Values and considerations in education-related choices : a descriptive study of PRC Chinese graduate at a Northwest U.S. University

Graduation date: 1993The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore PRC Chinese graduate student perceptions of their education-related choices at a U.S. university, and to assess the values and considerations underlying these choices. The objectives of the study were to: (a) explore and discover how\ud students perceived and described education in their lives; (b) discover and describe how they perceived problems in important educational relationships and events; and (c) to assess the presence and influence of Chinese traditional values upon their behaviors within, and attitudes toward these relationships and events. One to three hour open-ended interviews were conducted with nine male and four female PRC graduate students/scholars. The ethnographic interview methodology was theoretically based on Symbolic Interactionism and Relational Theory; and descriptive and cultural theme analyses were used to analyze the data. Descriptive themes within elicited consultant descriptions were analyzed for the presence and influence of Chinese\ud traditional value orientations. The findings revealed that PRC graduate student consultant\ud expectations, perceptions, relationships and behaviors in education-related university contexts at a northwestern U.S. university appeared to be heavily influenced by the presence of enculturated (Cl) traditional value orientations. These influential Cl value orientations were: (a) the Confucian ideal Chinese family model for the educational institution, (b) the importance of the father-teacher as the model of social behavior, and the teaching of morality, (c) collective identity, duty and responsibility, (d) the preservation of social harmony, (e) face considerations, (f) indirection, (g) inaction and non-action. In addition, the findings suggested that misattributed Cl role expectations of\ud superordination and subordination contributed to PRC student compliancy and powerlessness, making them particularly susceptable to intercultural misunderstanding or mistreatment by perceived powerful superiors (major professors) in C2 university domains