(988)INTERNATIONAL FACULTY STORIES: DIASPORIC EXPERIENCESIN THE WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN REGION

摘要

International or foreign-born faculty must overcome a series of challenges to besuccessful in the American education system[1]. These hurdles may include Englishlanguageacquisition;adaptation to differences in educational systems;difficulty insocialization and interaction with colleagues, administrators and students;and thechallenge of mastering explicit and implicit academic expectations, which include differentteaching styles and the inherent challenges of living and working in an alien culturalmilieu. Transplanted coping, teaching, and socialization patterns often clash with those ofthe dominant culture and must be altered or modified to fit the new environment.This paper seeks to analyze the process of emigration, settlement, adaptation, andidentity formation of a faculty group from the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe workingin the Washington, DC Metropolitan Region, specifically at Montgomery College, inRockville, Maryland. I will also assess the contributions of this group to the academic andadministrative development in their host institution. Finally, I will offer a comparativeanalysis of their professional and personal experiences in the region.