Measuring cross-cultural adjustment: The problem of criteriaLa evaluación del ajuste transcultural: El problema de criteriosL'évaluation de l'adaptation inter-culturelle: Le problème des critères

The nature of the adjustment process for individuals crossing cultural boundaries has not been adequately described in past research, and this leads to difficulty in selection and training of personnel for overseas assignments. This article critically reviews research on criterion measures of overseas adaptation, and raises a series of theoretical issues to be considered in future research. In addition, methods for measurement of cross-cultural adjustment are proposed, and it is suggested that practitioners and researchers in this field could benefit from a careful definition of criteria.     

A review of the acculturation experiences of international students

Universities in Western countries host a substantial number of international students. These students bring a range of benefits to the host country and in return the students gain higher education. However, the choice to study overseas in Western countries may present many challenges for the international student including the experience of acculturative stress and difficulties with adjustment to the environment of the host country. The present paper provides a review of current acculturation models as applied to international students. Given that these models have typically been empirically tested on migrant and refugee populations only, the review aims to determine the extent to which these models characterise the acculturation experience of international students. Literature pertaining to salient variables from acculturation models was explored including acculturative stressors encountered frequently by international students (e.g., language barriers, educational difficulties, loneliness, discrimination, and practical problems associated with changing environments). Further discussed was the subsequent impact of social support and coping strategies on acculturative stress experienced by international students, and the psychological and sociocultural adaptation of this student group. This review found that the international student literature provides support for some aspects of the acculturation models discussed; however, further investigation of these models is needed to determine their accuracy in describing the acculturation of international students. Additionally, prominent acculturation models portray the host society as an important factor influencing international students’ acculturation, which suggests the need for future intervention.     

Roles of social support systems in overseas relocation: Implications for intercultural training

This report reviews the research literature on social support systems, the roles such systems can play in overseas relocation, and the implications for intercultural training. Three key roles are identified: (1) one of the primary sources of stress produced by relocation overseas is the disruption of a person's social support systems; (2) one of the primary strategies for coping with the stress of overseas assignment is the use of available social support systems; and (3) social support systems are frequently hindered in providing adequate support overseas because they, too, are often under stress. Further, three potential roles of social support systems in intercultural training are suggested: (1) such systems can serve as an important content area in training; (2) social support systems themselves can provide a context for training; (3) these systems can be a source of continuing intercultural training. A social skills training approach stressing “culture general” process skills is presented as a way of usefully providing training in the development and use of social support systems overseas. A specific training module with this focus is described.     

Teaching French as a Second Language to Chinese students: Instructional staff adaptation and intercultural competence development

This case study is an analysis of second language instructors’ processes of adaptation to Chinese students at a small French University. More precisely, in this qualitative case study, it will be shown that the instructional staff's adaptation to an unfamiliar work environment and student population contributed to the development of their intercultural competence. Moreover, it will be argued that such competence was not developed to its full potential. Finally, we offer recommendations for teacher education programs at the end of the article.     

Trainer competencies: The missing conceptual link in orientation

This article presents a conceptualization of trainer competencies hypothesized by the author to be associated with effective cross-cultural orientation, training, and education. Whereas the literature on cross-cultural training has become increasingly well-informed and sophisticated (especially with respect to pedagogy, design, and administration), much less attention has been given to the competencies that characterize the effective cross-cultural trainer. By providing a conceptual framework that articulates specific cognitive (knowledge) foundations, behavioral (performance) competencies, and personal attributes, this article attempts to fill a gap in the literature. The central ethical issues facing trainers are also identified so that cross-cultural orientation can be viewed in its moral as well as pragmatic contexts. The article focuses on trainer competencies in three categories: the cognitive domain (knowledge), the behavioral domain (performance), and the personal domain (individual attributes). The article concludes with some reflections on the training of trainers, an issue of contemporary significance for this field.     

Cultural differences in teaching and learning

Teacher and student are an archetypal role pair in virtually any society. When teacher and student come from different cultures, such as in the context of economic development programmes, many perplexities can arise. These can be due to different social positions of teachers and students in the two societies, to differences in the relevance of the curriculum for the two societies, to differences in profiles of cognitive abilities between the populations of the two societies, or to differences in expected teacher/student and student/student interaction. This paper focuses in particular on these interaction differences. It relates them to the author's 4-D model of cultural differences among societies, based on research on work-related values in over 50 countries. Differences in expected teacher/student and student/student interaction are listed with reference to the four dimensions of Individualism versus Collectivism, large versus small Power Distance, strong versus weak Uncertainty Avoidance, and Masculinity versus Femininity. Some effects of language differences between teacher and student are also discussed. The burden of adaptation in cross-cultural learning situations should be primarily on the teachers.     

Behavioral assessment of communication competency and the prediction of cross-cultural adaptation

This study explores the relationship between interpersonal and social behaviors and patterns of success and failure in cross-cultural adaptation. Seven interpersonal communication skills often mentioned as being important to cross-cultural adaptation were studied: empathy, respect, role behavior flexibility, orientation to knowledge, interaction posture, interaction management and tolerance for ambiguity. For each dimension, behavioral observation indices were developed. Following a week-long predeparture training program, behavioral assessments were made on these dimensions for each person in a group of technical advisors and spouses assigned to two-year postings in Kenya. One year later, an in-the-field follow up study was conducted to assess shock dynamics, psychological adjustment, and vocational and interactional effectiveness of these individuals. Comparisons of pre and post-test measures indicated that each of the focal dimensions predicted patterns of success and failure in adaptation with varying degrees of adequacy. These results and implications for further research, and cross-cultural training and selection, are explored in the final section of the article.     

International students involvement with preparations: Pre-departure coping strategies implemented by Mexican postgraduate students in the UK

Based on findings from a qualitative case study focused on Mexican postgraduate international students at a prestigious university in the south of England, this article explores the coping strategies implemented by the participants prior to departing to their study abroad experience. Findings revealed varying degrees of involvement with pre-arrival preparations where some participants employed a series of creative tactics to ease their adaptation upon arrival, and some others who did not envision any strategies to prepare. However, as afterthoughts, the latter group of students realised such omission had hindered their transition to the new culture. This led to the conceptualisation of the studying abroad experience as a dynamic process enhancing the perspective of the international student as an active agent of their process of adaptation Ward et al., 2001).     

Business communication as cultural text: Exchange and feedback of promotional video clips

Our research is a response to the need to improve the understanding of the complexity of global professional communication. To investigate the complex cultural interpretations that producers and audiences apply to professional texts, we developed a two-year interactive project. Business students in New Zealand and Israel produced promotional “texts” – video clips to promote a university program – which they exchanged with their counterparts overseas to receive feedback. We adapted models of home-made visual communication and advertising which used the categories of participants, settings, topics, and style, to analyze the eight clips. Emergent findings suggested two more categories – information and language – as important analytical tools. Variables of age, gender, intra- and intercultural differences, and (cultural) context also resulted in student audiences’ multiple interpretations of the texts. The outcomes indicate the need to extend the culture-in-context approach for a “situation focused communication approach,” where the primary focus is a group of producers and their audience as they produce and interpret a professional text. This approach also foregrounds contextual variables and a plural understanding of culture to accommodate the potential for miscommunication of business and professional texts in pluricultural contexts.     

Experiences of Danish Business Expatriates in Russia: Power Distance in Organizational Communication

Rapid globalization of business processes stimulates many companies to dispatch their employees – business expatriates – on overseas assignments. Russia differs markedly from many other cultures in terms of specific communication norms and rules. Understanding such differences in organizational life is crucial for the success of business expatriates working there. This study employs in-depth interviews with eight Danish business expatriates who worked in Russia and examines the differences between the Danes and the Russians in terms of communication characteristics related to Hofstede’s cultural dimension power distance. This work enhances scholars’ empirical knowledge of power distance, which has rarely been investigated qualitatively.     

Pioneers across war zones: The lived acculturation experiences of US female military expatriates

This exploratory study focuses on the lived acculturation experiences of United States (US) female career military expatriates who worked and lived in combat settings across five war zones. Based on an analysis of oral histories that spanned over 60 years, the research revealed that these pioneering women had a strong commitment to their profession, and that this, along with camaraderie, facilitated their adaptation to living conditions characterized by extreme danger, nominal domestic comforts, and unrelenting work requirements in culturally unfamiliar contexts. The research identified the multiple physical and psychological stressors of living and working as a female in a war zone and the variety of coping strategies employed for acculturation, particularly the prominent role of relational support from family and friends, and a combination of personal coping mechanisms (such as crying or compartmentalization) and religious faith. As extant expatriate research has overwhelmingly focused on male executives in multinational corporations, this research is significant in extending the literature to an analysis of the public sector, specifically women deployed overseas in highly dangerous settings and who were pioneering in both their roles in the military and as non-traditional expatriates at a time when few women worked internationally.     

Cross-cultural training,expatriate self-efficacy,and adjustments to overseas assignments: An empirical investigation of managers in Asia

This paper presents the findings of an empirical study that investigated the relationship between cross-cultural training (CCT) effectiveness, self-efficacy, and adjustment of expatriate managers in Asia. Responses of 169 managers from four different national backgrounds, all currently on overseas assignments in Asia, indicate that the relationship between CCT effectiveness and adjustment is mediated by an increase in self-efficacy. Implications of the findings for professional practice and for future research are discussed.     

Celebration and Separation: A Troublesome Approach to Multicultural Education

Middle school classrooms can be fertile ground for positively impacting students' cultural and racial assumptions and understanding, given an effective multicultural curriculum and school structure. This article presents a narrative of the author's contrasting experiences teaching a text with racial themes. Applicable literature provides a framework for explaining the students' differing levels of receptivity towards the text. Three particular areas of study provide the framework for explaining student response: a school's approach to multicultural literature; school structure, in particular, tracking; and theories of racial identity development. In addition, the author challenges adults involved in the educational system to implement truly multicultural approaches to learning, despite the potential discomfort or unpopularity of such change.     

Exploring motivations for intercultural contact among host country university students: An Irish case study

This article is concerned primarily with university students’ motivations for voluntarily seeking out intercultural contact on campus. It is based on a larger qualitative research project conducted in an Irish university. This project used a grounded theory approach to explore intercultural relations among students specifically from the perspective of the host culture student cohort. The findings indicate that host students’ decision to engage in intercultural contact is based primarily on a perceived utility associated with such contact, which is based on an informal cost–benefit analysis. Other, less prevalent motivational drivers, such as concern for others and the idea of having a shared future are also identified. Although the study focuses on a higher education environment, many of the ideas and theories discussed and questions raised may be applied to broader intercultural environments. In particular the article aims to highlight the current gap in literature relating to motivations for engaging in intercultural contact and also seeks to highlight the potential value of social exchange theory (Thibaut & Kelley, 1959) to understanding the dynamics of intercultural contact. It also emphasises the relevance of the concept of ‘homophily’ (Lazarsfeld & Merton, 1954) to the field of intercultural studies. As such, the article seeks to combine empirical data with extant theory in order to gain a deeper understanding into the dynamics of intercultural contact.     

An empirical study of Canadian technical assistance: Adaptation and effectiveness on overseas assignment

Some 100 variables were studied on adaptation and effectiveness of technical assistance personnel working in six developing countries. Variables related to job effectiveness, personal and cultural adaptation, transfer of skills, receptivity of nationals, and personal characteristics of the effective Canadian working and living in another culture. Data analyzed included options and standardized ratings by self, colleagues, and national counterparts. Results detailed the components of “Overseas Effectiveness” of technical assistance personnel and spouses. There was evidence of at least two categories of adaptation and two categories of effectiveness. It was found that the best predictor of overseas effectiveness was “Interpersonal Skills,” followed by “Idenity” and “realistic predeparture expectations.” Regarding transfer of skills to nationals, it was found that technical assistance personnel were likely ineffective because of their inability to engage in intercultural interaction.     

“Maybe That Concept Is Still with Us”: Adolescents' Racialized and Classed Perceptions of Teachers' Expectations

Teacher expectations for student behavior and academic performance have a lasting effect on student academic achievement—not only in the immediate school year, but also many years later. Yet, we know very little about how students interpret and understand teachers' expectations for them. This article expands the literature on teachers' expectations for students by drawing on student voice to examine how middle and high school students describe and experience the expectations that teachers have for them, and the implications of these expectations for developing positive student–teacher relationships. Findings indicate that traditionally minoritized and traditionally privileged youth harbor racialized and classed perceptions of teachers' expectations.

I feel like it's all around us too, like everything we hear kinda everything we learn about; it's kinda like minorities are oppressed. Like you learn about, a lot about, like, civil rights and all that; like you always kinda hear that, like, Blacks, minorities, all of them were kinda oppressed and that Whites were dominant at one point. So I mean it's not like it's the same; it's not completely different now, but maybe that concept is still with us. (Latina/o high school student)     

Shaping the Public House, 1850–1950: Business Strategies,State Regulation and Social History

Much cultural and social history fails to engage fully with business history, resulting in an impoverished view of central institutions such as the public house. Using the twin concepts of control and interpretation, and with a particular focus on managed houses, the article suggests that the degree of control exercised by companies over the character of public houses during the period has been exaggerated. While there was an increasing degree of control over public houses in terms of ownership and product range, this control was not necessarily used to influence the character of the house. Many companies left such concerns to their tenants, viewing their pubs as distribution points rather than retail outlets. Changes to the pub, such as the ‘improved public house’, were as much about the respectability of the trade in response to regulatory pressures as about meeting customer needs. An appreciation of contrasting business strategies can give a richer picture of the public house and its place in popular culture.     

Intersectionality and Student Outcomes: Sharpening the Struggle against Racism,Sexism, Classism,Ableism, Heterosexism,Nationalism, and Linguistic,Religious, and Geographical Discrimination in Teaching and Learning

In this article the authors consider NAME's focus on intersectionality as a tool for theorizing, researching, and employing in pre-K through college practice at preservice and inservice levels. A review of research using three or more identity axes to investigate student outcomes is included. The authors also discuss the benefits of analyzing educational questions intersectionally, noting cautions.