International Students and Cultural Navigators: A Study on Social Support, International Students, and Academic Advisors

Abstract

The number of international students worldwide has steadily increased over the past several years. Although the United States no longer hosts the most students by percentage, it is the most popular destination in absolute numbers. These students are particularly at risk of academic stress due to experiencing a new culture in the form of the university campus. International students need social support that can help alleviate this stress. Since a university campus is an example of a culture, academic advisors are considered cultural navigators to help guide international students through university. This uses Strayhorn’s (2015) role of the academic advisor as a cultural navigator. A series of models from Kuh and Whitt (1988), Sam and Berry (2010), Tinto (1975), Tierney (1999), Chapdelaine and Alexitch (2004), and Schlossberg 1989) provides support for this view of academic advising. As cultural navigators, academic advisors are in a unique position to provide international students with social support to help reduce their stress related to schoolwork. This study is concerned with how academic advisors can provide social support to their international students. Social support is divided into four categories according to JS House’s (1981) theory of work-related stress and social support. Through interviews with academic advisors on a university campus in the Southwestern United States, this study examines how and to what extent academic advisors offer the four categories of social support to their international students.