A RESEARCH ON INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF BIAS AND SOCIAL REALITION LEVELS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the social realition and the perception of prejudice in international students. Prejudgment is defined as a negative manner, which feeds discrimination, directed to a specific group or individual. This manner might be against groups of a certain ethnic origin or belief, as well as against the individual who is positioned as other in society. International students’ positive or negative self-manners about themselves during their education process is too much important in terms of Turkey’s image among other countries and its public diplomacy. For these students, who are at the beginning of an educational process in a foreign country, social communication and friendship relations matter for both their academic success and personal development. In this study, it is focused on to reveal the prejudgment perceptions of international students about themselves and which mechanisms are functionally benefited by them during their social relationships. In line with this target, a survey, which was developed by scanning related literature, have been applied to 233 international students. The questionnaire was carried out in the student environment of the students between 2018-2020.In the first part of the questionnaire, questions that describe socio-demographic characteristics such as age, gender, parental education, family income status, and in the next part, questions such as students’ prejudice perceptions, friendship relations, participation levels in social, cultural and sports activities are included. The data were analyzed using the SPSS program with frequency distribution and Chi-square test.According to research data, 80.3 % of international students indicate that they are treated with prejudgment, 24 % of them feel close and sincere relationships with their friends, and 6,9 % of them have no close friend. 27,5 % of the participants expressed that their Turkish friends help and support them only they (participants) are in trouble. No statistically significant relationship among the period that the students live in Turkey and their perceived prejudgment can be detected.