TY - JOUR
T1 - Do we belong? A conceptual model for international students’ sense of belonging in community colleges
AU - García, Hugo A.
AU - Garza, Tiberio
AU - Yeaton-Hromada, Katie
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Journal of International Students.
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2019/5/16
Y1 - 2019/5/16
N2 - International student enrollment in higher education has risen in the United States for the past several decades. Along with the increase within 4-year institutions, the number of international students at community colleges also continues to rise. Open Doors reports there were 91,648 total international students enrolled in community college for the 2014–2015 academic year. Since student retention is often reviewed as a measure of “the quality of educational experiences” (Lee, 2010, p. 68), these changing enrollment statistics raise questions about international students’ engagement and sense of belonging within U.S. community colleges. Guided by Deil-Amen’s (2011) construct of socio-academic integration moments and Strayhorn’s (2012) sense of belonging, and using the Community College Survey of Student Engagement dataset and structural equation modeling, this study found that socio-academic integration was instrumental for sense of belonging for international students while social integration is also, to a lesser extent, significant to sense of belonging. Our findings suggest that international students are more likely to obtain closer relationships than their domestic peers when it comes to faculty and staff interactions.
AB - International student enrollment in higher education has risen in the United States for the past several decades. Along with the increase within 4-year institutions, the number of international students at community colleges also continues to rise. Open Doors reports there were 91,648 total international students enrolled in community college for the 2014–2015 academic year. Since student retention is often reviewed as a measure of “the quality of educational experiences” (Lee, 2010, p. 68), these changing enrollment statistics raise questions about international students’ engagement and sense of belonging within U.S. community colleges. Guided by Deil-Amen’s (2011) construct of socio-academic integration moments and Strayhorn’s (2012) sense of belonging, and using the Community College Survey of Student Engagement dataset and structural equation modeling, this study found that socio-academic integration was instrumental for sense of belonging for international students while social integration is also, to a lesser extent, significant to sense of belonging. Our findings suggest that international students are more likely to obtain closer relationships than their domestic peers when it comes to faculty and staff interactions.
KW - Belonging
KW - Community college
KW - Higher education
KW - International students
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85067204840&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.32674/jis.v9i2.669
DO - 10.32674/jis.v9i2.669
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85067204840
VL - 9
SP - 460
EP - 487
JO - Journal of International Students
JF - Journal of International Students
SN - 2162-3104
IS - 2
ER -