scholarly journals Chinese Immigrant Academic Librarians' Experiences and Perceptions of Career Advancement in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hu Sang

<p>For many professionals, career advancement is an important goal and part of their professional life. Nevertheless, due to the ever-competitive nature of the workplaces, the prosperity of advancement is limited as the availability of resources and positions are always scarce in any given organization including the library field. Many international studies suggest that job advancement prosperity is generally even more limited for Chinese immigrants as a minority group that work and live in Western countries such as New Zealand, where the host country’s culture, value, and language are very different from those of their own country. This study has been set out to explore Chinese immigrant academic librarians’ experiences and perceptions of career advancement in New Zealand, which is an area that has yet to be studied in this country.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Hu Sang

<p>For many professionals, career advancement is an important goal and part of their professional life. Nevertheless, due to the ever-competitive nature of the workplaces, the prosperity of advancement is limited as the availability of resources and positions are always scarce in any given organization including the library field. Many international studies suggest that job advancement prosperity is generally even more limited for Chinese immigrants as a minority group that work and live in Western countries such as New Zealand, where the host country’s culture, value, and language are very different from those of their own country. This study has been set out to explore Chinese immigrant academic librarians’ experiences and perceptions of career advancement in New Zealand, which is an area that has yet to be studied in this country.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joanna Clare Hathaway

<p>This thesis discusses the background, processes, findings and recommendations of a qualitative descriptive study to explore and describe the experiences and preferences of Chinese immigrant families when receiving hospice services in New Zealand (NZ). The study arose from clinical practice questions about how hospice services were providing end-of-life care to the growing number of Chinese immigrants in NZ. With the assistance of a Cultural Advisor and a team of professional interpreters, eight bereaved Chinese immigrants living in the greater Auckland area who had cared for a terminally ill close family member with hospice service involvement were interviewed using a semi-structured approach. Participants were asked to describe their family support in NZ as well as their experiences of referral to a hospice, the types of care and treatment provided, communication processes between staff and the patient/family, care in the patient's last days of life, comparisons with care provided in their country of origin and suggestions for NZ hospice service improvements. Four key themes emerged: 1) Unfamiliar territory - participants were unfamiliar with the role or services of hospice and staff's lack of awareness of Chinese customs had led to distressing situations; 2) Service experiences and expectations - while some services were deemed useful others were not; participants had expected more medical treatments to manage the patient's symptoms; deaths in in-patient settings were less concerning to families and were preferred to deaths at home; 3) Support to cope - participants wanted more psychological support from hospice and regarded the maintenance of hope as a key component of a good death; 4) Uncovering sensitive information - families wanted to be consulted before sensitive information was discussed with patients and they preferred information to be uncovered slowly and gently to avoid causing the patient psychological harm. Recommendations for hospice service development included: improved access to information for families; greater provision of support services, especially for patients and families at home; education for hospice staff about Chinese culture and customs; options for in-patient admission in the last days of life; and the involvement of families in disclosure decisions. It is hoped that by responding to the experiences and preferences shared by participants, hospice services will be better equipped to address the end-of-life care needs of Chinese immigrant families.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joanna Clare Hathaway

<p>This thesis discusses the background, processes, findings and recommendations of a qualitative descriptive study to explore and describe the experiences and preferences of Chinese immigrant families when receiving hospice services in New Zealand (NZ). The study arose from clinical practice questions about how hospice services were providing end-of-life care to the growing number of Chinese immigrants in NZ. With the assistance of a Cultural Advisor and a team of professional interpreters, eight bereaved Chinese immigrants living in the greater Auckland area who had cared for a terminally ill close family member with hospice service involvement were interviewed using a semi-structured approach. Participants were asked to describe their family support in NZ as well as their experiences of referral to a hospice, the types of care and treatment provided, communication processes between staff and the patient/family, care in the patient's last days of life, comparisons with care provided in their country of origin and suggestions for NZ hospice service improvements. Four key themes emerged: 1) Unfamiliar territory - participants were unfamiliar with the role or services of hospice and staff's lack of awareness of Chinese customs had led to distressing situations; 2) Service experiences and expectations - while some services were deemed useful others were not; participants had expected more medical treatments to manage the patient's symptoms; deaths in in-patient settings were less concerning to families and were preferred to deaths at home; 3) Support to cope - participants wanted more psychological support from hospice and regarded the maintenance of hope as a key component of a good death; 4) Uncovering sensitive information - families wanted to be consulted before sensitive information was discussed with patients and they preferred information to be uncovered slowly and gently to avoid causing the patient psychological harm. Recommendations for hospice service development included: improved access to information for families; greater provision of support services, especially for patients and families at home; education for hospice staff about Chinese culture and customs; options for in-patient admission in the last days of life; and the involvement of families in disclosure decisions. It is hoped that by responding to the experiences and preferences shared by participants, hospice services will be better equipped to address the end-of-life care needs of Chinese immigrant families.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angel Chan

This article advocates for fluid pedagogies that align with the transnational parenting practices of immigrant families. New Zealand is now considered to be a superdiverse country with a large population of immigrants. This superdiversity phenomenon can therefore also be found in its early childhood education settings. Research has indicated that many contemporary immigrants are transnationals who maintain close connections with their home countries and frequently engage in border-crossing activities. Transnational immigrants are mobile, and their parenting strategies may be similarly fluid. This article uses findings from a research project which involved Chinese immigrant families to illustrate transnational perspectives of early childhood education and parenting practices. Narrative excerpts are presented and analysed using key theoretical constructs of transnationalism to illustrate the participants’ cultural dilemmas in their parenting, their preparedness to adapt their heritage practices and to adopt early childhood education discourses of the host country, and their agency in choosing parenting strategies that they believed best support their children’s learning. It highlights the importance of parent–teacher dialogue and of enacting a curriculum with fluid pedagogies that are responsive to heterogeneous parental aspirations.


2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn Tseng ◽  
Carolyn Y. Fang

<p class="Pa7"><strong>Objective: </strong>Chinese immigrants in the Unit­ed States undergo a transition to increased chronic disease risk commonly attributed to acculturative changes. Longitudinal data to confirm this are lacking. We examined acculturation in relation to insulin resistance in a sample of Chinese immigrant women to determine differences by level of education and possible mediation by anthropometry and diet.</p><p class="Pa7"><strong>Design: </strong>Longitudinal study.</p><p class="Pa7"><strong>Setting</strong><em>: </em>Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.</p><p class="Pa7"><strong>Participants: </strong>305 Chinese immigrant women recruited October 2005 to April 2008 and followed until April 2010.</p><p class="Pa7"><strong>Main Outcome Measures</strong><em>: </em>Association of acculturation, measured using the General Ethnicity Questionnaire – American version (GEQA), with homeostasis model assess­ment (HOMA) score as an indicator of insulin resistance, modeled using general­ized estimating equations to account for repeated measures over time.</p><p class="Pa7"><strong>Results: </strong>GEQA was associated with log HOMA score, but only in women with &lt;9 years of education (beta [SE] = .09 [.04], <em>P</em>=.02; interaction <em>P</em>=.02). The association persisted with adjustment for body mass index, waist circumference, and dietary variables.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>These findings provide longitudinal evidence that insulin resistance increases with acculturation. However, the association was apparent only in less-edu­cated immigrants and may be mediated by a pathway other than changes in anthropom­etry and diet. <em>Ethn Dis. </em>2015;25(4):443-450; doi:10.18865/ed.25.4.443</p>


Author(s):  
Kala S Retna

Over the years, there has been an increased interest among educators and researchers that today's students need new skills to excel in the highly globalised world. This resulted in looking for new pedagogies to prepare students for academic and professional life. This research builds on Gardner's (2006) framework of disciplined, synthesising, creating, respectful and ethical mindsets, which would develop capacities and skills required for the future. Qualitative research, using in-depth interviews was conducted in a New Zealand university to understand how students from two disciplines react to the five mindsets. The findings suggest that though there were some similarities and differences in perceptions by the students, the ethical mindset was strongly demonstrated by all respondents. Implications for educators and future research are discussed in this chapter.


2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xia Cui

There is growing evidence that social interactions at work with local colleagues present a real challenge for Chinese immigrants to Australia (e.g. Tomazin, 2009; Zhou, Windsor, Coyer, & Theobald, 2010), often leaving them feeling defeated and despairing, and the Australians puzzled or affronted. Seeking to understand the nature, origin, and dynamics of the problem at its sociocultural depth, a study was undertaken to examine the problematic social experience as reported by a group of Chinese immigrant professionals, from both their own and their Australian counterparts’ perspectives. The findings suggest small talk presents professionally qualified Chinese with an acute problem, and this is because the nature and dynamics of small talk are new in their social experience. Taking a sociolinguistic perspective to analyse data comprising Chinese accounts and discussions of problematic incidents and Australian commentary on these, the root of the difficulty has been revealed to lie in mismatches in the deeply held beliefs and values of Chinese and Australians about the nature of personal identity and interpersonal relationships, most pertinently, differences in their belief about how relationships beyond the intimate circle should be best managed. The article will present the findings of the study and the implications they suggest.


2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (9) ◽  
pp. 1262-1287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer J. Chen ◽  
Peizhen Sun ◽  
Zuwei Yu

The goal of this questionnaire-based study was to compare the relative endorsement of specific parenting patterns among two ethnic Chinese groups rearing preschool children: Chinese parents in China ( N = 117) and first-generation Chinese immigrant parents in the United States ( N = 94). A significant interaction effect was found between country and gender on the nonreasoning/punitive dimension of authoritarian parenting, revealing that Chinese fathers endorsed this pattern more strongly than both Chinese immigrant fathers and Chinese mothers. There was also a significant interaction effect between country and gender on the practice of shaming/love withdrawal, indicating that Chinese fathers espoused this pattern more strongly than Chinese immigrant fathers and Chinese mothers, but Chinese immigrant mothers endorsed it more strongly than Chinese immigrant fathers. Furthermore, it was revealed that Chinese immigrants endorsed beliefs about maternal involvement more strongly than their Chinese counterparts. The results are discussed in the context of cultural and contextual influences.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Egan ◽  
Rod MacLeod ◽  
Chrystal Jaye ◽  
Rob McGee ◽  
Joanne Baxter ◽  
...  

AbstractObjective:International studies have shown that patients want their spiritual needs attended to at the end of life. The present authors developed a project to investigate people's understanding of spirituality and spiritual care practices in New Zealand (NZ) hospices.Method:A mixed-methods approach included 52 semistructured interviews and a survey of 642 patients, family members, and staff from 25 (78%) of NZ's hospices. We employed a generic qualitative design and analysis to capture the experiences and understandings of participants' spirituality and spiritual care, while a cross-sectional survey yielded population level information.Results:Our findings suggest that spirituality is broadly understood and considered important for all three of the populations studied. The patient and family populations had high spiritual needs that included a search for (1) meaning, (2) peace of mind, and (3) a degree of certainty in an uncertain world. The healthcare professionals in the hospices surveyed seldom explicitly met the needs of patients and families. Staff had spiritual needs, but organizational support was sometimes lacking in attending to these needs.Significance of results:As a result of our study, which was the first nationwide study in NZ to examine spirituality in hospice care, Hospice New Zealand has developed a spirituality professional development program. Given that spirituality was found to be important to the majority of our participants, it is hoped that the adoption of such an approach will impact on spiritual care for patients and families in NZ hospices.


2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 786-796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy Wen Li ◽  
Darrin Hodgetts ◽  
Elsie Ho

Psychologists have foregrounded the importance of links between places and daily practices in the construction of subjectivities and well-being. This article explores domestic gardening practices among older Chinese immigrants. Initial and follow-up interviews were conducted with 32 Chinese adults ranging in age from 62 to 77 years. Participants recount activities such as gardening as a means of forging a new sense of self and place in their adoptive country. Gardening provides a strategy for self-reconstruction through spatiotemporally establishing biographical continuity between participants’ old lives in China and their new lives in New Zealand.


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