The intercultural challenges of Chinese students and Australian lecturers on public relations programs

Daymon, C. (2013) The intercultural challenges of Chinese students and Australian lecturers on public relations programs. In: Academic Forum of the Public Relations Institute of Australia 2013 National Conference (PRIA 2013), 17 - 19 November 2013, Adelaide, South Australia.

Abstract

In recent years, there have been increasing numbers of international students studying on public relations coursework programs in Australia as well as the UK and USA. Students from China comprise one of the largest groups of international students in Australia where 40.6% are from China. Cross-cultural research indicates that persons exposed to novel and unfamiliar cultural environments – such as students, as well as public relations consultants who travel globally or who are take on international assignments – are subject to a range of challenges as they learn to cope with unfamiliar cultural environments. For postgraduate PR coursework students, the time span can be as short as one year in which to acquire not only the second-culture social skills but also to become accustomed to the learning and teaching practices of the host university as well as the discourse of the discipline. Chinese postgraduate students appear to face distinct challenges (Li 2012; Wang & Shan 2007), as do the communication and media academics who teach them. In this presentation, I outline findings from a project funded by the Australian Government Office of Teaching and Learning. The project involves collaborative research with universities in Australia and China and aims to examine the expectations and experiences of both students and teachers of public relations in China and Australia, with a view to developing learning materials and teaching strategies for use in both China and Australia that will assist students to successfully transition into public relations programs in Australia.

Item Type:	Conference Item
Murdoch Affiliation(s):	School of Arts
Conference Website:	http://www.pria.com.au/
URI:	http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/26431

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