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Overseas students' interculturaladaptation as intercultural learning: atransformative frameworkScherto Gill aa Guerrand‐Hermès Foundation, UKPublished online: 22 Mar 2007.
To cite this article: Scherto Gill (2007): Overseas students' intercultural adaptation as interculturallearning: a transformative framework, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and InternationalEducation, 37:2, 167-183
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Overseas students’ intercultural
adaptation as intercultural learning: a
transformative framework
Scherto Gill*
Guerrand-Hermes Foundation, UK
In the context of increasing recruitment of overseas students by British higher education (HE)
institutions, there has been a growing need to understand the process of students’ intercultural
adaptation and the approaches that can be adopted by British academic institutions in order to
facilitate and support these students’ learning experience in the UK. Drawing upon one-year of in-
depth qualitative research investigating the experience of a small cohort of Chinese postgraduate
students’ in a British university, I explore the three-fold ‘stress-adaptation-growth’ intercultural
learning process of these participants by focusing the discussions on the their lived experience in
the UK. The key argument of this article is that intercultural adaptation is in itself a process of
intercultural learning, which has the potential to bring about profound changes in overseas
students themselves, transforming their understanding of the learning experience, self knowledge,
awareness of the Other, and values and worldview.
Keywords: Adaptation; Identity; Intercultural; Meaning making; Self-other; Transformation
Introduction
This article is an exploration of the learning experience of Chinese postgraduate
students and of their immersion within the academic and socio-cultural contexts in
the UK. Accordingly, it investigates the students’ adaptation to their new learning
contexts, a process leading, potentially, to intercultural learning.
Specifically, this article was based on a recently completed research project
looking into the experiences of a group of ten postgraduate Chinese students who
studied in a British university (Gill, 2005). The one-year study focused on these
students’ perceptions of their experience in Britain and explored the inter-
relationship between socio-cultural adaptation, intercultural learning and individual
personal development. It analysed how they coped with the challenges of
encountering ‘strangeness’ and developed approaches and strategies for adaptation,
and how they integrated diverse perspectives and developed capacity and
* Guerrand-Hermes Foundation, 199 Preston Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 6AW, UK.
Email: [email protected]
Compare
Vol. 37, No. 2, March 2007, pp. 167–183
ISSN 0305-7925 (print)/ISSN 1469-3623 (online)/07/020167-17
# 2007 British Association for International and Comparative Education
DOI: 10.1080/03057920601165512
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competence to learn across cultures. The term ‘intercultural learning’ here includes
both the experience of encountering two or more different cultures and the learning
that occurs through such an encounter (Alred et al., 2003).
The goal of the empirical work was one of gaining an in-depth understanding of
these students’ experience from a holistic perspective. It can be contrasted with some
existing research literature that puts its focus on issues such as the marketing of
British education as a commodity and dealing with students’ problems and needs as
part of after-sale ‘client care’. This project sought a positive way to view international
education and the phenomenon of Chinese students’ studying in the UK. The
significant issues that emerged from this research are largely under-addressed in
existing research in this field. These issues relate mainly to the characterisation of
change that Chinese students experienced as a result of studying in the UK.
In this article, I begin by explaining briefly the background and methodology of
this research. I move on to analyse the process that the participants underwent
during their one-year postgraduate study in the UK, in terms of a discussion of the
research findings and in the light of relevant literature. I further suggest a tentative
intellectual framework for Chinese students’ studying in the UK—intercultural
learning, which has the potential to bring about profound changes in Chinese
students themselves, transforming their understanding of the learning experience,
self knowledge, awareness of the Other (e.g. Ricoeur, 1992) and values and
worldview.
Background
Since the early 1990s, the number of overseas students in Britain has increased
dramatically. Overseas students have been welcomed particularly for bringing
diversity to the campus, adding fee income to British higher education institutions
and for making significant contributions to academic research work (UKCOSA,
2004). Table 1 gives a clear picture of the scale of the increase in Chinese students in
comparison with other Non-EU students in the UK. The recent British Council
Table 1. Overview of top ten Non-EU senders of overseas students in the UK
(Source: UKCOSA)
Top ten non-EU senders 2002/03 2001/02 % change
China (PRC) 35,200 20,700 70%
India 12,500 7600 65%
Malaysia 11,800 10,700 10%
United States of America 11,600 10,000 16%
Hong Kong 10,105 8900 14%
Japan 6300 6400 21%
Taiwan 5500 4900 12%
Nigeria 4600 3300 37%
Singapore 4200 4200 2%
Cyprus 3900 4000 22%
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report ‘Vision 2020’ suggests that the current figures of Non-EU students might
triple over the next 15 years, and China will be the largest contributing country.
Most British universities are broadly motivated by financial considerations in
recruiting overseas students (Walker, 1985; Elsey, 1990). This may indicate that
there could be an overall lack of care without regard for overseas students’ own
particular previous learning experiences. Indeed there has been limited in-depth
academic research about the experience of overseas students in the UK, although
there has been recognition of the challenges they face and their need for support
(Leonard et al., 2003).
Cortazzi and Jin’s (1997) research into the academic expectations of British
university staff in relation to those of overseas students indicates that the typical
expectations of higher learning held by these two groups do not tend to overlap. In
these circumstances, the pressure of dealing with large influxes of Chinese students
has prompted assumptions in British institutions that this is a highly demanding
constituency in terms of time and resources, and that these cohorts present an
unresolved set of problems (Ryan, 2000). These so called problems are identified
typically as those of language inadequacy in both academic and social contexts, of
students being unused to independent study and self directed learning, of a general
lack of relevant study skills, and of individuals being disoriented within the British-
centric subject matter of most of the coursework and teaching materials (Kinnell,
1990). These stereotypes about overseas (Chinese) students’ characteristics are
regarded by some authors as misconceptions (Ballard & Clanchy, 1997; Chalmers &
Volet, 1997; Biggs, 1999).
In practice there has been very little research investigating the nature of changes
occurring in Chinese students, such as those relating to understanding, learning,
perceptions of self, values and perspectives. Consequently, the general picture
relating to the phenomenon of Chinese students’ studying in the UK continues to be
characterised as problematic from the British institutional perspective.
The potential that exists for these students to contribute positively to diversity on
campus and for overseas students to take an intercultural approach to learning, and
to provide opportunities for British students and teaching staff to gain intercultural
understanding are currently undermined by the assumptions about challenges to
professional practices
Research questions and research methodology
This research took a qualitative approach to investigating Chinese students’ one-year
postgraduate learning experience in the UK. The underlining epistemological
framework can be related to the phenomenological approach to understanding the
meaning of lived experience in everyday life (Cohen et al., 2000). Within this
epistemological paradigm, the study set out to investigate the following research
questions:
N What are Chinese postgraduate students’ intercultural learning experiences? In
particular;
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N What changes do the students undergo?
N How and why do these changes take place? And;
N In what way do these changes impact students’ perception of learning and self?
The investigation was conducted in case study format using ethnographic and
narrative research methods including: participant observation, informal in-depth
interviews and continual reflection on the participants experience and my own
corresponding experience as an overseas student. The case study approach
facilitated a profound immersion into the phenomenon investigated and enabled
me to collect a set of rich data over a prolonged period of time (Yin, 1989). It
involved ten participants over a period of one year, with the multi-design approach
providing a more holistic view of the dynamics of the participants’ experience
(Jensen & Rodgers, 2001). This rich and detailed data set, which included
recordings of in-depth interviews and conversations amongst the participants and
me, a collection of life stories based on the participants’ lived experience, my
research journals throughout the research, and a re-collection of my personal
experience, encounter, reflections and observations of various aspects of post-
graduate studies in a British university.
As a researcher, my background and goals and objectives for the research project
were visible and clear to all participants. Thus, by being explicit about my enquiry and
my potential bias, and integrating the person as I was, into the entire research process,
and by creating opportunities for reflection and interpretation collaboratively with
participants, my study provided insights not only into the intercultural adaptation
process, but also into the transformative learning opportunities that it created for the
participants. As the study proceeded, new knowledge was co-constructed with the
participants through constant reflection on the reality and lived experience.
What emerged was the research project as a form of intervention, and that through
the enquiry, a community of Chinese students was established for dialogue and
reflection on learning and encounter in the UK. This community was regarded as a
way of being, as well as a process of personal development. In another investigation,
I have argued that the study provided a ‘transactional space’ and a ‘transitional
space’, in which sharing stories and reflecting on living and studying in the UK
enabled participants to co-enquire and make sense of their lived experience and co-
construct meanings within the explicit contexts of encounter and change (Gill,
forthcoming).
Summary and discussion of findings
The data identified a three-fold process that the participants underwent during their
one year of learning and living in the UK:
1. stress and anxiety caused by the initial challenges when first encountering the
‘strangeness’ due to such factors as a lack of effective preparation and
having little practical understanding of British cultural and learning contexts
and norms;
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2. adaptation in order to ‘fit into’ the given cultural and educational framework and
to meet the host country’s social and academic expectations;
3. changes in perceptions of self and Other and the development of intercultural
competence through meaning making and engaging in socio-cultural and
academic practices interactively and relationally.
In the framework presented below, the participants’ intercultural learning has three
main facets: intercultural adaptation; developing intercultural competence; the re-
construction of self-identity, all leading to personal growth. Figure 1 depicts the
inter-relatedness between the three facets. The following sections summarise and
discuss this in relation to each component, look at existing research and
literature and continue the argument about the transformative nature of intercultural
learning.
Intercultural adaptation. In general, overseas students often find themselves
confronted directly with ‘strangeness’ in the host country. For postgraduate
students, this could be particularly stressful, since, as in the UK, most full-time
postgraduate studies are to be completed within one year. Murphy-LeJeurne (2003,
p. 101) argues that the ‘sheer force of an unmediated holistic contact, particularly
with linguistic otherness, must not be underestimated’.
For the participants of this research, the intercultural encounter and learning
experience necessitated that they adapt in order to fit into completely novel
academic norms so as to meet different academic expectations. This has led to
disorientation, stress and anxiety and to a sense of loss of the individual’s habituated
comforts within their home culture. These stresses were reduced in steps as
participants’ actively sought and employed effective coping strategies, and was also
ameliorated by a number of factors associated with the learning contexts that were
effective in helping participants’ with their adaptation.
Stressful start
According to the findings of this research, the participants underwent stress mainly
in relation to their experience of dealing with the demands of studying in a different
Figure 1. Interconnected facets of the intercultural learning process
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cultural and educational context. This was exacerbated by an evident lack of
preparedness and by coming in with an inappropriate expectation of learning. As Lin
explained, studying in the UK:
is like finding yourself suddenly, wake up in a completely different place, it felt so
strange: different expectations, different course organisations, different mode of study,
you name it, everything is different. This is the third week, and I am still disoriented. I
am also stressed out, and feel that I am making very little progress.
Participants reflected that they were not equipped with the required understanding
or skills for studying in a British university. The English language posed a further
challenge, where the participants, as described by Jasmine, already struggling with
daily communication, also had to cope with the academic genre and specialist
terminology. Pressure and stress tended to take away participants’ self confidence,
such as Co-Co’s experience of struggling with the use of English. She felt that her
lack of self-confidence, rather than her lack of proficiency in English, somewhat
impaired her ability to use English effectively.
Some remarks were made concerning ‘gaps’ in subject-specific or specialist
knowledge. Some participants felt that a lack of subject knowledge was itself a major
challenge. Lin said:
Lack of professional knowledge made me feel that my learning was very shallow, so that
I missed the professional depth I would otherwise be developing through master’s level
of study…
This situation was compounded by the broad differences in conceptualising learning
between Britain and China. Cortazzi and Jin (1997) maintain that according to a
Western view, learning encompasses a number of skills such as the ability to use
abstract frameworks, meta-cognition, independence and self-monitoring, creativity
and a critical approach. These authors point out that traditional Chinese views see
much of it from an opposite direction, including the spoon-feeding of knowledge,
dependence on authority, repetition and uncritical acceptance.
However, participants’ experiences indicated that the gap between Chinese and
European educational values is not as great as Western assumptions suggest, a point
of view echoed by Watkins and Biggs (1996). Instead, the major differences lie in the
cultural situation of approaches to teaching and learning. Thus, participants
encountered challenges largely because their prior educational experiences and skills
did not accommodate directly the learning needs and expectations in Britain.
Jasmine concluded that there was a ‘lack of useful insight’ into British education.
The findings indicate that traditional Chinese higher learning, which promotes
conformist and non-critical approaches, does not necessarily obstruct participants’
adaptation to British higher education. For most participants, the significance of
studying in the UK was that it provided an opportunity for them to be liberated from
the limitation of Chinese education and academic culture. The findings suggested
distinctively that participants were very critical of their prior educational experience
and regarded the Chinese HE system as blighted by lack of provision for diverse
perspectives, independent learning opportunities and developing students’ capacity
for problem-solving. Therefore, despite the challenging start, participants appeared
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to be highly appreciative of their experiences in the UK. They explained that this was
precisely the reason why they had chosen to study abroad.
Approaches to adaptation
According to Kim (1988), intercultural encounter prompts individuals to adapt
actively to their environment in order to avoid disequilibrium. A number of
approaches, or distinct strategies were identified by participants in an effort to orient
themselves and adapt to the new academic and socio-cultural environment. These
included adopting a positive and open attitude towards new encounter and experience,
intrinsic motivation for change and growth, a willingness to engage in different cultural
and academic practices and an ongoing practice of comparison and reflection. These
strategic approaches derived from the participants’ proactive effort to ‘fit in’ to new
learning contexts. These were the main vehicles for the students’ adaptation.
Participants’ intrinsic motivation was instrumental in helping them develop open
and positive attitudes. For instance, Jasmine explained her motivation to study
abroad was twofold; to gain independence, particularly from her oppressive parents;
and to experience the world outside China. Jasmine’s motivation for studying in the
UK lent itself to an open-minded approach and positive attitude towards
intercultural encounter. It was also reflected in participants’ willingness to
participate and engage in the learning process within British higher education and
hence more positive experience of their adaptation to the British academic context
(Theuerkauf, 1997; Hall & Toll, 1999).
Participants suggested that there was no short cut to understanding and
conceptualising learning in the UK; ‘one has to go through the process for oneself ’,
concluded Mei. They sought actively strategies and adopted skills to meet the
expectations and requirements of British higher education. For instance, some students
applied a so-called ‘technical model’ in academic writing in order to ensure the use of a
British academic framework in their own work (Poulson & Wallace, 2004). Da-Wei
noted that, after a few assignments written in such a manner, he became more confident
and competent in structuring academic writing more independently and creatively.
The experience within the British learning context provided participants with
opportunities for continuous comparison with their previous learning experience in
China. They were able to reflect on the contrasts and differences between the two
educational systems. Through ongoing comparison and reflection, they gradually
gained more useful insights into their own learning experience in the UK. Yang
summarised thus:
Reflection has helped me see clearly the expectations [of British higher education], but
also brings meaning to my experience, making me feel that all is meaningful and each
step is leading to something greater.
Factors contributing to learning and adaptation
Contextual factors are of significance in supporting participants’ learning and
adaptation in amidst new encounter and experience. Amongst many factors, the role
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of British academic staff and networks of relations were highlighted particularly, by
the participants, as contributing to their overall positive learning experience.
The findings confirmed that the support of academic staff was important in
enabling the participants to overcome the initial challenges (Elsey, 1990). Tutors
played a crucial role in helping reduce the initial stress. Their feedback on the
participants’ academic work, empathy with their experience, guidance for taking
part in academic activities and clear instructions for completing tasks were seen as
invaluable for students’ adaptation. Da-Wei explained that his dissertation tutor
had encouraged him to become more confident and more independent in
developing his own ideas, and that his learning needs were accommodated by
this tutor’s caring facilitation. Participants appeared to be fully appreciative and
responsive to the British student/tutor relationship, despite the fact that their
previous experience was of a more hierarchical practice in relation to their Chinese
university lecturers.
However, participants reported that not all academic staff were sympathetic to
their lack of preparedness. Mei quoted a lecturer saying that a student who was not
prepared for MA studies, ‘shouldn’t have come on the course’ as it would be too
difficult for the student and their tutors to cope. Participants were very sensitive to
tutors’ attitudes and approaches towards them. Unsympathetic tutors, such as the
one that Mei referred to, were seen as discouraging and unsupportive. Participants
suggested that tutors’ attitudes and conduct were more likely linked to British
academic culture as a whole. In a conversation, K and Kenzo talked about their
tutors’ own academic interests and career agendas. They seemed to be aware that
British tutors were under pressure to research and publish, and that therefore
teaching and supervising overseas students becomes problematic for the tutors as it
demands more time and effort (Elsey, 1990).
The findings of this research suggest that a significant benefit for the participants’
process of adaptation was gained by their engagement in networks of relationships.
The home network was considered the first place where students looked for
information on British culture and for orientation and support on arriving in the UK.
Jasmine reported that during the first weeks in the UK, she overcame the loneliness
and sense of loss and disorientation with the support of K and other Chinese
students at the university. Ryan (2000) suggests that overseas students also work
together to deepen their understanding of academic tasks as a form of collaborative
learning, a point underlined by Jasmine in her reports of meeting regularly with two
Taiwanese students to share reading comprehension and to challenge each other on
essay plans.
This research additionally indicated that the home network was a source of
emotional and moral support, understanding and reassurance. Lin’s account of
sharing a house with Chinese students was such an example. After a lonely and
isolated experience sharing a house with mostly British students, Lin moved to
another house and was embraced and reassured by her new Chinese housemates. In
the meantime, participants confirmed that meeting and sharing lived experience with
others in this research was useful for them to feel reassured during the difficult
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patches they were going through and enabled them to understand the essence of
learning in British educational contexts.
Other network relations included circles of friends from different cultures, peers at
the university, host families and other people with whom participants became
familiarised in the host country. Although the social relations outside of the home
network were limited, living and interacting with ‘strangers’ built a bridge to
otherness and provided opportunities for developing skills and competence for
intercultural encounter.
The importance of network relationships lies in the potential to facilitate
participants’ adaptation through interaction, friendship and cultural modelling and
dialogue.
Developing intercultural competence
As the intercultural experience deepened, many changes took place in terms of the
participants’ ways of thinking and perceiving, values, attitudes and worldviews, as a
result of academic learning and encountering different social and cultural
perspectives. By way of this heightened awareness, participants were able to
understand and embrace the differences, and to some extent, to integrate diverse
perspectives into their own value systems.
Through her research project and studying education and development, Lin
changed her view of the world:
When I thought about working in development, I felt that I had found my life’s goal.
Studying at the course and meeting people working in development during my research
has completely changed my worldview.
Intercultural experience also enabled participants to acquire a greater knowledge
and understanding of British and Western societies in general. The understanding
about the Other was not so much passively acquired through reading and studying,
but developed through constant interaction and exposure to different values and
worldviews found in the UK. It was in this way that traditional Chinese ways of
thinking were being put into question and contrasted with the alternatives presented
to them. Xiao-Pei’s observation about her British flatmate was typical:
Ben (name of a British person) criticised his own government all the time. I once asked
him why he was so dissatisfied and he answered that this was not real democracy. I was
shocked: for a Chinese, what could be more democratic?
According to transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1991, 2000), perspective
transformation refers to changes in the learner’s meaning schemes, i.e. specific
beliefs, attitudes and ways of thinking and perceiving. Mezirow (2000, p. xii) argues
that ‘by becoming critically aware of the context—biographical, historical, cultural—
of their beliefs and feelings about themselves and their role in society’, learners could
‘effect a change in the way they had tacitly structured their assumptions and
expectations’. Participants experienced perspective transformation and the findings
also illustrated that otherness is an active agency which allows overseas students to
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transcend their own ways of thinking and perceiving by integrating and fusing
different perspectives (Gadamer, 1977).
Ming talked about sharing different cultural perspectives with his flatmates from a
variety of cultural backgrounds. In particular, he felt that interacting with people
from other cultures had given him the opportunity to transform his own bias and
prejudices. Ming said:
My Japanese flatmate and I had been exposed to a great deal of old prejudices,
grievances and stereotypical misunderstandings between Japan and China. Living so
close to him changed my view about Japanese culture and Japanese people. I would
certainly never make the same remarks about Japan again.
Alred et al. (2003, p. 4) argue that intercultural competence is the capacity to make a
‘more qualitative judgement’ about the nature of intercultural encounter and
experience. By way of developing intercultural competence, participants were in the
process of becoming intercultural, i.e. to be aware of the intercultural experience and
to be able to develop insights into the self and the Other through critical analysis and
reflection (Alred et al., 2003, p. 4).
Intercultural competence, according to this research, will eventually transform the
fixed, often exceedingly rigid ways of seeing the Other and oneself. It is through
profound intercultural encounter and intercultural experience that perceptions of
the Other can be updated to serve as avenues for genuine openness and ultimately,
personal and social transformation. Accordingly we can say that being intercultural
is an expression of intercultural competence.
(Re)construction of self-identity
Intercultural encounter and experience had a strong impact on the participants’
development of both self-awareness and cultural awareness. Intercultural learning
made a contribution to the reconstruction of participants’ self-identity through a
process of encountering and interacting with the Other. Crossing cultural
boundaries and studying and living in a different academic socio-cultural
environment placed the concept of self and the Other at the very heart of the
participants’ interpretation of their experience. Within this intersubjective space, the
participants encountered and experienced enriching opportunities for the (re)con-
struction of self in relation to the Other (Riceour, 1992; Bruner, 1996). Becoming
independent, speaking a different language and being exposed to novel inter-
subjective space, including the space created by the research itself, are amongst the
many factors that enabled participants to make meaning, re-evaluate their sense of
self, and to (re)construct their self-identity.
Becoming independent
Becoming independent was recognised as an essential contributory factor in
participants’ personal growth. This cohort of Chinese students who are between 22
and 30 years of age, are mostly the only child in the family due to the birth control
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policy in China. The Chinese cultural habits and the largely conventional upbringing
are not at liberty to develop these young people’s own independence. Much pressure
was exerted on the participants as a result of their removal from familiar territory, in
terms of practical demands, the requirement for self-sufficiency or needs for problem
solving.
Intercultural learning provided opportunities for relocation, re-orientation and re-
rooting so that the participants learned to become autonomous and independent
(Murphy-LeJeune, 2003). Participants recognised that autonomy and independence
lay at the root of many aspects of their growth. For instance, Jasmine and Ming both
talked proudly about being able to live on their own and how they had coped, for the
first time, with practical demands, such as cooking, washing and shopping for
groceries. Others took on more complicated problem-solving skills, such as planning
trips abroad and of looking for part time jobs and work placements. A particular
example is that given by Co-Co. She reflected that being able to choose her own
subjects as topics for her essays and the dissertation not only gave her the feeling of
independence, but also a sense of achievement and self worth. Independence is at
the root of participants’ self confidence.
Reconstructing self-identity through speaking a second language
Speaking English as a second language was a significant factor in relation to the
development of participants’ self-identity. Jasmine spoke of how, when interacting
with her friends in English, she was able to apply the Western approach to friendship
and so escaped from being her usual shy, un-assertive ‘self’. K, who is a Chinese
Christian, said that he lived a double life in China and was never able to talk openly
about his Christian faith. When in the UK, using the English language enabled him
to freely discuss religious topics and spirituality, an aspect of his identity which
always went without expression in his Chinese language context. For his part, Da-
Wei’s witty and humorous personality was only on show when interacting in English.
Speaking a different language potentially plays a role in the (re)construction of
one’s self-identity because it allows individuals to switch, as if into an alternative
mind with cultural understandings that may be at odds with their first culture
(Libben & Lindner, 1996). Evans (1988) argues that to learn a new language is to
create a new sense of identity ‘irrespective of the foreign culture or foreign experience’
(quoted in Alred 2003, p. 22). Alred agrees that ‘Language is the principal means by
which the process of identity formation takes place’ (Alred 2003, p. 22).
Accordingly, using and speaking the English language has enabled the participants
to re-construct their self-identity.
Research study as a reflective and transitional space
The nature of this research study itself created a space where participants engaged
with each other narratively and dialogically, and provided opportunities for
meaning making and transformed understanding of lived experience. Narrating life
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stories about intercultural learning has effectively provided the participants with a
reflective space for critical learning. Their shared stories formed the basis for
engaging with each others’ perspectives about learning, intercultural encounter
and its meaning and purpose. In this way, the research hosted the transaction from
the self to the Other and from the Other back to the self, for the reconstruction of
self-identity. The participants of this research, and I the researcher, formed a
community of intercultural learners, and in this way collaborated to co-construct
an understanding of reality and of learning. Within this reflective and transitional
space, participants were not merely engaging in the practice, but also were
evaluating, making sense and analysing the very phenomenon they were part of
(Gill, forthcoming).
Intercultural adaptation as intercultural learning
From both psychological and socio-cultural perspectives, it has been argued that
intercultural adaptation involves a gradual development process from the initial
experience of the unfamiliar ‘Other’ to an adaptation or adjustment which is made in
order to accommodate the ‘strangeness’ and to ‘fit into’ the given host country’s
socio-cultural framework, eventually leading to transformations of experience and
personal growth (Oberg, 1960; Adler, 1975; Kim, 1988, 1992; Hall & Toll, 1999;
Bennett, 1993). Despite the similarities in the general intercultural development
process, each author emphasises different aspects of the intercultural experience.
The findings of this research concur with the general outline of the intercultural
development process, but Kim’s (1988) model, i.e. the stress-adaptation-growth
dynamic, resembles the participants’ experience most closely.
Participants’ intercultural adaptation can be analysed in terms of a tentative model
for intercultural learning depicted by Figure 2, in which the cyclic developmental
Figure 2. The cyclic process of intercultural learning (Adapted from: Kolb and Fry, 1975; Kolb,
1984)
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process of the participants’ intercultural learning is based on the notion of
experiential learning (Kolb & Fry, 1975; Kolb, 1984). Experiential learning sees
learning as prompted by learners themselves through reflection on and make sense of
their experiences. In this model, it has been argued that although encountering an
unfamiliar socio-cultural context and educational system brought much stress and
anxiety to the participants, it was by attempting to adapt and adjust, that participants
engaged actively with the socio-cultural and academic practices in the UK. In
experiencing a variety of learning practices, they began to understand the approaches
appropriate to problem solving and completing academic tasks. Following that, by
reflecting on current experience and comparing that with their prior experience and
contexts, participants gained a deeper understanding of the strategies and
approaches which could become applicable in similar situations. This reflection
led to understanding in a more general sense, so that participants were able to
construct meaning from experience. This refined understanding formed the basis for
further enhanced learning experiences. Therefore, the next learning cycle started
with a new level of experience that transcended the previous one and led to an
ongoing progressive development.
The learning process as depicted in this diagram implies that the experience of
Chinese students in the UK is more than an adaptation process as such.
Intercultural adaptation means making change so as to cope with stress and anxiety,
to fit into an existing educational framework and to meet the given demands and
expectations. Once these initial hurdles are overcome, the experience of adaptation
provides a basis for meaning making and for deepened understanding. Intercultural
adaptation is in effect a process of profound intercultural learning, leading to a
transformative learning experience (Taylor, 1994). This has been a social process
constituted in intersubjectivity and dialogue. Participants were inserted into their
new learning situations, and in due course, meta-cognitive and meta-social
reflectivity helped produce a better insight into the educational values and culturally
situated practices (Pryor & Torrence, 2004). This experience was also consolidated
by social interaction, developing common understanding, mutual construction of
meaning (Engestrom, 1999) and by engaging in communities of practice (Wenger,
1998).
Persistently evident in such develop processes, are elements of tension, the
dynamic and dialectic between self and the other (Ricoeur 1992; Bruner 1990; Roth
2005), and between individual and the collective. Accordingly, intercultural learning
is essentially about change, moving places, encountering people, learning across
cultures, and above all, about becoming more aware of the self, Other and of the
interconnectedness and interdependence of all.
Chinese students’ intercultural learning—a transformative framework
This article has presented and discussed some of the key findings of an ethnographic
and narrative research which investigated the inter-related aspects of Chinese
postgraduate students’ experience in British HE.
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The essence of intercultural learning is profound personal change and perspective
transformation. The development of intercultural competence in all aspects of the
participants experience enabled them to become intercultural. This process was
complex, but is ultimately perceived as a dynamic learning cycle of a continuous
spiral with a forward and upward momentum, and indicative of a learning trajectory
that makes for an ongoing human development.
In addition to the socio-cultural and psychological components of intercultural
learning, contextual factors in the intercultural environment contributed signifi-
cantly to the formative shaping of participants’ experiences. The academic learning
context, together with students’ social networks and the wider socio-cultural
environment extended the participants perspectives into a new horizon. Participating
and engaging in critical reflection and fusing the diverse perspectives further enables
the participants to transform their learning experience. Within this macro
environment, which I term as ‘intercultural space’, participants have access to both
Chinese and Western perspectives, values and worldviews. This has provided
opportunities for them to develop unique viewpoints, readily accommodating
‘otherness’ and adopting constructive, tolerant, flexible and critical attitudes. This
intercultural space should not be characterised as one in which individuals see the
other culture(s) as static, but rather one in which, through explicit and intentional
effort, Chinese students take part in an open, non-prejudicial dynamic.
Students who are motivated for change and personal growth are more likely to
develop positive attitudes, thereby enabling them to deal effectively with the
challenges and differences in learning within the new context. The way students
perceive their experience, maybe, to a great extent, influenced by their capacity to
make sense of its essential purpose and meaning. Significantly, this research study
indicates that intercultural learning as such, helps bring about change in Chinese
students by way of enhanced skills and understanding, in modes of thinking and
perceiving, and also at a deeper level, in the re-construction of self-identity.
This in-depth study of a small cohort of Chinese students’ learning experience in
the UK may hopefully be of value to the wider community of overseas students in
the UK and other western countries. This research can perhaps also prompt British
educational institutions and academic tutors to avoid common assumptions that
overseas students are ‘problematic’ and ‘demanding’. The experience of the
participants in this research indicates that overseas students in general have the
ability to adapt to learning in a British university, provided there is a facilitative
environment, sympathetic attitudes and support from academic tutors, and
interactive contact with networks of relation with all cultures. These students have
the capacity to acquire skills and employ strategies to enable them to be successful in
British higher education, and are capable of inhabiting the intercultural space as an
avenue for profound change and transformation in personal and social dimensions.
Conclusion
It is very likely that the number of overseas students in the UK will continue to
increase in the next few decades. It is evident that British higher education
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institutions remain enthusiastic about recruiting these students for the
considerable financial benefits that they can bring to the British universities and
communities.
Based on these discussions in this article, intercultural learning can readily be
viewed as having the potential to re-shape individual’s experience within the
intercultural space. In this way intercultural learning is a transformational encounter
in both directions, leading to an enhancement of the capacity of British academic
practitioners and institutions to provide an ever more enriching intercultural
learning experience to each new cohort of overseas students.
Accordingly, this research provides empirical support for the view that the process
of internationalising British higher education should be a significant element of the
institutional development agenda in the twenty-first century.
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