The Power of Myth-Understandings: Critical Skills for Effective Intercultural Doctoral Supervision of Chinese Students

The book addresses the misunderstandings and implicit stereotypes that continue to arise in and influence the intercultural encounters of staff and international doctoral students.

In addition to providing real-life examples, the author demonstrates that misunderstandings recur due to a lack of implicit and complex intercultural knowledge and practical tools for applying this knowledge in daily practice. She proposes the concept of ＂myth-understanding＂ to describe a temporary and transitional state of clarity deficiency before misunderstandings arise, which helps to create a ＂buffer zone＂ to address potential misunderstandings between international students and their supervisors. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of misunderstandings, the book sheds light on the positive side--it indicates that intercultural differences can provide an opportunity for both supervisors and students to develop implicit intercultural knowledge, challenge their preconceptions of each other, and reassess their own educational perspectives and practices.

The book will attract scholars of intercultural education, European university staff and professors who interact with international students, intercultural education officers, and doctoral students with an international (especially Asian) background.

Yanjuan Hu is an associate professor in Higher Education at the Faculty of Education, Southwest University. She obtained her PhD from Leiden University Graduate School of Teaching, the Netherlands. Her current research interests include transcultural teaching and learning, virtual internationalization, supervision of student research and teacher professional development.