Pedagogical Support of Foreign Students’ Sociocultural Adjustment: The Experience of Implementation

This article addresses the problem of pedagogical support within the process of foreign students’ sociocultural adjustment. Scientific interest to this theme is caused by the processes of  internationalization of higher education, the need to solve new tasks coming from intensification and expansion of international educational contacts. The authors specify the concept “pedagogical support” as applied to sociocultural adjustment of foreign students and characterize it in relation to interaction of different resources (personal, institutional, environmental). The paper distinguishes and describes criteria and the levels of foreign students’ sociocultural adjustment. Special attention is paid to the factors complicating the process of pedagogical support. The article analyzes the experience of the authors’ program “The Foreign Student in the Russian Higher Education Institution” implementation. The presented pedagogical techniques promoted the increase of foreign students’ level of sociocultural adjustment. The authors have experimentally confirmed the efficiency of the developed program and reasoned the conditions of its successful implementation: organizational and pedagogical promoting the development of various forms of socially important activities in the multicultural environment of higher education institution; methodical reflecting teachers’ and staff readiness to develop the process; administrative, acting as a consistent system of pedagogical interaction organization. The results obtained
can serve as a basis for justification and actualization of  technological approach in the process of sociocultural adjustment of foreign students at various levels of higher education.

1. [International Students’ Academic Mobility] (2016). Fakty obrazavaniya [Facts of Education]. Available at: https://ioe.hse.ru/data/2016/08/04/1119531130/FO7.pdf (In Russ.)

2. Gladush, A.D., Trofimova G.N., Filippov, V.M. (2008). Sotsial’no-kul’turnaya adaptatsiya inostrannykh grazhdan k usloviyam obucheniya i prozhivaniya v Rossii [Sociocultural Adaptation of Foreign Citizens to Conditions of Training and Residence in Russia: Textbook]. Moscow: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia Publ., 146 p. (In Russ.)

3. Ivanova, M.A., Titkova, H.A. (2003). Sotsial’no-psikhologicheskaya adaptatsiya inostrannykh studentov pervogo goda obucheniya v vuze [Social and Psychological Adaptation of the First-Year Foreign Students in Higher Education Institution]. St. Petersburg: Prospekt Publ., 160 p. (In Russ.)

4. Klineberg, D., Hull, W.F. (2012). At a Foreign University: An International Study of Adaptation and Coping. New York: Praeger. Vol. 1, pp. 10-58.

5. Rean, A.A., Kudashev A.R., Baranov, A.A. (2002). Psihologiya adaptatsii lichnosti [Psychology of the Personality Adaptation]. Saint-Petersburg: Meditsinskaya pressa Publ., 352 p. (In Russ.)

6. Romm, M.V. (2002). Adaptatsiya lichnosti v sotsiume: Teoretiko-metodologicheskij aspekt. [Adaptation of Personality in Society: Theoretical and Methodological Aspects]. Novosibirsk: Nauka. Sib. izdatel’skaya firma RAN, 275 p. (In Russ.)

7. Berry, J.W., Kim, U., Minde, T., Mok, D. (1987). Comparative Studies of Acculturative Stress. International Migration Review. No. 21, pp. 491-511.

8. Oberg, K. (1960). Cultural Shock: Adjustment to New Cultural Environments. Practical Anthropology. No. 7, pp. 177-182.

9. Nalchadzhyan, A.A. (1988). Sotsial’no-psikhicheskaya adaptatsiya lichnosti (formy, mehanizmy i strategii) [Social and Psychological Adaptation of Personality (Forms, Mechanisms and Strategy)]. Erevan: Armenian Academy of Sciences Publ., 270 p.

10. Shamova, T.I. (Ed), Davydenko, T.M., Shibanova, G.N. (2005). Upravlenie obrazovatel’nymi sistemami [Management of Educational Systems: Student Textbook]. Moscow: Akademiya Publ., 384 p. (In Russ.)

11. Shepeleva, N.Yu. (2004). Pedagogicheskoe obespechenie protsessa sotsializatsii uchachshikhsya v negosudarstvennom obrazovatel’nom uchrezhdenii. Kand. Diss. [Pedagogical Support of the Process of Student’s Socialization in Private Educational Institution. PhD Diss.]. Kostroma, 211 p. (In Russ.)

12. Surygin, A.I. (2001). Pedagogicheskoe proektirovanie sistemy predvuzovskoj podgotovki inostrannyh studentov [Pedagogical Design of the System of Foreign Students Pre-Entering Training]. St. Petersburg: Zlatoust Publ., 128 p. (In Russ.)

13. Ivanova, G.P., Shirkova, N.N. (2016). [Pedagogical Support of Foreign Students’ Sociocultural Adaptation: Subject Matter and Content]. In: Psikhologiya i pedagogika XXI veka: teoriya, praktika i perspektivy. Traditsii i innovatsii [Psychology and Pedagogy of the XXI century: Theory, Practice, and Prospects. Tradition and Innovations]. N.B. Karabushchenko, N.L. Sungurova (Eds). Moscow: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia Publ., pp. 349-367. (In Russ.)

14. Ivanova, G.P., Shirkova, N.N (2016). [The Influence of Determination System on Ethnocultural Values Among Foreign Students During Their Sociocultural Adaptation]. Chelovecheskii kapital [Human Capital]. No. 7 (91), pp. 77-79. (In Russ., abstract in Russ.)

15. Ivanova, G.P., Shirkova, N.N. (2017). [Foreign Students’ Sociocultural Adaptation: The Results of Empirical Research]. Pedagogicheskii zhurnal Bashkortostana [Bashkortostan Pedagogical Journal]. No. 4 (71). pp. 131-138. (In Russ., abstract in Russ.)

16.

17.

18.

19.