Network for Research into Chinese Education Mobilities (NRCEM)

Gendered experiences at academic conferences: A comparative study of female Chinese STEM PhD students in China and New Zealand

Research highlighted

Yang, L., Smith, J., & Meyer, F. (2022). Gendered experiences at academic conferences: A comparative study of female Chinese STEM PhD students in China and New Zealand. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Higher Education, 7(1), 71–97.

It is a well-known phenomenon that women are underrepresented in academia, especially in STEM fields. Although it is reported that the number of female doctoral students engaging in academia has increased in recent years worldwide, women still make up only about one-third of academic researchers in STEM fields in China and New Zealand. They were reported facing implicit biases, gender-based discrimination, and have low psychological well-being in different settings in academia, in labs or at conferences. Academic conferences offer opportunities for PhD students to present their own research, network with others, and pursue opportunities for post-doctoral positions. However, conferences are inevitably gendered spaces. Although there have been prior studies of female PhD students’ conference experiences worldwide, limited prior research has been conducted in Chinese settings.

This small-scale, qualitative study compares the experiences of Chinese students studying in New Zealand and study in China. We draw on Carlone and Johnson’s (2007) model of science identity development which stresses that identity development requires interactions with others and includes three interrelated and overlapping dimensions: competence, performance, and recognition. The formation of science identity is influenced by students’ gender identity and the locations they are studying in. As China and New Zealand are both significant higher education providers in the Asia-Pacific region, but vary in social system, cultural context, and mode of doctoral education, the comparison of Chinese female students’ experience can help isolate gender identity from contextual factors. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data from four domestic female Chinese PhD students in a Chinese university and five international female Chinese PhD students studying in New Zealand.

For female Chinese PhD students both in China and New Zealand, their decisions to pursue a PhD were mostly driven by their aspirations for a career in academia or related industries. They felt a ‘pressure of age’, from both from the job market and their family. ‘Involution’ (内卷 in Chinese), a term that describes the phenomenon in which higher education degree holders compete for entry-level positions in industries and universities, was highlighted by study participants. Our study participants reported pressure to earn their degrees before a certain age (35) to compete for these industry jobs. Also, participants noted that Chinese parents generally see marriage, rather than a career, as a pathway for social mobility for their daughters, putting more emphasis on their daughter’s marriage than academic success. This pressure likely negatively influenced their development of a strong science identity as they felt that their families and society valued a different identity more strongly – that of a wife and mother.

Our sample of PhD students in both China and New Zealand reported that in their experiences, especially in bioscience fields, the gender gap at least in the number of PhD students seemed to be reducing. However, participants reported that even with a more equal gender distribution, they were acutely aware of a ‘glass ceiling’ that restricts female students from success in STEM research fields. For example, they noted that supervisors had lower expectations of their work, seemed to prefer to take on male PhD students, or did not believe female researchers needed a PhD. In addition, in the sampled Chinese university, participants reported that the resources distributed to female PhD students, including supervision time as well as conference and networking opportunities, were relatively limited compared to those provided to male students. Further, although they faced these inequities, our participants noted ‘a culture of silence’ in which they felt their experiences of gender bias would be viewed as a ‘little drama in their head’ if reported. In contrast, Chinese female doctoral students studying in New Zealand reported better experiences compared to their counterparts in China. They described a gender-balanced, positive, and supportive community of researchers in their STEM fields. However, gender was still acutely felt; one participant in this study drew a blueprint of a post-gendered world:

It would be better if we do not over-focus on the word ‘female’. If a woman has high achievement, like Chinese researcher Tu, Youyou, the media or the public always report her as a ‘female’ scientist. If an actual gender balance is achieved, we would not emphasise her female identity.

In terms of the comparison of their conference participation, study participants reported a noticeable gap in opportunities to attend conferences between those in China and in New Zealand. While the latter had attended both national and international academic conferences in their research field, the former rarely went to conferences regardless of the stage in their PhD. Participants’ attitudes towards conference attendance also varied by the location of their PhD study. Female Chinese PhD students in New Zealand tended to see themselves as ‘presenters’, whereas female Chinese PhD students studying in China tended to define themselves as ‘listeners’ or ‘learners’. Participants in China reported more obstacles to attending conferences, where they reported a lack of faculty support and fraught supervisor-student relationships. In addition, Chinese domestic students felt that they could not dedicate time to attend and present at conferences without falling behind on lab work and writing journal articles.

To conclude, this study found that gender identity perceptions continue to have a strong influence on the development of scientific identities among female Chinese PhD students, regardless of where they opted to complete their PhD studies. The interaction of personal (i.e., the pressure of age) and organizational factors (i.e., the perception of a glass ceiling) compounded the difficulty our study participants studying in China faced in their doctoral education, leading to more psychological and emotional pressure compared to participants studying in New Zealand. Meanwhile, the absence of psychological support from Chinese universities made our study participants feel more isolated in seeking emotional support during their study than their counterparts studying in New Zealand.

Attending conferences is one key mechanism for the development of a science identity and is often a stepping stone into a career. Understanding the experiences of female PhD students in attending conferences is a first step in making a positive change toward a non-biased and inclusive academic environment that provides equitable opportunities for women in STEM fields. To support women in succeeding in academia, academic institutions and the wider society needs to combat persistent gender biases in order to support female PhD students’ science identity development.

Note: the larger study of New Zealand female PhD students’ conference experience in STEM fields named Small Fish in Big Ponds: Female Doctoral STEM Students’ Conference Experiences and Science Identity Development will be presented in AERA 2022 annual meeting on 25^th April in San Diego, United States.

中文研究简介：

参加学术会议并在学术会议上演讲是博士学习期间必要的体验之一。学术会议为博士生提供了展示他们的研究、与其他研究人员建立联系以及了解其领域的最新发展的机会。这项小规模的定性研究探讨了在中国或新西兰求学的九名中国女博士生的会议经历，比较了他们在会议和博士课程中的经验，以此管窥学术界女性所面临的持续性别偏见。半结构化访谈的结果表明，与在新西兰学习的同龄人相比，中国国内学生面临更多学术领域的“玻璃天花板”障碍、性别偏见行为以及更有限的来自导师和学校的帮助。在新西兰学习的中国学生在家庭责任方面仍然面临和中国本地学生相似的“年龄压力”，但他们描述了来自导师和学校的更强大、更系统化的帮助。随着两国大学努力减轻理工科（STEM）领域的性别不平等，该领域的性别偏见值得学术研究的持续关注。

Authors’ Bio

*Liuning Yang, the University of Auckland*

Liuning Yang is a PhD candidate in the School of Learning, Development and Professional Practice, Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland. Liuning’s research include the cultural capital theory of Pierre Bourdieu, educational policy, education equity of rural-urban migrants in China. Email: liuning.yang@auckland.ac.nz

**Dr Jo Smith**, the University of Auckland

Dr Jo Smith is a Senior Lecturer in education policy and leadership in the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and Social Work. Her research is situated at the intersection of policy and practice and examines the systems that both hinder and help schools and school systems enact reforms aimed at improving outcomes. Email: smith.joanna@auckland.ac.nz

**Dr Frauke Meyer**, the University of Auckland

Dr Frauke Meyer is a Senior Lecturer in the Master of Educational Leadership program in the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Education and Social Work. Her research is concerned with school improvement for equity, school leadership, and interpersonal practices to improve equity in outcomes for marginalized learners. She has published and presented her research nationally and internationally in high-ranking journals and at conferences. Email: f.meyer@auckland.ac.nz

2022 WES-CIHE Summer Institute Virtual Conference| June 1-3, 2022

Are you a graduate student or early career researcher, interested in questions related to higher education internationalization?

If so, please join us at the 2022 WES-CIHE Summer Institute!

Every year, the WES-CIHE Summer Institute – an annual academic conference, co-hosted by the world-renowned Boston College Center for International Higher Education (CIHE) and World Education Services (WES) – brings together graduate students, early career researchers, seasoned professionals, and senior scholars from around the world in a forum which supports the development of new ideas and helps to build bridges, both between peers and between newer and more experienced researchers in the field.

The Summer Institute offers exciting opportunities for:

Students and young professionals to present and discuss their research with peers and to receive feedback on their work from academic and professional experts from around the world
Participants to engage in substantive discussions about innovative and inclusive internationalization
Established scholars and practitioners to contribute to the development of the next generation of scholar-practitioners

Conference Theme: Innovative and Inclusive Internationalization in Higher Education

Internationalization has been closely connected with change and innovation – less so with inclusion. That may be shifting as higher education institutions confront the COVID-19 pandemic and other complex external dynamics, including migration (forced or otherwise), political pressures, and shifting international relations.

Against this backdrop, innovative and inclusive approaches to internationalization offer possibilities for transforming individuals, institutions, and systems of higher education in meaningful ways. These approaches layer on top of the transformational goals of many national and institutional internationalization initiatives: enhanced quality, expanded learning opportunities, and engagement with new and different stakeholders.

Format

The 2022 Institute will be held in an entirely virtual format, building on the success of the 2021 Summer Institute, which featured presenters and expert speakers from more than 15 countries around the world.

The Summer Institute combines individual paper presentations, panel discussions with expert speakers and opportunities for group discussion and networking for participants and presenters. Events will be scheduled across the three-day period of the conference, in order to accommodate participants from as many time zones as possible. A more detailed program will be available in Spring 2022.

Call For Papers

Any graduate student or early career professional is invited to participate in the 2022 WES-CIHE Summer Institute. Participants who wish to participate should submit a 1,000-word paper representing original research relevant to the conference theme of “innovative and inclusive internationalization in higher education.”

Selected papers will be featured in the 2022 Summer Institute program and will also be considered for publication in a future edition of CIHE Perspectives.

To apply:

Interested participants must submit the following:
- 1,000 word paper (exclusive of references);
- Curriculum vitae (CV)
Applications must be received by March 31, 2022

Selected participants will be informed by April 15. A final version of the Summer Institute program will be available online by May 15.

In order to submit a paper, please register using the form below. You will then receive further instructions about how to submit your proposal.

Survey Invitation: Understanding the remote academic employment during COVID-19 pandemic

Survey link can be found here.

Good day,

You are invited to participate in our qualitative survey on understanding your remote academic employment during COVID-19 pandemic. In this qualitative survey, you will be asked to complete a qualitative survey that asks questions mainly about your remote teaching experiences. It will take approximately 20-25 minutes to complete the questionnaire.

Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. There are no foreseeable risks associated with this project. However, if you feel uncomfortable answering any questions, you can withdraw from the survey at any point. For more information about the study, please read this document.

Your survey responses will be strictly confidential and data from this research will be reported only in the aggregate. Your information will be coded and will remain confidential. If you have questions at any time about the survey or the procedures, you may contact Dr Jasvir Kaur Nachatar Singh (j.nachatarsingh@latrobe.edu.au)

Thank you very much for your time and support. Please start with the survey by clicking here.

Cultural Capital and Elite University Attendance in China

Research highlighted

Anning, Hu. & Xiaogang, Wu. (2021). Cultural Capital and Elite University Attendance in China. British Journal of Sociology of Education 42(8): 1265-1293.

Despite a plethora of research, the association between cultural capital and educational inequality does not appear to follow the same pattern. Against this backdrop, an increasing number of scholars have shifted attention to the socio-institutional context in which the consequences of cultural capital vary. This is a necessary enterprise since the concept of cultural capital was proposed in the first place in the French context. In this article, we make contributions to the literature by investigating how cultural capital, among college attendees, relates to the likelihood of attending an elite university when most students are subject to standardized tests.

The research environment is China, where the standardized National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), commonly known as gaokao in China, is institutionalized as an annually-held prerequisite academic examination for the entrance into almost all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level. It is standardized in the sense that both examination subjects and examination questions are highly structured and oriented toward the evaluation of cognitive skills. Hence, what we are interested in is: under the NCEE, how cultural capital relates to one’s chance of attending an elite university. For the purpose of comparison, we also examine how cultural capital is associated with elite university attendance by virtue of exempting the NCEE, a supplementary pathway to college that is geared to overcome the NCEE’s partial emphasis of cognitive skills by taking into account the exceptional or special talents of students.

Drawing on data from the Beijing College Students Panel Survey (BCSPS), we show that (1) on average, objectified cultural capital is negatively associated with the likelihood of attending an elite university whereas embodied cultural capital shows a positive effect; (2) both types of cultural capital enhance the proficiencies of extracurricular activities, which are negatively associated with all quantiles of the NCEE score so as to curtail the odds of getting into an elite university; (3) both types of cultural capital cannot guarantee the attendance of an elite university by improving one’s learning capabilities, since learning capabilities only raise the middle and lower quantiles of the NCEE score; (4) finally, only embodied cultural capital helps one attend an elite university by virtue of exempting the NCEE.

This study highlights how a standardized examination system could come into force to affect the association between cultural capital and the formation of horizontal stratification. Under the NCEE, at least based on the experiences of China, objectified cultural capital is a damping factor for people’s likelihood of getting into a selective university. Although it has the potential of improving students’ learning capabilities, such an improvement does not seem to affect the high end of the NCEE performances. In this regard, the theory of cultural reproduction seems to be hard to maintain when the access to selective educational resources is more structurally determined. Since objectified cultural capital differentials in a population has always been an indicator of the existing class stratification, the negative effect under the NCEE implies that standardized examination could play the role of the “equalizer” in societies with a holistic evaluation system.

This article also suggests that the process of cultural reproduction as described by Bourdieu could come into being if such a standardized examination system is lifted or circumvented. Embodied cultural capital, for instance, is noted to enhance one’s chance of getting into an elite university through exemption of the NCEE. Although the evaluations faced by those who are exempted from the NCEE are not identical with the holistic evaluations adopted in other societies, the gist is indeed similar. Unsurprisingly from the Bourdiausian perspective, this pathway to higher education significantly attracts those with higher endowment of embodied cultural capital, thus bridging cultural capital and educational outcome.

The mechanisms undergirding the link between cultural capital and elite university attendance under the NCEE are more nuanced than conventionally assumed. Metaphorically speaking, cultural capital is a double-edged sword: objectified cultural capital simultaneously raises and lowers one’s standardized test score. Nevertheless, the positive mechanism only works for the middle and lower quantiles of the test score, but the negative mechanism can be extended to the higher quantiles. These two mechanisms jointly lead to the overall negative influences of objectified cultural capital on the odds of getting into an elite university. As for embodied cultural capital, it also plays both a positive and a negative role: it reduces the odds of elite university attendance by weakening students’ performance in the NCEE on the one hand, but helps one get into a selective institution through NCEE exemption on the other hand. Relatively, the overall positive effect of embodied cultural capital suggests that the positive pathway overrides the negative one. Hence, the educational consequences of cultural capital are not a simple yes-or-no matter, but a combination of multiple possibly mutually competing forces. More mechanism-oriented research is called for to reveal the complex formative process in the educational consequences of cultural capital.

Authors’ Bio

Dr. Anning Hu is a Professor of Sociology and the vice Dean of Graduate School at Fudan University. His research interests include social inequality, education, religion, trust, culture, and social research methods. Hu has published over 90 academic articles and three monographs, with research appearing in major sociological outlets, such as British Journal of Sociology, Sociology, Social Science Research, Journal of Marriage and Family, Poetics, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Demographic Research, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sociological Quarterly, Journal of Mathematical Sociology, and The China Quarterly, to name a few. He can be contacted by huanning@fudan.edu.cn.

Dr. Xiaogang Wu is the Yufeng (御风) Global Professor of Social Science, Area Head of Social Sciences, and Director of the Center for Applied Social and Economic Research (CASER) at NYU Shanghai. Wu also holds an appointment as Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Science at NYU. Wu was the recipient of the US National Academy of Education/Spencer Post-doctoral Research Fellowship for 2006 to 2007, the Asia and Asian American Early Career Award from the American Sociological Association in 2007, and the Prestigious Fellowship in Humanities and Social Sciences by the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong in 2012. Wu is currently the President of the International Chinese Sociological Association and the founding editor of the Chinese Sociological Review. He can be contacted by xw29@nyu.edu.

Call for Chapters: ‘Diversity and Inclusiveness in Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language Education’

It is our great pleasure to inform you that we are about to publish a book tentatively titled Diversity and Inclusiveness in Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language Education will be published by Routledge. The book will be co-edited by Dr. Yuan Liang and Dr. Zhen Li, The Education University of Hong Kong, and will be published as the 4^th volume of the Routledge Series on Chinese Language Education, which is co-edited by Professor Chi-Kin John Lee (The Education University of Hong Kong), Professor Ho-kin Tong (The Education University of Hong Kong), Professor Lening Liu (Columbia University), and Professor Boping Yuan (University of Cambridge).

The purpose of this book is to explore pertinent theories, complex (even inconvenient) realities, and learning practices in and out of schools, as reflected by Chinese as a Second / Foreign Language (CSL/CFL) learners. It is hoped that the student and teacher voices, experiences and insights in each chapter may help all educators better understand and teach all CSL/CFL learners inclusively to maximize their learning and development from diverse backgrounds. A range of essential questions will be addressed: What kinds of learning needs do CSL/CFL learners have? What are the current teaching practices addressing the needs of learners from diverse cultural backgrounds or ethnic minority backgrounds? What are the central inclusive and non-inclusive practices in CSL/CFL teaching? What are the factors that lead to these practices? By addressing these questions through empirical research papers included in this book, this book will increase the awareness of the complexity in diverse forms of inclusiveness that the current CSL/CFL education involves and raise conceptual, empirical, and policy-related concerns and insights. Chapters may focus on various issues of diversity and inclusiveness in CSL/CFL education but not limited to any of the following topics:

· Linguistic diversity in CSL/CFL classrooms

· Inclusive teaching practices (e.g., linguistically responsive teaching/pedagogy, culturally responsive teaching/pedagogy, translingual teaching practices)

· CSL/CFL teachers’ beliefs and ideologies of multicultural teaching

· Teaching both heritage and non-heritage language learners

· Teaching CSL/CFL learners with special needs

· Teaching ethnic minority learners

· Gender and sexuality issues in CSL/CFL education

· Curriculum/textbook design for embracing diversity

· Policies of inclusiveness

Submission Guidelines

Each chapter needs to be situated within the research literature, connect with teaching and learning practices, and flesh out the larger linguistic/sociocultural/theoretical/pedagogical/practical issues that are nested in their local contexts.

Each chapter proposal should include:

1) The title and a 250-word abstract of the proposed chapter

2) 2 to 5 keywords of the proposed chapter

3) Complete author contacts information and professional affiliation

Chapter proposals are due by March 10, 2022. All chapter proposals will be peer reviewed. Accepted chapter proposals should result in a book chapter of approximately 7,000 words (including references and appendixes), due by October 30, 2022. The writing should follow the latest APA style (7^th ed.). The target publication time is tentatively set for the summer of 2023.

If you are interested, please submit the title, abstract, and keywords of your proposed chapter via the following link by March 10, 2022:

https://eduhk.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_06NLNaSBtOut9z0

If you cannot contribute at the moment but are willing to suggest scholars who study related topics, please also indicate their names and contacts via the above link. We are more than happy to invite them.

Contact information

Co-editors of the book:

Yuan Liang, Ph.D.
Acting Head of Department
Associate Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Chinese Language Education
Department of Chinese Language Studies
Faculty of Humanities
The Education University of Hong Kong
Office Address: B3-1/F-36,
      The Education University of Hong Kong,
      10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories,
      Hong Kong
Tel: 852-29487483
Email: yliang@eduhk.hk
Webpage: https://pappl.eduhk.hk/rich/web/person.xhtml?pid=163293&name=LIANG-Yuan

Zhen Li, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Chinese Language Studies
Faculty of Humanities
The Education University of Hong Kong
Office Address: B3-1/F-31,
      The Education University of Hong Kong,
      10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, New Territories,
      Hong Kong
Tel: 852-29487180
Email: jzjli@eduhk.hk
Webpage: https://pappl.eduhk.hk/rich/web/person.xhtml?pid=223893&name=LI-Zhen,%20Jennie

For any inquiries, please feel free to contact the co-editors Dr. Yuan Liang and Dr. Zhen Li, or the editorial assistant Dr. Ruoxiao Yang, by yangr@eduhk.hk.

Thanks very much for your attention and look forward to your valuable contribution!

Wish you a happy and healthy new year!

Yuan & Zhen