Chinese parents' and their children's decision-making for transnational university study

• In Event: Dissertation workshop session
  In Special Session: China and Higher Education

Proposal

I attend Lehigh University, and my advisor is Dr. Peggy Kong. In this paper, I consider the complexity of the decision-making roles Chinese parents and children take, and their understandings and perspectives about the upcoming study abroad experience. Then, I examine how these relate to the initial adjustment of these Chinese students when they are actually at American or Canadian universities. This will provide insights into what decision-making practices, knowledge, and experiences may lead to greater success for these students.
I here pose the research questions that guide this study:
• What roles do Chinese parents and their youth play in decision-making regarding studying abroad?
• How do Chinese parents and youth understand the students’ study abroad future?
• How are Chinese students’ initial study abroad experiences tied to their and their parents’ decision-making roles and prior understanding about the study abroad experience?
Readers will come to understand that both Chinese parents and their children play complex roles in the decision-making process related to study abroad, and these Chinese youth play a more integral role than what prior research has indicated. They will also see that these Chinese parents’ and their youth’s understanding of the future transnational study period is incomplete, and that this influences how well these youth do while studying abroad. Finally, readers will understand that with the greater involvement Chinese youth have in the decision-making process, the better they adjust and do while studying at universities in the U.S. or Canada.
Amartya Sen’s capability approach states, in perhaps its broadest terms, that “Development … can be seen as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy” (1999, loc. 179). In particular, Sen explains, increasing individuals’ freedoms requires the “expansion of the ‘capabilities’ of persons to lead the kind of lives they value – and have reason to value” (loc. 414). The same is true, then, as applied to the educational phenomenon that the present research study examines, as far as Chinese students studying transnationally in the U.S. for college. Robeyns (2006), reinforcing Sen’s approach, asserts that, indeed, the capability of education stands well within the realm of important capabilities that people may seek. The youth who go abroad, along with their parents, seek to expand their freedoms and capabilities to lead lives in accordance with what they truly value and do, indeed, have reason to value. It appears that in recent years, shifts have been taking place in Chinese society that have opened up Chinese families’ and youth’s quests to gain certain capabilities for themselves.
I will collect qualitative data with semi-structured individual interviews through three waves, as part of a case study. In the first interview wave of the study, in May of 2018, I will individually interview 8-10 Chinese parents and their 8-10 children, who are preparing to go abroad to the U.S. or Canada for university studies. These students and their parents have been selected because the children are enrolled in a well-established, large, highly-ranked high school in a poorer, rural, western province of China. Then, in the second and third waves of data collection, I will follow up with the same students and their parents during the students’ first and second semesters of study. These will be in November and December of 2018, and in May of 2019.
Though there is much research to draw upon regarding the reasons for Chinese students to study abroad, called the push and pull factors, very little exists in regards to the decision-making process itself. Bodycott and Lai (2012), cite the need for studies like the present one in order to fill gaps in knowledge. They say that, “…we know little about how contemporary PRC families make such decisions” (p. 253) about the study abroad possibility for Chinese youth. As well, the few research studies that have been conducted over the prior ten years are somewhat in conflict. Some cite the strength of Confucian cultural roles in the family as leading to parents and extended family members making the majority of decisions related to their children’s study abroad. This leads to negative ramifications for the youth. Others discuss the influence of globalization and the prior one child policy as influencing parents in such a way that they seek to give their children increasing decision-making power when it comes to transnational study decisions. Thus, this study will shed light on these conflicting ideas.
By the time of the 2019 CIES Conference in San Francisco, I will be in the midst of data collection, with wave 3 coming in May 2019.

Author

• Damian Wyman, Lehigh University