Advising International Students in the United States: Strategies to Face Intercultural Communication in NUC’s Tourism Undergraduate Program

Abstract

This research paper aims to reflect on the strategies used by ten academic advisors to deal with intercultural conflicts. These strategies include being respectful, demonstrating patience and empathy toward international students, creating rapport to foster mutual understanding, and fostering a positive attitude toward other cultures. This paper also analyzes conflicts emerging from cultural differences and language barriers between international students and advisors by considering a qualitative social research approach, which includes interviews and thematic analysis as data collection and interpretation methods. In addition, this paper provides essential information about how international students' poor understanding of the educational system can lead to potential conflicts with advisors. Advisors apply strategies to overcome challenges derived from miscommunications in multicultural educational contexts, like providing emotional support and offering information about the university. Moreover, advisors participating in this study explain how important it is to get training to deal with challenges in advising international studies. Therefore, the primary contribution of this paper to educational and social science research is to propose interculturality and intercultural communication as concepts and pedagogical tools to promote a mutual understanding between advisors and educational students that enhance learning and teaching initiatives within universities. Furthermore, introducing interculturality in the education advising process allows respect for cultural differences between teachers, professors, and students, resulting in more inclusive learning and teaching initiatives.