This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Brown, L. Articles by Holloway, I. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

The adjustment journey of international postgraduate students at an English university

An ethnographic study

Bournemouth University, UK

Immy Holloway

Bournemouth University, UK, ihollowa{at}bournemouth.ac.uk

Using findings from an ethnographic study of international postgraduate students at a university in the south of England, this article offers a model of adjustment that is informed by the duration of the sojourn, from the initial stage to the month of students' departure from England. This study found that stress was at its height in the initial stage of the academic sojourn; this was caused by the struggle to cope with the challenges of foreign language use and an unfamiliar academic and sociocultural environment at a time when students were beset with homesickness and loneliness. An association was made between the passage of time and a gradual decrease in acculturative stress. However, this was not a generalizable process; there was fluctuation not only in experience across the student body but also in the individual's subjective sense of success across different aspects of life in the new country. This led to the conceptualization of the adjustment journey as an unpredictable and dynamic process, which is experienced differently among sojourners, and fluctuates throughout the sojourn as a result of a host of individual, cultural and external factors.

Key Words: adjustment • culture shock • international students • re-entry nerves

Journal of Research in International Education, Vol. 7, No. 2, 232-249 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1475240908091306


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?