The Future Looks Like Community

Community. That’s the word that comes to mind as I reflect on the values that shape my work as an international educator. Early in my career, learning in community through conferences, professional development training, and my regional NAFSA helped shape how I value the purpose of my role.

What is a community if not a group of people committed to the same goal?

Community stands out when I think of the 148 Afghan women enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities after fleeing Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Welcoming these women to campus from admissions to the first day of classes was the result of an orchestrated operation that required established buy-in, trust, and care amongst multiple stakeholders.

Community, or lack thereof, also comes to mind when I read about the difficulties some of the women faced while adjusting to life on an American college campus. One woman said, “The American students always seemed busy and showed little interest”—a quote that stays with me, because I expect the community of stakeholders at each of the adopting institutions believed that their campus environment would warmly and openly welcome the Afghan women.

Community is about people. A community develops when people trust, belong, feel safe, and care for each other through shared experiences and history. These tenets are fundamental to building a strong community. We can fail newcomers when we invite them to campus before faculty, students, staff, and administrators have a shared understanding of why they belong.

What Does Community Look Like in Different Facets of International Education?

Adopting a culture of care among ourselves and at our institutions is one way to intentionally pursue community as international higher educators in 2023 and beyond. This can come in many forms.

Contextual admissions

Contextual admissions is an example of adopting a culture of care in international recruitment and application. Admitting these young women from Afghanistan required processes customized to fit this purpose of admitting applicants whose education was interrupted due to displacement. Institutions created mobile-friendly applications, used volunteer English-language teaching and essays to evaluate English proficiency skills, and waived or conducted in-house credential evaluations.

This process gave students confidence that credits would transfer without significant delays to graduation. Some who were close to graduation were offered enrollment in graduate programs as part of their acceptance. The value of contextual admissions is illuminated here because someone took the time to understand the context and educational system, making exceptions accordingly.

Customized student support

Sharing information and data to customize student support is another example of adopting a culture of care. How might the woman who felt the American students’ lack of interest perceive the community differently if the student affairs office was able to connect her with the Afghan community in the local area? What if she was assigned a buddy or student ambassador to help her transition? Like other minoritized populations, comprehensive and ongoing support services contribute to international students' overall well-being. These services help students develop shared experiences that build community. 

The American Council on Education (ACE) survey Mapping Internationalization on U.S. Campuses: 2022 Edition found that co-curricular buddy or language programs that pair an international student with a U.S. student are offered at fewer than 40 percent of institutions. As the senior international officers responding to the ACE survey acknowledged, there is “a need to establish and maintain positive partnerships in the community to ensure holistic international student support.” Sharing IELTS scores and trends beyond admissions is an actionable way of supporting your multilingual students’ academic and co-curricular success.

Start with student expectations

Aligning support services with student expectations is an example of adopting a culture of care. Sixty percent or more of the respondents to the ACE survey said that orientation programs for international students cover the institution, U.S. classroom culture, the local community, and individualized academic support services. However, 36 percent of respondents to IDP Connect’s Emerging Futures survey rated their experience with academic and non-academic services as less than expected. 

Incorporating digital learning platforms is a promising strategy emerging from our ESL stakeholders’ online teaching experience during the pandemic. For example, one program uses Zoom to conduct the English-language proficiency assessment pre-arrival so that teachers can match resources and teaching materials to specific language competencies. By creating online “classrooms,” new students arrive as members of the community, in part because they have interacted with each other, teachers, and administrators.

Language and communication

Finally, we can’t talk about community without language. Students need to communicate to engage. Adopting a culture of care for multilingual learners includes offering opportunities to develop every day and cultural forms of the English language through engagement in shared experiences that build community. When students’ English-language competencies align with the linguistic demands, they are more confident and encouraged to form connections in and out of the classroom. Secure, valid, and reliable tests of English proficiency like IELTS contribute to institutions’ assessment of proficiency in the academic register of English. 

One of the Afghani refugees, enrolled at Brown University, succinctly described why I am driven to work in international education. She reflected on her transition from Afghanistan to Providence as filled with “many moments of kindness and generosity.” Her words remind us we cannot build kind and generous communities in isolation.

Bolu Oluwadiya, MA, is the associate regional manager, Northeast, for IELTS USA.