Middle School and Students

Middle Eastern Students: What Is the Effect of Advisory Participation in the Adolescent Years- Grades 8-9

Benefits of student advisory

Adolescence and its effects on learning

Functions and Expectations of Advisory Program

Middle Eastern Student advisory experiences

Participants

Social and economic mobility is a function of educational achievement. It is important to ensure that all children receive education in order to secure their future and that of the nation. The U.S. accommodates many immigrants from the Middle East. Several studies done in the recent past have examined how immigrants fair in the educational system. However, few studies attend to the subject of adolescent students from the Arab world participation in advisory programs for schools and the effects of such participation explicitly. It is not clear whether the results of adolescent participation in school advisory programs would necessarily coincide with the participation by Arab immigrants. Considering the consistent negative portrayal of Arabs in news media; especially after 9/11, the case of participation by Arab adolescent students may be different. Research shows that that discrimination suffered in childhood years can lead to negativity towards the educational system (Shields & Behrman, 2004). Thus, it is essential to review the effects of adolescent participation in advisory programs so as to extend the necessary support to them.

Although advisors in the U.S. have somewhat limited knowledge about how best to conduct advisory service with Middle Eastern students, they work with adolescents from the Middle East. It is unfortunate that psychology, as a discipline victimizes, ridicules, and castigates aspersions on minority cultures both intentionally and unintentionally (Ridley, 2005). According to Ridley (2005), psychologists are taught and subsequently adopt certain approaches that lead to unintentional racist innuendos in psychotherapy and counseling. According to Bernal and Sharrron-Del Rio (2001), Psychotherapy is a cultural phenomenon that is rooted in the white race. They claim that theories in psychotherapy include, inherently, cultural aspects and values that are antagonistic to those held by the minority. Pedersen (1999) suggested multiculturalism as the fourth psychology wave. These views were informed by failure to include minority cultures in conventional psychology research; leading to disenfranchisement by these cultures.

Disparities between minority and majority cultures are clearly documented in the U.S. They also cross into mental health services (Sue, Zane, Nagayama-Hall, & Berger, 2009). The small number of psychologists from minority groups aggravates the problem (APA, 2010) because of the increasing diversity of the U.S. population coupled with the number of adolescent students in need of advisory services. According to Guthrie (2003) both, psychologists as individual practitioners, and psychology as a field of practice have perpetuated racism and biases against minority cultures. The film industry has been the focus of several research efforts to determine how its negative portrayal of the people of the Middle East has contributed to the problem. Since bias directed at Middle Eastern people is common in the wider American culture, it is critical for psychologist to engage actively in an effort to stem the trend by blocking the biases from entering the psychotherapy rooms.

Advisors need to learn the traditions of the cultures and the worldviews that deeply influence the lives of the people of Middle East in America. It may be more important to understand Islam than other religions because it is the most stereotyped and pet item of American propaganda. For instance, Islam states that women have separate rights from those accorded to their husbands (Sue & Sue, 2008; Sue et al., 2009). It is important to acknowledge personal bias when counseling a group from a different cultural background (Sue & Sue, 2008). Americans of non-Arab origin have little information regarding the workings of Arab culture. Mental health experts should engage these groups in order to help them gain deeper understanding of Arab beliefs and lifestyle. Comment by GL: improper

Statement of the Problem

As mentioned earlier, the majority of school advisory programs focusing on Middle Eastern adolescent populations lack proper understanding of the diversity that exists. Students from the Middle East are racially, culturally, religiously, and academic background. While many are commuters, some are first generation immigrants (Swecker, Fifolt & Searby, 2013). There is need, therefore for advisory programs to develop comprehensive and appropriately structured academic programs to support success and deal with attrition. These changes may be challenging many colleges and other learning institutions.

The diversity of Middle Eastern Students has created a gap in planning and organizing academic advisory programs. It would be easier to address the gaps once they are discovered. Yet, the process of identifying such gaps is not easy. Bridging them is, of course another challenge. Although advising students from the Middle East presents a unique set of intricacies, it is, erroneously, widely regarded the same as advising students from other regions (Vianden & Barlow, 2015). If advisors do not possess the necessary training to identify such differences and address them, both students and their advisors face significant gaps and challenges in the advisory program process.

The Middle Eastern adolescent group presents a set of unique challenges that are not included in the readily prepared advisory manual used in the U.S. school system. The religious, cultural, and social orientation is significantly unique. Such an advisory program, therefore, will yield different and unexpected or even undesired results from the Middle Eastern adolescent. The focus of this study is, therefore, to identify the experiences encountered by the Middle Eastern adolescent in participating in the conventional American school advisory program.

The Goal of the Study

This qualitative study will examine the experiences of the Middle Eastern adolescent student participating in the school advisory programs implemented in the U.S. The study is crucial because its findings will enable the Middle Eastern adolescent student to express their views regarding the advisory programs. They will also be empowered to probe the gap much further. The study will use the existing literature on the subject and attempt to address the gap in such literature that demonstrates the absence of studies that are directly focused on the experiences of students from the Middle East.

Academic advisory has emerged as one of the most useful support services in the educational programs at higher education levels. It is not a subsidiary function any more. It is a mandatory program. It requires informed, cognizant organization and planning. The advisory programs contribute significantly to student success, development and the learning process (Kuh, 2011). Further, it has been shown that students learn better and more outside of the classroom. This study is guided by Astin's Inputs-Environment-Outcomes (I-E-O) model (Astin, 1991). This study will use data obtained from student surveys in schools to provide insights into how advisory programs affect the Middle Eastern adolescent student population's experiences. The study also seeks to help schools ascertain how to develop advisory programs that are sensitive and responsive to the needs of the unique needs of the Middle Eastern adolescent student.

This study will help understand the challenges of educational programs in accommodating Middle Eastern adolescent students and thereby, the challenges such students face in pursuing meaningful academic pursuits in the U.S. and elsewhere. It will, therefore mean advancement of my career. Administrators in middle school will also find this study useful if they are examining their professions growth or reviewing aspects of their school advisory program. Further, it will serve as a useful reference in future researches on the subject of advisory programs and their effect on the Middle Eastern adolescent students.

Research Questions

This study endeavors to investigate the research questions below.

1 What is the effect of the school advisory programs on the Middle Eastern student?

2 How do the advising interactions of individual adolescent students affect their academic performances?

3 How does the institution-based advising environment affect the performance of Middle Eastern adolescent students?

4 What effects do we get from the school advising programs on Middle Eastern students; compared to non-Middle Eastern adolescent student populations, and what is the difference?

Definition of Terms

Academic advising: This is a learning opportunity conducted outside the classroom environment for students attending higher education. Academic advising was treated as going beyond course registration process (APA, 2010). The academic advising program was treated as a development process that aids students to link their career life with educational aims.

Adolescent: Young students of age-specific group preparing for high school after graduating from elementary school. Puberty in adolescent comes with a myriad of physical, social, intellectual and emotional challenges.

Junior High School: Young adults that have completed the elementary school course. They are usually placed in grades 7 to 9. They are just about to enter secondary school.

Advisee-advisor Program: A group of pre-arranged students numbering 15 to 20, that can interact to discuss social or academic issues in peer group interaction. The advisory programs can range from a daily, weekly to bi-monthly meets (Vianden & Barlow, 2015). Each child closely bonds with one adult advisor. An advisory base group is normally led by certified teachers and other professional staffs. Such terms as teacher-based guidance, advisement and teacher advisory are commonly used.

Theoretical Framework

Inputs-Environment-Outcomes (I-E-O) model (Astin, 1991) guides us in this examination of the effects of advisory programs on learning by students their development. I-E-O model explains that learning outcomes emanate from inputs by students, the environment around college, and the interaction between the two, i.e. student inputs and the environment around college. According to the I-E-O framework, advising is an environment because it is a service offered by an institution. Astin (1991) made a distinction between and within institutions characteristics. The between-institutions present the picture of an institution wholly. Within-intuitional environment characteristics describe sub-environments that only affect a segment of students. He went on to describe two types of between institutional environment measures. One of the types describes structural aspects such as the size of an institution, selectivity and control. The other environment measure type portrays an institution in a more sophisticated and personal way (p. 86). This includes the types of advisory services offered or a sense of community. Extant academic efforts demonstrated that the two types of institutional environment characteristics relate to learning outcomes of the students.

Student input measures in the I-E-O model such as gender, racial and ethnic identity, personality, socio-economic status, and academic preparation influence the attitude of the student towards advisory service and the services they seek from the advisors. Moreover, advisory services moderate the relationship that exists between the input by students and the outcomes from learning. Advising affects participation in educationally advantageous programs as well as aids students to connect their classroom experiences to the real world outside.

Brief Review of the Literature

Most of the scientific studies that have been conducted have focused on the effect of academic advising on retention and satisfaction by students (Vianden & Barlow, 2015). Studies have demonstrated that student advising has both direct and indirect effects on retention by students. Vianden and Barlow (2015), in a more recent study revealed that the perception of a student towards quality advising has a positive relation with the loyalty of the student, which is a sign of retention. However, while retention and satisfaction are important results, they cannot sufficiently gauge the development and learning by the student. Recently, studies started examining how student advising affects learning outcomes (Smith & Allen, 2014; Young-Jones et al., 2013). These researchers (Young-Jones and colleagues, 2013) sought to establish how academic advising relates to point average of grades. However, it did not show a significant correlation; statistically. According to Erlich and Russ-Eft (2013), academic advising could be associated with a rise on the academic planning by students. Student's immediate outcomes of learning as a result of advisory service were measured by Smith and Allen (2014). They observed that students who sought to connect with advisors had a clear educational plan and had resources that were better known. The limitations of such inferences are that the studies relied either on too small a sample or on a single academic institution to draw these conclusions. Comment by GL: Improper format

Therefore, the applicability of the findings in other contexts may not be assured. In 1991, Frost observed that there was little research on examining and evaluating the real effects of academic advisory programs. The effect of academic advisory programs remains fairly vague. One of the reasons that have led to this scenario is that previous researches have relied on a single institution. These discourage favorable comparison and generalization. The research relating to student learning outcomes presents a perspective from a single institutions specific academic advisory. It does not focus on how the advisory service influences students on macro or policy stage. Moreover, the decentralized element of education in higher institutions of learning has led to an evolution of a range of advisory models suited for specific applications and attending to different constructs. Thus, it may be difficult to assess the true merit of advisory programs of advisory models deployed in different institutions through comparisons between them. In order to demonstrate the variety in focus, over half of the institutions used the shared academic advising model. One third used a centralized model type while the rest used a decentralized structure of advising (Young-Jones et al., 2013). Consequently, there is hardly any reliable research focused on how student advisory service affects a student's performance.

Benefits of student advisory

Advisory services provide adolescent students with emotional support. The student's social networks that seem so important to the student can be interrupted in the process of transferring to high school. Advisory service offers two-prong assistance. It provides built-in peer support for all students in high school. It also assigns students with an adult who knows them well and can provide advocacy and advice in challenging academic and social situations (Kenny & Mceachern, 2009). This scenario holds true particularly for students who experience little or no adult relationships outside school or those that are at risk of dropping out of school. Generally, the advisory teacher is a person that the student knows well or can trust and share their progress and status at school. Those who advocate for advisory service recognize a connection between a student's social and emotional experience and their academic success. Advisory focuses on bolstering self-esteem. It offers peer recognition in an appropriate surrounding. It relieves peer pressure and negative reactions from the student's peers in other areas. Students engaged in advisory services are less likely to drop out or even engage in drug and substance abuse. Parents have a primary contact for their child in the form of an advisor. This helps to improve the involvement by parents and subsequently improves the performance of the student; it has been observed (Kovach & Hillman, 2002). The deep relationship with teacher's helps parents be more informed about the welfare and progress of their children and thus can offer them relevant support.

The general accountability of the school improves by virtue of having a school advisor as a contact person. Each of the teachers is responsible for specific students. If an advisory is to be effective, it must represent and be a core component of the mission of the school. An advisory program, as mentioned earlier in this paper is no longer a mere accessory; it is a core aspect of a school's programs. In is a time, reflection and planning investment (Kenny & Mceachern, 2009; Kovach & Hillman, 2002). Reviewing advisory programs is a common practice for even schools that have been implementing the services for decades. They usually do it every year so as to address, effectively, the school and student needs.

Adolescence and its effects on learning

According to Eichhorn (1996), middle schools applied the social emotional model with an aim to help the youth to cope with puberty and survive. Middle grades also used specially designed curriculum and instruction to provide the maturity level needs. Furthermore, the developmentally responsive design for middle school supported adolescents experiencing all the range of changes during puberty. In this the research, Eichhorn focused on labeling every change that occurred during puberty. He used the change to justify the transformation in middle school. The students were in need of acceptance, to learn independently and achieve success even as they experienced the changes.

According to the research conducted by Alexander & George (1981), students are accepted, recognized, and supported through their years of development. A process of uniformity in the curriculum for development for the middle school ensures optimal use of staff, proper exploitation of resources, and student progress promoted. The primary aim of middle school is to facilitate self-esteem, provide an array of opportunity to ensure success and facilitate student participation. Exploratory courses are also part of the program.

Interdisciplinary instruction, team teaching approaches and exploration opportunities are part and parcel of the curriculum. The primary objective is to provide maximum instruction to a student population subjected to discrimination, based on developmental differences (Kenny & Mceachern, 2009). Middle school students benefit in ways that go beyond their classroom life into adult experiences.

Functions and Expectations of Advisory Program

Each child should have access to at least one caring adult who is friendly and approachable in an advisory program. They should also actively participate in a child's life (Eichhorn, 1966). Aspects of development in adolescence and mentoring are combined to form an effectively structured advisory program. This allows learners to connect with a caring adult. According to Zieglar and Muhull (1994), the purpose of an educational advisory program is to enhance a learner's personal, educational and social development. It also promotes the guidance curriculum as it emphasizes matters of both social and personal importance affecting the learners (p. 42). Examples of expectations of an advisory program include such skills conflict resolution through mediation, study skills, community service, time management, decision-making and relationship building. These activities support the development and growth of adolescents.

A well-organized weekly advisory program influences learners much more that a scenario where it does not exist at all. The pressures and challenges that adolescent learners experience in school are effectively mitigated through an advisory program. Advisory programs are noted for effectively reducing the rate of, anxiety, depression, and disciplinary issues (Valentine et al., 2002). Learners are equipped with problem solving techniques and attain academic success as a result of these programs. Teachers have reported intrinsic motivation, a higher sense of responsibility and a positive environment for learning where advisory programs have been implemented. The relationship between adolescents and their teachers is improved too.

The middle school's advisory program is one major difference between primary and secondary levels. According to Beane Lipka (1987), the adolescents have a chance to know an adult well and to find a sense of security within the institution (p. 40). Indeed, a unique feature in advisory programs is to include the voice of the young adult in the discussion. Consequently, students are encouraged to express their concerns openly and foster a sense of belonging while their advisors offer them a listening ear and subsequent guidance. According to Arnold (1991) advisors should inculcate a sense of moral development and encourage students to become responsible citizens. Some research did not view advisory programs in this light though. For example, Kohn (1997) contends that character education for learners is not appropriate. He found fault in correctional measures used in the advisory programs (p. 432). He believed that it is wrong to involve students in activities that force them to think, share and reflect on ethical issues (Kohn, 1997, p. 429).

Middle Eastern Student advisory experiences

According to the symbolic interaction theory, the self-concept of a person is affected by social support as they see it from others. It is also affected by the attitude that they think others hold towards them. Effectively, therefore, learners who believe they have sufficient social support at school will develop better self-esteem (Demaray, Malecki, Rueger, Brown, & Summers, 2009; Martin, Marsh, Mcinerney, Green, & Dowson, 2007).

Experience shows that adolescents are particularly concerned about what their significant others think about them. Moreover, relationships built between them and others influence the way they perceive themselves. Such reactions range from pride, guilt, shame and embarrassment of oneself depending on the quality of the relationship. It is thus, observed that negative perceptions in school promotes a sense of inadequacy and shame about the learners and subsequent negative self-concept. A typical example is that of teachers and other students holding negative views about Arab-American culture, and exhibiting such perceptions in their interaction with Arab-American students. Such posturing will inevitably affect the Arab-American student's self-concept.

There is documentation that links prejudice to self-concept (Moradi & Hasan, 2004). This relationship is known as stigma hypothesis. It states that internalization of a stigma or status of the minority leads to minority groups with lower self-concept. The reality of being a minority is internalized along with experiences of discrimination and prejudice. Such experiences are considered to be negative social interaction with other people -- symbolic interaction theorists. Consequently, those from minority groups are psychologically affected (Kenny & Mceachern, 2009).

Kovach and Hillman conducted investigation on the self-esteem of the Arab, European and African-American learners along with their discrimination experiences. Self-esteem and self-concept are related; even though they are not interchangeable. Self-concept is the set of judgments a person holds about themselves relative to the rest of the world. Self-esteem, on the other hand is one's feelings of self-worth or value. Thus, it is expected that if one has positive self-concept, they would consequently exhibit high self-esteem. The reverse should also hold true. The results of the study contrasted with those done by Al-Khateeb (1999) in terms of self-esteem. It was found that Arab-American learners exhibited the lowest self-esteem as compared with the other groups mentioned. These students were also likely to associate negative feedback from members of the out-group to prejudice. Even though discrimination experiences were not examined in relation to the self-esteem of the student, Moradi & Hasan (2004) observed such dynamics in Arab-Americans between the ages of 18 to 60 years. He concluded that discrimination was significantly negatively related to self-concept. So far, there has been no study to show the experiences of Middle Eastern learners in school advisory programs.