I am very grateful to the Li Ka Shing (Canada) Foundation and the Faculty of Arts for providing me the opportunity to travel to Shantou University in May 2024. I enjoyed spending quality time with McGill and Shantou students and faculty, shared in their enthusiasm for the program, and learned how impactful an experience such as this was for academic development. I was proud to be part of this moment in their lives, representing McGill, and contributing to this important exchange.
I was at Shantou University between May 3rd and May 17th, 2024. Ms. Yunung Lee, a doctoral student in the School and Social Work is the principal investigator of a project entitled “Barriers and Promoters of Educational Upward Mobility Among Students from Lower SES Backgrounds in Elite and Non-Elite Universities in China and Taiwan.” She and I were both at Shantou to implement this project along with Professor Mao from the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Shantou University. Thus, my major preoccupation while at Shantou University was to support the implementation of this research project.
We were fortunate to have successfully obtained ethics approval from both Shantou and McGill Universities prior to my departure on the 30th of April 2024. Recruitment for the study originally stipulated that students would be invited to attend a presentation on study abroad. Ms. Lee, Professor Philip Buckley, and I gave 2 presentations, one at the East campus of Shantou University, on May 8th, and a second at the main campus on May 9th. Both presentations were attended by approximately 25 students each. The presentation provided data about trends in student mobility among Chinese students, benefits and challenges of studying abroad, and the Li Ka Shing exchange initiative between Shantou and McGill Universities. The presentation gave Shantou University students an opportunity to ask questions about the exchange program, and more specifically about the student culture at 㽶Ƶ. At the end of the presentation, students were invited to participate in our study. Faculty were recruited through an invitation sent by Dean Mao’s office and through snowball sampling.
Sixteen students and ten faculty participated in semi-structured interviews. This was an extraordinary recruitment achievement within a one-month period. These interviews have been transcribed, and analysis is underway. A publication will be forthcoming.
In addition to implementing the study, I also met with a faculty member, Professor Liping Li, whose research focusses on caregiver education for children who are ‘left behind’. This is a phenomenon that is well-documented in the Chinese context, whereby parents leave behind their children to be raised by their grandparents in order to seek employment in larger urban centres. She was implementing a drowning prevention program, working with grandparents to raise awareness about the dangers of unsupervised time around waterways. During our meetings, I had an opportunity to ask her questions about the education of children with disabilities in China. I am grateful to Professor Li for her time and interest and our conversation about our respective areas of research continues.
My last meeting was with Dean Mao and Ms. Yunung Lee during which we discussed the recruitment process and next steps regarding data analysis and manuscript preparation. I look forward to building these relationships and continuing to explore ways in which I may contribute going forward.