Overcoming cross-cultural group work tensions: mixed student perspectives on the role of social relationships

Abstract

As universities worldwide rapidly internationalise, higher education classrooms have become unique spaces for collaboration between students from different countries. One common way to encourage collaboration between diverse peers is through group work. However, previous research has highlighted that cross-cultural group work can be challenging and has hinted at potential social tensions. To understand this notion better, we have used robust quantitative tools in this study to select 20 participants from a larger classroom of 860 students to take part in an in-depth qualitative interview about cross-cultural group work experiences. Participant views on social tensions in cross-cultural group work were elicited using a unique mediating artefact method to encourage reflection and in-depth discussion. In our analysis of emergent interview themes, we compared student perspectives on the role of social relationships in group work by their academic performance level. Our findings indicated that all students interviewed desired the opportunity to form social relationships with their group work members, but their motivations for doing so varied widely by academic performance level.

Exploring and Assessing Cross-cultural Sensitivity in Bosnian Tertiary Education: Is there a real promise of harmonious coexistence?

“…Turkish participants mostly spend their time in homogenous groups during their studies, either in extracurricular activities, in dormitories, or in private apartments they rent, and some major Turkish communities, including entire families, even run their own businesses in B&H. In addition, many Turkish students celebrate every important event related to Turkey together, such as the winning election results of a favorite political party, the winning of the Turkish national team etc., on the main streets and squares of Sarajevo. In another cross-cultural study, Rienties, Tempelaar & Whitelock (2017) have also found that social relationships are necessary components of cross-cultural collaboration and that tensions in cross-cultural group work are due to a lack of social relationships. Since there is a great emphasis in the Turkish society on the interdependence of its members (Kagitçibasi, 1996) and since Turkish society displays a deeply rooted collectivistic social structure (Kagitçibasi, 1996;Phalet, Hagendoorn, 1996), Turkish students evidently foster closer mutual relationships than other students and they succeed in shaping each other's attitudes.…”

An institute-wide framework for assessed group work: development and initial implementation in an Irish Higher Education Institution

“…While this is implicit in taking a programme approach, the evidence suggests that this issue should be addressed more explicitly in the framework. Inclusivity, while implicit, would also benefit from more explicit consideration, particularly given evidence around the role of group work in intercultural education (Mittelmeier, Rienties, Tempelaar, & Whitelock, 2018;Moore & Hampton, 2015). Some staff also asked for specific guidance on difficult issues, particularly fails and repeat assessments.…”

Peer learning in international higher education: the experience of international students in an Irish university

“…A study of Irish international higher education by O'Reilly, Hickey, and Ryan (2013) identified several communication and socio-cultural issues affecting international students' learning experiences. Their paper highlighted the problem faced by many international students in Ireland to communicate in a language which is not their native tongue, an issue often observed elsewhere too (Andrade 2006;Evans and Stevenson 2011;Mittelmeier et al 2017). A lack of engagement between international and Irish students in T&L activities has also been observed (Dunne 2013), which according to Naykki et al (2014) may be due to factors such as differing goals and priorities, communication styles, ways of interpreting a task, etc.…”