The chapter presents the results of a cross-cultural study of the motives for obtaining higher education by students from different countries, including Russia, China, Chad, and Cameroon. The sample consisted of 400 students from various higher educational institutions studying various disciplines. The obtained results allowed the authors to analyze both differences and similarities in the motives for getting higher education caused by sociocultural factors. The critical features in the formation of motivation for learning, the motivation for achieving success in different educational systems in different cultures are revealed. The author argues that the formation of learning motives to a greater extent depends on the motivational-background and national-psychological characteristics of students from different countries.
Top1 Introduction
In the scientific world, research related to certain aspects of human activity, including education, has been going on for decades. It is understood that it is necessary to study all psychological phenomena in all their complexity of interaction. A comprehensive understanding is needed in relation to explanations of real phenomena, which have social and practical significance for each person, help in the decision-making process, including motivation, emotions, and cognition. Scholars from different countries come together to solve such complex modern problems as intellectual integration (Masmoudi, Yun Dai & Naceur, 2012).
Modern researchers of problems of higher education M. Oliveri and C. Wendler (2020), in the book Higher Education Admissions Practices: An International Perspective (Educational and Psychological Testing in a Global Context) highlight the practice of admission to higher-education institutions in a global context: accessibility, diversity, equality, modernization of assessment activities, intercultural problems, culturally inclusive approaches to learning, the growth of international student mobility, etc. They cover the maximum urgent issues faced by higher education in the world. Researchers emphasize the problem of access, equality, and admission to higher-education institutions in South Africa, given the limitations and resources faced by educational institutions, the transition to fair and equal admission to universities, the characteristics of national control tests and further successes, and sustainability in the development of higher education (Oliveri & Wendler, 2020).
The question on the future of higher education is relevant not only for Russia but also for other countries with leading training centers. In Russia, China, and Africa, topical studies are conducted related to various aspects of higher education, motivation for learning, psychological reasons for burnout, and various general psychological problems in educational activities. These works are performed by such scholars as E. N. Osin, O. I. Krushelnitskaya, M. V. Polevoy, A. N. Tretyakova, S. V. Dolgopolova, N. E. Nazarova, O. N. Zueva, Y. Fedorchuk, S. Neustroyev, A. Arinushkina, S. Murafa, M. Wen, Y. Gan, H. Jiang, W. Du, X. Yang, Y. Chen, X. Gong, Y. Zhang, Y. Gan, H. Cham, H. Liu, A. I. Yansane, Y. Zhang, H. Fu, N. Hong, E. Kalenderian, A. Getachew, M. Kassie, et al. (Dolgopolova, Nazarova & Zueva, 2015; Krushelnitskaya, Polevaya & Tretyakova, 2019; Murafa, 2017; Fedorchuk, Neustroyev, & Arinushkina, 2018; Liu, Yansane, Zhang, Fu, Hong & Kalenderian, 2018; Masmoudi, Yun Dai & Naceur, 2012; Osin, 2015; Getachew & Kassie, 2017; Wen, Gan, Jiang, et al., 2014; Zhang, Gan & Cham, 2007); Murafa S.V., Hoc Hoang Trung, Phương Chu Thị(2022).
A. I. Hallowell, in his paper “The Self and Its Behavioral Environment,” noted that previously, aspects of self-awareness were excluded from the theoretical foundations of cultural components, and that as interest in this area is growing now, we began to talk about ethnopsychology, in which we find “concepts of the self, human nature, motivation, and personality.” He proposes that, in the future, we will have requests for research on these topics. According to G. White (1993), a further increase in interest in ethnopsychology makes assumptions of A. I. Hallowell prophetic. However, the increased interest in ethnopsychology has also generated many conflicting studies, which are cited in the work “Ethnopsychology. New Directions in Psychological Anthropology” by G. White (1993).
Academic cooperation is an important mutual development vector for all countries, including Russia and China. In 2014–2015, about twenty thousand Chinese students studied in Russia, and the same number of Russian students studied in China (Murafa & Drozdova, 2018).