Abstract

This interview-based qualitative case study grounded in Weberian (1947; 1994; 2011) concepts of sociological theory and Vygotskyan (1978; 1987) socio-cultural constructivism was approved by the IRB with the waiver of the signed consent for identity protection of participants. The subjects in the larger project were scholars at American public universities. The sample was purposefully formed and included representatives of Americans of international descent, people of color and low socio-economic status communities, and first generation in college students. Recruitment occurred confidentially via conversations with the Principal Investigator, aka the author of this chapter. This project aimed to further research the problems connected with the distribution of power and its overuse in academic environments, legitimate, but oppressing, thus unwanted domination and the effects from the above on the vulnerable populations in educational settings. Unstructured interviews were the major research instrument. The collected data were coded via Miles and Huberman (1984) memoing and Saldaña’s (2012) thematic coding. Upon completion of the data analysis, this research found a steadily recurring pattern: the participants who had experienced mistreatment and abuse in the academic settings chose to not engage in the search for justice due to their prior personal and observed negative experiences, where search for justice resulted in highly negative outcomes, i.e., worthening of the state of things. As the result, the participants gained learned helplessness. This current chapter focuses on the case of one participant, a female college student from Central Asia.

Keywords

Abuse, academic settings; learned helplessness; mistreatment; vulnerability

Introduction

Problem Statement

Cases of abuse and mistreatment in the educational establishments often involve subjects in some kind of a vulnerable position as found by multiple research studies (e.g., Aboud & Joong, 2008; Alsaker & Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, 2012; Cappadocia et al., 2012; Hanish et al., 2011; Smith, 2012). These phenomena root in the problem with power distribution. Oftentimes, the rush-to-the-top strive for leadership starts in some humans in their early age. Competition in its fair and shamefully unfair forms leads the runners to seeking support in their surroundings with the purpose of achieving their hierarchical goals. Strengthened and empowered by the supporters who are satisfied with their top or next-to-the top positions, the greedy for dominance leaders unconsciously or allegedly cross the borders of humanity and justice, which qualifies their actions as abuse.

Behaving similarly to primates within a simian troop, abusers form hierarchically organized cliques and attempt to involve more of their peers or colleagues to join in and reinforce their oppressive practices (Haun et al., 2014). Subsequently, the above snow-ball process results in involvement of the former indifferent or passive bystanders. Unvoluntary or allegedly, the latter begin copying the behaviors of the dominating power-seekers (e.g., Cappadocia, 2012; Fischer et al., 2011; Haun et al., 2014).

Psychological or physical attacks by the clique are often centrally coordinated by the alpha-leader of the mob, where the joined actions aim to selectively target, alienate, and assault an unprotected victim in a vulnerable position. Some of the hierarchically lower-positioned mobbers may also swat the victim on their own while relying on protection and support by their leaders. Subsequently, the victim finds it impossible to withstand the recurring charges by one, yet well-supported, mobber, a part of, or an entire troop. Such on-going bullying results in making the target feel miserable and helpless, which often causes multiple short-term and long-term negative effects on the victim’s psychological, emotional, and physical health and wellbeing (e.g., Cowie, 2013; Gould-Yakovleva, 2024).

Often, the above practices are typical of the younger populations, for example, teenagers, but not exceptionally. Many bullying behaviors may persist in the prone to them people beyond such stages of human development as childhood or teenage years. Oftentimes, young, beginning scholars and occasionally some veteran faculty members find themselves in the highly undesirable roles of targets or victims of unfair, unequal, or negatively biased mistreatment in their study or work places in the American public or private universities and colleges (e.g., Farrington, 2007; Gould & Sultonova, 2021; Lutgen-Sandvik, 2009; McGinn & Oh, 2017; Tracy et al., 2006). Besides the harm to the victim’s psychological and physical health, mistreatment and abuse have a range of damaging effects on the person’s academic and professional achievements. Additionally, bullying, mobbing, or any type of mistreatment negatively affect the work and study atmosphere in the institution where they occur (e.g., Toth, 1997; Twale & De Luca, 2008). Thus, the above problems need to be studied and addressed in a range of preventive and consequential actions.

Motive and Purpose

Oftentimes, necessity to collaborate in tandems or in one-on-one academic setting, results in development of a solicitudinal or caring stance among the small group members (Gould-Yakovleva, 2023a). So, the lived experiences by some higher education students or scholars confidentially shared with the author of this chapter led her to realization of the need of conducting a research study on perceptions of the victims of mistreatment and bullying in the academic settings. This motivation took the root in the need of a deeper understanding of the underlying psychological processes, which are involved and connected to abuse. All the above concerns prompted this researcher to also explore the logic underpinning power overuse in bullies and development of helplessness in the victims. Yet, the purpose of this research report is to raise awareness via disseminating the findings of this particular case study. Growing awareness has a strong potential to further result in elimination or minimization of the occurrences and negative effects from the abuse, bullying, and mistreatment in academe.

Literature and Theory

Literature Review

Multiple publications report highly negative effects from bullying and abuse on individuals (e.g., Aosved et al. 2016; Currah & Minter, 2000; D’Escury & Dundink, 2012; Duncan, 2011; Goodboy et al., 2016; Gould-Yakovleva, 2024; Hartup, 2005; Jimerson et al., 2010; Jimerson & Huai, 2012; Poteat et al., 2013; Tokunaga, 2010). Many studies found that bullying and mistreatment often root in high intolerance in the bullies to the representatives of certain social groups or cultures (e.g., Graham et al., 2011; Lloyd, 2005; McCormack, 2013; Nickerson et al., 2012; Olweus, 2012; Perkins et al., 2014; Scherr & Larson, 2012). These researchers investigated multiple forms of bullying including but not limited to verbal, non-verbal, and physical as well as their negative effects on the victims, where the damage from mistreatment ranged from mild to severe. For example, Gould-Yakovleva (2023b) mentioned that professional and academic endeavors by the scholars of International decent are often “erroneously underrated based on their initial English language proficiency, heavy accents, culture-specific ways of expression, and untraditional, from the western perspectives, philosophies as well as their expansive sets of the non-western cultures-specific scientific, literary, historical, and artistic knowledges” (p. 15). Nevertheless, significantly more adverse and hurting effects from mistreatment, bullying, and abuse were found in many studies (e.g., Goodboy et al., 2016; Gould-Yakovleva, 2024; Vaillancourt et al., 2011).

For instance, the theme of misperception of the others (Bakhtin, 1981) or the different ones emerges in the research report by Goodboy et al. (2016). This study sample included 186 female and male undergraduate participants. Drawing on Aosved (2009), Goodboy et al. (2016) confirmed that the students bullied the “others” based on their prejudices (p. 280). According to these researchers, “…bullying coincides with intolerance towards some social groups” (Goodboy et al., 2016, p. 286) and results in such negative effects as anxiety, depression, and physical pain in the victims.

Next, the qualitative case study with one focus research participant conducted by Gould-Yakovleva (2024) sought to have a deeper and insightful glimpse into the life-history of the currently employed in the field of education young scholar. This research found multiple adverse effects from bullying, harassment, and mobbing on one student who appeared unprotected by the school faculty and authorities when being longitudinally, practically life-long, mistreated in the academic settings. Most severe consequences for this victim from the prolonged mistreatment, alienation, verbal intimidation, assaults, and gender-based harassment by the bullies were such conditions as deep medical depression, fearful self-isolation, chronical insomnia, eating disorder (inability and refusal to eat), suicidal intentions, and the state of unstoppable physical pain, which stemmed from the psycho-emotional trauma in this previously healthy person.

Regardless of the findings and implications by multiple researchers, many authors send their outcries into the global educational communities about insufficiency of the undertaken efforts (e.g., Gould, 2018; Gould-Yakovleva, 2024; Jimmerson & Huai, 2012; Rigby, 2012; Smith, 2012; Smith & Slonje, 2012; Steinfeldt et al., 2012). Key conclusion in the above literature is that more studies and preventive measures are urgently needed with the purpose to raise awareness, decrease, and eliminate abuse, bullying, and mistreatment in academe. This alarming idea urged the author to conduct the qualitative case study, which will be discussed in this chapter.

Theoretical Considerations

Major findings from the reviewed above literature inevitably led the author of this writing to the conclusion that humans construct their perceptions of selves and their surroundings based on the schemas developed and fossilized within the societies and cultures where they were raised and educated. This societal psychological phenomenon was studied and described by Vygotsky at the beginning of the 20^th century, yet it was published in English with a significant delay (1978; 1987). Vygotskyan socio-cultural constructivism theory can be considered a corner-stone theoretical basis for this study as this theory underpins the explanations to such negative culture-specific interrelationships between the individual human beings and groups as, first and foremost, xenophobia, as the fear of and hatred to strangers, which lays the basis to ostracization, alienation, marginalization, and counteraction in an amplitude of its forms.

Additionally, Weberian (1947; 1994; 2011) sociological theory was considered ground-laying for this study as Max Weber detailed on domination and the “… subjective dimension of social life, seeking to understand the states of mind or motivations that guide individuals’ behavior” (Edles & Appelrouth, 2011, p. 167). Weber’s intension of Verstehen [German] or understanding of psychology of humans within a society distinguished four types of action: instrumental-rational, value-rational, traditional, and affective. As summarized by Edles and Appelrouth, the first, instrumental-rational action consists in the “efficient pursuit of goals through calculating advantages and disadvantages associated with the possible means for realizing them” (2011, p. 167). This notion may explain the consciously chosen and implemented behaviors by some persons who are motivated by their desire to dominate over their higher-achieving or standing-out in any other way counterparts. According to Weber, the second, value-rational action is also a conscious choice of behavior, yet it differs from the instrumental-rational in its being rooted in an individual’s belief of “doing the right thing.”  Further on, Edles and Appelrouth clarified the essence of the third, traditional action where individuals or groups choose to adhere to the behaviors practiced in their conventional surroundings; while the fourth, the affective action “is marked by impulsiveness or a display of unchecked emotion” (2011, p. 168). A deeper insight in the conscious and subconscious psychological and emotional processes regarded from the Weberian perspective has the potential to help identify the roots of the behaviors in each of the involved in the interaction parties: abusers and victims. Disclosure of the factors underpinning human behaviors might help reduce or eliminate the unwanted behaviors and their dramatic outcomes. Thus, the above intention aligns well with the purpose of this current research.

Methodology

Design and Sampling

Upon being approved by the IRB committee, this qualitative narrative case study was designed based on the qualitative research principles by the renowned authors (e.g., Ely et al., 1994; Glesne, 2010). While Janesick’s (2010) considerations laid the ground for narrative retelling the oral histories and life-stories shared by the participants in the larger study. This larger project aimed to collect, document, analyze, and understand, then disseminate the information concerning the perceptions and reflective thoughts of the research participants about the processes, results, or outcomes of their encounters with the non-acceptive, non-inclusive, or prejudiced groups or cultures or individual representatives of such.

All subjects in the sample were purposefully recruited based on shared by them information about their prior negative experiences with being mistreated, bullied, or abused in academe. Sample size is not large due to Creswell’s (1998) vision of the qualitative case study sampling where “no more than 4-5 cases” are recommended. This current report aims to deliver the findings from one qualitative narrative case study in a series of case studies within the larger project, where each case was conducted with a different individual participant (e.g., Gould-Yakovleva, 2024). This larger study is planned to be continued, so the sample size will be expanding over the time this project is in progress.

Research Questions

This research aimed to “verstehen” (Weber, 2011), gain understanding, and answer the following questions:

• In what ways, if at all, may individuals be mistreated or abused in the academic settings?
• What are the perceptions of these adverse experiences by the victims of abuse or mistreatment in academe?
• What are the possible roots and outcomes of the incidents with mistreatment or abuse in academe as reported by the victims and/or possible witnesses/bystanders?

Participants

Most participants in the larger qualitative study, where this current report was only one case out of many, were undergraduate and graduate students in the higher education establishments in the United States. IRB committee waived the signed consent for the participants with the purpose to protect their identities. Pseudonyms will be used instead of all names of people, geographical locations, academic organizations, etc. Master list with the above information was coded and is kept in a secure location. All audio-recordings with the voices of the participants sharing their stories are also kept in a secure location. Focus research participant for this report was selected due to the extreme results of mistreatment, which needed to be separately discussed within this report. This decision was based on the severity of that particular case within a range of other incidents studied within this project.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data were collected in accordance with Seidman’s (2013) principles in the form of strictly confidential, one-on-one, or small group unstructured interviews with the participants and bystanders or witnesses of the incidents. As the researcher, I also engaged in participant observations according with Spradley’s (1981) recommendations. Interviews were not structured because every person’s oral story was unpredictably tortuous, torturous, and unique. Further, the researcher also conducted detailed site observations. Additionally, the available internet-based information about the abusers and bullies involved in the stories delivered by this research participants was collected, but will not be disclosed. All the collected data underwent Miles and Huberman’s (1984) memoing analysis, where the major facts from the participants’ stories were memoed by the researcher in preparation to creating a bigger research picture according to Miller (2015 as in Gould-Yakovleva, 2023a). Saldaña’s (2012; 2015) qualitative thinking and analyzing methods were utilized with the purpose to find recurring themes forming patterns in the data from the transcribed interviews and memos, which documented the bullying behaviors by the abusers and the victims’ reactions to such. This work was conducted with the purpose to deeper understand the nature of the adverse actions and the victims’ reactions to the latter ones. Finally, Saldaña’s (2018) principles of qualitative writing were followed in the process of developing this written report of the findings.

Research Processes and Findings

Narrowing the Pool of Stories

Contemplating over the stories shared by the participants in the larger research, I realized that some of the accounts revealed by some particular participants urged to be reshared with the wide academic communities in the United States and internationally due to severity of the outcomes of mistreatment for the participants who had undergone mistreatment by the professionals in power in academe.

For this report, the researcher had to choose between five incidents. The first story was shared by four male students of color who were failed by their white female student-adjunct instructor on their brilliantly performed group project, where the instructor’s justification of the F grade to all four was her statement, “They just could not be that high [smart].” This incident presented an outrageous case of inequality, injustice, racial prejudice, and white supremacy. This case of four boys of color should be expected to be disseminated by the author of this current paper in the nearest future.

Next, the second candidate for publishing story conveyed an incident where a group of white female employees did not let a young Black female teacher sit down next to them at their school cafeteria table during Christmas celebration at their school. Most definitely, this case discussion will follow the current report shortly.

Further, the third story in the pool of the candidates for dissemination was a narration by a white female scholar of International descent who encountered several incidents of being publicly ridiculed for grieving loss of her mother by different white mainstream American individuals in academe. The above led this scholar to conclude that, “Foreign mothers do not matter.”

Story number four was shared by an East-Asian female graduate student who faced a series of mistreatment actions at her part-time job on campus of one of the American universities. Upon having analyzed her own situation, this participant concluded that, “Not all people like Asians.” This conclusion drawn by this participant as well as the narratives she shared qualify the case of her mistreatment as acts of racism and hate.

Nevertheless, the abuse in academe undergone by the fifth person resulted in a severe psychological and emotional trauma, and as follows, caused life-threatening physical health crisis. Severity of the outcomes of mistreatment shared by this student led me, as the researcher to realization of necessity to report this case firsthand via the affordances of this book chapter.

Participant’s Story

In the focus of this report, there will be a story of a young female International college student of Central-Asian descent. For identity protection purposes, the pseudonym Asiya will be used instead of this person’s real name. The events reported in this paper are based on the data collected twice with an interval of three consecutive years. 

Asiya first shared her story in 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown. At that time, she was a first-year college student who had arrived in the United States with the purpose to study medical sciences. This participant came from a Central-Asian country. As the majority of people in the region of her origin, Asiya was a Muslim girl raised by her parents to be modest, respectful, hard-working, and zealous. Nevertheless, it was not meager obedience of the traditionally-raised female offspring in a locally honored, educated, middle-class family. On the contrary, Asiya was attracted to studies and the process of gaining the knowledge by her curiosity and a strong desire to help people and take care of the persons with medical needs. This wish aligned well with the meaning of this girl’s name, as one of the interpretations and translations of the name Asiya in the Arabic language is Caring. Since being yet a very young child, Asiya cherished her dream of becoming a doctor of medicine. During the interview, she recollected studying diligently, progressing to each higher grade level with the highest remarks received from her teachers in the elementary, middle, and high schools, which she attended in her home country.

There were some precursors, which might have prevented this young talent from achieving high and fulfilling her dream about studying medical sciences in an American college. The problem was that along with her high intellectual abilities, Asiya inherited from her ancestry some health conditions, among which there was strabismus, also known as misalignment of eyes. To be more exact, this girl suffered exotropia, the condition in which one of a person’s eyes deviates outwards, while another one stays focused. Surgical treatment in the country of her origin was out of question due to shortage in high-quality professionals and exorbitant prices for surgical operations. Additionally, in her infantry, Asiya was diagnosed with a heart disease, which might have further complicated her health condition were any surgeries performed. For the above reasons, Asiya’s family decided to leave the young girl’s eye condition as is, without surgical interference.

By summer 2019, when Asiya graduated from her high school with high grades in her High School Diploma, her educated family made their proud decision to send their young graduate to continue her studies in a college in the United States of America. To verbally finish the portrait of this applicant to the American college, it is important to describe that Asiya wore her traditional full-length dark robe with long sleeves, which fully hid her hands. She covered her head with a black hijab, which fell down concealing her shoulders and upper torso.

With her excellent grades in her high-school diploma, Asiya was promptly accepted in the Eastern Groves College (pseudonym), which was infamously known by its well-deserved nickname E – easy, G – grades, C – college (EGC). At the time of her enrollment and relocation, Asiya, this young and ambitious hoped-to-be-a-doctor Abiturient had no knowledge of the poor reputation of her destination college. It was later that she discovered that the EGC students were viewed as customers or clients by the EGC college, which treated them on the “money paid – diploma guaranteed” basis.

Upon arrival, Asiya settled in a college apartment complex where she shared her quarters with two other newly-accepted female students. Luckily for Asiya, both of her roommates appeared to be stemming from the Muslim families. This fact made all three girls feel comfortable together because all three of them felt free to adhere to their cultural traditions, such as praying in certain ways and times, following their culture-specific diet, fastening during the day and having meals only at night during the month of Ramadan, wearing ethnic outfits, etc.

Fall 2019 semester went smoothly and without any accidents. Yet, the dramatic event in the focus of this report occurred during the COVID-19 lockdown when all college studies were transferred from the on-campus to virtual classrooms. Asiya studied hard. To not be distracted nor interrupted, she developed a habit of keeping her earbuds in her ears just to imitate listening to music. Nevertheless, the real purpose of this trick was to avoid interruptions to her studying processes. In reality, this student did not listen to any music, but only aimed to stay focused on her readings without being involved in the daily conversations with her roommates. This was not self-alienation; sooner than that, Asiya implemented the avoidance strategy, which helped her to study longer hours without being interrupted.

During the first interview in 2020, Asiya recollected her experiences with transitioning from the on-campus instruction to the online classes. She suddenly switched the topic and revealed in a higher than usual speed of speech,

“With the online classes in the beginning, it was kind of hard because it was very hard to adjust to it. Later on, I kind of got used to it. But the tests were much easier to take on paper than online. You had more time to think about it, more time. But online, they time you; so, once your time is over, it’s over. The questions are also harder online, extra hard. So, it’s less time when online and much harder.”

Having shared about her experiences with the online test-taking problems, Asiya hurriedly proceeded to discussing the incident, which occurred during one of her most recent final exams,

“The teachers, professors, they think we are cheating. This is an additional pressure for us. That’s really bad for us.”

As stated above, this revelation by this research participant was shared by her in 2020, at the very beginning of all the dramatic events, which subsequently followed the incident with the online final exam.

Failure

Findings from the follow-up interviews, which took place in 2023 revealed that Asiya suffered a severe psychological and emotional trauma, which also resulted in worsening of her physical health condition, which followed her failure on the 2020 final exam. More information on that incident was obtained from another follow-up interview conducted with the witness of the events, Asiya’s roommate. This second student added even more details to Asiya’s story.

It was known from the first, 2020 interview that Asiya failed her final exam in the field of Biological Sciences, which was offered in the form of an online test. Yet, as it was found in the 2023 follow-up interview, the failure occurred due to the reasons other than poor performance on the exam questions. On the contrary, this student did well on the test; thus expected to have earned a good, passing grade for the class. Nevertheless, Ms Bricks (pseudonym), the white mainstream American female instructor, gave Asiya a grade F for her final exam. Moreover, this professor failed Asiya for the entire course. Being confident about her level of knowledge, Asiya strongly believed there was some mistake in the grading, so she contacted her instructor by email. Shockingly for this student, from the received response, Asia found herself being accused of cheating. Subsequently, as it was explained by Ms Bricks, Asiya failed her Biological Sciences course and was mandated to retake it in the following semester.

Yet, Asiya knew this accusation was groundless. So, full of confidence (at that time yet), Asiya reattempted her communication with this instructor by phone asking her professor to provide at least some grounds underlying her negative decisions. Ms Bricks stated that she noticed that during the online exam, one of Asiya’s eyes was looking outward and away from the screen. Thus, as Ms Bricks concluded, this student was cheating.

It is the right time in this paper to remind the readers of the essence of the strabismus condition, which causes misalignment of eyes of a patient. One of the eyes of a person may have esotropia or inward deviation or exotropia or outward deviation. Asiya suffered from the latter condition causing her left eye deviate outward.

Regardless of the fact that this health condition was documentable, observable, and impossible to hide, even if desired, Ms Bricks chose to not trust this student’s words. In spite of that, Asiya cherished the hope to find justice: she had a witness, her roommate, who was ready to confirm the fact that Asiya was taking that final exam in an empty study-hall room in the college apartment building with no books being brought to the testing site from this student’s quarter. Nevertheless, Ms Bricks was firm in her decision to not meet nor listen to the witness’s explanations. Neither did the administrators of the EGC college upon receipt of these students’ polite request.

Subsequently, Asiya got immersed into a deep depression. The COVID-19 lockdown regulations prevented this student from travelling back to her home country where her caring family could mutually support this girl and help her overcome the adverse experience. Instead, Asiya had to stay inside her apartment. This 18-year-old student felt scared and overwhelmed. She found herself not being able to return to Ms Brick’s class nor to the EGC college in the following semester. Asiya took an academic leave hoping to heal in the comfort of her friendly room-mates’ company.

However, the semester on the leave ended fast, but the expected relief did not occur. On the contrary, Asiya’s emotional condition worsened. She lost trust in the college, its professors, and administrators. The EGC college, though notorious for issuing “easy grades” to their students, obviously treated the case of Asiya differently.

Learned Helplessness

Having a witness to testify in favor of Asiya’s honesty was not considered by the college professor and administrators. Thereafter, the above mistreatment appeared to be highly damaging for Asiya’s psyche and health condition. Having found their daughter deeply depressed, Aisya’s parents accepted her decision to drop out of the EGC college. The dream of becoming a doctor of this girl whose name meant Caring got smashed into pieces. Asiya lost her hope of becoming a medical professional. During those times, she contemplated over suicide as a way out of her psychological pain. As a consequence of the persistent emotional strain, Asiya’s inborn heart disease took its life-threatening form. So, dropping out of the college became her urgent necessity, rather than a free-will-based choice.

So, what has the above experiences taught Asiya at the start of her mercilessly and carelessly ruined academic and professional career? As it appears, the outcome of the adverse incident for this student was her learned helplessness. Apparently, the latter condition may be viewed as the science of the emotional survival chosen by the victim after her repeated, vain, and psychologically painful attempts to find justice. This suffering victim of mistreatment deliberately or subconsciously chose to not engage in the fight against the power, the academic bureaucracy, in an unequal and fruitless endeavor, which may be compared with the one described by de Cervantes (1992) in his book Don Quixote.

As shared by Asiya, it was safer for her, with regards to her health condition, to abstain from the further interaction with the EGC college, rather than put her energy and efforts into the unequal bone-crashing jousting, the struggle where she alone would need to stand up for herself against the elaborated and well-geared with power higher-education “machine,” which, in the case with Asiya’s fragile heart condition, might have had a killing effect on her health, similar to the one from a shooting machine-gun.

Importantly, Asiya and her roommates stated that engaging in arguments would inevitably cause more harm to the students from their professors and administrators who often act based on their being closely connected by their interpersonal relationships.

This conversation participants unanimously rushed to assure me while interrupting each other, almost in a chorus, “It will only make things worse if you try to. It will be only worse.”

These students strongly believed they would be retaliated and subjected to a range of negative consequences in the academic setting were they persistent in their search for justice. In support of their words, these students revealed that they obtained this information from the pool of evidence- and experience-based knowledge naturally shared by the regretful justice-seekers within the academic communities.

The End of Asiya’s Story

Despite of Asiya’s decision to let the past go, the author of this paper found for necessary to disseminate the results of this qualitative narrative case study for the benefit of the current and future generations of students who might find themselves walking in Asiya’s shoes, i.e., being mistreated in academe while seeing no better choice other than silencing their pain caused by abuse and mistreatment. Asiya was not able to find any help nor trust or support; so, she solusly and silently trudged through the pain of mistrust and rejection. This person viewed the scenario she followed as an only safe for herself path through and out of the adverse situation, and the only way to avoid further retaliation and abuse. Subsequently, deep inside Asiya’s personality, a part of her being died silently. Eventually, her learned helplessness fossilized in her psyche and, most pathetically, added more evidence to the existing pool of the experience-based knowledge residing within academic communities.

Ending Asiya’s story with a lighter note, it needs to be revealed that following two years after her drop-off the EGC college, this student reentered the field of higher education as a student but selected a different major. As off the year of 2023, Asiya was pursuing her new academic and professional goals, while her dream of becoming a doctor of medicine was fearfully left behind.

Discussion and Conclusions

Implications and Limitations

Due to the high significance of the discussed above topic, one of the major implications of this research is that more studies are needed with larger and diverse samples of participants. One of the limitations of this project is that it was conducted with only one participant, who was an International female college student of Central-Asian descent. More studies are needed with the younger and older generations of subjects of different genders, ages, ethnic, cultural, and national belongings, etc. Cases of abuse, bullying, mistreatment, and overuse of power in academe need to be studied with the students on all grade levels, including the ones enrolled in colleges and universities nation-wide in the United States and globally. More studies are needed to understand the mechanisms of human interaction resulting in abuse and mistreatment. In particularly, further research is needed with the purpose to explore the phenomenon of xenophobia in the institutions of higher education with the focus on its effects on the victims. Research goals of all the proposed above studies should be in their attempt to find some working means to eliminate, reduce, or prevent mistreatment or abuse from happening in the academic settings.

Uniqueness and high significance of this current study is in its nation-wide and global applicability. According to Träuber et al. (2022), “Academic harassment is a serious, yet unresolved, issue that not only affects targets (e.g. students, postdocs and faculties of various ranks) but also the people around them and even the scientific community as a whole” (para. 2). Importantly, Träuber et al. started their publication with the statement, “It is time to hold every member of the scientific community responsible and ‘response able’ in addressing/reporting academic harassment” (2022, para. 1), which makes sense and sounds convincing and applicable to all cases with abuse and mistreatment in academe.

Discussion

Importantly, the findings of this current study support the ones made in the previously conducted research (e.g, Aosved et al. 2016; Currah & Minter, 2000; D’Escury & Dundink, 2012; Duncan, 2011; Goodboy et al., 2016; Gould, 2018; Gould-Yakovleva, 2024; Hartup, 2005; Jimerson et al., 2010; Jimerson & Huai, 2012; Poteat et al., 2013). Imperatively, the larger research, where this current study was only one case in the array, found one saliently recurring theme: i.e., the victims were not able to individually and independently protect and defend themselves from being mistreated. This pattern reoccurred from story to story narrated by different research participants, including the one in the focus of this current repot. Thus, it should be concluded that stronger regulations and laws are needed in order to protect the victims of abuse in academe and prevent different types of mistreatment from happening.

Approaching this case from the Weberian position of Verstehen, the findings of this research helped to better understand the perceptions shared by this research participant. The strive to verstehen also helped to mindfully answer this study questions. – With regards to the first research question, it was found that Asiya, the focus research participant, did face mistreatment as well as unequal treatment in her college. According to the accounts by Asiya and the witness or bystander who was present at the testing site and was willing to further testify in support of Asiya’s honesty, their efforts to defend their case and find justice for Asiya as an honest test-taker were ignored by the professor and the college administration at large. This research participant assigned the fact of mistreatment and mistrust to xenophobia, which resided within the EGC community culture. Looking at this incident from the position of socio-cultural constructivism theory, Vygotsky’s postulates sound fundamental in this case due to the culture-specific characteristics of the incident, which occurred at the EGC college, where the representatives of the local and the overseas’ cultures collided in the unresolved and non-facilitated conflict. From the Weberian perspective, the notion of the implementation of a traditional action might be viewed as the one that underpinned the behaviors by the professor and the EGC college administrators.

Answering the second research question from the point of view of Vygotsky, the perceptions and the reactions of the victim might also be viewed as culture-specific. While Weber might classify them as affective action, where the victim was not able to control her emotions. The latter fact, though, does not justify the judgmental and biased position of the EGC college.

As for the third research question about the roots of mistreatment and abuse in academe, the Weberian notion of domination might be found most applicable to the studied case. While contemplating about the outcomes of the discussed incident, its negative effects, and the passive position of the abused student, the notion of the value-rational action selected and implemented by the victim might be the case. A greater value, as seen by Asiya, motivated this person to make her choice of behavior towards preserving her highly negatively affected health condition rather than striving to seek reinstatement of the lost justice. Learned helplessness reinforced by the experience-based stories in the pool of knowledge within the academic community was another powerful motivator for Asiya, which prevented her from taking further challenges and risks.

Regarding the behavior of the abuser, Ms Bricks, this person did not engage in best professors’ practices (Bain, 2004). Instead, she, most likely, calculated some advantages and disadvantages of the victim as well as her own, where the calculations resulted in a safe position for self and a no-win space for the victim due to a number of factors underlying the high vulnerability of the abused student, such as her foreign descent, national origin, religious belonging, young age, etc.

Hopefully, exposure of the roots of the human action from the position of the sociological theory by Weber and Vygotsky’s socio-cultural constructivism also reveals the patterns of thinking behind the behaviors in humans as noted by these great philosophers. On the other hand, presenting qualitatively the individually narrated by participants stories might portray the victims as real personalities and human beings with their life-worlds shown from within thanks to the affordances of the qualitative inquiry.

Conclusive Thoughts

This current report of the case with one focus research participant might move the vast academic audiences to attempting to deeper understand the phenomena of power distribution and overuse in their educational establishments. It might be also helpful for representatives of any academic communities to attempt to view themselves as a part of their specific national, ethnic, religious, and other cultures. This vision of oneself as a member of one’s own culture may allow people to better understand the existence of differences in their perceptions of others and selves, as members of the diverse cultural entities, which have an equal right to exist and co-exist without colliding and conflicting when placed in juxtaposition.

Remarkably, it is highly significant to realize the possibility of a large number of silenced cases of mistreatment and abuse in academe. So, it is extremely important to recognize that letting a victim die silently in the torturous agony of a deep psychological, emotional, or physical pain from abuse is as much a crime as the one caused by a physical assault, which, even if not uncovered, remains by its nature a violent crime.