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- Volume 1, Issue 2, 2017
Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration - Volume 1, Issue 2, 2017
Volume 1, Issue 2, 2017
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International students and social exclusion in the age of social media
By Xinyu ZhaoAbstractThis article considers the changing nature of international students’ lived experiences of disadvantage in Australia in the context of their daily practices of social media. Specifically, it first engages with the extant empirical research on social media practices in the migration context which points to the contingent impacts of digital technologies on migrants’ everyday lives. This body of literature suggests the possibility to probe into the lived experiences of migrants and their everyday strategies through a close examination of their activities around social media. Further, this article attends to studies in the Australian international student literature which highlights the interplays of digital technologies and international student agency. An analysis of the studies suggests how the students’ struggles with social exclusion are entangled with their everyday social media practices in a variety of ways. At the same time, the complex roles of social media problematize how we understand international students’ experiences in the host nation and how we could re-conceptualize ‘social exclusion’ and ‘social inclusion’. For that reason, this article calls for more nuanced approaches towards understanding international students’ lived experiences through the multiple ways international students integrate digital media technologies like social media into their everyday lives. Methodologically, digital ethnographic methods are discussed to facilitate such approaches in innovatively revealing the subtlety of international student mobilities and lived experiences in host societies.
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Quality pastoral care is crucial for successful integration: A case study of school practices
More LessAbstractInternational student numbers have risen considerably, resulting in an increase of qualified students wanting to migrate permanently. These activities have created, and will continue to create, an even more diverse society requiring a more prominent need for the integration of international students into host communities and schools to shape an environment that is congruent to the needs of all those involved. International students upon arrival to New Zealand, for instance, will face cultural and psychological change, conceptualized as the acculturation process. Accordingly, students are likely to develop a particular acculturation strategy, either separation, integration, marginalization or assimilation – dependent on how well they participate, or are invited to participate, in two essential issues: forming relationships with other groups in society and maintaining their heritage culture and identity. Research has shown that the individual acculturation strategy of integration will help international students adapt better to the various transitions they encounter in a new country as well as prove more beneficial for a host country embracing a multicultural society. In this study, data were collected from 131 international students and 24 teachers at an international school in New Zealand to investigate school practices affecting integration of international students. My analysis identified five areas of best practice, which will aid in policy realization and support integration: the homestay, the role of the teacher/tutor, group work, education and activities outside the classroom, and orientation. Many of these practices fall under the Education (Pastoral Care of International Students) Code of Practice 2016 and evidence from this study suggests that pastoral care practices must be implemented at a high level and will require further improvement at micro and macro levels in New Zealand society in order to foster successful integration of international students.
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Using focused ethnography to understand brokering practices among international students
By Sherrie LeeAbstractThe academic challenges of international students, particularly those with English as an additional language (EAL), have been mostly researched in the context of the formal curriculum (e.g. classroom communication styles, reading and writing skills). These challenges include inadequate English proficiency and differing educational expectations, and being isolated from the host community. However, little is understood about students’ informal academic learning outside the prescribed curriculum, in particular, their brokering practices. Brokering practices are help-seeking interactions that bridge gaps in the seekers’ knowledge and understanding of new cultural practices thus enabling them to access resources they would find difficult to do so on their own. For EAL students, these help-seeking interactions may involve getting others to translate, interpret or explain particular aspects of the host academic environment. In this research, focused ethnography is used to investigate the nature of brokering practices among ten international EAL tertiary students during their initial academic semester of fifteen weeks. Focused ethnography specifically addresses constraints in the research context (e.g. time and access to informants), as well as capitalizes on technological tools such as digital recording devices. In seeking to understand brokering interactions and relationships students have with their brokers, conventional ethnographic methods were adapted, for example, digital ethnographic methods were used instead of participant observation. Digital ethnographic methods allows a large amount of data to be recorded and reviewed, a feature of focused ethnography known as data intensity. While this form of intensity has been argued to compensate for a short period of research activity, this research suggests that another form of intensity – relational intensity – is just as important in addressing research constraints. Relational intensity refers to the researcher’s ongoing responsiveness to the needs of research participants. The article concludes that future focused ethnographic research should consider both data-related and relational forms of intensity in addressing research constraints.
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Exploring the elusive shape of service outcomes: Reflections on evaluating academic language and learning support services
Authors: Xiaodan Gao and Kirsten ReidAbstractStudent Learning Te Taiako at Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand) provides academic learning support for tertiary students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. As part of good practice and for the purpose of continual improvement of service quality, service and programme evaluations are regularly conducted. These evaluations include the end of year Student Learning Survey and bi-annual peer observations and tend to focus on student satisfaction and/or perceptions of the services and programmes offered. More recently, in response to the New Zealand government’s call for tertiary education institutions (TEIs) to report on their services and the outcomes of these services, Student Learning has been looking at ways in which evaluations can be carried out over and above student numbers and satisfaction. The purpose of this article is to reflect on and redefine evaluations at Student Learning Te Taiako. The article argues that, instead of chasing evidence to show direct contribution to student outcomes, a more structured approach to evaluation should be taken and a comprehensive set of evidence/data provided to demonstrate the contribution of academic learning advising to the overall student learning experience.
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The internationalization of higher education in the UAE and the implications for undergraduate students’ institutional choice for postgraduate studies
More LessAbstractHigher education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has expanded significantly over the previous two decades, largely shaped by the dynamics of internationalization. The higher education sector in the UAE includes federal/regional governments, and domestic and foreign private institutions. This study, conducted in 2016, aims to explore the implications of the internationalization of higher education for students’ institutional choice at postgraduate level. I collected quantitative data from 160 students and qualitative data from 40 students, all of whom were undertaking undergraduate programmes in the UAE. The results of the study indicate undergraduate students had mixed reasons for choosing an institution for their postgraduate studies; however, these reasons were more specific in relation to foreign universities and universities offering foreign curricula, including the presence of international faculty members, the opportunity to study foreign curricula, to gain international/joint degrees and the belief that these institutions offered greater global opportunities. This study highlights the potential challenges for federal and non-federal public institutions in attracting postgraduate students, particularly international students. In addition, the study indicates that the emergence of foreign and private higher education institutions in the UAE enhances the quality of higher education by raising competition between institutions.
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A flowing culture: Images of early Gujarati Indian-Islamic migrants in Aotearoa New Zealand
By Rafik PatelAbstractSalman Rushdie’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1990) sets up an imaginative tale of a father and son’s journey in search of happiness. In this fictional reality the ocean is filled with a sea of stories that manifest the hope of a new beginning. This story also takes the reader on a whimsical journey that is non-linear. It sways back and forth like the currents of the ocean, and its allegory transcends the ocean as a vessel that contains important narratives and knowledge, and as a spatial medium to cross borders and boundaries. Considering this allegory, this article presents an auto-ethnography in relation to migration of the first Gujarati Indian families to arrive in Aotearoa New Zealand, in the early 1900s. It discusses how these families integrated and began to construct and grow a new community within. Thus, this article attempts to uncover stories and a history of migration of the author’s own family that flowed from South Asia to the Pacific, transferring a rich culture of Indian-Muslim faith, practice and architecture.
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Reviews
Authors: Ting-Fai Yu and Ka-Kin CheukAbstractBORDERLANDS: TOWARDS AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE COSMOPOLITAN CONDITION, MICHEL AGIER (2016) Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity Press, 208 pp., ISBN: 9780745696799, h/bk, £50.00; ISBN: 9780745696805, p/bk, £15.99
TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION AND ASIA: THE QUESTION OF RETURN, MICHIEL BAAS (ED.) (2015) Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press and IIAS, 201 pp., ISBN: 9789089546583, h/bk, €79
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