| Popis: |
Demographic patterns have been changing in Australian pharmacy schools, with increasing numbers of culturally and/or linguistically diverse (CALD) students, particularly from Confucian Heritage Cultures. Anecdotally, CALD students at The University of Queensland were believed to not be performing as well academically as their non-CALD counterparts, and appeared to be less engaged in classroom-based learning activities. In the first phase of this mixed methods study, the academic performance of CALD pharmacy students at UQ was evaluated quantitatively. The methodology was a retrospective cohort study using secondary institutional data. Participants were a census of students who graduated with an undergraduate pharmacy degree between 2001-2010. An original taxonomy for assigning cultural and linguistic diversity was developed and led to three demographic categories; CALD international, CALD domestic and non-CALD domestic. Academic performance was evaluated using cumulative grade point average. As a group, non-CALD students outperformed CALD students. Phase 1 thus confirmed staff an case study design of nine late-stage domestic and international UQ pharmacy students from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. However, this study also identified many academically successful CALD international and CALD domestic individuals. Beginning in the mid-1990s, a growing body of research began to establish a relationship between aspects of student success and ‘student engagement’ or participation in ‘educationally effective practices’ (Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, & Whitt, 2005; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991, 2005; Pike & Kuh, 2005). However, despite extensive empirical research and significant theorising via the development of conceptual frameworks, few studies had explored the potential role of cultural and linguistic diversity in engagement, learning and academic performance. A substantial gap in the student engagement literature was CALD students who had become academically successful. Thus, the aim of the Phase 2 qualitative study was to explore, in-depth, the engagement and learning experiences of academically successful CALD students in our local context. The methodology was a multiple-case study design of nine late-stage domestic and international UQ pharmacy students from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The data collection methods richly captured the participants’ backgrounds, ‘voices’ and perspectives regarding their perceptions of academic success, engagement and learning; educationally effective practices; and the factors influencing their engagement, learning and academic performance. The novel methods included demographic questionnaires, learning metaphors, student-generated artefacts (weeklong diaries and ‘Prescriptions for Success’), and three semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed thematically using an interpretivist, social constructivist research paradigm and informed by a theoretical framework drawing on Kuh et al.’s framework for student success (Kuh, Kinzie, Buckley, Bridges, & Hayek, 2006), Kahu’s conceptual framework of student engagement (Kahu, 2013) and Paul Trowler’s notion of moderate essentialism in relation to culture (P. Trowler, 2014). The results of this case-study methodology were presented as individual case narratives and a crosscase analysis. The Phase 2 study revealed that engagement was highly individualised. Each of the participants developed their own repertoire of educationally effective practices, and forged their own unique pathway to success. However, even students who were academically successful by the end of their studies, both CALD and non-CALD, experienced challenges transitioning to university. This process often persisted beyond first year. What this research contributed to our theorising of student engagement was how successful students navigated this ongoing transition; their master educationally effective practice was the ability to adapt their beliefs and educational practices over time, in response to the demands of the new teaching and learning context. The participants perceived engagement and learning to be inherently difficult. A common cognitive challenge was paying attention in lectures. Affective challenges, in the form of negative emotions, were also an especially frequent feature of their experience. When viewed through the lens of Kuh’s et al.’s framework, which considered engagement to be a primarily behavioural construct, this is an important finding. What this research further added to both the local context and the student engagement literature was the understanding that there were many ways students could be engaged without overtly participating in learning activities. Much engagement was hidden as it involved invisible cognitive-affective strategies within the classroom, or took place outside the classroom. A key educational practice of the participants was a willingness to tolerate rather than avoid cognitive and affective discomfort. However, the two main findings of this thesis were that the influence of cultural diversity on the engagement of academically successful, late-stage pharmacy students was subtle, nuanced and less significant than our academic colleagues had previously speculated. This challenged our current theorising around CHC learners. The second main contribution this study made concerned the dominance of emotion, both positive and negative, in student engagement, learning and academic success. This finding has only recently been reported in the student engagement literature (Kahu, Stephens, & Zepke, 2015; Pekrun & Linnenbrink-Garcia, 2012), and therefore theorising around the role of emotion in engagement remains underdeveloped. This thesis offered six recommendations for applying these insights to practice in culturally and linguistically diverse cohorts. |
