The Parsonian Four Phases as a Conceptual Scheme for Understanding the Position of the Foreign Student in America
Abstract
INTRODUCTIONThe statement of the problem and the theoretical approach to it.— The aim of this paper is to investigate the possibility of using a typology based on Parsons’ conceptual framework for the analysis of social systems as a way of pointing to probable areas of adjustment facing the foreign student in the United States.The method will be demonstrated by considering African students in America. The procedure will consist of the following steps: (1) drawing up logical constructs of the American and traditional African systems using Parsonian concepts; (2) discovering the attitudes of three African students toward elements in their own system and that of the American system as they have experienced it; (3) evaluating these interviews by the standard of comparison set up by the ideal types. It is believed that the students can be placed upon a continuum between the African and American social systems; and, that by doing so, a much clearer view can be had of where his institutionalized patterns of behavior differ from, and perhaps conflict with, the expectations which he meets in America.
Subject Area
Educational psychology|Social structure|Sociology|Education
Recommended Citation
Mercier, Anne E, "The Parsonian Four Phases as a Conceptual Scheme for Understanding the Position of the Foreign Student in America" (1960). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI28673317.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI28673317
