Being an Eastern Adolescent in a Western Middle School Context

摘要

This study characterized two Korean international adolescents adapting to their new middle school environments and understanding the formation of their self-concepts while being Eastern on a Western educational landscape. Both participants lived in large social spheres: personal lives at home and academic lives at school—continuums of experiences from which themes depicting their adaptations were drawn. These themes addressed their perceptions of school programs such as ESL, Regular, and Vanguard, and views of grades, testing, and homework. This study yielded three findings: limited acknowledged culture shock noting differences between the host and new cultures; comfortable adaptation to new school environments as both students were well prepared in Korea; and challenging adjustments to Western educational landscapes as Easterners encountering challenges and difficulties associated with living in a Western society.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2011.627309