Academic expectations by U.S. professors towards Japanese international students

What is it about?

Higher education institutions welcome international students because of their status as resources for fostering intercultural competencies among college students and because of financial benefits the institutions receive. The author in this ethnographic case study investigated the level of academic expectations undergraduate international students from Japan received from faculty members in a U.S. teacher education program.

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Why is it important?

Findings reveal that the program’s faculty members had low expectations of these international students. Their expectations were reflected in the participants’ receiving good grades, praise, and advice which told them not to worry, but failed to address their academic weaknesses. It appears that the faculty members’ niceness ironically contributed to a trajectory of academic inequity and produced negative educational outcomes.