Transition to Change for 3 International Students (2008)
Group or Institution
Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec)
Author(s)
Dhammika Silva
Abstract
Leaving their country of origin and traveling to study in a new country can be exciting and stimulating. Even though it may have been planned and prepared for well in advance, the extent of the change and the effects it has on international students can be profound.
The one unchanging principle of life is the principle of change’ (Vecchio 2006). This saying contains elements of truth: change is an inevitable feature in both the lives of individuals and the lives of organizations. For both people and organizations, some facets of change are slow while others occur quite rapidly (Vecchio 2006).
The transition period is when one reacts and adjusts emotionally to the new environment, the process of adjustment. For International students, the transition period can be very brief, a few days or weeks or it can take a few months. The time International students take to overcome the transition period depends on many things, including the number of changes experienced, how they feel about themselves, the kind of support they have and whether they think they have made the right decision for an International student experience.
The researcher has adopted Kubler Ross’s 7 stages of the Grief Cycle to explain the transition to change. Kubler Ross was a doctor in Switzerland who rallied against the unkindness and spent a lot of time with dying people, both comforting and studying them. Kubler Ross developed a cycle of emotional states that is referred to as the Grief Cycle.
The seven stages of the Grief Cycle included the Shock Stage, the initial paralysis at hearing the bad news of International students having to leave their family, friends and country; Denial Stage, where they try to avoid the inevitable; Anger Stage where they undergo the frustration of bottled-up emotions, Bargaining Stage, when students may seek in vain for a way out; the Depression Stage where the final realization of the inevitable happens and the Testing Stage where they tend to seek realistic solutions.
The Grief Cycle begins when an event happens. The event can be a happy or an unhappy event and both types of events mean that change is happening and with change there is always loss. Through the grief process, individuals heal, accept change and learn to move on (Dalar 2004).The experiences individuals go through during times of change are ‘normal’ and this is often a process that they need to go through. Individuals differ in terms of their ability and willingness to adapt to change. This is because individuals experience change in different ways. Some people tend to move through the change process rather quickly, while others may become stuck or experience multiple transitions.
The time of leaving their country is the initial transition cycle students would experience. The transition has started with an ending – something has happened, which has caused something that they are used to, to end. They will realize that things are going to be different, that things are going to have to change. When they realize that things will probably have to be done differently, they need to let go of the past and get ready to face the future.
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