Theoretical models of culture shock and adaptation in international students in higher education

Conclusion
The pedagogical adaptation of international students in higher education is a subset of the ‘culture
shock’ experienced by a wide range of cultural travellers. Early models of ‘culture shock’ were
often based on medical perspectives and focused on mental health issues, including both predis-
posing factors and consequences of migration. Later models were based on wider social, psycho-
logical and educational theories, and regarded the traveller as an active agent rather than the
victim of pathology. Component variables and interactive processes within ‘culture learning’,
‘stress and coping’ and ‘social identification’ aspects were identified from many research studies.
These addressed the affective, behavioural and cognitive (ABC) aspects of adaptation. Together,
they offered a more complex but more robust and predictively powerful model, and suggested
practical action that was actually deliverable on a large scale. Indeed, interventions developed
from this model were researched and found to be effective. The current article adapted the culture
synergy model to focus on the pedagogical adaptation of international students in higher
education. Our focus on the match/mismatch of pedagogical expectations has the merit of leading
not only to interesting research possibilities, but also to implications for the pre- and post-depar-
ture preparation of both teachers and students that may lead to more fruitful adaptations by each.
The many variables identified suggest pathways for helping international students and their
teachers to enhance the quality of their overall experiences. It follows that institution-wide poli-
cies for awareness-raising, guiding and supporting international students and their teachers
should be comprehensive, easily accessible and actually put into practice.
Are these issues the same for all source cultures and all host cultures? We have focused partic-
ularly on Chinese students coming to the UK. It seems possible that the experiences of students
from other cultures and/or with different destinations will differ. However, there is some evidence
(e.g. Redmond and Bunyi 1993) that Asian students sojourning in the UK and USA experience
the greatest differences in cultural expectations. For that reason they may constitute a useful
‘extreme case’ for research purposes in relation to student sojourners in general.