Recruitment and Diversity

SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad SIT Digital Collections Capstone Collection SIT Graduate Institute 2013 Recruitment and Diversity: Exploring the Links Between Third-Party Provider Recruitment Strategies And the Level of Diversity Among Secondary Level International Education Travel Participants Gina Asalon SIT Graduate Institute Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/capstones Part of the Disability and Equity in Education Commons, International and Comparative Education Commons, and the Other Education Commons Recommended Citation Asalon, Gina, "Recruitment and Diversity: Exploring the Links Between Third-Party Provider Recruitment Strategies And the Level of Diversity Among Secondary Level International Education Travel Participants" (2013). Capstone Collection. 2632. https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/capstones/2632 This Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by the SIT Graduate Institute at SIT Digital Collections. It has been accepted for inclusion in Capstone Collection by an authorized administrator of SIT Digital Collections. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Running Head: RECRUITMENT AND DIVERSITY: EXPLORING THE LINKS Recruitment and Diversity: Exploring the Links Between Third-Party Provider Recruitment Strategies And the Level of Diversity Among Secondary Level International Education Travel Participants Gina Asalon PIM 71 A Capstone Paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of International Education at SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont, USA. Capstone Seminar July 21, 2013 Advisor: Carrie Wojenski RECRUITMENT AND DIVERSITY: EXPLORING THE LINKS ii Consent to Use Statement I hereby grant permission for World Learning to publish my Capstone on its website and in any of its digital/electronic collections, and to reproduce and transmit my CAPSTONE ELECTRONICALLY. I understand that World Learning’s websites and digital collections are publicly available via the Internet. I agree that World Learning is NOT responsible for any unauthorized use of my Capstone by any third party who might access it on the Internet or otherwise. Student name: Gina Asalon Date: July 4, 2013 RECRUITMENT AND DIVERSITY: EXPLORING THE LINKS iii Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iv Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Literature Review ......................................................................................................................... 3 Defining International Education Travel .................................................................................... 4 Defining Third-Party Providers .................................................................................................. 5 Diversity: Race and Ethnicity ..................................................................................................... 7 Importance of diversity. .......................................................................................................... 8 Barriers for diverse populations. ............................................................................................. 9 Minority Recruitment................................................................................................................ 11 Research Design .......................................................................................................................... 14 Data Collection Methods .......................................................................................................... 15 Survey design and sample ..................................................................................................... 15 Conceptual Frameworks ........................................................................................................... 16 Breaugh and Starke’s five-stage framework. ........................................................................ 16 Haskins and Kirk-Sanchez’s study and model...................................................................... 20 Presentation and Analysis of Data............................................................................................. 22 The Case Study: Survey Answers and the Recruitment Process ............................................. 25 Demographics and recruitment objective. ............................................................................ 25 Strategy development............................................................................................................ 27 Recruitment activities. .......................................................................................................... 29 Intervening/process variables................................................................................................ 30 Recruitment results. .............................................................................................................. 31 Discussion and Recommendations for Further Research ....................................................... 32 References .................................................................................................................................... 36 Appendices ................................................................................................................................... 40 Appendix A ............................................................................................................................... 40 Appendix B ............................................................................................................................... 41 Appendix C ............................................................................................................................... 42 Appendix D ............................................................................................................................... 48 Appendix E ............................................................................................................................... 49 RECRUITMENT AND DIVERSITY: EXPLORING THE LINKS iv Abstract Seventy-eight percent of students who study abroad in college are White. The second largest racial/ethinc group to study abroad in college is Asian students and only eight percent of Asian college students go abroad. If the statistics look like this at the tertiary level, what could they possibly look like at the secondary level? Unfortunately, the overarching problem with secondary level international education travel (a broad term used to include short-term, semester- and year-long programs abroad) is that, unlike tertiary level study abroad, there is no standard reporting process. Therefore, it is largely unknown how many high school students are going abroad and the demographics of those students who actually do go abroad. Additionally, most high school students who travel abroad do so through third-party providers. Third-party providers are independent organizations that are not affiliated with any school and offer a variety of study abroad programs. Often these programs are costly and the providers cannot always offer financial aid. This has the effect of significantly narrowing the pool of potential applicants. To explore this aspect of the international education travel that has been largely ignored, this research study asks the questions “Who is going abroad at the secondary level?” and “Do third-party providers’ recruitment processes have an effect on the level of diversity among secondary level international education travel participants?” Using OneWorld Now! (OWN), a Seattle-based third-party provider, as a case study, the author examines OWN’s participant demographics, as well as its recruitment goals, activities and results to determine if and how it is achieving diversity among its participants. Both an organizational recruitment process framework and a data processing model are used not only to make these determinations, but also to demonstrate how other third-party providers’ demographics and recruitment processes can be analyzed similarly. RECRUITMENT AND DIVERSITY: EXPLORING THE LINKS 1 Introduction The overarching problem with secondary level international education travel (a broad term used to include short-term, semester-, and year-long programs abroad) is that, unlike university level study abroad, there is no standard reporting process. Therefore, it is largely unknown how many high school students are going abroad and the demographics of those students who actually do go abroad (Blumenfeld, 2008, p. 33). There is one organization, the Council on Standards for International Education Travel (CSIET), that attempts to compile data on the international movements of United States (U.S.) high school students. Beginning with the 2003 to 2004 academic school year, CSIET (2013) has annually published youth exchange statistics that include the number of long-term (semester- and year-long) outbound (going abroad) American high school students per U.S. state, the number of long-term inbound (coming to the U.S.) international high school students, the number of international high school students per U.S. state and the ratio of international high school students to each U.S. state population. In its 2012-2013 report, CSIET (2013) also provided nine-year

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