User talk:Happyweekdays/Chinese faculty in U.S
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Chinese Faculty in the United States Chinese faculty in the United States refers to people who teach or conduct research in U.S universities. Chinese faculty can be either visiting scholars with J-1 Visa or Chinese professors with permanent citizenship. With the rapid development of globalization, more available capital can be flown to the academy and make “knowledge society” possible. What comes along is the freedom of academic communication and cooperation around the world. In order to cope with the internationalization, which refers to the globalization of education, higher education in the United States are seeking more international students and international faculty to enhance its global competence. In some cases, Chinese faculty involve Chinese graduate students who work as Teaching Assistants or Research Assistants in U.S universities. The motivation to increase global competence is driven by 1) obtain the financial support, especially for universities burdened with debt. 2) enable college students to own broader worldview 3) respond to the tradition of international education exchange 4) meet the increasing academic demand from developing countries. 5) improve the research capability and ensure innovation. 6) keep diversity. Furthermore, a survey for employers illustrates that students who want to look for a job are expected to posses extra ability such as “international studies knowledge, foreign language and learning abroad experience” that are increased by Chinese faculty. The United States, as one the most popular destination for most of the students and scientists, witnessed 98,239 international scholars coming to teach, carry out researches in colleges or universities from 2006 to 2007. (Open Doors 2007: International Scholars 2007a) Among international students who were enrolled in Ph.D program, many of them remained and applied to be a faculty after graduation. (Altbach 2005,2006) The research shows science and engineering are two most preferred fields for students who want to apply to be a faculty in U.S higher education.( Gappa et al.2007). As one of the main bodies in U.S colleges and Universities, just like other minority faculty on U.S campuses, Chinese faculty mainly engages in “teaching” ”research” and “service”. The study from Ketevan and Vicki demonstrates that international faculty has less chance to get involved in institutional governance and administration, compared to their U.S counterparts. (Marvasti 2005; Skachova 2007). The study also suggests that female international faculty bears more work on teaching than male faculty (Allen 1997, Bellas and Toutkoushian 1999).
History of Chinese scholars Although earliest record of sending scholar to the United States can date back to Qing dynasty, most researchers assume that a large-scale of Chinese scholars coming to United States contributes to the Chinese economic reform in late 1978. The reform broke the long-lasting confrontation between China and U.S in 1979. With the improvement of relationship of two countries, more Chinese scholars and students were sent from China to the United States through various programs such as The U.S-China Education Clearinghouse, which is co-founded by both Committee on Scholarly Communication with the People’s Republic of China (CSCPRC) and National Association for Foreign Student Affairs (NAFSA). The survey from NAFSA reveals that the financial support for Chinese scholars mainly comes from Chinese government, partly from the private sector during 1979-1981. Data collected shows that scholars financially supported by Chinese governments tended to be more concentrated on certain few institutions. To promote “Advanced training” which suffered from the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Chinese government gave privilege to those scholars who had already worked. They were expected to retake what they had been taught by the Soviet Union or Easter Europe before and help to boost teaching and research in fields, for example, engineering and science. However, since then, the number of Chinese scholar come to the United States decreased gradually. Two main factors are identified in the research. One is increasing demand for English language skill kept an amount of Chinese scholars out of the gate. Another factor lies in host institutions that may experience different expectation and demands in terms of faculty members. The data displays that the number of Chinese scholars accepted by U.S institutions decreased from 1,945 in 1978-1981 to 592 in 1981-1982.
Challenges as a Foreign Faculty Member New social and institutional settings require U.S colleges and universities become more open to diversity. From the perspective the United States, those talented and “ the world’s best and brightest” faculty,( NAFAS: The Association of International Educators,2006) will make great contribution to higher education in the United States. However, like other international faculty, Chinese faculty is faced with a series challenge both from work and life.
Obtaining Green Card “Green Card” is legal document issued to people who want to work in the United States. People with Green Card are identified as permanent resident in the United States. For international scholars who want to be a faculty in U.S colleges or universities, Green card is necessary and essential. While the desire to obtain the Green Card inhibit most of international faculty from pursuing a better career. Once they decide to work for other institutions, they have to reapply for Green Card from the very beginning even though they have waited for a long time. What is needed to note is that there is a restriction to time for them to submit their application after their arrival in the United States. Thus the preference to stay in their current positions takes over having a risk. Nonetheless, there still exits uncertainty. International faculty reported a concern on whether they could pass to obtain the Green Card which will determine if they can continue to work in the United States
Time Management Solem &Foote (2004) point out that how to properly and scientifically assign their time to teaching, research and administrative service make most of new international faculty in a mess. Except writing reports for the research and prepare for tenure like other U.S fellows, international faculty has to collect and submit needed documents and forms in a limited time. In other words, they suffer dual stress-the complicated process of application for Green Card, and they worry about whether they are on right track towards bright career future.
Alienation and discrimination Research on foreign-born faculty and the survey taken by Jennifer M. Collins indicate that “different language and cultural values…isolation, alienation, and discrimination have all been identified as constructing an environment of higher levels of stress” (2005.p,369) Cultural difference brings different communication style, social practices, religious and social beliefs. Although students reported that it’s beneficial to have foreign-born faculty because they can have access to other different perspective and help to overcome the stereotype for people and places. Yet when two different culture encounter in class, misunderstanding can occur between the faculty and students. The data shows that language barrier is perceived as the biggest contributor to teaching ineffectiveness. Susan Fiske deems that the perception of certain group of people through language or accent is fixed, stereotypes can produce potential discrimination and prejudice thus leading to partial evaluation for those international faculty’s work.(1998)
Glass-ceiling in workplace The research learning about minority faculty in the United States manifests that international faculty is excluded out the circle dominated by the white elite with respect to academic promotion. Linda and Kathleen in The Common Experience of “Otherness: Ethnic and Racial Minority Faculty mentions that the international faculty are assigned more teaching and service, which hare less likely to be viewed as valuable contribution than research. Besides, unfamiliar with the politics inside the U.S universities, minority faculty may, as a result, be neglected on purpose and reluctant to be given away the opportunities for promotion. The research suggests that some international faculty choose to label them as “bicultural”-a way that they can maintain their own ethnic identity as well as culture, but also fit them into the White higher education system. Nevertheless, the failure to expect more understanding disappoints them, even though they sacrifice their cultural beliefs and practices to a degree.
Lack of support The interview conducted to the international faculty shows that they find difficulty in managing family and work properly. They reported that compromising to either side is likely to cause the negative influence. The loss of “extended family” in their home country in terms of raising their children after coming to the United States make the situation worse. Also, they indicate that they receive little help from their host universities.
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