Global Journal of Engineering, Design & Technology
Open Access

Abstract

Ibtihaj S Alsadun*, Kristi S Gaines, Michelle S Pearson, Lee Duemer and Charles Klein

Over the last 40 years, many environmental design researchers have examined the environment’s impact on people and sought answers to questions on personal feelings with the environment and how people become attached to a place and develop feelings about it. Research in place attachment has primarily focused on the social aspect, leaving a gap in the literature related to concepts of the built environment. The present study seeks to fill this gap by addressing the issue of physical place attachment among specific groups of international graduate students at Texas Tech University, a large public university in West Texas. Previous studies focused on generic and largescale place concepts such as the physical neighborhood ambiance. This study, by contrast, examines how international students from China and India choose and develop an attachment to study spaces around the university. A grounded qualitative research design was selected as the exploratory method of studying how international graduate students select, interact with, and create an attachment to preferred study places on and off-campus. The researcher conducted semi-structured individual and focus group interviews with a purposive sample of 50 Indian and Chinese participants.

Published Date: 2021-09-17; Received Date: 2021-02-17