Intercultural Conflicts in Academic Environment

`I had a conflict with my teacher of psychology. She decided to use her own formula for counting our grades. Moreover, she didn't send it in time. As a result, our marks could be really low but the conflict was solved because of other teacher's help.'

The grading and teaching traditions were also mentioned as a reasom for misunderstanding:

`Our Academic writing teacher was American, she wanted us to use American writing style. We did not understand each other, because we grew up and studied to write academic papers in different cultural contexts. We had different ideas of academic writing. It provoked difficulties and caused low grades for some of students.'

`We have conflicts with native Mandarin teacher because of his poor knowledge of Russian language and the ways Russian educational system works.'

Personal qualities such as egocentrism and intolerance are mentioned as the possibe sources of intercultural conflict at the university. Generation gap and bias were mentioned in relation to techers as some students assume that misunderstanding between them and their teachers are caused by differences in their age and unequal attitude of the teacher to students. Students mention that the teachers of the older generations have problems with students from different regions and cultures as they have more attributional biases and prejudices. Racism as a reson for conflict situations was also mentioned by several students, as they suppose that some teachers and students are intolerant to non - Russian students and treat them nagatively differently. Among the answers collected, several students reported on incompetent behavior of teachers:

`One teacher was racist towards one student who is obviously not Russian, so the teacher lowered the grade.'

`I have faced the act of racism from my teacher. However, I didn't want it to become a conflict as I understood I would probably lose anyway.'

Therefore, the resaons reported by the respondents my be divided into four major groups: ineffective communication, cultural background, personal characteristics, and educational system. Summarizing the inflormation from the questionnaire, each of the four groups distinguished incorporate distinctive sets of answers:

The diagram illustrates the fact that ineffective communication and differences in cultural background are being considered to be the major sources of conflict. Personal characteristics are also of substantial importance in conflict situations. The last group distinguished - educational system - is regarded to be the minor reason for intercultural conflict, but still should be taken into consideration.

The next question was aimed at elucidating how students are affected by the conflict situation and whether it influenced their attitude towards the person they had conflict with or the university. According to the results, conflict situations affect students and change their attitude towards the person and the university. Only 18 per cent of the students' attitude toward the university has not changed after the conflict.

`Unfortunately, most conflicts which I had with teachers left me with quite a negative impression. I guess this was due to the fact that teachers were not ready to consider the interests of another party (me and other students) because they have a higher authority and, consequently, are not obliged to find a compromise.'

The next question reveals that the majority of students does not think that cultural element is frequent in conflict situations. More than a half of the respondetnts opted for the absence of cultural element in conflicts. However, the results are considered to show approximately equal division of opinions as 28 per cent of students opted for the variant 50/50, and 21 per cent - for the presence.

In the further question students were asked whether culture influences the conflict situation. This was aimed at revealing the level of students' awareness of how cultural differences may infuence the behavior of the parties. Accorfng to the results, students realize the influence of culture on conflicts. Therefore, although respondents consider culture to not occur as the reason in conflict situations frequently, its influence on the process is acknowledged.

The answers of the respondents show a discrepancy as while cultural background is considered to be one of the major sources of conflicts, cultural element is not considered to occur frequently in conflict situation. We assume that such discrepancy may be caused by three reasons. The first one is the misundertanding of the question based on lack of basic cultural awareness. This may reflect on the choice of answer if the respondent do not realize what is incorporated in the notion of culture (cultural element in the question). The second one caused by the fact that 28 per cent of the respondents have chosen the variant 50/ 50 in the question on the frequency of cultural element in conflicts. This means that the respondents consider cultural element to occur in conflicts on a par with other reasons of conflicts. The third reason is presented in the last questions concerning academic environment described onward. As the environment is percieved as being lax and comfortable, the choice of answers in the questions concerning frequency is reflected by the general satisfaction with the environment. Thus, the discrepancy described above may not be considered to be representative for the further analysis of the results.

The last three questions of the questionnaire were aimed at gathering students' evaluation of the academic environment they are studying in at the present time. According to the results, three conclusions are made:

1. Students do not consider the academic environment of the HSE as tense - i.e. stressful, strenuous, and adverse (90 students chose variants `certainly not' and `probably not'; 34 students chose the variant `50/50', and only 18 students consider HSE academic environment as being tense).

2. About 90 per cent of students consider academic environment of HSE as comfortable for international students.

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4. The major part of the students percieve the programme `Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication' good enough in terms of academic environment. As for improvement, students think that more integrational programs, i.e. meetings, celebrations, courses, and open - talks for all students and teachers should be implemented, so that more communication was done. Furthermore, students think that some seminars on ethics and cross-cultural competency would be beneficial to prevent many conflict situations.

The survey among foreign students of the programme showed that foreign students do not encounter intercultural conflicts as they consider academic environment they study in as friendly and favorable for them. Only 3 out of 21 respondents reported on opinion clashes and misunderstanding faced during studying. The low level of intercultural conflicts faced by international students may be attributed to the fact that most of them are from the neighboring to Russia countries with approximately same scores on Hofstede's cultural dimensions (Power Distance Index; Collectivism vs. Individualism; Uncertainty Avoidance Index; Femininity vs. Masculinity; Short-Term vs. Long-Term Orientation; Restraint vs. Indulgence), with alike educational systems, and their academic cultures therefore do not considerably differ from Russia's academic culture.

Thus, the survey described above lead to several crucial conclusions. Firstly, students and teachers are the major parties of intercultural conflicts. Though students pick student - student type of conflict as the most frequent, the majority of the real life examples given illustrate the conflict between a student and a teacher. Students report on the incompetent behavior of some teachers who may mock students for their nationality and perform intolerant and biased behavior. Although the report on such cases is rare and they are not manifested into conflicts for different reasons, they lead to highly destructive and severe outcomes for the academic environment. Covert conflicts (not manifested) influence the level of self - esteem of the parties as well as overt clashes, thus their occurrence is destructive in a way it influences the parties' perception of each other.

Secondly, respondents acknowledge the significance of cultural background and cultural differences in conflict situations. However, students do not think that conflicts based on cultural differences are frequent in academic setting.

Thirdly, diverse reasons and sources of conflicts are reported. The most frequent one is misunderstanding, which is based on different backgrounds and upbringing. This fact reflects the lack of cross-cultural competence in the students and teachers' behavior, which may be considered as the main source of intercultural conflict.

Fourthly, intercultural conflict in academic environment is mostly destructive as respondents mostly repost on the decrease of their motivation and self-esteem after the conflict. Though the attitude towards university does not always change, the communication with the parties of the conflict deteriorates, which leads to the worse general performance at the university and lower level of comfort of students.

Fifthly, the academic environment of the programme is seen as comfortable and lax, thus being favorable for international students and education. Foreign students do no face intercultural conflict often and consider the environment as friendly and amicable.

Finally, the results reveal the lack of basic cultural awareness of the students, because the results and answers of one respondent are sometimes contradictory. However, junior and senior students show much higher degree of awareness than freshmen and sophomores. This correlation may be attributed to the fact that 3rd and 4th year students have more courses on intercultural communication and study the phenomenon of conflict as a part of the educational program.

2.2 Discussion

The research has revealed major patterns in students' perception and evaluation of intercultural conflicts in academic environment. The information collected presents a picture of the current situation on the programme concerning intercultural conflicts.

Though 1/3 of the respondents have given the examples of intercultural conflicts they have observed in academic environment, most of them do not consider intra - national conflicts as being intercultural. The examples mostly illustrate the situations of conflicts with the representatives of conspicuously different cultures - foreign students/ teachers and representatives of different religious tradition.

The possible reason for that may be due to the fact that many students may not read the notice at the beginning of the questionnaire that states that `Intercultural conflict is a situation of misunderstanding or clash of opinions between you and the representative of a different culture. It may occur between you and your classmate, teacher or member of the administration of the academy no matter whether you are from the same country or not.' From our point of view, this statement is aimed at making clear that the notion of culture is seen in a broad sense and is not tied up to the conflict between citizens of different countries only. Therefore, the lack of basic cultural awareness of the students may be seen as the limiting point of the research done.

The survey conducted has revealed the contradiction between the answers of students towards two points of investigation. While students have chosen student - student conflict as the most frequently occurred, the majority of examples given by the students illustrate the student (s) - teacher conflicts and misunderstandings. Thus, we conclude that the last mentioned type of conflict occurs more frequently in academic environment according to different reasons described above. Elucidating the results, we conclude that teachers are often lack communication competence in their practices which results in conflict situations between them and their students and raises misunderstanding and discontent.

The outcomes of the conflict situations in academic environment have proved to be negative for students. The information collected shows that almost all students evaluate the conflict as being destructive for their self - esteem and motivation.

The three research questions formulated for the paper have been answered in the process of data analysis. Intercultural conflict occurs to be the destructive clash of interests, opinions and communication patterns in academic environment faced by the students during the process of education. The reasons for the conflict lie mostly in cultural background of the parties, their communication patterns and traditions. Differences in perception of the education process and personal biases of the parties also have the potential to become the source of intercultural conflict in academic environment. By the outcomes, the conflict may be defined as negative and harmful for the academic culture of the programme as students perception of the process of education and teachers deteriorates with the conflict.

The university as a whole institution is not influenced to a great extent by the conflict situations of a particular educational programme. However, there is a small per cent of students whose attitude towards the university has changed for the worse. Therefore, there is a risk of damaging the reputation of the university in the intercultural conflicts in academic environment. Even minor cases of negative evaluation of the university deteriorate the perception of it by other people who are told about the conflict from only one point of view.

The conducted research has several important limitations that might have influenced the results gained. The information about respondents' cultural background and experience in any adaptation programs is out of the scope of the research. However, cultural background significantly influences the respondents' perception of conflict situations at the university as well as the experience in any adaptation programs and courses. The level of cultural awareness of the respondents who has such experience may be much higher than of those who did not take them which certainly influence the results. The age and gender differences are not included in the scope of the research either. The research of these two dimensions may show considerable differences in generations and genders perceptions of the same phenomenon.

The research is limited by the method chosen as well. In order to investigate students' experiences in a more detailed way the further interviews or focus groups may be needed either. According to the initial plan of the research, focus group was to be conducted with the foreign students of the programme. However, on the grounds of organizational difficulties, this method has shown irrelevance in the current situation.

The problem of intercultural conflicts in academic environment is of crucial importance for universities in the modern educational system. For the further improvement of the system and its adaptation to the renewed reality, further research in the field could be carried out.

Conclusion

The prevailing tendencies of the modern world expose educational system to the need of changes and corrections. Globalization, resulting in internationalization of education, provides academic environment with a broad range of opportunities of the one hand, and obstacles, on the other hand. The high level of inter - state and intra - state academic mobility numbers at universities is perceived as one of the outcomes of globalization and, consequently, internationalization.

Intercultural conflict, being a complex phenomenon of clashes of opinions, beliefs, and norms based on cultural background, is one of the challenges that occur in intercultural academic environment. Contrasting values of two or more parties lead to misunderstanding or manifested and overt conflicts, which are destructive for the academy and the atmosphere in which students and teachers attempt to study and work. Culture, as a system that creates a particular `meaning' for the group and distinguishes it from other groups, influences the choice of communication patterns and behavior of the different groups, which may result in a conflict situation. However, despite the common tradition in differentiating cultural groups according to their national affiliation, culture is perceived in a broader sense when observed in a multicultural country. Therefore, within one country, diverse cultural groups, mostly possessing contradictory beliefs and views, should be distinguished. The mix of the groups at the university exposes people to the situations of misunderstandings at the academy, which obtains its own features. The academic environments and cultures of two universities of the same country differ in a significant way, leading to the differences in academic work and patterns of communication. Being a network system, academic environment influences the students and teachers self - esteem and motivation. Intercultural conflicts, thus, are crucial for investigation because of their indisputable influence on the academic environment of the university.

The research done was aimed at the description of the current situation around students' awareness of intercultural conflicts in academic environment at the `Foreign languages and intercultural communication' programme of HSE. The results show that most of the respondents do not face intercultural conflicts in academic environment of HSE. However, the level of cultural awareness is questioned because of contradictions revealed in the survey.

The research shows that students and teachers are the most conflicting groups at the university. Although the majority of the students have chosen student - student type of conflict as the most frequently observed, the examples of the real situations illustrate mostly student - teacher type of conflict. On the basis of the reasons mentioned by the respondents, four basic groups were identified: ineffective communication, cultural background, personal characteristics, and educational system. The first three groups may be related to as culturally based sources of conflicts, and the fourth one may be revered to as based on the features of the academic environment. As for the outcomes, the majority of the students acknowledge the destructive consequences of the conflicts. The attitude towards person is changes for the worse, and the reputation of the university is deteriorating in some cases.

The research among the international students has revealed a low frequency of intercultural conflicts observed by foreign students. According to the general observation of the respondents, the environment is perceived as friendly and comfortable for international interactions.

The research conducted supplements the research done in the field of intercultural conflicts in academic environment. The previous researches in the field mainly concentrated in inter - state communication problems and conflict situation between international students in academy. Though international students were not eliminated from the scope of the research, the main focus was in the Russian students' perception of intercultural conflicts in academic environment. Thus, the research supplements the field with the investigation of intra - state communication problems and conflict at the university between students of one country, focusing of cultural differences between cultural groups within one state.

The research may be used in order to improve the academic environment of the programme and lower its conflict capability. As the influence of the notion studied is confirmed, and negative outcomes are elucidated, it is crucial to try to eliminate conflict situations of such type described in the paper because of its high influence on motivation and self - esteem. The suggested action is the program for increasing the level of cultural awareness of all students and teachers of the programme.

The research has its limitations, thus suggesting the further study of the phenomenon in academic environment. The perspective of this investigation may give deeper insight of the problem concerning such issues as age and gender. The study will improve the system and environment, making the programme more attractive for teachers and students, and fostering collaboration within the academy of the country.

Therefore, the research questions stated at the introduction were answered and the tasks and aims are achieved and proved with the practical research in a form of a survey.

The problem of intercultural conflicts is crucial and prospective for investigation. The modern tendencies develop and deepen from year to year, contributing to closer interactions between culturally different groups of people. Thus, the level of cultural awareness must be of high priority for modern educational system. The conflict capability of the academic environment at the university can be lowered by raising the level of awareness of students, teacher, and administration. The greater results may be achieved with the opportunities that different cultural groups working together may provide. Therefore, the features and risk must be taken into consideration in order to improve the system.

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