This research explores a range of academic and socio-cultural challenges faced by seven Chinese post-graduate students at the University of the Witwatersrand. The main aims of this study are to identify and understand any academic discourse challenges these students have been experiencing, together with any challenges in their new socio-cultural environment, such as financial or social challenges, and then to investigate the impact of these challenges on their studies and their identities as students. The study is based on data gathered from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven Chinese post-graduate students, from location ‘maps’ completed by each student and from some examples of the writing of three of the students. The findings suggest that these Chinese students are encountering great challenges in relation to English language proficiency and adjustments to new Discourses (Gee, 1996) – both academic and social. The data provide evidence that although these students feel socially disempowered in many respects, their attitudes toward academic study remain positive and each is making steady progress in his or her progamme of study and research. This finding indicates that there seems to be no explicit connection between positive social experiences and academic achievement and contrasts with findings from other research studies in which there is a correlation iii between positive or negative socio-cultural experiences and success or failure in the academy.

The present research was developed with the purpose of studying the habit and level of reading comprehension that the administrator professional postgraduated in courses of specialization in Administration present, considering the variants that influence the learning and teaching process. The reading is a complex activity, plural, which is developed in a lot of directions. Ruled by the constructivism learning orientation related to the process of learning manifest in adults, with the worry of studying the habits and the reading comprehension, while a phenomenon inherent in the human condition in the current situation, the study is justified by the moment which is marked by paradigmatic changes in science, in the values, in the organizations. It requires, by one hand, a wider comprehension of the environment, which is in constant transformation and, by the other hand, a permanent individual, collective and organizational learning, trying to search for the human being s self achievement. 12 subjects postgraduated in Administration took part in this study, 6 of them graduated in Administration and the 6 of them graduated in the most different areas of knowledge. The university environment of the postgraduate course lato sensu is taken as a space for the research, it is studied with the qualitative method of analysis and the technique of analysis of the content for the data treatment; the model proposed by Witter (1997) for the validation of the results related to the reading habits and Cloze s technique for the analysis of the level of reading comprehension. The results point out that the model proposed by Witter (1997) does not fit the reality of the students postgraduated in Administration, the ones who have a universe as readers constituted by the life history as readers, familiar contingences, academic contingences, personal characteristics and future perspectives of the clinic form, differently from the model proposed, the one which highlights the availability of material as one of the influencing variants in the process of learning through the reading. The evaluation of the level of text comprehension revealed that the most significant part of the responding subjects (41,67%) possess an instructional reading level, that is, they present difficulties of comprehension in some parts of the text, but they are able to understand the thematic. Compared to other professionals, the administrators are not in the same level of text comprehension. It is suggested that other works, aiming to identify the specific difficulties that are present in the text comprehension, can be carried out with a wider sample than the one used in this study, involving the teachers too / A presente pesquisa foi desenvolvida com o propósito de estudar o hábito e o nível de compreensão de leitura que o profissional administrador pós-graduado em cursos de especialização em administração apresenta, considerando as variáveis que o influenciam no processo ensino-aprendizagem. A leitura é uma atividade complexa, plural, que se desenvolve em várias direções. Pautado na orientação construtivista da aprendizagem em relação ao processo de aprendizagem manifestada em adultos, na preocupação em estudar os hábitos e a compreensão da leitura, enquanto fenômeno inerente à condição humana na situação atual, o estudo justifica-se pelo momento marcado por mudanças paradigmáticas na ciência, nos valores, nas organizações. Isso requer, por um lado, uma maior compreensão do ambiente, que está em constante transformação, e, por outro, um aprendizado permanente em nível individual, grupal e organizacional, como meio de buscar a auto-realização do ser humano. Participaram do estudo doze sujeitos pós-graduados em Administração, sendo seis formados em Administração e seis nas mais diversas áreas do conhecimento. Toma-se como espaço da pesquisa o ambiente universitário em nível de pós-graduação lato sensu, estudado com o método qualitativo de análise e a técnica análise de conteúdo para tratamento dos dados; o modelo proposto por Witter (1997) para validação dos resultados relativos aos hábitos de leitura e a técnica de Cloze para análise do nível de compreensão de leitura. Os resultados apontam que o modelo proposto por Witter (1997) não se identifica com a realidade dos pós-graduados em Administração, os quais possuem um universo como leitor constituído pela história de vida como leitor, contingências familiares, contingências acadêmicas, características pessoais e perspectivas futuras de forma cíclica, diferentemente do modelo proposto, o qual destaca a disponibilidade de material como uma das variáveis influenciadoras do processo de aprendizagem pela leitura. A avaliação do nível de compreensão de leitura revelou que a maior (42%) parte dos sujeitos respondentes possui nível instrucional em relação à leitura, ou seja, apresentam dificuldades de compreensão em alguns trechos do texto, mas conseguem abordar a temática. Comparativamente a outros profissionais, os administradores não se apresentam no mesmo nível de compreensão de textos. Sugere-se que sejam desenvolvidos outros trabalhos com uma amostra maior que a utilizada neste estudo com o objetivo de identificar as dificuldades específicas que se apresentam na compreensão de textos