ISSUES FACING MIDDLE EASTERN STUDENTS

AT AMERICAN COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES:

The numbers of foreign students enrolled in American colleges and universities reached alltime 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 challengesthose 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. 241253). 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. 225252).

Middle Eastern students are by and large produ

er, that not all students in the United States from the Middle East are Muslims, and that this minority among Middle Eastern students may require a different set of programs. Additionally, even among Middle Eastern student Muslims significant cultural differences often exist as a consequence of the various national cultures from which they come. Thus, while Middle Eastern students require the development of special programs, the college or university administrator cannot expect a single set of programs to be appropriate for all Middle Eastern students. The cultural status of women in Middle Eastern cultural groups in the United States frequently poses particularly difficult problems for college and university administrators. Women in Middle Eastern cultural groups residing in the United States are particularly affected by the movement within many of these groups calling for a return to traditional Islamic values. In order to understand the strain experienced by the contemporary female in a Middle Eastern cultural group residing in the United States, it is important to understand the role assigned to her by the Islamic religion. This role has been delineated by elIslam (1983, pp. 321327) as one in which males are given more

Category: Psychology - I