Browsing by Author "Guo, Shibaod"

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    Professional Agency of Costa Rican University EFL Teachers on Regional Campuses: A Life History Narrative
    (2020-04-28) Barrantes Elizondo, Lena; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Sewell, H. Douglas; Roy, Sylvie; Guo, Shibaod; Bhowmik, Subrata Kumar; Ewert, Doreen E.
    This study explored how the rural working contexts of Costa Rican adult educators teaching in postsecondary education interact with their condition as non-native English-speaking instructors to inform their professional agency. In this study, professional agency refers to the engagement of adult educators in making choices, influencing others, and taking stances on their work and professional identities in negotiation with their individual characteristics and social context. Data for the study come from a narrative inquiry into the complexities involved in being a university teacher in a regional campus through life history interviews, a researcher’s reflexivity journal, and supplementary documentation. Nine English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university teachers constituted the participants in this study. The data from the study were analysed and organized by following the three-dimensional, temporal-relational perspective on teacher agency offered by the ecological approach. In that view, findings were organized in relation to the past, present and future. Findings suggest that elements of the past gave teachers a broad repertoire of responses to engage and act and mainly included participants’ rural and institutional belonging and how non-native English-learning experiences inform their teaching practices. The present dimension of participants reported beliefs and the affective factors behind non-nativeness, classroom agency and institution structure, the role of their relationships, and a strong sense of commitment. The projective dimension of professional agency in this study were frequently rooted in a weighty sense of accountability for students’ and the community’s economic, social, and academic development. The need for academic professional development and empowerment through community projects stood out in participants’ stories.
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    Settlement and Integration Needs of Skilled Immigrants in Calgary: A Mixed Methods Study
    (2020-10-23) Kaushik, Vibha; Walsh, Christine Ann; Drolet, Julie Lynne; Enns, Richard A.; Guo, Shibaod; Yan, Miu Chung
    There is a significant body of scholarship on the settlement and integration of immigrants in Canada. However, most knowledge in this domain comes from government and stakeholders’ reports that are based on input from immigrants in general. This information does not focus specifically on skilled immigrants, nor does it include those in the service sector responsible for service provision of this population. Importantly, there is limited academic research available in this domain. Currently, Alberta is experiencing a unique economic climate. Most economic indicators suggest that from 2015 to 2016, Alberta experienced the worst recession in a generation, caused by the steepest and most prolonged oil price shock in Canadian history. Broader economic trends show that the integration of immigrants is affected by the economic conditions they face in their host countries. Further, there is evidence that immigrants who arrive during unfavourable economic conditions experience a permanent disadvantage in integration. Therefore, the settlement and integration of skilled immigrants warrant explicit attention at this critical point in time. Calgary is the largest city in Alberta. Not only do many immigrants arriving in Alberta choose to settle in Calgary, it is also the fourth most sought-after destination for immigrants in Canada. With an increasing number of immigrants arriving in Calgary to work and live, there is a need to better understand how immigrant services in the city support skilled immigrants and contribute to create a positive environment for their settlement and integration in Calgary. The purpose of this study was to understand the settlement and integration needs of skilled immigrants in Calgary and to identify if there are any needs that are not addressed by the services offered by the major immigrant serving agencies in the city. Primarily, the focus of the study was (1) to understand the settlement and integration needs of skilled immigrants in Calgary and (2) to identify if there are gaps in the settlement and integration services for skilled immigrants in Calgary. The study employed a convergent parallel mixed methods design in which qualitative data provided an in-depth exploration of the settlement and integration needs of skilled immigrants in Calgary as understood by immigrant serving agencies in the city, and the quantitative data focused on gaining an understanding about the areas of unmet settlement and integration needs as experienced by skilled immigrants in Calgary. I conducted 10 interviews with immigrant services providers in Calgary to collect qualitative data and analyzed the data using thematic analysis. For the quantitative analysis, I collected 120 survey responses from skilled immigrants who were residents of Calgary and who came to Canada under the Federal Skilled Worker Program. I performed chi-square analysis to reveal any significant relationship between survey items. Findings enhance our understanding of challenges faced by skilled immigrants in Calgary, identify the needs experienced by skilled immigrants in facing those challenges, highlight the gaps in the existing social services, and inform the development and implementation of effective settlement services and programs for skilled immigrants in Calgary.
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    Transcultural Competence as Transformative Learning for Building an Inclusive Society
    (2019-08-22) Jurkova, Sinela; Guo, Shibaod; Groen, Janet Elizabeth; Wong, Lloyd L.; Frideres, James S.; Tarc, Paul
    This qualitative research examines the process of acquiring transcultural competence by adult learners and how transcultural skills and knowledge empower personal growth and foster societal inclusion. The theoretical concept links transculturalism with transformative learning as a continuous process of recognizing different world views and multiple identities, adaptation and interaction in our culturally dynamic reality and transnational mobility. I contend that transculture can be perceived as encompassing and creating space for individual’s transformative learning and for developing transcultural competence. Based on findings from 21 face-to-face interviews, two focus groups, observation, and document analysis, my investigation unfolds around four areas of learning and constructing the path of transcultural competence. The first is related to developing the qualities of transcultural person. I outlined cognitive, affective, and social dimensions through which individuals develop transcultural competence. The second area reveals intrinsic and extrinsic factors that motivate learning engagement. I found the dominance of internal motivation which relates to the need of personal growth, family relationships, and adaptation to a new society and working environment. Moreover, the concept of motivation for learning on personal and organizational levels refers to a complex system recognizing individual experience, personal emotions, cognitive knowledge, and engagement in relationships. The third area is about constructing transcultural learning as a holistic transformative process that involves inquiry, framing, positionality, and progressing to dialogue, reflection, and competent action. As such, the process relates to multiple forces that connect local to global, challenging taken-for-granted frames of reference, expanding world views, integrating new practices, and transforming individuals. The fourth area reveals that individuals empowered with transcultural knowledge transfer this knowledge and act as agent of change for fostering inclusion in workplace and in society. My participants identified a deficiency in transcultural knowledge in education, organizational professional development, in government policies of integration, where the implications of this study will be valuable. This research offers a theoretical perspective and a vision aimed at dissolving cultural and ethnic binaries, the notion of belonging from culturally specific and nationally exclusive to transcultural and interspatial connections. As such transcultural learning model could have multiple implications in policies and practices in adult and higher education, immigrant integration, personal and organizational growth, for facilitating sociocultural adaptation and inclusion in the global age of transnational migration.
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    Uncanny Phenomenon: Existential Experiences among Iranian International Students
    (2020-09-15) Didehvar, Mina; Wada, Kaori; Guo, Shibaod; Domene, José F.
    As the number of Iranian international students in Canada continues to increase in the light of the recent socio-political unrests in Iran, studying the acculturation experiences of this population has become increasingly important for providing effective counselling. The existing literature on adjustment of international students has been critiqued for pathologizing the acculturation challenges of this population, while neglecting their underlying existential importance. Existential concerns, which reflect individuals’ conflicts with death anxiety, meaninglessness, isolation, and freedom, have been universally identified as a fundamental concern of humanity (Yalom, 1980). Cross-cultural transitions can provoke existential concerns since the challenges of acculturation can often touch on underlying existential meanings. In this study, I conducted semi-structured interviews with six Iranian international students to explore the existential inquiries that arose during acculturation. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith et al., 2009) of participants’ experiences resulted in three overarching themes: (a) Migration as a Boundary Situation, (b) Facing Existential Concerns, and (c) Coping with Existential Concerns. I discuss these findings within the context of acculturation literature and present implications for counsellors and researchers in the field of counselling psychology.