Understanding Sojourner Adjustment and Cross-Cultural Communication

Sojourner Adjustment, Adaptation and Performance and the Study of Inter/Cross- Cultural Communication. TONY YOUNG & ALINA SCHARTNER NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY, UK FOR BAALICSIG SEMINAR, EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY, MAY 2014 C O N T A C T : T O N Y . Y O U N G @ N C L . A C . U K A L I N A . S C H A R T N E R @ N C L . A C . U K

Background: General 2 Increase in provision of intercultural (IC) /cross- cultural (CC) education/training for sojourners Lack of research into its effects on participants (Littrell et al., 2006) Evaluation largely confined to business sojourners (Berry et al., 2002) Limited scope and weak design of evaluation work: Pre-sojourn participant reaction measures do not assess effect on adjustment to new setting Surveys do not indicate bottom-line outcomes in improved performance or more successful adaptation (Morris and Robie, 2001)

Background: Specific 3 Sociocultural, psychological and academic adjustment and adaptation of International students towards an integrated theoretical model New temporal perspectives pre-, in- and post- sojourn work related to the trans-European CALPIU project http://calpiu.dk/ruc/Home.html Focus on the effects of cross/intercultural communication and effectiveness on adaptation and the lived experiences of adjustment

Rationale for the study 4 Most training of short duration, limited scope, and delivered pre-sojourn (Littrell, et al., 2006) Little research on impact of CC education on international Higher Education (HE) students adjustment and adaptation BUT: student sojourners very worthy of focus - tested performance outcomes (i.e. assessment grades) distinguish them from other sojourner groups (Ward et al., 2001) Academic adaptation as an important outcome (Spencer-Oatey and Xiong, 2006)

Student sojourners 5 Individuals undertaking a full programme of study outside of the country where they have received their prior education (UNESCO, 2010) Rapidly growing sub-segment of cross-cultural sojourners - around 4 million worldwide (OECD, 2012) Lot of interest in the nature of the international student experience - Living abroad seen as transformative (Brown, 2009) BUT: little research on inter-relationship between CC education and sojourn outcomes (Young et al., 2013)

Students of CCC/ICC 6 Unique sub-group of student sojourners, exposed to: The experience of living abroad Long-term CC education as part of their sojourn Study of CCC in HE is growing, especially in North America and Europe (Young and Sercombe, 2010) Intercultural competence as an aim for staff and students (Sanderson, 2008) Degree or part of a degree However, whether/how the study of CCC makes a difference to adjustment and adaptation remains undetermined

Adjustment & adaptation 7 Adjustment Adaptation Dynamic processes involved in functioning in the new academic environment (Anderson, 1994) Outcomes of adjustive processes (Pitts, 2005) Academic Academic Adjustment to the demands of academic life including styles of teaching and learning at the host university (Ballard, 1987) Academic achievement on the degree

Research Questions 8 1. Does the study of CCC (/ICC...) make a difference to academic adaptation? 2. What are the adjustment processes over time as experienced by students of CCC?

Mixed methods design (1) 9 Stage 1: quantitative analysis of academic performance of international MA students (N = 680) over a five year period (2007-8 to 2011-12, inclusive) Academic adaptation of CCC students (N = 352) relative to a closely comparable group undertaking another degree (ALT, N = 328) Both degrees closely matched, apart from CC education focus Mean GPA for taught & research element, and degree Independent-samples t-tests

Mixed methods design (2) 10 Stage 2: qualitative data to obtain a fine-grained view of lived experience of academic adjustment of a group of CCC students Tracked a group longitudinally throughout their programme of study Semi-structured individual interviews with a sample of 18 volunteers at three time stages: Two weeks after arrival in the UK (T1, October) Five months into the sojourn (T2, February) Nine months into the sojourn (T3, June)

Data analysis 11 Thematic analysis (Boyatzis, 1998) Comments sorted into four broad analytical categories Analytical Category Example Comments Positive I love being involved with international students. Negative Communication was a big problem because they didn t speak. It is a little bit more challenging to work in a group with more Chinese students. Problematizing Neutral The classroom environment here is very different from Malaysia.

Quantitative findings 12 CCC students performed significantly better than ALT students on: The taught element of the programmes t(8) = 3.16, p = .013 Their overall GPA for the programmes, t(8) = 2.04, p = .076 M SD Research CCC 61.84 1.02 ALT 60.38 2.38 Taught CCC 63.23* .91 ALT 61.41 .91 Overall GPA CCC 62.26^ 1.28 ALT 60.66 1.19 * significant at the 95% level; ^ significant at the 90% level

Qualitative findings T1 (1) 13 Comments largely anticipatory Comparisons between home and host country Comments positive, neutral or problematizing in orientation fairly evenly spread International make-up of course a focus for the positive I love being involved with international students. (German, female, 26) [ ] I really like that it s an international environment but also I would like that more British people would be in the programme. (Romanian, female, 22)

Qualitative findings T1 (2) 14 Problematizing comments about English language ability and new academic practices o [...] I have to listen to them and then have to translate it in my brain to my language and kind of just twice as hard as studying in my country. (Indonesian, female, 28) o [...] almost like I have to make class for myself in the library or in my room with reading. (USA, male, 23)

Qualitative findings T2 (1) 15 More detailed comment Overwhelming amount of comments positive Feeling more familiar with host university and greater satisfaction with academic adjustment o This semester I know how to deal with it, I m familiar with it now. (Chinese, male, 23) Comments on assessed work The assignments were not bad. It took much time but it was ok. (Lithuanian, male, 23)

Qualitative findings T2 (2) 16 Multicultural group work positive to highly negative [ ] it was nice working with other people as opposed to just yourself going to the library, so I enjoyed it. (USA, female, 26) That was such an amazing opportunity to work with the Chinese students. (USA, male, 23) [ ] communication was a big problem because they didn t speak [ ] maybe this is a system in China. (Turkish, female, 22)

Qualitative findings T3 (1) 17 Comments on academic performance overwhelmingly positive Improvement from the beginning of semester one to the end of semester two Feeling confident and settled o I d say I felt a lot more confident because I kind of already knew how the things work here [ ] (Latvian, female, 23) o The first semester I was still like in shock [ ] it was too much going on for me for the first semester but this time it s better [ ] (Indonesian, female, 28)

Qualitative findings T3 (2) 18 Outcomes of studying CCC abroad Transformative nature of the sojourn & programme: I think I m more interculturally sensitive [ ] (USA, female, 26) After all this I try not to put people in a box. (Slovakian, female, 24) I have learned how similar people are [ ] (Romanian, female, 24) [ ] learning different theories and different models, I think you can really take them and apply them. (USA, male, 23) [ ] people here are from all over the world, so even when we don t literally study [..] you still practice your skills. (Latvian, female, 23)

Discussion (1) 19 Focus on CCC education seems related to more successful academic adaptation CCC students performed significantly better in terms of academic achievement than a comparable peer group CCC students were exposed to a critical perspective on concepts such as culture, communication and identity (Holliday et al., 2004) Exposure to such approaches may be associated with successful academic adaptation

Discussion (2) 20 Positive interaction between experiential learning and a critically-focussed academic model (Stavenga de Jong et al.,2006)? But much CCC education still dependents on a- priori cultural categorisation tending to equate nationality and culture (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2001) so positive effects not necessarily derived from all CCC education?

Discussion (3) 21 Most academic adjustment difficulties early in the sojourn The more exposure, the more able to acquire and develop skills necessary to meet demands of degree CCC students seemed to acquire and deploy these skills slightly more successfully than a comparitor group

Implications 22 Build CCC into higher education programmes in general internationalisation at home getting Anglophone home students to engage with the intercultural (if not, sadly, foreign languages) Have it as a useful graduate attribute that all students in HE can aim to acquire (Stier, 2006) Future research: o Is CCC education as effective as part of pre-sojourn training, or in a form shorter and more intensively-delivered than a MA programme? o Does CCC students performance relate to other pre- dispositional factors? Was it something about the learning, or something about the students, or both?

Some limitations 23 Only looked at the adjustment experiences of CCC students no direct comparison with others Only compared the academic adaptation of the two groups Difficult to generalise beyond: PGT? UK context? Other aspects of adaptation/adjustment?

References (1) 24 Anderson, L. E. 1994. A New Look at an Old Construct: Cross-Cultural Adaptation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 18 (3): 293-328. Berry, J. W., Poortinga, Y. P., Segall, M. H., and Dasen, P. 2002. Cross Cultural Psychology: Research and Application. Cambridge: CUP. Boyatzis, R. E. 1998. Transforming Qualitative Information: Thematic Analysis and Code Development. 2nd ed. London: Sage. Brown, L. 2009. The Transformative Power of the International Sojourn: An Ethnographic Study of the International Student Experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 36 (3): 502-21. Hofstede, G. 1993. Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Administrative Science Quarterly , 38(1), 132 134. Holliday, A. 2010. Cultural Descriptions as Political Cultural Acts: An Exploration. Language and Intercultural Communication, 10 (3): 259-72 Littrell, L. N., Salas, E., Hess, K. P., Paley, M., and Riedel, S. 2006. Expatriate Preparation: A Critical Analysis of 25 Years of Cross-Cultural Training Research. Human Resource Development Review, 5 (3): 355-88. Morris, M. A., and Robie, C. 2001. A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Cross-Cultural Training on Expatriate Performance and Adjustment. International Journal of Training and Development, 5 (2): 112-24. Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (2012).Education at a glance 2012: OECD indicators. OECD Publishing. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2012-en Pitts, M. J. 2005. The Role of Communication in Cross-National Adjustment and Identity Transitions among Student Sojourners. PhD Diss., Pennsylvania State University.

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Thank you! 26 any questions, comments ?