Developing Skills and Disposition for Lifelong Learning: Acculturative Issues Surrounding Supervising International Doctoral Students in New Zealand Universities.
Nearly five million students travelled to study in higher education institutions outside their own countries in 2014 (Maslen, 2014) In spite of its small size of the population, New Zealand hosted two percent of the international student market share (MacGregor, 2014) with 112,000 international students in 2014 (New Zealand Ministry of Education, 2015) The number of international students studying for a degree at New Zealand tertiary institutions has increased since 2008, reaching 30,280 (27.1% of the total international student population in New Zealand) in 2014, accounting for 11 per cent of the total enrolments in higher education (Wensvoort, 2014) International education, the fifth largest export industry in the country, has contributed $2.6 billion to the New Zealand economy and created 28,000 jobs every year (Joyce, 2013) The New Zealand Leadership Statement for International Education has set a very ambitious goal to be achieved by 2025: to double the economic value from $2.6 billion to $5 billion by increasing enrolments (Joyce Woodhouse, 2013).Following the changes of international education policies in New Zealand, tuition fees for doctoral study and research are charged at domestic fee rates. More and more non English speaking background (NESB) international students come to pursue doctorate in New Zealand universities. According to the statistics provided by the New Zealand Ministry of Education (2015) there were 3,838 international doctoral students studying at eight universities in New Zealand in 2014, accounting for over forty percent of the total doctoral student population in the country. When they come to study in a new educational environment, they experience challenges and transformational growth in adapting to the new academic life and in enculturating into the discourse community.There has been a considerable body of research on the transitional issues facing international doctoral students the fit between international students and the host education environment and on lifelong learning, but the literature associating doctoral study as lifelong learning is very much limited. This paper draws on the theories of transformative learning, lifelong learning, and communities of practice [CoP] and examines the transformative experience and acculturation issues that challenge NESB doctoral students studying at New Zealand universities. Specifically, this study investigates the personal learning experiences of NESB doctoral students, their learning expectations, and perceptions of team supervision and supervisors' pedagogical approaches to inducting NESB doctoral students into the research community.LITERATURE REVIEWWatson (2003) defines lifelong learning as "a continuously supportive process which stimulates and empowers individuals to acquire all the knowledge, values, skills and understanding they will require throughout their lifetimes and to apply them with confidence, creativity and enjoyment, in all roles circumstances, and environments" (p. 3) Shachama and OdCohenb (2009) suggest that the acculturative issues facing doctoral students as adult learners should be addressed in relation to adult learning or lifelong learning in doctoral programs. Fostering autonomous, independent, and selfdirected lifelong learners requires a constructive alignment with the environment in tune with the self concept and self direction, and a climate in which the relationship between teacher and learner is that of "mutuality" respect, and collaboration (Gould, 2012).NESB doctoral students need mentoring facilitated by situated learning, learning through various forms of participation in real life academic activities mediated by acquisition of the discourse language, and adequate exposure to the ideas and practices in the field and the discourse, and discipline knowledge and conventions (Simpson Matsuda, 2008; Tran, 2013) As newcomers, their "legitimate peripherality" requires them to participate in the CoP, to have a good knowledge of the "culture of practice," and eventually "make the culture of practice theirs" (Lave Wenger, 2002, p.