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A PERSONAL CONSTRUCT APPROACH TO DISCOVERING THE TRANSITION EXPERIENCE OF STUDYING ABROAD
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Eradah Hamad *, Christopher Lee **
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* Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Graduate Program, Faculty of Health Sciences, Western University, Canada
** School of Health Studies, Faculty of
Health Sciences, Western University, Canada
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Abstract
The present study employs a mixed methods
design within a Personal Construct Theory perspective to examine the individual
ways in which a small sample of graduate students describe their experience of
international education. Participants completed a repertory grid involving
seventeen roles and a self-characterization task. Hierarchical cluster analysis
of the grids showed a two-cluster structure that separated roles between
students’ home and host cultures, and the characterizations disclosed some of
the individual problems faced by these international students while studying in
the host culture. It is suggested that pairing new arrivals with the host
culture peers would help international students adjust more successfully to
their new experiences.
Keywords: acculturation, personal construct theory, repertory grid, self-characterization, Saudi Arabian
international students
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INTRODUCTION
The internationalization of university education has
an important role in facilitating knowledge exchange and cultural collaboration
between different countries (Wei et al., 2007). It affords a worldwide network
of alumni, opportunities for internationalization of curricula, contacts for
recruitment and educational projects, as well as cross-cultural relationships
with local students whose future employment roles require a global perspective
(Popadiuk & Arthur, 2004). However, the experience of studying abroad can
be challenging for international students. Living and learning in a host
country often involves reconciling one set of roles and expectations affiliated
with the home country and a different, and sometimes contrasting set of roles
and expectations associated with the host country. In many cases, students have
to adapt the traditional roles of their home country to fit the host country.
This process of adaptation and transition of roles complicates the already
stressful demands of university education (Pederson, 1991). As a result,
international students may experience psychological and social issues, such as
anxiety, isolation, sense of loss, fear, loneliness, and depression, during
their transition to living and learning in a host country (Chen, 1999;
Poyrazli, Thukral, & Duru, 2010; Sandhu, 1995; Wei et al., 2007; Westwood
& Barker, 1990). Although universities provide orientation programs for
international students, these programs tend to focus on practical issues, such
as shopping, banking, and transportation; these programs are unlikely to
address potential psychological issues (YoungMinds, 2006).
A better understanding of the individual ways in which students experience the
transition from home country to host country would provide an opportunity to
enhance programs that universities provide to international students.
Acculturation research
A number of studies have illustrated the challenges
faced by international students as they acculturate to living and learning in
Western countries (e.g., Westwood & Barker, 1990; Sandhu, 1995; Chen, 1999;
Wei et al., 2007; Poyrazli et al., 2010). The challenges involved in
international education may be substantially different from one cultural group
to another cultural group, as well as from one person to another person. As
Popadiuk and Arthur (2004, p. 126) comment, “international students are a
culturally heterogeneous group of people who cross cultures for the experience
of living and learning in a foreign environment.” Furthermore, Jacob and Greggo
(2001) note that many issues experienced by international students are
difficult to address in studies that focus on the general population of
international students. In examining the acculturation process of international
students, researchers have tended to compare specific ethnic groups such as
European, African, and Asian students studying in North America as homogenous
continental groups. However, each of these geographic areas includes many
countries, and each country has distinct cultural norms, beliefs, and
educational systems. Thus, it should not be assumed that international students
from the same continental area will experience the same issues in the
transition from home country to host country.
In a philosophical and methodological review of 42
studies of acculturation published between 2001 and 2006, Chirkov (2009)
reports that only one study used an interpretive framework in which the
variables were based on cultural analysis of the home and host countries.
Chirkov (2009) suggests that acculturation researchers should be open to
research methodologies that enable them to explore and understand peoples’
personal, social, and cultural constructs in the home culture and the host
culture through a variety of methods, such as open-ended interviews, personal
narratives, focus groups, and many other language-based methods. Furthermore,
an individualized examination of student experience would afford an
understanding of the process of reconciling roles and expectations affiliated
with the home and host country. This paper argues that Personal Construct
Theory (PCT) (Kelly, 1955), with its methods and emphasis on contrastive ways
of understanding experience, can make an important contribution to our
understanding of the differing roles and expectations that international
students fulfil while living and learning in a host country.
PCT and international education
From a PCT perspective, international students have
personal constructs that they developed while living and learning in their home
country. In transition to the host country, it is reasonable for international
students to draw upon these constructs to anticipate events and experiences in
the social and academic environments of the host country. In effect, they must
“bet on them” behaviourally, observe the outcomes of their hypotheses, and
often revise their constructs to better anticipate future events. A number of
authors (e.g., Alazzi &
Chiodo, 2006; Mori, 2000) maintain that most international students need some
form of assistance in dealing with the numerous novel experiences, events, and
procedures that they will encounter in the host country.
According to Kelly (1955), personal constructs are
bipolar dimensions of differentiations and similarities that allow a person to
understand, organize, and anticipate events, people, or objects in the world.
For Kelly (1955), the reality is always open to multiple interpretations, and,
as a result, different persons are likely to construe the world somewhat
differently. Thus, the examination of these individual constructs is an
important part of understanding a person. To assess individual experiences,
Kelly (1955) describes two methods of psychological assessment, the repertory
grid and the self-characterization. Whereas the repertory grid involves both
qualitative and quantitative measurement (words and numbers), the
self-characterization is a purely qualitative method. Combining these two
methods will enhance the picture we gain of a student experience, and by
analysing them, we are not simply obtaining a description of how a student
thinks about his or her role as a student, but, rather, we are opening a window
to his/her entire transition experience (how s/he sees the world, or part of
it, using his or her own words).
An important component of an international student’s
personal identity is the language of his or her home country. In comparison,
the language of the host country may simply be a tool for international
education. In studying the experience of international students, there is potential
benefit to allowing participants to respond in the language of their home
country rather than the language of the host country. However, most studies
involving international students have relied on a participants’ command of the
English language. In only a few studies did participants have the opportunity
to choose the language used (Alazzi & Chiodo, 2006; Wei et al., 2007). In
the current study, participants were given the opportunity to use Arabic and
all chose to complete the study in Arabic rather than in English.
The aim of the present study is to explore the
experience of Saudi Arabian graduate students who live and learn in Canada in a
way that reflects the diversity of their lived experiences. The theoretical
framework of PCT has been selected for this analysis, as this approach lends
itself to gaining access and interpreting private worlds (Fransella, Bell,
& Bannister, 2004).
METHODS
Participants
In this study, a Saudi Arabian international student
is an individual who has been sent from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Higher
Education to pursue university education in a foreign country. Saudi Arabian
students enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Western Ontario
received an email from the Office of Graduate Studies that described the study
and invited interested students to contact the investigator by email. Six
students (2 male and 4 female), aged 27 to 32 years old, responded to the email
and indicated their willingness to participate in the study. These students had
been living in Canada for up to four years. The study was approved by the
University of Western Ontario Research Ethics Board for Health Sciences
Research Involving Human Subjects (HSREB).
Procedure
The researcher met with each participant individually
and asked him or her to complete a repertory grid and a self-characterization
task. The elements of repertory grid were a set of 17 roles developed on the
basis of a review of the literature on international education. As listed in
Table 1, these elements consisted of Saudi roles, a corresponding set of
Canadian roles, international roles, temporal roles, and a discovery role
appropriate to our sample of graduate students. The bipolar constructs were
generated for each participant using a dyadic procedure (Landfield, 1971, cited
in Fransella et al., 2004). This involved asking how particular pairs of
elements differed from each other; the same pairings were used for all six
participants (see Appendix 1). Specifically, the participant was asked: “How
are these two roles different or alike?” If a difference was reported, such as
“this role has many responsibilities, but that role has few responsibilities,”
the construct was defined by the pair of contrasting phrases (that is, many responsibilities versus few responsibilities). If a similarity
was reported, such as “these two roles have an academic orientation,” the
person was asked to name its opposite. There were no right or wrong responses
when eliciting the constructs, and it was anticipated that these bipolar constructs
would be highly individualized. This dyadic procedure was repeated, comparing
different pairs of roles, until as set of 11 personal constructs had been
generated. The participant rated each element (e.g., ‘myself as a student in
Saudi’) on every construct (e.g., many
responsibilities versus few
responsibilities) using the poles of the construct as anchors of a 5-point
rating scale (see Appendix 2).
Participants also completed a self-characterization
task (Kelly, 1955). In this task, a person was asked to write a short
description of himself or herself as an international student from the point of view of a
sympathetic friend (a third person). Participants were given the option to complete the two assessments in
either English or Arabic (their native language) in an effort to obtain a rich
description of their own experience and language. All six participants chose to
use Arabic. English versions of the repertory grids and self-characterization
were made following the interviews by the researcher (E. H.) whose first
language was Arabic.
Analysis
The repertory grid and self-characterization of each
participant was analysed separately. The repertory grid is a comparison task
that emphasizes contrast among roles, whereas self-characterization is a
story-telling task that emphasizes continuity and consequences. Grids were
analysed through hierarchical cluster analysis to examine the extent to which
Saudi roles were differentiated from Canadian roles. There are different
methods of making clusters and measuring distances. Bell (1997) recommends the
use of Ward’s method with squared Euclidean distances for the analysis of
grids. Ward’s method uses an analysis of variance approach to evaluate the
distances between clusters (Burns & Burns, 2008). The squared Euclidean
distances are recommended by Bell (1997) because they are unaffected by the
orientation of the constructs. That is, the same distance is obtained when a
construct (such as, “productive versus unproductive”) is expressed in the
reverse order (“unproductive versus productive”). Ward’s method and squared
Euclidean distances were used within SPSS to analyse the grid elements (the 17
roles) into clusters. The self-characterizations were analysed qualitatively to
uncover themes in the narratives that participants told about themselves.
RESULTS
Each grid was analysed separately using hierarchical
cluster analysis. A confirmatory approach was used to decide the number of
clusters. A two cluster solution was chosen because it allowed us to directly
examine the extent to which Saudi roles were differentiated from Canadian
roles. As summarized in Table 1, it was found that Saudi roles and Canadian
roles fall into separate clusters suggesting that these roles reflect
contrasting sets of expectations. In addition, for Saudi Arabian graduate
students who participated in this study, social relationships tend to play an
important role in their adjustment to their new experience in Canada.
Students’ grids
The repertory grids of four participants showed an
identical pattern of clustering except for the roles of ‘problem-solver/
advice-seeker’ and ‘friend in Canada.’ The international roles tended to
cluster with the Saudi roles; however, two participants were exceptions to this
pattern for whom the international roles clustered with the Canadian roles. In
terms of the temporal roles, the role of ‘myself now’ clustered with the
Canadian roles; this pattern is not surprising given that all participants were
living in Canada. The role of ‘myself in the past’ clustered with the Saudi
roles for all participants except 1 participant, and the role of ‘myself in the
future’ clustered with the Saudi roles for all participants except 1
participant.
Table 1: Two clusters of roles for sex participants
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1 Eman
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2 Hashim
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3
Amal
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4 Moayad
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5 Manal
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6 Lamia
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Saudi Roles
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‘Myself as a student in Saudi’
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o
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o
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o
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o
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o
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o
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‘Myself as a member of my previous university
community’
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o
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o
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o
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×
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o
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o
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‘Myself as a member of my family in Saudi’
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o
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o
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o
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o
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o
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o
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‘Myself as an effective member of Saudi culture’
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o
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o
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o
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o
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o
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o
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‘Myself as a friend in Saudi society’
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o
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o
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o
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o
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o
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o
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Canadian Roles
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‘Myself as a student in Canada’
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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‘Myself as a member of my current university
community’
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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o
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‘Myself as a member of my family in Canada’
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o
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o
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o
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×
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o
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×
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‘Myself as an effective member of Canadian culture’
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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o
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‘Myself as a friend in Canadian society’
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×
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×
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×
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×
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o
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o
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International Roles
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‘Myself as a member of Saudi community in Canada’
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o
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o
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×
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×
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o
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o
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‘Myself as an ambassador of my country’
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o
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o
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×
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×
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o
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o
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‘Myself as a foreigner’
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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o
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Temporal Roles
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‘Myself in the past’
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o
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o
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o
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×
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o
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o
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‘Myself now’
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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×
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‘Myself as I would like to be’
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o
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o
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o
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o
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o
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×
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Discovery Role
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‘Myself as a problem-solver or advice-seeker’
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o
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×
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×
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o
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× |
×
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Note:
Two cluster solutions were obtained in a hierarchical cluster analysis (Ward’s
method). The cluster containing the majority of Saudi roles is marked with a
circle (o) and the other cluster is marked with a
cross (×).
Commonality can be shown in the shared and repeated
constructs and synonyms used by the students to describe their roles and
experiences (see Table 2). Some social roles, either in the university
community (e.g., ‘as a member of the university community/classmate’) or in the
social community in general (e.g., as ‘a friend’ and as a ‘foreigner’ vs. as an
‘ambassador’) elicited the most common constructs used in this study
(commonality score of 5). This suggests that the participants have a more
elaborated construct system in these areas, because these roles cause them
particular difficulties. Although students in this study have been living in
Canada for more than two years, it seems that they still experience some sense
of social loss (Chen, 1999). Constructs related to students’ social roles were
positive when clustered with Saudi roles (e.g., social and confident
‘classmate’, chatty and relaxed ‘friend’, and ‘ambassador’ who respects others’
differences) and were negative when clustered with Canadian roles (e.g., isolated
and shy ‘classmate’, quiet and stressed ‘friend’, and ‘foreigner’ who faces
racism).To identify each student’s degree of sociability (as a ‘classmate’ and
as a ‘friend’) in the host culture, common constructs of related roles in
Canada can be used to draw a continuum. This continuum starts with the
construct of being less involved (on the left side of the continuum) and
ends with the construct of being isolated (on the other side of the
continuum).
The rest of the roles (e.g., ‘student’, ‘member of family’,
‘member of culture’, ‘self in past’, ‘ideal self’, and ‘problem-solver’)
elicited less common constructs (commonality score of 3). For example, as a
student who works with a supervisor, it seems that students do not have many
difficulties. All six participants agreed that they have different expectations
about this role in both cultures. In Canada, three participants see themselves
as researchers rather than information receivers (in Saudi). In
addition, two participants indicated that they want to be more active
with a need for academic orientation. One participant was the exception;
she felt that she is a more trustworthy student in Canada (as opposed to
her role in Saudi). Similarly, the role as a ‘member of culture’ varied among
participants. Three participants construed their roles as a ‘member of culture’
as self-oriented, and they reported having more freedom of individual
opinion in Canada, whereas the other three found their roles to be similar
in both cultures.
Although temporal roles (‘myself in the past’, ‘myself
now’, and ‘myself as I would like to be/ideal self’) had less common constructs
among participants as well, participants’ past and ideal selves were construed
in relation to their Saudi roles, while their present selves were construed in
relation to their Canadian roles, with the exception of two participants. One
participant was the only student with no family members in Canada, which could
explain why his self in the past was construed in relation to his Canadian
roles. This could be seen as a reason for having his past self associated with
these roles. One participant’s ideal self was construed in relation to her
Canadian roles. This suggests that she prefers her current view of self. The
content of the participants’ self-construing, as considered based on the
construct poles of the repertory grids, indicate that three participants tend
to construe themselves in a more positive view and see themselves as having had
a better life in the past (e.g., lives that were calm, more successful, and
less challenging). Negative views of selves were related to selves in the
present (e.g., lives that are anxious, less successful, and more challenging).
In contrast, the other three participants seemed to view their present selves
positively (e.g., planning for the future, being outgoing, and adopting more
religious commitment), compared to their past selves (e.g., real-time
thinking, being reserved, having less religious commitment).
Students’ self-characterizations
In this study, individuality can be seen in the unique
system of constructs that each student used in his or her grid to describe the
transition experience of living and learning in both cultures, and more
specifically, in the way that he or she defined his or her world through the
use of self-characterizations. Self-characterizations are construed differently
across participants, but their characterizations are focused on their present
or current orientation to life. Past or future (where they see themselves
going) is not included in narratives except for that of Lamia (participant 6),
whose characterization has a focus on the future. Most participants begin their
characterization with information about themselves, centring on issues of anxiety,
fear of failure, feeling of isolation, stress of having many responsibilities,
and ability to overcome obstacles. In most cases, these issues were
related to either the university community [e.g., Eman (participant1), Hashim
(participant 2) and Amal (participant 3)] or to Canadian society outside the
university [e.g., Moayad (participant 4)]. In many cases, the characterizations
tended to express a sense of isolation, similar to that seen in the
grids, related to either the university community or to Canadian society
outside the university.
The first self-characterization is by Eman, who is a
30-year-old, married woman who has been living in Canada for four years. Before
coming to study in Canada, she worked in Saudi Arabia as an instructor.
Eman
is a very hard worker who takes responsibility for her own learning/working.
She spends most of her time at university (as a student) or at home (as a
mother), but she does not spend enough time having fun with her friends. She
wants everything to be perfect (family, studying, and working); therefore, she
always has irrational fears of making mistakes, of embarrassment, of criticism,
and of loss. She sometimes hears voices say “You can’t! It won't work! You are
going to look like a fool! What if they laugh at you” Living this way makes her
very anxious and she feels under pressure most of the time.
The second self-characterization is by Hashim, who is
a 32-year-old who has been living in Canada for four years. In his first two
years in Canada, he was single and lived with a Canadian homestay. Hashim got
married one year ago and graduated from his master’s degree in the same year.
Before coming to study in Canada, he worked in Saudi Arabia as an engineer for
a foreign company.
Hashim
is a diligent student, but he is not an organized person. He has tried very
hard to succeed in his graduate studies, but making the wrong choices at the
beginning of his master’s degree has impacted his overall grade and level of
study. He was not brave enough to make the right decision to change his field
of study. After all, he completed his degree and graduated. He had wished to be
more courageous as it is not right to allow others to inhibit his ability to
determine and control his own destiny.
The third self-characterization is by Amal,
who is (like Eman) a 30-year-old, married woman who has been living in Canada
for four years. Before coming to study in Canada, she worked in Saudi Arabia as
an instructor.
Amal
is always anxious and very nervous and has a concern about her graduate studies
because of a fear of failure. Despite all her efforts to succeed and her
perseverance to do well in her courses, the fear of failure continues and is
ongoing. She has a feeling that to achieve academic success in a country with
an excellent academic society, you need to make a lot of effort to succeed, and
there is a lot of external pressure on your shoulders.
The fourth self-characterization is by
Moayad, who is a 27-year-old, single man who has been living in Canada for two
years with a Canadian homestay. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Saudi
Arabia before coming to Canada to pursue his master’s degree.
Socially,
Moayad is very shy, and because of this he sometimes feels that he is isolated
and aloof in Canadian society. Regarding his personality, he is a very cheerful
and brave person when he is with his close co-national friends. Academically,
he is a very diligent and ambitious student.
The fifth
self-characterization is by Manal, who is a 28-year-old, married woman who has
been living in Canada for two years. Before coming to study in Canada, she
worked in Saudi Arabia as a manager with individuals of both sexes. Like other
participants’ characterizations, Manal’s characterization is focused on the
present time of life; however, the characterization is more about her positive
and negative qualities of her personality.
Like
anyone, Manal has positive and negative qualities. I have known her for more
than a year now. One of her positive characteristics is that she does not like
to ask anybody for help. One of her negative characteristics is that she always
tries to solve her problems at home by herself, and doesn’t let anybody help
her with those problems. She is hotheaded and is impatient. She doesn’t give
people a chance or enough time to do their work; therefore, she always finds
herself doing other peoples’ work.
The sixth and last
self-characterization is by Lamia, who is a 31-year-old, married woman who has
been living in Canada for four years. Before coming to study in Canada, she
obtained her master’s degree from Saudi Arabia.
Lamia
is independent and is a very hard worker. She used to be very sensitive towards
any failures or unhappy events in her life, since three main events happened
and changed her life path while she was studying abroad. Over three years, she has
started to build her future and has learned to accept unexpected surprises,
challenges, and obstacles.
DISCUSSION
The aim of the present study was to explore the
experience of a small sample of Saudi Arabian international students, using
Personal Construct Theory and its tools of assessment (Kelly, 1955) to examine
the roles and expectations of living and learning in a host country. The
analysis of the repertory grids showed a two-cluster structure that
differentiated Saudi roles from Canadian roles, and the self-characterizations
disclosed some of the individual problems faced by these international students
while studying in a host country. In general, the results of this study have
some parallels with the literature that defines social isolation as a common
stressor among international students (Oropeza, Fitzgibbon, & Baron, 1991;
Chen, 1999; Mori, 2000; Alazzi & Chiodo, 2006). This is understood to be a
result of cultural differences between Eastern and Western societies (Poyrazli
et al., 2010). Such cultural differences in this study were found in the
constructs (with a commonality score of three out of six participants) with the
respect to the role of ‘member of culture’ as being group-oriented in Saudi
Arabia, in contrast to individual/self-oriented person in Canada. Moreover,
findings in the literature suggesting that students experience racial
discrimination and prejudice (Chen, 1999; Mori, 2000) may have some connection
with the participants’ common constructs (with a commonality score of four)
faces racism in their roles a ‘foreigner’.
Table 2: The participants' common constructs
Saudi Constructs
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Role
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Constructs
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Commonality score
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‘Student’
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Information-receiver
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3
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‘Classmate’
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Social/More involved /Confident/Acceptable
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5
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‘Member of family’
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Few responsibilities/Organized & independent
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3
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‘Member of culture’
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Male-oriented /Group-oriented/Less freedom of individual opinion
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3
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‘Friend’
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Chatty/Social/More involved/Relaxed
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4
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‘Ambassador’
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Respects others’ differences
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4
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‘Self in the past’
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Calm/More successful/Less challenging life
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3
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‘Problem-solver/advice- seeker’
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Capable/Giving help/Less embarrassed to ask for help
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3
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Canadian constructs
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‘Student’
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Researcher
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3
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‘Classmate’
|
Isolated/Less involved/Shy/
Unacceptable
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5
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‘Member of family’
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More responsibilities/Disorganized & needs assistance
|
3
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‘Member of culture’
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Self-oriented/More freedom of individual opinion
|
3
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‘Friend’
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Quiet/Isolated/Less involved/Stressed
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4
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‘Foreigner’
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Faces racism
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4
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‘Self now’
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Anxious/Less successful/More challenging
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3
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‘Problem-solver/advice- seeker’
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Tense/Asking for help/More embarrassed to ask for help
|
3
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Note:
Commonality score is the number of participants who used the same constructs on
their grids.
As mentioned earlier, PCT (Kelly, 1955) is concerned
with the ways in which individuals make sense of life experiences. Both the
repertory grid and the self-characterization task allowed participants in this
study an opportunity to describe their experiences in a highly individualized
way. A level of individuality was demonstrated in the structure of the
repertory grids by the different patterns in which roles were distributed
between clusters and in the self-characterization task through the specific
attributes and events that participants used to describe themselves.Yet, in
more general terms, a high degree of commonality is evident in the
participants’ constructions of international education. In general, the
repertory grids showed a structure that separated home roles from host roles,
and the self-characterizations reveal stresses that parallel to those
identified in the population of international students in previous studies. For
instance, in line with other studies (Alazzi & Chiodo, 2006; Chen, 1999;
Mori, 2000; Oropeza et al., 1991), social isolation was a common theme in the
self-characterizations. Kelly (1955) conceived of a culture in terms of
constructions of experience. As members of a culture, the participants in this
study shared a general set of beliefs and expectations that served to frame
their experience of international education. In this respect the repertory
grids of Eman, Hashim, Amal, and Manal are especially noteworthy because they
show a near identical pattern of clustering. In addition, two of the three
international roles were found to cluster with the Saudi roles in four of the
repertory grids.
In line with their previous experiences and cultural
backgrounds, students anticipated having a social lifestyle in Canada similar
to the one they had in Saudi Arabia. When they failed to establish social
relationships with Canadian students, they experienced stress. Mori (2000)
maintains that international students can be assisted by companions of similar
cultural backgrounds who have been trained in fundamental communication skills
by staff members of counselling centres. However, it is not clear from this
study that co-nationals helped these students to become socialized in their
university community, to establish social relationships with Canadians, or to
improve their academic achievement. Further research in this area is needed.
The participants in this study were a sample of six
graduate students. The small size of this sample is both a limitation and a
strength. It is a limitation because a small convenience sample, such as the
present one, does not readily generalize to other international students from
different cultural backgrounds. Yet, the small size of this sample is a
strength because it allows a description of individual experience and, in
future studies, this analysis could be used to understand the individual
experience of students from other cultural backgrounds. The repertory grid and
the self-characterization are methods that complement and enhance each other.
As noted by Hardison and Neimeyer (2007), the self-characterization task is
less widely used than the repertory grid, and the two methods are rarely used
in combination. It is also a strength of the study that participants could
elect to complete the repertory grid and self-characterization task in Arabic
rather than English.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
The findings of the present study have several
education and counselling implications for working with Saudi Arabian graduate
students and, potentially, other students who come from the Arabic Gulf States
or Middle Eastern countries in which collectivism (vs. individualism in Western
countries) has a value in their societies (McCarthy, 2005). University programs
and counselling services in higher education may need to be more proactive in
reaching out to these international students by incorporating culturally
sensitive and meaningful approaches into the helping process. There is a need
to build a supportive and facilitative atmosphere that assists international
students in connecting more effectively with their new academic and social
environments (Chen, 1999; Mori, 2000; Pedersen, 1991; Popadiuk & Arthur,
2004). Studies have reported that social interaction between Arab students and
host nationals has had positive effects on the international students’
well-being (Alazzi & Chiodo, 2006). It has been suggested that pairing new
arrivals with the host culture peers may assist international students adjust
successfully to the transition experience (Westwood & Barker, 1990). The
peer would play the role of classmate, friend, information provider,
consultant, or facilitator-helper in assisting the international student to
build relationships with other people around him or her. Repertory grids and
self-characterizations could be used before and after this pairing program to
provide useful information on progress and improvements in the transition to
living and learning in a host country.
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REFERENCES |
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Hardison, H.,
& Neimeyer, R. (2007). Numbers and narratives: Quantitative and qualitative
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Thukral, R. K., & Duru, E. (2010) International students’ race-ethnicity,
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Appendix 1
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Pairs of
elements used to generate an individual set of bipolar constructs
- ‘Myself as a student in Saudi’;
‘Myself as a student in Canada.’
- ‘Myself as a member of my current
university community’; ‘Myself as a member of my previous university
community.’
- ‘Myself as a member of my family in
Saudi’; ‘Myself as a member of my family in Canada.’
- ‘Myself as an effective member (male
or female) of Saudi culture’; ‘Myself as an effective member (male or female)
of Canadian culture.’
- ‘Myself as a friend in Saudi
society’; ‘Myself as a friend in Canadian society.’
- ‘Myself as an ambassador of my
country’; ‘Myself as a foreigner.’
- ‘Myself in the past’; ‘Myself now.’
- ‘Myself now’; ‘Myself as I would like
to be in the future (ideal-self).’
- ‘Myself as I would like to be in the
future (ideal -self)’; ‘Myself as an ambassador of my country.’
- ‘Myself as a problem-solver or
advice-seeker’; ‘Myself as a member of Saudi community in Canada.’
- ‘Myself as a problem-solver or
advice-seeker’: ‘Myself as a member of my current university community.’
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Appendix 2 |
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click here
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AUTORS' NOTE
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This work was supported by the Graduate Scholarship
Program of King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2010 to 2012).
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ABOUT
THE
AUTHORS
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Eradah
Hamad, M.Sc., is a PhD
student in the field of Measurement and Methods of the Health and
Rehabilitation Sciences with an interest in mixed methods
research.
Email:
ehamad@uwo.ca
Christopher
Lee, Ph.D., is an
associate professor in the School of Health Studies with an interest in the
repertory grid method.
Email: cjlee@uwo.ca
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Correspondence concerning this article should be
addressed to Eradah Hamad, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Western
University, Elborn College, 1201 Western Road, London, ON, Canada N6G 1H1.
Electronic mail may be sent to ehamad@uwo.ca. |
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REFERENCE
Hamad, E., Lee, C. (2013). A personal construct approach to
discovering the transition experience of studying abroad. Personal Construct Theory & Practice, 10, 15-27, 2013
(Retrieved from http://www.pcp-net.org/journal/pctp13/hamad13.html)
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Received: 18 February 2013 – Accepted: 5 June 2013 –
Published: 10 July 2013
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