A study examined how international students from North and West Africa fit in, cope, manage, and respond to their experiences in American Universities that are in many cases set up in the context of Americans who constitute the majority. Assuming that the lives of international students outside their home countries and cultures are communication-based experiences, this research attempts to understand the various relationships between culture and communication and the difficulties members of different cultures encounter when they interact or attempt to interact. Data for the phenomenological study was generated from in-depth interviews with seven male African graduate students at Ohio University. In spite of the multiplicity of responses, the intersubjective experience revealed the existence of a number of obstacles and barriers that make interaction and understanding difficult among different cultures. These include intense feelings of isolation, loneliness, and frustration; dealing with classroom generalizations made on the basis of what the American professors considered to be mainstream (white Anglo-Saxon) America; and dealing with professors who consider it a waste of time trying to help internat;onal students who are not proficient in spoken English. Coping strategies developed by the African graduate students include drawing closer to other international students, attempting to minimize the tension of what is culturally unfamiliar and/or alienating, and considering the dominant culture to be stupid and responsible for their plight and therefore isolating themselves from interacting with the dominant culture. Contains 15 references. 0410 Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
LIFE EXPERIENCE OF AFRICAN GRADUATE STUDENTS IN A MULTI-CULTURAL SETTING: A CASE STUDY -( by Ransford Antwi and Abdelali Ziyati To many minority students gaining admission into graduate school is an important landmark in their lives. This is especially so where the persons involved are international students pursuing graduate programs in American institutions. Studying abroad may have its excitements, expectations and anxieties but it may also have its disappointments. These excitements, expectations, frustrations and even disappointments may be fused together to form rich and meaningful experiences to those involved. Fundamental issues relating to spatiality, relationaty, corporeality and temporality tend to impact differently on the experiences of African students pursuing higher education in the United States. It is usual for university administrators to provide figures to show how well they are doing in creating a multi-cultural environment on .their campuses. Some of them remark that the world is their campus. Multi-culturalism is, in part, a way of creating an open atmosphere for the learning of different viewpoints and the acceptance of these kinds of differences. In recent years, therefore, there has been emphasis in many educational institutions in the United States to speed up efforts at attracting, encouraging and recruiting international students. Success in attracting students of different cultural backgrounds have led many university administrators into praising multi-culturalism. But the rhetorics of multi-culturalism did not U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EOUCATION Otfice ot Educational Research and Improvement.
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Nhis document has been rePrOduced as received from the person or organization onginating it 0 Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view Of opinions Misted in this docu ment do not necessarily represent otticmt DER) position or policy 1 2 PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY 10 THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) seem to reflect the lived experiences of the African graduate student. In this investigation, the lived experiences of some African graduate students are explored through a phenomenological study. Our goal was to examine how international students from North and West Africa fit in, cope, manage and respond to their experiences that are in many cases set up in the context of Americans who constitute the majority. The starting point of this research therefore, lies within the assumption that the lives of international students outside their home countries and cultures are communication-based experiences. Research in this area is basically an attempt to understand the various relationships between culture and communication and the difficulties encountered when members of different cultures interact or attempt to interact (Kennan, 1981). It is only when there is a clear awareness of how these interactions are experienced that issues relating to cultural understanding and multi-culturalism can be meaningfully addressed. The project was then initiated to understand African Students’ experiences in graduate school at Ohio University. However, the very first interviews moved the whole project in a slightly different direction. The project, then, focuses on how African students make sense of tneir life experiences in the USA in its totality. It is through the narration of the traumas and excitements that some unanticipated epistemologies may be unearthed. Literature Review The theoretical foundation of our research is based on the minority experience. Color, numbers, and linguistic ability are among the determinants of racial status in the United States. According to Wellman
