Ashley Pullman

The making of transnational social space: Chinese women managing careers and lives between China and Canada:

China–Canada people flows are increasingly characterized by two-way movement, engendering possibilities and problems, particularly for women juggling careers and lives. Within this context, a qualitative study was conducted to trace the migratory and career trajectories of 15 Chinese migrant women between China and Canada. The study finds that to maximize their career and life spaces, the women endeavored to build and mobilize various forms of capital. Not only did they engage in migratory movement, but some of them also acquired Canadian credentials, moved into entrepreneurship and took up transient jobs. The utility and futility of women’s efforts point to “games” of differentiation emanating across fields, particularly along the lines of gender, race and class that were invoked to produce transnational spaces where existing power relations were simultaneously challenged and reaffirmed. Conceptually, this paper is informed by the concept of transnational social field and gender, race and class analysis.

Racialized Bodies, Pliable Minds: Ethnography on the Fringe of Transnational Education.

Through ethnographic research, this paper explores narratives of failure constructed within a private Australian accounting college in China. The accounts provided by teachers and students are problematized in order to address how racialization is enacted through accounts of failure within the research site. Through an interpretive theoretical framework and the methodology of Michael Burawoy, racialization is exposed as a form of justification for the concerns teachers and students faced. Within accounts of failure, racial framing of the body and the acculturated minds of students were simultaneously ascribed negative attributes deemed in contradiction with this form of transnational education. In unpacking how these processes of racialization are tied to the very structure of transnational education itself, this paper addresses how standardized and globalized curricula produce unintended local effects.

Two Sides of the Same Coin? Applied and General Higher Education Gender Stratification in Canada

Abstract In this chapter, we take up the distinction between applied and general fields of study in order to consider how patterns of gender stratification between them may differ. Purporting to offer industry- and firm-specific skills, applied fields of study are often differentiated from general education pathways that are offered within the university sector. However, as our research demonstrates, there is considerable interplay between these two forms of education when higher education engagement over the life course is examined. Using sequence and cluster analysis, we illustrate five ideal-typical higher education pathways in a sample of males and females over a 22-year period in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The gendered patterns of how individuals choose and move between general and applied fields of study offer a deeper account of stratification within general and applied skill acquisition and provide nuance concerning how vocational education can be conceptualised in relation to the actual higher education pathways students undertake. In Canada, where a high percentage of students gain university-level credentials, vertical and horizontal gender stratification within applied and general fields of study is distinctive and highlights system-specific engagement.

Emancipation, Marketisation, and Social Protection: The Female Subject within Vocational Training Policy in Canada, 1960-1990.

This paper examines Canadian federal and cross-provincial higher education policy from 1960 to 1990, a critical time when provisions for vocational and adult training came under the auspices of governmental concern, justified under both an economic rationale and as a way to address persistent forms of inequality. The problematisation of skill during this period had particular gendered implications, as addressing inequality through education subsidies intersected with the perceived training needs of employers and the market. Employing Nancy Frasers theory of a ‘triple movement’, the following paper ‘takes stock’ of how the three political forces of social movements, marketisation, and social protection have shaped gendered discourses of education and training, the implications for which are of continued relevance to those trying to understand the education and training within the contemporary neo-liberal state.

Researching multiple publics through latent profile analysis: Similarities and differences in science and technology attitudes in China, Japan, South Korea and the United States

How science and technology attitudes vary across the United States, China, South Korea and Japan – all of which top Bloomberg’s list of high-tech centralization – is explored through data from the sixth wave of the World Values Survey (2010–2014). The following study examines the presence of different types of attitudinal groups using latent profile analysis. Not only do unique attitudinal groups exist in each country, but each group is uniquely influenced by select demographic characteristics, including education, age, gender, religiosity, employment status and individual interaction with technology. The findings provide insight into public attitudes towards science and technology across social and cultural contexts and generate nuanced understandings of similar and different attitudinal groups in East Asia and the United States.

Vertically Segregated Higher Education and the Life Course: Comparing Patterns Over 28 Years

We employ longitudinal survey data from the British Columbia, Canada Paths on Life’s Way project to determine educational participation and completion patterns through a vertically segregated articulated postsecondary system and occupational outcomes 28 years later. Also, we examine the extent to which ascriptive characteristics have “dissipating” or “lingering” effects on educational and occupational outcomes. Through sequence analysis and cluster analysis, we illustrate postsecondary enrolment and completion rates by institutional type from 1988 to 2016. We reveal five distinct clusters. We use multivariate analyses to demonstrate how education and employment outcomes differ for those who embarked on “traditional” and “non-traditional” higher education pathways. We conclude that ascriptive characteristics in mid-adulthood have had both dissipating and lingering effects on educational and occupational outcomes.

General and work-based extrinsic educational beliefs across time: from late youth to middle adulthood

ABSTRACT The degree to which individuals consider education to be a valuable pursuit varies. Beliefs differ regarding the perceived purpose of education and whether it is deemed necessary for future life course and employment success. In this study, we employ a longitudinal data set that follows a cohort of high school graduates over 28 years to examine how different types of extrinsic educational beliefs change from late youth to middle adulthood. Growth curve modelling generates insight into how ascriptive factors in relation to education and employment experiences have an impact on initial beliefs in late youth and how they change over time. General and work-based extrinsic belief statements exhibit both similar and dissimilar patterns of change in terms of ascriptive characteristics and life course experiences. Employment and post-secondary education are influential factors on both types of extrinsic educational beliefs. Women and individuals from highly educated backgrounds express more positive general – but not work-based – extrinsic educational beliefs in late youth. Nevertheless, there is a trend of convergence with men and individuals without highly educated parents over time.