AbstractsEducation Research & Administration

Increasing numbers of international students are attending high schools in Ontario. These students are tuition-paying adolescents coming to Ontario unaccompanied, living with Canadian families, and studying in English-speaking high schools. Although few studies have examined adolescent international students, many studies have been conducted on mobile students and immigrant students who face many similar challenges. These studies provided the starting point for defining the kinds of supports that could be present in programs designed for unaccompanied adolescent international students. One purpose of this current research was to assess the range and scope of this educational phenomenon by looking at International Student Programs (ISPs) offered in Ontario by publicly-funded school boards. After surveying the school board web sites, I determined which publicly-funded English-language school boards accepted international students. I compared the size of 18 programs. I invited the 16 school boards that were members of Ontario Association of School Districts International (OASDI) to participate in the study. I conducted one set of telephone interviews with the managers of eight of the 16 international student programs (ISPs), and received two written responses to the interview questions. I then conducted three longer face-to-face interviews with the managers from three diverse school boards. Two orientation manuals were analyzed as a part of this study. I examined the supports that 10 programs provided for international students. Some of the participating boards had well-developed ISPs that provided academic supports, well-monitored homestays, comprehensive orientation, social activities, and had procedures to monitor student well-being. A few of the larger boards with higher enrolment were not able to offer social activities and did not provide their own homestay. The results of this study reveal that it was difficult to find accurate data concerning the number of international students in Ontario high schools. However, it was clear that ISPs are run as businesses and contribute to the economy in Ontario. More boards have started ISPs since 2012 and have joined the provincial and national associations. The results show that many supports such as language assessment, academic tutoring, well-monitored homestays, and social events varied widely across the province.