Journal articles on the topic 'College students – United States – Social life and customs'

In our national perception, education is essential for all; this is fundamental to our all-round development, material and spiritual. Education has an acculturating role. It refines sensitivities and perception that contribute to national cohesion, a scientific temper and independence of mind and spirit. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial and religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. Since religion is one phase of people ’s culture groups of this type may be classified with ethnic minorities. Thus, Hindu are minorities in Pakistan, Muslim in India protestants in Italy, and Roman Catholics in the United States. Thus, the minorities, group of people who are held together by ties of common descent, physical characteristics, tradition, custom, language or religion or any combination of these and who in relation to some other group with which they are associated, occupy a subordinate status, receive differential treatment, and are excluded from full participation in the life and culture of the society of which they are a part. In the present work, an attempt has made to mirror the social and higher educational status of Muslim women by selecting Research topic Higher Education, policy Research and community development, A case study of Muslim female college students at Gulbarga city.

This study addresses the need for information helpful in retaining international college students studying in the United States. This research compares the adjustment of 182 international students to a comparison sample of American students to determine whether students coming to the United States from abroad have greater difficulty adjusting to college life. International students are more likely to feel lonely, homesick, and as if they had left part of themselves at home. In addition, this study confirms the importance of social network in the adjustment of international students (but not Americans) although the number of close friends does not predict whether an international student is satisfied with his or her social network. The implications for administrators working to retain international students are discussed.

The problems of the new cultural and educational environment are being faced by a rising number of Chinese overseas students attending American universities.Through analyzing the existing literature, this paper reviews and compares the challenges posed by individual and social factors to Chinese international students' American college life. Firstly, in order to study the various components of individual and social issues that contribute to difficulties for Chinese international students integrating into the American campus, this paper first explores six perspectives. Secondly, by comparing the different aspects, the article emphasizes that social challenges should be considered by international education institutions as a more general aspect of challenges. By understanding the impact of different types of challenges on Chinese international students, international education institutions, including U.S. universities and Chinese international schools, can act more directly and accurately which can assist this student population to better integrate into campus life.

The Quality of Student Life Questionnaire (QSLQ) was used to collect data on 946 students in eight colleges and universities in Japan and the United States. A series of 2 × 2 × 2 analyses of variance on total scores and four factors (Sa tisfaction, Competence/Productivity, Independence, and Social Belonging) were completed, comparing scores by gender, type of school (four-year vs. two-year) and nationality.For total quality of life scores, main effects were found for country (American scores were higher) and type of school (scores were higher for four-year colleges). Analysis of factor scores showed main effects for country (higher scores for American students) on all factors except Independence. These results are discussed in the context of differing cultural values and assumptions. Japanese and American views vary considerably, for example, on such issues as individuality, the role of groups, and perception of self. These differences must be considered in interpretation of cross-cultural findings.

Attitudes toward suicide, as assessed by the Suicide Opinion Questionnaire (SOQ), were evaluated in samples of New Zealand ( N = 236) and United States ( N = 248) college students. Substantial differences were found, with New Zealand students attitudinally perceiving to a greater degree a relationship between suicide and mental illness, perceiving suicide as less serious, agreeing with the right to take one's life, and seeing suicide in a more religious context and as a less impulsive, less “normal,” and more moral action.

<span>Low income American students from families where neither parent has attended college are at high risk of dropping after high school. To help these students begin college, graduate and move on to participate more fully in the economic and social life of the United States, Congress established the TRIO (three) program in 1965. Currently, over 2000 projects are hosted at over 1200 post-secondary institutions and more than 100 community agencies.</span>

The United States immigration policy Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) which protects some individuals from deportation was enacted in 2012, phased out in 2017 and is now under court challenges. There are still thousands of DACA students currently in higher education. The article highlights promising practices that professors and universities can put in place to support DACA students in the United States. Several semi-structured interviews were conducted with DACA students and Dream Center Directors in California universities to gauge students’ barriers and bridges to their higher education success. DACA students articulated public policy suggestions that universities and professors can immediately enact and have tangible results. Three themes were revealed in the interview data: the need for teacher knowledge, diversity of DACA student experiences, and for actions. These were explained as (1) knowledge of student’s lives, and, conversely, students’ access to information necessary for navigating college life; (2) the diversity of students’ life stories and experiences of trauma suffered during and after DACA rescinding decision; and (3) actions that should be taken by the faculty, staff, and the university community that would help students succeed academically.

The Chinese undergraduate student population currently represents 12.8% of all international students enrolled in the United States (Institute for International Education, 2015a). In an effort to understand the experiences of this population in their first year of college in the United States, a phenomenological study was conducted using a conceptual framework comprising Schlossberg’s Transition Model (Schlossberg, Waters, & Goodman, 1995) and the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments (CECE) Model (Museus, 2014). Three transition types were identified – academic, social/personal, and linguistic – and participants’ preparation, sources of institutional support, and coping strategies for moving through these transitions were examined. Recommendations for practice include: multi-faceted, mandatory orientation programs; ongoing workshops and resources beyond orientation; and improvements to housing and residential life opportunities and experiences.

The purpose of this study was to compare the incidence of grief among American and Arab female undergraduate students, the effects of their grief, and risk of prolonged grief disorder. A total of 471 female undergraduate students, 308 (65.4%) from the United Arab Emirates and 163 (34.6%) from the United States, completed a survey about their grief experiences. Students experiencing a significant loss also completed the Prolonged Grief Disorder Questionnaire. Findings revealed that overall approximately 38.4% ( n = 181) of all 471 students experienced the loss of a significant person in their lives within the past 24 months; a similar percentage was found in each sub group. Students reported various grief effects with American students experiencing more effects related to sleep, relationships, academics, physical well-being, religion/spirituality, and outlook on life than Arab students. Only a small number (10, 5.52%) of students met the criteria for prolonged grief disorder; however, most students were female Arab students. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are provided.

Objective: The current study investigates the effects of an alcohol-prevention program delivered to college students in a formal classroom setting. Participants: The sample comprised 231 first-year college students who enrolled in a multisection “First Year Experience” course at a large northeastern university in the United States. Method: A naturalistic experiment was conducted, with a baseline evaluation at the beginning of the semester and a post-experiment evaluation near the end of the semester. Results: Social drinking attitudes, proximal drinking norm and the college effect are significant predictors of pre- and post-intervention episodic drinking frequency. The intervention reduced episodic drinking frequency as well as perceived distal and proximal drinking norms. It also increased drinking attitudes and did not change perceived efficacy or drinking-outcome expectancies. Conclusions: Practitioners could consider implementing a similar intervention to allow students to learn and practice safe drinking skills in the first year of their college life.

Background: Increasingly colleges and universities are utilizing Outdoor Orientation Programs (OOPs) to help incoming students assimilate into college life. These programs have shown promise in recent analyses for enhancing desired outcomes with particular consideration shown to pro-social behavior and retention outcomes. Purpose: To examine how effective OOPs are in preparing students for a successful college student experience, particularly with variables known to influence student success and commitment to college. Methodology/Approach: Data were collected from four universities across the United States. Participants in this study were 205 undergraduate students from 17 to 25 years old who self-enrolled in their respective institutions OOP. This study used the College Student Readiness Inventory to generate a hypothesis concerning the possible effects of an OOP experience concerning predictive and outcomes variables relative to college student commitment. Findings/Conclusions: Using SmartPLS, the main effects of the OOP indicated predictive relationships between Commitment to College and Goal Striving, Communication Skills, Social Activity, Emotional Reactivity, Study Skills, and Social Connection. Academic Self-Discipline, Academic Self-Confidence, and Self-Determination on Commitment to College. Implications: Study findings suggest specific connections between predicting college student commitment before and after an OOP.

Exposure to family violence as a child has a detrimental long-term impact on one’s life. This relationship is under-researched in Asian populations in the United States or in Asian countries. This study examined long-term effects of maltreatment, including interparental violence and child maltreatment on externalizing and internalizing problems experienced by Asian and Asian American college students. We also explored protective effects of social support against the negative consequences of family maltreatment. Surveying 542 college students in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and the United States, we measured effects of family maltreatment on problem outcomes and examined the role of social support. Exposure to dual harm of family maltreatment (i.e., intraparental violence and child maltreatment) increased students’ externalizing problems compared to exposure to one type of family maltreatment, but no differences in internalizing behaviors were found. Effects of social support from parents and peers on externalizing and internalizing problems were neither moderating nor mediating, but direct. Those who received parental support had fewer externalizing behaviors, but effects of peer support were not significant. In contrast, those who obtained parental and peer support showed lower levels of internalizing mental health concerns. Surprisingly, men exhibited more mental health issues than women. Exposure to dual harm increases behavioral problems, but family support can help repair damage among Asian and Asian American college students. The relationship between abuse and problem outcomes was similar across countries, indicating common psychological processes.

Background Mental illness is a growing concern within many college campuses. Limited access to therapy resources, along with the fear of stigma, often prevents students from seeking help. Introducing supportive interventions, coping strategies, and mitigation programs might decrease the negative effects of mental illness among college students. Objective Many college students find social support for a variety of needs through social media platforms. With the pervasive adoption of social media sites in college populations, in this study, we examine whether and how these platforms may help meet college students’ mental health needs. Methods We first conducted a survey among 101 students, followed by semistructured interviews (n=11), of a large public university in the southeast region of the United States to understand whether, to what extent, and how students appropriate social media platforms to suit their struggle with mental health concerns. The interviews were intended to provide comprehensive information on students’ attitudes and their perceived benefits and limitations of social media as platforms for mental health support. Results Our survey revealed that a large number of participating students (71/101, 70.3%) had recently experienced some form of stress, anxiety, or other mental health challenges related to college life. Half of them (52/101, 51.5%) also reported having appropriated some social media platforms for self-disclosure or help, indicating the pervasiveness of this practice. Through our interviews, we obtained deeper insights into these initial observations. We identified specific academic, personal, and social life stressors; motivations behind social media use for mental health needs; and specific platform affordances that helped or hindered this use. Conclusions Students recognized the benefits of social media in helping connect with peers on campus and promoting informal and candid disclosures. However, they argued against complete anonymity in platforms for mental health help and advocated the need for privacy and boundary regulation mechanisms in social media platforms supporting this use. Our findings bear implications for informing campus counseling efforts and in designing social media–based mental health support tools for college students.

This study investigated the culturally contingent tensions afforded by the implementation of Second Life in transatlantic communications among 13 college-level students at a Southwestern academic institution in the United States and their instructor and an assistant professor and his graduate student at a Greek-speaking academic institution. The transatlantic transactions unfolded in IBM's virtual Green Data Center, where students and instructors engaged in critical discussions on their local community, IBM, the European Union, and the United States' sustainability practices. By analyzing students and instructors' virtual exchanges, chat medium, and reflective comments, three categories of culturally enacted tensions were identified. These contradictions pertained to (a) emerging intercultural communication, (b) assigned collaborative activities, and (c) the use of the Second Life Viewer as a communication tool. The study demonstrated that contradictions can be contingent on institutional, broader cultural and historical constructs, Internet-mediated tools, and the different linguistic and cultural values and expectations related to relationship building and interactional dynamics. The study highlighted the importance of acknowledging such structural tensions as affordances for teaching and learning. Further, the study emphasized the need to take into account the institutional, pedagogical, instructional, and broader cultural realisms that impose constraints on teaching practices and participation in social virtualities.

Food insecurity is a global phenomenon which impacts a variety of social, economic, and life-stage groups. One such group affected by food insecurity is college students, who tend to experience food insecurity at a prevalence which exceeds the average of their local communities. The impacts of food insecurity in this population are multifaceted and have implications for their college experience and beyond. Food insecurity has been observed to have negative effects on college student academic performance, physical health, and mental health. This review explores the impacts of and solutions for food insecurity in this population globally, with particular emphasis on the United States, and specifically California.

Across community colleges in the United States, most students place into a developmental math course that they never pass. This can leave them without the math skills necessary to make informed decisions in major areas of social life and the college credential required for participation in growing sectors of our economy. One strategy for improving community college students’ pass rate in developmental math courses is the contextualization of developmental math content into the fabric of other courses. This article reviews an effort to contextualize developmental math content (i.e., elementary algebra) into Introduction to Sociology at Kingsborough Community College and Queensborough Community College, both of the City University of New York, during the spring 2016 semester. Data from a pretest/posttest control-group design implemented across the two campuses reveals the significance of this strategy for some sociology students’ grasp of discrete mathematical skills and success in developmental math.

Food insecurity is a rising concern in many parts of the world. In the United States, certain populations are more vulnerable than others. One such group is college students. A 2020 report suggests roughly 39% of the 330,000 students surveyed from different colleges and universities experienced food insecurity in the last 30 days (Baker-Smith et al., 2020). Negative outcomes, such as behavioral and mental health issues, decreased academic performance in the form of lower grade point average, and general self-reporting of poor health, have been described by students suffering from food insecurity (Bruening et al., 2017; Hagedorn et al., 2019; McArthur et al., 2018; Phillips et al., 2018). From the family and consumer sciences (FCS) perspective, it is of paramount importance to support healthier communities by enhancing individual and family well-being, leading to optimal quality of life (Anderson & Nickols, 2001). Given the negative consequences of food insecurity among college students, it is important to raise awareness about its prevalence and connect students to available resources in their regional areas, particularly in their own university settings.

Anecdotally, social connections made in university have life-long impact. Yet knowledge of social networks formed in college remains episodic, due in large part to the difficulty and expense involved in collecting a suitable dataset for comprehensive analysis. To advance and systematize insight into college social networks, we describe a dataset of the largest online social network platform used by college students in the United States. We combine de-identified and aggregated Facebook data with College Scorecard data, campus-level information provided by U.S. Department of Education, to produce a dataset covering the 2008-2015 entry year cohorts for 1,159 U.S. colleges and universities, spanning 7.6 million students. To perform the difficult task of comparing these networks of different sizes we develop a new methodology. We compute features over sampled ego-graphs, train binary classifiers for every pair of graphs, and operationalize distance between graphs as predictive accuracy. Social networks of different year cohorts at the same school are structurally more similar to one another than to cohorts at other schools. Networks from similar schools have similar structures, with the public/private and graduation rate dimensions being the most distinguishable. We also relate school types to specific outcomes. For example, students at private schools have larger networks that are more clustered and with higher homophily by year. Our findings may help illuminate the role that colleges play in shaping social networks which partly persist throughout people's lives.

<p style="text-align: justify;">The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has affected people in multiple dimensions. In addition to the social, physical health, financial, and mental health impacts of the pandemic, many United States (U.S.) college students experienced an abrupt transition to online learning in Spring 2020, resulting in a significant disruption to their learning and life. In this study, we examined COVID-19 impacts as reported by college students enrolled in an online class in Spring 2020 via an extra-credit survey. Participants reported predominantly negative impacts, but positive impacts were also reported. A total of 61 aspects of impact were identified reflecting six major themes: academic, housing and travel related, physical health-related, financial and work-related, social life, and mental health related impacts. We found that females reported significantly more overall negative impacts and significantly more academic and housing/travel related impacts than males. Black students reported significantly fewer positive impacts compared to non-Black students in the sample. Asian students reported significantly more academic impacts than White students. In addition, participants in the fully online degree program had significantly fewer overall impacts and significantly fewer academic impacts than those in the residential degree program. Implications of the findings were discussed.</p>

Discrimination is still a prominent and widely faced issue on college campuses across the United States, especially regarding gender and sexuality. In this research, we utilized autoethnography as a pedagogical methodology to illustrate and understand students’ experiences in the college environment, such as feelings of invisibility, isolation, being unsafe, danger, and unaccepted. This study explores the use of autoethnography to improve campus environments and analyzes perception changes within autoethnography as they relate to gender and sexuality. Data were collected from 146 students in SOC 3010 Social Inequality in the Fall of 2019 and Spring of 2020 courses at Utah State University. Participants were asked to write a term paper in which the provided topics included gender, sexuality, religion, race, and mental health. We used content analysis to evaluate the students’ submissions, which included themes such as exposure to people of different genders, limited perspective, learning about others' experiences, and having someone important in life that belongs to the LGBTQIA+ community". This study finds a positive change in perspective regarding gender and sexuality when autoethnographies are employed in the classroom.

In the 21st century, more and more Chinese students choose to go abroad and study overseas; studying abroad is gradually no longer a small option but gradually, like Postgraduate examinations and Civil service examinations, becoming a significant choice for college students to continue their studies. However, in addition to paying attention to the material life of international students, more and more attention has begun to focus on the spiritual life of international students in recent years. As an international student with a unique cross-cultural identity, what kind of change of thinking will occur after accepting the media context of their ethnic media and overseas social media has become the focus of attention. This paper uses the theories of self-classification, social identity, and belief theory to conduct research to explore how social media affects changing the thinking of international students in todays highly-developed world. This paper adopts the research method of in-depth interviews, with interviews 20 international students from the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and other countries to obtain first-hand information for research, and analyzes that People born in 95 - 00 years (contemporary international students) are keen to use social media and social media accounts for a high proportion of their lives. At the same time, it is concluded that most contemporary international students are relatively rational and objective and have high patriotic enthusiasm. still there are also very obvious upper Chinese and patriotic Chinese groups. But the upper Chinese group is not welcome among overseas students. In general, contemporary international students have high patriotic feelings and good critical thinking skills. They can think about problems from multiple angles, and international students can be used as a bridge for cultural exchanges. In that case, China can go more to the world and the world can know more about China.

Background: The Internet has become an integral part of life. India is the third largest country in the world next to china and United States in respect of the number of internet users. Adolescents usually have poorer self- control, worse self-regulation, and poorer cognition as compared to adults and are considered the most vulnerable group to the temptations of the internet. Objective of the study was to understand the patterns, preferred use of internet, prevalence Internet addiction and its effect on their mental health status among college students in Nagpur.Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in different colleges across in the Nagpur corporation during the period Dec 2016 to May 2017. Pre-validated, pre-tested, structured questionnaire was developed. Young’s 20-item scale for Internet addiction (YIAT) was applied to qualify for the prevalence of Internet addiction. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire has excellent psychometric properties as a screening instrument for psychiatric disorders in nonclinical settings.Results: This study of college students aged 17-25 years with marginally high male representation (51.92%), identified 30.69%, 26.60% and 0.26% students with mild, moderate and severe Internet addiction respectively. Those who are having internet addiction are two times at a risk of having poor mental health (OR = 2.28, p = 0.01).Conclusions: Disproportionate Internet use is an evolving issue among college going students as our study have highlighted that excessive use of the Internet undesirably affects one’s physical and mental health and social well-being.

Background: Prior studies have indicated the complex relationships of smartphone use and smartphone addiction with mental health and life satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural relationships among smartphone use, smartphone addiction, mental health problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, stress [DAS] and satisfaction with life [SWL]). Methods: Cross-sectional data were collected by convenience sampling via an online survey of undergraduate students at a Midwestern university in the United States. The sample size of601 collected from undergraduate students that owned a smartphone and completed responses to the variables was utilized in this study. We assessed the hypothesized variables, including smartphone use, smartphone addiction, and mental health outcomes variables on a Likert-type scale. Structural analysis was used to examine the relationships. Results: Results suggested that smartphone use had a significant negative association with DAS symptoms (β = -.31, t = -3.81, P < .001) and was positively associated with SWL (β =.25, t = 3.41, P < .001). However, smartphone use had a significant positive relationship with smartphone addiction (β = .48, t = 5.51, P < .001). Smartphone addiction was positively related to DAS (β = .44, t = 6.33, P < .001), but it was not related to SWL (β = -.08, t = -1.26, P > .05). Conclusion: This study enhances our understanding of the associations between smartphone use and the health and well-being of undergraduate students. Implications for supporting their psychological health are discussed.

Faith is the foundation of all religions. Sporting practices may be an important site for both private and public expressions or exercises of religious faith. Beyond knowing or construing a deeper meaning to life, the exercise of religious faith may likewise serve as a coping mechanism within the sports context. Specifically, religious practice may help athletes manage the uncertainty of outcome in sport, as well as their fear of sustaining a serious injury. Given the potential psychological benefit of religious faith within this context, researchers have hypothesized that college athletes would demonstrate higher levels of religious faith than other post-secondary students. The current study seeks to expand on this research, examining hypothesized differences among college athletes at a large, public Division I university on the west coast of the United States. Participants completed the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith (SCSRF)—Short Form (Plante, Vallaeys, Sherman, & Wallston, 2002), a five-item self-report measure utilized to assess strength of religious faith regardless of religious affiliation. Findings suggests that both level of athletic competition and racial identification contribute to higher levels of religious faith. That racial identity was a stronger predictor than level of athletic competition is worthy of further exploration from both a social and historical perspective.

The creator, Kenja McCray, is an Associate Professor of History at Atlanta Metropolitan State College (AMSC), where she teaches United States and African American history. AMSC is an institution within the University System of Georgia offering an affordable liberal arts education and committed to serving a diverse, urban student population. McCray has a B.A. from Spelman College, an M.A. from Clark Atlanta University, and a Ph.D. from Georgia State University. Her areas of interest are the 19th and 20th century U. S., African Americans, Africa and the diaspora, transnational histories, women, class and social history. The creator of this essay believes education should be a life-altering process, not only in the intellectual or the economic sense, but also cognitively uplifting. She experienced personal change in college through interacting with professors. She strives to give students a similarly inspirational experience. The encounter should be empowering and should change the way they see themselves and their relationships to the world. The intent of this creative piece is to share the creator’s contemplations on a rites of passage program in which she participated during her college years. She asserts that, given current cultural trends signaling a renewed interest in African-centered ideals and black pride, many aspects of the program could interest current students looking for safe spaces in increasingly intolerant times. This essay will interest researchers, student leaders, student activities advisors, and other administrators seeking to create and develop inclusive campus programs.

Life science professional societies play important roles for undergraduates in their fields and increasingly offer membership, fellowships, and awards for undergraduate students. However, the overall impacts of society-student interactions have not been well studied. Here, we sought to develop and test a pilot survey of undergraduate students to determine how they got involved in research and in presenting at the Experimental Biology (EB) meeting, what they gained from the scientific and career development sessions at the meeting, and how the American Physiological Society (APS) can best support and engage undergraduate students. This survey was administered in 2014 and 2015 to undergraduate students who submitted physiology abstracts for and attended EB. More than 150 students responded (38% response rate). Respondents were demographically representative of undergraduate students majoring in life sciences in the United States. Most students (72%) became involved in research through a summer research program or college course. They attended a variety of EB sessions, including poster sessions and symposia, and found them useful. Undergraduate students interacted with established researchers at multiple venues. Students recommended that APS provide more research fellowships (25%) and keep in touch with students via both e-mail (46%) and social media (37%). Our results indicate that APS’ EB undergraduate activities are valued by students and are effective in helping them have a positive scientific meeting experience. These results also guided the development of a more streamlined survey for use in future years.

The article analyzes organizational and content features of social rehabilitation students’ professional training at higher education institutions in the United States. The two-year college programs for obtaining Associate’s degree, four-year Bachelor’s and interdisciplinary Master’s degree university programs for professional training in social rehabilitation have been characterized. The peculiar features of these programs for each academic degree have been determined. It has been identified that professional training is carried out on an interdisciplinary basis by integrating general scientific, professional and subject-specific knowledge, introducing wide range of elective courses. Three models for training social rehabilitation students have been defined: traditional didactic, problem-solving and facilitated. Preference is given to the facilitated model, the conceptual idea of which is the idea of an integral professional and personal development of a social rehabilitation student as a subject of educational process throughout the study period and further professional activities. According to these models, the key teaching technologies have been divided into three groups: traditional didactic (demonstration, asking and answering questions), problem-solving (discussions, problem-based situations, conversations) and facilitated (interactive technologies such as round-table discussions, brainstorming activities, case study etc.). It has been found out that American college and university teachers prefer interactive (group learning, gaming, reflective, combined, integrated, project-based, information and communication) technologies, the essential features of which are the problem-based nature of co-operative learning, partnership and dialogue. Effective use of interactive technologies helps to involve students in the process of cognition, develops students’ critical thinking, encourages them to participate in learning activities, become independent, develop their professional outlook, reflect upon their own educational and cognitive activities by promptly defining their learning outcomes, modeling real life situations, creating the atmosphere of community and co-operation. It has been found out that the system of professional training provides conditions for professional self-determination, self-development and self-improvement.

Historically, academic inquiry regarding student mobility was conceptualized within an East-to-West paradigm. However, the number of Americans studying in Thailand increases annually. The United States and Thailand differ in terms of academic culture and sociocultural norms. As such, the visiting American students encounter a variety of academic and cultural adjustment issues. This qualitative study focuses on identifying and examining various cultural adjustment barriers that American students face when studying at a Thai university. The aim of this article is to identify the major cultural adjustment issues. Face-to-face in-depth interviews with 22 Americans were audio recorded and thematically analyzed. This case study of participants at a major international college in Thailand identified five primary themes: (a) The “ Farang” Bubble, (b) Language Barriers, (c) Traveling Within the Region, (d) University Life, and (e) Local Transportation. Specific recommendations regarding how universities and study abroad companies can provide better services to facilitate cultural adjustment and overall student experience as well as which additional services are needed are addressed.

With the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, education about human rights became an important focus of the new human rights regime and a core method of spreading its values throughout the world. This story of human rights is consistently presented as a progressive teleology that contextualizes the expansion of rights within a larger grand narrative of liberalization, emancipation, and social justice. This paper examines the disjuncture between the grand narrative on international movements for human rights and social justice and the lived experiences of marginalized students in urban environments in the United States. Drawing on our experience as professors who teach human rights, social justice, and social movements courses at an urban, four-year college in Providence, R.I., with a student body which includes large populations of students who are of color, first-generation, economically disadvantaged, and nontraditional in other ways, we explore the relevance and impact of these grand narratives for the lives of our students and their sense of agency. In particular, we advocate for a critical and transformational approach to human rights pedagogy to counter and overcome the pervasive individualization that undergirds the grand narrative of human rights. We argue that a critical (and radical) human rights pedagogy must evaluate the position of the individual in modern life if liberation through human rights law and activism is to be possible.

The study examines growingly prevalent situation of teenage pregnancy and maternity, focusing on emergent social, economic, and health dimensional issues. The research is given in a careful analysis of global and regional trends, which showed a high rate of teenage births in industrialized countries, with four countries, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, being at the top of the list. Sub-Saharan Africa is currently under the lightning of teenage mothers' pregnancy which is a result of the early marriage and fertility customs of the region. The health concerns of teenage parenthood obviously are immediate, but can also influence the educational attainment, economic prosperity and marital patterns in future. While the newly conducted experiments show a gradual and narrowing in disparity in students' performance, the hurdles of income position and employment opportunities setbacks for young mothers have a narrowing in the labor share and the economic welfare. In the study the health outcomes of adolescent mothers have been a focus point and the program talked about the impacts of poverty and bad prenatal care. Evaluation of the "sexuality" and the "pregnancy-reduction" programs published different levels of effectiveness, the need for integrated and multi-dimensional strategies to parent’s real concerns. Summing up, this particular research serves as a platform to share challenges that teenage mothers face and hence formulating an intelligent system which serves as a guide for targeted interventions necessary for reducing the fundamental consequences of teenage motherhood in a society and among individuals. Keywords: Fourier analysis, Modern World, Social Impact, Education, Life Status and Measures of Prevention.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by rapidly emerging evidence, changing guidance, and misinformation, which present new challenges for health literacy (HL) and digital health literacy (DHL) skills. This study explored whether COVID-19-related information access, attitudes, and behaviors were associated with health literacy and digital health literacy among college students in the United States. Self-reported measures of health literacy, along with items on pandemic-related attitudes, behaviors, information sources, and social networks, were collected online using a managed research panel. In July 2020, 256 responses were collected, which mirrored the racial/ethnic and gender diversity of U.S. colleges. Only 49% reported adequate HL, and 57% found DHL tasks easy overall. DHL did not vary by HL level. In multivariable models, both HL and DHL were independently associated with overall compliance with basic preventive practices. Higher DHL, but not HL, was significantly associated with greater willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine and the belief that acquiring the disease would negatively impact their life. On average, respondents discussed health with 4–5 people, which did not vary by HL or DHL measures. The usage of online information sources varied by HL and DHL. The study findings can inform future student-focused interventions, including identifying the distinct roles of HL and DHL in pandemic information access, attitudes, and behaviors.

Volumes of research studies, surveys, and census data document the “brain drain,” the phenomenon of highly educated and highly skilled workers migrating from their hometown to an urban or metropolitan area that promises a better life. Early indications of brain drain begin with high school graduates determining where to attend college. There is a pervasive belief that it is a measure of success and part of a process of upward mobility to go away to college, and therefore an implied failure if one remains in their hometown or region while earning a degree. This mentality and encouraged brain drain behavior is reinforced by a K-12 education system that sorts students early in their academic careers and invests in the best and brightest, while paying little attention to the majority of students (Harmon, 2010). This is a skewed approach and leaves many individuals, and their hometowns, with few opportunities and stifled upward social and economic mobility. The needs of the workforce are rapidly changing. Some form of post-secondary education is required for the majority of entry-level jobs in the United States (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). Yet, higher education is being faced with increasing competition and growing skepticism regarding the value of a college degree. By collaborating and partnering with the region in which an institution exists, urban, suburban, or rural, colleges and universities can cut through higher education’s competitive noise and growing skepticism, while addressing the changing workforce needs and redefining students’ pride about where they earn a degree, and begin their careers, close to home. We call this paradigm shift the “Brain Remain,” and it has the potential to significantly alter the way higher education, K-12 districts, businesses, and community leaders work, operate, and collaborate in the new economy. This, in turn, can create bold new opportunities for students where they least expect them: right in their own backyards.

Although food and drink have traditionally been prohibited in libraries, in recent years, there have been increased joint ventures between libraries and coffee shops like Starbucks. Although library cafés are perceived mostly for social networking and recreational purposes, an increasing number of students are conducting both their formal and informal learning at the library cafés, instead of inside the physical libraries. Using a quantitative comparative approach, this study also aims to identify the similarities and differences in the usage of library cafés amongst students at three different universities in Asia and the United States – namely, the University of Tsukuba, located in Japan, the University of Hong Kong, and the University of Kentucky in the USA. Furthermore, this study explores the educational, social, and recreational roles that library cafés play in the students’ college experience and daily lives. Online questionnaire surveys were used to gauge library patrons’ usage and perceptions of both the library and café spaces, as well as their preferences for formal and informal learning and recreation. From the 314 responses collected from all three universities, the results indicated that a majority of the respondents considered the library café as an important part of their campus life, though a majority of them would still prefer formal learning within the library building, and certain recreational activities outside the library café. Besides, the library café also functions like a multi-functional hub where everyone can find their own use, ranging from being a place for learning to a place for socialization purposes.

Este trabalho aborda a relação entre a patologização dos(as) estudantes oriundos(as) da classe trabalhadora, de imigrantes e de minorias étnico-raciais nos Estados Unidos e a cooptação da agência dessa população historicamente explorada e submetida a opressões sociais e educacionais. Para isso, utilizamos a concepção de agência desde o Posicionamento Ativista Transformador (Transformative Activist Stance – TAS), desenvolvido por Stetsenko (2017), a filosofia da práxis em Marx (1989), a teoria histórico-cultural de Vygotsky (2002) e a perspectiva anticolonialista de Freire (2019) e Quijano (2019). Primeiramente, apresentamos as condições de vida e de trabalho de estudantes vulneráveis e latinos(as) em Nova York e nos Estados Unidos, depois tratamos um conjunto de discussões teóricas oriundas de pesquisas sobre o contexto da patologização da pobreza, do déficit, da diferença e da desigualdade social. Em seguida, apresentamos as histórias de vida e de escolarização de estudantes do Community College da City University of New York (CUNY) diagnosticados(as) como deficientes de aprendizagem e a sua luta dentro do sistema educacional americano. O processo de patologização daqueles(as) que não se enquadram no padrão branco e supremacista norte-americano culmina numa nova forma de colonialismo (o Sul dentro do Norte Global), resultante na cooptação da agência crítica e transformadora daqueles(as) que, a priori, poderiam ser o motor da transformação do sistema escolar que os(as) oprime.Palavras-chave: Neocolonialismo. Deficiência. Agência. Educação. Abstract: This work addresses the relationship between the pathologization of students from the working class, immigrants and ethnic-racial minorities in the United States and the co-optation of the agency of this historically exploited population and subjected to social and educational oppression. For this, we used the concept of agency from the Transformative Activist Stance (TAS), developed by Stetsenko (2017), the philosophy of praxis in Marx (1989), the historical-cultural theory of Vygotsky (2002) and the anti-colonialist perspective of Freire (2019) and Quijano (2019). First, we present the living and working conditions of vulnerable students, especially Latinos, in New York and the United States, then we discuss a set of theoretical issues arising from research on the context of the pathologization of poverty, deficit, difference and social inequality. Next, we present the life and schooling histories 2 ? of students from a Community College at City University of New York (CUNY) diagnosed as learning disabled and their struggle within the American educational system. Our aim is to reveal how how the pathologization process produces students who come to “not fit in” the North American White supremacist sociocultural standard, which amounts to a new form of colonialism (the South within the Global North), resulting in the co-optation of the critical and transformative agency of precisely of the marginalized who, potentially, are uniquely positioned to be the engine of the transformation of the school system that oppresses them.Keywords: Neocolonialism. Deficiency. Agency. Education.

Purpose of the Study The purpose of the study was to investigate how two types of videos, personal background knowledge (PBK) and general background knowledge (GBK), affect people's interpretation of a classroom problem case that involved a disconnection between a foreign college professor and her students. The PBK video described the professor's personal experiences and upbringing within her culture that impacted her views about the importance of learning. The GBK video included only general information about important political and social events in, and the language and customs of, the professor's culture. Both prior to and after seeing the PBK or GBK video, we measured participants’ reactions to the problem case. PBK had a much stronger impact on changes in reactions than GBK. Background/Context Prior research suggests that background information may unfreeze stereotypes and result in more empathy between people. It is unclear whether these effects are due to access to general kinds of knowledge about an individual (GBK) or whether they depend on specific kinds of relevant personal knowledge (PBK). We investigated the role of different kinds of knowledge in changing people's negative views about the teacher in the case. Participants The participants were 43 undergraduate students (25 females and 18 males) enrolled in a general psychology course at a top-5 school of education (according to US News rankings) located near the middle of the United States. Ninety percent of the participants were Caucasian and enrolled in different majors in the school of education. Research Design We used a within- and between-subjects design. The participants first saw and responded to the case of the problematic professor (baseline condition). Participants were then assigned randomly to either the PBK or GBK video conditions. After watching, they answered questions about the case once again. Results The PBK video story had strong emotional and cognitive effects on changes in students’ understanding of Professor X's case and in their strategies for resolving the problem. The GBK tended to make negative stereotypes and opinions worse. This latter outcome was unexpected given the frequent reliance on general cultural knowledge to make people more empathetic and understanding. We suggest that increased attention to personal background knowledge in instruction may have important implications for additional ways to help students learn.

Few empirical studies have explored the grieving process among different ethnic groups within the United States, and very little is known about how African Americans and Caucasians may differ in their experience of loss. The purpose of this study was to examine the African-American experience of grief, with particular emphasis on issues of identity change, interpersonal dimensions of the loss, and continuing attachments with the deceased. Participants were 1,581 bereaved college students (940 Caucasians and 641 African Americans) attending classes at a large southern university. Each participant completed the Inventory of Complicated Grief-Revised, the Continuing Bonds Scale, and questions regarding the circumstances surrounding his or her loss. Results revealed that African Americans experienced more frequent bereavement by homicide, maintenance of a stronger continuing bond with the deceased, greater grief for the loss of extended kin beyond the immediate family, and a sense of support in their grief, despite their tendency to talk less with others about the loss or seek professional support for it. Overall, African Americans reported higher levels of complicated grief symptoms than Caucasians, especially when they spent less time speaking to others about their loss experience. Implications of these findings for bereavement support services for African Americans were briefly noted.

Background: Cultural competence is a difficult skill to teach, as it has several operational definitions as well as limited and unstandardized training procedures. Currently, there is no formal cultural competency training at the undergraduate level for students who seek to become a medical doctor. The purpose of this study is to explore perceptions of cultural competence among premedical undergraduates by assessing how they define and understand cultural competency and their knowledge (and sources thereof) of sociocultural realities in health and medicine. Methods: Structured in-depth interviews took place in 2016 and 2017 at a medium-sized private college in the Midwestern United States. Twenty premedical students were interviewed. The interviews were transcribed and thematically coded following an inductive, iterative, and systematic process. Results: Most students can provide a definition of cultural competence that includes at least one component of how it is conceptualized by the Association of American Medical Colleges. However, students focus largely on defining cultural competence as individual attitudes and interaction rather than systemic or structural realities that produce inequalities in health care. When explicitly asked, students varied in the level of detail provided in explaining the social determinants of health (such as race or ethnicity, sex, gender, and socioeconomic status) and varied in the accuracy of their definitions of traditional health practices. Each student noted the importance of training on cultural competence and many placed patients’ health at the center of their reason for doing so rather than focusing on their own training as a motivation. Students discussed various aspects of sociocultural differences and the need for physicians to understand patients’ outlooks on health care and be able to communicate to patients the purpose of suggested medical treatment, as well as the inherent tension in balancing patients as individuals and members of sociocultural groups. Premedical undergraduate students see their own cultural competence as an informal skill that is gained through social interactions across various areas of life, such as work, family, friends, and school. Conclusion: This study traces the sources of sociocultural information that premedical students will bring to their medical training as well as places where cultural competence can be further explored, practiced, and formally integrated in premedical education.

During the early 2010s, undocumented youth activists were leading the charge to gain congressional support for the federal Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, which sought to provide a pathway to citizenship for eligible undocumented youth in the United States. Led primarily by Latino college students and graduates, this movement became very attentive to and inclusive of the concerns of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer members. Drawing on semi-structured interviews of Latino lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer undocumented youth and other documentary evidence, this article demonstrates how activists can deploy intersectionality as a collective action frame that serves multiple purposes. Specifically, intersectionality can function as: (1) a diagnostic frame to help activists make sense of their own multiply-marginalized identities; (2) a motivational frame to inspire action; and (3) a prognostic frame that guides how activists build inclusive organizations and bridge social movements. We show how this frame guided the ways in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and other undocumented activists interpreted their own life experiences, prompted them to build inclusive organizations, and broadened the scope of their movement. We conclude by arguing that activists have the potential to adopt intersectionality as a master frame that strengthens ties among various movements mobilizing marginalized populations.

Think not of those who are slain in God’s way as Dead. Nay, theylive, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord;Holy Qur’an III:169 The Muslim World and the academic community in the United Stateswere shocked on the nineteenth day of Ramadan (Tuesday, May 27, 1986)when news reached them that Professor Ismail al Faruqi and his belovedwife, Lamya’, were assassinated by an intruder who broke into their homein Wyncote. Pennsylvania. This couple, whose dedication to the Islamicmessage is widely known among scholars and others working in the Muslimcommunity, played an important role in the dissemination of correctknowledge about Islam in the United States.A Palestinian by origin, Professor al Faruqi was born on January 21,1921.He attended elementary and secondary school in his native land of Palestineduring the British Mandate. After obtaining a first degree in Philosophyat the American University in Beirut, he served as the last Palestinian governorof Galilee during 1945-1948. After the creation of Israel, he migratedto the United States where he did graduate studies at Harvard and atIndiana University. His intellectual development later led him to al-Azharand McGill University.During his early years in the United States, Professor al Faruqi engagedin research on the Arab experience. One of his first books dealt with this.In the 1960s when the Muslim student population began to swell significantlyand a Muslim Student Association was formed by some dedicated youngMuslims who wanted to retain their cultural identity in the face of strongWestern cultural influences, Professor a1 Faruqi became one of thecounsellors to these young men and women searching for roots and tryingnot to be seduced from the sirat ul-Mustuqim (the path of righteousness).This involvement with the MSA was destined to be a lifelong engagement.During this period he addressed many MSA gatherings and attended manyseminars organized by the student leadership.As the number of Muslim professionals increased, Professor al-Faruqiand others began to think about Muslim professional organizations. Oneof these groups that received the attention of al Faruqi was the Associationof Muslim Social Scientists, which was founded in 1972. The founderselected al Faruqi as the first president. This organization soon emerged asthe primary intellectual vehicle in the social sciences for those Muslim scholarsand graduate students working in the American universities and colleges whowere committed to developing contemporary intellectual thought within theparadigm of Islam.By the late 1970s, Professor al-Faruqi, who had by this time earned aninternational reputation among young Muslims around the world, beganto work with the MSA and AMSS intellectual leaders on the idea of settingup an Islamic college or university. Thinking along this line led to two importantdevelopments in his life. The first was the founding of the AmericanIslamic College in Chicago which he headed but resigned from just before ...

Abstract The Age-Friendly University (AFU) initiative aims to increase the participation of age-diverse older adults in higher education communities. The present study investigated age-friendly practices across 23 institutions in the United States. The ICCS Inventory (Silverstein et al., 2022), which identifies 192 potential age-friendly campus practices was completed by administrators representing major campus units. A heat map was used to graphically represent age-friendly practices and identify where universities differed in the presence of those practices. Heat map findings indicated campuses are low in some auxiliary services that assist retired faculty and staff. However, campuses consistently gave retired faculty and staff access to university library services. Campuses also had limited age-friendly teaching and learning services. None of the campuses reported having resources to help faculty deliver teaching materials in formats specifically geared toward older learners. In addition, none of the campuses reported having teaching and learning staff visiting campus departments to provide resources for older learners, and very few campuses offered courses that focused on aging and age diversity issues. Common age-friendly practices were seen with respect to providing instructional technology support for faculty/staff/students and community partnerships for intergenerational activities. Physical environment and personnel evidenced the most frequent age-friendly practices likely because they are mandated by the ADA (e.g., clear signage, handicapped parking close to buildings, spaces free of obstacles, training in ageism as a form of discrimination). Overall, the present study highlighted the areas where college campuses are most age inclusive, while also revealing areas for improvement in age inclusive practices.

This year AJISS turns twenty-five. In 1983, during a meeting of the Associationof Muslim Social Scientists’ (AMSS) executive board in Plainfield,Indiana, the pros and cons of establishing a journal were discussed in greatdetail and at length. The board members, Dr.Waheed Fakri (president), Dr.Sulayman S. Nyang (vice president), and Dawood Zwink (treasurer) agreedthat the United States needed a Muslim-led and Muslim-organized scholarlypublication to address important issues at home and abroad. In theirvision, the journal would educate university and college students, as well aspolicymakers, with respect to the life and conditions ofMuslims in the socialsciences. In addition, the journal would be a vehicle for articulating andaggregating Muslim views and understanding of the social sciences.Another objective was to provide a forum for Muslim scholars, andespecially for those associated with the AMSS, to publish their research.At the time, it was felt that Muslim scholars engaged in social scienceresearch projects with an Islamic perspective found mainstream scholarlyjournals inhospitable. The board thought that the proposed journal wouldbecome – as it has – a forum for cutting-edge research in the social sciencesand the humanities, employing both the standard social scienceresearch methodologies as well as the Islamic theoretical and methodologicalperspectives.Two issues were critical: (1) obtaining the financial resources needed tosustain the proposed journal and (2) its viability and effectiveness. After thego-ahead decision had been taken, and in order to establish the journal, theboard members drew upon the intellect and services of AMSS members aswell as friends and sympathizers. With this in mind, Dr. Mumtaz Ahmad, arespected and activeAMSS member and friend of Dr. Nyang, was proposedas the journal’s co-editor. Dr. Nyang became the editor-in-chief and Dr.Ahmad, a former editor of a scholarly journal in Pakistan, became the editor.Several prominent Muslims were invited to serve on the advisory boardto widen the circle of involvement ...

Background/Context The United States is becoming increasingly racially and ethnically diverse, and increasingly racially isolated across race-ethnic boundaries. Researchers have argued that both diversity and racial isolation serve to undermine the social cohesion needed to bind American citizens to one another and to society at large. Focus of Study Given the compelling and consistent findings relating desegregation to social inclusion, this research posits that the issue of declining social trust and social cohesion may be better understood as a consequence of segregation and social isolation within communities rather than as a consequence of variations in diversity across communities. Thus, this study examines the relationship between social cohesion (social distance) and social isolation (race-ethnic segregation) at the institutional level—in schools and neighborhoods. Thus, in the present study, social distance, which reflects both weak connections among ethnically diverse groups in society and limited “bridging capital,” serves as our operational indicator of social cohesion. Participants Participants in this study come from the National Longitudinal Survey of Freshmen, a national probability sample of approximately 4,000 first-time students entering selective colleges and universities in 1999. Equal numbers of African American, Latino, Asian, and White students were sampled from 28 participating institutions, which resulted in an oversampling of minority students to provide meaningful comparisons across each of the major race-ethnic groups. Research Design This study examines the effects of early racial isolation in schools and neighborhoods on social cohesion (i.e., preference for same-race neighbors, preference for children to have same-race schoolmates, and social distance); as such, the measures of social cohesion are drawn from the baseline survey (Wave 1) conducted at the beginning of the first year, before college context and experiences could reasonably impact these outcomes. The models in this study are estimated by race-ethnic group using ordinary least squares regression. The social cohesion outcomes (i.e., preference for same-race neighbors, preference for children to have same race-schoolmates, and social distance) are estimated separately for each race-ethnic group as a function of early racial isolation in neighborhoods, early racial isolation in schools, high school type and context, and student demographics. Findings/Results Results suggest that social isolation in schools plays a more significant role than neighborhood isolation in diminishing social cohesion among young adults, although both matter. Our overall findings relating social isolation in K–12 schooling and young adults’ feelings of social distance, as well as preference for same race-neighbors, offer further support for perpetuation theory, which suggests that early school segregation leads to segregation across the life course and across institutional contexts. The findings also point to school segregation's intergenerational consequences and are consistent with the results of Crain's classic research using Office of Civil Rights data, which laid the foundation for later studies on the long-term effects of desegregation.

The main objective of this study is to explore the use of face- negotiation and co-cultural theories in establishing how veiled and un-veiled female Muslim college students communicate ten years after 9/11. In this case, this study wants to explore and understand the different ways through which female Muslims negotiate their lives in American society. This is because there may be a lot of negative perceptions about Muslims as they are considered as terrorists who caused a lot of losses of life and properties on September 11, 2001. In this respect, therefore, this study seeks to understand the communication skills used by Middle-Eastern female Muslims as subordinates in a dominant societal structure. The analysis of communication interactions involved in this study takes two approaches: co-cultural communication theory and negotiation communication theory. There is much hope in finding out how female Muslims, despite the fact that they are perceived negatively and as belonging to a terror group, are able to communicate as subordinates in a dominant societal structure. Conducting a study in the United States of America is very good, and it gives hope of accurate and relevant information as this country is very prone to terrorist attacks. In most cases, these interactions occur in their every day lives and at schools. In education institutions, students come from different social, cultural, and religious backgrounds, and hence, the rate of intercultural interaction is very high. Additionally, in the American society, people communicate differently from different cultural backgrounds, and hence, female Muslims usually face challenges in interacting with their fellow society members. It should be noted that inter-cultural communication occurs between members of different cultural groups. In this case, community members achieve mutual understanding and establish a reciprocal communication or relationship as a result of their identity orientation.

Background/Context Muslim communities in the United States have increasingly been the target of the state security apparatus, virulent public discourse, and increasing cultural xenophobia. Since 2001, individuals perceived to be from Muslim backgrounds have experienced dramatically increasing numbers of racially motivated attacks. What is often called “Islamophobia,” or anti-Muslim discrimination or racism, has continued to rise in the past decade. Muslim communities face an acute political and cultural attack in which their actions and words are increasingly scrutinized and questioned. College campuses have been particular sites of contestation. This article explores how Muslim undergraduates understand their campus experiences. Purpose/Objective/Focus of Study I examine how Muslim students expressed feelings of isolation and alienation on their campus community in a context of state surveillance programs targeting Muslim students and communities. In particular, I explore student narratives of being conscious of peer suspicion. Further, I investigate how self-consciousness of their outsider status created an environment where Muslim students feel they must continually attempt to make their peers comfortable with their presence while also challenging dominant stereotypes of Muslims. This study gives voice to Muslim undergraduate students as they negotiate prejudices, scrutiny, and discrimination on college campuses. Setting Data was collected in southern California because there is a critical mass of community, concentration of students, and number of political advocacy and service providers for the diverse Muslim communities in the region. Focusing on this age group allows for an examination of this specific generation's understandings of race, identity, and citizenship, because they came of age amidst a rise in discrimination and racism against those associated with Islam and Muslims. Data Collection and Analysis Data was collected through semi-structured life history interviews and ethnographic observations of Muslim undergraduates in Southern California. The interviews spanned between three and five hours each and were conducted over multiple meetings with each participant. Drawing from a critical feminist framework, interviews were conducted not simply to garner data, but rather to allow students the opportunity explore their own experiences, analyze their histories, and engage in social analysis. The research utilized a multi-level coding scheme in order to understand individual meaning-making processes. Findings/Results This study reveals that Muslim students often feel politically and culturally targeted and isolated on their campuses and do not feel that their peers and teachers engage with them as full members of the campus community. Conclusions This study contributes to the growing body of literature that demonstrates the multiracial demographic of students who choose the term Muslim as a primary form of identity. This study reveals that Muslim students often felt politically and culturally targeted and isolated on their campuses and did not feel that their peers and teachers engaged with them as full members of the campus community. Colleges and universities must take proactive steps to engage Muslim students in dialogue about their concerns, fears, and questions about issues of freedoms and protections on campus.

The World Trade Center Attack or 9/11 tragedy has awakened the international community, particularly the United States (US) to sharpen its foreign policy in facing security threats coming from ‘weak states’. One of the most prominent weak states examples that pose a grave threat to other countries are the Northern Triangle Countries of Central America that referred to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Hence, this paper will discuss the rationale behind US initiatives in dealing with security threats in El Salvador as one of the Northern Triangle Countries. In analyzing the case, the writers will use the weak state concept and national interest concept. The result of this paper finds that El Salvador corresponds to the elements of a weak state and further poses security threats by giving rise to transnational criminal organizations, drug trafficking, and migrant problems in which overcoming those security threats has become US vital national interest. 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Guardian News and Media, November 18, 2014.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/18/el-salvador-gang-violence-child-migration-crisis. Accessed July 11, 2021. “Life under Gang Rule in El Salvador.” Crisis Group, December 10, 2018. https://www.crisisgroup.org/latin-america-caribbean/central-america/el-salvador/life-under-gang-rule-el-salvador. Löwenheim, Oded. “Transnational Criminal Organizations and Security: The Case against Inflating the Threat.” International Journal 57, no. 4 (2002): 513–36. https://doi.org/10.2307/40203690. “Mano Dura: El Salvador Responds to Gangs.” Taylor & Francis. Accessed August 5, 2021.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09614520701628121?journalCode=cdip20.Menjivar, Cecilia, and Andrea Gomez Cervates. “El Salvador: Civil War, Natural Disasters, and Gang Violence Drive Migration.” migrationpolicy.org, May 11, 2021.https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/el-salvador-civil-war-natural-disasters-and-gang-violence-drive-migration. Accessed July 11, 2021. Meyer, Peter J., and Ribando Clare Seelke. Central America Regional Security Initiative: Background and Policy Issues for Congress. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, 2014. Michaels, Peter S. Lawless Intervention: United States Foreign Policy in El Salvador and Nicaragua, 6, 7, no. 2 (January 5, 1987). https://doi.org/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/71463263.pdf. OSAC. “El Salvador 2020 Crime & Safety Report,” https://www.osac.gov/Content/Report/b4884604- 977e-49c7-9e4a-1855725d032e. Days on July 9, 2021. “Overview.” World Bank. Accessed August 4, 2021. https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/elsalvador/overview. Patrick, Stewart. “Weak States and Global Threats: Assessing Evidence of Spillovers.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2006, 1–31. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.984057. Published by Teresa Romero, and Jul 5. “Gini Coefficient: Wealth Inequality in El Salvador.” Statista,July 5, 2021.https://www.statista.com/statistics/983230/income-distribution-gini-coefficient-el-salvador/. “Remarks by President Obama after Meeting with Central American Presidents.” National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration. Accessed August 8, 2021. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/07/25/remarks-president-obama-after-meeting-central-american-presidents. Riney, Lt Col Thomas J. “How Is MS-13 a Threat to US National Security? .” AIR WAR COLLEGE AIR UNIVERSITY , February 12, 2009. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA540139.pdf. Rivera, Mauricio. “Drugs, Crime, and NONSTATE Actors in Latin America: Latin American Politics and Society.” Cambridge Core. Cambridge University Press, October 12, 2020. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/latin-american-politics-and-society/article/abs/drugs-crime-and-nonstate-actors-in-latin-america/67CF0B66AB8673D0C50F2F99AC93A1B7. Schneider, Mark. “Where Are the Northern Triangle Countries Headed? And What Is U.S. Policy?” Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), July 9, 2021. https://www.csis.org/analysis/where-are-northern-triangle-countries-headed-and-what-us-policy. Seelke, Clare Ribando. “CRS Report for Congress.” El Salvador: Political, Economic, and Social Conditions and U.S. Relations, November 18, 2008. https://doi.org/https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/4951ec75e.pdf. Silva Avalos, Hector. “Corruption in El Salvador: Politicians, Police, and Transportistas.” SSRN, April 2, 2014. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2419174. Sleinan, Julett Pineda. “Salvadoran Court: Ex-President and Wife Guilty of Illicit Enrichment.” OCCRP. 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THE SCIENCE OF CHILDREN'S RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT by Annette Mahoney. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 86 pages. Paperback; $20.00. ISBN: 9781108812771. *The Science of Children's Religious and Spiritual Development by Annette Mahoney is a recent addition to the Cambridge Elements Child Development series. Between an introduction and conclusion, Mahoney has five sections to guide her summary. Overall, her approach is well conceived, approachable, and highly informative. Having taught undergraduate courses on child development for fifteen years at Christian liberal arts institutions, I found Mahoney's volume to be a thorough yet concise resource on religious and spiritual development from which I can draw resources as well as enrich discourse with engaged students. *In her introduction, Mahoney quickly sets the stage for the importance of religious and spiritual development in children. She notes how parents around the world desire to raise "good" (prosocial) children. Religion is frequently cited as influencing their parenting practices. The emphasis in research is on adolescence and adulthood for the specific study of religious and spiritual development, leaving a large gap when it comes to how these issues pertain to children's development. *Mahoney draws from Harold Koenig, Michael McCullough, and David Larson to define Religious/Religion (R) and Spiritual/Spirituality (S).1 She acknowledges that this is not an agreed upon straightforward process, and that often R and S are not substantively different in the social science literature. With children, perceptions of God are commonly examined, though this only begins to scratch the surface of what's beneath their RS development. *After a quick historical look at RS, Mahoney offers a brief overview of Fowler's faith development theory, citing his 1981 book, Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning.2 She concludes that his "assumptions perhaps helped to dampen interest by mainstream developmental scientists in investigating children's RS" (p. 6). Here I wanted to better understand her conclusion and felt that more explanation would be beneficial for her argument. *Mahoney frequently reminds the reader that most of the research, both historically and currently, occurs in Western societies. There have been a handful of measures developed, which she presents in a table with the name, authors, definitions of R and S, subscales, and example items (pp. 11-19). This is followed by a helpful narrative of each measure and a comparison of four models that emerge. The reader quickly observes the murky state of measuring RS. Prosocial behaviors and positive psychology concepts are intertwined with RS, and Mahoney calls for clearer communication and increased transparency. *Due to the lack of studies with children, Mahoney reviews adolescents' RS and related psychosocial adjustment. RS appears to influence the views and choices of adolescents in areas such as risk taking, self-esteem, and depression. Mahoney presents a well-articulated description of the "muddled middle" (p. 28). Adolescents with either a high or a low state of RS are best adjusted. It appears that RS ambivalence places adolescents at greatest risk. Factors such as cognitive dissonance and moral inconsistencies appear to be at play. *The few studies on children's psychosocial adjustment and RS seem to suggest that children with significant life stressors (e.g., family conflict) may benefit from RS. The reciprocal nature of the parent-child relationship has relevance, as greater parental RS shows both positive and negative outcomes. On the upside, parents with higher levels of RS are more efficacious and warm, which in turn increases children's social and academic functioning. On the downside, greater parental RS predicts greater parental behavioral control and less autonomy in children. This in turn can be linked to more emotional problems in children, both internalizing (e.g., depression, anxiety) and externalizing (e.g., acting out, delinquency). It is important to note that these levels of problems are typically subclinical. *Mahoney also reviews the relationship between corporal punishment and parental RS. The research is clear on physical punishment (e.g., spanking) being ineffective, resulting in greater negative outcomes. The findings are mixed with regard to RS. Parents with higher RS, particularly those with lower education, implement harsher parenting strategies; however, greater attendance of religious services has been linked to less use of such strategies. Furthermore, higher religious attendance has been found to be a protective factor when it comes to child maltreatment (i.e., abuse and neglect). *When parents are asked specifically about their parenting goals, it becomes evident that not many place fostering a high level of RS to their children at the top of the list. Goals that surpass it include nurturing high self-esteem and interpersonal skills, contributing to the larger society, carrying on family and cultural traditions, and providing the necessary education for a good future. Again, these are primarily Western reports and Mahoney reminds the reader that other countries' perspectives are needed. Like non-Western studies, studies of nontraditional parenting units, such as single parents, same-sex parents, and economically disadvantaged parents, are underrepresented. Furthermore, the type of theistic schema provides another area of diversity that is lacking, as children can be reared in polytheistic, nontheistic, atheist, or agnostic environments. *Mahoney's final section looks at social and cognitive-developmental research. Concepts such as theory of mind and attachment enter the scene. The primary area that has been studied in children's RS development is their concept of God. Preliminary findings suggest that children's perceptions of God mirror how they are being parented (e.g., punishing parents → punishing God, nurturing parents → nurturing God, powerful parents → powerful God, etc.). Examining children's prayers also sheds some light on RS development, though again findings are mixed and limited. There is more work to be done. *Mahoney calls on social scientists to take the lead in providing guidance to parents to uphold the United Nations' 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 14, 1-2 that states: "States Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; States Parties shall respect the rights and duties of the parents and, when applicable, legal guardians, to provide direction to the child in the exercise of his or her right in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child."3 More intentional investigation of children around the globe can help parents directly but also inform policy makers. Mahoney states that "one central observation is that this literature is in its infancy stage" (p. 62). *Overall, Mahoney's review of children's RS development in this volume is thorough yet concise, troubling yet hopeful, vague yet nuanced. She concludes with six key areas and related findings to recap how the scientific study of children's RS development can be improved in the years to come. Thankfully, RS has begun to attract significant attention in the field, including from the Templeton Foundation's attempt to build a more global community of social scientists.4 After reading this book, I feel much better equipped to elucidate what is known and what is yet to be discovered. This is important, not only in academic communities of colleagues and students, but also in the broader communities of church and society and in our personal communities. *Notes *1Harold G. Koenig, Michael E. McCullough, and David B. Larson, Handbook of Religion and Health (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001). *2James W. Fowler, Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1981). *3United Nations Human Rights, "Convention on the Rights of the Child," Treaty Series 1577, no. 3 (1989): 1-23, https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx. *4J. D. Warren, "$10 Million Grant Will Study Children's Religious Views," University of California, Riverside, February 19, 2020, https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2020/02/19/10-million-grant-will-study-childrens-religious-views. *Reviewed by Erin Mueller, Professor of Psychology, Northwestern College, Orange City, IA 51041.

Education in Oceania continues to reflect the embedded implicit and explicit colonial practices and processes from the past. This paper conceptualises a cultural approach to education and leadership appropriate and relevant to the Republic of the Marshall Islands. As elementary school leaders, we highlight Kanne Lobal, a traditional Marshallese navigation practice based on indigenous language, values and practices. We conceptualise and develop Kanne Lobal in this paper as a framework for understanding the usefulness of our indigenous knowledge in leadership and educational practices within formal education. Through bwebwenato, a method of talk story, our key learnings and reflexivities were captured. We argue that realising the value of Marshallese indigenous knowledge and practices for school leaders requires purposeful training of the ways in which our knowledge can be made useful in our professional educational responsibilities. Drawing from our Marshallese knowledge is an intentional effort to inspire, empower and express what education and leadership partnership means for Marshallese people, as articulated by Marshallese themselves. Introduction As noted in the call for papers within the Waikato Journal of Education (WJE) for this special issue, bodies of knowledge and histories in Oceania have long sustained generations across geographic boundaries to ensure cultural survival. For Marshallese people, we cannot really know ourselves “until we know how we came to be where we are today” (Walsh, Heine, Bigler & Stege, 2012). Jitdam Kapeel is a popular Marshallese concept and ideal associated with inquiring into relationships within the family and community. In a similar way, the practice of relating is about connecting the present and future to the past. Education and leadership partnerships are linked and we look back to the past, our history, to make sense and feel inspired to transform practices that will benefit our people. In this paper and in light of our next generation, we reconnect with our navigation stories to inspire and empower education and leadership. Kanne lobal is part of our navigation stories, a conceptual framework centred on cultural practices, values, and concepts that embrace collective partnerships. Our link to this talanoa vā with others in the special issue is to attempt to make sense of connections given the global COVID-19 context by providing a Marshallese approach to address the physical and relational “distance” between education and leadership partnerships in Oceania. Like the majority of developing small island nations in Oceania, the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) has had its share of educational challenges through colonial legacies of the past which continues to drive education systems in the region (Heine, 2002). The historical administration and education in the RMI is one of colonisation. Successive administrations by the Spanish, German, Japanese, and now the US, has resulted in education and learning that privileges western knowledge and forms of learning. This paper foregrounds understandings of education and learning as told by the voices of elementary school leaders from the RMI. The move to re-think education and leadership from Marshallese perspectives is an act of shifting the focus of bwebwenato or conversations that centres on Marshallese language and worldviews. The concept of jelalokjen was conceptualised as traditional education framed mainly within the community context. In the past, jelalokjen was practiced and transmitted to the younger generation for cultural continuity. During the arrival of colonial administrations into the RMI, jelalokjen was likened to the western notions of education and schooling (Kupferman, 2004). Today, the primary function of jelalokjen, as traditional and formal education, it is for “survival in a hostile [and challenging] environment” (Kupferman, 2004, p. 43). Because western approaches to learning in the RMI have not always resulted in positive outcomes for those engaged within the education system, as school leaders who value our cultural knowledge and practices, and aspire to maintain our language with the next generation, we turn to Kanne Lobal, a practice embedded in our navigation stories, collective aspirations, and leadership. The significance in the development of Kanne Lobal, as an appropriate framework for education and leadership, resulted in us coming together and working together. Not only were we able to share our leadership concerns, however, the engagement strengthened our connections with each other as school leaders, our communities, and the Public Schooling System (PSS). Prior to that, many of us were in competition for resources. Educational Leadership: IQBE and GCSL Leadership is a valued practice in the RMI. Before the IQBE programme started in 2018, the majority of the school leaders on the main island of Majuro had not engaged in collaborative partnerships with each other before. Our main educational purpose was to achieve accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), an accreditation commission for schools in the United States. The WASC accreditation dictated our work and relationships and many school leaders on Majuro felt the pressure of competition against each other. We, the authors in this paper, share our collective bwebwenato, highlighting our school leadership experiences and how we gained strength from our own ancestral knowledge to empower “us”, to collaborate with each other, our teachers, communities, as well as with PSS; a collaborative partnership we had not realised in the past. The paucity of literature that captures Kajin Majol (Marshallese language) and education in general in the RMI is what we intend to fill by sharing our reflections and experiences. To move our educational practices forward we highlight Kanne Lobal, a cultural approach that focuses on our strengths, collective social responsibilities and wellbeing. For a long time, there was no formal training in place for elementary school leaders. School principals and vice principals were appointed primarily on their academic merit through having an undergraduate qualification. As part of the first cohort of fifteen school leaders, we engaged in the professional training programme, the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership (GCSL), refitted to our context after its initial development in the Solomon Islands. GCSL was coordinated by the Institute of Education (IOE) at the University of the South Pacific (USP). GCSL was seen as a relevant and appropriate training programme for school leaders in the RMI as part of an Asia Development Bank (ADB) funded programme which aimed at “Improving Quality Basic Education” (IQBE) in parts of the northern Pacific. GCSL was managed on Majuro, RMI’s main island, by the director at the time Dr Irene Taafaki, coordinator Yolanda McKay, and administrators at the University of the South Pacific’s (USP) RMI campus. Through the provision of GCSL, as school leaders we were encouraged to re-think and draw-from our own cultural repository and connect to our ancestral knowledge that have always provided strength for us. This kind of thinking and practice was encouraged by our educational leaders (Heine, 2002). We argue that a culturally-affirming and culturally-contextual framework that reflects the lived experiences of Marshallese people is much needed and enables the disruption of inherent colonial processes left behind by Western and Eastern administrations which have influenced our education system in the RMI (Heine, 2002). Kanne Lobal, an approach utilising a traditional navigation has warranted its need to provide solutions for today’s educational challenges for us in the RMI. Education in the Pacific Education in the Pacific cannot be understood without contextualising it in its history and culture. It is the same for us in the RMI (Heine, 2002; Walsh et al., 2012). The RMI is located in the Pacific Ocean and is part of Micronesia. It was named after a British captain, John Marshall in the 1700s. The atolls in the RMI were explored by the Spanish in the 16th century. Germany unsuccessfully attempted to colonize the islands in 1885. Japan took control in 1914, but after several battles during World War II, the US seized the RMI from them. In 1947, the United Nations made the island group, along with the Mariana and Caroline archipelagos, a U.S. trust territory (Walsh et al, 2012). Education in the RMI reflects the colonial administrations of Germany, Japan, and now the US. Before the turn of the century, formal education in the Pacific reflected western values, practices, and standards. Prior to that, education was informal and not binded to formal learning institutions (Thaman, 1997) and oral traditions was used as the medium for transmitting learning about customs and practices living with parents, grandparents, great grandparents. As alluded to by Jiba B. Kabua (2004), any “discussion about education is necessarily a discussion of culture, and any policy on education is also a policy of culture” (p. 181). It is impossible to promote one without the other, and it is not logical to understand one without the other. Re-thinking how education should look like, the pedagogical strategies that are relevant in our classrooms, the ways to engage with our parents and communities - such re-thinking sits within our cultural approaches and frameworks. Our collective attempts to provide a cultural framework that is relevant and appropriate for education in our context, sits within the political endeavour to decolonize. This means that what we are providing will not only be useful, but it can be used as a tool to question and identify whether things in place restrict and prevent our culture or whether they promote and foreground cultural ideas and concepts, a significant discussion of culture linked to education (Kabua, 2004). Donor funded development aid programmes were provided to support the challenges within education systems. Concerned with the persistent low educational outcomes of Pacific students, despite the prevalence of aid programmes in the region, in 2000 Pacific educators and leaders with support from New Zealand Aid (NZ Aid) decided to intervene (Heine, 2002; Taufe’ulungaki, 2014). In April 2001, a group of Pacific educators and leaders across the region were invited to a colloquium funded by the New Zealand Overseas Development Agency held in Suva Fiji at the University of the South Pacific. The main purpose of the colloquium was to enable “Pacific educators to re-think the values, assumptions and beliefs underlying [formal] schooling in Oceania” (Benson, 2002). Leadership, in general, is a valued practice in the RMI (Heine, 2002). Despite education leadership being identified as a significant factor in school improvement (Sanga & Chu, 2009), the limited formal training opportunities of school principals in the region was a persistent concern. As part of an Asia Development Bank (ADB) funded project, the Improve Quality Basic Education (IQBE) intervention was developed and implemented in the RMI in 2017. Mentoring is a process associated with the continuity and sustainability of leadership knowledge and practices (Sanga & Chu, 2009). It is a key aspect of building capacity and capabilities within human resources in education (ibid). Indigenous knowledges and education research According to Hilda Heine, the relationship between education and leadership is about understanding Marshallese history and culture (cited in Walsh et al., 2012). It is about sharing indigenous knowledge and histories that “details for future generations a story of survival and resilience and the pride we possess as a people” (Heine, cited in Walsh et al., 2012, p. v). This paper is fuelled by postcolonial aspirations yet is grounded in Pacific indigenous research. This means that our intentions are driven by postcolonial pursuits and discourses linked to challenging the colonial systems and schooling in the Pacific region that privileges western knowledge and learning and marginalises the education practices and processes of local people (Thiong’o, 1986). A point of difference and orientation from postcolonialism is a desire to foreground indigenous Pacific language, specifically Majin Majol, through Marshallese concepts. Our collective bwebwenato and conversation honours and values kautiej (respect), jouj eo mour eo (reciprocity), and jouj (kindness) (Taafaki & Fowler, 2019). Pacific leaders developed the Rethinking Pacific Education Initiative for and by Pacific People (RPEIPP) in 2002 to take control of the ways in which education research was conducted by donor funded organisations (Taufe’ulungaki, 2014). Our former president, Dr Hilda Heine was part of the group of leaders who sought to counter the ways in which our educational and leadership stories were controlled and told by non-Marshallese (Heine, 2002). As a former minister of education in the RMI, Hilda Heine continues to inspire and encourage the next generation of educators, school leaders, and researchers to re-think and de-construct the way learning and education is conceptualised for Marshallese people. The conceptualisation of Kanne Lobal acknowledges its origin, grounded in Marshallese navigation knowledge and practice. Our decision to unpack and deconstruct Kanne Lobal within the context of formal education and leadership responds to the need to not only draw from indigenous Marshallese ideas and practice but to consider that the next generation will continue to be educated using western processes and initiatives particularly from the US where we get a lot of our funding from. According to indigenous researchers Dawn Bessarab and Bridget Ng’andu (2010), doing research that considers “culturally appropriate processes to engage with indigenous groups and individuals is particularly pertinent in today’s research environment” (p. 37). Pacific indigenous educators and researchers have turned to their own ancestral knowledge and practices for inspiration and empowerment. Within western research contexts, the often stringent ideals and processes are not always encouraging of indigenous methods and practices. However, many were able to ground and articulate their use of indigenous methods as being relevant and appropriate to capturing the realities of their communities (Nabobo-Baba, 2008; Sualii-Sauni & Fulu-Aiolupotea, 2014; Thaman, 1997). At the same time, utilising Pacific indigenous methods and approaches enabled research engagement with their communities that honoured and respected them and their communities. For example, Tongan, Samoan, and Fijian researchers used the talanoa method as a way to capture the stories, lived realities, and worldviews of their communities within education in the diaspora (Fa’avae, Jones, & Manu’atu, 2016; Nabobo-Baba, 2008; Sualii-Sauni & Aiolupotea, 2014; Vaioleti, 2005). Tok stori was used by Solomon Islander educators and school leaders to highlight the unique circles of conversational practice and storytelling that leads to more positive engagement with their community members, capturing rich and meaningful narratives as a result (Sanga & Houma, 2004). The Indigenous Aborigine in Australia utilise yarning as a “relaxed discussion through which both the researcher and participant journey together visiting places and topics of interest relevant” (Bessarab & Ng’andu, 2010, p. 38). Despite the diverse forms of discussions and storytelling by indigenous peoples, of significance are the cultural protocols, ethics, and language for conducting and guiding the engagement (Bessarab & Ng’andu, 2010; Nabobo-Baba, 2008; Sualii-Sauni & Aiolupotea, 2014). Through the ethics, values, protocols, and language, these are what makes indigenous methods or frameworks unique compared to western methods like in-depth interviews or semi-structured interviews. This is why it is important for us as Marshallese educators to frame, ground, and articulate how our own methods and frameworks of learning could be realised in western education (Heine, 2002; Jetnil-Kijiner, 2014). In this paper, we utilise bwebwenato as an appropriate method linked to “talk story”, capturing our collective stories and experiences during GCSL and how we sought to build partnerships and collaboration with each other, our communities, and the PSS. Bwebwenato and drawing from Kajin Majel Legends and stories that reflect Marshallese society and its cultural values have survived through our oral traditions. The practice of weaving also holds knowledge about our “valuable and earliest sources of knowledge” (Taafaki & Fowler, 2019, p. 2). The skilful navigation of Marshallese wayfarers on the walap (large canoes) in the ocean is testament of their leadership and the value they place on ensuring the survival and continuity of Marshallese people (Taafaki & Fowler, 2019; Walsh et al., 2012). During her graduate study in 2014, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner conceptualised bwebwenato as being the most “well-known form of Marshallese orality” (p. 38). The Marshallese-English dictionary defined bwebwenato as talk, conversation, story, history, article, episode, lore, myth, or tale (cited in Jetnil Kijiner, 2014). Three years later in 2017, bwebwenato was utilised in a doctoral project by Natalie Nimmer as a research method to gather “talk stories” about the experiences of 10 Marshallese experts in knowledge and skills ranging from sewing to linguistics, canoe-making and business. Our collective bwebwenato in this paper centres on Marshallese ideas and language. The philosophy of Marshallese knowledge is rooted in our “Kajin Majel”, or Marshallese language and is shared and transmitted through our oral traditions. For instance, through our historical stories and myths. Marshallese philosophy, that is, the knowledge systems inherent in our beliefs, values, customs, and practices are shared. They are inherently relational, meaning that knowledge systems and philosophies within our world are connected, in mind, body, and spirit (Jetnil-Kijiner, 2014; Nimmer, 2017). Although some Marshallese believe that our knowledge is disappearing as more and more elders pass away, it is therefore important work together, and learn from each other about the knowledges shared not only by the living but through their lamentations and stories of those who are no longer with us (Jetnil-Kijiner, 2014). As a Marshallese practice, weaving has been passed-down from generation to generation. Although the art of weaving is no longer as common as it used to be, the artefacts such as the “jaki-ed” (clothing mats) continue to embody significant Marshallese values and traditions. For our weavers, the jouj (check spelling) is the centre of the mat and it is where the weaving starts. When the jouj is correct and weaved well, the remainder and every other part of the mat will be right. The jouj is symbolic of the “heart” and if the heart is prepared well, trained well, then life or all other parts of the body will be well (Taafaki & Fowler, 2019). In that light, we have applied the same to this paper. Conceptualising and drawing from cultural practices that are close and dear to our hearts embodies a significant ontological attempt to prioritize our own knowledge and language, a sense of endearment to who we are and what we believe education to be like for us and the next generation. The application of the phrase “Majolizing '' was used by the Ministry of Education when Hilda Heine was minister, to weave cultural ideas and language into the way that teachers understand the curriculum, develop lesson plans and execute them in the classroom. Despite this, there were still concerns with the embedded colonized practices where teachers defaulted to eurocentric methods of doing things, like the strategies provided in the textbooks given to us. In some ways, our education was slow to adjust to the “Majolizing '' intention by our former minister. In this paper, we provide Kanne Lobal as a way to contribute to the “Majolizing intention” and perhaps speed up yet still be collectively responsible to all involved in education. Kajin Wa and Kanne Lobal “Wa” is the Marshallese concept for canoe. Kajin wa, as in canoe language, has a lot of symbolic meaning linked to deeply-held Marshallese values and practices. The canoe was the foundational practice that supported the livelihood of harsh atoll island living which reflects the Marshallese social world. The experts of Kajin wa often refer to “wa” as being the vessel of life, a means and source of sustaining life (Kelen, 2009, cited in Miller, 2010). “Jouj” means kindness and is the lower part of the main hull of the canoe. It is often referred to by some canoe builders in the RMI as the heart of the canoe and is linked to love. The jouj is one of the first parts of the canoe that is built and is “used to do all other measurements, and then the rest of the canoe is built on top of it” (Miller, 2010, p. 67). The significance of the jouj is that when the canoe is in the water, the jouj is the part of the hull that is underwater and ensures that all the cargo and passengers are safe. For Marshallese, jouj or kindness is what living is about and is associated with selflessly carrying the responsibility of keeping the family and community safe. The parts of the canoe reflect Marshallese culture, legend, family, lineage, and kinship. They embody social responsibilities that guide, direct, and sustain Marshallese families’ wellbeing, from atoll to atoll. For example, the rojak (boom), rojak maan (upper boom), rojak kōrā (lower boom), and they support the edges of the ujelā/ujele (sail) (see figure 1). The literal meaning of rojak maan is male boom and rojak kōrā means female boom which together strengthens the sail and ensures the canoe propels forward in a strong yet safe way. Figuratively, the rojak maan and rojak kōrā symbolise the mother and father relationship which when strong, through the jouj (kindness and love), it can strengthen families and sustain them into the future. Figure 1. Parts of the canoe Source: https://www.canoesmarshallislands.com/2014/09/names-of-canoe-parts/ From a socio-cultural, communal, and leadership view, the canoe (wa) provides understanding of the relationships required to inspire and sustain Marshallese peoples’ education and learning. We draw from Kajin wa because they provide cultural ideas and practices that enable understanding of education and leadership necessary for sustaining Marshallese people and realities in Oceania. When building a canoe, the women are tasked with the weaving of the ujelā/ujele (sail) and to ensure that it is strong enough to withstand long journeys and the fierce winds and waters of the ocean. The Kanne Lobal relates to the front part of the ujelā/ujele (sail) where the rojak maan and rojak kōrā meet and connect (see the red lines in figure 1). Kanne Lobal is linked to the strategic use of the ujelā/ujele by navigators, when there is no wind north wind to propel them forward, to find ways to capture the winds so that their journey can continue. As a proverbial saying, Kanne Lobal is used to ignite thinking and inspire and transform practice particularly when the journey is rough and tough. In this paper we draw from Kanne Lobal to ignite, inspire, and transform our educational and leadership practices, a move to explore what has always been meaningful to Marshallese people when we are faced with challenges. The Kanne Lobal utilises our language, and cultural practices and values by sourcing from the concepts of jouj (kindness, love), kautiej (respect), and jouj eo mour eo (reciprocity). A key Marshallese proverb, “Enra bwe jen lale rara”, is the cultural practice where families enact compassion through the sharing of food in all occurrences. The term “enra” is a small basket weaved from the coconut leaves, and often used by Marshallese as a plate to share and distribute food amongst each other. Bwe-jen-lale-rara is about noticing and providing for the needs of others, and “enra” the basket will help support and provide for all that are in need. “Enra-bwe-jen-lale-rara” is symbolic of cultural exchange and reciprocity and the cultural values associated with building and maintaining relationships, and constantly honouring each other. As a Marshallese practice, in this article we share our understanding and knowledge about the challenges as well as possible solutions for education concerns in our nation. In addition, we highlight another proverb, “wa kuk wa jimor”, which relates to having one canoe, and despite its capacity to feed and provide for the individual, but within the canoe all people can benefit from what it can provide. In the same way, we provide in this paper a cultural framework that will enable all educators to benefit from. It is a framework that is far-reaching and relevant to the lived realities of Marshallese people today. Kumit relates to people united to build strength, all co-operating and working together, living in peace, harmony, and good health. Kanne Lobal: conceptual framework for education and leadership An education framework is a conceptual structure that can be used to capture ideas and thinking related to aspects of learning. Kanne Lobal is conceptualised and framed in this paper as an educational framework. Kanne Lobal highlights the significance of education as a collective partnership whereby leadership is an important aspect. Kanne Lobal draws-from indigenous Marshallese concepts like kautiej (respect), jouj eo mour eo (reciprocity), and jouj (kindness, heart). The role of a leader, including an education leader, is to prioritise collective learning and partnerships that benefits Marshallese people and the continuity and survival of the next generation (Heine, 2002; Thaman, 1995). As described by Ejnar Aerōk, an expert canoe builder in the RMI, he stated: “jerbal ippān doon bwe en maron maan wa e” (cited in Miller, 2010, p. 69). His description emphasises the significance of partnerships and working together when navigating and journeying together in order to move the canoe forward. The kubaak, the outrigger of the wa (canoe) is about “partnerships”. For us as elementary school leaders on Majuro, kubaak encourages us to value collaborative partnerships with each other as well as our communities, PSS, and other stakeholders. Partnerships is an important part of the Kanne Lobal education and leadership framework. It requires ongoing bwebwenato – the inspiring as well as confronting and challenging conversations that should be mediated and negotiated if we and our education stakeholders are to journey together to ensure that the educational services we provide benefits our next generation of young people in the RMI. Navigating ahead the partnerships, mediation, and negotiation are the core values of jouj (kindness, love), kautiej (respect), and jouj eo mour eo (reciprocity). As an organic conceptual framework grounded in indigenous values, inspired through our lived experiences, Kanne Lobal provides ideas and concepts for re-thinking education and leadership practices that are conducive to learning and teaching in the schooling context in the RMI. By no means does it provide the solution to the education ills in our nation. However, we argue that Kanne Lobal is a more relevant approach which is much needed for the negatively stigmatised system as a consequence of the various colonial administrations that have and continue to shape and reframe our ideas about what education should be like for us in the RMI. Moreover, Kannel Lobal is our attempt to decolonize the framing of education and leadership, moving our bwebwenato to re-framing conversations of teaching and learning so that our cultural knowledge and values are foregrounded, appreciated, and realised within our education system. Bwebwenato: sharing our stories In this section, we use bwebwenato as a method of gathering and capturing our stories as data. Below we capture our stories and ongoing conversations about the richness in Marshallese cultural knowledge in the outer islands and on Majuro and the potentialities in Kanne Lobal. Danny Jim When I was in third grade (9-10 years of age), during my grandfather’s speech in Arno, an atoll near Majuro, during a time when a wa (canoe) was being blessed and ready to put the canoe into the ocean. My grandfather told me the canoe was a blessing for the family. “Without a canoe, a family cannot provide for them”, he said. The canoe allows for travelling between places to gather food and other sources to provide for the family. My grandfather’s stories about people’s roles within the canoe reminded me that everyone within the family has a responsibility to each other. Our women, mothers and daughters too have a significant responsibility in the journey, in fact, they hold us, care for us, and given strength to their husbands, brothers, and sons. The wise man or elder sits in the middle of the canoe, directing the young man who help to steer. The young man, he does all the work, directed by the older man. They take advice and seek the wisdom of the elder. In front of the canoe, a young boy is placed there and because of his strong and youthful vision, he is able to help the elder as well as the young man on the canoe. The story can be linked to the roles that school leaders, teachers, and students have in schooling. Without each person knowing intricately their role and responsibility, the sight and vision ahead for the collective aspirations of the school and the community is difficult to comprehend. For me, the canoe is symbolic of our educational journey within our education system. As the school leader, a central, trusted, and respected figure in the school, they provide support for teachers who are at the helm, pedagogically striving to provide for their students. For without strong direction from the school leaders and teachers at the helm, the students, like the young boy, cannot foresee their futures, or envisage how education can benefit them. This is why Kanne Lobal is a significant framework for us in the Marshall Islands because within the practice we are able to take heed and empower each other so that all benefit from the process. Kanne Lobal is linked to our culture, an essential part of who we are. We must rely on our own local approaches, rather than relying on others that are not relevant to what we know and how we live in today’s society. One of the things I can tell is that in Majuro, compared to the outer islands, it’s different. In the outer islands, parents bring children together and tell them legends and stories. The elders tell them about the legends and stories – the bwebwenato. Children from outer islands know a lot more about Marshallese legends compared to children from the Majuro atoll. They usually stay close to their parents, observe how to prepare food and all types of Marshallese skills. Loretta Joseph Case There is little Western influence in the outer islands. They grow up learning their own culture with their parents, not having tv. They are closely knit, making their own food, learning to weave. They use fire for cooking food. They are more connected because there are few of them, doing their own culture. For example, if they’re building a house, the ladies will come together and make food to take to the males that are building the house, encouraging them to keep on working - “jemjem maal” (sharpening tools i.e. axe, like encouraging workers to empower them). It’s when they bring food and entertainment. Rubon Rubon Togetherness, work together, sharing of food, these are important practices as a school leader. Jemjem maal – the whole village works together, men working and the women encourage them with food and entertainment. All the young children are involved in all of the cultural practices, cultural transmission is consistently part of their everyday life. These are stronger in the outer islands. Kanne Lobal has the potential to provide solutions using our own knowledge and practices. Connie Joel When new teachers become a teacher, they learn more about their culture in teaching. Teaching raises the question, who are we? A popular saying amongst our people, “Aelon kein ad ej aelon in manit”, means that “Our islands are cultural islands”. Therefore, when we are teaching, and managing the school, we must do this culturally. When we live and breathe, we must do this culturally. There is more socialising with family and extended family. Respect the elderly. When they’re doing things the ladies all get together, in groups and do it. Cut the breadfruit, and preserve the breadfruit and pandanus. They come together and do it. Same as fishing, building houses, building canoes. They use and speak the language often spoken by the older people. There are words that people in the outer islands use and understand language regularly applied by the elderly. Respect elderly and leaders more i.e., chiefs (iroj), commoners (alap), and the workers on the land (ri-jerbal) (social layer under the commoners). All the kids, they gather with their families, and go and visit the chiefs and alap, and take gifts from their land, first produce/food from the plantation (eojōk). Tommy Almet The people are more connected to the culture in the outer islands because they help one another. They don’t have to always buy things by themselves, everyone contributes to the occasion. For instance, for birthdays, boys go fishing, others contribute and all share with everyone. Kanne Lobal is a practice that can bring people together – leaders, teachers, stakeholders. We want our colleagues to keep strong and work together to fix problems like students and teachers’ absenteeism which is a big problem for us in schools. Demetria Malachi The culture in the outer islands are more accessible and exposed to children. In Majuro, there is a mixedness of cultures and knowledges, influenced by Western thinking and practices. Kanne Lobal is an idea that can enhance quality educational purposes for the RMI. We, the school leaders who did GCSL, we want to merge and use this idea because it will help benefit students’ learning and teachers’ teaching. Kanne Lobal will help students to learn and teachers to teach though traditional skills and knowledge. We want to revitalize our ways of life through teaching because it is slowly fading away. Also, we want to have our own Marshallese learning process because it is in our own language making it easier to use and understand. Essentially, we want to proudly use our own ways of teaching from our ancestors showing the appreciation and blessings given to us. Way Forward To think of ways forward is about reflecting on the past and current learnings. Instead of a traditional discussion within a research publication, we have opted to continue our bwebwenato by sharing what we have learnt through the Graduate Certificate in School Leadership (GCSL) programme. Our bwebwenato does not end in this article and this opportunity to collaborate and partner together in this piece of writing has been a meaningful experience to conceptualise and unpack the Kanne Lobal framework. Our collaborative bwebwenato has enabled us to dig deep into our own wise knowledges for guidance through mediating and negotiating the challenges in education and leadership (Sanga & Houma, 2004). For example, bwe-jen-lale-rara reminds us to inquire, pay attention, and focus on supporting the needs of others. Through enra-bwe-jen-lale-rara, it reminds us to value cultural exchange and reciprocity which will strengthen the development and maintaining of relationships based on ways we continue to honour each other (Nimmer, 2017). We not only continue to support each other, but also help mentor the next generation of school leaders within our education system (Heine, 2002). Education and leadership are all about collaborative partnerships (Sanga & Chu, 2009; Thaman, 1997). Developing partnerships through the GCSL was useful learning for us. It encouraged us to work together, share knowledge, respect each other, and be kind. The values of jouj (kindness, love), kautiej (respect), and jouj eo mour eo (reciprocity) are meaningful in being and becoming and educational leader in the RMI (Jetnil-Kijiner, 2014; Miller, 2010; Nimmer, 2017). These values are meaningful for us practice particularly given the drive by PSS for schools to become accredited. The workshops and meetings delivered during the GCSL in the RMI from 2018 to 2019 about Kanne Lobal has given us strength to share our stories and experiences from the meeting with the stakeholders. But before we met with the stakeholders, we were encouraged to share and speak in our language within our courses: EDP05 (Professional Development and Learning), EDP06 (School Leadership), EDP07 (School Management), EDP08 (Teaching and Learning), and EDP09 (Community Partnerships). In groups, we shared our presentations with our peers, the 15 school leaders in the GCSL programme. We also invited USP RMI staff. They liked the way we presented Kannel Lobal. They provided us with feedback, for example: how the use of the sail on the canoe, the parts and their functions can be conceptualised in education and how they are related to the way that we teach our own young people. Engaging stakeholders in the conceptualisation and design stages of Kanne Lobal strengthened our understanding of leadership and collaborative partnerships. Based on various meetings with the RMI Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) team, PSS general assembly, teachers from the outer islands, and the PSS executive committee, we were able to share and receive feedback on the Kanne Lobal framework. The coordinators of the PREL programme in the RMI were excited by the possibilities around using Kanne Lobal, as a way to teach culture in an inspirational way to Marshallese students. Our Marshallese knowledge, particularly through the proverbial meaning of Kanne Lobal provided so much inspiration and insight for the groups during the presentation which gave us hope and confidence to develop the framework. Kanne Lobal is an organic and indigenous approach, grounded in Marshallese ways of doing things (Heine, 2002; Taafaki & Fowler, 2019). Given the persistent presence of colonial processes within the education system and the constant reference to practices and initiatives from the US, Kanne Lobal for us provides a refreshing yet fulfilling experience and makes us feel warm inside because it is something that belongs to all Marshallese people. Conclusion Marshallese indigenous knowledge and practices provide meaningful educational and leadership understanding and learnings. They ignite, inspire, and transform thinking and practice. The Kanne Lobal conceptual framework emphasises key concepts and values necessary for collaborative partnerships within education and leadership practices in the RMI. The bwebwenato or talk stories have been insightful and have highlighted the strengths and benefits that our Marshallese ideas and practices possess when looking for appropriate and relevant ways to understand education and leadership. Acknowledgements We want to acknowledge our GCSL cohort of school leaders who have supported us in the development of Kanne Lobal as a conceptual framework. A huge kommol tata to our friends: Joana, Rosana, Loretta, Jellan, Alvin, Ellice, Rolando, Stephen, and Alan. References Benson, C. (2002). Preface. In F. Pene, A. M. Taufe’ulungaki, & C. Benson (Eds.), Tree of Opportunity: re-thinking Pacific Education (p. iv). Suva, Fiji: University of the South Pacific, Institute of Education. Bessarab, D., Ng’andu, B. (2010). Yarning about yarning as a legitimate method in indigenous research. International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, 3(1), 37-50. Fa’avae, D., Jones, A., & Manu’atu, L. (2016). Talanoa’i ‘a e talanoa - talking about talanoa: Some dilemmas of a novice researcher. AlterNative: An Indigenous Journal of Indigenous Peoples,12(2),138-150. Heine, H. C. (2002). A Marshall Islands perspective. In F. Pene, A. M. Taufe’ulungaki, & C. 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Abstract Background It is very forward-looking and urgent to clarify the academic status. The evolution and development trend in the field of international museum display design reveals the theme development and Path Evolution of museum display design academia in the face of the development trend of audience psychological experience under the trend of global academic research on museum display design from collection centered to audience centered. At the same time, the curatorial design of the museum will also affect the emotional changes of the audience. Research Objects and Methods The relevant academic documents from 1990 to 2020 in the science network database were selected as the data basis. Based on the scientific measurement method and with the help of information visualization CiteSpace software, this paper makes a quantitative map analysis of academic papers in the field of museum display design. Two dimensions of locus of control scale were used as measurement indicators. The so-called psychological locus of control refers to people's general view of the outcome of behavior or events. One pole of this continuous spectrum is internality and the other pole is externality. The internality of locus of control (internal control) refers to people's belief that they are responsible for the results of things, that is, personal behavior, personality and ability are the determinants of things. The externality of locus of control refers to people's belief that the outcome of an event is mainly affected by external factors, such as luck, social background and others. The preparation process of the scale can be seen in Rotter's special report. The version introduced here contains 23 items and 6 insertion questions. Each item is a group of internal control statements and external control statements. The subjects are required to choose one from them and score the external control selection, with the score ranging from 0 (extreme internal control) to 23 (extreme external control). The scale is a self-rated scale, which is completed within 15 minutes. It is most commonly used for college students and other groups. From several studies that have been done, we can see that the norm of I-E scale is different. Owens (1966) reported that male = 8 2 (SD = 4.0) female = 8.5 (SD = 3.9) Parkes (1985) reported male (n = 146) x = 11.5 6 (SD = 3.3) female (n = 260) x = 12.6 (SD = 3.7). Results (1) In the past 30 years, the number of papers published in this field has increased significantly compared with 2005 and 2015; (2) The United States, Britain, Italy and China are the main sources of contribution, which generally presents the characteristics of “large concentration and small dispersion”; (3) Formed a group of cooperative teams with a certain sense of cooperation; (4) The topics of papers published in the academic field of museum display design are becoming richer and richer, and the research perspectives are becoming more and more diverse, with a total of about 4000 keywords, showing a good development trend of interdisciplinary integration and “clustering”; (5) From the perspective of evolutionary path, the focus of academic research in this field has experienced the transformation of “theoretical method” → “interactive experience” → “participation service”, and the relevant research objects have also experienced the change of “exhibits” → (6) the research has initially formed two directions of knowledge flow, of which the more important is the influence of sociology represented by psychology on the academic research of exhibition design, which has important relevance and relevance. At the same time, our results show that although curatorial design is positively correlated with audience emotion, it is not statistically significant (P &gt; 0.05). Among the audience's emotional changes, positive emotions dominated, and the results were statistically significant (P &lt; 0.01). This means that positive emotion can be used as an indicator to measure the change of audience emotion. Our results show that the quality of exhibits is negatively correlated with positive emotions. The Pearson correlation of negative emotions was significantly greater than that of positive emotions. This shows that the audience with high appreciation level is more likely to cause emotional changes than the students with low appreciation level. Independent sample t-test confirmed that there was significant difference in positive emotion between the two groups (P &lt; 0.01), but there was no significant difference in promoting emotion (P &gt; 0.05). Conclusion The research focus is no longer the accessibility of the museum or the relevance of the exhibits, but the psychological needs of the audience, such as participation experience, culture and education and leisure and entertainment. Therefore, the research on audience orientation and psychological experience has become an important topic and core content of academic research on museum display design. However, CiteSpace application software has some limitations, which makes it unable to grasp the structure of a discipline or knowledge field more comprehensively and deeply. However, in general, this study has enlightenment significance for the subsequent academic research innovation of the development and Path Evolution of the discipline of exhibition design in international museums. In short, we should give full play to the important role of irrational factors in design elements, actively pay attention to their psychological, emotional and behavioral changes, their abilities and response measures, pay attention to the impact of exhibition design and emotional changes, and be good builders, managers, coordinators and collaborators of design methods. According to the psychological characteristics of this part of the audience, we should actively and flexibly organize rich activities, create high-quality and rich curatorial level, observe and study this part of the audience, adjust their emotional state to the best state, and promote the healthy development of their good cognition and life. Acknowledgements This paper is an outcome of the project “Digital archive, creative platform and global communication of the Chinese intangible cultural heritage” (No.19ZDA336) supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China, the project “Application research of interaction design in the field of cultural heritage display and communication” (No. 20BG127) supported by National Social Science Foundation of China art Project, the project “Knowledge organization and service for cultural heritage” (No. 20215080008) supported by Independent research project of Tsinghua University, and the project “Winter Olympics Olympic Digital Museum Presentation and Communication Technology Research and Application Demonstration” (No. 2021YFF0307700).

Emotions play a huge role in impacting the decisions and actions college students make in their daily life. In The Seven Vectors: An Overview, Chickering (2014) list managing emotions as one of the essential seven vectors within student development. The invention of social media has altered college students’ way of life allowing information to instantaneously present imagery, videos, and content that can emotionally impact and affect their decision-making. Impacting college student’s emotions through social media can be seen in the significant usage in verbiage, gestures, video, and images in events such as United States presidential elections, the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, and the Arab spring. University and college personnel administrators must be mindful and knowledgeable of social media trends and the effects they are having on their students on campus in order to effectively support them.

International students often experience difficulties acclimating to campus climates in the United States. While identifying oneself as a fan of college sports has been shown to assist domestic students in their social adjustment to college environments, little is known about the relationship between international students’ college sports team identification and their social adjustment. As such, the purpose of this study is to determine the effect of team identification on international students’ sense of community and social capital and the conceptual relationship between the sense of community and social capital. Analysis of the hypothesized model with a sample of international students (n = 487) revealed that international students’ team identification develops their sense of community and social capital. Implications focused on how the international student office and athletic departments can utilize intercollegiate sport to support international students and assist this population in adapting to campus life in the United States.