MA in Education - Dissertation Proposal Form

Name:
Supervisor: Dr Emma Jones
Date of submission of first draft of proposal: 11th December 2020
Date of submission of revised proposal:21th January 2021
Date of submission of revised proposal:21th February 2021
Date of submission of revised proposal: 26th February 2021
Date of approval:
Supervisor’s signature/confirmation of approval:

The approved form should be included as an appendix in the final dissertation.

The purpose of the proposal:

The purpose of writing the dissertation proposal is to ensure that you have a clear starting
point for your work on your dissertation. This will require:

 Evidence of some prior knowledge of your topic: this may come either from your
professional experience, personal experience, news media and/or from the research
literature
 Evidence of some prior reading of research in the area: you should be able to tell us
what some previous researchers have written about the topic and the kinds of issues
or questions they identified.
 A clear focus for your study: Usually stated in a research aim/objective/research
question(s)
 Possible methods: These don’t need to be definitive at this stage, but the more
detail you can provide the better. Your methods need to provide you with
information that will enable you to achieve your research aim/answer your research
question(s).

You should demonstrate these requirements by completing the 5 sections below: Title, Your
own position/experience of education, Rationale, Literature, Research aim/question(s),
Methods. You can write directly into the boxes and they will grow as necessary.
One you have tried to formulate each of these areas of your study, you will be able to begin
a discussion with your supervisor and, if necessary, refine your ideas so you have an
achievable MA dissertation project.
Dissertation Proposal

Provisional title:
How does discrimination and prejudice affect Chinese postgraduate students’
Satisfaction and motivation studying for Master’s degree in the UK

Your own position / experience of education:

I am a Chinese student studying a master’s degree in the UK, and when I finish, I intend to
further pursue a PhD overseas. Many of my friends have chosen to study abroad,
especially in counties which have advanced education systems like the UK. However,
some of these friends have been unhappy during their learning process and experienced
discrimination and prejudice. So much so that they suggested to me that I should not
study abroad. However, I have always been a supporter of studying abroad and I am very
interested in the issue of equity in education. So, I want to identify some possible
inequities Chinese students may face during their studies. Not only can this research
potentially help Chinese students but also all overseas students to better understand
these challenges and overcome them, it can also help universities to understand the
experience of their students and take steps to mitigate discrimination and prejudice.

Rationale/context/definition of your topic/problem/issue:

1.This proposed study will have implications for how universities and governments better
support students and mitigate any discrimination and prejudice they might face
2.Future international students from China can better understand the challenges they
might face and know what measures are in place to keep them safe and ensure equity
3.Countries and universities can attract more overseas students, including Chinese
students, by recognizing and tackling those problems and providing more inclusive
environment.

Relevant Literature:
You should summarise some key points from literature you have read on your topic. You
should refer to and cite between 2 and 5 texts you have read. Include a reference list of
the books you have cited after your summary of key points.

China is the largest source of overseas students in the world.(Cheung et al., 2019)
According to the statistics of Ministry of Education (2018), China has over 600,000 self-
funded students studying overseas in 2017. Taking into account tuition fees, living
expenses, fees for education agents and extra-curricular activities such as learning
English, Chinese students bring in a global revenue of $56 billion annually (Caixin Global,
2017). As the main hosting country of Chinese students, the UK Higher Education
Statistics Agency (HESA) data show that the total number of Chinese graduates (at both
undergraduate and postgraduate levels) increased from around 6000 at the beginning of
the twenty-first century to more than 20,000 in 2009. In 2018, 35 percentage of non- EU
students who study in the UK were from China. The number of Chinese students
increased from 89,540 to 120,385 from 2014/2015 to 2018-2019 and China sent more
students to the UK than any other overseas country (HESA,2019). Therefore, there is a
growing need to understand this particular international student population—their needs
and expectations, what factors may affect their motivation to study abroad, especially
when the global competition for international students has become more intense and
fierce in recent years (Cheng, Cheung and Ng, 2016)

Literature on Chinse international students tends to focus on their motivations

(Nyaupane, eta. 2011), and makes general observations about opportunities, and
challenges they face (Kim,2011) However, discrimination is reported to be one of the
most significant acculturative stressors for international students from mainland China
(Yu & Zhang, 2016). Despite this, there is little literature which focuses on experiences of
marginalisation, prejudice, stereotypes and racism for this large and growing group of
students.(Ye and Edwards, 2017). Data from the Times Higher Education (2020) shows an
increase in terms of racism and discrimination reported by Chinese students in the UK,
something that has been exacerbated by the global pandemic. While talking with
international students, researchers at the Open University, Trinity College Dublin, and the
University of Surrey have found that Chinese students have experienced higher levels of
anxiety since the pandemic begins (Anon, 2020). "I have to go back home; it is not safe for
me to stay here." Said a Chinese student. Dr Héliot (2020), one of the research team
scholars, raised the importance for people to take actions to fight the anti-Chinese
expression since discrimination could post long term harmful effects on the international
students in the UK (cited from Pretara, 2020). The findings echo what Weale (2020) found
after conducting interviews with Chinese students who describe Chinese students fleeing
from the UK after experiencing racist attacks.

There is plenty of research discussing the discrimination about BAME groups in the UK
generall (Archer and Francis, 2005; Kwan Chan, Cole and Bowpitt, 2007; Brown, 2009;
Boliver, 2016); however, little has been put in the higher education industry, especially
the Chinese students. For example, identifying the little theoretical or policy attention has
been given to Chinese pupils' experiences of education, Archer and Francis (2005)
explored the nature and form of racisms experienced by Chinese pupils and their
constructions of the reasons as well as response to the racisms they meet, but with the
focus on the from Years 10 and 11 rather than higher education in the UK. Similarly, Chau
and Yu (2001) explored the social exclusion explored by Chinese students, but did not
focus on students group in the higher educational institution in the UK. Furthermore,
some literature like Tian & Lowe (2009) and Ding (2009) did proposed some negative
experiences Chinese students meet when pursuing the higher education in the UK, but
analyzed more from the perspective of Cultural Identity or national identity, rather than
focus on the depth about how students meet those difficulties and how these affect their
study experience in the UK. Therefore, when the largest student group faces injustice, I
wonder how these negative feelings affect their study in detail and what universities can
do to help them.

Research aims/questions:
A research aim can be quite general and usually relates to what you hope to understand
better after you have done the research. The research questions need to be more specific
and focussed on the specific context or data that you will be able to collect and analyse.

Research aim: 1. To identify what forms of discrimination prejudice Chinese students

encounter when studying in the UK
2. To understand how discrimination and prejudice affect Chinese students Satisfaction
and motivation of studying in the UK.

Methods:
I will rely on interpretivist paradigm and adopt qualitative research method. According to
interpretivist paradigm, the purpose of research is to develop understanding of social
action by examining how people make sense of their experience.(Neuman, 2014). They
consider that the task of the researcher is to understand the multiple social constructions
of meaning and knowledge. Hence they tend to use interviews and observation as
research methods, and the central aim or purpose of research is understanding. (Robson
and McCartan, 2016). Interviews as a common method in qualitative research which
enable participants express how they regard situations from their own point of view in
detail, which caters my research aim that to explore the students’ experience of how
these prejudice or discriminations affect their life.

In-depth semi-structured interviews are an efficient and widely used research tool that
can generate rich qualitative data focusing on the individual. Semi-structured interviews
are considered to be the most effective method for collecting data requiring accurate
answers to RQ and are recognized as a preferred method for qualitative data collection
(Gubrium & Holstein, 2002). Barribal and While (1994) argued that interviews have great
potential in collecting detailed and in-depth word descriptions, and participants are
allowed to perform in a natural setting to reveal more valuable information. For the semi-
structure interview, “the topics and questions are given, but the questions are open-
ended and the wording and sequence may be tailored to each individual interviewee and
the responses given, with prompts and probes” （Cohen et al. 2018, p.511）It means on
the one side, it allows certain degree of comparison and hence ensures some consistency
which similar to structure interview by asking the same question to different interviwees.
On the other side, Interviews vary greatly in their degree of structure, ranging from being
almost fully structured to allowing the interviewer much greater flexibility and freedom
(Robson, 2016), which may lead to more insight about this topic as participants relatively
have more opportunities to include their thoughts and responses that are outside of the
interview schedule.At the same time, after completing the semi-structured interview
guide, the interviewees can be guided to think more deeply about some issues (Galletta &
Cross, 2013).

The study plans to interview 4 Chinese students, because this study aim to understand
the sample in depth rather than be general (Turner and Meyer, 2000), 4 would be
appropriate and feasible during the time limitation. Simultaneously, according to Robson
and McCartan (2016), the principle of choosing purposive sampling is the researcher’s
judgement as to typicality or interest. The sample is built up for the purpose of enabling
the researcher to satisfy their concrete and specific needs in the study. They need to have
been studying or studied for the master degree in the UK and have the at least 6 moths
experience based in the UK because interview should select participants according to
their capacity to provide reliable and valid information about the topic (Turner and
Meyer, 2000), information is more reliable if they had based in the UK. Based on principle
of validity and reliability in selection (Turner and Meyer, 2000), I am quite interested in
selecting a sample of students who are pursuing a Master’s in Education, the same degree
programme that I am studying. The reason for this choice is that it is a programme I have
personal knowledge of, and students who study this programme are used to discussing
sociological issues, such as discrimination and prejudice. In addition, considering it is a
very sensitive topic, selecting people who is at the same college with me may help them
feel more comfortable to illustrate their experience and makes the interview more
reliable. While this may be the case, I also acknowledge that some people may feel more
concerned about anonymity while discussing these issues. So I will ensure that I take all
steps necessary to make sure that participants are anonymised in my dissertation,
including their names and any identifiable features. In addition, considering the need of
variety in demographic features (Flick, 2007), I will select interviewees based on their
gender, place of origin, Length of study to enhance an equal representation of the
sampling.

For recruitment, a poster will be created which include information of the research aim,
purpose and potential implication. Then the poster will be sent to the programme leader
of MA education in the IOE, to ask if he can help me to send this message to Chinese
students who study in the IOE. In the poster the willingness of whether they want to be as
an interviewee will be asked. students Recruitment of study samples will be conducted
from students who volunteer. The interviews intend to understand students' experience
and their thoughts about the research topics, and the interview will use one to one base
and last for 30-60 minutes. Content form and information sheet will be provided
previously to each interview. Considering the Covid-19, all interviews will be online and all
the interviews will be audio-taped and transcribed and coded in NVivo, then are analyzed
by researcher using discourse analysis.
Qualitative researchers are frequently interested not just in what people say but also in
the way that they say it(Bryman, 2016)
Ethic and legal obligation are important for research. According to brooks (2016), ethics
issues should be considered throughout the project. I will follow the 5 steps below to
ensure the ethic in the whole research process and keep reflecting.
1.Obtain permission from IOE to conduct the research.
2.Consent form will be distributed to students in advance.
3.Researcher is obliged to explain the relevant questions of the study to the questionable
participants if necessary.
4.Inform participants the right to withdraw from research without providing reasons.
5.All participants’ identity will remain anonymity and their response will remain
confidential.

For the positionality, it has been defined by Merriam et al.(2001) is “thus determined by
where one stands in relation to the other” (p. 411). I am also a Chinese student who
studying overseas. To some extent, my personal experience as a Chinese student who is
 currently studying in the UK and interests led me to choose the research area, my working
experience with potential oversea students inspired me to conduct mixed research to
explore their stories. Bourke (2014) argued that positionality is more than identity, it
included the implication associated with the identity, how participants saw researchers
and how their perceptions influenced the research. On the one side, it might be the case
that bias may come in for me as a researcher. Therefore, when I reflect my background, I
ask myself the following questions before conducting the research. For example, how
does my positionality as a research student who conduct research in the same institution
where I am studying affect the formulation of the research questions, research design and
the actual interactions with participants? Am I as a complete insider? If my questions will
trigger their negative feelings since the research is about inequalities that they have met
before? I will constantly reflect on my positionality and the impacts of it on my research.
At the same time, I will keep in mind to be transparent with my participants by
communicating with them regularly and directly. On the other side, it also could be an
advantage since I can access my sample easier and I seems closer and more reliable to
them, it is especially important when it comes to this kind of sensitive topic like prejudice
and discrimination.

PLEASE NOTE: This document provides a basis for your further reflection and we
expect that it will need further work. Your tutor will give you feedback and
suggestions about how to develop it.

Reference:
Anon, 2020. Chinese students in UK ‘report increased racism and discrimination.’ Times
Higher Education, (2456), pp.Times Higher Education, 2020–05-12 (2456).
Kim, H.Y., 2011. International graduate students' difficulties: graduate classes as a
community of practices. Teaching in Higher Education, 16(3), pp.281–292.
Pretara, M., 2020. Chinese Students In The UK Report Increased Racism And Discrimination.
[online] Wessex Scene. Available at:
https://www.wessexscene.co.uk/news/2020/06/01/chinese-students-in-the-uk-report-
increased-racism-and-discrimination/. [Accessed 19 January 2021].
Nyaupane, Gyan P, Paris, Cody Morris & Teye, Victor, 2011. Study abroad motivations,
destination selection and pre-trip attitude formation. The international journal of tourism
research, 13(3), pp.205–217.
Weale, S., 2020. Chinese Students Flee UK After 'Maskaphobia' Triggered Racist Attacks.
[online] the Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/mar/17/chinese-students-flee-uk-after-
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