Beyond the amusement, puzzlement and challenges: an enquiry into international students’ academic acculturation

Abstract

This paper investigates the phenomenological experiences of academic acculturation of selected non--British post--doctoral academics with a retrospective focus on their experiences as PhD students. The participants came from different disciplines and countries of origin to pursue several years of postgraduate research in different British higher education institutions. The typical, yet distinct, experiences of an exceptional group of early--career academics offer invaluable insight into the joys, excitement, puzzlement and challenges that international students often encounter as they embark on studying and living in a foreign country such as the UK. Using Urie Bronfenbrenner's bio--ecological theory of human development, our paper presents a theoretical perspective that can help elucidate and offer a greater understanding of what appear to be complex incidences in international students' experiences. These incidences can, arguably, be crucial to the success or failure of students' sojourns.

Missing intercultural engagements in the university experiences of Chinese international students in the UK

“…Propinquity has been noted as a highly influential factor in the formation of friendship (Kudo and Simkin 2003). The overwhelmingly Chinese environment in business schools deprives students of the pre-set conditions for the development of intercultural networks and host friendships, which are believed to interrelate with wellbeing and even academic performance, as they all interact within a single ecological system (Elliot et al 2015). The propinquity functions were suspended for students to recognise and cultivate similarity in activities, needs, interests, values, attitudes and personality.…”

Promoting the Psycho-Social Well-Being of International Students Through Mindfulness: A Focus on Regulating Difficult Emotions

“…These sojourners' experience can involve alienation and disorientation, as well as uncertainties and anxieties about the future. Hence, rather than experiencing an enticing journey, 'the negative effects of acculturation could have an adverse impact on students' dayto-day functioning and academic performance' (Elliot, Reid, andBaumfield 2016, 2199).…”

Searching for ‘a third space’: a creative pathway towards international PhD students’ academic acculturation

“…We contend that these concepts have greater relevance for the psychological introspection of international students whose study sojourn triggers an alteration of sociocultural conventions, norms, practices and social support, among others. In the light of our research findings, we offer an extension to Bronfenbrenner's Bio-Ecological Systems Theory to help elucidate the seemingly complex incidences experienced not only by PhD students but by all student sojourners as they temporarily move to an environment with a different societal culture, academic systems, language(s), and even weather, thereby necessitating transitions at multiple levels (Elliot et al, 2015). In Figure 1, we explain that: Following Bronfenbrenner (1979, 1994, 2005, each student on a sojourn constitutes their own multilevel ecological system -their accepted norm prior to contact with a new ecological system.…”

“…The sojourn itself is a decontextualising tool, facilitating reflection beyond what used to be the sojourners' norm…. (Elliot et al, 2015) Moreover, this extended multilevel bio-ecological perspective is also instrumental in securing a deeper understanding of the notions 'enculturation' and 'acculturation' in relation to international education. While enculturation refers to the acquisition of the first culture from the original ecological system, acculturation is indicative of the learning of appropriate behaviour in a new culture (He, 2002, p. 323).…”