Category: Research Highlights

Research Highlighted:

Sin, I.L., Leung, M.W.H., & Waters, J. (2019) Degrees of value: Comparing the contextual complexities of UK transnational education in Malaysia and Hong Kong. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 49(1), 132-148. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2017.1390663

The rapid expansion of transnational education over the last two decades has seen an unprecedented growth of predominantly Western foreign universities delivering education in Asia. The United Kingdom (UK), the leading exporter of transnational education (TNE), has more tertiary-level international students pursuing a UK qualification overseas than within the UK, one in two of whom is based in Asia (Wake, 2019). The value of transnational education to these students (and graduates) is often overlooked. It is overshadowed by UK and wider literature which give more focus to the macro-economic value of TNE (see O’Mahony, 2014) and related marketing, development, management and delivery issues (e.g. Wilkins & Huisman 2019; Cai & Hall, 2016; Healey, 2016). Together with Maggi Leung and Johanna Waters, I set out to highlight the value of TNE to international students and graduates, particularly in Malaysia and Hong Kong where we had conducted our separate research exploring their lived experiences (e.g. Sin, 2013; Waters & Leung, 2012).

The idea for our paper came about after an e-mail exchange when we noticed notable similarities in our research findings. At that time, I had completed a study exploring the link between cultural capital, obtained through various modes of UK education, and the social mobility of middle-class Malaysians. Waters and Leung had comparable data from their project on UK TNE programmes in Hong Kong. The similarities between Malaysia and Hong Kong as transnational education contexts were and are still striking.

The UK dominates the provision of TNE in both former British colonies which aspire to be regional education hubs. Malaysia and Hong Kong rely heavily on transnational education to meet high demand for tertiary places which local public universities could not adequately meet. They are among the largest TNE markets for the UK, Malaysia (72485 TNE students in 2017/18) traditionally being the leading market (although recently surpassed by China) and Hong Kong (25675 TNE students in 2017/18) being in the top 7 (Wake 2019). UK TNE programmes are commonly marketed as cost effective for students who could not study wholly overseas but still seek a UK education and its associated benefits such as a competitive employability advantage and an international outlook. The programmes are promoted as similar to those offered at the parent or partner university in the UK in terms such as course content, academic standards and qualification awarded. However, we recognised from our own observations and findings that the transnational education landscape is far more complex and differentiated than what educational marketing discourses depict. The fact that UK transnational programmes are delivered in different institutional and host contexts with varying resources and opportunities suggested to us that there were finer contextual differences in TNE experiences waiting to be uncovered. This motivated our comparative inquiry.  

We sought to compare and contrast the value of transnational education as perceived by students and graduates in Malaysia and Hong Kong. Our central argument is that the transnational education landscape is uneven and examining contextual specificities is important to delayer the complexities and nuances of value ascribed to TNE at the everyday level.

We combined our data and thematically analysed findings from qualitative semi-structured interviews with 21 UK TNE students and graduates in Malaysia, and 70 students and graduates in Hong Kong. It has to be pointed out that our research scope stretches the usual boundaries of Chinese education mobilities. Firstly, our participants were non- or less-mobile students whose tertiary education were enabled by the cross-border mobility of UK programmes. Secondly, a few Malaysian participants were non-Chinese but generally exhibited characteristics that are typically linked to the Malaysian Chinese ethic of high aspirations, ambition and investment in education (Joseph 2014). Importantly, our comparative research sheds light on some of the finer-grained commonalities and variations in predominantly ethnic Chinese experiences of educational (im)mobilities across two traditional UK TNE contexts.

Our key contribution is contextualising traditional social closure theories to account for how transnational education has diversified and shifted individual understandings of the value of higher education. Drawing but departing from traditional positional and cultural capital approaches to higher education (Hirsch, 1976; Bourdieu, 1984), we showed that a higher and relatively exclusive higher education in the form of a UK TNE was generally a positional good as it improved economic and status opportunities for our participants relative to comparable others. However, this came at varying degrees of success as our participants noted the relative limitations of different TNE modes, programmes (e.g. overseas branch campus, franchised, twinning or distance learning programmes, etc.) and study providers. Our findings showed that TNE programmes in overseas branch campuses and well-established local partner institutions in Malaysia held greater positional value than those offered in smaller local institutions in both host contexts (typically franchised programmes from lower ranked, revenue-maximising UK institutions). Reasons for this include the wider availability of recognised full-degree programmes, more direct contact with UK staff, a more internationally diverse student community, the option of overseas study exchange and credit transfer, and better campuses, facilities and social activities that would enhance desired cultural and social capital (knowledge, skills, dispositions and networks).

Another key contribution of our paper is highlighting the under-researched value of transnational education as an intrinsic and personal good.  These aspects of value involve less pecuniary and positional considerations such as personal development and transformation, and the fulfilment of place-specific personal interests, obligations and commitments. As a whole, we offered more visibility and voice to diverse transnational students and graduates as they meet differentiated opportunities and barriers in transnational education and attach finer gradations and types of value to their education.

The paper has important implications for policy and practice. We called for greater quality assurance and a more socially responsible marketing and delivery of transnational education which are attuned to context specificities and the various positional, intrinsic and personal needs of students and graduates. The urgent task at hand is to address varying gaps between marketing rhetoric and educational reality across what is presently a highly inequitable transnational education landscape.  

References

Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Harvard University Press.

Cai, L., & Hall, C. (2016). Motivations, expectations, and experiences of expatriate academic staff on an international branch campus in China. Journal of Studies in International Education, 20(3), 207–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315315623055

Healey, N. M. (2016). The challenges of leading an international branch campus: The “lived experience” of in-country senior managers. Journal of Studies in International Education, 20(1), 61–78. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315315602928

Hirsch, F. (1976). The social limits to growth. Harvard University Press.

Joseph, C. (2014). Growing up female in multi-ethnic Malaysia. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315759081

O’Mohany, J. (2014). Enhancing student learning and teacher development in transnational education. The Higher Education Academy. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/enhancing-student-learning-and-teacher-development-transnational-education

Sin, I.L. (2013). Cultural capital and distinction: aspirations of the ‘other’ foreign student, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 34 (5-6), 848-867. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2013.816030

Wake, D. (2019). The scale of UK higher education transnational education 2017-18. Universities UK. https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Pages/The-Scale-of-UK-Higher-Education-Transnational-Education-2017-18.aspx

Waters, J., and Leung, M. W. H. (2012) Young people and the reproduction of disadvantage through transnational higher education in Hong Kong. Sociological Research Online 17 (3), 6. https://doi.org/10.5153/sro.2499

Wilkins, S., & Huisman, J. (2019). Institution strategy in transnational higher education: Late entrants in mature markets – the case of international branch campuses in the United Arab Emirates. Studies in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1649386

Author biography

Dr. I Lin Sin is an independent scholar based in Glasgow. Her research primarily intersects higher education, social mobility and international migration, with a focus on privilege, inequality and disadvantage in transnational contexts. Her current research involves a collaborative project on the mobilities, positionalities and subjectivities of academic and teacher expatriates in Malaysia. She is also a UX researcher, applying her research skills in innovative ways to build a bridge between social science research and user experience design. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Edinburgh.

E-mail: sinilin@gmail.com

Zhang, C. (2020). Who bypasses the Great Firewall in China?. First Monday, 25(4). Retrieved from https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10256

Abstract:

The blockage of foreign Web sites, which is often called the “Great Firewall (GFW)”, serves an important part of the Internet censorship in mainland China. This study investigated the inequality of bypassing the GFW in mainland China, and the possible difference in some “capital-enhancing” uses of the Internet (using the Internet for work, learning and political expression) between GFW-bypassing netizens and those still suffer from strict Internet censorship. This study used data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). Although there is no direct measurement of netizens’ GFW bypassing, a variable measuring the ownership of Facebook accounts was used as a proxy of the status of GFW bypassing. Firstly, the results of bivariate analyses and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) suggest that mainland Chinese netizens who can bypass Internet censorship and access blocked foreign Web sites are more socio-economically better off (higher social class, well-educated and urban residing) and younger. Moreover, the results of ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and logistic regression models tell that in general bypassing the GFW is related to more activeness in using the Internet for learning and political expression. After controlling socio-economic and demographic characteristics, GFW bypassing is no longer found to be related to online learning, but is still related to an expression of political views online.

Keywords: the Great Firewall, Internet censorship, China, digital divide, capital-enhancing, inequality

Background

The “Great Firewall (GFW)” is a metaphorical term describing Internet censorship by blocking foreign Web sites in mainland China (Barmé and Ye, 1997). According to some Chinese policy-makers, the GFW was mainly built for national security, since free-flowing uncensored information from foreign Web sites might pose a threat to ideological control (Zhang, 2006). But the “wall” might not be equally effective for all Internet users in mainland China. By using virtual private networks (VPN) and other tools, some mainland Chinese netizens manage to bypass the GFW and access a wide range of information resources (e.g., Yang and Liu, 2014). However, few studies have focused on the social implication of bypassing the GFW. The gap between netizens on either side of the GFW is a new form of digital divide in mainland China.

For more than two decades, there have been numerous studies on the digital divide. The focus has widened from analyzing differences in Internet access (e.g., NTIA, 1995) to differences in digital skills (e.g., Hargittai and Walejko, 2008; van Deursen and van Dijk, 2010), online activities (e.g., Zillien and Hargittai, 2009; Blank and Groselj, 2015) and even outcomes (e.g., van Deursen and Helsper, 2015). Inspired by “knowledge gap theory” (Tichenor, et al., 1970), DiMaggio and Hargittai (2002) proposed a focus on the gap of the “capital-enhancing” use of the Internet (e.g., using the Internet for career, education or political participation). Capital-enhancing uses of the Internet may be related to improvements and opportunities in life, however, but those capital-enhancing usages were tied to socio-economically advantaged populations (e.g., Hargittai and Hinnant, 2008; Helsper and Galacz, 2009). Therefore, capital-enhancing uses may likely broaden existing social inequalities. In a context of Internet censorship in China, GFW bypassing may grant some netizens more diverse information resources. Therefore, GFW bypassing activities should be considered as a kind of capital enhancing use of the Internet in the context of mainland China. It is crucial to broaden our understandings of the possible gaps induced by bypassing Internet censorship, examining the effects after GFW bypassing.

Research questions

This study investigates a possible digital divide related to GFW bypassing. This study firstly investigated whether GFW-bypassing netizens are socio-economically advantaged populations among all mainland Chinese netizens. In addition, this study also investigated whether GFW-bypassing netizens were more engaged in other kinds of “capital-enhancing” uses of the Internet, specifically using the Internet for work, learning and political expression.

Methods

This analysis used data from the survey dataset China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). Given the difficulty of securing direct information about netizens’ GFW bypassing activities due to its political sensitivity, and the fact that facebook.com, one of the most popular social networking sites in the world, is banned in mainland China, the available variable Facebook account (whether or not having a Facebook account) from the dataset is used as a proxy for GFW bypassing. For the first research question, bivariate analyses and multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) were conducted. To answer the second question, ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and logistic regression models were run.

Socio-economic divide in bypassing the GFW

Using Facebook account ownership as a proxy, this study found evidence on the relationship between socio-economic characteristics of mainland Chinese Internet users and a likelihood of bypassing the GFW. GFW bypassers were more likely to be young, belong to a higher social class, well-educated and urban living. These findings are consistent with literature on socio-economic digital divides, especially those focusing on capital-enhancing uses of the Internet (e.g., Hargittai and Hinnant, 2008; Helsper and Galacz, 2009). Even though Internet access is related to socio-economic level, more socio-economic advantaged users were linked to more advanced ways of using the Internet that could possibly help their lives (Hargittai and Hinnant, 2008; Helsper and Galacz, 2009). Well-educated and higher social class urban residents were more likely to bypass Internet censorship, and therefore have the potential to enjoy the benefits of more diverse information resources. In comparison, information resources to which the less advantaged populations could access might be relatively limited, because they were less likely to bypass Internet censorship and therefore more subject to the power of the state related to information access.

Bypassing the GFW and other “capital-enhancing” uses of the internet

GFW bypassing provides access to more diverse information resources, but whether people could really benefit more also depends on what individuals really do after having access to more diverse resources. For example, Taneja and Wu (2014) found that even being given full access to all Web sites, Chinese Web users were still more keen on browsing Web sites based on cultural proximity. This study further investigated the link between bypassing the GFW and other kinds of capital-enhancing uses of the Internet. There is a general association between GFW bypassing and using the Internet for learning and political expression online. The evidence on the link between GFW bypassing and using the Internet for learning was somewhat weak. Also, rather than concluding a direct relation between the GFW bypassing and online learning, it is more reasonable to say that the appearance of the “bypassing-learning” association was because both of them were associated with socio-economically advantaged netizens, as suggested by the findings of this study.

However, expressing political views online was found to have nothing to do with socio-economic backgrounds, but solely GFW bypassing itself. In addition, the association between bypassing the GFW and expressing political views online was found to be strong, as bypassers were at least 10 times more likely than their counterparts to express political views online. This might be related to strict Internet censorship in China not permitting negative comments on the political establishment. So bypassing the GFW might be a necessary condition for the expression of critical political opinions online, regardless of socioeconomic background.

Author Biography

Chong Zhang is a PhD researcher in the department of sociology, Durham University. His researcher interests include: social inequality and mobility, education and lifelong learning, digital studies, Marxism and neo-Marxism. His PhD researches the role of digital learning in mitigating unequal occupational mobilities between rural and urban background workers in China’s urban labour market. Chong can be contacted via email: chong.zhang@durham.ac.uk

Reference

Geremie R. Barme and Sang Ye, 1997. “The great firewall of China,” Wired, at https://www.wired.com/1997/06/china-3/, accessed 22 March 2020.

Grant Blank and Darja Groselj, 2015. “Examining Internet use through a Weberian lens,” International Journal of Communication, volume 9, pp. 2,863–2,783, and at https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/3114/1453, accessed 1 May 2019.

Eszter Hargittai and Amanda Hinnant, 2008. “Digital inequality: Differences in young adults’ use of the Internet,” Communication Research, volume 35, number 5, pp. 602–621.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650208321782, accessed 1 May 2019.

Eszter Hargittai and Gina Walejko, 2008. “The participation divide: Content creation and sharing in the digital age,” Information, Community & Society, volume 11, number 2, pp. 239–256.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180801946150, accessed 1 May 2019.

Ellen J. Helsper and Anna Galacz, 2009. “Understanding the links between social and digital exclusion in Europe,” In: Gustavo Cardoso, Angus Cheong and Jeffrey Cole (editors). World wide Internet: Changing societies, economies and cultures. Macau: University of Macau Press, pp. 146–178.

Harsh Taneja and Angela Xiao Wu, 2014. “Does the Great Firewall really isolate the Chinese? Integrating access blockage with cultural factors to explain Web user behavior,” Information Society, volume 30, number 5, pp. 297–309.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2014.944728, accessed 1 May 2019.

Phillip J. Tichenor, George A. Donohue and Clarice N. Olien, 1970. “Mass media flow and differential growth in knowledge,” Public Opinion Quarterly, volume 34, number 2, pp. 159–170.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1086/267786, accessed 1 May 2019.

Alexander van Deursen and Jan van Dijk, 2010. “Internet skills and the digital divide,” New Media & Society, volume 13, number 6, pp. 893–911.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444810386774, accessed 1 May 2019.

Alexander J.A.M. van Deursen and Ellen J. Helsper, 2015. “The third-level digital divide: Who benefits most from being online?” Communication and Information Technologies Annual, volume 10, pp. 29–52.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/S2050-206020150000010002, accessed 1 May 2019.

Qinghua Yang and Yu Liu, 2014. “What’s on the other side of the great firewall? Chinese Web users’ motivations for bypassing the Internet censorship,” Computers in Human Behavior, volume 37, pp. 249–257.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.04.054, accessed 22 March 2020.

Nicole Zillien and Eszter Hargittai, 2009. “Digital distinction: Statusspecific types of Internet usage,” Social Science Quarterly, volume 90, number 2, pp. 274–291.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2009.00617.x, accessed 1 May 2019.

Lena L. Zhang, 2006. “Behind the ‘Great Firewall’: Decoding China’s Internet media policies from the inside,” Convergence, volume 12, number 3, pp. 271–291.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1354856506067201, accessed 1 May 2019.

Research Highlighted

Ma, X. (2020). Rooted Cosmopolitanism and Transversal Politics: South Korean (Non-)Expatriate Parents in China and Their Choice of Schools. The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 1-18. doi:10.1080/14442213.2020.1734070

Abstract

这个民族志研究考察了在华韩国人父母为子女的择校策略，以及这些策略中体现出的根植的世界主义认同。由于企业提供教育补助，外派员父母有条件将子女送进昂贵的国际学校接受教育，但是他们也很重视为孩子提供当地和母国教育的机会。非外派员父母的子女接受相对廉价的当地和母国教育，但父母的教育计划中并没有排除世界主义的展望。根植的世界主义指韩国人父母对不同文化开放的认同是以回到母国的需要为取向并同时扎根于当地社会的社会经济情境中。他们的择校策略是一种横跨的政治。本文认为，在华韩国人父母不是无根的精英，而是普通的外国人。

This article draws on the choice of schools for children as an important lens through which the practices and perceptions of South Korean (non-)expatriate parents in China are revealed. In line with Giddens (1991, p. 81), I argue that choices are ‘not only about how to act but who to be’, and the act of making choices implies the creation of self-identification. Expatriate parents who are globally mobile tend to choose international education for their children owing to their ideas of mobile futures and aspirations to become international (Hayden et al., 2000; Weenink, 2008). Recently, local schools have also become options for Western expatriate parents who anticipate arming their children with local knowledge and language proficiency, which they consider as an integral part of a cosmopolitan disposition (Farrer & Greenspan, 2015; Groves & O’Connor, 2018). Korean parents tend to diversify their choices and frequently transfer their children from one educational track to another, neither merely choosing an international nor a local school. This trait distinguishes them from Western expatriates.

Expatriate Parents: International Immersion and Pursuit of Local and National Engagements

Although most expatriate parents tended to choose the most expensive school for their children, namely, an international school, their options were seldom restricted. The replacement of international schools with bilingual schools often occurred. Parents were aware of the Chinese language becoming a hegemonic language globally, in addition to English. They have developed a ‘Sinocentric cosmopolitan’ view demonstrated in both their willingness to engage with Chinese culture and language and their pragmatic awareness of their home country’ s geopolitical stance between the two global superpowers, China and the United States (cf. Farrer & Greenspan, 2015).

For most expatriate parents, their children’s present immersion in an English medium programme did not necessarily generate aspirations to send them to an English-speaking country for higher education on account of the unaffordable cost. Most believed English competence to be beneficial for their children’s return to Korea for admission into a prestigious Korean university. The reason being that Korean universities reserve special quotas for the children of Korean nationals returning from overseas, which requires high scores in TOEFL and SAT to succeed in the admission to elite universities. As Sassen (2008, p. 63) puts it, ‘the global can be constituted inside the national’. Despite enrolling their children in non-native language programmes, these parents’ educational arrangements were predominantly home-oriented.

Non-expatriate Parents: Local and National Exposure with a Cosmopolitan Outlook

Due to inadequate education subsidies and family income, non-expatriate parents are likely to arrange Chinese or Korean educational tracks for their children. Despite their relatively less privileged socioeconomic position, these parents appeared to have no less cosmopolitan aspiration than their expatriate counterparts, demonstrated by their strong desires to send their children to a bilingual or pure English-medium programme in the future. Korean parents’ cosmopolitan striving with regard to their children’s education is by no means ‘entirely classed’ (cf. Park & Abelmann, 2004). It is because the burgeoning international education market in China provides affordable alternatives to international education for the rank-and-file families, including the non-expatriate Korean ones.

Parental pursuits are not only globally oriented but also paradoxically entangled with ethnonational consciousness, particularly when children experience Korean and Chinese styles of pedagogy. By transferring their children to a Korean school in China, the parents cultivated traits of ‘Koreanness’ in them whilst washing off their acquired undesirable ‘Chineseness’. Nonetheless, relentless criticism was also made regarding the overseas Korean education. The major concern was that its curriculum was neither sufficiently international nor superior to the average level of education provided in the motherland. This demonstrates the parents’ cosmopolitan pursuit is not so much an effort to raise the youngsters as ‘global citizens’ as a meticulous plan to equip them with necessary competencies in order to be able to compete against their peers in their home country (cf. Koo, 2016; Park & Abelmann, 2004).

Rooted cosmopolitanism and transversal politics

This article has examined the home-oriented cosmopolitan identities of South Korean expatriate and non-expatriate parents in China through their strategies in choosing schools for their children, which I frame as transversal politics. Cosmopolitanism is demonstrated as openness to alien cultures without losing one’s attachment to home as well as the desire to return home. Cosmopolitanism is not the absolute acceptance of cultures as inseparable entities but, rather, the process of selecting cultural aspects that are suited to the interests of individuals and families (Hannerz, 1990, p. 240).

I have deployed transversal politics as a term to conceptualise the specific educational strategies practised by Korean parents. These strategies are not constrained to the national education system but extend to different systems that signify non-national and international cultures. In contrast to Western expatriate parents in certain Asian countries, the identities and practices of South Korean parents in China are demonstrated as more likely to be multi-faceted, constrained and de-elitist. Neither expatriate nor non-expatriate parents in this study should be viewed as cosmopolitan elites. Rather, they are essentially ‘ordinary foreigners’ sojourning in the increasingly globalised Chinese social milieu (Seo, 2007). What remains to be known is whether their children will become ‘cosmopolitans’ owing to the hybrid cultural capital they have accumulated through their education in various school systems.

Author Biography

Dr Xiao Ma received her doctoral degree in Chinese Studies and Anthropology from Leiden University Institute for Area Studies, The Netherlands. She is currently conducting postdoctoral research in the Department of Sociology at East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai. Her research interests include migration and education, ethnic community and economy, foreigners in China, Korean migration, agency and structure. Her recent publications also include “Unpacking ‘Koreatown’ in Chinese Metropolis: urban governance, variations in ethnic incorporation and consequences” in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. She can be contacted via: xiaoma@ecust.edu.cn; maxiao8784@163.com.

References

Farrer, J., & Greenspan, A. (2015). Raising cosmopolitans: Localized educational strategies of international families in Shanghai. Global Networks: A Journal of Transnational Affairs, 15(2), 141–160.

Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Polity Press.

Groves, J. M., & O’Connor, P. (2018). Negotiating global citizenship, protecting privilege: Western expatriates choosing local schools in Hong Kong. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 39(3), 381–395.

Hannerz, U. (1990). Cosmopolitans and Locals in World Culture. Theory, Culture & Society, 7(2–3), 237–251.

Hayden, M. C., Rancic, B. A., & Thompson, J. J. (2000). Being International: Student and teacher perceptions from international schools. Oxford Review of Education, 26(1), 107–123.

Koo, H. (2016). The Global Middle Class: How Is It Made, What Does It Represent? Globalizations, 1–14.

Park, S., & Abelmann, N. (2004). Class and cosmopolitan striving: Mothers’ management of English education in South Korea. Anthropological Quarterly, 77(4), 645–672.

Sassen, S. (2008). Neither global nor national: Novel assemblages of territory, authority and rights. Ethics & Global Politics, 1(1).

Seo, J. (2007). Interpreting Wangjing: Ordinary Foreigners in a Globalizing Town. Korean Observer, 38(3), 469–500.

Weenink, D. (2008). Cosmopolitanism as a Form of Capital: Parents Preparing their Children for a Globalizing World. Sociology, 42(6), 1089–1106.

Research Highlighted:

Chan, A. K.-W., Chiu, M. M., Yang, S., & Ngan, L. L.-S. (2020). Mobility, belongingness and schooling experiences of Chinese cross-border students. Children and Youth Services Review, 111, 104870. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.104870

In the last two decades, globalization has caused students of diverse migration statuses to flow into school systems, which contribute to the rising concerns of educational or international student mobilities. While the educational mobilities of young people and students of higher education have received much academic attention, those of younger children have not, despite the rising trend of many young children in Asia, China in particular, have crossed local or regional borders for better education (eg. Yeoh, et al. 2012).

On the other hand, belongingness has been a pertinent topic for scholars interested in immigrant students. As schools play a central role in integrating immigrant children and youth into their new society, studies have found that when immigrant students’ needs for belonging are met in schools, they show positive emotions, life satisfaction, and greater commitment to stay in the country of destination (eg. Chiu et al. 2016). Nevertheless, few research has examined whether and the ways in which young, mobile child migrants develop belongingness in the context of mobility, and whether and how schooling experiences mediate their belongingness. Therefore, our study on Chinese cross-border students (CBS) addresses these research gaps.

CBS in Hong Kong offers a unique example in the growing trend of young mobile children, because their daily commuting to school comprises physical, spatial and cross-border mobilities. CBS are young schoolchildren who are permanent residents of Hong Kong but live on the mainland and travel across the border to school every day. The phenomenon first emerged in the twenty-first century and intensified in relation to the changing economic relations between Hong Kong and the mainland, border policies and formation of diverse cross-border families (Chan and Ngai 2018). The growth finally subsided in 2012, after the Hong Kong Government introduced the zero-quota policy (see Chan et. al. 2017). The 3,567 CBS in 2002/3 skyrocketed to 28,106 in 2015/16 (with about 10,000 CBS kindergarteners and 15,000 primary school students). In 2018/19, about 20, 000 CBS attended primary school.

Our study, based on 417 Chinese CBS, has three research questions.

How did the sociodemographic characteristics of the CBS affect their sense of belonging to Hong Kong (SOBHK)?

How did the mobility of the CBS affect their SOBHK?

How did schooling experiences of the CBS affect their SOBHK?

We first used factor analysis to validate the instrument and create the construct index SOBHK, and then a structural equation model to assess whether sociodemographic characteristics, mobility or different dimensions of schooling experiences are linked to CBS’ SOBHK.

Our results indicated that SOBHK was not significantly affected by the cross-border students’ sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender, parents’ Hong Kong permanent resident statuses, educational attainments or occupations). Our analyses also showed that cross-border mobility (hours on commuting) was not significantly related to the students’ SOBHK. Instead, we found that the CBS who had better relations with local peers, whose friends were mostly from Hong Kong, or who engaged in more extracurricular school-based activities in Hong Kong experienced stronger SOBHK.

This study has several important contributions. First, it includes mobility – an increasingly important feature of immigrant students – to education and migration studies of belongingness and schooling experiences. Second, it disentangles the relationships between sociodemographic characteristics, mobility and schooling experiences that may affect the belongingness of Chinese CBS to Hong Kong. Third, it widens the current concern of Chinese immigrant students, an important growing population (Kaisr, Ma, and Chao 2019), from higher education to other age groups.

Our study has also practical implication. In view of the rising tensions between Hong Kong residents and mainlanders (Xu 2015), which are further aggravated by the anti-extradition protests in 2019, we believe more positive intergroup interactions among young students of diverse cultural groups will foster mutual understanding and friendships, and reduce such tensions.

References:

Chan, A. K. W., Ngan, L. L. S., Wong, A. K.W., & Chan, W. S. (2017). “Border” matters in discussions of cross-border students. Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, 13(1), 56–70. https://doi.org/10.1108/STICS-04-2017-0005

Chan, A. K. W., & Ngan, L. L. S. (2018). Investigating the differential mobility experiences of Chinese cross-border students. Mobilities, 13(1), 142–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2017.1300452

Chiu, M. M., Chow, B. W. Y., McBride, C., & Mol, S. T. (2016). Students’ sense of belonging at school in 41 countries: Cross-cultural variability. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 47(2), 175–196.

Kaiser, M., Y. Ma, and Q. Chao. 2019. “Are Western Universities Doing Enough for Their Chinese Students?” Times Higher Education https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/are-western-universities-doing-enough-their-chinese-students

Xu, C. 2015. “Identity and Cross-Border Student Mobility: The Mainland China–Hong Kong Experience.” European Educational Research Journal 14(1): 65-73.

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Author Biography

Dr Anita Chan is Associate Professor at The Education University of Hong Kong. Her research interests cover gender, education, family and migration studies. She is currently involved in several research projects on topics ranging from adoptive families, masculinities of young men, global childhoods, transnational families, and older women’s subjectivities. Her publications can be found in academic journals such as Mobilities, Children and Youth Services Review, Urban Studies, Journal of Consumer Culture, Gender and Education, Compare, and History of Education.

Jung, J. (2019). Local and non-local doctoral students in Hong Kong: Do stressors differ with students’ origins? International Journal of Chinese Education, 8, 160-185.

How did this study begin? A short introduction to the project

The rapid growth of Asian higher education in the last four decades, in terms of scale and quality, has garnered significant attention in global higher education. In particular, East Asian universities have focused extensively on knowledge production, research capacity building, global ranking and global talent recruitment. However, many of the top universities in Asia still tend to hire overseas doctoral graduates for academic positions in the home country. Is that because they do not have the capacity to train their own doctoral graduates? What is the current landscape of doctoral training in East Asian countries? How do doctoral students in East Asian research universities perceive their learning experiences, and how do they plan their career paths? What are the unique characteristics of doctoral education in East Asian research universities? Based on these questions, some scholars in East Asian countries have developed a comparative research project entitled ‘A Comparative Study of Doctoral Education in Asian Flagship Universities’, conducted a collaboratively developed survey and shared their findings through conferences, seminars and workshops. More findings from this project can be found in two journal special issues: ‘Research Universities in East Asia: Graduate, Student and Faculty Perspectives’ (Asia Pacific Educational Review, 16(2), edited by Kong Chong Ho, Gerard A. Postiglione and Futao Huang) and ‘Introduction to Doctoral Education and Beyond: Learning Experiences, Competence and Career Plans in East Asia’ (International Journal of Chinese Education, 8(2), edited by Jung Cheol Shin and Futao Huang).

What was my research focus? A short summary of the paper

I was privileged to join the Hong Kong team for the project, and I identified my research questions about doctoral students in Hong Kong. As an international academic working in Hong Kong, I was always fascinated to see doctoral students’ diverse backgrounds and their dynamics on my campus. There is also a unique expression we use in Hong Kong to distinguish students as either local or non-local, which a lot of outsiders are puzzled by. The term non-local students used in this study is defined as “a politically correct term that refers to both foreign students originating outside of the administrative region and Mainland students from China” (Yu & Zhang, 2016; p. 2) in the Hong Kong context. In demographic terms, Hong Kong students can be divided into three groups: Hong Kong local, mainland, and international, with the latter two defined as non-local. My question was whether these different backgrounds of doctoral students have different learning styles, preferred supervising styles, and whether they are stressed with different factors.

Several studies have explored how Chinese students study overseas in Western countries, but little is known about the acculturation experiences of Chinese students in Asian contexts, including Hong Kong. Some recent studies have explored their motivations for choosing Hong Kong for their studies, but most focused on the undergraduate level (i.e. Li & Bray, 2007). Few comparisons of the three groups (local, mainland, and international) have been conducted in terms of who they are, what and how they learn differently, what makes their learning experiences satisfactory, and what factors influence their stress.

How did I conduct the analysis and what were major findings?

Based on 482 responses from the survey, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and a multiple regression were conducted. The results showed that doctoral students have different perceptions of their competency depending on their origins. They also assess their supervisory styles and learning environments differently. For example, international students tend to perceive their research capacity highly compared to Chinese students (Hong Kong local and mainland). Chinese students have clearly different perceptions from international students about how they regard their relationships with supervisors. Stress factors were also different. Hong Kong local students were stressed about their perceived competency and by an authoritarian supervisory style, while they felt less stress when the institutional environment was supportive. Doctoral students from the Mainland China were stressed about their perceived competency and by research- and resource-oriented cultures, but their stress was reduced when they felt their relationship with their supervisor was more professional. International students were stressed by their dissertation requirements and by a collegial supervisory style, but they felt less stress in an autonomous culture.

What are the implications?

The study demonstrates the importance of understanding the characteristics of different groups of doctoral students and of providing appropriate support for their doctoral journey. Although students’ cultural backgrounds affect their perceived level of stress, their perception can be transformed through the positive learning experience in a multicultural learning environment. Arranging mutual learning experiences for all students, no matter where they originate from, is important, along with providing the synergy to encourage them to understand each other’s strengths in terms of their learning styles. Previous studies have consistently emphasised the importance of crosscultural experiences (i.e., Sit et al., 2017). However, in doctoral programmes, this should not only be in terms of cultural exchange but should also be linked with their research experiences, thus helping them to be independent researchers with an active and dynamic interaction with learning community.

References

Li, M., & Bray, M. (2007). Cross-border flows of students for higher education: Push-pull factors and motivations of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong and Macau. Higher Education, 53(6), 791–818.

Sit, A., Mak, A. S., & Neill, J. T. (2017). Does cross-cultural training in tertiary education enhance cross-cultural adjustment? A systematic review. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 57, 1–18.

Yu, B., & Zhang, K. (2016). ‘It’s more foreign than a foreign country’: Adaptation and experience of Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong. Tertiary Education and Management, 22(4), 300–315

Author Bio

Jisun Jung is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong since September, 2015. She received a Ph.D. from Seoul National University, Korea, in 2011, and she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hong Kong. She has been involved in the international comparative project ‘The Changing Academic Profession’ since 2009. Her current research focuses on academic profession, doctoral education, employment and postgraduate studies and higher education research in Asia. She is the co-editor of two journal special issues, ‘Higher Education Research in East Asia: Regional and National Evolution and Path-Dependencies’ in Higher Education Policy and ‘Graduate Employment and Higher Education in East Asia’ in International Journal of Chinese Education, and also a co-editor of the two books ‘The Changing Academic Profession in Hong Kong’ published by Springer in 2018 and ‘Researching in Higher Education in Asia’ by Springer in 2019. She is currently co-editor of Higher Education Research & Development.