From Intellectual Mobility to Transnational Professional Space: Experiences of Internationally Educated Chinese Academic Returnees

Date
2018-07-05
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Abstract
Transnational migration brings to the fore the various connections migrants maintain with their home and sojourn countries. This study explores, within the transnational professional space, how internationally educated Chinese academic returnees maintain transnational professional ties and networks with their host countries of doctoral studies for their academic growth, and the impacts of such networks. This study employs the methodology of a qualitative case study of 12 internationally educated Chinese academics from the social sciences and humanities within three higher education institutions in Beijing, China. It confirms the significance of meso-level institutions, communities and networks in shaping returnee teachers’ academic growth, highlighting issues of access to multiple transnational communities of practice, the quality of the institutional platform and the availability of occupational space. It concludes that Chinese academic returnees have formed a virtual transnational diaspora, and contributed to strengthening the inter-dependence of academics across borders in academic and research collaboration.
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Keywords
transnational migration, transnationality, transnational professional space, Diaspora, intellectual mobility, Chinese academic returnee, academic adaptation, lifelong learning, Community of Practice, transnational academic collaboration
Citation
Lei, L. (2018). From intellectual mobility to transnational professional space: experiences of internationally educated Chinese academic returnees (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/32303