‘Blocks’ and ‘threads’: Chinese students’ constructions of ‘culture’ in their reflections on ‘critical incidents’ experienced during a short-term study abroad programme in the UK

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ABSTRACT This article thematically analyses 65 written reflections on ‘British’ culture by Chinese science and engineering students on a short course on intercultural communication at a UK university. Teaching centred on a ‘critical incidents’ approach (Brislin, 1986), Gibbs’s 1998 (2013) ‘cycle of reflection’ and Holliday’s (2016) non-essentialist concept of cultural ‘blocks’ and ‘threads’. Student reflections evidence ‘block’ thinking, arguably inherent in ‘critical incidents’, yet some present promising ‘threads’. The study contributes to an understanding of student outcomes of short-term study abroad and advances non-essentialist pedagogies in intercultural competence.