In recent years, a great number of international student-athletes have populated American colleges and universities, and they have gained such high visibilities due to their academic and athletic aptitudes with mature attitudes. However, the paucity of recent literature, however, fails to demonstrate a general pattern by which international student-athletes are given roles to play. Also, it has been unknown whether or not collegiate athletic departments have been globalized with the international student-athletes. The present study attempted to find specific patterns of NCAA international student-athletes both in the competition and other general non-competition situations; and to expand the findings to the globalization/Americanization theories.
To form a representative sample group, a systematic random sampling was employed for this study. Then, the present study collected 271 valid responses through an on-line survey. Chi-square tests, t -tests, and a MANOVA were computed to analyze the collected data.
Results show that NCAA international student-athletes tend to be placed in centripetal positions in a competition; and they frequently participate in a great portion of a competition as regular starting line-ups. Also, the results show that they are likely to express diverse leadership behaviors actively. Further, the results found that international student-athletes from a culturally close country to the U.S. are more likely to be placed in the centripetal positions, and to express leadership behaviors actively. According to the results, the majority of the NCAA international student-athletes are recognized as leaders in the team. Given that, they are not just are influenced by the U.S. culture and system one-sidedly, rather, they commingle their homeland cultures to the host culture. Thus, it is inferred that presence of international student-athletes contributes to establishing the true globalization rather than Americanization.
