“We Don’t Need Another One in Our Group”: Racism and Interventions to Promote the Mental Health and Well-Being of Racialized International Students in Business Schools

Abstract

This article is grounded in the premises that racism is a significant predictor of mental health outcomes and that racialized international students experience a great deal of race-based discriminatory treatment. In highlighting how this takes shape in the context of business schools and describing some pedagogical interventions, our purpose is to invite management educators to reflect upon the ways in which they engage with racialized international students and to encourage educators to cultivate approaches that are relevant to their own specific positionalities and institutions. This is especially important as international students comprise a substantial percentage of total enrollment in many business schools and student health and well-being are intimately tied to academic and achievement outcomes. Pedagogical interventions require an understanding of the precarity and exclusion experienced by students while acknowledging the economic and political power structures that are at play as students move around the world to study in countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia.

The Effects of Psychosocial Factors on International Students’ Mental Health and Relevant Interventions

“…Although racism and discrimination are scarcer in the college/university context, studies consistently highlighted the significant positive relationship between mental health concerns and perceived racism-and discrimination-related stress among ISs in western higher education institutions [10,13,[17][18][19]. As per Harrel, types of stress related to racism also varied based on the modality of the individ-ual's perception of truly racist and discriminative information, either direct or indirect [20].…”

“…Explicit racism and discrimination are still in existence. The level of racism-related concerns (i.e., xenophobia) toward actual racism among Asians living in a foreign country has remarkably elevated since the outburst of COVID-19 [10,13,[17][18][19]. In addition, evidence showed that other psychological distress due to COVID-19 was indeed posing a determining effect on ISs' mental health issues resulting from these concerns.…”

“Lock Us in a Room Together”

“…Bias, prejudice, and stereotyping are some of the mechanisms that operationalize discrimination toward international students in both subtle and salient ways. It is not uncommon that racialized international students will be excluded by local students, particularly in group work, because their multilingual language proficiency and cultural behaviour are considered a hindrance to individual and collective success (Wei & Bunjun, 2021).…”

Mental Health and Psychological Well-Being Among Management Students and Educators

“…Encouraging us to recognize that “experiences of exclusion extend far beyond who is in whose group” for assessments, Wei and Bunjun (2021) suggest a range of practical strategies for interventions with which they have experience. These include providing greater opportunity for social connection, minority-peer network development and facilitation, exploring mental health-related aspects of students’ experiences, mentorship of marginalized groups of students; and developing our understanding of the political, social, and geographical contexts of our students.…”

“…Major questions include the following: How can we create cultures in business schools that value and prioritize faculty wellness? How can we best support the mental health of students from marginalized groups in business schools, such as racialized international students (Wei & Bunjun, 2021)? What are the most effective approaches to reduce stigma about mental illness in the context of business schools?…”