CRICOS Provider No 00025B

Inviting stories of difference: An inquiry into the experiences of new

international academic staffusing narrative analysis

Wendy Green & Paula Myattw.green@uq.edu.au & p.myatt@uq.edu.auThe University of Queensland (UQ)

Australia

Research Questions

Understanding the new IAS experience • What is the professional/personal experience of new IAS?

• What are the challenges, and how do they deal with them?

• How do they conceptualise T&L, and their role as teachers?

• Does any/ all of this change over time?

Implications for (our) practice• What currently available support (if any) is helpful?

• What additional measures would they find helpful?

Narrative Methodology

Why narrative methodology in this study? • because we wanted to capture and analyse a

complex, non-linear and necessarily contextual processes.

What is narrative research? • not concerned with the ‘facts’, but the meaningful

shape emerging from the selected (re)telling of inner & outer experiences

a complex, non-linear and necessarily contextual processes.

Methodology

Data collection

– story collection (from participants); – story analysis (by researchers);– member checking – proposed solutions (from participants and researchers).

First analysis – reading across to stories – results in ‘taxonomies of types of stories, characters, or

settings’ (Polkinghorne, 1995, p.12), but– honours the ‘overall shape of narrative’ (Chase, 2005, p.663)

First analysis: Making sense of commonalities

Preparing- A time of excitement & uncertainty

Arriving- A time of disorientation & survival

Re-establishing- A time of new equilibrium

Reflecting- A time of self-acceptance

Generating- A time of action and change

Green and Myatt, 2011

A second analysis

But – the niggling question

Despite similarities between the stories, why did one narrator seem happier and more successful

than the others?

Making sense of difference

CRICOS Provider No 00025B

Paradigmatic case*an unusually positive case – an exemplar for good practice

Annie-Kate US citizen, mid thirties, cross-cultural marriage,

mother of young children, lived/worked in several countries

Critical case*one that typifies the experiences of most participants

SusieUS citizen, mid thirties, cross-cultural marriage,

mother of young child, lived/worked in several countries

*Flyvbjerg, B (2001).

Making sense of difference

Preparing- A time of excitement & uncertainty

Arriving- A time of disorientation & survival

Re-establishing- A time of new equilibrium

Reflecting- A time of self-acceptance

Generating- A time of action and change

Green and Myatt, 2011

Making sense of difference

Preparing- A time of excitement & uncertainty

Susie

• moved for career • naïve expectations of Australia

Annie-Kate

• moved for life-style• naïve expectations of Australia

Susie

• immediate start at work • ‘expectancy violation’ at work

& in the community• no induction (benign neglect)

• ‘traditional academic’ (Smith 2010) •self-doubt

Annie-Kate

• time to settle before looking for work • ‘expectancy violation’ in community

• some administrative induction• ‘accidental academic’ (Smith 2010)

• no sense of self-doubt

Arriving- A time of disorientation & survival

Making sense of difference

Making sense of difference

Re-establishing- A time of new equilibrium

Susie

• family transitional issues• continuing ‘benign neglect’ • increasing sense of failure

Annie-Kate

• family’s transitional difficulties • effective supervisor/mentor

• in-school induction, including reduced workload & training

• sense of success

Making sense of difference

Reflecting- A time of self-acceptance

Susie

• lessening ‘expectancy violation’• sense of foreignness/ otherness

• focus on adaption to theAustralian HE culture

• sense of failure

Annie-Kate

• critical acceptance of new country • ‘composite identity‘

• focus on what she brings to theAustralian HE culture

• sense of success

Making sense of difference

Generating- A time of action and change

Making sense of difference

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Susie

Expectations – ‘traditional academic’ (Smith 2010)

Immediate start

‘Benign neglect’ in the School (Lee & Williams 1999)

Annie-Kate

Expectations – ‘accidental academic’ (Smith 2010)

Time to settle

Systematic induction

Implications for practice

Implications for Heads of Schools• support PD, especially re teaching • ensure temporary reduction in workload • make new IAS feel welcome• clarify expectations• provide mentor in workload

Implications for Academic Developers• support reflective practice • importance of narrative for ‘identity work’ (Sears, 2010)

Reference List

Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge. Byram, M. & Feng, A. (Eds.) (2006). Living and studying abroad: research and practice, Clevedon,

Buffolo & Toronto: Multilingual MattersChase, C. (2005). Narrative inquiry: Multiple lenses, approaches, voices. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincloln,

(Eds.), The sage handbook of qualitative research, (3rd ed.), pp. 651-679. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Clandinin, D.J. & Connelly, F.M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research, San Fransico:Jossey-Bass

Collins, J. (2008). Coming to America: Challenges for faculty coming to United States’ universities. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 32(2), 179-188.

Flyvbjerg, B. (2001). Making social science matter: why social inquiry fails and how it can succeed again. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Foote, K.E., Li, W., Monk, J., & Theobold, R. (2008). Foreign-born scholars in US universities: Issues, concerns and strategies. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 32 (2), 167-178.

Green, W. & Myatt, P. (2011). Telling tales: a narrative research study of the experiences of new international academic staff at an Australian university. International Journal for Academic Development, 16(1), 33-44.

Grimshaw & Sears (2008). ‘Where am I from?’ ‘Where do I belong’: The negotiation and maintenance of identity by international school students. Journal of Research in International Education, 7(3), 259-278.

Kohler-Riessman, C. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences, Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Lee, A. and Williams, C. (1999). ‘Forged in fire’: Narratives of trauma in PhD supervision pedagogy. Southern Review, 32 (1), 6-26.

Lund, D., Hibbins, R. & Barker, M. (2007). Organisational effectiveness of immigrant staff in Australia: Sustaining a culturally diverse workforce. The International Journal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability, 3 (3), 79-88.

Reference List

Nicholson, N. (1990). The transition cycle: Causes outcomes, processes and forms. In S. Fisher & C. Cooper (Eds.) On the move: The psychology of change and transition, pp. 83-108. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.

Pitt, M. (2006) ‘The role of everyday talk in sojourner adjustment: An ethnography of communication among US sojourners’, proceedings from the 56th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Dresden.

Polkinghorne, D.E. (1995). Narrative configuration in qualitative analysis. Qualitative Studies in Education, 8(1), 5-23.

Richardson, J. & Zidic, J. (2007). The darker side of an international academic career. Career Development International, 12 (2), 164-185.

Sanderson, G. (2008). A foundation for the internationalization of the academic Self in higher education. Journal of Studies in International Education, 122(3), 276-307.

Sears, C (2011). Integrating multiple identities: Narrative in the formation and maintenance of the self in international school students, Journal of Research in International Education, 10 (1), 71-86.

Smith, J. (2010). Forging identities: the experiences of probationary lecturers in the UK. Studies in Higher Education, 35 (5), 577-591.

Trowler, P. & Knight, P. (2000. Coming to know in higher education: Theorising faculty entry to new work contexts. Higher Education Research & Development 19 (1) 27-42.

Yourn, B. & Kirkness, A. (2003). Adapting to a new culture of education: not just an issue for students. Proceedings of the Higher Education Research & Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) International Conference, Canterbury, New Zealand, July, 2003. Retrieved August, 11th, 2008, from http://surveys.canterbury.ac.nz/herdsa03/pdfsref/Y1202.pdf

Zhou, Y., Jindal-Snape, D., Topping, K., & Todman, J. (2008). Theoretical models of culture shock and adaptation in international students in higher education, Studies in Higher Education, 33(1), 63-75.

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