Debates on the international student experience: schools as a morally formative culture

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to theorize observations as an American professor that schools are a morally formative culture for all students, but international students especially. Formative because schools mold students’ right or wrong behaviors as dictated by the culture. The purpose of the authors’ examination into international students’ experiences is to explore and understand particular struggles that they may encounter while living within a society that adheres to considerably dissimilar beliefs and ways of life.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is empirical in nature (case study) as the authors share their experiences and observations while working with international students.

Findings

The authors’ extend their voice to this idea that schools become a morally formative culture and create harmony for different societies through teaching multicultural issues and respectful education. This connection begins when teachers feel the calling to produce well-adjusted, respectful and compassionate citizens of the world. In the absence of this, people would not care about others in foreign places. The final argument, the beauty of schools as a morally formative culture is to protect and love our global neighbors. It is the authors’ strong belief that failure to provide a caring culture in educational contexts could be dangerous to our ever-shrinking global existence.

Research limitations/implications

A research limitation may include little quantitative data, but this study utilizes a qualitative, case-study manner of observations of years and years of working with international students.

Practical implications

The practical implications of this original paper are endless: schools are morally formative, especially the international student experience. This manuscript shows that moral development is very much connected while teaching English language learners (ELL).

Social implications

The authors’ comment on the debates about how students develop a strong moral identity if exposed to multiple cultures. A clear understanding of these issues may serve as the first step for educators to recognize and consider how curriculum and behaviors within a school can impact international students in moral ways during their new cultural experiences. In conclusion, the authors argue that a respectful and multicultural education can contribute to international harmony, as well as develop caring global citizens.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates that there is much moral development within the international student experience, as these students must navigate both education and culture. Yet little research has examined the moral impact of teaching international students from a professor’s perspective.

Citation

Brevetti, M. and Ford, D. (2017), "Debates on the international student experience: schools as a morally formative culture", Journal for Multicultural Education, Vol. 11 No. 3, pp. 189-193. https://doi.org/10.1108/JME-08-2016-0044