Functional and beyond: International students’ cultural adaptation and support

• In Event: An International Student Perspective: Criticality, Self-reflction & Experiences of International Students and Educators

Proposal

International students face significant challenges arising from the cultural differences between their home and host country. These challenges include language proficiency, navigating a new academic system, and negotiating a new cultural identity (Smith & Khawaja, 2011; Ammigan et al., 2023). While many studies have focused on identifying these cultural challenges and exploring the coping strategies adopted by international students, some scholars have questioned whether cultural adaptation should be considered an ideal outcome for these students (Yao, 2015; Heng, 2020). Treating cultural adaptation as an ultimate goal perpetuates a deficit view, portraying international students as lacking in cultural knowledge and skills (Jones, 2017). Additionally, it fails to acknowledge the diversity among international students, assuming that cultural adaptation is universally desirable. Based on these critical perspectives, this study aims to present a new conceptualization of international students’ cultural adaptation and explore the cultural support they have received.

Two relevant theoretical frameworks, Searle & Ward (1990)’s cross-cultural adjustment theory and Heng’s (2018) hybrid sociocultural framework, provide valuable insights into the development of the cultural adaptation framework. According to Searle & Ward, cross-cultural adjustment contains two dimensions, psychological and socio-cultural. Sociocultural adjustment refers to the "ability to 'fit in' and negotiate interactive aspects of the new culture" (p. 450). In other words, sociocultural adjustment entails acquiring cultural skills necessary to effectively achieve goals in a new environment. Many studies have utilized Searle & Ward’s scale to measure international students’ socio-cultural adaptation (e.g., Razgulin et al., 2023). In contrast to operationalizing adaptation as a single scale, Heng’s hybrid socio-cultural framework explains the relationship between humans and the sociocultural contexts. It posits that individuals’ attitudes and behaviors are not fixed personal traits, but rather subject to change in response to the socio-cultural context and evolve over time. This framework emphasizes the role of human agency, arguing that humans are not passive recipients who only adapt to certain values, beliefs and behaviors. Instead, they create solutions and make decisions based on their interactions with different sociocultural contexts. In alignment with Searle & Ward, I perceive cultural adaptation as a learning process. However, drawing upon Heng’s framework, I argue that this learning process involves human agency. International students actively define their learning goals and mobilize available support to achieve these goals.

Method
This qualitative study employed a grounded theory approach. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 53 international students at a four-year public university in the Southwestern US. These participants consist of 21 undergraduate and 32 graduate students from various regions, including 31 from Asia, 7 from Europe, 7 from Middle East, 7 from Latin America, and 1 from Africa. The interviews explored participants’ perceptions of cultural adaptation, their personal experiences and progress in cultural adaptation, and the role of their social contacts in providing support for their cultural adaptation. After transcribing the recorded interviews, I adopted Saldana (2016)’s two rounds of coding strategies to allow the themes to emerge from the data.

Preliminary Findings
International students’ cultural adaptation has two levels: surviving and thriving. All participants agreed that the basic level of adaptation is acquiring the necessary cultural knowledge and skills required to accomplish their survival goals, such as completing their degree and securing employment. They may need to adjust their behaviors. For example, one participant mentioned the need to be punctual for meetings in the US, despite lateness being acceptable in their home country. Beyond the surviving level, some participants argued that a higher level of cultural adaptation entails a deep understanding of the host culture and the ability to engage in conversations with host nationals beyond their survival goals, such as politics, laws, movies, and sports. Furthermore, as American culture represents a fusion of various racial and ethnic cultures, participants also perceived obtaining knowledge about certain races and ethnicities, such as Native American culture or Hispanic culture, as examples of thriving in cultural adaptation in the US. Although all the participants acknowledged the importance of cultural adaptation at the survival level, not all had experienced or felt motivated to reach the thriving level.

Americans played a more direct role in offering cultural support for international students, providing them with cultural knowledge and skills through demonstrations and explanations on specific matters. For example, one participant learned about how to interact with supervisors at work from an American peer student worker who provided the guidance. At the thriving level, some participants experienced American culture by being invited to celebrate American holidays with local families. While some participants also shared examples of receiving cultural support from their co-national or other international social contacts, this support primarily focuses on the survival level of their cultural adaptation.

Significance
This study provides important scholarly and practical contributions. The two-level cultural adaptation framework emphasizes the complexity of cultural adaptation. Measuring cultural adaptation as a single scale can be problematic because a student can navigate the academic system effectively, while lacking the knowledge regarding purchasing a property in the host country. Additionally, this framework argues that not all international students need to achieve the level of cultural adaptation. While they need the survival level of cultural adaptation to live and study in the host country, their ability and desire to reach the thriving level may vary. Instead of applying a gold standard of cultural adaptation for all, each student can negotiate a suitable level of cultural adaptation based on various factors including their identity, language proficiency, future migration plans, etc.

This framework also has practical implications for higher education institutions to support international students’ cultural adaptation. Faculty and staff should incorporate support for the surviving level of cultural adaptation into their teaching and services to ensure all international students have the adequate knowledge and skills to fulfill their academic, career and life aspirations. Additionally, institutions can offer opportunities for international students to engage with other aspects of American culture, such as facilitating connections with host families. Overall, supporting international students’ cultural adaptation at the surviving level should not be replaced or overshadowed by the efforts at the thriving level.

Author

• Xiaojie Li, University of Arizona