A STUDY DESIGN ON THE UNTOLD STORIES OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS ACROSS UNIVERSITIES IN NORTH CAROLINA – A PHOTOVOICE

OVERVIEW

This research will explore photovoice to study and tell stories and experiences of international students in universities in the state of North Carolina. North Carolina is one of the original 13 states of the United States of America. it is bordered to the north by Virginia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by South Carolina and Georgia, and to the west by Tennessee. It is located on the Atlantic coast, halfway between New York and Florida (Norrell, et al 2022). North Carolina is accredited with having the first state institution in the United States - the University of North Carolina (UNC), which first welcomed students in Chapel Hill in 1795 (Norrell, et al 2022). Since 1972, 16 other public institutions have been established to form the UNC system, which is governed by a single board that is chosen by the General Assembly and oversees all these institutions. Besides, North Carolina has one of the largest state’s community college systems in the United States which comprises more than 50 institutions in addition to the many private colleges and universities, most of which were established by various Protestant denominations (Norrell, et al 2022).

According to Higher Education Immigration Portal, North Carolina currently has 564,000 students across her higher institutions. Despite making up only 5% of all college students, international students significantly improve American students' educational possibilities by enhancing the economy, academia, and culture. In terms of economic contributions, international students contribute $653 million to the State, in addition to 7,023 jobs in the state supported by international students. Goodwin (2020) remarks that “without foreign students, NC Schools would take a big hit”. Additionally, research has demonstrated that a rise in the number of international students enrolled in American universities encourages innovation and the issuance of patents.

However, despite the international students’ economic, social, social, and academic contributions, both Perry (2016) and Marangell et al (2022) has shown that incoming international students frequently struggle with adjusting to both social and academic life since it differs from their previous experiences. Perry further argues that several international students go through experiences that could led to mental and emotional problems. Burdett & Crossman (2012) and Gardner (2013) as quoted by Perry (2016) also provided evidence of both first year American, international, and first-generation students reporting a feeling of alienation and separation. Even though Mitchell, Greenwood, & Guglielmi (2007); Rodgers & Tennison (2009) reports domestic and international students experiencing emotional problems like anxiety and depression, Perry (2016) support the argument that international students have unique challenges.

In fact, Sherry et al. (2010) reports that a lot of students felt excluded. Grayson (2008) reports that it can be difficult for international students to make friends and ask their classmates for academic advice. Since language is important to socialization, Poyrazli & Lopez (2007) shows that students who claimed to have less English language proficiency also claimed to have encountered more discrimination. Perry (2016) reports that up to 50% of international students claim to have experienced discrimination of some kind. Even though there are countless studies that documents international students challenges in American Universities, very few reports these challenges from the students’ perspectives. Therefore, this research is aimed at telling international students experiences from their perspectives.

Although several scholars have attempted to study this subject, the typical approach has not been participatory. Though this approach meets academic requirements, it fails to give voices to the communities of international students. Consciously fostering student voice can enhance the learning environment. Students can take more control of their education and become more involved in it by, for instance, encouraging them to provide feedback on their learning environment (Riley & Rustique- Forrester, 2002). By creating an "open" school culture (Quinn et al., 2009), a more inclusive school environment (Demetriou & Wilson, 2010, cited in Busher, 2012), and environments that promote respect, empowerment, and citizenship (Busher, 2012), as well as having a positive impact on students' mental health and wellbeing, the validation of students' voices also benefits the educational environment. By giving international students' own recommendations for how their wellbeing might be improved, this article seeks to actively incorporate students' voices and to advance existing understanding of it using participatory research methods to address and eliminate power disparities between the researcher and the study subject, and require that all parties accept responsibility for the research, they can facilitate collaboration, this is a shift from the traditional academic approach to research. The objectives and research questions will be co-created with the co-researchers; however, the initial research objectives are as follows:  

1.     To determine the unique challenges of international students in universities in North Carolina.

2.     To give agencies to international students to share their own stories

3.      To contribute to academic resources on international students in North Carolina.

The initial research questions include:

1)    Do international students in North Carolina Universities have any unique challenge?

2)    What kind of support do International Students in North Carolina Universities need to help them cope both socially, academically, and otherwise?

3)    What kind of support are Universities in North Carolina providing to international students?

4)    How can Universities in North Carolina Universities better support their international students?

METHODOLOGY:

This study intends to explore and tell the stories of international students in North Carolina Universities using photovoice. The premise of Photovoice is that people are the most knowledgeable about their own lives (Wang, 2022). Evans-Agnew et al (2022) argues that Photovoice is not just a research tool for individuals and communities seeking to identify and address structural inequalities. Photovoice provides the opportunities to realize emancipatory outcomes and transform power dynamics. Photovoice was first tried by peasant women in China's Yunnan Province (Wang, 2022) and it has three main goals: (1) to empower individuals to capture and reflect on their community's areas of strength and concerns, (2) to foster critical conversation and insight about community concerns through discussion forums of photographs and (3) to reach decision makers (Wang, 2022).

The Research Approach:

This study will utilize a participatory approach that allows for the engagement of co-researchers from the project conceptualization stage, through implementation. The approach used for this photovoice project is adopted from the book in the book “A Practical guide to Photovoice: Sharing pictures, telling Stories and Changing Communities” by Beverly et al (2009). In chapter three of the book, the authors discussed “9 Steps in Photovoice Method”. This research follows that methods to outline its approach for best practice.

Step 1: Connecting and Consulting with the Community.

The success of a photovoice research lies on building a good connection and relationship with the community. For this reason, the researchers in this project will explore existing relationships and build new ones to support the success of this project. Although the researcher has a research idea, these are very flexible to allow for community members input. Participants in the project will be engaged through meetings and consultations from the inception of project design through implementation and evaluation.

Step Two: Planning a Photovoice Project

Facilitator will use a collaborative planning and decision-making techniques to involve and engage collaborators and participants. A project workplan, timeframe, managing budgets, organizing equipment, coordinating activities, planning group meetings, and planning photovoice events are all examples of activities to plan. Another important thing to be considered is ethical consideration. The facilitator will provide sufficient information and training on the research methods and ethics, as well as ensure that the research abides by all ethical protocols of how activities are carried out.

Step Three: Recruiting Photovoice Participants and Target Audience Members

Beverly et al., (2009) suggests that both formal and informal method of recruitment is a good practice. Therefore, the facilitators will adopt both means to recruit participants and collaborators for the research. An example of these will be emails invitations to invite collaborators and participants, and word of mouth invitation to invite already established networks who share a very strong passion about the subject matter.

Although this is subject to change based off on the collective decisions of the research team, tentatively, participants and collaborators is proposed to be invited from two universities in North Carolina – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University. These universities are selected for two main reasons:

1)    The researcher is an international student in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and have both a lived experience and a network of other international students in the institution. Additionally, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is considered the leading Universities in the UNC System.

2)    North Carolina State University (NC State) was selected because it is reported to have the highest number of international students in the UNC system. As the leading destination for international students in North Carolina, the researchers are interested to understand what makes NC State a leading destination for international students.

Within the selected institutions, collaborators will be identified through existing agencies of the institutions. Collaborators will be identified through the International Student and Scholar Services which oversees all international students, students’ governments, and other departmental units.

Step 4: Beginning the Photovoice Project

The facilitators will work with the project time to finalize the project workplan, which will include the project activities, persons responsible, resources required, means of verification, the time frame and the expected output. Also, the photovoice group will be established and a clear plan for their meetings will be drawn. Wang (1999) suggest between seven to ten members in a photovoice group.

Step 5: Photovoice Group Meetings:

Beverly et al (2009) provides a sample outline for a photovoice group meetings which contains 14 sessions of activities. Prior to the commencement of the group assignments, the group will be provided with some basic training about camera use, picture quality and type, and information about photovoice process. This will provide them with the opportunity to understand the goal of the research. Each group members will be required to sign a consent form.

Step six: Data Collection

Beverly et al (2009) notes that there are lots of data generated from photovoice. This step involves snapping pictures, writing photovoice, recorded discussion and guided dialogue, constructive criticism, and group discussion on the exhibit. This means that the facilitator must be able to device means to manage the data in an organized manner that upholds high standards of research and ethics.

Step Seven: Data Analysis

In this step, the photographers present their photograph to the group for discussions. This session is recorded with permission from the group. The recording is transcribed and returned to the group to verification of the points and issues discussed. When this is verified, the transcript is analyzed by the facilitator. In general, this step involves the selection of the photograph from the collection of photographs, the contextualization of the photograph by the photographer, and the final process is the identification and codifying of the data into specific themes.

Step Eight: Preparing and Sharing the Photovoice exhibit

After analyzing the data, the photovoice members and facilitators will have the opportunity to share their findings with a select audience. This is in hope to influence policy and decision making. Another benefit that this provides is the opportunity to create awareness about the issue and the findings of the research. This exhibit will involve select photographs that has been pre agreed by the team. Something to keep in mind during this stage is the organization of the exhibit materials and area.

Step Nine: Social Action and Policy Change

The goal of photovoice is policy change. Although this might take a long time, photovoice seeks to emphasis social action. Therefore, this step seeks to orchestrate and facilitate the process for a change in programmatic, policy or even legislative direction and approach. This might involve the use of the findings from the research to advocate to decision makers about the issue under review. It could also mean publication of articles in relevant journals to enable decision makers get access to the data for informed decision.

POSITIONALITY:

I have a direct connection with the community in perspective. Firstly, I am an international student from Nigeria in the Master or Art in Educational Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This makes me a member of the community under review. In addition to being as an international student and having my own lived experience, I am also enrolled for the Graduate Certificate in Participatory Research. My positioning with respect to this research places me as a suitable person to facilitate this process. And even though photovoice is not a very common research methodology in my field, my choice of the method was inspired by the work of Wang (2022) and Merino et al. (2020). This works helped me see how empowering photovoice could be to a community. I was interested to see how communities were emancipated and transitioning from research subject to co-researchers. Beside the growing relevance of this research method, the success of this method further validates Wang (2022) claim that “people are experts on their own lives”. Therefore, as experts, it makes sense to let them contribute to their own issues and challenges, and this is what photovoice does.

Unfortunately, like every other research method, photovoice is not without limitation (Beverly 2009). Some of the limitation of this method is the time commitment by the participants and collaborators; the possibility the critical analysis of a source of concern to elicit negative emotions; cost of equipment amongst several others. However, with proper risk management and planning, a photovoice project has a great potential if used for the right project and community.

References

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