An autoethnographic narrative of the diasporic experience of a Chinese female Ph.D. returnee’s entry into the domestic academic job market during COVID-19: An ecological environment perspective

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In this study, Chinese female Ph.D. returnees’ diasporic experience when entering into the domestic academic job market (DAJM) was examined from an ecological environment perspective. This was realized through an autoethnographic narrative of the author’s lived experience of entering the DAJM during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a recollection of the narrative recorded through E-diaries, emails, and visual media, specifically WeChat, from April 2020 to May 2021, the findings revealed that such a diasporic experience comprised diasporic emotion because of expectational pressures in the microsystem, diasporic identity conflict that originated from gender stereotypes in the mesosystem, self-reflexive diasporic consciousness of both disadvantages and advantages related to Guanxi (social networks) in the exosystem, the diasporic feeling of being exiled in the DAJM given the academic culture in relation to degree origin bias and prioritizing publications in the macrosystem, and the self-constructed diasporic mindset that experienced uncertainties and anxieties associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in the chronosystem. This study facilitated a sociological exposition and understanding of the complex situation of Ph.D. returnees’ experience of entering the DAJM. It calls for a shifting of blaming the victims risk in relation to hard indicators regarding Ph.D. returnees’ competitiveness and employability in the DAJM. This has implications for both academic and recruiting practices in China. Furthermore, this study offers future overseas doctoral students and Ph.D. returnees a more practical sense of the potential mobility frictions embedded in transnational education mobility in relation to their job-seeking experience in homelands.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 Allbon, C., "“Down the rabbit hole–curiouser and curiouser”: Using autoethnography as a mode of writing to re-call, re-tell and re-veal bodily embodiment as self-reflexive inquiry" 1 (1): 62-71, 2012

2 Xu, C. L, "‘Diaspora at home’: Class and politics in the navigation of Hong Kong students in Mainland China’s Universities" 2019

3 Lorimer-Leonard, R, "Writing on the move: Migrant women and the value of literacy" University of Pittsburgh Press 2017

4 Mok, K. H, "Will Chinese students want to study abroad post-COVID-19" University World News

5 Hao, J., "When sojourners return: Employment opportunities and challenges facing high-skilled Chinese returnees" 25 (25): 22-40, 2016

6 Hammersley, M, "What is qualitative research?" Bloomsbury Academic 2013

7 Huang, F., "What determinants affect doctoral students’ career plans? Main findings from a 2018 survey of Chinese doctoral students" 8 (8): 99-116, 2019

8 Leung, M. W. H, "Unraveling the skilled mobility for sustainable development mantra: An analysis of ChinaEU academic mobility" 5 (5): 2644-2663, 2013

9 Hu, D., "Understanding transnational academic migration: US doctorate recipients’ choices of returning to Chinese academe" 21 : 1-17, 2021

10 Xu, Y. R., "Understanding the complexity of Chinese rural parents’ roles in their children’s access to elite universities" 42 (42): 555-570, 2021

11 "UIS.UNESCO"

12 Bronfenbrenner, U., "Toward an experimental ecology of human development" 32 : 513-531, 1977

13 Grossman, J., "Toward a definition of diaspora" 42 (42): 1263-1282, 2019

14 Vertovec, S., "Three meanings of “diaspora”, exemplified among South Asian religions" 6 (6): 277-299, 1997

15 Brubaker, R., "The “diaspora” diaspora" 28 (28): 1-19, 2005

16 Ministry of Education, "The statistics on the overseas students in 2019"

17 Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, "The statistics on the national human resource in 2019"

18 Band, A., "The new diasporism and the old diaspora" 1 (1): 323-331, 1996

19 Geertz, C., "The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays" Basic Books 1973

20 DDG/P Office and OECD, "The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on jobs and incomes in G20 economies"

21 Powell, K., "The future of the postdoc" 520 (520): 144-, 2015

22 Coffey, A, "The ethnographic self" SAGE 1999

23 Bronfenbrenner, U., "The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design" Harvard University Press 1979

24 Charusheela, S., "The diaspora at home" 19 (19): 279-299, 2007

25 Gould, J, "The career costs of COVID-19: How postdocs and PhD students are paying the price"

26 Burris, V., "The academic caste system: Prestige hierarchies in Ph.D. exchange networks" 69 (69): 239-264, 2004

27 Coffey, A., "The Sage encyclopaedia of social science research methods" Sage Publications 45-46, 2004

28 Xu, X., "The Eastern train on the Western track: An Australian case of Chinese Doctoral students’ adaptation" Springer Singapore 2020

29 Gerhards, J., "Social class and transnational human capital: How middle and upper class parents prepare their children for globalization" Routledge 2017

30 Skilton-Sylvester, E., "Should I stay or should I go? Investigating Cambodian women’s participation and investment in adult ESL programs" 53 (53): 9-26, 2002

31 Chen, H., "Scaning Chinese education issues" Anhui Education Publisher 14-17, 2005

32 Jiang, J, "Riding over the national and global disequilibria: International learning and academic career development of Chinese Ph.D. Returnees" 2020

33 Conti, A., "Revealed preference analysis of PhD students’ choices over employment outcomes" 44 (44): 1931-1947, 2015

34 Li, J., "Returnee faculty responses to internationalizing “academic ecology” for creating world-class universities in China’s elite universities" 81 : 1063-1078, 2020

35 Yang, L., "Research productivity of Chinese young thousand talents" 97 : 17-18, 2019

36 Liu, G., "Research on guiding overseas teachers to participate in the internationalization construction of colleges" 22 (22): 192-193, 2019

37 Gu, J, "Reproducing “academic successors” or cultivating “versatile experts”: Influences of doctoral training on career expectations of Chinese PhD students" 76 (76): 427-447, 2018

38 Pham, T., "Reconceptualizing employability of returnees: What really matters and strategic navigating approaches" 81 : 1329-1345, 2020

39 Silander, C., "Nordic research on gender equality in academic careers: A literature review" 2021

40 Neal, J. W., "Nested or networked? Future directions for ecological systems theory" 22 (22): 722-737, 2013

41 Park, G., "Narratives of East Asian women teachers of English: Where privilege meets marginalization" Multilingual Matters 2017

42 Woolley, R., "Mobility matters: Research training and network building in science" 6 (6): 159-184, 2008

43 Kwak, D., "Literature examined under the diasporic Lens: Emotional diaspora present in madame butterfly" 4 (4): 18-24, 2015

44 Caprile, M., "Introduction to the special issue Gender and science: Old challenges, new approaches" 54 (54): 108-129, 2011

45 Conquergood, D., "Interventions and radical research" 46 (46): T1-74, 2002

46 Shen, W, "International status anxiety and higher education: soviet legacies in China and Russia" Comparative Education Research Centre and Springer 309-334, 2018

47 Jiang, J., "International mentorship and research collaboration: Evidence from European-trained Chinese Ph.D. returnees" 14 (14): 180-205, 2019

48 Xu, X., "Incentivizing international publications: Institutional policymaking in Chinese higher education" 46 (46): 1132-1145, 2021

49 Zweig, D., "Images of the world: Studying abroad and Chinese attitudes towards international affairs" 202 : 290-306, 2010

50 Yang, X., "How the world-class university project affects scientific productivity? Evidence from a survey of faculty members in China" 31 (31): 583-605, 2018

51 Tomaselli, K. G., "Handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies" Sage 347-372, 2008

52 Johns, C, "Guided reflection: A narrative approach to advancing professional practice" Wiley-Blackwell 2010

53 Bian, Y. J., "Guanxi and the allocation of jobs in urban China" 140 : 971-999, 1994

54 Zweig, D., "Globalization and transnational human capital: Overseas and returnee scholars to China" 179 : 735-757, 2004

55 Chen, Q., "Globalization and transnational academic mobility: The experiences of Chinese academic returnees" Springer 2017

56 Rizvi, F, "Globalisation and education: Critical perspectives" Routledge 205-225, 2000

57 Kim, J., "Global cultural capital and global positional competition: International graduate students’ transnational occupational trajectories" 37 (37): 30-50, 2016

58 Campt, T., "Editorial: Gendering diaspora: Transnational feminism, diaspora and its hegemonies" 90 : 1-8, 2008

59 Bronfenbrenner, U., "Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives" 22 : 723-742, 1986

60 Jung, J., "Domestic and overseas doctorates and their academic entry-level jobs in South Korea" 7 (7): 205-222, 2018

61 Winkler, I., "Doing autoethnography: Facing challenges, taking choices, accepting responsibilities" 24 (24): 236-247, 2018

62 Bronfenbrenner, U., "Development as action in context: Problem behavior and normal youth development" Springer 287-309, 1986

63 Headworth, S., "Credential privilege or cumulative advantage? Prestige, productivity, and placement in the academic sociology job market" 94 (94): 1257-1282, 2016

64 Stevenson, A, "Coronavirus Strands China’s Students, in a Dilemma for Beijing"

65 Sparkes, A. C., "Contemporary British autoethnography" Sense Publishers 203-211, 2013

66 Zweig, D., "Competing for talent: China’s strategies to reverse the brain drain" 145 : 65-90, 2006

67 Bochner, A. P., "Communication as…: Perspectives on Theory" SAGE 110-122, 2006

68 Lin, P., "Chinese diaspora” at home”: Mainlander Taiwanese in Dongguan and Shanghai" 11 (11): 43-64, 2011

69 Tharenou, P, "China’s reverse brain drain: Regaining and retaining talent" 44 (44): 55-74, 2014

70 Kellogg, R. P., "China’s brain gain: Attitudes and future plans of overseas Chinese students in the US" 8 (8): 83-104, 2012

71 "China Statistical Yearbook"

72 Lee, J. J., "Brain gain or brain circulation? US doctoral recipients returning to South Korea" 59 (59): 627-643, 2010

73 Chang, E., "Autoethnography as method" Left Coast Press 2008

74 Adams, T. E., "Autoethnography" Oxford University Press 2015

75 Delicado, A., "Analysing the Consequences of International Academic Mobility" Cambridge Scholars Publishing 163-180, 2011

76 European University Institute, "Academic careers observatory: Impact of Covid-19 on the academic job market in the social sciences and the humanities"

77 Shen Wenqin ; Gao Yao ; Zhang Bin ; Jiang Jin, "Academia or enterprises: gender, research outputs, and employment among PhD graduates in China" 교육연구소 19 (19): 285-296, 2018

78 Bamberg, M, "APA handbook of research methods in psychology" American Psychological Association 77-94, 2012

79 Hao, J., "A tale of sea turtles: Job-seeking experiences of hai gui (high-skilled returnees) in China" 25 (25): 243-260, 2012