Starting place: PhD So Near and Yet So Far

1. Starting place:PhD So Near and Yet So Far An ethnographic evaluation of an Australian transnational education program (2006) {Fieldwork 2003/2}

2. The original PhD site • B.Ed. Program designed in Melbourne and delivered in Singapore via twinning arrangement • Accredited as a Bachelor of Education and Training (BET), Human Resource Development • Marketed as providing: • Advanced human resource development (HRD) knowledge for those interested in greater supervisory and management of HRD (twinning partner website) • Advanced skills and knowledge in training/learning, supervision and management of HRD (student orientation session a.v. materials)

3. Bounded System Units of Analysis Program aims and objectives Student Experience Australian TNE Context Singaporean National HRD Policy Context Teacher Experience Program Content BET Offshore program

4. Research Methods Textual Analysis Observation Four class groups @ 6 sessions each Interviews Lecturers Interviews prior, during & post delivery Alumni 3 Indiv. Interv. Current Participants over 3 intakes 30 interviews Twinning Partner mgmt 2 Indiv. Interviews. IDP Singapore management 1 Interview

5. Lecturers • Passionate, constructivist • Had generally enjoyed very positive learning experiences during early lives • Considered students to be • somewhat linear • Pedantic, demanding • Want to be ‘right’, have the ‘right’ answer, ‘authorised knowledge’ (e.g. Pratt & Pratt et al., 1998,99..) • Able to quickly adapt • Were challenged by unfamiliar situations e.g., gift giving, lunches, pastoral care… etc. • Were provided no formal development opportunities by the organisation prior to their first offshore teaching assignment

6. Students • ‘They just throw and you pick up’ • I was not allowed to do anything differently, you know, you had to do A, B, to get to C, … pass examinations’ • ‘For late bloomers, your destiny has been predetermined’ • The teacher says today I want you to draw an apple, and she would say, no, no, no, this is the way you must draw. And so that hindered his creativity... So in time he went to another school…and someone say “ok, I want you to draw on your own”. He needs someone to actually tell him what to do. This is what the Singapore government is doing.

7. Student motivations; instrumental, altruistic, everything in between • ‘OK, it’s a degree. Big time, you know, paper chase’ • ‘Using correct languages…seems a bit scientific…since they are not willing to go and browse through a library and come up with something else’ • ‘I still have another sixteen to twenty years of my life I can contribute [to society]’

8. Truncated programs • Conflict between program negotiators and educators • Educators considered compacted nature of program pedagogically unsound • Educators found that most aspects of delivery in Singapore took longer than they would have in Australia • Students reported concerns that there was insufficient time for reflection and that they were not ‘truly’ learning • Internal consistency of program • based on lecturer availability rather than scaffolding of subjects

9. Marketing Significance of Student Choice • ‘Prestige’ of sandstone was not a key factor • ‘Prestige’ of partner institution and employability factor in terms of Singaporean employers’ opinions of degree was more important • Practical, transferable knowledge was sought (and ROI calculated by some)

10. Learning the game (acculturation) • Lecturer ‘game’ learning demonstrated through • Adaptations to question sequencing • Elucidation techniques • Reactions to different communication styles (e.g. silence and proxemics) • Adaptations to structure of classes • Change in outside-class relationships • Helping students through their transition to a new learning culture

11. Student recommendations for lecturers • Longer sojourns; • Liaisons with offshore universities; • Australians team-teaching with locals, and networking with fellow academics in the host country. • Such collaboration would imply allowance of time for mutuality of learning.

12. Contextualisation: curriculum and content • Cognitive dissonance – exposure to foreign values: conflict with daily life roles? e.g. policies, models • Has been a problem reported since Colombo Plan days • However: dangers in making indiscriminate recommendations for curriculum change because students had the desire and the capacity to • learn from overseas models; • to evaluate the experiences of other countries; and • to discard what they considered culturally or practically inappropriate

13. Emerging Researcher Grant:A few years down the track Longitudinal study; following up with students five years after graduation from the Bachelor programme. {Fieldwork 2008}

14. Recruitment, second time around • Researcher’s personal records • Alumni Group’s annual reunion – gatekeeper • Facebook • Google • Followed up by phone calls and written invitations • Problem – possibly only obtained interviews from those who were ‘proud’ of their achievements (although anecdotal evidence suggests this is certainly not always the case…busy schedules, moved away from Singapore etc.)

15. Interviews • Please refer to handout • 14 interviews • Approximately 30% of BET intake during 2002/2003 • 7 male, 7 female • One completed MBA, 3 completed Masters in HRD • All had taken on new jobs since graduation (in some cases, several moves through organisational hierarchies) • 12 were working in roles related to the core topic of the Bachelor Degree (HRD, Learning and Development, Organisational Development, Training) • 5 of the participants working at the organisational level in very senior HRD-related roles • 13 of the 14 would be considered to have been promoted and all attribute their success to a combination of their qualification's and the knowledge, skills, confidence and ‘credibility’ gained therein

16. Initial patterns emerging • Many enrolled because of the Singaporean ‘obvious requirement for paper qualifications’ however • Found to their surprise that they enjoyed learning • Were surprised by their capacity to succeed • Eventually valued the learning more than the credentials • APPLICATION was extremely important • Almost all participants spoke of their satisfaction in being able to apply knowledge and skills in the workplace • A good quality course would provide knowledge that could be applied, too much theory was not valued at the time of the course • There was, however, a recognition that application might not come for some time. Some realised the value of theory or model much later, after considerable time for reflection.

17. Initial patterns emerging • Very sophisticated level of practice • Impressive capacity to discuss and analyse practice from a theoretical perspective • Sought practitioner credibility and found that they had achieved that goal very quickly • Enthusiasm for ongoing learning and preparedness to take risks in order to test theories and change organisational learning

18. Initial patterns emerging • In the Fly-in Fly-out model (FIFO) Australian educators were highly respected. • Considered to be knowledgeable, professional and to have a global perspective • Prepared to accept challenges and able to address questions from the class • Prepared to help students who struggled • Local lecturers were not as highly valued • Some students would not select a class taught by a local lecturer, even if the topic was of interest • Considered to be defensive, unable to deal with challenges and questions • Considered to have a limited perspective, less ‘global’ • Considered to be less professional – unprepared to help students and ‘only in it for the money’.

19. Initial patterns emerging • Most participants related their capacity to directly transfer learning from the course • Were astute about the need to ‘tweak’ theories and models to suit local needs • Some considered their ‘tweaking’ intuitive, others consciously made changes (e.g., to ‘off the shelf’/’global’ packages) • Many saw globalisation as cultural convergence particularly in relation to the HRD discipline area • Also recognised that their frames of reference had changed • Many taught regionally (e.g., in China) and considered that attitudes to learning were changing • Separated the ‘idealistic’ from the practical • Evidence of emancipatory learning

20. A practical outcome for RMIT • Three of these senior practitioners will form a panel presentation for the RMIT School of Management undergraduate HRD subject on the topic ‘Implementing HRD in Singapore’ in July 2009. To be continued…