ISSUES FACING MIDDLE EASTERN STUDENTS
AT AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES:
The numbers of foreign students enrolled in American colleges and universities reached all time highs in the fall of 1993 (Dodge, 1993, p. A51). The record numbers of foreign students in American postsecondary education institutions poses challenges for administrators, American students, and the foreign students themselves. It is proposed that a research study be performed to investigate one set of these challenges those faced by the foreign students in the United States. It is further proposed that the problem to be investigated be narrowed by focusing on college and university students from Middle Eastern countries who are studying in the United States.
Problems begin to develop for the Middle Eastern student enrolled in American colleges and universities while those students are still in their home countries. These problems, sociological and psychological in character, stem largely from conflicts associated with the mingling of traditional and contemporary values, attitudes, and behaviors in modernizing societies (Hojat, 1990, pp. 241 253). Already buffeted by the conflicting demands of tradition and social change, these students are frequently unprepared for the sharply different cultural mores encountered in the United States (Skolnikoff, 1993, pp. 225 252).
Middle Eastern students are by and large products Islamic societies and of national educational systems based upon Islamic values. As such, these students frequently are not prepared for the less restrictive and essentially secular (certainly non Islamic) society of the United States and environments of American colleges and universities (Stewart, 1991, pp. 173 181). In addition to the necessity for Middle Eastern students to become acquainted with the mores of American society and with major differences between American culture and their own, these students must also be prepared...