Coming to Terms with Intercultural Context: Developing Intercultural Personhood

Lihong Wang

Beijing Language and Culture UniversityDurham University

lihong.wang@dur.ac.uk

Report on Chinese Students Learning Experience on a UK Campus

Research BackgroundPhenomenal presence of Chinese students in the UK in 2004-

2005

Overseas students in the UK:318,410

Increasing number of Confucian Heritage Cultures (CHC) students studying abroad

P.R.C.—52,675

Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan;45,00)

‘Chinese Learner’

‘rote learning’, ‘surface learner’

‘passive’, ‘silent’

‘deferent to authority’

‘lack critical thinking’

Plagiarist?

‘Culture of learning’

a whole set of expectations, attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions, preferences, experiences and behaviours that are characteristic of a culture with regard to teaching and learning (Jin & Cortazzi, 1993; Hu, 2002).

•Socratic vs. Confucian academic discourses (e.g. Greenholtz, 2003; Tweed &

Lehman, 2002)

•Dialogic vs. dialectic modes of teaching and learning

(Hammond and Gao, 2002)

• Culture of learning and Cultural synergy model ( Jin and Cortazzi, 1993, 1995, 1996,1998)

• Synergetic culture (Feng, 2007)

•Eclectic approach (Biggs & Watkins, 1996; Biggs, 2003)

Research perspectives

Socratic discourse vs. Confucian discourse

  Knowledge is generated within

  Interaction and inquiry-based learning

Verbal communication is central (through constant questioning and evaluating)

 Analytical and critical thinking are highly valued

    Cognitive-instrumental reasoning

     Innate ability

      Independent self

      Separate knowing

        Knowledge is from omniscience of authority (through transmission)        Paternalistic leadership for the teacher        Memorization and repetitive learning        Text-based learning        Competition/Test-oriented        Moral-practical reasoning        Success comes from efforts and will power         Interdependent self        Connected knowing….

Dialectic vs. Dialogic (Hammond &Gao, 2002)

Teacher holds power, knows all, controls space

Student follows instruction

Learning is transmitted, fragmented, fixed

Protect status quo, encourage competition

Power and experience are shared, create space

Students contributes, make proposals,

Learning is constructed, connected, emergent

Create future, encourage collaboration

Cultural Synergy

Cultural synergy refers to mutual or reciprocal cultural movement between people from two or more cultures so that they can ‘interact systematically, cooperating for a common purpose with an attitude of being willing to learn, understand and appreciate the other’s culture without loss of their own status, role or cultural identity’

(Jin & Cortazzi, 1993:95)

Eclectic approach

‘Teaching for education’: inclusive contextual approach

The widely-believed norms and differences between the two cultures are more ‘myths than reality’.

(Biggs, 2003)

‘Synergetic culture’

This culture can be something entirely new; It can also be intermediate zones where mediate

d ways of behaving and modes of thinking can be identified and individual identities are negotiated and partially transformed.

(Feng, 2007, Durham Symposium)

Research Questions

Foreshadowed questions:

Whether exists a Chinese learning culture?

If it does, whether Chinese students bring it to the UK classroom?

What happens to their approaches to and conceptions of learning while studying in a new learning discourse?

Has any new form of learning culture been created by Chinese students while studying abroad?

What is the impact of overseas learning on their personal growth?

Ethnographic Research Methodology

Data collecting instruments:

Classroom observation

Participant observation

Ethnographic interview

Data analysis: grounded theory ((Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Strauss and Corbin, 1990, 1998)

Participants: 15 MA /PhD students from different disciplines

Time: October,2005- July, 2006

Setting: a research university in the northeast of England, UK

1. There exists a Chinese learning culture, but Chinese students are more responsive and adaptive to the new learning culture in terms of approaches to and conceptions of learning than stick to their traditional learning culture.

Research Findings

2.’Learning shock’ and ‘cognitive dissonance’ can become learning opportunities to increase intercultural awareness and facilitate personal maturity and growth, emotionally and intellectually

3.The students mediating between the two learning cultures can move from an ‘either/or’ stage and enjoy a ‘both/and’ stance, consciously negotiating and creating new space to assert their unique identity: intercultural personhood.

1.Changes in approaches to and conceptions of learning

“ The assessment here is different. There are no exams, so you don’t need to memorize lots of stuff to prepare for the exams as in China.”(LY)

 “ In the past, I believe ‘practice makes perfect” and immersed myself working out hundreds and thousands of (mathematical) problems, otherwise I couldn’t enter university. But now, that won’t do. Thinking is more important.” (ZJ)

Learning autonomy

“I like this mode of assignment, writing papers. Though we wrote papers at home university as well, it is totally different in requirements. The process of writing papers is really painful, but it is a very good form of learning autonomy. I feel that I learn mostly from writing papers.” (JJ)

Classroom participation

I didn’t dare to ask questions, because I was always afraid of being laughed at. But here, they (British classmates—my comment) do not judge you, whether your questions are silly or smart. Neither do the teachers. So I won’t wrestle in mind whether the question is worth asking or not. If I want to ask questions, then I’ll ask. (F1)

2.  Intellectual Development  

“It is more obvious in humanities and social sciences, there is no single correct answer to the issue. Different people have different interpretations of the text. We can’t just wait there complaining there is no right answer, you should analyse the situation to find your own answer. You answer couldn’t be absolute right, but you find it through your own thinking and reasoning.” (JJ)

3. Development of intercultural competence.

Attitudes: curiosity, openness, readiness to suspend disbelief and judgement with respect to other’s meanings, beliefs and behaviours.

“First, I felt that the classroom was less structured, but I believe it has its own strength and I observed carefully their interaction in the classroom. I found that they asked questions to train their thinking abilities instead of just for an answer” (Ryan).

 

“I came here without the preconceptions that our ways are better than yours, and I think I could see their ways of life objectively, how they treat people. I know some students complain all the time and they think only their ways are right. Their mind-sets are not good. We should respect, not criticize, other cultures and customs.” (RT)

Open-mindedness

Awareness of one’s own identity

“I think it is very important. I can’t ask them to treat me as they do their folks. You can do nothing about it. Now I’m interested in cultural identity. I feel as long as you were born with an Asian face you would be treated differently by the foreigners. Your primary school peers would treat you very nicely, for they knew you very well. But at first sight of your face, they would categorize you into a different group, no matter whether you are educated or uneducated. You can do nothing about it. That’s identity. (CY)

On the one hand I think it unfair for them to treat me differently; on the other, I know that I want to be treated as different.

I have to look straight at my difference. That is not kind of “disable”, but just difference. You can’t say that they are good and I’m bad. We are just different. If they could speak Chinese, they wouldn’t know as much Chinese educational system as I do the British. It’s not a matter of better or worse, stronger or weaker. Just difference. This is a valuable experience as I’m going in for education studies. When I admit that difference I find that I feel better and I can take it easy in my studies. I shouldn’t be haunted with these thoughts, and I am different, and the weakest as well, for I don’t know English educational background. (CY)_

Empathy: trying to understand the “otherness” “from within”, in its own world. 

“ I have my own way to write essays. I’ m used to starting by telling stories: what happened and what motivated me to do the research, and gradually brought up my main ideas. But here people write differently. My way is kind of bottom-up, and theirs “top-down”. My tutor told me to make explicit in the introduction what you are going to do. They also emphasized bibliography, and in the beginning I didn’t understand why, probably because I didn’t read much. Later, I had to write an essay every three or four weeks and had too many materials to consult, I suddenly found the merits of good bibliography. We are not only responsible for ourselves but also for the reader.”(EC)

Tolerance of ambiguities and negotiating ambiguities: inviting interpretation and help, explaining one’s own position; asking for and giving reasons.

“At beginning of our seminars, I found they had a lot of misunderstanding about China and I was very angry and eager to correct them, but my English was not good. I couldn’t get my ideas across successfully; therefore, I failed to convince them. But I would like to listen to their evidence and arguments why they think in that way. I asked them where they got the resource and I would look into them myself. And I found myself confronted with many conflicting ideas, different voices on the same issue. You can’t jump to a quick conclusion, so we need do research.” (YY)

The students have their own orientations and priorities to make choices:

“We only stay here for one year and you should think about how to live this year. If you spend all the time reading books, I don’t think it is worth the money we paid for the tuition. But if you have more opportunities to access their society, you will have a deeper understanding of their culture, for example, their notions of equality and respect, their attitudes to different opinions and negotiations, and these will give you another perspective to see the world. If I hadn’t come here, I wouldn’t feel so strongly about this contrast. Subject knowledge could be learnt anywhere, and will probably be soon out of date, but these notions will have profound impact on your life, and I think this is the most valuable part I learnt here. I hadn’t expected much before I came, and now I think the gains are worthwhile. ( TZ)

“When I came here, what I was most concerned about was getting the degree. You know it cost a fortune to study here and it (the certificate) is what we are here for.

….. Gradually, I began to enjoy their way of learning and frequent the library to explore, and then discuss with our tutor. I come to realize that what the university offer to me is not just a degree. Actually, the degree is not given priority now. I have learnt how to learn and how to do research. And most importantly, your mind-set is changed. …... You cannot be truly Westernised, but at least you can see the reality from their point of view. It is your choice how to view the matter, either from the West or from the East.” (ZJ)

 

Change in mind-set: see things in a different perspective

Concluding remark

Intercultural competence is not only the preparation for Chinese learners’ successful overseas academic adaptation but also the outcome of their intellectual development.

During the process of distancing oneself from one’s beliefs, reflecting on one’s own cultural practice to gain new perspectives to view the world, Chinese students have embarked on the journey to develop intercultural personhood— ‘something that will always contain the old and the new side by side to form a ‘third kind’ (Kim, 2001)