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Experience living away in another country
Importance of diversity in education
Multicultural education and diversity
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Introduction:
International students studying in the UK in 2011-2012 totalled 435,230 which is an increase of two per cent from the preceding year (UKCISA statistics, 2012). As a student of the University of Essex which has the reputation for being one of the UK’s most internationally diverse universities with students from over 130 countries (University of Essex, 2013) I, myself have had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world. Living with international students has led me to detect differences, as well as similarities in social, academic and cultural views. This has hugely influenced my research topic.
I am concerned with the experiences of international students and how they adapt to British university life. By the end of my research I plan to be able to answer the subsequent question:
“To what extent do differences in culture affect how international students adapt to British university life?”
It is important to recognise how international students adapt to English life so that universities can help make the transition for these students as straightforward as possible. Attending university itself is a frightening concept, so moving away from your own culture and into a completely different country would be terrifying. Therefore I believe that international students should have as much help as possible to facilitate with these changes.
Literature review:
Gu, Schwisfurth and Days book “Learning and Growing in a Foreign Context” focuses on international students experiences and how they adapt to a different cultural and educational environment. Throughout they converse about a feeling of belonging or alienation which could prevent international students from involving themselves in the British culture (Gu e...
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...2) ‘Consenting to what? Issues of access, gate-keeping and “informed” consent’, in Mauthner, M. (ed.). Ethics in Qualitative Research, London: Sage. 53-69.
Miller, D, 2002. Material Cultures: Why some things matter. 1st ed. London: Psychology Press .
Montgomery, C. (2010) Understanding the International Student Experience, London: Palgrave Macmillan. 1-100.
University of Essex. 2013. International. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.essex.ac.uk/international/. [Accessed 12 November 13].
UKCISA. 2013. International Student Statistics. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/Info-for-universities-colleges--schools/Policy-research--statistics/Research--statistics/International-students-in-UK-HE/. [Accessed 12 November 13].
Wheeler, A. 2011. Experiences of Home Students Living and Learning on an Internationally Diverse Campus. Year 2. Essex: University of Essex.
Every year, more and more International students are coming to the U.S. for pursuing higher education. According to the Open Doors report published annually by the Institute of International Education (IIE), the number of intern...
American students have been such a question mark for the international students, their way of living and thinking is way different than any international student and this is noticeable. Students from all over the world notice a difficulty in dealing with the Americans and mentally understand them. Therefore, Rebekah Nathan argues that in her article “As Other See Us” and discusses the differences between the American and the international students. Moreover, she uses different evidence based on students from different backgrounds and cultures. Nathan goes over opinions and stories that happens with the international students in the US and what they think about these situation, which they considers weird in the eyes of the international students.
In qualitative studies, the researchers are unaware of the interview is likely to untwist. Therefore, informed consent is a must.
The life of a college student is really amazing and diverse. In fact, a person can expect to live with people from different cultures, background, and histories that it is a mix of diverse multicultural experience. Even more when a student can talk with another student from a different part of the world with totally different culture, this was my case when I interview my friend from Nigeria.
Noble, John, and Peter Davies. "Cultural Capital as an Explanation of Variation in Participation in Higher Education." British Journal of Sociology of Education 30.5 (2009): 591-605. JSTOR. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
In the last few years, studying abroad has become an increasingly popular choice for higher education among international students (Accessibility Navigation, 2014). An average of 10% of students in universities all across the UK are international students from countries all over the world. (Accessibility Navigation, 2014). Although the experience is different for each individual student, there are many common problems that international students face. Those problems include: culture shock to varying degrees coupled with emotional issues(Bailey, 2005), Language barriers along with other communication problems (Sherry et al, 2009), and academic problems due to a change in school curriculum (Ramachandran, 2011). This essay will expand on the common problems faced by international students in the UK, offer solutions for handling the problems, and making the process of acclimating to a new environment easier for students.
middle of paper ... ... Sociocultural Subjectivities: Progress, Prospects, Problems. Theory of Psychology, 20(6), 765–780. Mahn, H. (1999, Nov/Dec).
Coming to the United States for college can introduce cultural differences that even the most prepared students might not anticipate. From campus life to classroom etiquette, US school can be quite a different experience from learning in other countries around the world. It is rather natural for students from other countries to join communities that somehow remind them of home and give them the opportunity to remain connected with their roots and at the same time bring the world a little closer to fellow classmates. By raising collective cultural awareness, organized expressions of diversity which create a cultural spillover from which we all benefit.
Study abroad has facilitated a personal, transformational experience. Gaining a new perspective of the world and an insight to different culture has allowed for a new sense of self, which I have sustained since being home, and in turn have become more resilient to change. Exposure to a new cultural context created challenges that threatened aspects of my existing identity and created possibilities to discover parts of a new identity that I had previously not been in touch with.
Standing out of the crowd is a great way to get attention for a good job or acceptance into a university. Taking a gap year to study abroad can open many doors and help teens become better equipped to identify and interact with people from other cultures. “With so many international experiences available, more than 80% of gap year students say their experiences make them more globally aware” (Salisbury). In an expanding business world, increased cultural awareness and even language skills will help future teens of the workforce be more successful in their careers.
The article titled “Contemporary Ethical Analyses: A Shortfall in Scientific Knowledge” describes the ethics through the public’s eye. One of the major ethical issues brought up is informed consent.
Going to study in a new country can be a stressful experience, from learning the culture norms to new foods. Culture shock is common with international students. Culture shock can include, meeting new people, language barriers, social behaviors, and a sense of community. A students comfortability with the culture of their new home can determine their learning experience. It can be an emotional rollercoaster, being so far away from family and friends. American culture is difficult to understand. International students find Americans to be confusing. Social norms vary depending on the part of the country a person is in.
People have long assumed that university is the home of the educated and open minded people. People expand their personal horizons here. The public believes university students can deal with the cultural differences of human beings. The public believes students can deal with these differences because university students are exposed to a wide range of academic subjects including Humanities. Humanities exposes students to world literature, art, and geography. The public expects these subjects to aid university students in understanding cultural differences.Use of cultural differences should be emphasized in the universities. These differences should be emphasized not to humiliate or disgrace people but to influence students to accept and acknowledge cultural differences.
When it comes to anthropological theory the combination of several established ways of thought often result in a completely new and independent way of thinking. Cultural Materialism is one of these children theories that resulted from a coming together of social evolutionary theory, cultural ecology and Marxist materialism (Barfield). The goal of cultural materialism is to explain politics, economics, ideology and symbolic aspects of a culture with relation to the needs of that society. From a cultural materialist point of view society is indisputably shaped by the factors of production and reproduction. From this all other facets of society, such as government and religion, must be beneficial to that society’s ability to satisfy the minimum requirements to sustain themselves (Harris 1996). An example of this would be the invention and continued use of industry because it increased the ability to produce needed materials and food. One important aspect of the cultural materialistic approach is that it operates completely from the etic perspective. Marvin Harris, one of the founders of cultural materialism, believed that a holistic approach is vital to correctly analyzing culture and believed that the emic approach failed at providing a wide enough scope. Harris tried to employ the scientific method and incorporated it into his theory. The result of this is that cultural materialism focuses only on events that are observable and quantifiable and replicable (Harris 1979). Cultu...
As an example I would like to refer to myself as an international student who choose to study away from his own country to get the best of an experiences. I have decided to study abroad because I knew that I would get more experience that way, and I think I have got what I would not ever got back home in the time I have spent studying at West Virginia University. Lets begin with the life barriers that might face you as you study away from your