Purposes and objectives
This Project explores how immigrant engineers learn to transfer, translate and transform knowledge and practice in Canada. The objectives of the study are: 1) to understand the contributions that immigrants make to professional knowledge and practices and the conditioning of their knowledge and learning practices, 2) to inform workforce professionals with measures to better recognize and utilize immigrants’ knowledge and skills for the social and economic development of Canada.
Phases of the study
The study is of three phases (not necessarily of temporal linearity) .
In the first phase of the study, which will last till the end of 2014, we would be conducting a web-based online discussion forum. The first phase of the study is an initial exploration of immigrants’ knowledge and learning experiences from their own perspectives.
In the second phase of the study, which will take place between Jan and June 2015, we will conduct face-to-face interviews with immigrants. It is an in-depth study of how immigrants advance professionally with particular attention paid to their immigrants’ knowledge and learning experiences.
In the third phase of the study, which will take place any time of the study, we will try to understand the conditioning of immigrants’ knowledge and learning experiences from the perspective of workforce professionals. In this phase, interviews will be conducted with key informants, such as managers, supervisors, trainers, continuous educators and policy makers.
Significance of the study
The study challenges the deficit construct of immigrants through a strength-based study of immigrants’ learning within professions. It explores how immigrants advance professionally, with particular attention paid to the roles they play in the transfer, translation and transformation of knowledge and practices in the engineering profession in Canada. Research findings will help build a heuristic device to understand immigrants’ learning and knowledge practices, and to map the social, cultural, material, and organizational policies and practices that are conducive to immigrant engineers’ learning and knowledge practices.
Funder
We acknowledge that the study is supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant.
Research team
PRINCIPLE INVESTIGATOR:
Dr. Hongxia Shan, EDST, UBC.
COLLABORATORS:
Dr. John Jenness, Engineering, BCIT
Dr. Karen Sheehan, Nursing, BCIT;
Dr. Tannert Thomas, Civil Engineering, UBC;
Dr. Nashon Samson, EDCP, UBC;
Dr. Chris Campbell, EDCP, UBC.
Research Associate:
Dr. Srabani Maitra, York University and University of Waterloo
RESEARCH ASSISTANTS:
Yu Guo, EDST, UBC;
Katelyn Steblin, EDST, UBC.
Issues of Privacy
Participation in the study is completely voluntary, anonymous and confidential (unless respondents explicitly instruct us in writing that their names should be retained in research reports). Information related to the identity of participants will not be released without consent of the respondents unless required by law. All documents with the information of respondents will be identified only by a code number and will be kept in a locked filing cabinet in a locked office. All electronic documents with the information of respondents will be secured with a password and accessible to only those on the research team. The information shared in this interview will be used in reports. Respondents however will not be identified by name. The researchers will use several mechanisms to ensure that it is highly unlikely that others will be able to identify the respondents or any organization the respondents are part of in the reporting of study results.