Supervising international students in clinical placements: perceptions of experiences and factors influencing competency development

Non-native English-speaking applicants and the likelihood of physician assistant program matriculation

PURPOSE

Effective communication is critical in patient care. Multilingual medical providers, including Physician Assistants (PAs) can contribute to improved health care among patients with limited English proficiency; however, this is contingent upon matriculating multilingual providers. In this study, the association between prospective applicants' self-reported English as second language (ESL) status and their likelihood of matriculation into a PA program was investigated.

METHODS

Participants included applicants to five admission cycles of the Centralized Application Service for Physician Assistant from 2012 to 2020. Logistic regression was utilized to investigate association between applicant ESL status and odds of program matriculation in both bivariate and multivariable regression models. Models were adjusted for citizenship status, undergraduate grade point average, gender, age, race/ethnicity, number of programs applied to, and patient care hours.

RESULTS

In unadjusted and adjusted models, ESL status was associated with a significantly lower odds of matriculation to a PA program across all study years. In adjusted multivariable models, associations were strongest for 2014-2015 where ESL status was associated with a 35% lower odds of matriculation (odds ratio 0.65, 95% confidence interval 0.56, 0.76) when controlling for demographics, citizenship status, patient care experience, and academic achievement. In sensitivity analyses restricting to (a) those with TOEFL scores ≥ 100, and (b) restricting to those ESL applicants without TOEFL scores, we did not observe important changes in our results.

CONCLUSIONS

Results indicated that non-native English-speaking applicants have lower odds of PA program matriculation. Decrements in matriculation odds were large magnitude, minimally impacted by adjustment for confounders and persistent across the years. These findings suggest that PA program admission processes may disadvantage non-native English-speaking applicants. While there are potential explanations for the observed findings, they are cause for concern. Matriculating and training PAs who have language concordance with underserved populations are important means of improving patient outcomes.

Tailoring support following summative assessments: a latent profile analysis of student outcomes across five medical specialities

Summative assessments are often underused for feedback, despite them being rich with data of students' applied knowledge and clinical and professional skills. To better inform teaching and student support, this study aims to gain insights from summative assessments through profiling students' performance patterns and identify those students missing the basic knowledge and skills in medical specialities essential for their future career. We use Latent Profile Analysis to classify a senior undergraduate year group (n = 295) based on their performance in applied knowledge test (AKT) and OSCE, in which items and stations are pre-classified across five specialities (e.g. Acute and Critical Care, Paediatrics,…). Four distinct groups of students with increasing average performance levels in the AKT, and three such groups in the OSCE are identified. Overall, these two classifications are positively correlated. However, some students do well in one assessment format but not in the other. Importantly, in both the AKT and the OSCE there is a mixed group containing students who have met the required standard to pass, and those who have not. This suggests that a conception of a borderline group at the exam-level can be overly simplistic. There is little literature relating AKT and OSCE performance in this way, and the paper discusses how our analysis gives placement tutors key insights into providing tailored support for distinct student groups needing remediation. It also gives additional information to assessment writers about the performance and difficulty of their assessment items/stations, and to wider faculty about student overall performance and across specialities.

A qualitative exploration of transitions, compliance, and onboarding challenges for international students in health professional education degrees

Background: Australia provides education services to international students which includes international students completing a health professional education (HPE) degree. Studying for a HPE degree can be challenging for most students. There are specific challenges for international students when completing a degree with clinical placements. The challenges international students can face include receiving adequate and timely information, understanding health service access, and receiving the correct information from education providers and agents.Objectives: To gain an in-depth understanding of the challenges for international health professional education students in accessing healthcare, understanding the requirements of compliance to attend clinical placements and the difficulties with attending clinical placements.Design: A semi-structured interview schedule based on findings from a survey (N = 318 participants) was used to explore international student perspectives in one-on-one interviews.Methods: Data were collected from international HPE students from a single Australian metropolitan multi-campus university using a questionnaire, which included qualitative open-ended questions, in addition to semi-structured follow-on interviews. Data collection took place between March and October 2021 and qualitative data were inductively thematically analysed.Results: Challenges reported in interviews by six international students were focused on understanding the navigation of new administrative systems and compliance processes. Students noted gaps in the communication of understanding legislative compliance requirements to attend clinical placements, difficulties accessing healthcare and making use of overseas student health cover, organisational issues, and transport issues when attending clinical placements.Conclusions: Higher education providers and international education agents must address communication deficits in course requirements linked to clinical placement prerequisites. This study highlights gaps in commencing international students' understanding, and higher education providers' communication of clear, timely detailed information.

Challenges, coping and support during student placement abroad: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

During placements abroad, healthcare students are confronted with different personal and professional challenges, related to participation in practice. This study investigates when and how students respond to such challenges, and which coping and support mechanisms students use to overcome these.

METHODS

Twenty-five international students shared their experiences about physiotherapy placement in The Netherlands. Using a critical incident technique, we asked participants to recall events where participation was affected by an unforeseen situation, in or outside the clinic. Further, we explored students' strategies of seeking support within their social network to overcome individual challenges. Two researchers applied thematic analysis to the interview data, following an iterative approach. Team discussions supported focused direction of data collection and analysis, before conceptualizing results.

RESULTS

Participants described a wide range of challenges. The scope and impact level of challenges varied widely, including intercultural differences, language barriers and inappropriate behaviour in the workplace, students' personal context and wellbeing. Mechanisms employed by students to overcome these challenges depended on the type of event (personal or professional), making purposeful use of their available network.

CONCLUSION

Students involve clinical staff, peers, family and friends during placement abroad, to make deliberate use of their support network to overcome challenges in participation, whereas the academic network remains distant. Findings may help reflect on the roles and responsibilities of academic staff and other professionals involved with placements abroad. Healthcare programmes should ensure support before, during and after placement is within students' reach.

Understanding and optimising support resources to facilitate CALD student and supervisor allied health fieldwork experiences

BACKGROUND

Although fieldwork supervisors and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students can experience challenges during allied health placements, there is little holistic understanding of how they view and use support resources to address these challenges. This study sought to identify, codify, and map the perceived value attached to support resources used or sought by CALD students and fieldwork supervisors and to ascertain areas where they could be optimised and better presented to users.

METHODS

We conducted a thematic analysis to examine interview and open-ended survey responses from CALD students (n = 18) and fieldwork supervisors (n = 161) respectively.

FINDINGS

The six generated themes depicted different patterns of perceived value in university and non-university support resources and spanned three levels of specificity: general, discipline-contextualised, and individualised. Fieldwork supervisors valued a staged approach to support resource design and use for CALD students commencing with general level resources to build foundational language skills and socio-cultural familiarisation and moving on to include disciple-contextualised supports, preplacement mechanisms to monitor student readiness, and formalised mechanisms to enable tailoring of placements. CALD students, however, often undervalued institutional general resources relative to discipline-contextualised resources. The commonality of support resources valued and sought by supervisors from different fields suggests they could be optimised for delivery via an inter-professional community of practice.

CONCLUSION

Identifying and mapping the perceived value attached to support resources provides actionable insights into how to enhance the 'fit' between resources and user needs. Drawing the often-fragmented support resources into a cohesive ecosystem focused around perceived value at different levels of specificity allows CALD students and educators to better conceptualise the types of benefits that can accrue from taking a broader and staged approach to fieldwork placement preparations. Knowing this ecosystem encapsulates what prior uses find of value may enhance perceptions of resource relevance in the minds of new users.

Registered nurses' experiences and perceptions of supervising international nursing students in a clinical setting - A qualitative study

AIM

The aim of the study was to examine the experiences and perceptions of Indian RNs who supervise Norwegian undergraduate nursing students during their clinical practice in India.

BACKGROUND

The globalization process has generated a need for registered nurses (RNs) to develop cultural competence. As a result, nursing education and policy need to respond to the challenging nature of global health and prepare RNs to work with diverse cultures by enhancing their cultural competence to help them encounter patients from different cultural backgrounds. Yet, the research investigating the experience of supervisors in non-western countries receiving students from western countries is sparse DESIGN: An exploratory descriptive design.

METHODS

Eight individual semi-structured interviews were undertaken by Indian Registered nurses, supervising Norwegian nursing students. Three of the interviews were conducted in their workplace in India, while the rest were carried out using Zoom conference due to the COVID19 pandemic. The interviews were conducted between January - December 2020. Inductive qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data.

RESULTS

Thematic analysis elicited four main themes: 1) Preparation to receive international students, 2) The role of supervising international students, 3) Learning from the students, 4) Challenges of supervising international students CONCLUSIONS: Participants provided valuable insights into the role of supervising international nursing students in India. This insight is considered important since many students from Western countries go to non-Western countries for international exchanges. The study highlights the fact that the method of supervision is connected to the culture and is different in Western and non-Western countries. Even though they acknowledged several challenges with having international students, supervisors emphasized that having international students was a positive experience and that they learned from them.

Attitudes of an international student cohort to the Quizlet study system employed in an advanced clinical health care review course

Computer-based learning applications and mobile technology have transformed many aspects of the educational experience over the last decade, producing software aimed at improving learning efficiency and streamlining the presentation of course materials. One such class of software, purpose-created to take advantage of spaced learning and spaced testing principles, are electronic flashcard applications. We provide a perspective on the novel use of the Quizlet flashcard application in a tertiary educational setting. To reduce cognitive load for international graduate dental students taking a pharmacology review course, we implemented Quizlet, which integrates both spaced learning and self-testing, to improve the student learning experience. This study assessed students' perceptions of the Quizlet flashcard system in a student cohort comprised of two consecutive years' classes (n = 51 students in total). Results indicated broad acceptance of Quizlet based on ease of use of the software and ease of study of the material. Our data provide insight into the use of this common software in a professional healthcare tertiary education setting and further demonstrate the successful application of electronic flashcards for a mixed international student cohort. Further research should include an assessment of the impact of flashcard on long-term knowledge retention in this setting.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10639-022-11371-3.

Professional socialisation and professional fit: Theoretical approaches to address student learning and teaching in speech-language pathology

Purpose: The sociocultural and historical context and membership of the speech-language pathology (SLP) profession underpins our norms of practice and our discourses. This context also informs and defines the ways that we practice today, including who we legitimise to enter our profession and why. In this paper, we used theory as a tool to critically explore how this socioculturally constituted knowledge and practice influences how students experience learning in SLP practice placements.Method: We used the theory of Legitimate Peripheral Participation (1991) as a conceptual framework to interpret qualitative data from two separate programs of research that had explored the phenomena of student learning in SLP practice placements.Result: The analysis cast light on how our understanding and expectations of SLP students' learning and competency development in placements is recursive and strongly legitimised in our profession. Students adjust to accommodate the professional knowledges, practices and expectations they encounter in their placements. This facilitates the perpetuation of practices proffered by the majority culture.Conclusion: The use of theory allowed us to explore the phenomena of student learning in placements in a new light, which unmasked new understandings of the longstanding challenge to increase diversity in the SLP community.

Factors Associated With Undergraduate Nursing Students' Academic and Clinical Performance: A Mixed-Methods Study

Background

There is conflicting and limited information regarding factors that influence undergraduate nursing students' academic and clinical performance prior to entry to practice.

Objective

To identify factors influencing the academic and clinical performance of undergraduate nursing students throughout the course.

Design

Mixed methods study utilizing a retrospective cohort and a qualitative study.

Setting

Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Participants

Longitudinal existing data of nursing undergraduate students who commenced in 2017 (n = 176) and 2018 (n = 76), and two focus groups with final year nursing students were analyzed.

Methods

Retrospective students' records were used to determine the students' academic and clinical performance using the weighted average mark (WAM) of the theoretical and clinical components of the curriculum, separately. The WAM considered the year level of each unit and was scored out of 100. Multivariate linear regression was used to determine predictor factors of academic and clinical performance. Variables include entry cohort (with no previous nursing qualification vs. diploma of nursing), admission category (domestic vs. international), campus (metropolitan vs. outer metropolitan), and secondary school (year 12) results. Two focus group discussions were conducted and thematically analyzed.

Results

More than two-thirds of the students were aged 18–20 years and mainly female. Almost 20% of the participants were international students. Students with higher secondary school (year 12) results and studying at the outer metropolitan campus achieved a higher academic performance while international students had significantly lower academic performance compared to domestic students. Students with a previous diploma of enrolled nursing and international students had lower clinical performance. Students identified that a comprehensive orientation, interactive curriculum, formal and informal support structure, and educator qualities influenced their academic and/or clinical performance.

Conclusions

A supportive educational environment with an interactive curriculum may enhance students' academic and clinical performance and readiness for practice. Furthermore, targeted interventions for international students, those with lower secondary school (year 12) results, and those with a former diploma of nursing may be required to increase academic and clinical performance.

Attitude and communication skills of German medical students

Objective

While the development of communication competencies in medical schools plays a pivotal role in the curriculum, studies show that students’ communication skills and patient-centred attitudes may vary based on gender and ethnicity. The goal of this study was to investigate the socio-demographic factors that influence medical students’ communication abilities and, more specifically, to what extent their attitude toward communication skills learning and patient orientation associate with communication abilities. Our population included medical students admitted in 2017. Used tools included a communication score, the patient-provider orientation and communication skills attitudes scales.

Results

Three hundred and sixty-five students participated in the study (56.4% female, 85.2% German native speakers, mean age 24.2 ± 3.5 years). Female and German native speaking students had a better communication skills OSCE performance, were more patient-oriented and had more positive attitudes toward communication skills learning than male and non-native speaking students. There was a significant association between gender, native tongue, attitudes towards communication skills learning and communication skills OSCE performance. In conclusion, to support medical students to improve their communication proficiency and attitudes towards the importance of clear communication and patient-oriented care, medical educators should consider teaching and assessment strategies that address socio-cultural aspects of communication.

Experiences of nurse educators facilitating and teaching in an international setting

BACKGROUND

Multiple studies focus on the experiences of visiting students from high resource regions that participated in clinical placements in lower resource countries but less focus on the experiences of the educators accompanying students.

AIM

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of educators during an international clinical placement of nursing students in a country in West Africa.

METHODS

We implemented a focussed ethnographic design. We purposively sampled educators who accompanied students on an international clinical placement. Data collection from 2018 to 2019 consisted of in-depth individual interviews. We utilized Roper and Shapira's (2000, 10.4135/9781483328294.) data analysis process, which includes coding keywords, identifying patterns and theorizing.

FINDINGS

Three themes emerged from the data: rewards in accompanying students, challenges experienced and the need for mentoring and continuous support. Educators found it rewarding to see growth in students, how students developed as global citizens, how students developed critical thinking and problem-solving skills and create lifelong friendships.

CONCLUSION

Educators who accompany nursing students to international clinical placement experience valuable learning and challenging issues. Educators must navigate, support and advance student learning when on an international placement. It is crucial to have adequate institutional support from both the home and host country.

Initiation of student participation in practice: An audio diary study of international clinical placements

BACKGROUND

Differences in professional practice might hinder initiation of student participation during international placements, and thereby limit workplace learning. This study explores how healthcare students overcome differences in professional practice during initiation of international placements.

METHODS

Twelve first-year physiotherapy students recorded individual audio diaries during the first month of international clinical placement. Recordings were transcribed, anonymized, and analyzed following a template analysis approach. Team discussions focused on thematic interpretation of results.

RESULTS

Students described tackling differences in professional practice via ongoing negotiations of practice between them, local professionals, and peers. Three themes were identified as the focus of students' orientation and adjustment efforts: professional practice, educational context, and individual approaches to learning. Healthcare students' initiation during international placements involved a cyclical process of orientation and adjustment, supported by active participation, professional dialogue, and self-regulated learning strategies.

CONCLUSIONS

Initiation of student participation during international placements can be supported by establishing a continuous dialogue between student and healthcare professionals. This dialogue helps align mutual expectations regarding scope of practice, and increase understanding of professional and educational practices. Better understanding, in turn, creates trust and favors meaningful students' contribution to practice and patient care.

International students in professional placements: supervision strategies for positive learning experiences

BACKGROUND

Professional placements are critical elements of speech-language pathology qualifying programmes that can be complex learning environments for international students. Students are supported by placement educators who facilitate their developing skills and competencies for professional practice in these placements. However, strategies that facilitate international students' learning in placements have not been identified.

AIMS

To identify strategies that are reported by speech-language pathology international students and placement educators to facilitate positive learning experiences and competency development in practice placements.

METHODS & PROCEDURES

This study used an exploratory research design to gather data from four focus groups with international students and five focus groups with placement educators. Thematic analysis was used to identify strategies, and these were interpreted using two theories of learning.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Four themes were identified that described international students' placement experiences and learning. For each theme, strategies were identified that placement educators can practically and responsively implement with international students to enable positive placement learning experiences.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS

These strategies support international students to manage acculturative adjustments for the cultural and learning requirements of placements that may facilitate their successful participation, and provide structure to reduce their cognitive load. However, strategies to develop communication skills for practice were less feasible. Through fostering positive placement experiences, these strategies may also facilitate opportunities for educators and international students to share intercultural skills and knowledge that may be transferable to practice.

Finding your feet: student participation during initiation of international clinical placements : Student participation during initiation

INTRODUCTION

International placements challenge students to find the right level of participation, as local practices, language and time pressure may affect their engagement in patient-related tasks or team activities. This study sought to unpack the initiation process during international clinical placements with the ultimate aim to achieve active student participation.

METHODS

Following a constructivist grounded theory approach, we conducted two individual interviews with 15 undergraduate healthcare students (before departure and whilst on placement). To identify emerging themes, we applied an iterative process of data collection and constant comparative analysis. Several team discussions informed further analysis, allowing us to reach a more conceptual level of theory.

RESULTS

From our findings we constructed a four-phase model of healthcare students' initiation of international clinical placements, which brings into focus how the phases of 'orientation', 'adjustment' and 'contribution to patient care' build up towards a 'sense of belonging'. We identified several factors that induced active student participation in practice, such as a favourable workplace setting, opportunities for learning and a local support network.

DISCUSSION

Active student participation is aimed at different goals, depending on the four phases of initiation that eventually lead to a sense of belonging and support workplace learning.

Cognitive load theory for training health professionals in the workplace: A BEME review of studies among diverse professions: BEME Guide No. 53

AIM

Cognitive load theory (CLT) is of increasing interest to health professions education researchers. CLT has intuitive applicability to workplace settings, yet how CLT should inform teaching, learning, and research in health professions workplaces is unclear.

METHOD

To map the existing literature, we performed a scoping review of studies involving cognitive load, mental effort and/or mental workload in professional workplace settings within and outside of the health professions. We included actual and simulated workplaces and workplace tasks.

RESULT

Searching eight databases, we identified 4571 citations, of which 116 met inclusion criteria. Studies were most often quantitative. Methods to measure cognitive load included psychometric, physiologic, and secondary task approaches. Few covariates of cognitive load or performance were studied. Overall cognitive load and intrinsic load were consistently negatively associated with the level of experience and performance. Studies consistently found distractions and other aspects of workplace environments as contributing to extraneous load. Studies outside the health professions documented similar findings to those within the health professions, supporting relevance of CLT to workplace learning.

CONCLUSION

The authors discuss implications for workplace teaching, curricular design, learning environment, and metacognition. To advance workplace learning, the authors suggest future CLT research should address higher-level questions and integrate other learning frameworks.

Factors Influencing Clinical Performance of Baccalaureate Nursing Majors: A Retrospective Audit

BACKGROUND

Transition of nursing student to new graduate depends on successful completion of clinical work placement during an undergraduate course. Supporting students during the clinical placement is imperative. This study examined associations between grade point average, domestic or international status, course entry qualification, and single or dual nursing degree to successful completion of clinical placement.

METHOD

A retrospective audit of 665 students in a baccalaureate nursing program was conducted to examine factors influencing clinical performance of baccalaureate nursing students.

RESULTS

A significant association between entry qualification, lower grade point average, international status, and receipt of a constructive note was found: χ² = 8.678, df = 3, p = .034, t(3.862), df = 663, p ⩽ .001, and Fisher's exact test = 8.581, df = 1, p = .003, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Understanding factors that affect clinical performance may help early identification of students at risk and allow for supportive intervention during placement and subsequent program completion. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(6):333-338.].

Advances in medical education and practice: role of massive open online courses

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are increasingly available in the area of health and medicine. These MOOCs are offered through various commercial and noncommercial online platforms. When offered through reputable institutions, they can provide valuable access to reliable information without the constraints of time, geographical location, or level of education. Most current courses appear introductory in nature. In its drive for quality health care, the National Academy of Medicine has prioritized a focus on known chronic care conditions. Many of these conditions are shared internationally. Among its initiatives, the academy encourages consumer and professional groups, patients, clinicians, health care organizations, and universities to work together to identify evidence-based care processes consistent with best practices, organize major prevention programs to target key associated health risk behaviors, and develop systems to measure and evaluate improvements in the provision of patient- and family-centered health care. Carefully designed and collaboratively developed MOOCs would appear a valuable resource to contribute to these initiatives. Such MOOCs can, 1) increase the health literacy of the public with regard to the prevention and treatment of known chronic care conditions, 2) provide ready access to continuing professional, and interprofessional, education, and 3) explore innovative teaching models for student learning focused on patient- and family-centered care. MOOCs would also appear helpful to facilitate effective communication among international communities of patients and clinicians, including student clinicians, with shared interests. Further, the accumulation of MOOC data through large-scale measurement and analysis, obtained nationally and internationally, has the potential to assist in greater understanding of the risk for diseases and their prevention, with this translating into medical education, and authentic, patient- and family-centered methods for student learning. This paper explores these issues.

Student preparedness characteristics important for clinical learning: perspectives of supervisors from medicine, pharmacy and nursing

BACKGROUND

Student perspectives of clinical preparedness have been studied in the literature, but the viewpoint of supervisors is limited. Hence, the aim was to examine the perspective of supervisors on the characteristics of health professional students important for preparedness for clinical learning.

METHODS

This was a descriptive, questionnaire-based, cross-sectional study conducted at three higher education institutions in Malaysia. A previously published questionnaire with 62 characteristics was adopted with modifications after pre-testing. Descriptive analysis was completed for the demographic data. The sample was grouped based on health profession, clinical practice experience and teaching experience for further analysis. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test was selected to evaluate differences in mean ranks to assess the null hypothesis that the medians are equal across the groups. Kruskal-Wallis post-hoc pair wise comparison was performed on samples with significant differences across samples.

RESULTS

The sample was comprised of 173 supervisors from medicine (55, 32%), pharmacy (84, 48%) and nursing (34, 20%). The majority (63%) of the supervisors were currently in professional practice. A high percentage (40%) of supervisors had less than 4 years of teaching experience. The highest theme ratings were for willingness (6.00) and professionalism (5.90). There was a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the medians, among medicine, pharmacy and nursing professional speciality for willingness (5.70, 6.00 and 6.00), professionalism (5.70, 5.90 and 6.15), communication and interaction (5.42, 5.67 and 6.00), personal attributes (5.42, 5.71 and 6.02) and the professional and interpersonal skills (5.50, 5.63 and 6.00) themes. Post-hoc analysis showed a significant difference (p < 0.05) between medicine and nursing groups in the willingness (5.70 and 6.00), professionalism (5.70 and 6.15) and personal attributes (5.42 and 6.02) themes. Supervisors who are currently in practice had given high ratings compared to other groups. There were no significant differences observed within groups with different level of teaching experiences.

CONCLUSIONS

All supervisors rated professionalism and willingness as the most important characteristics followed by personal attributes. Further strengthening learning opportunities related to these characteristics in the curriculum may improve the students' preparedness in clinical learning.

Culturally and linguistically diverse students in speech-language pathology courses: A platform for culturally responsive services

PURPOSE

Increasing the proportion of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) students and providing intercultural learning opportunities for all students are two strategies identified to facilitate greater access to culturally responsive speech-language pathology services. To enact these strategies, more information is needed about student diversity. This study collected descriptive information about CALD speech-language pathology students in Australia.

METHOD

Cultural and linguistic background information was collected through surveying 854 domestic and international speech-language pathology students from three Australian universities. Students were categorised according to defined or perceived CALD status, international student status, speaking English as an Additional Language (EAL), or speaking a Language Other than English at Home (LOTEH).

RESULT

Overall, 32.1% of students were either defined or perceived CALD. A total of 14.9% spoke EAL and 25.7% identified speaking a LOTEH. CALD students were more likely to speak EAL or a LOTEH than non-CALD students, were prominently from Southern and South-Eastern Asian backgrounds and spoke related languages.

CONCLUSION

Many students reported direct or indirect connections with their cultural heritage and/or contributed linguistic diversity. These students may represent broader acculturative experiences in communities. The sociocultural knowledge and experience of these students may provide intercultural learning opportunities for all students and promote culturally responsive practices.