A Practice-based Study of Chinese Students’ Learning - Putting Things Together

Abstract

This paper investigates Chinese students’ learning experience in the business Faculty of an Australianuniversity. Chinese students are often characterized as “rote learners” or stereotyped as “reduced Other”. Areasof concern are limited to addressing the differences in learning styles, language, and sociocultural barriers.However, learning occurs in many forms. There is an absence of discussion about what practices Chinesestudents use in order to learn. Based on practice-based theory, a longitudinal ethnographic study of thejourneys of five students was traced and investigates what practices Chinese students use in the learning andhow these students “put things together” in the journey. This paper reports on two of the five students fromthe larger study. In particular, this article brings attention to the students’ everyday life and insights into theirdoings, sayings, and relatings between people, other beings and material artefacts. Chinese students’ learninginvolves foreground entanglements, co-construction, and relationality of practices from both educational andsociocultural perspectives. This paper provides new insights about Chinese students’ learning and encouragesacademics and institutions to be aware of the impact of their practices and to deepen their understanding ofthe complexities of Chinese students’ learning