As Qiu (2000) noted, a network of personal relationships is helpful for successful research in China. However, whether the researcher is an ―insider‖ or, as in this study, an ―outsider‖ possible prejudices and biases as well as personal feelings and experiences can influence both the data collection and the research findings (Gall, Borg & Gall 1996, p. 558). To overcome this possible problem, Borg and Gall (1989) discuss ―the weight of accumulated evidence‖, while others encourage a ―fusion of horizons‖ by allowing one‘s own position to be modified by alternative views (Gadamer 1975; Scott & Usher 1996).
However, the impact of cultural experiences is questionable (Shah 2004, p. 550). How multiple variables shape and define each other and effect cross-cultural interaction is not generalisable. As Shah (2004, p. 552) emphasises the ―subjectivities of the research participants‖ will necessarily influence ―the data collection and the process of ‗making meaning‘‖ and ―cultural differences have significance for both phases‖. While Clarke (2000) explores the psychodynamic processes of the interview situation between a white researcher and black respondents, Shah (2004, pp. 553-565) examines ―the insider/outsider debate‖ and ―locates the researcher/interviewer as a ‗cultural intruder‘ in a cross-cultural context‖, which is the case in the current research.
The framework of this study is both highly complex and context specific; hence the use of adaptive theory which acknowledges and should help the researcher interpret participants‘ normative
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assumptions. Adaptive theory allows one to move from quantitative approaches that rely on scientific positivism to phenomenological enquiry that provides for greater understanding of higher level complexities. The implied cultural significance is ―that even complex models which derive from a Western origin can only be a foundation for developing indigenous theory and not a substitution for it‖ (Lowe 1998, p. 15). In other words, situations with which the researcher is naturally familiar should only provide a starting point and the research design needs to foster new connections and insights.
As a way of reviewing curriculum outcomes, Liu (1998, p. 121) contextualised the Chinese
characteristic of utilitarianism from two social needs. Traditionally study was geared for practical use and ―not to create thinkers and theorists of the exploring kind‖. Thus the usefulness of the course was that it allowed you to get a job after qualifying, not that generic skills were built into the curriculum. The new approach adopted by Shenzhen University was a first. Few universities in China have paid as much attention to ―the practicality, suitability and applicability of its curriculum‖ (Liu 1998, p. 123) to the local economy and context as Shenzhen University. As well as changing curricula, the department and course names have been changed or had the term ―Applied‖ added to stress a less theoretical focus. The result has been increased enrolments by high scoring students in the College Entrance Exams, mostly into its highly regarded International Finance and Trade courses. ―Because such fast food-type, applied courses take less time and energy and can be put to immediate use after graduation, a large number of students are head over heels in love with them‖ (Liu 1998, p. 132). The value of contextualising or localising has become apparent to the students, lecturers and employers; in other words, generic skills have a role if they assist in the application of theory.
5.10 Summary
This chapter has presented a number of ways of viewing, structuring and understanding the research and highlights the important and complex influences that need to be considered. Hence this chapter reviews social phenomena research issues, socially constructed meaning, Adaptive Theory and the more extant theories of power, education and culture before examining, in the next chapter, previous methods used to explore graduate attributes.
Given the need to understand the effect of curriculum, politics and strong social mores on the various actors, the current study requires a comprehensive, integrated approach. The internationalised graduate attributes conceptual model allows for macro phenomena such as business ownership, educational structures and objectives, and institutional knowledge to be derived from documentary and empirical data. Additionally, there is an historical dimension in order to show how ―power and domination have been incorporated into the structural features of settings and context, as a
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personal phenomena of the stakeholders‘ perceptions about graduate attributes and employability skills which are the subject of the research for this thesis; collected and interpreted from various viewpoints they should be used to guide educational practices to determine the most appropriate option for future curriculum development.
Chapter Six describes the Research Method adopted by this study that allows for reciprocal values, iterative development of knowledge, and research informing theory formation.
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Chapter Six Research method
6.0 Introduction
This chapter takes the methodologies outlined in Chapter Five and relates them to the research questions which are then operationalised by introducing and explaining the research methods chosen for the thesis. The focus is on the lived experience of the participants, the factors that have influenced this experience and their personal interpretations of the experience. The focus is also on the novelty and dilemmas of different systems and ways of thinking coming together, or at least impacting each other. While this sits precariously in a country which has had a turbulent history and ongoing sensitivities, the approach might reveal a new understanding of graduate attributes in China and promote internationalisation.
The complexities of overlaying an educational framework that seems to have merit in one culture onto another quite different culture and educational context should not be understated. The attempt occurs sometimes as it is difficult to move from what is familiar, which Furnham (2005) argues is the commonsense approach. It could be argued that assuming what is possible in one location might be possible in another should be questioned from a cultural-linguistic as well as a scientific perspective (Kwong et al 2010). This research questions the cultural-linguistic and the methodology (see Chapter Five) allows for flexibility and adaptation of ideas and theories to allow the realities of the new context to direct the form of any emerging hypotheses. Chapter Five presented not just the
philosophical approach of this thesis but a heuristic for a complex transnational education situation. While the heuristic itself is not the subject of the research questions, in the final analysis there is an evaluation of its usefulness to the research.
The purpose of this chapter is to present the method used to assess and examine graduating student, lecturer and employer perceptions about specific characteristics, general attributes and workplace skills of new graduates in China in order to answer two questions:
1. What characteristics, general attributes and workplace skills being developed in the B Bus curriculum are particularly valued by Chinese employers?
2. What characteristics, general attributes and workplace skills are valued by Chinese employers but not developed or included in the B Bus curriculum?
The chapter examines previous methods used in graduate attribute research particularly from the need for a contextualised framework, reviews the current research hypotheses then presents an overview of all aspects of the research design and implementation. It extensively analyses how effective survey data can be developed.
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