2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work-in-progress study explores the role of cultural considerations in advising interactions between advisors and international students in engineering disciplines. While the importance of student-advisor interactions is broadly recognized in literature, little is known about the cultural factors that influence the interactions between advisors and international engineering students. Additionally, there is a lack of understanding of how these international students navigate through the cultural complexities throughout their interactions with their advisors in the engineering field. Our goal is to address this gap and gain a comprehensive understanding of how international students navigate their experiences and establish effective communication with their advisors. We aim to uncover the factors that contribute to successful advising relationships for international students by analyzing the dynamics of these interactions.

Our study addresses the following research questions:

RQ1: What are the cultural considerations that influence advising interactions between advisors and international students in engineering disciplines?

RQ2: How do international engineering students navigate cultural considerations in advising interactions?

We will utilize the Intercultural Competence Framework to investigate how cultural factors affect interactions between international students and advisors in engineering disciplines. Intercultural competence refers to the ability of an individual from a different culture to engage and communicate effectively. The participants of our work-in-progress study are international students enrolled in a Ph.D. engineering program at R1 public institution in the southwest. We are currently collecting data through a demographic survey and a semi-structured interview. The demographic survey collects primary information about the students such as home country, year in the program, etc. The interview emphasizes an in-depth exploration of participants' experiences during their interactions with their advisors.
The findings from this study will help understand the perspective of international students and provide recommendations suggested by the students based on their experiences. By understanding the challenges faced by the students and identifying strategies to improve their intercultural competence, we anticipate providing valuable insights and recommendations for effective advising practices in a cross-cultural context.