Abstracts – Session Three

2:00 – 3:00 – 6EN – 356

Chair: Wendy Choo

Mihaela Enache: There was a whisper in my ear: You changed my life! An interpretation of teacher identity through found poetry

This presentation will focus on interpreting and representing immigrant teacher identity through found poetry, as a part of my collaborative autoethnographic arts-based study. This study investigates immigration and its influences on teachers’ personal and professional lives. After four workshops with the participants, I have written a found poem. The poem is constructed on specific themes which surfaced during the workshops. These themes encapsulate the complexity of our teacher identity/ies. My study and this poem, in particular, are testimony to the fact that research focused on teacher identity can indeed change teachers’ lives.

Farah Jabeen: Who were we? Who are we now? Who will we be at the end of PhD journey?

The internationalisation agenda in higher education is becoming very evident and following question is gaining importance: ‘What does it mean to learn, teach and conduct research in an international higher educational institution?’ (Robinson-Pant, 2010, p.147). As an international doctoral student, I relate to this question. The highly competitive nature of 21st century higher education demands a change of place; we international students realise the need for a doctorate from a renowned international university to advance our professional lives. Often, the changes involved in this process can be challenging and the learning at doctoral level, hard.

My doctoral research involves designing and trialling a curriculum for international doctoral students and aiding them in developing language literacy, critical analysis and cultural understanding. Language literacy and critical analysis are essential for academic writing skill development. Cultural learning is integral to effective communication and network-building within the social culture of a changed academic context. I also explore to what extent international doctoral students consider doctoral learning as transformative experience. As PhD study requires long-term commitment, moments of ups and downs and then learning from those experiences, it has the potential to change our lives. We develop patience, independence and openness to accept and handle difficult situations. We learn to be confident in expressing our opinions. My 10 minute oral paper will tell a story of transformation that both my participants and I have gone through so far.

Honglu Zhang: The analysis of multiple players of the Olympic education: inside the Trojan Horse

Olympic Education (OE), as a bidding requirement of the Olympics, has attracted multiple players get involved, including school context. However, OE as a research topic is relatively imprecise and underdeveloped on Olympic related studies.

In response to this situation, this study explores the phenomenon of OE of the 2022 Winter Olympics in primary schools. Two prime research question were proposed: how disparate organizations forged their interests together in OE. How OE is actually enacted and felt by school people. This presentation will present the first research question.

In order to gain richer and more nuanced understandings of the phenomena of OE at school, I conducted a critical ethnography of two primary schools in Beijing, China; I stayed at each school twice a day on average. My evidence is gathering from a range of sources: observations within and outside of the classrooms; notes taking; talking with people; and documentary evidence.

Findings analysed via Foucault’s theorisations of governmentality. The results reveal an array of subjects (authorities, corporations, quasi-governmental bodies, individuals) and disparate, even opposing objectives (profit, attention) within this messy mix of subjects. Besides, the study discloses three technologies that help these subjects function well at school: partnership, governmental agenda, and sponsorship.

Overall, I argue that OE is a technology that took by multiple subjects to shape how school conduct OE and what students learn from these activities. The analysis offered here maybe a way to rethink that what existed in China is not Olympic values education programme or any educational programmes.