Session 2: Supporting student transitions
Chair: Kate McGartland
Dr. Oleg Legusov
Using Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice to Investigate the Experiences of Ontario College Graduates from Three Former Soviet Republics
With an aging population and a looming shortage of skilled labor, the Canadian government wants to attract more international students in the hope that many will stay on after graduation. For most international graduates, the path to citizenship involves securing suitable employment in Canada. This study used a mixed-methods research design to explore the experience of 30 Ontario community college graduates originally from three former Soviet republics – Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus – as they attempted to transition from school to work and to integrate into Canadian society. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice provided the theoretical framework used to analyze their work and integration experience. The study examined the relationship between structure and agency, as well as the interplay of the three elements of Bourdieu’s theory: field, capital, and habitus. The data collected from in-depth interviews and document analysis revealed that each participant belonged to one of three distinct groups: “Teenagers”, or those who arrived in Canada shortly after graduating from high school; “Young Adults”, or those who were in their 20s and had further life experience on arrival; and “Mature Adults”, or those who were over 30 on arrival, leaving behind established lives. Before coming to Canada, many members of the Teenager group already had attitudes and attributes suited to Canada’s career field. They also possessed considerable cultural and economic capital as a result of opportunities provided by their parents. The participants in the Young Adult group could not come to Canada right after high school and therefore spent several years engaged in various activities in their home countries, gaining experience that gave them a career habitus not well aligned with the Canadian labor market. And the salient feature of the Mature Adult Group was that, even though some were still young when the Soviet Union collapsed, socialism had a profound impact on their habitus in general and career habitus in particular. Accordingly, they had the greatest difficulty adjusting to life in Canada. The study also revealed that, even though the participants experienced prejudice and discrimination as a nonvisible minority, their whiteness served as a form of capital in the job market.
Dr. Athena D'Amato
Underdeveloped Skills and the Rise of the Skills Gap: Perceptions of Public
This study identified the specific skills and benefits that curricular experiential learning internships provides students. The findings add to our understanding of the perceived effectiveness and challenges of incorporating work-integrated learning in the Public Relations curriculum in the Canadian context. Moreover, the findings may inform public relations curricula and the internship process in the future, as well as other post-secondary programs that seek to include work-integrated learning into their curricula. My goal was to collect rich informative data through the semi-structured interviews with all the participants. The collection of data consisted of four phases: (1) document analysis, (2) eight student interviews, (3) eight employer interviews and (4) four faculty interviews. The identified impact of experiential learning on the professional and personal development of the students during their internship experience was multi-dimensional; however, it was evident that the internships offered students the opportunity to explore the diversity of the public relations field, gain self-confidence, and enable them to take ownership of their learning. The findings in this study suggest that an internship experiential component is both an essential and an effective curricular model for undergraduate public relations students who wish to better assert and position themselves for success in the field of public relations.
Dr. Renée Ferguson
Supporting Learners from Care: Lessons from the Post-Secondary Pathway
Renée completed doctoral research on foster youth access and persistence in postsecondary education. Mapping information on a literature-informed post-secondary pathway with five stages—preparation, awareness, engagement, transition, and persistence—Renee’s research focused on how to best support youth in and from care. System recommendations were derived from primary research which included the voices of foster youth, child welfare workers, experts, and advocates.