Intercultural Learning in Transnational Articulation Programs

Abstract

Many Chinese universities engage in transnational higher education by establishing articulation programs with international partners. Although research has broadly investigated transnational higher education topics, few studies have explored Chinese students’ intercultural learning and adjustment experiences in these programs. This qualitative study explored seven Chinese students’ experiences in two China-Australia articulation programs to add insights to this under-researched topic. The findings indicated that research participants’ intercultural learning experiences were far more complex than the theoretical model of “stress-adaptation-development.” The students’ agency, identity, and belonging underwent dynamic changes due to academic inconsistencies and differences, including the use of technology, assessment, and teaching strategies. This study suggests that it is important for educators to consider educational differences in designing and implementing transnational articulation programs.

Intercultural Education for the Twenty-First Century: A Comparative Review of Research

“…In terms of the main findings of the reviewed studies, only two of them (Santos et al 2014;O'Brien et al 2019) report an increase of culture-specific knowledge among their main outcomes. Most studies focus on the experiential aspects of intercultural learning, mentioning the value of: 'embodied' experiences (Donelan 2010;Tonkin and Coudray 2016;Frimberger 2016), 'immersion', 'boundary' and'belonging' experiences (Hepple et al 2017;Mesker et al 2018;Dai and Garcia 2019), or even the concrete experience of the 'stigmatised position of the other' (Børhaug and Weyringer 2019). Other experiential and affective aspects were also highlighted: cultural/cognitive dissonance (Allan 2003;Mitchell and Paras 2018), non-essentialist engagement (Holmes et al 2015), enacted understanding of the Other (Gill 2007), and mutual enrichment (Bedeković 2017).…”

“…Other studies highlight limitations in the use of the concept 'culture' to refer only to a national identity, and its consequences on students' intercultural learning outcomes (Bozdag 2018;Hessel 2019). Studies also highlight the teachers' role within intercultural education initiatives, notably the need for educational support for cross-system transitions (Dai and Garcia 2019) and the importance of teacher education (Senyshyn 2018). Cloonan et al (2017) further argue that teachers' exposure to intercultural learning techniques does not guarantee an increase in their capacity to deal with interculturality in their classrooms.…”

“…Studies published after 2016 present a different image, as shown in Table 2.1. A large majority (44%) of these focus on intercultural learning, sometimes equated to intercultural dialogue, whereas the rest is divided between intercultural competence (26%) and other definitions (30%), as follows: intercultural (self-)awareness (Brooks (Dai and Garcia 2019), and finally definitions referring to a broader sense of intercultural competency, literacy or even education, often defined as a 'transcultural' competence (Frimberger 2016;Tonkin and Coudray 2016;Hajisoteriou and Angelides 2017;Hyett et. al.…”

A Phenomenographic Study of Chinese Undergraduates’ Conceptions of Learning in Transnational Programs

“…The authors thus called for more empirical studies on learning experiences. The argument was reinforced by Dai et al (2018) and Dai and Garcia (2019), who also discover that studies exploring Chinese students' learning experience in CFCRS programs are limited.…”

“…The learning experience in Chinese universities might not be helpful for students to learn in other culturally different universities (Quan et al, 2013). It is worth noting that Dai and his colleagues published a number of articles to uncover Chinese students' learning-related issues such as intercultural learning and adjustment experiences (Dai & Garcia, 2019), assessment and learning experiences , narrative approach-based self-learning experience reflection (Dai, 2018), field, habitus, and learning . These studies demonstrated Chinese students' complex intercultural learning experiences, which resulted in changes in many aspects and form a "sense of in-betweenness.…”