignments, changed some assessments and waived others entirely.

Lessons Learned: A Way Forward

Inclusion & Belonging as Antidotes to COVID-19 Inequities

Tye (2014), explained that global education “involves learning about those problems and issues that cut across national boundaries, perspective taking,…and taking individual and collective action for social justice and the creation of a better world” (p. 858). The COVID-19 crisis can be characterized as a global social justice issue. Within the U.S., COVID-19 has uniquely impacted professionals from diverse backgrounds and presented challenges for institutions. The health disparities among immigrants and communities of color magnified the extent of health inequities for members of these groups (Clark, et al., 2020; Goody & Wood, 2020). Though there has not been robust data collected specifically on the effects of the pandemic on sexual and gender minorities, advocates have indicated that LGBTQ individuals are experiencing increased concerns related to mental wellness, chronic illness, loss of income, food insecurity, housing instability, and violence (The Trevor Project, 2020; Whittington et al., 2020). Scholars from ethnic minority groups have faced “extra emotional labor due to COVID-related racism” (Xu, 2020, p. 19) while international students have faced xenophobic and violent responses related to the coronavirus (American College Health Association, 2020). 

To better serve international students and other BIPOC (Black, indigenous, people of color) learners, we highlight practices that promote the academic and socio-emotional success of these groups. We suggest providing academic accommodations for students who are experiencing personal/family health problems in light of the pandemic. Faculty may consider extending deadlines or waiving non-essential assignments all-together. These accommodations could also be applied to international students forced to return home, who may experience time zone differences, Internet problems or even government restrictions to LMS functionality. Considering the student holistically, we do not wait for them to reach out to us, but initiate connection; indicating what has been done, what is in process, and how to contact us. We speak to students directly; asking them what support they need. Critically, international and BIPOC students must know that they matter.

Challenges and Benefits to Virtual Internationalization

Drawing from internationalization at home opportunities, “the purposeful integration of international and intercultural dimensions into the formal and informal curriculum for all students within domestic learning environments” (Beelen & Jones, 2015, p. 69), we use virtual resources for education of the whole person, in and out of the classroom. We have found that making use of Learning Management Systems (LMS) and other digital tools is a crucial and effective response to crises and situations that require distance learning. The robust nature of online resources, as well as Internet sites that include virtual museum tours and e-visits of cultural sites, in 2020, gives the educational community the capacity to adapt to a fully remote or hybrid course environment, whether in the K-12 or university classroom.

Video conferencing has ensured the continuity of community engagement. Yet, zooming into the virtual lives of our colleagues and students raises privacy concerns. Individuals may be concerned about aspects of their identities being unwittingly revealed due to their homelife dynamics. Another unintentional outcome is that socio-economic concerns may be amplified due to unreliable WIFI and the sharing of technological resources among multiple family members. Community members working from home may have increased responsibilities to family members due to COVID-19 implications, but must also balance being ever present online. These realities provide opportunities for organizations to institute a “time out” from the endless and prolonged engagement online. Some faculty are already addressing these concerns by increasing asynchronous work to provide more freedom to students; senior administrative leaders can do the same. Just as institutions adjusted to operations having been moved online, they could now consider what of their online meetings can be adapted into “memo meetings” to diminish the constant need to meet virtually.

Learning from Teaching

Through this uncomfortable yet eye-opening global historical experience, we have gained some insights as teachers on supporting students and maintaining meaningful learning. We also learned what our own needs are. In our particular circumstances, we discovered the importance of teachers learning from their mentors, leaders, students, and their own instructors on how to teach and learn through global education in a crisis.

References

American College Health Association (2020, August 20). Supporting vulnerable campus populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Retrieved from https://www.acha.org/ACHA/Resources/Guidelines/ACHA/Resources/Guidelines.aspx?hkey=450d50ec-a623-47a2-aab0-5f011ca437fb 

Beelen, J., & Jones, E. (2015). Redefining internationalization at home. In The European Higher Education Area (pp. 59-72). Springer, Cham.

Clark, E., Fredericks, K., Woc-Colburn, L., Bottazz, M. E., & Weatherhead, J.  (2020, July 13). Disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on immigrant communities in the United States. National Center for Biotechnology Information, 14(7), 1-9.

Goody, M. & Wood, D. (2020, May 30). What do coronavirus racial disparities look like state by state? NPR. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/30/865413079/what-do-coronavirus-racial-disparities-look-like-state-by-state

The Trevor Project (2020). Implications of COVID-19 for LGBTQ youth mental health and suicide prevention. Retrieved from https://www.thetrevorproject.org/2020/04/03/implications-of-covid-19-for-lgbtq-youth-mental-health-and-suicide-prevention/ 

Tye, K. A. (2014). Global education: A worldwide movement. An update. Policy Futures in Education, 12(7).

Whittington, C., Hadfield, K., Calderón, C. (2020). The lives and livelihoods of many in the LGBTQ community are at risk amidst COVID-19 crisis. Human Rights Campaign. Retrieved from https://www.hrc.org/resources/covid-19

Xu, X. (2020, Autumn Issue). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global research. International Higher Education, 104, 18-19. 

Supporting International Students in the Times of Global Crises

by HOLA@HAJINKIM.COM | Oct 19, 2020 | Articles

Posted: Monday, October 19, 2020 
By: Qinyuan Gu – Editor, International School Online
Yuka Jibiki – EFL Lecturer,  International Education Center of Tokai University

Introduction 

The U.S. has been the most popular study abroad destination for decades even after social and economic turmoil like the 9.11 attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. While its popularity is still going strong, we have noticed a change in the education abroad trends. This research focuses on the study abroad curves of two sending places of origins of China and Japan, after crises in the past. It also measures how U.S. higher education institutions support international students in this time of global crises. 

Global Crisis and Its Impact on Study Abroad

While the U.S. college enrollments witnessed a decline of Chinese international students in the year of a global crisis, the following year always showed a wave of increase (Fish, 2020; Redden, 2020). After the 2008 financial crisis, GDP in China continued to grow along with an increase of Chinese middle-class families, which paved way for the craze interest in studying abroad in the U.S.. To Chinese students’ delight, American universities and colleges expanded their international student enrollment. The cost of studying abroad was lower than before due to the exchange rate changes (Choudaha, 2017). Nonetheless, Japan was in a different picture. Despite strong reaction towards safety concerns from students and parents, Japanese universities did not stop operating their U.S. study abroad programs after the 9.11 attacks to meet students’ demands (Ota, 2006). Though, the student mobility has been slowly decreasing since the late 2008 (Open Doors, n.d.). Kobayashi (2011) analyzed that there were two reasons behind: declining population and financial crisis in 2008. The plummet of student demography in Japan may have influenced the numbers of students studying abroad. Besides, the 2008 financial crisis hit Japan hard. In 2010, the average income decreased by 7% compared to 2001, which hindered Japanese families from sending children to the U.S. for further education. However, non-U.S. countries are gaining popularity to study abroad among Japanese students in terms of affordability and safety (Kobayashi, 2011).

New Moves in Education Abroad

The different choice made by the two international student populations provokes thoughts about their motivation and purposes of education in the U.S.. While most Chinese international students have been enrolled in degree-seeking programs, their Japanese counterparts are more likely to participate in short-term English language study abroad programs (Bradford, 2015; ICEF Monitor, 2018; Mccrostie, 2017; Open Doors, n.d.; Suzuki, 2017). The different expectations have led to a new stage of the international education field during this Covid-19 pandemic. 

Although most institutions approach online instructions in the 2020 fall semester (IIE, 2020), some U.S. universities offer China-based semester programs for Chinese international students who are not able to come back to the U.S.. For example, Cornell University (n.d.) provides seven Study Away Programs for Chinese international students to apply for. Michigan State University, Trinity College and Fordham University have announced a new partnership with Shanghai Fudan University for Chinese international students to continue their study (Lynch, 2020; New Channel, 2020). Syracuse University and University of Connecticut also launched a study abroad at home program with East China Normal University for international students in Mainland China (Hills, 2020; Syracuse University, n.d.). In addition, American universities that have campuses in China like Shanghai New York University have established new systems for Chinese international students to study at their local branches (New Channel, 2020). 

Virtual education abroad programs have become popular in Japan since the pandemic broke out in the early 2020 to meet the needs of students who had to give up their study abroad plans (Okawa, 2020a; Okawa, 2020b). Implemented with the National Geographic, EC English Language Centers, an English language school headquartered in Marta, offers online English language learning and content-based programs called the EC Virtual to international students (EC, n.d.). British Council has provided online English learning platforms for English language learners around the world. Recently, British Council in Japan launched a 90-minute live English lessons called myClass online with access to one-on-one study advice sessions specialized for residents in Japan. (British Council, n.d.a; British Council, n.d.b). Japan is not alone in the booming virtual education abroad market. CAPA, the private learning abroad provider headquartered in Massachusetts promotes summer 2020 internship abroad online (CAPA, 2020). AIFS, another study abroad program provider, also brings forward virtual study abroad programs (AIFS, n.d.). Students at University of Massachusetts at Lowell can earn credits by taking virtual study abroad and internship programs (University of Massachusetts at Lowell, n.d.).

Recommendation

Undoubtedly, these new moves are smart for two reasons. On one hand, international students can relieve from the stress of the unsettled travel ban policies and public health concerns while taking face-to-face and/or online courses at home. On the other hand, American institutions are able to keep their international students active in their systems. However, such win-win strategies produce new challenges for universities to integrate international students into the campus community. Institutions need to cultivate a sense of belongings for students on top of serving emotional, social, and academic support even in a virtual format. (Moravec, 2020). International students who have meaningful contacts with people from the host culture are more satisfied with college experience, and have tendency to be more successful in academics (Bowman. 2012). To foster a sense of belongings to the campus community as well as an intercultural experience despite the time difference and physical distance, we suggest five activities: virtual campus and city tour, virtual student orientation, social media takeover, online panel talks and obligatory appointments with academic and international student advisors. These cross-cultural connections and bonds will help international students engage in traditional U.S. campus life while studying away at home.

Conclusion

Crisis means danger and opportunities both in Chinese (危机) and Japanese (危機) characters. Though the Covid-19 pandemic has caused tremendous barriers to international travels, it has stimulated mutual support, knowledge sharing and multi-lateral cooperation. International education professionals also take the chance to learn from each other and help build a better world for students from all walks of life (Dietrich, 2020). International education will keep thriving as long as professionals stay creative and caring for international communities. After all, united we stand; divided we fall.

References

AIFS. (n.d.). Online/Virtual Programs. Retrieved from https://www.aifsabroad.com/

Bowman, K. D. (2012). Local connections: Helping international students find a welcoming place within the local community, International Educator, November/December. pp.27-30.

Bradford, A. (2015). Changing trends in Japanese students studying abroad. International Higher Education, 83, 22-23.

British Council. (n.d.a). myClass online (sutandado eikaiwa ko-su) [myClass online (Standard English conversation course)] Retrieved from https://www.britishcouncil.jp/

British Council. (n.d.b). Online course. Retrieved from https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/

CAPA. (n.d.). Remote Global Internships. Retrieved from https://www.capa.org/

Choudaha, R. (2017). Three waves of international student mobility (1999-2020). Studies in Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03075079.2017.1293872

Cornell University. (n.d.). Global Cornell Study Away. Retrieved from https://global.cornell.edu/study-away

Dietrich, A. J. (2020). Charting a Path Forward for Education Abroad Research. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 32 (2), pp. 1-11

EC. (n.d.). EC Virtual de online eigo gakusyuu [Study English online with ECVirtual]. Retrieved from https://www.ecenglish.com/ja

Fish, E. (2020, May 12). End of an era? A History of Chinese students in America – Supchina. Retrieved from https://supchina.com/

Hills, L. (2020, June 25). FAQs – Fall 2020 – International Programming in China. Retrieved from https://abroad.uconn.edu/2020/06/25/fall-2020-international-programming-in-china/#

ICEFMonitor. (January 31, 2018). More than 200,000 Japanese students abroad in 2016. Retrieved from http://monitor.icef.com/2018/01/200000-japanese-students-abroad-2016/

IIE (2020, July 30). New IIE COVID-19 Survey of Higher Education Institutions Shows 92 % Shift to New Instruction Approaches for Fall Semester. Retrieved from https://www.iie.org/

Kobayashi, A. (2011) Nihonjingakuseino kaigairyuugakusogaiyouinto kongonotaisaku. [The obstacles of study abroad and the future among Japanese college students]. Web Magazine Ryuugaku Kouryuu, 2, 1-17. Retrieved from https://www.jasso.go.jp/sp/ryugaku/related/kouryu/2011/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2015/11/19/akirakobayashi.pdf
 
Lynch, K. (2020, June 12). Trinity College Faculty Approve Plan for Fall 2020 Semester: Students to Return Sept. 1, Classes Start Sept. 7. The Trinity Tripod. Retrieved from https://tripod.domains.trincoll.edu/news/trinity-college-faculty-approve-plan-for-fall-2020-semester-students-to-return-sept-1-classes-start-sept-7/ 

Mccrostie, J. (2017, August 9). More Japanese may be studying abroad, but not for long. The Japan Times. Retrieved from https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2017/08/09/issues/japanese-may-studying-abroad-not-long/#.W8KaLGj0nb0

Moravec, J. W. (2020). International education in the era of COVID-19: Making learning visible. Sociální pedagogika | Social Education 1:38-42.

New Channel (2020, August 6). Jin Qiu Kai Xue Ni Qu Na Ge Cheng Shi [Which city are you going to study this fall?]. Retrieved from https://www.xhd.cn/info/lx/157908.html

Okawa, S. (2020a, May 7). Koronakade ryugakuchushiga wakamononi motarasu ookinahenka:kono suunennha kyukakudaiwo tuduketeita ryugakusijyou daga. [The big change brought to the youths by the Coronavirus and suspension of study abroad program]. Toyo Keizai Online. Retrieved from https://toyokeizai.net/

Okawa, S. (2020b, June 14). Saikinn yokukiku “virtual ryugaku” tamesu kachi ari? Koronakade tokouwo dannnennshita gakuseini rouhounanoka [Is it worth to try the “virtual study abroad”?: If it is a good news for students who gave up going abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic.]. Toyo Keizai Online. Retrieved from https://toyokeizai.net/

Open Doors (n.d.). International Students. Open Doors. Retrieved from https://opendoorsdata.org/

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LGBTQIA+ Students in Crisis: Recognizing Assets and Deficit Models

by HOLA@HAJINKIM.COM | Oct 19, 2020 | Articles

Posted: Monday, October 19, 2020
By: Lo Chow (she/her/hers), Education Abroad Advisor – Babson College

Kyle Keith (he/him/his), International Programs Coordinator – North Carolina State University

Andy Quackenbush (he/him/his), Study Abroad Advisor – University of Wisconsin – Madison

Ashley Trebisacci (she/her/hers), Study Abroad Advisor – Brandeis University

Conrad Zeutenhorst (he/him/his), International Education Advisor – University of Maryland – College Park

International education is, no doubt, in a moment of uncertainty due to the adverse effects of COVID-19 on travel, student mobility, and higher education. However, for LGBTQIA+ students, the challenges of a global health crisis—while daunting—are not unfamiliar. Recent reporting on the United States’ response to COVID-19 highlights the ways it resembles that of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s (Kane, 2020; McClurg, 2020). By anchoring our vital work with renewed commitments to equity and access for marginalized student communities, such as LGBTQIA+ students of color, international educators can—much in the same way as our students—persevere through challenges and emerge stronger and more inclusive. With greater knowledge of the theoretical approaches to queer student development theory and a rejection of deficit model approaches to student advising and support, we can begin this critical work.

Theoretical Framework

Queer theory can help advisors to understand better their students’ identity development processes, and to envision how students’ strategies and resilience in navigating their LGBTQIA+ identity might apply to an international experience. Contributing to queer theory development, Butler (1999) argues that gender identity is not absolute, but is something that is performative and acted out according to cultural norms. In the context of sexual and gender identity minorities, LGBTQIA+ people are constantly adapting the performance of their identities to meet the needs of the different cultural spaces they navigate on a daily basis. For some LGBTQIA+ individuals, there may be serious consequences if their behavior does not reflect the cultural context.

While McKnight and Kretzmann (1993) pioneered the concept of assets-based community development nearly three decades ago—the idea that solutions to community problems lie within the community itself and its strengths, rather than from outside sources—common portrayals of the LGBTQIA+ community today still frame the community’s needs and characteristics from a deficit perspective, focusing solely on the barriers and challenges that this population faces. Applying queer theory and assets-based community development theory to education abroad experiences, LGBTQIA+ students are well-equipped to adapt to multicultural contexts abroad because they must navigate different cultures at home. With a heightened sense of cultural spaces, including but not limited to gender expression and sexual orientation, LGBTQIA+ students may adapt more easily than their cisgender, heterosexual peers in an intercultural context such as studying abroad. In much the same way, students of color must frequently navigate the dominant cultural context at home, enhancing their ability to do so abroad.

Yosso’s (2005) landmark work on community cultural wealth helped spread the idea that marginalized communities not only face challenges based on their identities (a deficit perspective), but also possess six forms of cultural capital (an asset perspective): aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistance. What could these forms of capital look like for LGBTQIA+ students when applied to the education abroad context?

Many LGBTQIA+ students develop significant navigational capital in the form of their decisions whether or not to come out throughout a variety of situations. Rather than being a single life event, coming out is a continuous process and journey that students undertake with every new person they meet and every network they are a part of. By weighing the risks and benefits of coming out to a person or a group of people, students become attuned to various signals that they have observed in those people. This ability to pick up on sometimes very subtle cues and words that people use can help those same students to pick up on cultural nuances and signaling if they find themselves in a new cultural context with different ways of communicating while studying abroad.

This student population also often acquires linguistic capital through having dialogues about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. They frequently gain a rich vocabulary and fluency in these topics, whether through explaining their identity to those who do not share it or through having conversations within their own communities. This linguistic capital can provide an advantage as these students navigate their intersectional identities while abroad, and can aid them in forging deep relationships with others grappling with their own uniquely intersectional identities.

Call to Action

Though student mobility in international education has come to a standstill, it will eventually regain momentum. In this challenging time of collective uncertainty, international educators have a unique opportunity to examine critically the systems and policies under which we operate to break down institutional barriers and make global learning more accessible to all. Recognizing the intersectionality of oppression and exclusion are key to tackling these barriers. International educators should use critical race theory, queer theory, and strengths-based models to create policies and practices that address systemic racism and ableism as well as transphobia. Inclusion must now become integral to international education, rather than supplemental.

In the specific context of LGBTQIA+ student engagement, international educators should work with students, faculty and staff who identify with those communities to build sustainable resources, training and practices. Some recommendations include:

• Providing accessible resources and training for students, faculty and staff can be a good place to start implementing structural change. Institutions and providers could survey their partners abroad for existing LGBTQIA+ student resources and catalogue these into student-accessible advising resources.
• Transgender, queer and non-binary identities are underrepresented, and are often conflated with resources for gay, lesbian and bisexual identities. Attention should be given to resources that support these identities. The same purposeful attention and resources should be devoted to queer students of color, as too often LGBTQIA+ trainings and advocacy center Whiteness.
• All students should attend an orientation or program on the meaning of social identities in the context of their international education. This makes all resources accessible to all students without having to “out” them, in addition to helping build allyship for students who do not hold a certain identity.
• Faculty and staff managing study abroad sites could complete training on the meaning of LGBTQIA+ identities in the American context while students can be encouraged to research how those identities express themselves in their host culture with particular consideration given to the intersections of race, class, and ability.

Develop Diversity & Inclusion Competencies

The success of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts isn’t gauged by the passion of those carrying out this work. Being passionate about DEI and/or possessing a minoritized identity are important factors in this work, but not sufficient to accelerate effective diversity, equity, inclusion and racial justice strategies. Acquiring the requisite competencies is essential to develop, implement and advance sustainable DEI practices and policies in our sector. Learning and development programs such as the International Education Diversity & Inclusion Certificate ,  DEI related training programs at your place of work or within your local community, short online courses, or targeted readings offer opportunities to acquire and hone diversity and inclusion competencies. So whether it’s improving your marketing and advising skills or learning how to create a more inclusive office environment, acquiring and continuing to develop diversity and inclusive competencies will equip you with the skills, knowledge and confidence to champion and advance DEI within your organization.

More than ever, we must listen to our LGBTQIA+ students and better understand what they want from us, and how we can best acknowledge their assets and expertise. Though our instinct in an uncertain world is to lean on what feels familiar, we argue that there is no better time for transformation. Now is the time to make concrete changes to policies and practices that will benefit our students.

It is still too early to know what our world will look like on the far side of our current global health crisis. As we suspended education abroad programs and shifted to mostly remote instruction and learning, we asked students for adaptability and flexibility. Despite their hardships, we encouraged students to reflect on what lessons they might have learned from this past spring semester. International educators have, as a community of professionals, been similarly asked to imagine what our shared future might look like. Now, it’s our turn. As we move forward, we call upon our colleagues across the world to reflect critically on our systems and institutions, move in bold new directions, and renew our shared commitment to LGBTQIA+ equity and diversity.

Despite the tremendous challenges it has posed, COVID-19 has also offered the possibility to reimagine global learning by asking, how can higher education professionals support global goals and practices in the post-COVID-19 world? How can global learning still be achieved in the aftermath? This article argues for the implementation of strategies that leverage existing institutional resources to continue global learning on university campuses. While they must be tailored to each specific institution, a common focus can involve employing a variety of pedagogies and technologies to internationalize academic courses, provide cultural competence training to faculty and staff to integrate global perspectives, and incorporate innovative approaches to co-curricular programs.

Bibliography

Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. Routledge.

Kane, P. L. (2020, March 22). ‘Unresolved grief’: Coronavirus presents eerie parallels for many Aids advocates. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/22/coronavirus-aids-epidemic-san-francisco

Kretzmann, J. & McKnight, J. (1996). Assets‐based community development. National Civic Review, 85(4), 23-29.

McClurg, L. (2020, August 3). ‘They know what a pandemic is’: HIV survivors see similarities to AIDS epidemic. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2020/08/03/898581035/they-know-what-a-pandemic-is-hiv-survivors-see-similarities-to-aids-epidemic

Yosso, T. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69-91. DOI: 10.1080/1361332052000341006