Dr. Xu Zhao & Dr. Nancy Arthur University of Calgary
Why we study intercultural friendship 1. What we have done so far 2. What we have found that may be helpful for educators 3.
➢ International students in Canadian schools Who are they? How are they doing? What do they need? ➢ Challenges and opportunities facing Canadian schools and educators
Friendship matters developmentally Social development impacts health and well-being Stronger academic performance Inter-cultural friendship is important for international students, Canadian students, Canadian schools, and Canadian society Making intercultural friendships is a very challenging task
1. How do newcomers and Canadian students perceive and experience intercultural friendships? 2. What barriers do they face? What strategies do they use to overcome the barriers? 3. How do they think teachers can help them?
Pilot study of 15 students from two schools (10-12 graders) Both Canadian and International students 13 girls, 2 boys ▪ Countries: Canada (5), China (5), Brazil (1), Egypt (1), ▪ Germany (1), Mexico (1), Tanzania (1) Expanded research supported by SSHRC: on-going interviews with 30 newcomers and 30 local students
A B A Bro road ad Ra Rang nge e of of Ex Experiences eriences
10 th -grade girl from China; 9 months in Canada “[In front of a Canadian student], I just cannot open my mouth. I don’t know what to say to them. I feel very nervous. I don’t know why. I know nothing about them”.
12-grade girl, international student from Mexico; attended bilingual school in home country, speaking fluent English, in Canada for three years I: Do you worry about whether it is the proper way to talk to [Canadian students]? P: Not really. like I know limits and stuff. Like obviously I’m not going to be like super open with a person because I’ve just met the person. But like I’m not too worried about that.
“You know I learned about cliques for the first time. I always saw them on TV and they’d be like popular kids or like the geeks or whatever. I’ve lived in many countries, like Tunisia and Nigeria, Algeria. I’ve been on many vacations to Paris and Tunisia. Like I’ve been in a lot of places and I’ve never like experienced the cliques before. It was like very exclusive. Like e tried ed to exclud ude e ev every erybody body from m you know, ow, if they ey we were e a little e bit differe erent nt or wh whatever ever. “
P: I think it’s just like they have a differe erent wa way of like e incorporating rporating people. ple. When I got here I did notice how there’s like groups. So like it’s kind of hard, like these groups have friends that they’ve known for like a long time, like since like junior high, right? So it’s like they don’t want to incorporate anyb ybody ody else. It is harder than other places to make friends here for sure.”
“So like if say this person is talking to me, but they don’t want to be seen talking to another person by their group. I just feel like a lot of people here, like they’re worried about how they will be perceiv ceived ed by others rs . So like maybe they don’t want to outside of the classroom talk to that person. Like for example, me, talk to that person because they’ll be viewed differently. or it’s like why is she talking to that person if we’re her friends?”
“it’s like a completely new person that you don’t know. You don’t know anything about them and then sometimes it will be like--- if they keep to themselves it’s a lot harder.” “it’s kind of like you’re not that motivated to go straight in and see them because you see them with like all these other friends and stuff too, right? So it’s not like all that person needs and I should go and talk to someone and get to know them better. It’s kind of just like they’re their group and you’re in your group.”
Friendship Deepening formation Conflict Resolution/ Friendship Termination
• e.g., integration and • e.g., cross-cultural separation of newcomers experience and and local students, awareness, friendship opportunities for group knowledge, strategy, activities that involves valuing, motivation both, teacher practices Individual Meaning- Structural Making Opportunity (Psychological Realm) Power Cultural Norms Dynamics and Practices (Interpersonal Realm) • e.g., differences in • e.g., inclusion and emotional expression, exclusion processes of timing and extents of self- Canadian friendship disclosure, seeking and groups, homophily giving advice
1. Personality Who faces more challenges? What kind of support do different students need? 2. Shared psychological experience: fear of being seen as stupid, anxiety/discomfort
Knowl wled edge ge (linguistic and cultural knowledge) Strate ategy gy (initiating and maintaining a conversation: asking appropriate questions, responding to questions, and asking following up questions) Valuing uing: take interests in making intercultural friendships (family and school); challenging oneself to go out of one’s comfort zone
Ba Barri rriers ers: friendship groups (Canadian and international students); family background/homestay parents’ attitudes Oppo portu rtuni niti ties es : sports (Chinese students’ lack of sport skills); language programs; teacher-assigned study group; Inter erventio vention n program gram designed to promote international and Canadian students’ cross -cultural skills (communication skills; cultural knowledge, valuing of friendship; overcome fear and anxiety; build confidence; voicing opinions in academic and social context)
Conversa versations ions To increase students’ social awareness cultural knowledge positive attitudes Social skills
“ So maybe showing the interes rest t in the culture ure and if she attended the international fair maybe she would have seen the interests of the culture and that sort of thing. If she tried to learn rn another ther langu guage age perhaps that was hard for her, then she could equate that to international students trying to learn English. Because I don’t think she took any second languages and I tried to take French. I took French until grade ten, until 20 level I suppose and like it’s very hard to learn a different language, very, very hard. Especially with all of the other life stresses. So maybe if she had that experience erience as well, she’d under derstand stand why the international students are struggling.”
“Well, she’s not as tolerant --- perhaps she’s not as excited to have them in our group. Because she thinks it will lowe wer the gr grade de because there is a language barrier and writing is hard. So she’s probably worried as kind of a self- interest thing. She doesn’t want the international students to bring down her grades, which is also intolerant. Pe Perhaps rhaps she e vi views ws them m as kind d of lowe wer, , ju just st because they aren’t able to communicate as well. Because that’s kind of ---anyway, I see the ability to communicate as an indicator of intelligence or studiousness or that kind of thing as well. So even if it’s just--- maybe she’s projecting that onto international students, even though they may be very smart kids.”
- attitude and action toward newcomers (Canadian student)“ peers eers can hel elp p wi with that at if they ey we were e talking ing to them and asking about how they were and that kind of stuff. That would help with that as well. So I guess, like we as a group, my friends and I, decided ded to sit beside ide international ernational stud udents ents. We could have talked to them about their art and everything, but we we we were e kind nd of consumed sumed in our own wn live ves, because we’re closer of course.”
Conversations Activities Support Expectations (a gentle push)
The he sa same reality ty: ◦ “We are just too busy” ◦ Diff fferent rent realitie ties: ◦ “Canadian students have all the opportunities in the world. We don’t.” ◦ “I think with every single of my international friends there’s a lot of pressure to excel in school as well. Whereas I don’t have that pressure.”
School Society Humanity Social justice
What are the practical and feasible actions that school personnel, e.g., program coordinators and teachers, may take to foster intercultural friendships?
Program Coordinators Participating Students A grant from Partner Schools Research Initiative SSHRC Insight Development Research assistants from Werklund School of education
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