Valuing International Students’ Knowledge
Communication, Healthy Relationships, and Consent was originally intended to address the lack of dedicated sexualized violence response/training for international students. As the environmental scan for the resource stated, “International students have different understandings of what constitutes sexualized violence, consent, respect for boundaries, and gender norms.”
However, as the curriculum writers began their work, they pointed to research suggesting that sexualized violence education on Canadian university campuses may fail to meet the needs of international students by treating them as “non-Western people and therefore, culturally inferior visitors in need of special instruction regarding sexuality and violence” (Todorova et al., 2022). While international students in British Columbia share the experience of no longer living in their countries of origin, minimizing their extremely diverse experiences to identify them as one audience re-enacts the complex and troubling dynamics that inherently other international students.
Therefore, with the support of the International Student Resource Working Group, the resource was developed with a commitment to expanding beyond a solely Western value–led perspective, through honouring and recognizing international students’ existing knowledge, experiences, and strengths in relation to engaging in discussions about sexualized violence.
The resource acknowledges that international students may encounter a higher risk of sexual victimization than domestic students because of unique challenges associated with living in new environments, such as:
- Isolation and lack of strong networks in their new country
- Lack of information about community resources available to them
- Limited funds and employment opportunities because of visa status
- Barriers to reporting or disclosing incidents of sexualized violence or accessing available support services (Mosaic, 2019)
The approach taken also sought to elevate international students’ “agency and active negotiation of the social, educational and institutional realities related to violence in both their countries of origin and in Canada, [… their] capacity for individual and collective action, resourcefulness, and ability to find and interpret critically information related to sexuality, intimacy, and gender relations” (Todorova et al., 2022).
The resource therefore takes into account the complexity of recognizing and valuing international students’ existing knowledge, while aiming to expand on that knowledge to better equip them as they engage with the topic of sexualized violence in the Canadian context. As a result, Communication, Healthy Relationships, and Consent is foundational and preliminary for any future sexualized violence educational opportunities, not just for international students but for all students in the B.C. post-secondary sector.
References
MOSAIC. (2019). Peer Creating Awareness to Facilitate Education and Support (PEER CAFES): International Student Safety Guide. https://www.mosaicbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/International-Student-Safety-Guide.pdf
Todorova, M. S., Brooks, H. H., Persaud, R. S., & Moorhouse, E. A. (2022). Sexual violence prevention and international students in Canadian universities: Misalignments, gaps and ways forward. Comparative and International Education, 50(2), 33–50 (quoted from p. 34). https://doi.org/10.5206/cieeci.v50i2.14250