A Study On Social Identity Of International Students In DUT From The Multicultural Perspective

This paper tries to delve into international students’social identity during their study in China with the advent of growing multicultural communication between different nations, countries and societies, with the hope that it can enhance the international students’education and management in Dalian University of Technology. In contemporary multicultural era, the educational world has witnessed the huge influence of the internationalization on higher education, of which international students’education is an indispensable part. It is imperative to emphasize that positive social identity can enable international students to adapt and get integrated into the local learning and living environment, thus helping them smoothly achieve their education and other goals. Inevitably, it will indirectly promote the development of internationalized higher education in China. Therefore, this article is intended to study the social identity of international students by analyzing the influencing factors and subsequently calculating their priorities from the multicultural perspective.The work employs qualitative and quantitative research methods. Totally129international students are selected randomly as the research samples and semi-structured interviews are conducted later. From the successive qualitative analysis of the interviews some key characteristics of international students’social identity are extracted. Then the quantitative methodology is used to perform descriptive statistical analysis, correlational analysis and linear regression analysis with the help of SPSS18.0. For further excavation, the work applies topological analysis from graph theory to exploit priorities of the key factors. Ultimately, the independent samples T-test helps get the factors statistically affecting multicultural awareness.The findings of the work are shown as follows:First and foremost, the whole social identity of international students is generally positive. And the four dimensions of multicultural view, which are culture difference, culture equality, culture communication and culture cohesion, can exert influence on their social identity. Among that the culture equality and difference awareness show statistically significant impacts with greater priorities. Therefore, schools should strengthen the education concerning the two aspects so as to promote international students’social identity.Furthermore, the independent T-tests indicate that grade or education level can obviously affect the culture difference and equality of multicultural awareness. It brings new inspiration into the construction of distinct multicultural education on the basis of grade and education level to enhance the multicultural awareness of international students, thus promoting their social identity.Finally, based on the findings of the work, suggestions are given to the educators of international students for the development of multicultural education.