Abstract
The aim of this study was to explore foreign teachers’ experience of cultural and life adaptation in China, including the difficulties, emotional stress, and challenges they confronted, as well as the useful coping strategies and resources that facilitated their cultural adaptation. Ten foreign professors who taught in China were recruited from three Chinese universities. Semi-structured interviews on the participants’ experience of cross-cultural adaptation in China were conducted. Thematic analysis of the transcribed dialogs was performed, and five core themes emerged: multiple challenges, mixed negative emotions, active coping and insulation, rich supportive resources, and personal traits. In the cross-cultural adaptation process in China, the main challenges for foreign teachers were language barriers; a lack of supportive relationships; and conflicts in perceptions related to teaching, privacy, and boundaries. Useful coping strategies included seeking interpersonal interactions that provided emotional and instrumental support, developing localized teaching models, and maintaining connections with the culture of origin. Under circumstances with convenient living facilities and supportive interpersonal relationships, these strategies promoted the adaptation of foreign teachers with functional personality traits. The potential correlations among these different themes and the influence of their interactions on foreign teachers’ adaptation experience were also discussed. The themes that emerged in our study can help clinicians and university administrators develop therapy methods and support systems for foreign teachers who work in Chinese universities.
Highlights
With the constant development of the Chinese economy and against the background of globalization, an increasing number of foreign teachers are coming to China
Similar to the views of Li (2012), this study found that foreign teachers’ cross-cultural life experiences and open attitudes toward multiculturalism could help them better adapt to Chinese culture and increase the flexibility of their coping strategies
Our analysis demonstrated that during the process of crosscultural adaptation in China, the main challenges for foreign teachers were language barriers; differences in living habits; a lack of supportive relationships; and conflicts in perceptions related to teaching, privacy, and boundaries
Summary
With the constant development of the Chinese economy and against the background of globalization, an increasing number of foreign teachers are coming to China. Some prior cross-sectional studies used self-designed quantitative inventories to assess the daily challenges faced by foreign teachers in China. They found that the challenges foreign teachers regularly faced were complicated and diverse and included language barriers; differences in diet, living habits, and weather; conflicts in cultural perspectives of interpersonal boundaries; conflicts regarding teaching methods and models; problems with the administration patterns of Chinese schools; and feelings of loneliness and isolation, homesickness, and culture shock (Ma, 2007; Wang, 2010; Duan, 2012; Ilham, 2015; Cao, 2017). They found that language difficulty, cross-cultural differences in pedagogies, and conflicts between collectivism and individualism were the main stressors for the subjects (Melby et al, 2008)
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