Thinking Outside the Box: The National Context for Educational Preparation and Adaptation among Chinese and Korean International Students

Abstract

Despite growing scholarly interest in international education, few studies have examined how the broader historic, structural, and cultural contexts of sending nations inform the global perspectives and pedagogical strategies of international students before and after migration. Based on surveys and focus groups with Korean and Chinese international students at one public university, the study provides an in-depth look at national differences in learning contexts as they may affect the educational and social adjustment of international students through the lens of gender, family, and nation. We argue that international students view and experience their overseas education through different historical and national understandings of family, economy, and culture within mainland China and South Korea—the former emphasizing geopolitical concepts of family and nation centered on China’s position within the global hierarchy and the latter invoking “compressed” neoliberal frameworks representing a time-space compression of traditional hierarchies and neoliberal free-market ideals in Korea. The study reconciles and synthesizes micro- and macro-levels of analyses by comparing the ways Korean and mainland Chinese international students navigate their educational experiences in the United States based on their respective nationalistic frameworks and shifting gender/family relations in the homeland.

Cyber Divided: How Taiwanese International Students Make Identity Boundaries within Social Network Sites

“…The world is experiencing a significant increase in international students' applications at most major universities (Madge et al, 2015). Most studies on international students focus on either the macro or the micro factors that prevail in such transnational movements (Chung et al, 2018;Madge et al, 2009). As a result, relatively few studies have discussed how social media's changing nature, a meso-level infrastructure connecting the macro and the micro factors, has renewed the global education institutional fields (Kim et al, 2009).…”

“…These studies highlight how cyberspace has become a "space of opportunities" for international students to gain information and resources from various global education affiliations (Madge et al, 2015;Xiang & Shen, 2009). These researchers believe that most international students lack cultural capital and social networks before studying abroad (Chung et al, 2018). In general, these studies celebrate the openness of online chatrooms, online bulletin board services, and SNSs that has broadened the range and scope of educational access and experience for international students.…”

“…For prospective international students, this shared sense of identity and community centers on different personal aspects, including social status, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, desire for information and experience, and mutual recognition (Cheng et al, 2014;Madge et al, 2009;Wee, 2019;Zhang et al, 2007). Simultaneously, for foreign students from more marginalized positions, cyberspace may also serve as a field of social resistance to the hegemonic power of Western nations' institutional and ideological influence (Chung et al, 2018;Ngai, 2019).…”

Challenges of Asian international students in the U.S. Public affairs programs: A cross-discipline review

“…Acculturation for Asian students to the U.S. can be arduous, given that they have to adapt to function academically and socially in a new linguistic and cultural environment, while also adjusting to the absence of support from family, community and the familiarity of their native language (Frey & Roysircar, 2006;Hechanova-Alampay et al, 2002;Mori, 2000;Nilsson et al, 2008). Other factors that influence Asian international students' academic performance broadly include academic classroom dynamics, relationships with the professor, motivations, communication skills, digital literacy, emotion management, and grade expectations (also see Choi, 2013;Chung et al, 2018;Cozart & Rojewski, 2015;Habib et al, 2014;Redmond & Bunyi, 1993;Takashiro, 2017). Kim et al (2016) sought to identify factors influencing the tendency of academic procrastination.…”

Negotiating identity by transnational Chinese students during COVID-19

“…5 A further reason for foreign study is the non-tangible benefits of broadening crosscultural perspectives, such as being exposed to diverse social experiences and acquiring learning skills, which constitute added forms of social and cultural capital. 6 Another major issue explored in studies on Chinese transnational education migration is the experiences of the students themselves. Much of the research has focused on students' academic life, with particular attention devoted to their levels of class participation, 7 learning styles, 8 academic achievement in comparison with their peers, 9 and social interaction.…”