Intercultural mentoring among university students: The importance of meaningful communication

Abstract

In many universities, peer mentoring is a popular practice aiming to ease cultural transition for newcomers. Despite the ubiquity of such practice, the factors involved in short-term mentoring programmes and how they relate to mentoring outcomes remain under-researched in Malaysia. This collective case study aims to address this gap by exploring the factors shaping participants’ intercultural mentoring practice in a one-month programme. Interviews were conducted with ten participants comprising equal numbers of Korean mentees and local mentors, backed up by observations. Subsequently, five factors were identified: interest in cultural exchange, building rapport, obstacles to meeting, group conformity, and language accessibility, together highlighting the key role of meaningful intercultural communication in achieving the mentoring objectives. Through the lens of activity theory (Engeström, 2001, 2015), this study helps to shed light on the dynamics of successful mentoring practice shaped by undercurrents from the institution, the local context, cultural variation, and personal characteristics of the participants.