Abstract
As universities worldwide rapidly internationalise, higher education classrooms have become unique spaces for collaboration between students from different countries. One common way to encourage collaboration between diverse peers is through group work. However, previous research has highlighted that cross-cultural group work can be challenging and has hinted at potential social tensions. To understand this notion better, we have used robust quantitative tools in this study to select 20 participants from a larger classroom of 860 students to take part in an in-depth qualitative interview about cross-cultural group work experiences. Participant views on social tensions in cross-cultural group work were elicited using a unique mediating artefact method to encourage reflection and in-depth discussion. In our analysis of emergent interview themes, we compared student perspectives on the role of social relationships in group work by their academic performance level. Our findings indicated that all students interviewed desired the opportunity to form social relationships with their group work members, but their motivations for doing so varied widely by academic performance level.
Highlights
IntroductionHigh Educ (2018) 75:149–166 peers from different countries
With more than 4.5 million international students registered at universities worldwide (OECD 2014), higher education campuses have become unique spaces for social interaction betweenHigh Educ (2018) 75:149–166 peers from different countries
In terms of research question 1, we found that all students interviewed felt that social relationships are necessary components of cross-cultural collaboration
Summary
High Educ (2018) 75:149–166 peers from different countries. It has been acknowledged that placing students into groups with peers from other countries does not immediately lead to productive collaboration (Moore and Hampton 2015; Van den Bossche et al 2006). It has been highlighted that students with high academic performance (i.e. grades), tend to form larger, more diverse social learning networks (Gasevic et al 2013; Hommes et al 2012), suggesting that social experiences in group work may vary between students of differing performance levels
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