“Nothing that cannot be handled”: Acculturation Experiences of Vietnamese International Students in Canada - A Mixed-methods Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This study employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design to investigate the acculturation experiences of Vietnamese International Students (VISs) in Canada. The research aimed to explore various factors influencing VISs’ acculturation process, including acculturative stress levels, sources of acculturative stress, and their coping mechanisms in a new social, cultural, and educational environment. Data were collected through 118 online surveys and 24 individual interviews with VISs currently attending Ontario institutions. Findings reveal that VISs undergo a successful, meaningful, yet moderately challenging acculturation process, primarily determined by their individual characteristics such as a growth mindset (a belief that “nothing cannot be handled”), personality traits (a strong sense of optimism), expectations (clear and open), and aspirations (desire for personal and profession changes and development). While factors from the host country (e.g., educational system, social norms) affect the acculturation process, they do not significantly impact VISs’ overall experiences. The study highlights the interplay between traditional Vietnamese cultural values and the modern mindsets adopted by VISs, which significantly shapes their acculturation strategies. While VISs’ acculturation process aligns with Berry’s (1997) model of acculturation and Endler and Parker’s (1990) three-factor coping model, it emphasizes the crucial role of students’ internal strengths in determining acculturation success. Beyond Confucian principles significantly shaping VISs’ attitudes and behaviors, the study calls for a new theoretical and conceptual framework that integrates both traditional and modern aspects of Vietnamese culture to fully examine VISs’ cross-cultural transitions, suggesting the development and application of theories reflecting international students’ distinctive cultures rather than adopting Western-centric models to examine international students’ experiences. This research makes significant theoretical and practical contribution to the field of international student research by developing a four-dimensional framework that captures the multifaceted nature of international student experiences across different levels of analysis - from individual agency to systemic influences. This framework offers practical utility for researchers, educators, and institutional leaders to analyze international student experiences, identify areas of intervention, and develop more effective support strategies. This research, therefore, illuminates the complexity between individual characteristics, cultural background, and host country factors in shaping international students’ experiences. It underscores the need for culturally sensitive approaches in supporting diverse international student populations and offers insights for educational institutions and policymakers in fostering inclusive global learning environments.
Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.
How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.003 | 0.003 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.004 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.008 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".