February 23^rd, 2024

Profs. Irene Torres-Arends (Yorkville U) and Michele Jacobsen (UCalgary)

For February 2024, our own Prof. Irene Torres-Arends joined us together with Prof. Michele Jacobsen (UCalgary) to share their research from their forthcoming article “‘I Am Not Complaining, I Am Letting You Know What My Needs Are’: Listening to International Students’ Complaints/Requests as Expressions of Diverse Learning Needs.”

Their study utilizes Torres-Arends’ (2023) framework to analyze the experiences of international students within the instructional and coursework context of a Canadian private university. Specifically, we investigate how the complaints and requests made by international students to instructors can be interpreted as expressions of their learning needs. Through a qualitative content analysis of 580 students’ emails, we identified and examined 817 requests and complaints. Analysis unveiled significant and reoccurring trends in the arguments that students used to support their requests/complaints about due dates, resubmission and regrading of assignments, and plagiarism. These trends underscore the importance of attentive and empathetic listening as a foundation for developing strategies that optimize international students’ transition to Canadian higher education and enhance their overall learning experiences. Our findings emphasize the need to use new approaches to capture student voices and integrate their perspectives into the design of courses and programs. We suggest innovative methods for listening to international students’ voices, and to shape and enhance pedagogical and institutional support structures. By actively engaging international students in conversations about their learning experiences, universities can foster more inclusive and responsive educational environments that cater to our diverse international student population’s unique needs and experiences.

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• Find their article here!
• Additional information, research, and scholarship:
  • PDF of Slide Deck: CTEI SoTL Speaker Series – ITorres-Arends and MJacobsen – February 2024
  • Torres-Arends, Irene. “‘I Thought We Were Friends’: International Students Challenges in Navigating Basic Academic Regulations at a Private Canadian University.” Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education 15.1 (2023): 93-110. DOI: 10.32674/jcihe.v15i1.4436