This study explores the academic transition experiences of African international students at a U.S. community college, with a focus on institutional support and associated challenges. Using a qualitative single case study approach, in-depth interviews with eight students revealed three central themes: supportive academic environments, academic and…

Diverse learners are a key part of the student population in community colleges and many other educational settings. Culturally relevant pedagogy, incorporating varied cultural perspectives and tools in teaching practice, can result in a deeper knowledge of self and others. This teaching case presents the opportunity to consider applications of…

Diversity has been the focus of countless books, articles, and conferences in higher education. Unfortunately, for many of us in the majority culture, this issue never required too much investment of time or concern because we were already benefitting from the existing system of racial and/or gender privilege. In this essay I recount my awakening…

Research into science identity, stereotype threat, and possible selves suggests a lack of diverse representations of scientists could impede traditionally underserved students from persisting and succeeding in science. We evaluated a series of metacognitive homework assignments ("Scientist Spotlights") that featured counterstereotypical…

The Hispanic population in the United States is changing and will constitute 30% of the population in 2050; however, the Hispanic registered nurse population is less than 3%. Cultural differences between patients and nurses may cause harm and a mistrust that can affect patient outcomes. A mixed methods convergent research study was done by an…

To writing, painting, drawing, and photography as artistic media, the author would like to add teaching as a creative endeavor as well. Especially in a classroom where English is not the first language for many students, the writing teacher needs to be creative with assignments and activities that address nontraditional ways of learning. Her…

This mixed methods, phenomenological study examined how cultural tension influences career development for Asian American community college students. Students initially completed Phinney's (1992) Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) and an instrument developed for this study called the Cultural Identification Survey. The mean for ethnic…

International students not only have an economic impact on the United States in the billions of dollars, they culturally enrich college campuses and play a critical role in fostering U.S. foreign relations (NAFSA, 2006). Further understanding the factors that shape international students experiences and perceptions of U.S. culture, and…

Based on qualitative research conducted in 3 university English as a foreign language classrooms in Chile and 3 community college English as a second language classrooms in California, this article examines the approaches used in teaching culture in these classrooms, the differences in how particular cultures (usually national cultures) were…

Contrastive rhetoric provides tools that community college teachers need in order to understand the rhetorical forms that students from other cultures employ. Greater understanding of contrastive rhetoric can change the way that teachers interpret the difficulty linguistically different students may have in using conventional American academic…