East is East and West is West and now the twain have met

• In Event: Poster Session: New perspectives on equality and equity in education

Abstract

Objectives
The general objective of the research is to understand the perceptions, struggles, challenges, adaptations, and recommendations of Canadian graduate students previously socialized in the four most Confucian influenced cultures of East Asia as they encounter the Western pedagogical environment of Canadian graduate schools. Some of the more specific objectives are to answer the following:
1. How can Canadian graduate school professors, staff, and student peers be better equipped to understand and interpret the reactions of such Confucian trained students?
2. How can the countries of origin of these students better prepare them to thrive in Canadian graduate schools?
3. What survival recommendations do these students have for future students coming from their cultures to Canadian graduate schools?
4. Which of the two educational approaches (Confucian or Canadian) do they perceive as more effective for their learning?
5. Can listening oriented Confucian trained scholars learn effectively in the dialogue orientated educational culture of Canadian graduate schools and, if so, how?
6. Is the teacher-student relationship that exists in Confucian educational culture in opposition to that in Canadian education and, if so, how and what effect does it have upon learning?
7. Do the Confucian education orientated goals of social face, social tranquility, and social hierarchy present learning problems in the educational environment of Canadian graduate schools and, if so, how are these problems resolved?
8. Do epistemological differences in the education of their home cultures and the education they encounter in Canadian graduate schools present learning problems and, if so, how are these problems resolved?

Main perspective and theoretical conceptual framework
Educational institutions arise from, are grounded in, and reflect the most deeply held values of a culture. The four East Asian cultures that are the objects of this research are and continue to be deeply influenced by ideas of Confucianism. In order to most effectively provide scholars trained and socialized in these educational cultures the greatest opportunities for intellectual growth, Canadian graduate schools need to recognize the learning styles and learning values that these students bring into Canadian classrooms as well as the learning related incompatibilities between Confucian and Canadian education that they are asking these students to overcome.

Mode of inquiry
The research uses qualitative, phenomenological interviews of eighteen East Asian graduate students who received their previous education up to an undergraduate degree in one of the four Confucian influenced cultures that were the focus of this research. The four cultures were China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan and there were at least two subjects representing both genders from each of the four cultures.

Data sources
Extensive interviews with graduate students from the Confucian influenced cultures of China, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan were conducted. These four cultures are among the greatest contributors of foreign graduate students to Canadian universities.

Results and conclusions
A description and analysis of possible educational differences that exist between Confucian education and Canadian education is offered as well as reflections regarding how they may be best addressed in Canadian graduate education in order to offer an inclusive atmosphere to not only students from non-English speaking cultures but also to students from non-Western pedagogies.

Significance of the study
Substantial research has examined language barriers encountered by graduate scholars coming from English as second language counties to Canadian graduate schools. We know that much of culture is contained in or carried by language. However, this research seeks to examine and better understand the transition experience of graduate students attempting to transcend not only language barriers and challenges but also the Confucian related educational cultural barriers and challenges they encounter in the distinctly different Canadian pedagogical environment.

Author

• Shu-Chen Tsai, University of Toronto