The Eastern Train on the Western Track by Xing Xu & Helena Hing Wa Sit & Shen Chen

Author:Xing Xu & Helena Hing Wa Sit & Shen Chen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811542657
Publisher: Springer Singapore

4.3 Conclusion

The CDS’ motivational goals to study in Australia involve a multitude of factors. Whereas they seek pleasure and satisfaction derived from partaking in Ph.D. study per se, they are also stimulated by an overseas doctoral degree that is considered as a means to an end such as a stepping stone for career and immigration. As well, their decision-making process is conditioned by a plethora of considerations. Whereas family members, especially parents, may either facilitate or debilitate their aspiration to study for a Ph.D. overseas, social networks, academic reputation, accessibility and feasibility, as well as favourable environmental factors contribute to the specific choice of Australia as their destination.

As the upcoming sojourn in Australia features a huge cultural distance compared with the original context, they seem to support Klein, Miller, and Alexander (1981) that they relocate “deliberately into a position of stress and personal vulnerability” (p. 311). Given this, they maintain a varying degree of preparedness in sociocultural and academic spheres. For the academic part, many of them acknowledge themselves as operationally equipped with basic academic and researching skills to embark on a doctoral journey, although according to a few of them who mostly work in humanities and social sciences, the conceptualisation of skills required and/or possessed are rather vague or even absent. In addition, while some admit that they lack knowledge regarding Ph.D. study, such as the learning environment and learning mode, others accrue some general information on these issues via online exchanges with a supervisor. In particular, they demonstrate an instrumental orientation in information seeking for graduation requirements. For the sociocultural part, they familiarise themselves with daily life in Australia via online searches, social networks and previous overseas experiences. Their testimonies concur the basic necessities such as accommodation and diet are given primacy. To a certain degree, these non-academic issues are paid more attention than academic ones during this pre-departure period. Or to put it in another way, compared with preparing themselves with knowledge of how to study in Australia, they are more engaged with configuring how to live in Australia.

To recap, the planning phase witnesses impacts of the CDS as agentic organisms and reveals the environmental factors within the bioecological system influencing their motives, decision-making, and preparation before they sojourn to Australia for doctoral study. They are motivated by divergent goals embedded in their agentic imagination to steer a life course in the way that they intend. Their decision-making is subjected to practical considerations and shaped by various social agents and situational factors in different subsystems within the bioecological system they are situated. While perceptions of preparation vary, they manifest a certain degree of preparedness in academic context and/or in everyday life. They bring with them different knowledge, competency, values, and expectations prior to departure. In the next chapter, we will explore how they navigate their doctoral journey within a CCA discourse in affective, behavioural, and cognitive aspects resorting to self-reports and visual graphics.

References

Austin, L. (2016). Factors influencing Chinese students’ decisions to study in the United States. Journal of International Students, 6(3), 722–732.

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