Abstract:

International or foreign-born faculty must overcome a series of challenges to be successful in the American education system. These hurdles may include English-language acquisition; adaptation to differences in educational systems; difficulty in socialization and interaction with colleagues, administrators and students; and the challenge of mastering explicit and implicit academic expectations, which include different teaching styles and the inherent challenges of living and working in an alien cultural milieu. Transplanted coping, teaching, and socialization patterns often clash with those of the dominant culture and must be altered or modified to fit the new environment.

This paper seeks to analyze the process of emigration, settlement, adaptation, and identity formation of a faculty group from the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe working in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Region, specifically at Montgomery College, in Rockville, Maryland. I will also assess the contributions of this group to the academic and administrative development in their host institution. Finally, I will offer a comparative analysis of their professional and personal experiences in the region.