ANZIBA Conference -Part 1

This weekend will be another 'interesting' time for me. Not because of a recovery from a long Easter break or a time to visit another country towns. In fact, I am going to the Australia and New Zealand International Business Academy (ANZIBA) conference. Of course, I plan to disseminate some of the findings from this project at the the conference and expect to receive some feedback from my ANZIBA colleagues. TWell, this is my second experience with ANZIBA and I"m not pretty sure if I have already fallen in love with the organisation. Unlike ANZIECS that I previously lamented about in early 2009, ANZIBA is larger and can be more complex.

The paper that I plan to disseminate at the conference is entitled "The Nature of the Online Education Engagement in the International Business Programme: A Phenomenographic Study" I think the last part of the title is very exciting ...at least to me! I talked to my colleague (and.. a-hem.... boss) Dr. Carlene Boucher about the title of the paper and Carlene has suggested a more sophisticated title...a phenomenography concept..which is one of the most interesting qualitative approaches to study people's learning experiences.

I will come back with a full report by next weekend!

Trade in Education Service: China

This project is all about international education, due to a strong demand for Australian higher education from overseas market. China has retained in top position as a major 'sending country' to Australia. However, the role of China in international education is in transformation..from sending to receiving. Trade in higher education in China developed rapidly since China's adoption of its Open Door policy in 1979. The rise of a market-oriented economy has transformed China from an overwhelmingly agricultural economy towards a more industrialized and information-based economy that puts a premium on human capital (knowledge) development. The nation's overall strength is thus believed to depend significantly on the quality of its human resources. In the face of the great need to speed up the nation's economic growth and national development, China began to send students abroad to study in 1979. Since then, China has become the leading country in the enrollment of students in industrialized nations.



But China's higher education market has been opening itself up to the outside world as well. While many Chinese students are eager to apply to study in
foreign universities, education officials in China are vowing to provide higher quality services for a growing number of foreign students pursuing higher education in China. Statistics show that some 62,000 foreign students were enrolled in over 360 Chinese colleges and universities in 2002 (China Institute of International Education Report, 2002)．In addition, according to a rough estimate by the Ministry of Education, there were 721 joint programs in China at the end ofyear 2002, an increase of more than nine times over 1995.

The future potential of China as an exporter of higher education services appears to be challenged by China's entry into the WTO, at least in the view of many officials in the Chinese higher education sector. China became a formal member of the WTO on December 11, 2002, but negotiations began much earlier. China's economic reforms qualified China for membership in a number of international economic organizations and the country became an observer of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT)in 1952 and formally applied for full GATT membership in July 1986．The 8th International Trade Round, the so-called Uraguay Round (1986-94) replaced the GATT by the WTO. GATT Member-States had determined that international trade could be increased by structuring agreements similar to the GATT that focus on trade in areas other than goods, such as services (e.g. education and health) and intellectual property rights. Thereupon, three multilateral agreemenis became the pillars within the framework of the new World Trade organization: the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the General Agreement on Trade-related aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.(TRIPS)

Findings and Diseemination

At this stage, I aim to collect more data from accounting and finance students who are two main groups for this study.I think I'm done with IB students since the findings of this study from this cohort seem to be quite repetitive now.

Next month, after Easter break, I will present some findings from this research project at the 2009 Australia-New Zealand International Business Academy in Brisbane. This annual conference is a significant event among researchers and academics in international business and globalisation in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Hopefully, I'll have some more interesting stories to share with you.

One finding from my study

At this stage, I am still preparing some data and playing with them in terms of creating themes and concept from the data. One of the emerging theme that I have found so far is the nature of international business course that stimulate student's participation in online education in international business.

Participants expressing the conception of nature of international business are distinguished among themselves. International business, as an area of study, is perceived as a highly engaged course whereby learners need to bring their previous life experiences as consumers, members of society, or observers of the world to understand the phenomenon of international business. Online learning is perceived as a platform to share and exchange their academics and life experiences (in the form of personal opinion) while they are learning in the formal education system. Furthermore, various forms of online education, such as webblog, discussion boards, or wiki, encourage them to be highly interactive in the learning process. As international business courses aim to create an understanding of the international aspects of management, for formulating and implementing effective strategies in an increasingly complex world economy, personal experiences and the roles of individual students as observers of changes in global and local factors were useful for the contribution in the online discussion and knowledge exchange among students in this study.

In three cases research interviewees referred to the nature of international business courses as “real-world” (NIB-1) and “tangible” (NIB-2), when compared to other disciplines in business and economics. In the first case, the participant identified his experience on “arguing” with his team mates on the discussion board regarding the effect of political ideology in China in choices of entry mode. He felt that he was less compelled to identify his “Asian” background in the discussion board, and that made him feel freer in setting lines of arguments to support his choice of entry mode and to criticise the role of Communist Party in China. The issue of race and ethnicity and other “sensitive” issues (NIB-3) in international business courses can be freely and openly discussed using online platforms because the identity of the students is not explicitly demonstrated as in the traditional face-to-face learning.

Stories from the field (2)

In this study, I decided to utlise the research methodology of phenomenography to explore the experiences and stories of international business students, and how did they interact with other students in the online forum. Last month, I interviewed an 2exchange students from Mexico and Korea in an effort to 'listen' to their stories. To be frank, I am sick of previous studies that keep reporting stories such as:

"overseas students are passive learners"
"American are more proactive in the class"
"Students of Chinese background are quiet, polite, and studious"

You don't need any more research to create this kind of stereotpe in international education. Although sopme of that facts may be true, it may not be applicable in the sense of international business disciplines because in this class the context is worldly and the language of discusson can be more flexible. Futhermore, the geographical and cultural boundaries are not perceived as a barrier but the vitality of international business and trade.
Some of the findings from both students' stories are very intereting but I'll let you know more about ti next time :)

A story from the fieldwork (1)

It's been a while since I updated this blog. As I've been traveling and collecting data, writting another application etc. I intend to update more stories from my interview cases and share it with the readers. In fact the case that I interviewed was a while ago but I've been listening to the story from the case which is very interesting for an educator like me. The student mentioned the use of online resources as a usual place to dump info. and non-textbook message to the students. Furthermore, some (not all) teachers frequently said "It's all there in the web! you just log in and will find it" to the students and that was directly reflected by the first participant in this study.

I also listen to the story of a business lecturer who refused to co-operate with the students in the online platform. What I heard is he/she would never accept any forms of online submission because it's never been good enough for the traditional academic! Strange but very interesting story. The students tried to negotiate but it seem to be really difficult to convincet this lecturer to change his/her mind. Strangely, this is the case of student at one of the top institutions in Australia, where almost all primary school kids in this country submitted their homeworks electronically!

ANZCIES Conference: Comparative Minds

I've just returned from the annual Australia and New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society (ANZCIES) Conference in Perth. I arrived Perth on Monday 24th in the evening and the whole flight experience was really shocking since there were, at least 5 crying babies on board! However, I spent all 4 hours reading some business magazines that I plan to read a long while ago.

The conference started on tuesday and this year there were a few delagated from the World Council of CIES, including Prof. Crane the president of the world council of CIES and Prof. David Turner from Wales. I really enjoy and was striked Prof. turner's keynote address on "comapartive method" as one of the key messages sending aroundto the audiences was "are we all comparing what we supppose to compare? If not, what will be the consequences of this malfunction of the approach?" That strikes me because in my current project, I am aiming to compare business learnig methods among fuinance, management, and accounting business but there are a number of contexts that I still haven't seriously considered to affect thee way these students learn in their classes.

The first day of ANZCIES conference was filled by a number of topics and presentations that broaden my ideas on the direction of higher education in different corners in this globe. For example, Brian Denman, the young president of the ANZCIES, led the key discussion on transnational education market and online modes of entry. Although this topic isn't new to me, I thought some of the info. on the spread of online ed. market in the global arena as discussed by Brian is well supported by the data.

The best paper - so far for me is ...of course my most favourite scholar Dr. Anne Hickling Hudson from Queensland Uni. Her topic on the collaborative project (trdae/development/education) from Cuba to Venezuela and other caribbean nations is really impressive and insightful. I mean I couldn't have any clues on quality of Cuban ed and the fact that this country is the leading nation among lativ american groups in trade and development. Good thing to share with my students in the class.

The funniest moment- my students' ponsan and our duet-presentation on social imaginary and globalisation in higher education policy in Thailand" It's fuuny because when i lloked at Ponsan I saw myself when I came back to ANZCIES for the first time in 2000 and of course I was nervours like hell! So was Ponsan and the time he presented his paper! The supportive collegiality of ANZCIES will immune my student for the future research activity! I know it will be good for him!

The hottest moment- Leslie vidovich and her presentation on "Trust in Higher Education" OMG! How could you spend 45 mins discussing "trust" in the context of the HE and Di cullen,the best mentor of the conference, from the australian catholic university started to point out role of university as public institution not profit making and its conflich with trust! hot hot hot!

Obviously, I have made a number of new contacts with "colleagues" from a number of institutions such as the University of New Wngland, Newcastle Uni., Macquarie, the World Bank, UWS etc. and I do feel this is going to be a long-term academic relationship.

2 good news: I was selected as Victoria representative for the ANZCIES! How exciting! I would love to organise and support the work of ANZCIES in Victoria and make it a better event! Secondly, Ponsan my student is nominated (and selected) as student representative for ANZCIES...well done!

My final word is there are a number of new theories (Southern theory, Human capital (in the context of comaparative ed) theory etc.) Godd learning experiences folks!