At the heart of this study is a desire to unravel a puzzle of why I and other self-identified Chinese students share common experience of exclusion in the Canadian academy, despite our differences as individuals and as Chinese. Our experience of exclusion is made invisible by the stereotypical image of Asian students as the paragon of success within the academy. It is again made invisible by policy addressing inclusion in the academy that uses largely outcome measures to paint pictures of success, and keeps the less concrete parts of processes unpainted. There is a lack of attention to and an under-theorization of the less perceptible and less tangible processes of inclusion and exclusion.
The central question of this study is: How do Chinese students’ experiences in higher education, as viewed through Bourdieu’s framework of culture, inform a nuanced understanding of inclusion and exclusion? I draw on Bourdieu’s framework along with its core concepts to analyse the narratives of sixteen self-identified Chinese students from six Ontario post-secondary institutions. Methodologically, I draw on a theme-based approach from Thematic Inquiry and a case-based approach from Narrative Inquiry to form a Bourdieusian methodological framework that stays true to the anti-dualistic epistemological foundation of Bourdieu’s theory.
Captured in this study is a complex picture of inclusion and exclusion centred on a boundary that is so intangible and masked that it is largely imperceptible and hence unarticulated. The boundary is imperceptible because:
1) inclusion and exclusion is mediated through an unspoken system of meanings and values inscribed in disposition and practices; the boundary takes the form of a normalized way of being (disposition) and doing (practice)
2) inclusion and exclusion is unintentionally enacted; the boundary takes the form of unintentional domination and ‘voluntary’ exit (as if no external force is driving the exclusion)
3) inclusion and exclusion is diffused by the conversion of the boundary from an overt form to a neutralized or ‘normalized’ form such as social network.
While the boundary is obscured, it is at the same time fluid and permeable when capital is strategically positioned and deployed.
This study concludes by suggesting the need to take into consideration intangible and unintentional processes of inclusion and exclusion, and a two-way approach (again staying true to Bourdieu’s anti-dualistic framework) to broaden policy and research conversations about inclusion and exclusion. Only when invisible processes of inclusion and exclusion are brought to the fore can we begin to redress them. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/18689 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Lo, Seung Wan (Winnie) |
| Contributors | Social Work |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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