In March 2020, many institutions and companies abruptly closed their premises in response to the spread of COVID-19, preventing them from hosting any in-person activities which promoted the sense of working in groups and collaborating... more
In March 2020, many institutions and companies abruptly closed their premises in response to the spread of COVID-19, preventing them from hosting any in-person activities which promoted the sense of working in groups and collaborating with peers. As a result, many students missed out on ways in which they can connect with those around them. Restrictions on inperson interactions between students, staff, and faculty are likely to persist in the future as well resulting in the lack of sense of collaborative working. Student Faculty Portal concentrates on effective connection building between people in colleges and universities by providing them a platform to collaborate based on their skills, interests, knowledge, and expertise.
Student engagement with faculty has received increased attention from scholars and practitioners alike. However, much of the focus has been on the engagement experiences of students enrolled at four-year institutions, often excluding the... more
Student engagement with faculty has received increased attention from scholars and practitioners alike. However, much of the focus has been on the engagement experiences of students enrolled at four-year institutions, often excluding the experiences of Latinx1 students enrolled at two-year public institutions. The present study centers faculty, who are situated within positions of power, as institutional agents (Stanton-Salazar, 2011) and examines their formal and informal contacts with Latinx students who began higher education at community colleges. This study utilizes data from the 2004–09 Beginning Postsecondary Survey and employs descriptive analyses and blocked hierarchical regression to gain greater knowledge of the factors that impact Latinx students’ frequency of interaction with institutional agents. This study highlights the need to further disaggregate Latinx ethnic subgroups. Findings show that peer, academic, and social engagement are predictors of increased interaction with institutional agents. Of particular interest is the role of institutional contexts, as results reveal unrealized potential for Hispanic-Serving Institutions in promoting opportunities for interaction among Latinx and institutional agents. Implications for creating environments that foster student-faculty relationships are explored.
Mentoring relationships in higher education are not simply advisor-advisee relationships focused on career and task functions, but rather relationships that include both career functions and psychosocial functions. Because of this, and... more
Mentoring relationships in higher education are not simply advisor-advisee relationships focused on career and task functions, but rather relationships that include both career functions and psychosocial functions. Because of this, and because students grow and develop best when faculty mentors address not only career needs, but also emotional and social needs, there is need for faculty mentors not only to advise or guide their student mentees, but also to personally care for them. Millennial students – the students who are now in higher education institutions – desire to be mentored by older faculty, especially if the faculty mentor cares for them personally, and is supportive, encouraging, and understanding. There are various models of mentoring, but there is need for a faculty-student mentoring model that includes a balance of apprenticeship (career) and nurturing (psychosocial) functions. While some researchers are leery of using the parent-child relationship as a metaphor for faculty-student mentoring relationships, others describe excellent faculty-student mentoring relationships in terms of a parent-child relationship. This study explores how combining apprenticeship characteristics with nurturing characteristics of parenting, especially mothering, can inform a “parenting model” of faculty-student mentoring.
Underrepresented racial minority students often seek a high level of contact with professors of color, viewing them as role models and proof that success in higher education is possible (Allen These faculty members are often able to... more
Underrepresented racial minority students often seek a high level of contact with professors of color, viewing them as role models and proof that success in higher education is possible (Allen These faculty members are often able to connect with students of color in deep and meaningful ways based on shared experiences in higher education. That is, many professors of color once matriculated at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) where they encountered racist stereotypes and felt the same sense of isolation as some students of color they teach and mentor. Scholarship on faculty of color has focused largely on their lives as professors, addressing how their work is perceived, their experiences with colleagues, and the heavy teaching and service loads they often carry (for example, Allen and others, 2000; Johnsrud and Sadao, 1998; Menges and Exum, 1983; Stanley, 2006). Researchers have done comparatively less work on how these scholars have successfully negotiated various aspects The authors describe how mentors provide students the academic and social support they need to succeed in STEM. Recommendations are also included on fostering positive mentoring relationships to facilitate student persistence, address climate issues, and support faculty of color in STEM fields.
This study examines student-faculty interactions in which U.S. professors signal social inclusion or exclusion, facilitating–or inhibiting–international students’ academic goal pursuits. It compares narratives of 40 international students... more
This study examines student-faculty interactions in which U.S. professors signal social inclusion or exclusion, facilitating–or inhibiting–international students’ academic goal pursuits. It compares narratives of 40 international students from four purposefully sampled subgroups – academic preparedness (low, high) and financial resources (low, high). Overall, international students’ interactions with professors were marked by joy, trust, anticipation, and surprise. Nonetheless, the narratives exhibit two significant sources of variation: narratives from the low financial resources, high academic preparedness subgroup reflected widely-varied experiences interacting with professors, and narratives from the low financial, low academic preparedness subgroup lacked any descriptions of positive student-faculty interactions.
In the realm of the internationalization of Korean higher education, the number of international students enrolled in Korean universities is on the rise. International students, like all college attendees, benefit from interacting... more
In the realm of the internationalization of Korean higher education, the number of international students enrolled in Korean universities is on the rise. International students, like all college attendees, benefit from interacting directly with faculty members. Student-faculty interactions remain infrequent, despite being beneficial for student experiences and outcomes. Rare interactions between students and professors in South Korean tertiary education are problematic, especially for international students who face additional challenges. The phenomenological study explored the nature of international students’ lived experiences of student-faculty interactions while attending a Korean university. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews, 17 participants shared a wide range of experiences of direct student-faculty interactions inside and outside the classroom. The study identified eight prevalent meaning-making themes and 31 sub-themes evidenced in participant experiences. Despite infrequency, student-faculty interactions were deemed consequential for international students, who wanted to connect with professors beyond book-based knowledge. Factors such as professor demographics, language proficiency, and means of instruction influenced the quality and frequency of interactions. Immediacy was deemed important in meaningful relationships with faculty, while certain elements of the Korean educational culture hindered contacts. International students emphasized distinctions between in-person learning and online classes, as the COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted instruction and student-faculty interactions. The study findings filled a gap in literature and may guide administration and faculty efforts towards genuine internationalization of the Korean higher education system, of which recruitment of international students is a crucial element.
The proportion of first-generation international students at US institutions ranges from one-tenth to one-half of the total international student body. First-generation status is an underexplored, and potentially significant, demographic... more
The proportion of first-generation international students at US institutions ranges from one-tenth to one-half of the total international student body. First-generation status is an underexplored, and potentially significant, demographic factor in international students’ adaptation to college. Researchers used structural equation modelling (SEM) to examine how faculty interaction out-of-class, engagement with cultural variation in-class, and students’ interest in cross-cultural interaction relates to sense of community and co-curricular engagement among first-generation (n = 508) and non-first-generation (n = 955) international students’, respectively. The primary contribution of this study is providing evidence for the importance of interactions with professors out-of-class and engagement with cultural variation in-class on international students’ sense of community and co-curricular engagement, especially first generation students. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
To address the enduring issues of underrepresentation in engineering education, a small but growing body of research has examined social and cultural explanations for engineering persistence among women, racial/ethnic minorities, and... more
To address the enduring issues of underrepresentation in engineering education, a small but growing body of research has examined social and cultural explanations for engineering persistence among women, racial/ethnic minorities, and other underrepresented groups, however limited research has explored the unique experiences of engineering transfer students. In this exploratory study, we examine the extent to which relationships with engineering faculty and other forms of engineering-related capital (e.g., aspirational, navigational) are related to engineering self-efficacy among transfer engineering students. The findings of the study may have implications for future research and practice to increase access to engineering education and persistence of transfer students in engineering.
To address the enduring issues of underrepresentation in engineering education, a small but growing body of research has examined social and cultural explanations for engineering persistence among women, racial/ethnic minorities, and... more
To address the enduring issues of underrepresentation in engineering education, a small but growing body of research has examined social and cultural explanations for engineering persistence among women, racial/ethnic minorities, and other underrepresented groups, however limited research has explored the unique experiences of engineering transfer students. In this exploratory study, we examine the extent to which relationships with engineering faculty and other forms of engineering-related capital (e.g., aspirational, navigational) are related to engineering self-efficacy among transfer engineering students. The findings of the study may have implications for future research and practice to increase access to engineering education and persistence of transfer students in engineering.
This study sought to explore the strategies students use to navigate faculty-student interactions in an Iranian academic context through using a grounded theory approach. Conceptual framework and theoretical background of the study are... more
This study sought to explore the strategies students use to navigate faculty-student interactions in an Iranian academic context through using a grounded theory approach. Conceptual framework and theoretical background of the study are based on the social exchange frameworks, student socialization, and social learning theory. Participants were 35 university students and the data were gathered via in-depth interviews. Grounded theory analysis revealed thirteen categories and a core category of “interaction, formation of social capital and students' development” which described the faculty-student interaction strategies and their consequences. The results suggested that faculty-student interactions would occur under causal conditions of faculty-related and course-related contacts. The results also revealed that these interactions were affected by political orientation of faculty and gendered demarcation as contextual conditions in the Iranian academic context. Furthermore, the faculty presence, commuter or residential students, students' psychological characteristics and educational level were found to be the intervening conditions of faculty- student interaction. According to the results, the process of paradigm model comprised action/interaction strategies including academic, professional and personal interactions, trust, and intimacy. Moreover, the results also revealed that the two main consequences of adopting these strategies by the students were collaboration and changes in attitudes.
AbstractThis study examines student-faculty interactions in which U.S. professors signal social inclusion or exclusion, facilitating-or inhibiting-international students' academic goal pursuits. It compares narratives of 40... more
AbstractThis study examines student-faculty interactions in which U.S. professors signal social inclusion or exclusion, facilitating-or inhibiting-international students' academic goal pursuits. It compares narratives of 40 international students from four purposefully sampled subgroups - academic preparedness (low, high) and financial resources (low, high). Overall, international students' interactions with professors were marked by joy, trust, anticipation, and surprise. Nonetheless, the narratives exhibit two significant sources of variation: narratives from the low financial resources, high academic preparedness subgroup reflected widely-varied experiences interacting with professors, and narratives from the low financial, low academic preparedness subgroup lacked any descriptions of positive student-faculty interactions.Keywords: international students; belonging; professors; faculty-student interactions; student successAcademic goals are among the most prominent motiva...
This empirical research explores a role that the quality of teaching and students’ competence play in shaping students’ views about the upward mobility opportunities in their higher education institutions. It is often understood that the... more
This empirical research explores a role that the quality of teaching and students’ competence play in shaping students’ views about the upward mobility opportunities in their higher education institutions. It is often understood that the principal role of higher education is to promote merit-based mobility amongst students, as well as espouse the merit-based upward mobility amongst its faculty. How exactly students in higher education form their views about the presence of meritorious upward mobility is the question that remains largely unanswered, especially in developing societies. To help answer this question, the study relies on the binary logistic regression of data collected via 762 surveys from 6 public higher education institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and determines what factors help predict students’ views on whether faculty promotions are merited or not. Findings in this article are selected from a broader empirical work, and they point to a novel link: the quality of teaching and students’ views on whether the most competent students are first to graduate in their faculties are the key predictors of whether students believe the faculty members within their higher education institutions are promoted based on merit. In the absence of meritocracy, students are, as this research finds, likely to categorize the educational system as corrupt. When the merit-based competition does not determine who moves up within higher education, one’s belonging to the political, social, and economic elites tends to become the alternative basis for the upward mobility. Moving away from the merit-based mobility can have broad social consequences particularly in developing countries that are poorly equipped to react to such digressions, underlining the relevance of this work cross-nationally.
