For the last four years, WRD Assistant Professor Jason Schneider has been conducting a longitudinal study that follows a cohort of international students through their journeys and academic careers at DePaul University.
Lasting from 2015–2019, this longitudinal study “employs a qualitative case study approach to explore international college students’ experiences as learners, and particularly as student writers” (description from Schneider’s professional portfolio).
Of the nine original participants, four international students remained as a part of this study for the full four years. Working with these students has included interviews conducted each quarter at DePaul, accompanied by collecting examples of their class writing.
“I spent four years interviewing some students as they went through college at DePaul [University]. When I started, I was just trying to figure out how they developed as writers, but as I had interviews with them and got to know them better, I was also learning more about their experiences as students, as international students.“
Schneider shared that he has “always been interested in working with students from other places” following his four years teaching abroad at the International House Language School in Krakow, Poland and his continued work with language learners domestically. His motivation to conduct this study stemmed both in this personal interest, but also the continued need for prepared faculty who will be working with these students. With over 1.09 million international students currently studying in the U.S., Schneider’s research aims to support both those students as well as the faculty who support them. (data pulled from Open Door’s 2017-2018 data on International Student Enrollment).
“We’ve seen in the US a huge upsurge of international students over the last ten years… As faculty and as universities, we need to be good at supporting these students, especially in the case of writing.”
To share some of his findings with other educators while conducting this longitudinal study, Schneider authored an article, “Passages into College Writing: Listening to the Experiences of International Students” (2018) focusing on international students’ transitions into their first year at university. At the completion of the study, his current article focuses on student’s evolving strategies for college writing. These strategies include:
- “Survival”: The things that students do to “survive,” to just get writing assignments done;
- “Growth”: The things that student do to grow and become better writers;
- “Investment”: The things students do to engage with their writing so it is meaningful to them.
Based on his work with international students, Schneider has redefined how he teaches, and how he approaches his students prior knowledge in the classroom, both for international and domestic students
“I’ve quit making assumptions about what I thought [students] knew, because I didn’t know. I was making bad assumptions.”
Looking forward, Schneider has considered authoring a book focusing on his research and findings, though describes his current stage of the research process as “banging [his] head against a wall.” With over 800 pages of interview transcriptions, the stories of growth and learning paint a picture of only some of the many passages for international students.
“ Their stories are so unique and varied. What they go through as students is so much based on these factors that we as teachers never see. I’ve learned so much about their lives and what is going on. I’ve learned that we just don’t know anything about what is going on in students’ lives and we don’t need know everything that’s going on in students’ lives! But maybe we need to be more attuned to not knowing.“