Dr Sherrie Lee | Tag: networks

We’re constantly bombarded by ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes – 5-day weight loss program, 3 days to a better you, be an overnight millionaire in a never-to-be-repeated 1-day course. I’ll admit I’ve been seduced by these promises of a sure-fire way to get what you want, only to find shortcuts end up as short circuits. There’s a power surge and the lights go off – and my enthusiasm goes *poof*

To be clear, if you’re attracted to a piece of advice and a pathway to success, by all means check it out and see if it makes sense and works for you. My own experience is that any change I want to see in myself or my circumstances depends on three things: motivation, habits, and accountability. For example, I had a repeated sprain in my arm for the past 6 months and this was related to a mixture of stress, body posture and working from home too much. I was motivated to fix this problem, so I signed up for a weekly Qigong class, and I had a physiotherapist friend check in to see if I was putting stretching and breathing lessons into practice. 4 weeks into the classes, I’m no Zen master but I certainly feel lighter and my arm looks to be sprain free – touch wood!

My experience with fixing my sprained arm parallels another real life issue – finding out about job opportunities. In this very tough employment environment, networking and uncovering the hidden job market becomes so important that I find myself prioritising this over refreshing the Seek job listings. Motivation – big fat check. As for habits – I needed to get myself out of this abyss of gloom and out into the real world of people and conversations.

Networking and Weak Ties

Networking is not just a buzzword for me. Networking is a concept built on the idea that networks are many connections (of people) linked on the basis of family, friendship, personal interests, employment, industry, business, and so on and so forth. My own PhD research utilised the principles of social networks and relationships to understand how first year international students sought out help for their assignments.

One of the most important ideas about networking pioneered by Stanford professor Mark G. Granovetter is that weak ties (eg, acquaintances, former colleagues) give you relatively more useful information than strong ties (eg, family, friends). Family and friends in your existing social circle hold information that you are already privy to, while acquaintances, former schoolmates and colleagues whom you don’t interact with on a regular basis are more likely to have information about jobs or leads that are unknown to you. (I highly recommend reading Granovetter’s seminal article “The Strength of Weak Ties”.)

Planned Happenstance

While the idea and evidence of the strength of weak ties is compelling, the actual reaching out to weak ties is another thing altogether. Here is where Planned Happenstance, a theory developed by another Stanford luminary the late John D. Krumboltz, comes into play (Mitchell, Levin, & Krumboltz, 1999; Krumboltz, 2009). Planned happenstance is about creating and transforming unplanned events into opportunities for learning and action. Yes, the term ‘planned happenstance’ is a deliberate oxymoron: ‘planned’ suggests being deliberate, while ‘happenstance’ appears to be fate or pure luck. Planned happenstance is not about relying on a lucky break or a knock on the door (and then never have it happen). Rather, it is about taking action to generate and find opportunities.

To illustrate, imagine that all day long you keep thinking you’re going to strike it rich by winning the lottery. You pray to the gods that you’ll be given lucky numbers. But nothing happens – because you haven’t even bought a ticket. So imagine you’re hoping that someone will shoulder tap you for your dream job. You pray to the gods you’ll be given the job you’ve been waiting for all your life. But nothing happens – because you haven’t left the house in the past 2 weeks.

In their book “Luck is No Accident”, Krumboltz and Levin sum it up like this:

“You have control over your own actions and how you think about the events that impact on your life. None of us can control the outcomes, but your actions can increase the probability that desired outcomes will occur. There are no guarantees in life. The only guarantee in life is that doing nothing will get you nowhere.” (Krumboltz & Levin, 2010, p. 9)

So what next? What are the habits we can cultivate to get us into action?

Image by Rama Krishna Karumanchi from Pixabay

Make Your Own Luck

Prepare for action – Take small steps, do something different, say”yes,” and then work out how you’re going to do it. Your mind can limit what you believe you can do. So train your mind to say yes, rather than no, and develop a bias for action. One way that works for me is to consciously sign up for a networking event or say yes to a social function. It puts something in my calendar and gives me a runway of a few weeks to think through how I might prepare myself. One recent example is how I said yes to be a discussant for an international education research forum. There was one empty slot taking place in about a month, and when I was asked if I wanted to lead the session I said yes – not having a clearly defined topic in mind, or worrying too much about what others might think of me. I work best with deadlines, and as the date in June drew closer, I got my mind attuned to my research and developing key messages for the audience.

Overcome barriers to action – Realise that if your action fails, you are no worse off than if
you did nothing. Don’t forget to celebrate your small successes. Participate in confidence-building exercises, such as accepting compliments gracefully. I’ve sat in front of the laptop for many days on end, doom-scrolling through the jobs that either didn’t interest me or were jobs that I could certainly do – and so could hundreds more. I did have a job interview a few weeks ago which I thought went very well, but in the end they found someone else – and there were many great candidates to choose from. I was disappointed but nonetheless encouraged by the hiring manager’s feedback that they enjoyed interviewing me (which tells me it wasn’t just me thinking I had a great interview). I accepted that feedback and considered it a successful outcome – that I prepared well and the interview panel were impressed with my answers. This helps me be confident for the next interview opportunity.

Take action! Network, socialise and build relationships. At the next networking event or social function, aim to speak to three new people. Share your interests and experiences with people that you meet. You may find leads in the least expected spaces. I recently attended a networking session in Wellington organised by Yes for Success (formerly known as Dress for Success). I spoke to a few people and found out about contract marking which I’ve never considered. I also found out that Yes for Success had just launched a mentoring programme. I subsequently emailed them about it and spoke with the coordinator. I’m now looking forward to a possible mentor match who could also be an accountability partner in my foray into a new career reality.

Choose Your Own Adventure

When I was growing up in the 80s, I read Choose Your Own Adventure books. I was hooked from the beginning with some trouble brewing head, a catastrophe to prevent, or a monster to fight. I loved it because I could play the hero and explore the different decision options, and hoped my choices didn’t lead to an ending that got me trapped under the quicksand forever.

Career transitions are becoming my new Choose Your Own Adventure books. With nothing much to lose, I’m been experimenting with different ideas and career options. Unlike the books I read, I can’t go back to page 75 and try a different course of action, but I can create many more pages of possibilities and endings. Plus I know I won’t get trapped under the quicksand forever. But not doing anything will.

References

Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360–1380. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2776392

Krumboltz, J. D. (2009). The Happenstance Learning Theory. Journal of Career Assessment, 17(2), 135-154. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069072708328861

Krumboltz, J. D., & Levin, A. S. (2010). Luck is no accident: Making the most of happenstance in your life and career (2nd ed.). Atascadero, CA: Impact Publishers.

Mitchell, K. E., Levin, A. S., & Krumboltz, J. D. (1999). Planned happenstance: Constructing unexpected career opportunities. Journal of Counseling & Development, 77(2), 115–124. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1999.tb02431.x

Academic Identity / Cross-cultural / Higher Education / international education / international students

Being a Diasporic Academic – Identities in Flux

10 November 201810 March 2025adminLeave a comment

Presentation at the ISANA NZ 2018 Symposium – The International Student Experience: Connecting Research and Practice held on 8 November 2018 at Victoria University of Wellington, Rutherford House, Wellington, New Zealand.

Tēnā koutou. And in the four official languages of my country, Singapore, Good morning, da jia hao, selamat pagi, Vaṇakkam.

I am a PhD candidate, currently awaiting examiners’ feedback on my thesis. I came to New Zealand almost four years ago with my family, with the primary purpose of pursuing PhD study, and with the aspiration of starting life afresh.

Today, I’m not sharing about my research, but about being an international PhD student, or what I have termed, diasporic academic. While I will be drawing from my experiences to unpack what it means to be a diasporic academic, I hope that you, too, can relate to being diasporic academics yourselves.

In the past year or so, I have thought deep and hard about being a diasporic academic. The concept is not mine and I am indebted to Wendy Larner (2015) who introduced this term at a conference keynote several years ago. The concept has also been taken up by other scholars such as Yang and Welch (2010).

As far as definitions go, if you know the meaning of ‘diaspora’ and ‘academic’, you will arrive at a person who has relocated from one country to another, and is based in the host country undertaking some kind of research work. More than physical location, however, is the recognition of diasporic academics’ on-going connections with both home and host, and having the capacity to facilitate international and cross-cultural exchanges.

Diasporic academics manifest themselves in various other terms, such as overseas-born or foreign academics, visiting scholars, or what Larner points out, the new global academic elite who rotates between leading institutions. For example, there is a certain academic who is a Distinguished Professor at Beijing Normal University, China, Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a research professor affiliate at the University of Waikato. With the notion of the elite, also comes the notion of a hierarchy of diasporic academics, from those who are well-established and going around the globe, to those who have just relocated themselves physically – and intellectually. It is those who have just embarked on the journey that I’ll like to turn my attention to – those who move to another country to undertake doctoral study – international PhD students.

Being a Diasporic Academic – Identities in Flux from The Diasporic Academic on Vimeo.

New Zealand is attractive to international doctoral students for a range of reasons, such as full work rights, domestic fees, and hospitable family visa provisions. Partners of international doctoral students are eligible for work visas, and children are enrolled as domestic students, meaning, they do not pay international fees.

Too often, however, international students are perceived to be young and carefree. International doctoral students are typically more mature, have professional experience, and often have other obligations such as caregiving and meeting other needs of their family.

What are their aspirations? They may be here on scholarship given by their home government or host country. New Zealand offers doctoral scholarships such as NZ Aid which aims at capacity building in developing countries. They may be pursuing global careers where a doctoral qualification from NZ may be the link to a job elsewhere. Or they may consider NZ a migration destination for career development, family life, or pursuing a quality of life that safeguards their interests and personal beliefs.

What challenges do they face? Professional identities are often challenged in terms of their legitimacy and relevance in a new environment (Fotovatian & Miller, 2014), whether on the basis of one’s language, accent, colour, or worldview. The manifestation of such tensions can be seen in patronising attitudes towards the non-White, non-native English speaker (Kidman, Manathunga, & Cornforth, 2017).

Those with families face additional stress and need to reckon with transformations in their children and spouses – whether positive or negative (Loveridge, Doyle, & Faamanatu-Eteuati, 2018).

I myself have personally reflected in several of forums about the disinterest from my host community in the ‘others’ (see posts on forming academic networks (Lee, 2018) and the international PhD student experience (Lee, 2017))

What becomes of them at the end of their study? There’s not a whole lot of data on this, but anecdotally speaking, those who return home may be armed with a prized qualification, but little is known about their transnational networks, or what they do with such connections. Those who remain in the country, may not go on to academic jobs, and their career trajectories may be influenced by their partners’ job prospects as well.

I would like to offer a biographical reflection of my own experiences as an international PhD candidate, and share what I have learnt from ‘failures’ and what ‘success’ looks like.

Failure, as you can see, was for me being disconnected from things I so badly wanted to connect with. New Zealand friends, academic networks, professional circles. I think the more disappointing experience was acquainting myself with Kiwis. Conversations rarely progressed on to much else. Our lack of common backgrounds and histories, let alone some kind of ongoing collegial space, made it a seemingly insurmountable task.

My successes as the picture suggests, was building on the invisible but perceptible bonds I shared with fellow diasporic individuals, within and beyond the university. I found kindred spirits at conferences and on social media like Twitter, and we have formed our own networks on the fringes of New Zealand centric ones.

Being diasporic for me had become a valuable resource for personal sense-making. Being the ‘other’ was enough to attract those who were too. But banding together allowed us to understand our peripheral membership in one particular local place, but strengthened our positions as global citizens in connection with one another.

Being diasporic meant I saw myself as a broker between my Southeast Asian worldview, and the views from other places, whether you wish to call it North and South, or East and West. Instead of feeling frustrated by the disconnect, I decided to move on to spaces which allowed me to make connections.

Being diasporic enriched by my research. I wasn’t content to use the theories as they were. I wanted my participants’ non-English words, my out-of-culture interpretation to give life to my analysis.

Recognising the full potential of being a cultural bridge and knowledge broker led me to embrace the identity of a diasporic academic. I am the diasporic academic.

I hope that after my sharing about being diasporic, you will consider being reflexive about your experiences in your academic journey and subsequent career development. Who are you, where are you, why does it matter, what and version of yourself will you be tomorrow?

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

References

Fotovatian, S., & Miller, J. (2014). Constructing an institutional identity in university tea rooms: the international PhD student experience. Higher Education Research & Development, 33(2), 286–297. http://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2013.832154

Kidman, J., Manathunga, C., & Cornforth, S. (2017). Intercultural PhD supervision: Exploring the hidden curriculum in a social science faculty doctoral programme. Higher Education Research & Development, 36(6), 1208–1221. http://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2017.1303457

Larner, W. (2015). Globalising knowledge networks: Universities, diaspora strategies, and academic intermediaries. Geoforum, 59, 197–205. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2014.10.006

Lee, S. (2018, January 23). Being optimistic through academic networks. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://nzareblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/23/lee-academic-networks/

Lee, S. (2017, December 6). International doctoral students: The potential of diasporic academics. [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://ieknow.com.au/2017/international-doctoral-students/

Loveridge, J., Doyle, S., & Faamanatu-Eteuati, N. (2018). Journeys across educational and cultural borders: international postgraduate students with young children. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 39(3), 333–347. http://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2017.1351867

Yang, R., & Welch, A. R. (2010). Globalisation, transnational academic mobility and the Chinese knowledge diaspora: An Australian case study. Discourse, 31(5). http://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2010.516940