Social and Cultural Capital of Ukrainian University Students in Canada and Their Educational Experience

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CAPITAL OF UKRAINIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN CANADA AND THEIR EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Max Antony-Newman

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Graduate Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CAPITAL OF UKRAINIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN CANADA AND THEIR EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Master of Arts, 2014 Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning University of Toronto

Abstract

This qualitative research involved semi-structured interviews with Ukrainian international and immigrant university students in Canada to get an insight into their educational experience using the concept of social and cultural capital put forward by Pierre Bourdieu. Ukrainian students constitute an under-researched group of diverse students in Canada and it is important to understand their specific attitude towards education, adaptation and achievement. I found that Ukrainian students possess high levels of social and cultural capital. Social capital showed low level of portability due to the weak ties between Ukrainian students and Ukrainian Canadian community.

While more equal approach to the availability of print, access to extracurricular activities and enriched curriculum provided Ukrainian students with advantage in Canada, they experienced obstacles due to the lack of presentation skills and dissatisfaction with curriculum. These results will enable educators and administrators to get an insight into educational patterns and expectations typical of Ukrainian students.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Writing this thesis was not an easy journey, which required inspiration, dedication and hard work. As a Ukrainian student and recent newcomer myself I had to come to terms with the new educational environment in Canada, while also combining research with full-time teaching and parenting. This experience has been thoroughly enjoyable and I would like to thank the people, who were instrumental in my successful navigation of these waters.

I am extremely grateful to my supervisor Professor Diane Farmer, whose course on Pierre

Bourdieu was the catalyst for my research idea. She was very supportive from the very beginning and offered ongoing guidance and professional feedback. I benefited immensely from her numerous insights, which helped me to become a better researcher.

My strong appreciation also goes to Professor Jim Cummins, who served as the member of my committee and was helpful with editing my work and also shared his vast experience in the field.

I would like to thank my nine participants, who found time to answer my questions. They were interested in helping my research for the benefit of Ukrainian community in Canada by raising awareness about our educational experience and background.

My research would not have been possible without the understanding and patience of my wife Marina, who had to endure several years of dinner table discussions centered on key notions of

Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical framework, namely capital, habitus and field. I am also thankful to my two sons Mark and Martin, whose cheerful disposition helped me along the way.

Finally, I am thankful to my parents and relatives for their unconditional support and help and the entire OISE community for the stimulating environment.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... iv

LIST OF TABLES ...... vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...... 1

Purpose of the study...... 2

Research questions ...... 3

Overview of the study...... 4

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 6

CHAPTER 3. LOCATING UKRAINIAN STUDENTS IN CONTEXT...... 16

Four waves of Ukrainian emigration to Canada ...... 17

Overview of Ukrainian educational system ...... 19

International and immigrant students in higher education ...... 23

CHAPTER 4. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN ...... 29

Qualitative paradigm ...... 30

Case study...... 31

Participants and their recruitment ...... 32

Researcher and relations with participants ...... 33

Interviews ...... 34

Analysis ...... 35

CHAPTER 5. PARTICIPANTS’ NARRATIVES...... 38

Ivan ...... 39

Natasha ...... 44

Mykhaylo...... 47

Olya...... 50

Sasha ...... 54

Sonya ...... 59

Yana ...... 62

Zina ...... 66

Lena ...... 72

CHAPTER 6. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ...... 76

Research question 1: Social and cultural capital and academic experience ...... 76

Academic success of Ukrainian students ...... 76

Cross-border portability of capital ...... 77

Research question 2: Connection between Ukrainian background and educational experience in Canada ...... 79

Centrality of children ...... 79

Status of education ...... 80

High parental educational capital...... 83

Popularity of reading ...... 84

High level of linguistic capital ...... 86

Particularities of acquiring cultural capital in Eastern Europe ...... 88

Availability of print ...... 88

Access to extracurricular activities ...... 90

Popularity of enriched curriculum ...... 92

Obstacles experienced by Ukrainian students in Canada ...... 93

CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS ...... 96

References ...... 99

APPENDIX A: RECRUITMENT LETTER AND CONSENT FORM ...... 116

APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ...... 120

APPENDIX C: RESEARCHER'S ANSWERS TO INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ...... 122

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1: PARTICIPANTS’ DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS...... 39

TABLE 2: PARENTAL EDUCATION...... 84

TABLE 3: EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES...... 90

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The demographic fabric of Canadian society experienced tectonic changes during the last

40 years as a consequence of internal developments between English and French speaking

Canadians. As the Quiet Revolution in Quebec highlighted grievances of French speaking

Canadians fuelling Quebec nationalism the federal government initiated The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, which started its work in 1963. Its recommendations were implemented in The Official Languages Act, 1969 establishing Canada’s official bilingualism followed by the "Announcement of Implementation of Policy of Multiculturalism within

Bilingual Framework" in the House of Commons on 8 October 1971 by the 15th Prime Minister of Canada Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Despite the key political necessity of appeasing French speaking Canadians, who were underrepresented in public service and lagged behind the majority of ethnic groups in terms of earning potential, other linguistic minorities played their part in the movement, which reshaped the Canadian linguistic and cultural landscape for good.

The increasing diversity of Canadian population makes the question of successful participation of immigrants in economic, social and cultural life even more crucial. The higher educational level immigrant children attain, the better they will be positioned to benefit from the modern-day knowledge-based economy. Foreign-born Canadian citizens enjoy higher levels of education than their native-born counterparts and this advantage is even carried out to the next generation as similar patterns are observed among students with at least one immigrant parent

(Abada & Tenkorang, 2009). Visible minority students follow suit, but there is a clear variation among different ethnic groups in terms of educational aspirations with immigrants from Oceania and the Caribbean, lagging behind those coming from Asia (China, Korea, etc). It is important to understand factors responsible for educational attainment among immigrants as it influences

2 their job prospects and acquisition of economic capital. This also indicates if the educational system provides them with equal access to post-secondary education (Finnie & Mueller, 2009) and ensures high graduation rates (Abada, 2008).

Purpose of the study

The main body of research on academic achievement and trajectories among students representing different ethnocultural groups in North America focused primarily on African

American and Latino students in the USA and Asian students in Canada (Peng & Wright, 1994,

Portes & MacLeod, 1996, Harris, Jamison & Trujillo, 2008, Lee & Kao, 2009) with Eastern

European peers hardly ever researched apart from the work by Samuel, Krugly-Smolska and

Warren (2001). The public attention is often focused on educational patterns of ethnic groups suffering from racial discrimination, stereotyping or exhibiting higher than average drop-out rates. Nevertheless, invisible minorities comprise around 1.5 million Canadians, but they are rarely researched based on the often erroneous assumption that they face insignificant integration problems (Cilliers, 2005). The question of numbers is often quite important as Chinese

Canadians (4.3%) and East Indian Canadians (3.08%) constitute the two largest visible minority groups in the country and naturally provide rich data for research. While Ukrainian Canadians are not far behind with 3.87% of the total population they have been long considered an assimilated minority and now feature predominantly in historical accounts (Statistics Canada,

2006). Nevertheless, over the last decade between 2001 and 2012 more than 30,000 Ukrainians became permanent residents in Canada adding to the overall numbers in this ethnic group (CIC,

2012). Moreover, there is some evidence that Ukrainian students and their parents might not be completely happy with their educational experiences in Canada, which leads the community to creating their own schools offering more rigorous curriculum to correspond to parental expectations (Asanova, 2005). Consequently, it is important to look at the educational experience

3 of Ukrainian students to understand their specific attitude towards education, adaptation and achievement and make sure their needs are taken into account by university professors, administrators and educational policymakers in Canada.

Research questions

Ukrainian high school students might do relatively well in Canada, as the only source of data places Eastern European students, including Ukrainians in the second place (76%) behind

Chinese students (77%) by mean average mark and slightly ahead of the Canadian born students

(73%) (Samuel, Krugly-Smolska, & Warren, 2001). We still believe that more research is required to come to more definite conclusions. Our hypothesis is that Ukrainian students possess high levels of social, and cultural capital, which positively influences their academic performance in Canada. In this work I would like to give a better look at how these types of capital affect educational experience of Ukrainian students concentrating on university students, both immigrant and international. The following research questions will shape the focus of the study:

 How does social and cultural capital of Ukrainian immigrant and international students

affect their educational experience in Canadian universities? What type of capital

successfully crosses the border?

 What are the elements of respondents' culture that influenced their educational experience

and success both in Canada and Ukraine?

Overview of the study

To answer these research questions I will use the concept of social and cultural capital as put forward by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1986) to analyze educational experience of Ukrainian university students in Canada. Social capital here is understood as resources acquired from membership in a group, while cultural capital is manifested in owning valuable symbolic goods, skills and dispositions (Wacquant, 2008). Both terms were initially used to study the reproduction of inequality (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977), but later became popular in the sociology of education to describe educational outcomes and achievement (Dika & Singh,

2002, Lareau & Weininger, 2003) and differences between various groups of diverse students

(Prado, 2008), which is of the crucial importance in the present work. According to Bourdieu and

Passeron (1977) dominant classes enjoy more social and cultural capital, because their social networks and cultural predispositions have more value in a given society due to their financial and political power. Subsequently, children who come to school with more capital appreciated by teachers have an advantage, which is carried to the university level and beyond. What is more, not only social classes have different levels of capital, but different ethnic groups in diverse societies have different levels of social and cultural capital as well (Prado, 2008). The latest point makes the notion of social and cultural capital a useful tool to study the educational experience and success of particular ethnic groups.

An exploratory case study will focus on nine Ukrainian international and immigrant university students from one Canadian university located in the province of Ontario. All respondents were born in Ukraine and went to school and/or university in their home country before moving to Canada as skilled migrants, family class permanent residents or international students. Data will be gathered through semi-structured interviews, which will focus on participants’ early schooling experience in Ukraine, their transition to a Canadian university

5 together with cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire. The answers will allow understanding how much social and cultural capital participants possess, which forms of capital are more portable, how the Ukrainian background affects the accumulation of capital and its influence on their educational experience in Canada.

Moving onto the structure of the thesis, in Chapter 1 I describe the purpose of the study and research questions. In Chapter 2 I will offer a review of the literature on the theoretical framework used in the study, i.e. Bourdieu's capital theory. Chapter 3 is dedicated to the social, economic and historical context in which Ukrainian university students are located in Canada.

Chapter 4 describes the methods used and study design from participants' recruitment to data analysis. Chapter 5 contains participants' narratives to create the thick description, while Chapter

6 provides analysis of data and answers research questions. Finally, Chapter 7 concludes the findings and puts forward recommendations for all stakeholders.

CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW

To get an insight into the educational experience of Ukrainian students I decided to use the concept of capital put forward by Pierre Bourdieu and analyze how social and cultural capital translates into university persistence and success among Ukrainian students in Canada. One of the key contributions of Pierre Bourdieu to the social sciences was a re-examination and redefinition of the term “capital” freeing it from limitations imposed by the economic theory

(Moore, 2008). He complemented economic capital with social, cultural, and symbolic capitals.

According to Bourdieu, capital differs from economic capital in that it tries to hide and deny its instrumentalism by pretending to be disinterested and have intrinsic value. Nevertheless, the field of capital is homologous to that of economic capital and as such reproduces social inequality through relations of class and power (Moore, 2008).

Grenfell (2009) underlines the complex nature of the capital in its relation to the field theory of Bourdieu, where capital, field1 and habitus2 work together and should not be viewed separately. Capital is the “currency of the field”, which defines what has value in the field and what has not, who is included or excluded and what is required to boost one's status or power as the basis of distinction. Not surprisingly, distinction creates hierarchies, which result in inequality (Grenfell, 2009). Capital is scarce and, though its values are set by the field, it is owned by individuals, who compete for it. Capital fuels the communication between the field

1 Field is understood here as the autonomous microcosm within the social world, which has its own rules, and hierarchical position among participants struggling for capital (Wacquant, 2008).

2 Habitus is a subconscious set of disposition, which define our perception and actions in the world based on our exposure to social structures (Wacquant, 2008).

7 and the habitus. It connects a particular field with adjacent fields. What is important to note is that any kind of capital has value only if it is recognized as such. Its contents can be easily changed depending upon time and place. Methodologically it frees Bourdieu from accusations that his insights into the French culture of 1960s-1980s are of little value in other localities and different time periods. His examples are merely examples, which do not undermine the validity of the entire system. Continuing with the economics metaphor, Grenfell (2009) mentions that different types of capital can be converted into one another. For example, educational capital can buy economic by allowing its owners to occupy financially rewarding jobs.

The field of education is one of key areas where capital comes into play with far-reaching societal and individual consequences. Bourdieu considers education to be the main mechanism of class reproduction. Through education dominant groups impose arbitrary culture and value the type of achievement, which corresponds to their interests (Broadfoot, 1978). Subsequently, the

“symbolic violence” of education prevents many non-elite students from succeeding academically as they lack the values and linguistic capital, which children of privileged backgrounds share with their teachers. For the system to work the entire society should accept such symbolic violence of education as legitimate, and failure of students is always attributed to their own imperfections without questioning the structure of the system itself (Broadfoot, 1978).

The hidden curriculum reproduces the stratification of society without explicitly stating such objectives. Instead of increasing social mobility education preserves the status quo, and even some success of lower-class students gives the system the appearance of meritocracy instead of challenging such system (Sullivan, 2001).

Being fully aware of definitions of social capital championed by Coleman (1988) and

Putnam (1995), for the purposes of this research we focus only on the conceptualization of the term developed by Pierre Bourdieu. In the tradition of the latter social capital comprises current

8 and potential resources contained in networks of lasting institutionalized relations, in other words belonging to a group (Grenfell, 2009). Social capital works together with other types of capital, and, despite the fact that it deals with social networks, its benefits are reaped by individuals. For

Bourdieu social capital, similar to other types of capital, is a finite and rare resource, which has to be competed for and can be used by the dominant classes to secure their position and boost other types of capital already at their disposal. In societies where personal connections are extremely important a chance of a successful career may predominantly rest on social networks available for candidates. The ones lacking social capital will experience difficulty getting access to adequate amounts of economic capital in the form of lucrative jobs, and the cycle of reproduction will not be broken (Vryonides, 2007). The concept became so popular that it was readily exported from the domain of sociology to education research. Dika and Singh (2002) synthesized 39 studies published between 1986 and 2001, which analyzed the impact of social capital on educational outcomes alone. Majority of those used exclusively Coleman's operationalization of social capital and overlooked the importance of differential access to social networks and social resources. Later scholarship offers a more Bourdieusian perspective. Horvat,

Weininger and Lareau (2003) focused on one kind of social capital, namely parental networks and their impact on children’s schooling. The principal factor behind the formation of such networks was the organized out-of-school activities, which allowed parents to form relations between one another. Middle-class children participated in under five activities on average, while working-class children could boast fewer than two and poor children participated only in fewer than two activities. These numbers clearly show that middle-class parents have an advantage and could form stronger and more sprawling networks. A similar class-based trend was observed in the acquaintance with a professional – almost all middle-class parents knew a teacher, while this parameter dipped to around 50% for working-class parents and 30% for poor parents. When

9 problematic issues arise at school parental networks respond differently depending on the class origin of parents. In cases of inappropriate behaviour of teachers middle-class parents mobilize their entire network, which affects the handling of the situation. Middle-class parents were also more proactive if their child needed specialized services, whether it was a learning disability issue or an opportunity to get into a gifted program. They talk to friends or relatives, who happen to be educators or psychologists possessing relevant knowledge and skills. When children were placed in a stream with lower status such parents could challenge the institutional authority by arranging individual testing and influence the eventual outcome. Working-class or poor parents did not see themselves in settings, where they seek advice on the side and go against the establishment (Horvat, Weininger and Lareau, 2003). The main value for education research here lies not so much in the presence of parental networks or their quantitative characteristics, but in the amount of social capital transferred through such networks and it is obviously unequal.

Lareau (2003) further enriched the social capital research by paying attention to familial social capital reproduction through the so-called “concerted cultivation” typical of middle-class child- rearing practices as opposed to the “accomplishment of natural growth” adopted by working- class parents. She showed how parents ensured the academic success of their children by increasing their participation in extracurricular activities, which boosted the social capital available through related networks with other parents to be further used in relations with school and educators.

When the research focuses on the uneven academic success of students from different ethnic groups, especially immigrants, who have to acquire new forms of social and cultural capital, we should look at the ways different communities manage to become members of the dominant classes (upper and middle class) courtesy of their economic and non-economic capitals. Prado (2008) explored educational trajectories of two Chinese students and one Latina

10 student. He looked at normative support, material resources and networking, which influence parental ability to fight with discriminatory school policy and practice. The difference between two groups of parents was that if Latino parents merely urged their daughter to perform well academically the Chinese parents acted more strategically by placing children in more challenging, but at the same time more rewarding honours/advanced placement tracks. All parents have appropriate academic aspirations for their children, but they possess unequal amounts of resources to counteract exclusionary school practices and boast different abilities to pair their children with knowledgeable third-party advocates (Prado, 2008).

In other words, social capital is closely connected with social inequality, which affects most facets of life (Veenstra, 2007) and could be explained by both differences in economic capital and unequal distribution of social capital, especially taking into account the fact that different forms of capital can be mutually exchanged for maximum effect (Grenfell, 2009).

Although much scholarship has been already focused on social capital among minority students as an explanation of different levels of educational attainment (Kao, 2004, Kao &

Rutherford, 2007, Khattab, 2003, Noguera, 2004) and ways of activating, and renewing social capital during the migration process (Neri & Ville, 2008), in all studies the target population belonged to non-White ethnic groups, while invisible minorities comprised of White immigrant or international students were overlooked.

As far as higher educational success is associated with valuable social capital, which is distributed unevenly among different communities due to their social and demographic particularities, the educational experience of Ukrainian students in Canada can be partially explained by their social capital. Their social networks and familial arrangements in Ukraine have not been researched before, and not much is known about their ties to the tightly-knit

Ukrainian community in Canada either, and such questions inform this research.

The definition of cultural capital is more contentious. While Bourdieu included exposure to highbrow culture (theatre, opera, ballet, galleries and museums) into the notion of “cultural” capital, his peer sociologists paid more attention to other values and dispositions capable of aiding students in their navigation of educational systems. Researchers from countries other than

France always questioned the salience of highbrow culture in the social groups they studied. For example in North America the “elites” are traditionally considered to be cultural omnivores

(Erickson, 1996, Veenstra, 2010). Even in continental Europe the relevance of highbrow culture is going down (Gripsrud, Hovden & Moe, 2011). Nevertheless, we still have clear examples of cultural activities preferred by particular class groups (Warde & Bennet, 2008, Prieur & Savage,

2011). Lareau and Weininger (2003) consider the dominant English-language interpretation of cultural capital as knowledge of and participation in highbrow cultural activities started by

DiMaggio (1982) as slightly departing from Bourdieu's intention, which emphasized the arbitrary nature of legitimate culture, scarcity of available cultural resources and their unequal distribution. Lamont and Lareau (1988) mentioned that before the tool of cultural capital can be used, its content has to be determined empirically. As Bourdieu they emphasize that cultural capital is used for social and cultural exclusion and comprises not only highbrow culture, but also “attitudes, preferences, formal knowledge, behaviour, goods and credentials”.

In other words various researchers operationalize cultural capital differently now. In his study of university students Grayson (2011) views a post-secondary degree of at least one parent as the most important type of cultural capital available to students, which allows them to boast higher degree expectations, receive more family encouragement for studies and spend more time interacting with their peers other than students. Likewise, Lehmann (2007, 2009) showed that working-class university students have higher drop-out rates and prefer more vocational occupations due to their habitus and irrespective of their academic performance levels. One

12 successful contender to be the proxy of cultural capital is reading, which is positively correlated with better grades in schools (De Graaf & De Graaf, 2000, OECD, 2010b). To better understand the way cultural capital affects educational outcomes it might be useful to look at two types of cultural capital put forward by Tramonte and Willms (2010). They divided cultural capital into static cultural capital (highbrow cultural activities of parents) and relational cultural capital

(children's activation of communication and cultural interactions between children and parents).

The empirical research carried on the basis of data from 28 OECD countries, which participated in 2000 PISA testing, shows strong correlation between relational cultural capital and educational performance with static cultural capital providing modest returns on investment.

An important sub-component of cultural capital is linguistic capital, which has a special value in Canada, where it is closely associated with bilingualism. It is encouraged on the federal level and offers considerable linguistic, cognitive and academic advantages (Cummins and

Swain, 1986). It also provides additional access to ethnic community and school resources.

Ethnic language skills connect immigrant children to their extended family and its social capital, which reinforces the value of academic achievement. A word of caution must be added about the dangers of over-reliance on ethnic communities, because it may limit opportunities in the wider community.

Unlike Saussure and Chomsky, Bourdieu never viewed language as a thing in itself or the product of relations between ideal speakers and listeners, who know their language perfectly

(Grenfell, 2009). His main interest was in the language as practice situated in social and economic relations. From his perspective it operates in the market defined as relations of power, which determine the price of linguistic products (Bourdieu, 1976). Linguistic market is clearly a distinct field, which forms appropriate habitus and uses capital for participants to compete for available scarce resources. The legitimate language is chosen arbitrary in linguistic terms, as it

13 just happens to be the language of the dominant social group (Bourdieu, 1976). For example, in

France Parisian French was historically boosted by the bourgeoisie of that region and elevated to the status of the Standard French by the power of the state and L'Académie Française, as a result devaluing provincial dialects; at the same time middle-class Standard American English makes

African American Vernacular English illegitimate in formal contexts. Subsequently, speakers of non-standard linguistic forms could be stigmatized and excluded from the distribution of capital in various fields.

Though bilingualism is often valued as an asset, dominant languages (e.g. English) enjoy a more influential position and have the power of exclusion together with the capability to shape the identity of individuals (Harrison, 2009). Issues of language politics and language identity are closely associated with power dynamics, when speakers of non-dominant languages can be stigmatized and suffer from a range of discriminatory practices. Moreover, as the number of people who use English as a second language exceeds that of native speakers, the so-called “non- native” speakers find themselves in the asymmetrical position of power. English speakers from

Anglophone countries possess a more valuable linguistic capital, which can be in turn translated into social or economic capital (Harrison, 2009). It clearly reinforces the interpretation provided by Pierre Bourdieu (1976, 1993), who attributed the value of linguistic capital to the power of social groups, who used the particular linguistic code. Similar to other groups of linguistically diverse students Ukrainian university students might often be viewed as linguistically deficient, because English, which is the language of instruction in Ontario, is not their mother tongue. The ability of Ukrainian students to read academic texts in Ukrainian and Russian is not often acknowledged as their advantage.

Despite the promises of democratization, educational systems, according to Bourdieu, distribute academic credentials unequally, rewarding students who possess the right type of

14 linguistic capital, i.e. dominant language of a particular society in terms of dialect and accent.

Moreover, the language of the classroom is an element of symbolic violence, as it imposes arbitrary rules of thinking and expression (Grenfell, 2009).

Based on the exclusionary function of social and cultural capital, it is even more important to look at exceptional cases of students with disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds and low human capital, who managed to overcome the trend. Portes and Fernandez-

Kelly (2008) cite strict discipline at home and strong cultural ties to the home culture of minority students as the key factors in propelling them academically and professionally from the low socio-economic status towards middle-class stability. In the case of mobile students it is important to clearly define which capital crosses the border, and what stays in the home country.

Fernandez-Kelly (2008) mentions three mechanisms of making “foreign” capital count: 1) cognitive correspondence as an ability to recognize objects and behaviours rewarded in the new field; 2) positive emulation of “legitimate” speech, manners, attire and expectations; and 3) active recollection of habitus and capital left behind during one’s identity formation. It will be important to see if Ukrainian university students can make use of such or similar mechanisms to renew their social and cultural capital in a Canadian university.

Apart from looking at social and cultural capital of Ukrainian immigrant students, we will also pay attention to Ukrainian international students. According to Waters (2006) international education has a pronounced effect on the social reproduction of upper-middle-class families in student sending countries. Only members of the (upper-) middle-class have enough economic capital to afford education abroad for their offspring thus acquiring additional cultural capital represented by international credentials valuable in sending countries. Middle-class families accumulate credentials strategically to foster their own social reproduction. Cultural capital institutionalized in educational credentials is socially constructed and spatially variable (Waters,

2009). In other words distinction derived from academic credentials is context dependent and varies depending on place and social capital available for owners of such credentials. In less individualistic societies social capital represented by family and friends can compensate for the lack of credentials. Many international students view accumulation of educational credentials as investment of economical capital, which gives returns when students go back to their home countries and combine newly acquired cultural capital with existing social and economic capital available at home.

The situation with Ukrainian students is interesting, because due to constant troubles at home and traditionally high immigration numbers (Cipko, 2006) there is a considerable attraction for international students to stay in Canada and apply for permanent residence or move to Canada with explicit plans to immigrate through Canadian Experience Class (CIC, 2010).

Subsequently, international students in the sample might turn into immigrant students in future or just become immigrants after their studies are over.

To sum up, the notion of social and cultural capital can be an effective tool in understanding the background of Ukrainian university students and influence on their educational experience in Canada to better serve this particular group of diverse students. Data on social networks centered on family and/or associated with the community, cultural dispositions, parental expectations and linguistic capital of Ukrainian university students will certainly shed light on the educational experience of participants in a Canadian university. It will also help to analyze particular features of Ukrainian culture, which can potentially have a significant impact on the way participants’ social and cultural capital is valued in Canada.

CHAPTER 3. LOCATING UKRAINIAN STUDENTS IN CONTEXT.

To better understand the background of Ukrainian international and immigrant students, who have taken part in this study, I will provide the social, educational and historical context in which they act.

First I will look at the Ukrainian immigration to Canada paying special attention to the fourth wave of immigration (1991- ), because its members represent the section of the Ukrainian community Ukrainian students most frequently interact with and have a sense of belonging to.

Ukrainians have been living in Canada for more than 100 years and made a long journey from an

“alien” minority brought in to work in the fields (Gittings, 2002) to its currently invisible status of successful community adding to the Canadian multicultural mosaic. As a result some lessons can be learned about their integration into the majority society, including social and cultural factors behind this transition. At the same time Ukrainians in Canada are far from being a homogenous group (Satzewich, Isajiw, & Duvalko, 2006), which makes direct comparisons between Canadian-born Ukrainians and those who came here later problematic.

Then I will describe the Ukrainian educational system and its salient differences with that of Canada, and other nations of the Anglosphere. Students shaped by another set of expectations and rules remain different in Canadian classrooms, but in the case of Ukrainians this is rarely acknowledged. Subsequently, the obstacles they face as invisible minorities are not addressed due to low awareness. They slip unrecognized under the radar, which looks for other groups of diverse students. It applies both to research, classroom practice and educational policies. Finally, I will provide the overview of the latest stage in the increase of international and immigrant students’ numbers in higher education. The position of participants in the educational context is affected by their status as immigrant or international students with their

17 specific strategies of capital transfer, accumulation and activation.

Four waves of Ukrainian emigration to Canada

To better understand the demographic of Ukrainian students in this research project let us look at the timeline and nature of Ukrainian migration to Canada throughout the years, as it explains the reasons behind the pull factors and the structure of the community, which attracts new generation of Ukrainians including immigrant and international students.

The first wave of Ukrainian immigrants between 1891 and 1914 comprised mostly of

170,000 farmers from Western Ukraine, which at the time was part of Austro-Hungarian Empire.

They were recruited to develop the Prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and turn their vast lands into the Canadian breadbasket. Viewed as outsiders due to differences of women's dress and mother tongue they were subjected to strong assimilation into the mainstream of Anglo-Saxon majority (Gittings, 2002). After the outbreak of the First World War Ukrainians together with other Austro-Hungarian citizens became victims of Canada's first national internment operation. Five thousand Canadians were sent to labour camps with a further 80,000 registered as enemy aliens and required to report to local police authorities in the period between

1914 and 1920. Many had their property confiscated, lost their jobs, were separated from their families and disenfranchised (Luciuk & Wynnyckyj, 1986). The life of these first Ukrainians in

Canada was based on the church activities, and the First Wave of immigrants formed a tightly- knit community.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 and the break-up of Austro-Hungarian Empire after the end of the First World War in 1918 brought the second wave of Ukrainians to Canada. Seventy thousand people came mainly as industrial workers to Montreal, Southern and Northern Ontario between 1918 and 1939.

The Third Wave of Ukrainian immigrants totalling 32,000 arrived to Canada from 1945 to

1952 as refugees and displaced persons from Europe ravaged by the Second World War. This new generation of Canadians preferred to settle in large cities of Eastern Canada (Toronto and

Montreal) and worked as professionals. They were politically active with strong anti-communist beliefs and created Ukrainian organizations separate from existing ones.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 immigration floodgates opened and 23,435

Ukrainians came to Canada in the period between 1991 and 2001 giving rise to the Fourth Wave of Ukrainian immigrants. The numbers remain stable with around 25,000 Ukrainian citizens becoming permanent residents of Canada between 2003 and 2012 (CIC, 2012) and further 7,000 coming as temporary residents on working visas. Immigrant students in our research belong to the Fourth Wave of Ukrainian immigrants in Canada. The major difference of this group of

Ukrainian Canadians is that more of them come from Central and Eastern Ukraine, as opposed to the Western part of the country, and speak Russian more than Ukrainian. They are not politically active and usually do not join existing Ukrainian organizations, because they do not share their nationalistic and anti-communist rhetoric. More and more people come as skilled migrants looking for job opportunities, which often than not requires university education. Most are IT specialists, engineers, health-care professionals and educators, though not everyone manages to find a job in the same sector in Canada. The IT professionals are the only exception, as their hard and soft skills are recognized in Canada, and they do not face high labour market barriers to entry (Satzewich, Isajiw, & Duvalko, 2006).

Currently Ukrainian Canadians comprise 1.2 million people (3.87% of total population) and are the 10th largest ethnic group in the country, but only 111,540 considered themselves

Ukrainian speakers in 2011 down from 134,000 in 2006 accounts (Statistics Canada, 2006).

Clearly, this group is becoming more heterogeneous with earlier immigrants switching to

English.

Overview of Ukrainian educational system

Educational experiences and expectations of Ukrainian students and their families are profoundly shaped by the structure of education in Ukraine. This is why it is necessary to locate them in this context with its distinct features, legacy of the past, numerous reforms and current problems. I will first provide a brief overview of Ukrainian educational system and then touch upon its key characteristics, and current problems as they affect Ukrainian university students.

In Soviet times primary and secondary education lasted 10 years, which was extended to

11 years after the independence. In 2001 the move towards 12-year secondary education begun, but in 2010 the 11-year one was restored, so that no pupil studied 12 years. Primary school covers grades 1 to 4, basic (lower secondary) school has grades 5 to 9 followed by senior (upper secondary) school in grades 10 and 11. Grades 1 to 9 are compulsory. Almost all schools are state funded with around 1% students attending private schools. General schools provide all three levels of general education, while gymnasiums and lyceums offer instruction at II-III and III levels respectively. Curriculum is developed by the Ministry of Education and has to be followed by all public and private schools. Social changes from an authoritarian to democratic regime are reflected in education by allowing students to choose some of their courses and increased student autonomy in general (Rutar, Kotenko, Lohvynenko, & Moyer, 2003). Nevertheless, the main choice lies in the type of school to attend at the secondary level. Some general schools offer enriched curriculum in specific areas, e.g. in math or foreign language, while gymnasiums and lyceums have even more diverse options. Once you attend a particular school most of the curriculum is predetermined by the Ministry or the school.

In 2007 Ukraine had 368 universities and institutes providing full higher education

(Österman et al, 2009). In Soviet Union research was carried out in specialized research centres, while universities were mostly responsible for teaching. After 1991 attempts were made to

20 combine both activities in universities. The first degree in Ukrainian degree structure is the degree of Bachelor, which takes 3 to 4 years to complete and was introduced in 1995. It is labelled as “basic” higher education, and most students proceed to the second cycle and receive degree of Specialist, which requires 1 to 1.5 years of further study beyond the first degree.

Degree of Master also takes 1 to 2 years of study after the completion of the Bachelor’s degree, but it is more research based than the traditional Specialist degree. The third cycle is represented by the degrees of Candidate of Science (PhD equivalent), taking 3 years of study based on

Specialist/Master degree, and Doctor of Science (Habilitation equivalent), which requires additional 3 years of study. These degrees involve original research and the defence of a thesis

(Österman et al, 2009). The main difference in students’ university experience in Ukraine compared to Canada lies in the fact that courses cannot be selected by students, but are predetermined by the curriculum supervised by the Ministry of Education. The number of courses is also considerably higher with approximately 15 courses per academic year (fall and winter terms), which often requires more than 3 contact hours per week. At the end of each term students have to take around 5 oral exams in key courses. To continue to the next year of studies students have to pass all required exams and tests. Prior to receiving a degree students have to pass state exams in key courses of their program and/or write a thesis. Considerable attention is paid to foundation studies, which leaves less time for subject-specific teaching in the chosen specialization (Österman et al, 2009). The top-down approach to university education in Ukraine and the predominance of theoretical courses differ considerably from the Canadian academic landscape and shape the experience of Ukrainian students accordingly.

Transition from totalitarian Marxist-Leninist ideology to democracy and pluralism was predetermined by the general move towards postmodernity. The road turned out to be rather long and winding. Despite seemingly ongoing educational reforms, institutional culture and practices

21 remain unchanged since Soviet times (Kutsyuruba, 2011). This also applies to structural organization of schools, colleges and universities, curricula, administrator and teacher education programs. Authoritarian style characterizes also the relations between teachers and students.

Ukrainian educators employ predominantly content-based pedagogy within the “banking model” put forward by Freire. As a result, learning is mostly teacher-led and constitutes the transmission of detailed content to the students. Encyclopaedic knowledge puts emphasis on memorization at the expense of interaction (Koshmanova & Ravchyna, 2008). In terms of advantages, from

Soviet times Ukrainian students inherited the notion of learning as hard work. Prior to 1991 learning was considered a duty of every student, which called for serious and responsible work to achieve success, and education had the highest cultural value (Koshmanova & Ravchyna, 2008).

Children were expected to do homework on a daily basis, while collectivism also enhanced collaborative skills, when academically advanced students offered support to their struggling peers during and after class (Couch, 2006).

Higher education in Ukraine was significantly affected by signing the Bologna

Declaration in 2005, designed to introduce comparable educational standards across all European nations, increase the mobility of students and professors, and improve the competitiveness of higher education sector in Europe. Signatories to the Declaration also have to introduce the system of three level university credentials with Bachelor's, Master's and Doctor of Philosophy degrees modelled on the Anglo-American tradition, which is different from several Continental models. In Ukraine the subsequent reforms led to the simultaneous co-existence of the old system of Specialist (Master's) - Candidate of Science (PhD) - Doctor of Science (Habilitation) degrees and the newly-introduced Anglo-American Bachelor's-Master's-Doctor system.

Employers are not accustomed to the latter and prefer not to hire the holders of Bachelor's degree viewing it as insufficient. Both university administrators and students themselves are not sure

22 about the advantages and disadvantages of both systems and mention the following hindrances to the implementation of the Bologna process reforms: centralized administration, insufficient training, scarce resources and attachment to the old system (Kovtun & Stick, 2009). These factors also characterize overall problems facing education in Ukraine at the moment.

Educational reforms were also hampered by wide-spread corruption. According to Round and Rogers (2009), one of the reasons for rampant corruption in many walks of life in Ukraine and other post-Soviet states was the formation of strong informal networks of contacts and favours required to get access to deficit goods in the Soviet Union. While before 1991 participants of such networks mainly exchanged favours, after the transition to the market economy such transactions became monetized. The economic collapse of 1990s led to the creation of the system, where many professionals including doctors, school teachers and university professors saw their salaries drop below poverty line. The social status of engineers, doctors and teachers went from top to bottom of the ladder within several years, after the

Ukrainian independence of 1991 creating a fertile ground for corruption in these fields. The crucial point here is access to higher education, when bribes of thousands of dollars are required from applicants to enter popular university courses (Round & Rogers, 2009). Possibilities for corruption are also enhanced by the structure of assessment with students having to take high- stakes one-to-one oral exams to finish their university courses. To fight corruption External

Independent Testing (EIT) was introduced in 2008 to be used as the sole means of determining admission to higher education (Kovalchuk & Koroliuk, 2012). This strict requirement was abolished in 2010, when both EIT results and school GPAs were considered as determining factors, once again increasing corruption in schools and universities.

To sum up, the experiences of Ukrainian school and university students are shaped by the content-based pedagogy aiming at encyclopaedic knowledge and applied through a centrally-

23 planned curriculum, which at the same time leaves not enough space for student autonomy. Some democratic changes were introduced in educational practice, but students experience is still interrupted by wide-spread corruption and inconsistent educational reforms. As a result high- achieving students have to work hard to overcome such hurdles, which equips them well for studies abroad based on their skills of exams preparation and rigorous assessment.

International and immigrant students in higher education

The number of international students worldwide increased from 0.8 million in 1975 to 3.3 million in 2008 (OECD, 2010a). The definition of international students here is “students who enter a foreign country solely for the purpose of study” (Suter & Jandl, 2006). The prominence of international students came about within the framework of globalization and dominant neoliberal ideology behind it (Gopal, 2011). Cuts to state funding made universities look for alternative sources of income, and they found them in fee-paying international students from growing middle-classes of China and India followed by Russia and Brazil together with such established sources as Japan, Korea, US and EU member states (e.g. France, Germany, etc.)

(Peters & Olssen, 2005). This type of internationalization is supported by governments as it allows subsidizing tuition and fees for home students, cutting expenses and recruiting skilled migrants for the knowledge economy.

If the welfare state considered education to be a public good and provided appropriate funding, in the current workfare regime education is treated as a commodity, which benefits individuals, who are required to pay an increasingly larger share of its cost (Shields, 2013).

Commodification of higher education made this field open to free trade deregulation and gave rise to branch campuses, franchising and migration of academic talent. As a result universities have to compete against each other for best students and rely on reputation and university

24 ranking. The latter often affects the choice of institution by foreign students, though many factors are involved here including geographical proximity, language of instruction, cost and visa issues.

Students in their turn find themselves in the opportunity trap, because they have to invest more in tuition fees, but receive diminishing returns in the labour market due to the massive expansion in higher education and increased number of graduates competing for jobs, which are not created quickly enough (Brown & Lauder, 2010). Transnational companies tend to hire employees for the good positions from the pool of graduates boasting credentials from top universities, especially those with international reputation. Subsequently, despite high cost, students in globalized countries have very little choice when it comes to selecting a university program offering good employment opportunities afterwards (Brown & Lauder, 2010).

This internationalization takes place according to a pattern, when students move from the global South to the North with English-speaking countries (UK, USA, Australia, Canada, and

New Zealand) receiving 47% of all international students (Shields, 2013). It leads to specific power relations and inequality between participant countries with notions of brain drain and brain gain coming to the fore. Neo-Marxist critics claim that knowledge is a fictitious commodity made scarce intentionally through intellectual property regimes and market-oriented educational reforms in order to increase return on capital (Robertson, 2005). Researchers in this tradition consider higher education as a form of cultural capital used by dominant groups to reproduce their advantage. Major beneficiaries here are “transnational and national elites that can gain access to the globally most prestigious universities” (Brown & Lauder, 2006). Being aware of other approaches, for example “world culture theory”, whose supporters see the move of students abroad as driven by cultural values rather than rational choices (Shields, 2013), I follow the “capital” theory in my research of Ukrainian international and immigrant students. Teichler and Kehm (2007) distinguish the following dimensions in the research of internationalization of

25 higher education: 1) mobility of students and academic staff; 2) mutual influences of higher education systems on each other; 3) internationalization of the substance of teaching, learning, and research; 4) institutional strategies of internationalization; 5) knowledge transfer; 6) cooperation and competition; 7) national and supranational policies as regarding the international dimension of higher education.

There is little surprise that international students attract the attention of researchers looking into their acculturation and adjustment (Andrade, 2006, Smith & Khawaja,

2011, Coles & Swami, 2012), psychological stress (Khawaja & Dempsey, 2007), achievement

(Poyrazli & Kavanaugh, 2006, Strang, 2010, Ren & Hagedorn, 2012), mobility (Nicolescu &

Galalae, 2013) and identity (Weiss & Ford, 2011). My analysis will be informed by some of these topics.

Ukrainian international students do not come to Canadian or any other foreign universities in big numbers due to the lack of home support in the form of lucrative scholarship similar to those in Saudi Arabia or Korea, while the amount of economic capital available to an average Ukrainian citizen is rather low (e.g. GDP per capita of 7,422 USD in 2013 puts Ukraine in 98-112 place out of 200 countries). The impact of such international programs as Tempus,

Erasmus Mundus and Fulbright is negligible in Ukraine. Subsequently, those Ukrainian students, who study abroad, almost always come from middle class families with enough economic capital. Students from Ukraine mostly view Western diplomas as a chance to settle in the country, where they studied in university due to strong push factors at home, including inferior economic opportunities, rampant corruption, political and social instability. After 1991 between 2 and 7 million Ukrainians moved abroad (Cipko, 2006) and the trend has not been reversed though the absolute number of immigrants declined.

As mentioned above (Shields, 2013) internationalization affects different countries in

26 various ways. In the case of Ukraine, despite its participation in the Bologna process, mobility of students is limited to those, who get sponsored by foreign scholarship programs, or are funded by their parents. Curriculum, teaching and learning is not usually influenced by the internationalization outside of political science and business courses, while cooperation between

Ukrainian and foreign universities is a token gesture. Despite the rhetoric of strategies and policies aimed at increased competition, knowledge transfer and mobility, most educational practitioners see this discourse as empty promises at best, or confusing interference with established practices at worst (Kovtun & Stick, 2009). In other words, Ukrainian higher educational system is still deeply rooted in the Soviet model, which affects educational experience of local students.

The borderline between international and immigrant students is often porous. Many students enter Canada as internationals with a view to become immigrants. This transition is facilitated by the Canadian immigration system, which targets graduates from Canadian post- secondary schools with the help of its Canadian Experience Class (CIC, 2010). Canada is one of the few countries to offer international students direct pathway to permanent residency with

Master's and PhD students especially valuable (She & Wotherspoon, 2013). Similar to other countries relying on the influx of international students, Canada has regulations to facilitate the entry of international students into the labour market by allowing them to work during studies.

As a result retention rate is quite high with 15% to 20% of international students eventually settling in Canada (Suter & Jandl, 2006).

According to Ziguras and Law (2006) international students can be viewed as attractive migrants for four reasons: 1) they increase the pool of skilled workers; 2) they can help offset declining population due to aging; 3) they have local credentials and experience attractive to local employers; and 4) prospect of migration might recruit additional students paying

27 international fees. To add to the first reason, international students also have such distinct features as high involvement in science and technology programs, where skills can be easier transferred to other circumstances, and they are also disproportionally represented in advanced research programs. Both features underline the increased capacity of international students to innovate in science and technology, which is considered vital for the knowledge economy of developed nations (She & Wotherspoon, 2013).

In return international students value Canada for quality of life, career-related opportunities, work environment, safety and political stability (Arthur & Flynn, 2011). Symbolic value of academic credentials varies spatially, and access to the best educational opportunities is related to spatial mobility. Waters (2006) describes how middle-class students from Hong Kong make strategic choices to receive Western (Canadian) university education and boost their academic credentials due to the high value of international education back home. The same applies to China and Korea, where a foreign diploma allows students to get higher position in the hierarchical society in their quest for best employment and social status. The symbolic value of foreign diplomas is uneven internationally with Japanese society clearly preferring local graduates to holders of Western university diplomas (Chen, 2006).

Students with immigrant background constitute an even bigger demographic group than international students due to increased immigration numbers. If in late 1980s Canada admitted around 180 thousand immigrants annually, then in 2000s the numbers averaged 250 thousand a year (CIC, 2012). Subsequently, the interest towards this group of students has been intense during the last three decades with considerable recent scholarship dealing with achievement

(Meeuwisse, Born, & Severiens, (2013), persistence (Peralta, Caspary, & Boothe, 2013), trajectories (Garnett, 2012), aspirations (Gasser, 2013), barriers and support (Sinacore & Lerner,

2013) and adjustment (Wu & Hammond, 2011) of immigrant and minority students. Other

28 researchers are paying attention to higher educational experience of specific racial/ethnic groups:

Asian (Campbell & Li, 2008), Latino (Pappamihiel & Moreno, 2011) and Black (Torres &

Massey, 2012).

To conclude, I would like to mention that the educational experience of Ukrainian university students in Canada is largely influenced by the context in which they function. As potential members of the established Ukrainian Canadian community Ukrainian students are attracted to Canada, but once at local universities, they might not feel attachment to the “old” community due to different historical paths and present-day dispositions. As a result, it is not clear if they can renew their social capital with the help of the Ukrainian community, as it stays a nice, warm dream, which is so close geographically, but so far ideologically.

Coming from a different educational background, Ukrainian university students also have a different set of expectations, shaped by content-based pedagogy and top-bottom approach to curriculum. Unlike in Canada, limited choice of one's field of study in Ukraine is complemented by the theoretical rigor at the expense of applied nature of knowledge.

In terms of status it is interesting that many Ukrainian international students view education in Canada as a chance to immigrate, which makes the distinction between immigrant and international students blurred.

CHAPTER 4. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN

My research employs qualitative paradigm, because it suits the purpose of exploratory work aiming at deep understanding of educational experience of Ukrainian university students in a Canadian university. As an under-researched group of invisible minority students Ukrainians are rarely paid attention to by researchers, teachers and policymakers. At the same time similar to other invisible diverse students they have specific prior educational experiences and expectations, which define their experience in Canada.

Subsequently, I want to explore how the social and cultural capital of Ukrainian international and immigrant university students affects their educational experience in a

Canadian university; which type of capital crosses the border, and what stays at home. I also aim at establishing the elements of Ukrainian students' background, which influence their educational experience and success in Canada. Any salient particularities of acquiring social and cultural capital in Ukraine as opposed to Canada will be looked at as well. Implications for university professors, policymakers and researchers working with diverse students are to be based on this study analysis.

Case study is a natural fit for the small sample of nine participants and provides clear boundaries for the in-depth study. It is also well-suited to the exploratory work I undertake here.

Interviews were used as an established tool of gathering data to produce narratives with participants’ voices coming to the fore. They allow to take into consideration many variables within this clearly defined case study of nine students in one Canadian university.

This methodological chapter explains not only the choice of method and study design, but outlines the participants’ recruitment, ethical consideration, reflexivity of the researcher, data collection and analysis. Most importantly, qualitative research defines the nature of data collection, its analysis and researcher reflexivity.

Qualitative paradigm

To fill the gaps in the existing body of work we decided to do a case study of Ukrainian university immigrant and international students in Canada with the concept of social and cultural capital put forward by Bourdieu functioning as the theoretical framework. The aim of qualitative research here is to generate rich descriptive data in the spirit of an open inquiry (Friedman, 2012) based on constructivist premises. I believe in the value of emergent research design to make the sense of complexity (Dornyei, 2007) in the combination of capital, field and habitus of Ukrainian students in Canada. Interpretative research proved exceptionally fruitful in the study of educational inequalities before (Riehl, 2001), and I hoped to build upon this tradition. The choice of the qualitative paradigm was influenced not only by my epistemological and ontological stances, but also by the fact that I am interested in connecting various dimension of students’ everyday life with their educational experience, which could be better achieved by applying a qualitative paradigm.

My understanding of constructivist paradigm is based on its definition put forward by

Lincoln and Guba (2000) featuring relativist ontology with locally constructed realities, subjectivist epistemology where findings are created, and dialectic methodology. Nature of knowledge is represented by individual reconstruction; quality criteria are centred on trustworthiness and authenticity; researcher serves as facilitator in multi-voice reconstructions

(Lincoln & Guba, 2000). I also believe that participants’ voice must be given as much priority as possible, while researcher reflexivity is equally vital in presenting a valid picture of respondents’ experiences.

Case study

Case study is not a method, but a design frame. The main feature of a case study is that rather than looking at few variables in multiple subjects, here we look at multiple variables in few subjects (Thomas, 2011). Applied to my study the focus is on multiple variables defining social and cultural capital (role of children, importance of education, parental education, popularity of reading, language skills) in few (nine) students from one university in Canada.

Restricted number of subjects in a case allows for rich, in-depth exploration of different variables at play.

The notion of spatial, temporal or organizational boundary is also a key to understanding the nature of case studies. I look at the case of diverse university students in Canada further narrowed down as a case of invisible minority students represented here by Ukrainian international and immigrant university students. Implications of this research can be used in the analysis of other cases targeting different groups of diverse students.

Despite a limited potential for generalization, case studies are crucial as exemplars, which are required for any scientific discipline to be systematic (Flyvbjerg, 2006). The case described here, even though not linked to hypothesis, is strengthened nonetheless by a clear theoretical framework of Bourdieu’s capital theory (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977). Moreover, it illuminates theoretical models (social and cultural capital in education) in real context (Ukrainian university students in a Canadian university) (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007).

To sum up seven hallmarks of a case study, according to Hitchcock and Hughes (1995, p.322) as cited in Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2007), explain well the study design used here:

1) it is concerned with a rich and vivid description of events relevant to the case; 2) it provides a

chronological narrative of events relevant to the case; 3) it blends a description of events with the analysis of them; 4) it focuses on individual actors or groups of actors, and seeks to understand their perception of events; 5) it highlights specific events that are relevant to the case; 6) the researcher is integrally involved in the case; and 7) an attempt is made to portray the richness of the case in writing up the report.

Participants and their recruitment

Ukrainian immigrant students would have arrived in Canada after their 13th birthday ensuring no less than 6 years of formal schooling in Ukraine, while international students were enrolled in such a capacity and did not have a status of Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

Participants were recruited from the midst of Ukrainian students at the university via the personal network of the researcher with the aid of the Centre for International Cooperation3. All participants came from two-parent homes with at least one university educated parent (only one participant was an exception with both parents being high-school graduates), who had middle- class professions (engineers, teachers, doctors, business owners). Five participants are Ukrainian

3 Access to participants was gained after the ethics committee approval by e-mailing the recruitment letter and consent form (Appendix A) to potential candidates on behalf of the researcher by the Centre for International Experience. Interviewees’ social status, privacy or reputation did not suffer, because all personal information was kept confidential and their proper names or other easily identifiable data was substituted by pseudonyms or aliases in the transcribed and presented data. Compensation for participants was not provided, because the project was unfunded and participants did not incur any costs. Participants were informed about their right to withdraw from the project in the recruitment letter and consent forms attached in

Appendix A, but none of them exercised this right.

international and four Ukrainian immigrant students attending undergraduate or postgraduate courses at one of the largest institutions of higher learning in the country. Two participants are undergraduates, three pursue Master's degrees and four are doctoral students. Interviews were conducted in English and lasted for approximately one hour each.

Researcher and relations with participants

The semi-structured interview guide allowed the researcher to capitalize on his social capital and position of insider. As a Ukrainian immigrant student myself, I was interested in looking at how the background and prior educational experiences of this under-researched group of students influence their trajectories in a Canadian university. By sharing the same educational background, I could relate to and provide better insight into the educational experience of participants. I received my university diploma in ESL, Linguistics, Translation and Comparative

Literature from a Ukrainian university in 2000 and spent 10 years teaching ESL both in a university and in the private sector in Ukraine before moving to Canada in 2010. While pursuing my Master’s degree in Education at a Canadian university, I have been working as an ESL instructor and language assessor4.

As a member of an invisible minority group, I was personally interested in researching one of such groups, in this case Ukrainian students. In the Canadian context invisible minorities can be understood either directly as people who are white in color or European in origin or as under-researched groups, which are rarely the focus of scholarly attention. These could be model minorities considered to be successful and problematic (Museus & Kiang, 2009) or ethnically invisible minorities, whose experiences are ignored, because they are mistakenly deemed to be indistinguishable from those of majority population (Cilliers. 2005).

4 Appendix C contains my answers to the questions I asked participants in this study.

I did not have any pre-existing relations with the participating students involving a power differential. We share the same class and have similar social status apart from two undergraduates, who came from wealthy families and had considerably more economic capital.

At the same time I knew three participants as fellow Ukrainian students and took classes together with one of them. Prior relationships often affect interaction (Garton & Copland, 2010), but in this case the effect was positive as it helped to build rapport better. Four participants study for advanced degrees in Education and were clearly aware of the research interview genre, its requirements and expectations socially and culturally embedded in the university environment

(Briggs, 2007).

Interviews

I believe in the dialogical nature of interviews (Andrews, 2013), where co-construction of meaning takes place between the interviewee and the interviewer (Holstein & Gubrium, 1995 as cited in Mann, 2011) and I am fully aware that interviews are active events taking place in the site of social interaction. Nevertheless, I consider them as a tool, which can be used to gather data to answer research questions, if due care is given to the interview context, and researchers are honest and reflective in their reporting of data collection and analysis.

Interviews took place on the university premises (in study rooms, library, campus cafe), which facilitated the relaxed, but professional discussion in the safe environment familiar to the participants. In cases when I knew the participants before, we started with the small talk related to our shared experiences. If participants were known to me exclusively through the e-mail exchanges, I would use an ice-breaker to set the interviewee at ease.

Focusing on the depth of insight due to the limited number of participants allowed me to get rich data for analysis. Interviews had a chronological structure starting with childhood educational experiences moving towards participants’ arrival to Canada and finishing with their

future academic plans and aspirations. Topics ranged from upbringing patterns, parental involvement in schooling and extracurricular activities to university selection, language practices and social networks. Questions were open-ended for participants to enlarge on the topics.

Questions not on the list were also asked as relevant topics emerged during interviews5.

There is a body of work, which criticizes interviews as a reliable tool of capturing genuine voices of research participants. Typical accusations range from over-reliance on interviews to get an insight into informants' experiences and beliefs, discrepancy between what people say and do, incompleteness of interview data and treatment of interviews as social occasions with responses motivated by self-representation purposes (Hammersly, 2003). In our case the bulk of interview data was treated as evidence of factual events in informants’ lives from childhood experiences to schooling. Their attitudes will serve a more supplementary function and the researcher's interpretations should not be affected by the subjectivity of gathered data.

Analysis

Interviews were recorded and transcribed for further analysis and interpretation.

Denaturalized transcription was applied, because my interest was more in the informational content provided by respondents rather than the linguistic peculiarities of their speech or our interaction during the interview (Oliver, Serovich, & Mason, 2005). Denaturalized transcription is understood here as the type of transcription, where the preference is given to the essence of the discourse, which allows to clean up the text from its phonetic features to allow for easier reading.

It looks more coherent and resembles a written text with “unblemished data” (Mero-Jaffe, 2011, p. 232.). With this in mind, I am aware that transcripts always show their author, who had to make a number of choices related to interpretation (what to transcribe) and representation (how

5 For the list of questions see Appendix B.

to transcribe) of data (Bucholtz, 2000). Despite a certain degree of simplification involved in denaturalized transcription, I agree with Jaffe (2007) that less detailed transcript might actually provide better access to the respondents’ voices.

Data was coded manually by reading transcripts in search of emergent themes. I was able to distinguish the following broad categories at that point: 1) academic success of Ukrainian students; 2) connection between Ukrainian background and educational experience in Canada; 3) particularities of acquiring cultural capital in Eastern Europe; 4) cross-border portability of capital; and 5) obstacles experienced by Ukrainian students in Canada. Data analysis used the inductive approach to establish topics and patterns through which findings emerged, coupled with the deductive approach to test the exploratory questions. Established topics and patterns were analyzed in connection with the previous research and Bourdieu’s concept of social and cultural capital to answer our research questions.

Validity was increased by member check, when participants were asked to look through transcripts for inaccuracies and/or add comments. Eight participants found transcripts accurate, while one offered minor corrections. According to Lincoln and Guba (1985) sometimes respondents agree with the transcripts, even if they do not view them as completely accurate.

Moreover, transcripts are never objective or free from bias (Bucholtz, 2000). Nevertheless, it helped to ensure that the data offers a closer representation of informants’ reality (Cho & Trent,

2006).

Narratives were constructed in the chronological order for every participant starting from family and education in Ukraine moving to education in Canada before proceeding to cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire and finishing with life in Canada. Narratives of nine participants were placed starting from international students moving to immigrant students.

Participants’ stories combine my description with illustrative quotes from interviews.

Additionally, thick description is offered to understand the analyzed phenomena (social and cultural capital of Ukrainian students and their trajectories) holistically and provide the necessary context (Cho & Trent, 2006). Thick description is a practice to ensure credibility by providing enough detail and necessary context for readers to make their own conclusions about data (Creswell and Miller, 2000, Tracy, 2010). To this end detailed narratives of each participant’s trajectory are included for readers to “hear” their voice. Chapters on Ukrainian educational system, international students and Ukrainian immigrants in Canada serve a similar purpose. Researcher reflexivity applied throughout allows readers to see for themselves any bias involved, which is especially critical during the analysis stage. My narrative helps to understand my own background and motives in this research.

CHAPTER 5. PARTICIPANTS’ NARRATIVES.

This chapter provides the thick description of nine participants based on interview data and is designed around such key areas as: a) family and education in Ukraine; b) education in

Canada; c) cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire; and d) life in Canada. Early educational experience in Ukraine defines social capital enjoyed by participants' families and parental involvement. Education in Canada data shows how social and cultural capital of Ukrainian students is valued in Canadian universities. Cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire section allows to understand levels of cultural and linguistic capital boasted by participants. Life in

Canada set of questions highlights the portability of capital across borders and the flexible status of international students vis-a-vis immigrant students. My commentary is supported by frequent quotations from participants, which provide their own narrative to see their stories more clearly

(Clandinin, Pushor, & Orr, 2007). Narratives help answer research question regarding the academic success and social, cultural and linguistic capital of Ukrainian university students in

Canada.

There are six female and three male participants in the sample and clear dominance of those from the Western and Central Ukraine (Bila Tserkva, Kyiv, Cherkassy, Rivne, Lutsk,

Kalush, Chernivtsi) over the East (Luhansk). Subsequently, higher representation from the West ensures strong position of Ukrainian as the first language resulting in higher level of bilingualism and enhanced linguistic capital. Undergraduate students are still in their teens and naturally experienced only school education in Ukraine, whereas graduate students are mostly in late 20s- early 30s and studied both in school and university in their home country before coming to

Canada.

Key demographic characteristics of place of birth, age, years spent in Canada and first language(s) are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Participants’ demographic characteristics

Place of birth Age Number of First language years in Canada Ivan Luhansk 19 3 Russian, Ukrainian Natasha Bila Tserkva 19 1 Ukrainian, Russian Lena Kyiv 32 10 Russian Sonya Cherkassy 33 4 Russian Yana Rivne 38 9 Ukrainian, Russian Mykhaylo Lutsk 27 1 Ukrainian Olya Kalush 23 3 Ukrainian Sasha Lutsk 27 4 Russian Zina Chernivtsi 32 8 Ukrainian, Russian

Narratives are organized in the order from international students (Ivan, Natasha,

Mykhaylo, Olya and Sasha), who tend to be younger and spent fewer years in Canada on average, moving onto more mature immigrant students with longer period of stay in this country

(Sonya, Zina, Yana, Lena).

Ivan

Ivan is a second-year undergraduate student of Political Science. He is 19 and comes from

Eastern Ukraine. His first language is Russian. At the time of the interview he has been living in Canada for three years as an international student.

Family and Education in Ukraine

Ivan comes from a family of doctors, who had to move into business when, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the healthcare system was toppled together with other social institutions. In school years Ivan completed all his homework by himself without much parental supervision, especially in high school. His parents attended mandatory parent-teacher conferences similar to all other parents. Ivan’s extracurriculars included martial arts, English and

German. He never thought of dropping out of school as this option was never on the agenda:

If I decided to drop out of school, firstly, they wouldn't let me do it of course! Secondly, my parents would be really angry! I would probably get a lot of extracurricular education at home, so I don't think it would be possible in my family to drop out of school! Because nobody did!

In Grade 10 (out of 11) Ivan decided, that he wanted to go to university abroad. After finishing school in Ukraine he went to Grade 12 in a Canadian school for international students.

Ninety per cent of his Ukrainian classmates went on to study in post-secondary institutions. Ivan applied to half a dozen of Canadian universities and got accepted by all of them, so he was in the position to choose his university himself. He did very well in Ukrainian school and here in

Canada. Ivan is an exceptionally motivated student always trying his best:

I tried hard in Ukraine. I did really well in school. I got all As. It was really easy. I don't know. I was annually awarded with some diplomas for good achievement in school. I can't say that my academic success was in Ukraine. I think that my academic success was after coming here. This is where I really started paying attention and doing something.

Well, when I was in Grade 12 in that school, it was a pretty big school. It was a graduating class of 700 I guess. I was awarded as the best social sciences graduate of the school. When I came here last year my major academic achievement was GPA of 4.0. This year it is also pretty good: also As!

OK, first I understand that it is my time and if I don't do anything nobody will. Secondly, international student fees are really huge and I think that not trying my best would be disrespectful to my parents, and if I didn't do well, I would bring dishonor to my family, because everybody in my family did really well in university and became successful, and also my family is really perfectionist, so what's the point of doing something, if you don't do it well. That's what motivated

me to get the highest GPA and hopefully to go on with that!

Education in Canada

Ivan finds education system in Canada different from that of Ukraine with different approaches to teaching Math and other subjects. He thinks it is more difficult to study in Canada, because there are more assignments and more subjects to choose from. Ivan hopes to complete his Bachelor’s degree and go to graduate school in a prestigious US university. His final goal is

PhD in Political Science and academic career. He has clear ideas about educational goals his future children should achieve:

The best possible! I absolutely think that education is crucial, and I wouldn't want my children to be uneducated or have less education. If anything, I would want my children to be more educated than me. Of course, I wouldn't insist on them doing a PhD, but doing well at school, getting an undergrad, whatever gives them a good, legal and well-paid job, interesting job at the end. How they approach it? Through education!

Cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire

Ivan loves reading and enjoys going to libraries, but these days he has little time to read for pleasure:

I do love libraries. I try to go to all kinds of libraries here to find the place where I am the most comfortable to study. Sometimes I'll just go through the stacks to see what books they have, because I love books, but in terms of going to the library picking something to read, sometimes I do that, but mostly not when I am into my academic year, because I like to focus on my school where I can do specific tasks.

Reading was always important in his family and he had access to print. When he was little, his parents and grandparents read books to him and they are avid readers themselves:

Mostly my grandparents still have a lot of books. You know how you can buy all sets of books back in the Soviet Union, so each one is like 15 cents. They had a lot of books and they encouraged me to read. My parents are sort of building a library at home, but since I was small I was surrounded by books!

Yes, my parents really read a lot. Much more than I do! Well, they read a lot and my grandparents still read a lot, so I may say that almost everyone in my family reads regularly. I can see them every day with a book!

Ivan loves classical music and theatre and is open to various artistic experiences. He likes to observe art and did not actively participate in any related activities. Overall, he clearly takes after his parents:

Yes, they are very cultural. This is why I am sort of cultural. My mom, when she messages or e-mails me she would say me and dad listen to this, went to watch this play in the theatre, so they definitely go a lot and they don't miss an opportunity, especially if somebody more or less famous is in town.

Coming from the East of Ukraine, Ivan speaks Russian as his first language and is fluent in Ukrainian and English. The language of instruction in his school was Russian. His parents encouraged him to study English, and he values ability to speak several languages:

Yes, absolutely! It just broadens your horizons, opens the world to you. If you travel you will probably have no difficulties. I think speaking one language, even if it’s English, it’s still not enough. You still have to go and learn another language and explore languages. I think it is very helpful for you; it improves you as an individual.

When he first came to Canada Ivan was overwhelmed, but he quickly learned the importance of being an active speaker:

When I first came here yes, it was unusual, maybe a little bit of cultural shock. Everybody around you speaks English; everybody speaks American, Canadian English. I was afraid, that I would misunderstand something, not hear something…Initially, I had this concern, but later on it disappeared itself.

In tutorials I try to participate actively. Mostly because they give you marks for this. These are easy marks, so wouldn’t I take advantage of that, but I do feel comfortable, but sometimes even still I am afraid, that when I start talking, I will forget this or that word, then I will start murmuring. Usually I don’t talk unless I know what I want to say!

Life in Canada

Ivan enjoys living in Canada and does not see many opportunities for his major in

Ukraine. He is clear about his intentions:

Perhaps after graduation I would work for a year to apply for permanent residence and then I would probably go for my Master’s degree, so I intend to stay in

Canada!

Ivan did not join any associations of Ukrainian students at the university and feels no need to communicate to his countrymen or speak his mother tongue. He labels himself as an

“international guy” and believes it helps to diversify his network of friends.

Natasha

Natasha is a first-year student of Political Science. She is 19 and was born in a small town just outside of Kyiv. Natasha speaks Ukrainian. She is an international student and had spent two months in Canada prior to the interview.

Family and Education in Ukraine

Natasha comes from a small city near Ukrainian capital and describes herself as

“nationalistic” due to the influence of her father, who was born in the rural West of the country.

Her mother is from the east of Ukraine and retains her Russian background. Natasha’s father is currently involved in the construction business, while her mother is a homemaker.

Her mother could spend all time on Natasha, who started learning English at the age of five. She did dancing and swimming, but the utmost attention her mother paid to education:

She cared a lot about that, because education is the main part of my family, so our parents want us to be educated, but I must say, that in Grade 9 I became independent, so my mom took care of me, but it does not mean she controlled me.

Natasha’s mother attended parent-teacher conferences and still keeps in touch with her daughter’s teachers. Natasha knew from childhood, that she wanted to connect her life with

English and planned to work as an interpreter. Since the age of 15, she had known she would study abroad. Naturally, dropping out of school never crossed her mind:

No, as I said, education is the main part of our family. All of us have to get education; I mean school and university as well, so being foolish… No, never! I think in Ukraine school is just something you have to do, and you don’t have any other options!

Last two years of high school Natasha spent in an “international school” located in

Ukrainian capital. All her classmates from both schools went on for some sort of post-secondary education, whether in Ukraine or abroad. Due to the lack of proficiency in English Natasha’s parents could not help her with university application paperwork, but in her school there was a

45 councillor responsible for international applications. Natasha considers excellent English skills to be her most important academic success in Ukraine.

Education in Canada

At the time of the interview Natasha was in her second month at the Canadian university and had just passed her first mid-term examination. She thinks it is easy to study in Canada and everybody at university is very accommodating. After graduation she would like to stay abroad for a year or two before returning to Ukraine, where she can apply herself in the field of political journalism.

Cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire

Natasha likes to read, and in Grade 10 she used to read one book a week, but she has less free time as a university student now, where most of her reading consists of Political Science sources. She enjoys going to museums and in school she participated in arts more, attending dancing and drama club for several years.

Natasha’s first language is Ukrainian, and she also speaks Russian and English. She spent two years learning Spanish and tried to master German and French, but without much success.

She values languages quite a lot:

Sure! I do believe, that how many languages you know, that many times you are a person. Actually, in Canada, when I am an international student, and I am taking a literature class, and what I noticed, when you read not only in English, but have also a Russian and Ukrainian translation, you can perceive it differently and can get more ideas of that. That’s useful!

Natasha is confident speaking in public and is becoming an active participant in her tutorials. As a Political Science student she has to have good oral and written communication skills.

Life in Canada

Natasha wanted to study in Britain and ended up in Canada, when it did not work out for her with applications in the UK. She likes the people here, but complaints that multiculturalism devoids Canada of distinct dominant culture. She did not have any culture shock though, as she travelled a lot with her parents before. Natasha has several Ukrainian friends here and enjoys speaking Ukrainian with them, but she is still planning to transfer to a UK university later on.

She attended Ukrainian festival and was impressed with second- and third-generation Ukrainian

Canadians who still speak the language of their ancestors and preserve Ukrainian identity.

Mykhaylo

Mykhaylo is a first-year PhD student in Mathematics. The interview was recorded when he had been in Canada only for two months as an international student. Mykhaylo, who is 27, comes from Western Ukraine and speaks Ukrainian.

Family and Education in Ukraine

Mykhaylo comes from a small town in Western Ukraine. Both of his parents belong to the working class: his father was a driver at the factory, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union he had to switch to cleaning at a nearby plant; his mother has been in industrial cleaning too. They have no post-secondary education.

Mykhaylo’s school experience was unusual, because due to illness he was homeschooled until Grade 8. Teachers came to his home, which helped him to excel academically:

One of the important points, I think, is that I had bad health, and I didn't devote much time to other activities. I was ill very often, I had to stay at home, so this was probably one of the few things I could apply my abilities, so I was studying a lot, I think.

In terms of extracurriculars Mykhaylo played football a bit, but his main passion was checkers and chess. His school was not the best in town, many students had behavioral problems and some even went to jail later in life. Mykhaylo, though, never thought of dropping out of school. Moreover, it was only natural for him to go to university. He was choosing between

Physics and Mathematics and finally preferred the latter:

I decided on my own. My father was pretty much OK with my choice, he didn't care about any particular university, but mother wanted me to stay in my home town. She didn't want me to go to Kiev, but I was very persistent and I went anyway!

In his school Mykhaylo participated in the Math contest and did well enough to enter the university without the difficult examinations. At university he took part in further competitions,

48 some of them international, and in the second year of Master’s program his scientific paper got the first prize. He also had another paper published.

Education in Canada

Now in his first year of PhD program in a Canadian university Mykhaylo is thinking about academic career and might do a post-doc after completing his doctoral program. He was inspired by his school teachers to follow this path:

Yes, I think when I was at school....it is probably psychological, because when I was in school I admired some teachers, so I wanted to be a teacher at school. Kids often think it's cool to be a teacher, but when I moved to university I wanted to be a university teacher, but at the moment I am quite happy to be doing research.

He found studying in Canada easier due to more liberal marking. At the same time he says it is more interesting to study in Canada where universities offer more areas to research, whereas in Ukraine “we were given the courses and had very little chance to change some course to another”.

He expects his future children to go to a high-rank university and emphasizes the importance of good education for comfortable and fulfilling life.

Cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire

Mykhaylo likes reading, but he does not read too many books and prefers e-books to visiting libraries. When he was a child his family had around 10 to 20 books mostly of religious nature. He did not attend exhibitions or museums, but he likes theatre. As a child Mykhaylo was not interested in active arts participation.

Mykhaylo speaks Ukrainian as his first language, but has some reservations about his

Russian skills. At the same time he sees English as vital these days:

Everyone in Ukraine speaks Russian, so I speak Russian, but I don't speak it very well. In the Western part people speak Russian, but they don't feel comfortable in speaking Russian. I can speak English and some point I started to learn French

and German, but I did not succeed very much. Maybe I will proceed at some point.

I think, it helps as in the modern world everyone should speak English, because it is almost impossible to get good results without knowing this language. Sometimes it helps to speak more than just English, but I don't think it's crucial.

Now he studies in English and finds speaking to be the hardest part of it, though he is not very talkative in general and does not speak much even in his first language:

I think reading is OK. I can read almost anything and I can listen, comprehend what people say. The hardest part is speaking, because I didn't have a lot of experience in speaking, and I think writing is a little bit better than speaking.

If it is professional field, I don't really care – it's very easy for me. Sometimes the conversation goes into some movies, nature; in particular, they often refer to some cultural things within Canada and America, which I am not very aware of. So, they speak about some heroes from their childhood I don't know them.

Life in Canada

Mykhaylo likes Canada so far and is enjoying his doctoral experience. He had no culture shock, as he travelled in Europe before and was ready for cultural differences. He knows a couple of other Ukrainian students in his department and talks to them in Ukrainian quite a lot.

He would like to participate in the life of his community, but did not establish contacts at the time of the interview, because he had come to Canada only 2 months prior to that.

Olya

Olya is a third-year PhD student in Biochemistry. She is 24 and has been living in Canada for three years as an international student. Olya comes from Western Ukraine and her mother tongue is Ukrainian.

Family and Education in Ukraine

Olya comes from a small town in the West of Ukraine. Her mother is a music teacher, who graduated from the conservatory, while her father is a journeyman, who never had intentions to pursue higher education. At school Olya received a lot of support with homework from her mother, especially in early grades. Then her younger sister was born and the family had to pay more attention to the younger sibling. Her parents would attend mandatory parent-teacher conferences, but not much participation was required there.

Olya attended music school, and her mother knew her teacher very well coming from the same field. Olya was busy with extracurriculars; dancing, swimming and school theatre. She also attended a music school for seven years until graduation. She never thought of dropping out of school and was sure her mother would have never understood if she had done it. Her father was good at English in his younger days and suggested Olya to switch to another school in her home town, which had strong English curriculum at the expense of other subjects. Going to university was a natural thing to do:

I think, I knew, that I will do that. I was planning to do it, my mom said, I should do it and my dad as well, even though he didn’t have it, but he wanted me to do it.

Olya planned to become a journalist, but her father wanted her to go to medical school or specialize in dentistry as he had many friends in this area. Difficult economic conditions in

Ukraine and widely-spread corruption in education prevented her from success though:

With the med schools it was very interesting: I did apply to five or so, and I got

into the ones you have to pay for, and, since my family is not very rich, we could not pay tuition, and the places, where government pays for, were all kind of (corruption and bribery), because for every single one I applied, I was right below, so if that school accepted ten students paid for by the government, I would be eleventh, if it’s five, I’ll be sixth, and it was in all of them, so in the last one I knew I will be twenty-first and I was twenty-first.

Olya’s Biology tutor warned her from the outset that her chances were slim and suggested to apply for Biology in a leading capital university. She was accepted and maintained A+ average throughout her studies combining course work with relevant lab experience.

Education in Canada

Olya successfully applied to the Master’s program at the Canadian university, which allowed her to switch from MS to PhD and counted her one year at the Master’s level towards the doctoral program. At the time of the interview Olya was a third-year PhD student in her third year here. Transition from Ukrainian to Canadian academic environment was not easy:

I realized, that in Ukraine it’s more about memorizing, whereas here it’s more about thinking and analyzing, and it was a bit tough for me, sometimes I was lost. People were talking about something I did not know much, or even techniques people are using I did not know everything, so I didn’t know what I can do, what I can try, because I don’t have that much experience with that. But then, it took me two years to catch up with all that. Now I am enjoying everything, now it is very good.

Olya believes that perseverance helped her a lot, because science research is unforgiving.

When going gets tough, you quite often need to spend twelve hours in the lab for days. She is applying for permanent residence in Canada and wants to go into academia, which would require doing a post-doc research before looking for professional jobs.

Cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire

Olya does not read for pleasure a lot, because she has tons of academic papers to go through as a doctoral student. As a child she extensively borrowed books from the library and her mother read a lot to her. Her parents like to read themselves, even though her father did not like to study.

Olya likes visual arts and music and attends exhibitions whenever she has free time. As a music student in school she went to concerts a lot often accompanied by her mother. She was never seriously involved in drawing, but with the chances of playing piano being limited she took up drawing, which she is enjoying these days.

Olya speaks Ukrainian, which is her first language and it was used in instruction throughout school and university. As is the case with any Ukrainian she is fluent in Russian, but her reactions are not as instantaneous as in her mother tongue. Apart from English she speaks

Polish, due to the exposure to TV channels from across the border, and she can read in German.

She values an ability to speak other languages and acknowledges that English is vital for research in her field of Biochemistry:

It is very important. Actually, I don’t even know how to explain, but I feel, I am a different person when I speak English. I don’t know why, but that’s the feeling that you get. It gives you opportunities to speak with other people. Not only English, but other languages in general. Because Biology is so international, everyone wants to know what is going on, you can’t read anything in Ukrainian, as it doesn’t give you an idea, they don’t publish enough. Mostly a lot of work is done here, in the US and Europe as well, and they all publish in English. I read so many English papers, while I was studying Biology. That was something assumed that you have to do that.

When Olya came to Canada, she was initially shy in academic interactions and preferred to listen rather than speak, but she learned how to take the floor and does not feel intimidated any more.

Life in Canada

Olya enjoys her Canadian experience and finds people helpful. Professors are approachable here, and are really trying to help. She appreciates research opportunities in

Canada:

It is easier, at least you have more, at least for Science, you have more things to try, more equipment, for example, and it’s faster, because everything is available, while in Ukraine you can wait a week to use a microscope, because it’s booked, and there is not enough equipment. There might be only one microscope for the whole institute. I knew, it will be easier with equipment, but what I noticed, and it is important, I think, that professors here are very different. They are actually very helpful. They are actually supporting and understanding, while the ones in Ukraine, at least in my Biology program, it was really not like that. People mostly said, what you did badly and that’s it.

She has many Ukrainian friends, who are mostly Ukrainian Canadians, born and raised here. Nevertheless, it helped her not to have the culture shock, though she never lived abroad for a long time apart from a week-long international research event in London. She socializes with a handful of Ukrainian international students and even met with some alumni from her Ukrainian university who study and live in Canada.

Sasha

Sasha is a fourth-year PhD student of Education. He is 28 and spent slightly more than three years in Canada as an international student. Sasha is from Western Ukraine and speaks Ukrainian.

Family and Education in Ukraine

Sasha comes from a regional centre in the West of Ukraine. His parents were military officers in the Soviet Army and the family spent some time in the Far East of Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union they returned to the newly independent Ukraine. In his school days

Sasha got help from his father who often checked his homework and provided additional explanations when needed. His parents attended regular parent-teacher conferences, but they did not have any other connection to the school though. In elementary school Sasha tried several extracurriculars, namely chess and signing, but did not like both. Afterwards he did ballroom dancing for four years, but in high school his interests took a more academic turn, as he began attending extra English and Math tutorials to prepare for the university admission. He never thought of dropping out of school:

I think like all in those days we were tired, we did not want to go to school, but not like that - “I hate school. I did not want to attend school”. I never had such a feeling.

Some of his classmates did not excel academically and left school in Grade 9, which was the end of mandatory schooling at the time. They did not drop out though. Going to university was always expected and implied:

You know, it wasn't a decision, it was an expectation. In the context of Post-Soviet countries in 1990s and 2000s everybody had to go and get a university diploma, especially if you were doing good academically, even now, even if you are not doing good academically you need to get a piece of paper, because we knew, if we

wouldn't get a higher education, we would not get a decent job. It's kind of by default, you had no choice. The question was, what department I was going to enter.

Sasha’s parents tried to influence his university choices initially, but he made up his own mind and his parents supported him thereafter. As far as the application process in Ukraine does not involve writing an essay or completing sprawling application forms not much help was required. Almost all his friends went to university as well. Sasha’s major academic success in

Ukraine was his opportunity to participate in study abroad programs. In his second year at university he spent one month in Poland, where he participated in education-related workshops.

He then spent a year in the US as an exchange student and then travelled to Germany for various educational projects on education for democracy. Sasha did his Master’s in Education in the

United States and was quite happy with his experience:

I was able to publish an academic paper with my supervisor, to present at different conferences, organized different academic sessions during conferences on Ukraine. At the moment we are trying to edit a book and organize a project about methodological and theoretical issues of doing research on post-Soviet countries trying to be active academically in the post-Soviet region, but I do not see it as success, because it is something I have to do. It’s not like I got a major scholarship or something.

Education in Canada

Based on his prior experience Sasha had a clear idea of education in Canada, which turned out to be accurate:

I wouldn’t say it is easier, right. It depends on what are we talking about. For example, if you are talking about Ukrainian higher education, they really try to push you. You have to do this, this and this. Here, especially if you are talking about graduate level programs, you have to be very self-disciplined, because you have to learn many things on your own. The instructor is not going to tell you about those things. In this respect, if you are not used to this kind of academic culture, it might be more difficult for you. In terms of the rigor of the program, I think the program could be more rigorous. I don't feel, that they are rigorous enough, so it depends.

After completing his PhD Sasha would like to become a faculty member, but he is skeptical about employment opportunities in the field. He is open to doing research in North

America or Europe or working for some international educational organization.

Cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire

Sasha likes reading, but it mostly comprises academic books and articles. He does not have much time to read for pleasure. In his childhood Sasha did not like reading as a pastime, but his father made him read. He equally disliked summer reading lists from school and tried to finish required reading as soon as possible to pursue things, which interested him more. Sasha did not have to go to libraries often, because:

…there were all books at home. For example, when I had to write a paper for school, I would go to library to get some books, but in terms of literature, we had all classic literature at home, and I was reading all that stuff, so there was no need for me to get Jules Verne at the library, because we had Jules Verne at home. If you look at all Soviet families, you know, almost all Soviet families, especially middle- class, they all tried to have own libraries at home. Imagine walking into someone’s home, and there will be bookshelves somewhere there. My father had a kind of obsession with getting books. He read them and made us read them. The availability was not a sign of an upper socio-economic class. Even my grandmother, who lived in a village, she was a bookkeeper at the sugar plant, she had books in her house. She had different books. These were not cheap romances. She had Balzac and history books.

As a child parents would take Sasha to concerts and plays, but he began to appreciate art only now. At that time he felt, it was imposed on him. His active participation in the arts was focused on dancing, and he occasionally did some drama in high school. His parents still attend classical music concerts and theatre performances themselves.

Sasha’s first language is Ukrainian, which was also the language of instruction from elementary school to university. Apart from English he also speaks Russian, and he studied

German, but the lack of practice takes its toll on the latter. Sasha values multilingualism quite a

57 lot:

The more you speak, the better it is. When you learn a language, it is not just that you learn new vocabulary and grammar structures, you learn a new culture and learn something about a new society. You are able to travel and converse with people in their native language. That’s fantastic.

Due to his experience of doing Master’s in the US, participating in international exchange programs and extensive travelling Sasha feels no intimidation in the presence of native speakers, easily takes the floor in academic discussions and does not feel restrained by the language.

Life in Canada

Sasha had no culture shock in Canada and did not encounter any difficulties involved in relocating from Ukraine and adjusting to the local culture. Compared to Americans, he views

Canadians as more reserved people, who are more difficult to become friends with. Life in the

US and Europe excited him more, but he is absolutely happy with academic aspects of his

Canadian experience. Sasha takes part in the academic life of the Diaspora, but his cultural contacts with the Ukrainian community are limited to occasional attendance of Ukrainian festival.

To conclude, Ukrainian international students are not only a comparatively younger group of participants, but they also have some specific features. None of the participants experienced any self-reported culture shock on their arrival to Canada, which could be explained by their extensive travel abroad either with parents as a tourist (Natasha), to attend conferences and academic events (Mykhaylo, Olya, Sasha) or to study at school (Ivan), or university (Sasha).

They also expressed their intention to stay in Canada as permanent resident (Olya), temporary worker (Natasha), researcher (Mykhaylo) or instructor (Ivan, Sasha). Their international mobility seems to be advanced as they look at other locales (the USA, the UK) as well.

High parental expectations in the field of education focus on extracurriculars, especially

58 foreign languages, love of reading, and initial struggles with speaking and presentation skills are the elements of this group of participants’ background and experience, which they share with immigrant students, whose stories follow next.

Sonya

Sonya is a second-year Master's student in Education. She is 33 and had been living in

Canada for four years as a permanent resident. Sonya comes from Central Ukraine and her first language is Russian.

Family and Education in Ukraine

Sonya was born into a family of teachers in the regional city of Central Ukraine. Her brother, mother, aunt and grandmother were involved in education at some point in their careers.

They helped Sonya with homework, and the mere fact that they worked at Sonya’s school made her study better, because everybody knew her relatives. Among her extracurricular activities dancing and English classes featured prominently:

At the very beginning I didn’t realize, that I really needed especially English classes. I found it weird why did I have to go there, why do I have to learn more, but my attitude probably changed, when I was in Grade 7 or 8. Then I realized, it was pretty important for me and pretty interesting for me, because my tutor was such a person, she was like an example, I had to be, and I was supposed to speak English the way she was speaking. She was a good role-model.

As other Ukrainian students in our sample Sonya never had any ideas of dropping out of school and the same applied to her classmates. In Grade 7 she decided, she would go to university to become a teacher following in her relatives’ footsteps. Once she began extra

English classes, her mother helped her quite a lot including application to the local university and was ready to provide any other support required at the time. Sonya’s parents knew several people, who were teaching at the university and had full information regarding programs of study, application procedures and professors. She completed a 5-year university program to qualify as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language and planned to pursue a doctoral degree in

Ukraine, but was disillusioned by corruption in graduate education and had to give this idea up.

Education in Canada

At the time of the interview Sonya was finishing her Master’s degree in Education and had plans of continuing to a doctorate. She believes, that education on the graduate level in

Canada is not difficult compared to Ukraine. At the same time she mentioned opportunities and support from professors:

I was scared, as I realized, that the system of education is completely different from the system, I got used to (European model of education). But, after taking the first and the second course, I have changed my mind. For me, Master`s program is both strong and interesting, but not difficult. Moreover, the professors who work at the university are so helpful, that even if you experience any difficulties (have a question about assignment, need a book or just an explanation) they are always ready to help.

She explains the relative ease in her graduate studies with the motivation she had to continue education in Canada. Sonya wants her daughter to get at least a Master’s degree, when she grows up, and values education a lot.

Cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire

Sonya loves reading and does it regularly, especially, taking into account the fact she is in graduate school now. She goes to university library every week. When she was a child she had access to books at all times:

I had a huge library at home. All the classic books that were popular at the time, we had everything, so there was no need to go to the library. My grandma was a teacher and also worked at a school library, so I had a good opportunity to find whatever I needed and to read whatever I wanted.

Her parents read to her when she was small, and they read themselves extensively. As for the cultural preferences, Sonya picked movies, music and literature. She was the only person in her nuclear family who actively participated in arts, as she took dancing classes from Grade 1

61 until high school. She likes to go to a museum when she has time.

Sonya’s first language is Russian, which was also the language of instruction in her school, while in university classes were held in English and Ukrainian. She speaks a little bit of

Polish because of her husband:

The reason is that my husband is from the Western part of Ukraine, he lived close to Poland, that’s why he speaks Polish pretty well and he has lots of friends from Poland. It was a necessity. If you want to understand people, you have to learn their language. Ukrainian is pretty close to Polish, so that’s why you will understand it.

Apart from English Sonya studied German and Spanish and wants her daughter to be able to speak at least three or four languages. She always buys her French books to help her do well in school. To apply for Canadian citizenship Sonya had to take a CELPIP language test and easily got the highest score. She feels confident in academic discussions and does not feel intimidated in the presence of native speakers of English.

Life in Canada

Sonya moved to Canada four years ago, because her husband is a Canadian citizen (born in Ukraine), and she is very optimistic about life in her adoptive country:

I love Canada and can say, that it`s the best country to live in. It gives me so many opportunities in different spheres of life, education in particular.

She was fortunate not to experience any culture shock and benefited from mentorship of her fellow Ukrainian student who helped her with applying to the Canadian university, when she first moved to Canada. Sonya works at Ukrainian Saturday School, where she meets numerous

Ukrainian immigrants and their children.

Yana

Yana is a part-time Master's student in Education. She is teaching ESL to newcomers to

Canada, where she has been living for 9 years as permanent resident and citizen herself.

Yana is 38 and comes from Western Ukraine. She is bilingual speaker of Ukrainian and

Russian.

Family and Education in Ukraine

Yana was born in a regional centre in the West of Ukraine. Her mother is an engineer, while her father works as a flight instructor. She has a younger brother. In her school years Yana was quite an independent learner and rarely required help with homework. The contacts with teachers were not quite frequent, because teacher-parent interaction in Ukraine takes different forms. As Yana remarked:

It's a different style than here, so you are not really supposed to contact teachers unless there is an urgent need, so they did go to parent meetings when required.

Yana’s extracurricular activities were mostly associated with sports. She danced for many years and also tried swimming. She was always excellent in academic terms and none of her school friends dropped out of school. Moreover, around seventy per cent of her classmates went to universities. According to Yana:

I guess, I always knew, I would have to go. It wasn't really a choice. It was something everybody does, and I didn't think about it a lot. Thinking was about where you would, what kind of university, but whether to go was not a question.

Yana decided on her university and major choice independently from her parents, who were busy during the hard economic times in 1990s Ukraine. She could always rely on her help from teachers, but not much was required in terms of application process as it was always

63 streamlined in Ukraine. She did well in university and mostly followed her interest:

I was studying languages and literature mostly Ukrainian language and literature, so I was really into literature and after writing a few successful course papers I took part in a few Ukrainian competitions for student work in literature, and it was a great experience, and I guess these were some of the achievements, I remember about, and I had a chance to go to a graduate school there, but I didn’t do it…. I think, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. There was a choice of being a dance teacher, a history teacher, but it was always teaching. As long as I remember myself, that’s what it was.

Education in Canada

Yana was pursuing her part-time MEd in Education while teaching LINC (Language

Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) at the time of the interview. She is quite happy about her educational experiences in Canada:

Well, I think it depends what do you compare it to, but as I look back there were a lot of little successes that took me where I am today, so you are asking about academic success? So I think I was very happy to get into [X] program and then getting As in most of the subjects is an academic success for me as a newcomer, so I was really happy to be able to achieve that, and the fact that I am still a [X] student, I think, is also a success. I am back to what I love to be doing!

Yana believes it is more difficult to study in Canada compared to Ukraine:

It’s so much more difficult! I don’t know... different approach, different expectations, and different structure of education. I mean, I would have to think how to word it, but you have to participate every day. It’s not like in Ukraine where basically you have a final exam at the end of the semester, when you have to perform well, but here you have to perform every day, in every class, if it’s an online course every posting has to be good enough, so it is constant work.

She thinks, that main advantages of Canadian education lie in better resources, for example, libraries and laboratories, while in Ukraine you can get a solid theoretical background in sciences.

Cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire

Reading is Yana’s favourite pastime, but since her daughter was born 15 years ago, she has been reading mostly for work and studies. As an undergraduate student in Ukraine she spent most of her scholarship money on books, but had to leave them before moving to Canada. She goes to library at least once a week, which is a tradition going back to her childhood years. She used to go both to her local and school libraries, though her parents had more books than their apartment could accommodate. She was read books before going to bed on a daily basis. Her parents are avid readers themselves. Music is another cultural aspect of life Yana finds interest in, which could be explained by her active participation in dancing. Her family was not much into arts exhibitions and museums though:

They were very much kind of engineering and sports people. We did go to a few theatre performances or movies together, but that’s it.

Yana considers her upbringing to be bilingual, because Ukrainian and Russian were used at the same time in her family, when she was growing up. Both Ukrainian and Russian were used as the language of instruction in school and university. She speaks English, tried to study French and always valued languages:

Again I was growing up in a bilingual family, and I think, it was one of the key factors in my academic success. It’s a great exercise for your mind, and I regret, why I can’t do it for my children for some reason, but being bilingual is the first step to make your brain work.

In her nuclear family Yana speaks Ukrainian, while her children go to Russian school on

Saturdays and study core French in school. Before coming to Canada, Yana took IELTS test and her score was enough to continue her university studies. She says, she feels confident in most situations and possesses near-native fluency. When she first came to Canada, participation in academic discussions did not come naturally to her, but she is fine now and feels no intimidation when she has to speak in public.

Life in Canada

Yana is happy in Canada and believes, it provides opportunities unavailable for her in

Ukraine:

I wouldn’t have achieved, what I have here, in Ukraine. Neither me, nor my husband would, so it’s the feeling that, whatever you do, I don’t wanna say will be rewarded, but at least you have a room to grow, you have all the necessary support, whether it’s the workplace or academic environment, you have everything you need, and it’s so important to know, that you have room to grow. I think that’s a very satisfying feeling. I know, I wouldn’t have been the kind of teacher I am today, if I hadn’t come to Canada, because I learned a lot here, and I keep learning and this is what gives me satisfaction with everything I do.

Nevertheless, as any other newcomer, she felt stressed at the very beginning. Moving to

Canada with two little children, they had no support network of family and friends, but once

Yana’s husband found work, they settled down a bit. Yana does not know many Ukrainian students at the university or participate in the life of the Ukrainian community. She believes, she has to be more active, but work and family life leave no free slots in her daily schedule. She describes herself as Ukrainian-Russian living in Canada and never felt discriminated against. She concludes that in Canada:

…you are judged usually by your merits, but not by where you come from. That’s exactly what I love about Canada, where it doesn’t matter, where you come from!

Zina

Zina is a fourth-year PhD student in Education. She is 32 and has been living in Canada for

8 years as a permanent resident and citizen. Zina is from the West of Ukraine and speaks

Russian and Ukrainian.

Family and Education in Ukraine

Zina was born in a small multicultural town in the West of Ukraine. Both of her parents were sent to work there as engineers after completing studies in one of universities located in the

Ukrainian capital. She is the oldest sister of three, so when she went to school her mother dedicated more time to younger siblings and Zina was “much on her own”:

However, she was a good mother, I think, because she encouraged me to make my own decisions, and she never said no to any of my initiatives.

Zina’s mother attended parent-teacher conferences, when they were scheduled, but sometimes she would just call the teacher, if the matter was not urgent. Her father was busy with work and did not participate much in the school life of his children at that stage. Both Zina’s parents had no friends involved in the teaching profession, but had good rapport with their girls’ instructors.

Zina attended numerous extra-curricular activities in school taking an advantage of their accessibility in the former Soviet Union.

At the time it was still Soviet Union or post-Soviet Union time, that is why most of the activities were free of charge, which meant no financial burden on my parents, which meant I could do pretty much everything I wanted to. For example, one of my friends went to arts school, and I decided to go along, and I attended an arts school for over a year… I did track and field, I did volleyball and even tried basketball, but I was too short for it, so I didn’t make a team. I did ballet dancing, but my partner quit, so I quit as well. I did very many things!

Zina never thought of dropping out of school, because the high school she attended was considered the best in her hometown, so every student graduated, and most of her classmates

67 went on to get a higher education. This school specialized in foreign languages and had

Ukrainian as the language of instruction, and, as far as Zina always attended Russian-medium schools before, she had to switch to a Ukrainian middle school for one year to prepare for the entrance exam to the high school of her choice. She was always one of the top students and sometime in Grade 5 or 6 decided she would go to university to become an English teacher. Her decision was influenced by an example of her middle school teacher. She says:

She had an experience teaching, she had an internship in the UK, and she was very enthusiastic. I think, everybody in that class, that she taught, was in love with her.

When she was 15 Zina spent one year in the USA as an exchange student. She enjoyed life in North America and definitely knew, that her future career would be related to English.

University application process did not require much help from parents, because the paperwork was minimal, and Zina had a very strong case as the winner of a national English competition.

Nevertheless, her mother accompanied her to the interview and offered moral support.

In her Ukrainian university Zina successfully published several articles and received government scholarship similar to many students with high GPA. In her third year she applied for Fulbright scholarship and did well in the TOEFL test, but she was not selected to the program in the end. She was still happy that such an opportunity existed unlike in Soviet times, when students could not continue their education abroad.

Education in Canada

At the time of the interview Zina was in her final year of PhD program in Education. As a graduate student in Canada, Zina received provincial scholarship two times and was short-listed for a major national scholarship. She also received an external award from the Ukrainian community for her doctoral research:

Quite a bit of money and I am very happy, so that was something major for me last year. Out of four years, this is my fourth year, three years have been covered by something external, which can be put on a resume, and I am quite happy about it.

As a young mother Zina had a major shift in her academic priorities after the birth of her daughter.

Had I had this interview with you a year ago, I would have told you about my goals and aspirations, how much I want to achieve in Academia, however after I had my baby everything changed and right now my family comes first and my career and my work…I’d rather do something 9 to 5, earn less money. I do hope for some satisfaction from this work, but it’s not number one priority right now. Right now it’s my family.

Despite this, she hopes, she might be able to balance family obligations and academic work in future. Comparing university education in Ukraine and Canada Zina believes that

Canadian system gives students more opportunities, but at the same time requirements and expectations are higher:

It is very difficult, but at the same time it is very interesting. You do what you want to do, and they are really helping you with your research. You did research back home in Ukraine, because you had to and you were told what to write. In my case, if I had some aspirations, I was told, I was not allowed to do anything like that. These were the topics and these things I could do and nothing else.

She had high hopes for education in Canada and she was not disappointed:

I knew, it would be more difficult, because I was sure, bribes were not as popular and corruption was not big here, however, and I did hope, it would be much more interesting, because I did complete the high school in United States, and I knew it was wonderful. Here the approach was different, and I was sure, because I read a lot at the university, I knew, if I pursued my education here, I would be a much happier person, and because my career was number one at the time, I was sure, I would try my best to enter the university here, and I would try to do the research here, I was positive, that I would be helped and supported here much more than in Ukraine.

Absence of corruption and flexible curriculum alongside support for students were the main factors, which attracted Zina to graduate studies in Canada.

Cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire

Zina loves reading very much and uses every spare minute to read one of her favorite books, especially when using public transportation. She is a prolific reader, but the number of titles depends on her free time:

Last year was very productive, because I was on a maternity leave. I would read about two or three books a month, while feeding my daughter or when she was sleeping, while cooking. I think more than fifty books. I had an opportunity, and I used it big time. But on average it’s of course not that much.

Her parents had a big library at home and read books to Zina when she was little, but from the age of 5 she began to read herself. Unfortunately, she could not transport many books with her to Canada, but she takes some when she travels to Ukraine to see her family. Literature is her main cultural preference, as she not only reads a lot, but sometimes writes prose and poetry herself. Music comes close second and here Zina once again shows active participation:

Love listening to music and I love signing, whenever I have the opportunity. My husband can play the guitar a little bit, so when we go camping that’s my favorite. It’s for fun when you are sitting around the fire at night, and he is playing, I am singing. I just love these moments.

Zina also enjoys watching a good movie, when the weather is not nice, and she has to stay indoors. Coming from a small city, she wasn’t exposed to theatre and museums much, especially because her father was busy at work, and her mother had to take care of three children.

These days though her parents go to artistic events, which is often initiated by her mother with her dad following suit.

Zina spoke Russian only until the age of 12, when she moved to Ukrainian school and had to master the new language of instruction. Her husband is a native Ukrainian speaker and this language is now dominant in Zina’s family. Even her parents started speaking Ukrainian to her. Living in Canada, teaching English as a second language and pursuing a doctoral degree

70 requires daily use of English, especially for professional and academic purposes. Zina’s second major was French, and she can still function in French if necessary. She speaks a bit of German, which she practices with her neighbor of German descent. She places a lot of importance on learning languages:

I am not sure about brain development, because I am not really in psycholinguistics, one of my friends is, he can tell you all things about what happens to your brain when you learn a new language, the impulses and whatever and neurons. However, from what I hear, it’s a wonderful, wonderful thing to learn a new language, and I think, it not only develops neurons and passages in your brain it also brings about confidence. You do become wiser, your memory becomes better. With the memory and with all those neurons it’s kind of makes me think we can stay younger.

As mentioned earlier, Zina was encouraged to learn English by her school teacher and her mother always supported Zina’s initiatives:

It was my teacher who encouraged me and again my mom who never said no to anything, and, as I said, when I was 15, and thinking about decisions I would have made, had it been my daughter right now, who I would have to let go for a year in a strange country to live in a host family speaking different language knowing nobody there… I am really happy that my parents kind of thought different, they let me go, and they gave me this opportunity. They encouraged me all my life to make my own decisions and that helped a lot.

Zina took such standardized tests as TOEFL and IELTS, which she passed successfully to meet the requirements of an American high school as an exchange student and Canadian graduate school for her current program. When she came to Canada, her English skills were quite developed, but in the first term Zina struggled to speak in class, which even negatively affected her grades. She was intimidated by other students, who were native speakers of English and came across as more smart, which was not necessarily the case, but it took Zina sometime to realize that. These days she has no visible problems with public speaking or taking floor in academic discussions.

Life in Canada

Zina has been living in Canada for 8 years with her husband, and they have a 1-year old daughter as well. When Zina returned from her year abroad in a US high school, she realized, she wanted to come back to North America at some point. She started dating her future husband at the same time, and, as he had relatives in Canada, they were always encouraged to contemplate the option of moving here as skilled migrants. Soon after finishing their Ukrainian universities they applied for visas, which they received within 6 months and came to Canada the following year. Zina did not have much culture shock, because she already experienced life in North

America in high school. Nevertheless, coming to a new country right after university was quite demanding:

There was no host family at this time and no support. My husband’s relatives were here, but the uncle we talked to lives in Vancouver, so he was only phone support…. Navigating our new reality on our own, being 22 and 24 at the time. It was really challenging. As we say to each other right now, it made us very strong, we grew up very quickly, but not a million of dollars would tempt us to live through that period again.

Most of Zina’s Ukrainian friends in Canada are either in academia or occupy executive positions in the industry. They are all highly educated with several pursuing PhDs, while others boast managerial position in research and development. Zina describes them as “high achievers and wonderful people”. Zina’s connection to the Ukrainian Diaspora is not as strong, as she wants it to be. She attends Ukrainian festivals and has Ukrainian friends, but would like to work more for the benefit of Ukrainian community in the future.

Lena

Lena is in her final year of part-time MBA program, and she is also working in an IT company. She is 32 and comes from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. Lena is bilingual speaker of Russian and Ukrainian. She has been living in Canada for 10 years and is a Canadian citizen.

Family and Education in Ukraine

Lena was born in the Ukrainian capital. Her mother is an accountant, and her father works as a personal assistant in a construction company. When she was at school her parents did not help her with homework much, as it was not required. They attended parent-teacher conferences when called upon. Lena’s younger sister works as a teacher, which is the main connection of the family to the world of education.

In school Lena attended track and field extracurricular activity three or four times a week, so it took most of her free time. She never thought of dropping out of school, because that would have confined her to the work in a low-paid job.

After finishing school she immediately decided to go for university education:

My parents are very accommodating. Whatever I decide they support me! I wasn’t sure to go for a lawyer or become a computer science major and finally decided to go for computer science program.

Lena attended a lyceum with enriched program, which also allowed sitting early entrance exams for its parent university. Nevertheless, she decided to apply to another university in the capital and was successful. She considers her years at the leading Ukrainian university to be her major academic success at the time.

Education in Canada

Lena believes, it is easier to study in Ukraine, because professors are more approachable and help students to finish the course, whereas in Canada there is no collaborative culture and study is a more lonely affair. She remarks, that this could be a feature of MBA program notorious for being competitive. Her overall remarks about education in Ukraine and Canada were still quite different from opinion expressed by other respondents:

In Ukraine I was more relaxed and less stressed, because I felt, I had more support from professors. Administrative staff are probably the same here and in Ukraine, so it’s irrelevant, but professors are different. In Ukraine they are more helping you, whereas here they more follow rules and regulations in general.

Cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire

Lena likes reading, but does not read many books now as an MBA student. She never goes to the library for books, but buys them online and reads on her e-reader. As a child she had access to books as well:

We had some library… I would not say it was too big, but my friends had very good library, so I had access to my friends parents’ library and my school, which was a lyceum, library was pretty decent, so I could get any book that I want, let’s put it this way.

Her father played chess with her, but there was never much focus on books in her family.

Lena likes theatre and attends performances at least once a month. She does not have TV, so she watches no more than one movie a month and finds the choice of exhibitions limited in Canada:

I like it, but in Canada, my choice is limited, but when I travel especially to Europe I go, or if some exhibition comes to Canada. The last one was in XXX or XXX…I went with my friends.

When she was at school going to exhibitions was part of the curriculum and she went quite often. She never actively participated in the arts.

Lena is confused if her first language is Russian or Ukrainian, which testifies to the

74 balanced nature of her bilingualism. School years were spent with the Russian medium of instruction, but she entered university when Ukraine became independent and she had to adjust, which was painful at the beginning:

I had to switch from Russian to Ukrainian. It was not easy. I remember the first day I came home from university, I was crying and told my mom, I couldn’t do this, because, despite that I learned Ukrainian, I did not know any Math terminology in Ukrainian, so, when I was in Math lectures, I did not understand 30% of what the professor was saying.

In school she studied French as a second language, but could not use it anywhere, which affected her motivation. Moving to Canada required studying English. It did not come easy, but

Lena feels confident now, even though she feels a bit constrained when speaking English.

Making presentations is not easy for Lena similarly to other Ukrainian students:

It depends, when I think hard about something I struggle a bit, because English requires some resources, so, if I have already formed my thoughts, then I have no problems, but if I am thinking, I will not speak.

It’s not that I don’t like it, but I think, it is the main disadvantage of Ukrainian education or eastern European education, because we did not learn how to do presentation, and we don’t practice, while people from North American schools used to do it.

Life in Canada

Lena came to Canada 10 years ago in pursuit of career opportunities. Most of her classmates also immigrated and now live in the US, France and Canada among other countries.

When Lena came to Canada, she had to adjust to another language and food, but she did not suffer from acute culture shock:

I was travelling before. I knew that in different countries people are different and not necessarily have the same values. Like Russia is different from Ukraine! It wasn’t a shock. I kind of expected that.

She meets her Ukrainian friends several times per year, though MBA studies take a toll on her social life.

As can be seen from the narratives of Ukrainian immigrant students, their status explains initial struggles they had to face, which differs strongly from international students’ experience.

Coming as immigrants they had to settle down, find gainful employment, adjust to local cultural norms, which they had to achieve without the support network. Most had no family or friends in

Canada, which devalued the social capital they enjoyed at home. When in a Canadian university, they also could not count on services for international students and had to rely on themselves only.

Another difference from the Ukrainian international students was that being slightly older on average Ukrainian immigrant students had considerably less experience of study abroad, which added to culture shock. Only Zina spent one year in a US high school as an exchange student, but even her young family felt isolated when they first came to Canada. For comparison look at Ivan, who spent Grade 12 in a Canadian school and Sasha with his MA in Education from the US together with participation in educational projects abroad. Mykhaylo and Olya also had an opportunity to travel abroad for academic purposes. As Zina mentioned:

People who studied during the Soviet era didn’t even have a chance to apply for something external.

In terms of cultural capital accumulation there is also a transition between Ukrainian immigrant students, who had mostly extracurricular activities and reading, and younger international students with more access to tutoring.

Importance of university education, love of reading, supported by easy access to print, and initial problems with public speaking in a Canadian university are some of the key topics to emerge from interviews with both immigrant and international Ukrainian students, which inform the following analysis and discussion.

CHAPTER 6. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter I will offer a detailed analysis of themes, which emerged within the five established categories. Academic success of Ukrainian students helps to answer the first research question and will be interpreted through their self-reported GPA and external funding opportunities. Connection between Ukrainian background and educational experience in

Canada, as represented in their social and cultural capital, is explained through the centrality of children, the value given to the importance of education, parental educational capital, popularity of reading and level of linguistic capital. Particularities of acquiring cultural capital in Eastern

Europe is represented by availability of print, access to extracurricular activities and popularity of enriched curriculum. Cross-border portability of capital offers the dichotomy of cultural versus social capital, while major obstacles experienced by Ukrainian students in Canada are presentation skills and perspective on curriculum.

Research question 1: Social and cultural capital and academic experience

My first research question was to find out how social and cultural capital of Ukrainian students affected their educational experience in Canada. To answer this question I analyze their academic success and cross-border portability of different types of capital.

Academic success of Ukrainian students

Based on gathered data, Ukrainian students achieve significant success in the Canadian university in question as represented by high GPA scores as reported by participants, which is especially relevant for undergraduate students, and external funding opportunities enjoyed by graduate students in this group: 76

When I came here last year my major academic achievement was GPA of 4.0. This year it is also pretty good: also As! (Ivan)

Lena believes, that studying in the MBA program is a success in itself, while Yana mentioned getting As in most Master’s courses as her most important academic achievement in

Canada. These are the terms the participants use to describe their success. Additionally, Zina received Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) twice and was short-listed for the scholarship from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) alongside with fellowship from the Ukrainian Canadian foundation. Olya began her Canadian university journey as a

Master’s students, but did well enough to transfer to a doctoral program directly with her two years at the master’s level counting towards her PhD. Mykhaylo and Sasha were accepted as international students into fully-funded PhD programs, which are quite selective.

Cross-border portability of capital

Educational success of minority students is often explained by social bonding capital as represented by community relationships, membership in peer groups and ethnic clubs and social bridging capital, which denotes connections with other ethnic groups or social classes (Birani &

Lehmann, 2013). Only two participants in the study take part in the life of the Ukrainian community: Sonya volunteers at Ukrainian Saturday School, while Zina received a fellowship from the Ukrainian foundation and had to write a book, and give a lecture for the benefit of the local community. Others either prefer to communicate with people from different ethnic groups, for example Ivan:

I am more of an international guy...I just decided not to join something like this, because it would potentially limit my circle of friends. or cite lack of time, geographic distance or affinity. Yana says:

I don’t belong to any of these groups. I probably should, but again, because of time, I can’t really fit anything into my schedule. Because we live kind of very far from where most Ukrainians would live, so I don’t have as many connections, as I would love to.

As a PhD student Sasha dedicates most of his time to academic life:

I don’t take part in cultural activities, except that in September I went to that Ukrainian festival, but I don’t engage in the life of the community. I don’t go to Ukrainian church and I don’t gather with Ukrainian community.

The cultural capital of respondents proved to be more portable due to its embodied character and similar value attached in Ukraine and Canada to education, culture, literacy, numeracy and language skills. Social capital expressed in networks is more location-dependent, which required the re-creation of valuable networks in Canada from scratch. It is especially true for Ukrainian international students, who usually do not have friends and family members in

Canada before their move to this country. Participants, who spent more time in Canada and acquired Canadian citizenship (Lena, Yana, and Zina) have more Ukrainian friends than newcomers, who are international students (Ivan, Natasha, Mykhaylo, Olya, and Sasha), but only

Zina mentioned them as significant people in her life with some being her mentors. One of the explanations of this phenomenon lies in the fact, that Ukrainians coming to Canada after 1991 as members of the so-called fourth wave of immigrants tend to be less community-centred with loose bonds with other Ukrainian arrivals and mutual distrust towards Ukrainian Canadians from previous generations (Satzewich, Isajiw, & Duvalko, 2006). Lack of bonding social capital is compensated in their case by bridging capital of young and mobile Ukrainians similar to Ivan,

Olya and Sasha, who are open to participation in networks spreading far outside their immediate community. They position themselves as modern cosmopolitans, which gives them additional capital (Weenink, 2008) and benefit from belonging to the community of practice by mobilizing social and cultural capital through such networks (Montgomery & McDowell, 2009).

Research question 2: Connection between Ukrainian background and educational experience in Canada

Looking in more detail at the elements of respondents' culture that impacted their educational experience and success both in Canada and Ukraine, we have to mention, that some of the key elements behind relatively high social and cultural capital of Ukrainian university students are centrality of children, status of education, high parental educational capital, popularity of reading and high level of linguistic capital.

Centrality of children

Despite the severe political, economic and ultimately social turmoil in Eastern European nations after the fall of communism, family remains an institution highly valued by people with children playing a central role in family life (Robila, 2004). Parents are heavily involved in lives of their children, with the latter often turning to support, while the former adopt an instrumental approach, when children provide care to their aging parents (Robila & Krishnakumar, 2004).

Centrality of children in Eastern European family life can also be explained by more traditional family structure and gender roles in comparison with Western European cultures. Progressive attitude towards woman's work makes wives more skeptical about the centrality of children as they have more to lose from having children in the form of lost employment, income and career opportunities. Parental involvement comes to the fore in education. While good education is no longer perceived as the only route to economic success, it is still associated with social respectability and prestige (Robila, 2004). Difficult entrance examinations highlight the value of higher education with high school interpreted as the necessary preparation stage. The strong

80 position of women, elevated in the days of communism to that of an equal of a man in the labor force, made mothers more involved in children's education. According to Zhurzhenko (2004), in up to 70% of Ukrainian families it is the mother, who takes the child to kindergarten or school and back. Mothers more often help children with homework, read books with them, visit museums and exhibitions, which was confirmed by participants in the study:

My mom spent all her time on me. I went to different groups. I have been learning English, since I was five. I was going to the dancing club, swimming, all of that stuff. All my childhood I spent with her. What about school? She cared a lot about that, because education is the main part of my family, so our parents want us to be educated... (Natasha)

Parents offered unconditional support to their children in school years and assisted with the university selection and tuition fees in case of undergraduate students. Mykhaylo's mother travelled with her son to another city to apply for the university, while Sonya had help both with paperwork and advice on college selection courtesy of her parents' network of teachers. Natasha was sent to the international school in Ukraine, where officials aided with applications to foreign universities, whereas Ivan's parents helped him to apply to his Canadian high school. Olya's parents were influential in her university choice and found her a tutor to prepare for the entrance exams.

Status of education

The history of higher education in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, followed patterns different from the Anglo-Saxon model. Most undergraduate degrees require no less than 5 years of comprehensive study and many contact hours. There are no elective courses, as the curriculum is defined by the Ministry of Education for all majors offered at Ukrainian universities. This rigorous experience makes Ukrainian students well suited to intensive study abroad. Eastern

European students value education for its own stake, are ambitious, self-motivated and driven by such needs as self-actualization and seeking satisfaction in learning. They have respect for

81 knowledge and knowledge keepers, i.e. academics (Jankowska, 2011).

Parental expectations and aspirations for children's academic success have the strongest effect on students’ performance compared with other types of parental involvement, such as homework supervision and volunteering at school (Fan & Chen, 2001). Students' perception of parental expectations has positive influence on their math and reading scores (Bowen, Glennie,

Rose, & Hopson 2012). Based on the meta-analysis of 21 studies Yamamoto and Holloway

(2010) distinguish four mediating processes, which allow parental expectations to influence children's academic trajectories: a) children's internalization of high parental valuation of achievement; b) children's higher competency beliefs; c) more effective parental involvement; and d) more positive teacher perception of children's abilities.

Participants in the study reported high levels of parental expectations, especially regarding the completion of high school. Even though there is no reliable data on the dropout rate in Ukrainian high schools, all nine participants confirmed that school completion is taken for granted and most of them have no alternative but to finish school. Ivan voiced this expectation in the most straightforward and clear way when answering the question, what would have been his parents' reaction for his decision to drop out of school:

Oh, I would have been in so much trouble! My parents are strict, even though they might have been liberal and let me do stuff by myself, when I was in school...If I decided to drop out of school, firstly, they wouldn't let me do it of course! Secondly, my parents would be really angry! I would probably get a lot of extra-curricular education at home, so I don't think, it would be possible in my family to drop out of school! Because nobody did!

Not a single participant mentioned that they have ever had an idea to drop out of school and the same applied to their friends. Moreover going to university after school was only natural, as Yana put it:

They knew as early as in middle school grades, that higher education was the only possibility for school graduates to have a chance of getting a decent job and provide for their family. Most participants reported, that the vast majority of their friends and classmates went to universities:

It would be hard to say, but probably about 70% went to university. (Yana)

I mean, everybody I communicate with right now, they have university education. (Zina)

People from this good class almost all of them attended university eventually. (Mykhaylo)

In terms of percentage, I think, over 90% of people I know went to universities or at least decided to get some education, even if they think, they will not work in this area. (Ivan)

Due to high parental and social expectations Ukrainian students have a positive attitude towards education. One of the participants (Olya) remarked that the purpose of education is:

To teach people how to think, so they can analyze things, to learn some basics, basic science and other things. That should get people enough background to think and analyze things around.

Subsequently, they are trying their best:

... international student fees are really huge, and I think that not trying my best would be disrespectful to my parents, and, if I didn't do well, I would bring dishonor to my family, because everybody in my family did really well in university and became successful, and also my family is really perfectionist, so what's the point of doing something, if you don't do it well. That's what motivated me to get the highest GPA and hopefully to go on with that! (Ivan).

Once in Canada, Ukrainian students do not suffer from habitus dislocation (Baxter &

Britton, 2001), because their pre-school and school experiences did not differ much from their

Canadian experience. They do not feel out of place in universities, which is often the case among first-generation and/or visible minority students (Briani & Lehmann, 2013). Participants in the study enjoyed their Canadian experience mentioning such advantages as freedom to choose courses:

I think studying is easier, but it’s more interesting, because you have many areas. We didn’t have this option in Ukraine (Mykhaylo); help from professors:

I think that professors here are very different. They are actually very helpful. They are supporting and understanding, while the ones in Ukraine, at least in my Biology program, it was really not like that (Olya); applied and interactive curriculum:

Of course it’s more interactive here, where students are expected to participate instead of just listening to a lecture... I would say here you would get more probably practical knowledge (Yana); better facilities and equipment:

It is easier, at least you have more, at least for Science, you have more things to try, more equipment, for example, and it’s faster (Olya).

High parental educational capital

Parental education is often viewed as a major element of cultural capital, because it facilitates the transfer of culture-related dispositions and preferences, including reading behaviour. It also affects educational attainment of students (Kraaykamp & van Eijck, 2010).

Despite the absence of reliable data on university enrollment in Ukraine most students in the study have both parents with higher educational credentials, which translates into high expectations towards their offspring. Going to university is often taken for granted. Olya's father did not receive higher education, but he encouraged his daughter to go to the medical school.

Sonya's mother, grandmother and aunt worked as teachers and provided her both with appropriate habitus and social and cultural capital when she was about to choose her university.

The data on educational level of participants’ parents is represented in Table 2:

Table 2: Parental education

Participant Father Mother Ivan university university Natasha university university Lena university university Sonya university university Yana college university Mykhaylo high school vocational school Olya High school university Sasha university university Zina university university

Popularity of reading

As has been shown by Crook (1997) in Australia and De Graaf and de Graaf (2000) in the

Netherlands, reading behaviour is a better vehicle for the reproduction of cultural capital than the participation in highbrow cultural activities (opera, theatre, classical music concerts, museums and arts exhibitions). Parental reading and media socialization affect children's academic attainment (Notten & Kraaykamp, 2010). Reading by parents has beneficial effect on children, while their electronic media consumption produces negative influence. The content of the consumption is also important with highbrow literature (national and translated prose, poetry, biography, history and science) being the most advantageous for children's success, whereas watching popular TV (films, serials, soap operas, sport and game shows) has negative effects.

Notten and Kraaykamp (2010) emphasize parental reading guidance as a mechanism of transferring valuable literacy skills, which also stimulate cognitive development, cultural competency and match school expectations.

All nine research participants gave a positive answer to the question if they loved reading:

Very much. I was reading a book on my way here (Zina). Of course, that's my favorite

activity! (Yana).

The number of books they read for pleasure varies from several books a year for business and science students (Lena, Olya, Mykhaylo) to dozens and scores for education majors (Sonya,

Zina). The major distractor for respondents was the lack of time associated with full-time studies, which made them read required articles and textbooks for classes on a daily basis. Both in Soviet and in independent Ukraine reading was promoted in schools with long required reading lists of

15-20 titles provided for summer vacations between the school grades. Some students resented the practice, but reading featured prominently in their everyday lives nonetheless. According to

Sasha:

When I was a kid, I didn’t like to read. My parents made me read. When I was in elementary school, I had to read 10 pages a day during my summer break, and I hated it. I tried to finish as soon as possible and go and do something else. Now I really appreciated that they did this to me, because at that age, I did not see the value in that activity.

Reading to children, especially before bedtime, was a typical activity usually organized by mothers. Most parents and grandparents also read themselves:

Access to books in home was equitable in the Soviet Ukraine and the situation stays similar after its independence despite the economic hardship, which followed. As far as reading is the most educationally effective type of cultural capital (De Graaf and De Graaf, 2000), increasing its popularity should be considered by educational practitioners, especially the ones dealing with socially and culturally diverse students.

High level of linguistic capital

One of the best predictors of academic success during study abroad is the proficiency in the language of instruction and Ukrainian students are uniquely positioned to reap the rewards of linguistic capital. Ukrainian is the only official language in the country, but around 50% of people speak Russian as their mother tongue. As a result most Ukrainians have two languages in their repertoire, which helps to learn further languages (Cenoz, 2013). The following is a typical answer to the question about the number of languages spoken (Sonya):

Russian, Ukrainian, I also speak Polish, but a little bit. I understand it well enough, but I speak a little bit, English, a little bit of German and Spanish.

Zina and Olya also had exposure to Polish, because their home towns are located close to the Polish border. Four participants (Ivan, Natasha, Sonya and Sasha) had English tutors for years, often starting at an early age. Ivan also had a German tutor for some time, while the multilingual character of respondents is also explained by the fact, that Lena studied French as her first foreign language in school, while Zina and Sasha studied not only English, but also

French and German respectively as part of their university programs in Linguistics. Foreign languages featured prominently in participants’ lives:

...most of the time I just learned English – it was my basic field. I knew from my childhood, that I wanted to connect my life with English, maybe work like interpreter or something, and I knew I wanted to study abroad (Natasha, political science major).

Mostly a lot of work is done here, in the US and Europe as well, and they all publish in English. I read so many English papers, while I was studying Biology. That was something assumed, that you have to do that (Olya, Biochemistry major)

Moreover, before coming to Canada, three participants experienced studying exclusively in

English. Ivan spent one year in the international high school in Hamilton, Ontario preparing for his future undergraduate studies. Zina enjoyed one year exchange program in a US school in

Minnesota when she was 15, while Sasha completed his two-year Master of Arts program in

Education in the US.

High level of linguistic capital among Ukrainians in Canada is confirmed by CLBA

(Canadian Language Benchmarks Assessment) scores for permanent residents with Ukrainian as the first language (Derwing, Munro, Mulder, & Abbott, 2010). One of the possible explanations may be in the high number of Ukrainian-English cognates (Perhan, 2008), but according to

Derwing and Waugh (2012), Canadian speakers of Russian, Ukrainian and Serbo-Croatian have significantly higher speaking and listening skills, than their Mandarin counterparts due to relatively high exposure to English, willingness to communicate and positive attitude to language training, which are mostly extra-linguistic factors.

It is worth mentioning, that the bilingual/multilingual status of university students is not always acknowledged in the monolingual classrooms (Kelly & Safford, 2010), but it is still used by some linguistically diverse students, who can use it to acquire the right sort of capital for a particular occasion (Bourdieu, 1976). In our context this would be English proficiency, which is also a viable strategy for increased educational mobility. The power of English is supported by the economic and political power of inner circle countries (the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia,

New Zealand, Ireland) (Kachru, 1986), which define the valuable linguistic capital. There is clearly a divide here when those with good English skills can reap the rewards, while populations lacking this type of proficiency get marginalized due to their lack of access to the international education market (Tollefson & Tsui, 2014).

Two other categories to emerge from the data were particularities of acquiring cultural capital in Eastern Europe and obstacles experienced by Ukrainian students in Canada

Particularities of acquiring cultural capital in Eastern Europe

As has been already mentioned cultural capital is a scarce resource, which allows the dominant classes to protect their privilege (Moore, 2008). The emergence of communism in the former

Russian Empire, which included Ukraine, led to the change of the class paradigm. Communist party leaders, who assumed power, tried to destroy the bourgeoisie and middle classes through forced immigration, repressions and restructuring of the economy. Inequality was reduced with workers and peasants given preference in all walks of life. New educational system had to be meritocratic and prevent social reproduction, including the transfer of cultural capital (Evans,

Kelley, Sikora, & Treiman, 2010). The real situation was different, especially after the death of

Stalin, with certain cultural practices becoming more prestigious and education helping some social groups to acquire more cultural capital (Tromly, 2014). As a result, particular features of acquiring cultural capital in Ukraine emerged at the time, and they persist until now. Interview data allowed distinguishing three facets of this process, which are quite different from mechanism at play in capitalist societies like Canada. They deal with the availability of print, access to extracurricular activities, and popularity of enriched curriculum.

Availability of print

Access to print is one of the key predictors of literacy development and positive reading behaviour. Lindsay (2010) in his rigorous meta-analysis of 108 studies found, that access to print materials has a causal relationship with children's attitude towards reading, reading behaviour, emergent literacy skills, and reading performance. Evans, Kelley, Sikora and Treiman (2010) in their assessment of connection between the number of books at home and children's education across 27 nations found, that children who had many (500+) at home boasted additional 7 years of education compared to those, who had no books at all. It holds true in rich and poor countries

89 regardless of parental education, occupation or class. Moreover, the home library size is a good predictor for other elements of scholarly culture like going to the library, leading conversations about books or having an active teaching role with children (Farkas & Hiber, 2008 as cited in

Evans, Kelley, Sikora & Treiman, 2010).

In Soviet times book publishing was focused on Russian and foreign classics, which were printed in millions, cost little and were available to all. The number of titles was limited, because of censorship and general governmental control over the literature consumption of Soviet readers

(Pristed, 2013). As a result, selected titles were in deficit and became symbols of social privilege and prestige (Tromly, 2014). Many people amassed extensive book libraries as a sign of intellectualism, where the ownership of difficult to get books or censored texts functioned in accordance with the elite closure model (Bourdieu, 1984) to recognize fellow members and exclude others. Seven out of nine participants had large libraries at home. Sometimes it was

“more than we should in an apartment” (Yana). The following answers are typical:

If you look at all Soviet families, you know, almost all Soviet families, especially middle-class, they all tried to have own libraries at home. Imagine walking into someone’s home and there will bookshelves somewhere there. My father had a kind of obsession with getting books. He read them and made us read them. The availability was not a sign of an upper socio-economic class. Even my grandmother, who lived in a village, she was a bookkeeper at the sugar plant, she had books in her house. She had different books. These were not cheap romances, she had Balzac and history books. She lived in the village. When we were going for the summer breaks, we were given the list of literature we had to read – Ukrainian literature and World literature, so we had to read, whether we liked or not (Sasha).

Mostly my grandparents still have a lot of books. You know, how you can buy all sets of books back in the Soviet Union, so each one is like 15 cents. They had a lot of books, and they encouraged me to read. My parents are sort of building a library at home, but since I was small, I was surrounded by books!

Those participants who did not have large libraries at home could either borrow books from friends, grandparents or school library. As a result of developed network of libraries in Canada, many of them go to local or university libraries now. They also buy books, especially for their

90 children, which ensures the reproduction of parental reading behaviour:

I buy books for my daughter. I buy a lot. I buy books in French, because she is learning French now and surely to improve she has to read a lot. I often even buy textbooks to read and practice. I also buy encyclopaedias, as I have already mentioned it is my passion, so she likes to read.

Access to extracurricular activities

Extracurricular activities not only contribute to what Anette Lareau (2003) calls

“concerted cultivation” among middle-classes, but also influence educational outcomes and risky behaviour in a more positive way than unstructured play with peers and watching TV (Eccles,

Barber, Stone & Hunt, 2003). Participation in a variety of extracurricular activities (sports, arts, and clubs) increases chances of university attendance (Kaufman & Gabler, 2004).

A specific element of life in former communist countries was the proliferation of free extracurricular activities, which allowed participants growing up in 1980s to get the benefits of

“concerted cultivation” (Lareau, 2003) at no cost irrespective of the social class:

Table 3 gives an overview of different extracurricular activities the participants took part in during school years:

Table 3: Extracurricular Activities

Ivan martial arts, English, German Natasha dancing, drama, English Lena track and field athletics Sonya dancing, English Yana dancing, swimming

Mykhaylo chess, football Olya dancing, swimming, drama, piano, Biology Sasha ballroom dancing, English, Math Zina drawing, track and field athletics, volleyball, ballet

Closely connected phenomenon was publicly available and free childcare services typical of all communist countries in Eastern Europe (Szelewa & Polakowski, 2008). Access to Early

Childhood Education (ECE) allows mothers to stay employed and increases economic capital of parents (Vesely, Ewaida, & Kearney, 2013). Different from Western countries, including Canada, babysitting as a separate branch of service economy was never developed in communist countries due to universal, high-quality and free ECE (Rostgaard, 2004, as cited in Szelewa &

Polakovski, 2008, p. 118). It not only provided childcare, but offered extensive primary school preparation. Attendance of pre-kindergarten education programs significantly improves reading and math performance of children during kindergarten and first term of Grade 1 (Magnuson,

Meyers, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2004) and affects educational outcomes of pupils overall (Cerny,

2009). All ECE teachers received professional education at the college and/or university level.

They provided consistent educational experience in accordance with the standardized curriculum.

Enrolment rates were close to 100%, while in the US they stood at 60% in 2001 among 4- year-olds with figures varying considerably between high-income and low-income children (75% versus 50%) (Magnuson, Meyers, Ruhm, & Waldfogel, 2004). Canadian numbers are lower at

54% (Cerny, 2009), while high-quality childcare enrolment figures were even lower at 28%

(Bushnik, 2006). It is not surprising, as far as Canada has one of the lowest levels of public spending on childcare among OECD countries (0.4% of GDP versus 2.4% in Denmark) (Bonoli

& Reber, 2008). The explanation lies in the cultural difference, because people in English- speaking countries always viewed childbearing as a private matter and government was only

92 marginally involved in the process unlike in continental European countries (Cerny, 2009).

Popularity of enriched curriculum

Schools with enriched curriculum (immersion, gifted programs, International

Baccalaureate (IB), etc.) offer not only additional and higher level exposure to certain types of curriculum content, but are also used for the purposes of accumulating cultural capital (Smala,

Paz, & Lingard, 2013, Weenink, 2008).

Access to such schools in Soviet and post-Soviet Ukraine was different compared to the

West. As far as all schools were public, it was possible to send children to schools with enriched curriculum free of charge. Schools focusing on Math or English retained their popularity until these days:

I actually wanted to get into that best school – English/French/German school in our city, but I couldn’t, as it was Ukrainian, and I didn’t know a word of Ukrainian at the time, that’s why I had to switch to Ukrainian school, study Ukrainian for a year, then I attempted to, and I passed the exams, and was admitted to that high-end school.

Absence of fees allowed all eligible candidates to enter such schools. Sometimes an entrance examination was required, but enrollment was based mostly on self-selection.

Math/Science and language schools are available in most cities and towns, which ensures appropriate access for students across the country. Gifted programs are extremely rare and do not produce considerable impact on the educational landscape. The first IB school in Ukraine was founded in 2004 and charges high fees. Natasha was the only participant, who studied in such school. Mykhaylo was homeschooled for many years due to his bad health, but this arrangement did not require financial resources on behalf of his parents. The popularity of regular enriched programs is well represented in the sample – Zina switched schools to go to the foreign languages school, Lena attended a lyceum, which had an agreement with one of the leading universities in Ukraine to facilitate preferential treatment during the application process.

After the break-up of the Soviet Union, tutoring emerged as one of the most wide-spread approaches on behalf of parents to boost the educational capital of their children. The reasons behind this popularity lie in: 1) declining state expenditures on public education; 2) shifting status of teaching profession; 3) changing quality of education in mainstream schools; and 4) increasing demand for higher education (Silova, 2010, p. 329). Proliferation of tutoring leads to social inequality as not all parents can afford to pay extra educational fees. Moreover, some teachers tutor their own students and then favor them in class, which affects the validity of assessment and influences the equality of access to higher education (Silova, 2010).

Five participants (Ivan, Natasha, Sonya, Olya and Sasha) reported having tutors in one or several school subjects. Some of them dedicated years to this type of “shadow education”, which required significant financial investment, but fees were manageable. Parents with more economic capital prefer to send their children to study abroad, which is the case with two undergraduate participants in our study (Ivan and Natasha).

Obstacles experienced by Ukrainian students in Canada

Despite the significant cultural capital exhibited by Ukrainian students in Canada and their academic success in Canadian universities, two major obstacles experienced by respondents emerged from interview data: lack of presentation skills and dissatisfaction with curriculum.

Though proficient in English, many students underlined the difficulty of making presentations, which disadvantages them compared to the Canadian-born peers. The following sentiment was echoed by many participants:

...it’s not that I don’t like it, but I think it is the main disadvantage of Ukrainian education or Eastern European education, because we did not learn how to do presentation, and we don’t practice, while people from North American schools used to do it (Lena)

Linguistic capital alone, as confirmed by the fact of their enrollment in an English university in Canada, proved not to be enough for the completely smooth transition from

Ukrainian educational system to the Canadian one. Most respondents confirmed that they had initial issues with communicating with peers in the classroom setting, when they had to take the floor and speak in front of the audience. There were elements of intimidation in the presence of Anglophone students and professors. Zina was advised by professors to participate more in class; Sonya was overwhelmed at first, while Ivan and Yana were not comfortable speaking in public during their first year in a Canadian university. Content- based pedagogy practiced in Ukraine resulted in teacher-centred approach to classroom interaction (Koshmanova & Ravchyna, 2008). Students almost never delivered presentations and other qualities, for example passing writing tests or one-to-one oral examinations, were prized instead.

As has been mentioned in the section on positive experiences of Ukrainian students in a Canadian university, they value the academic freedom, helpful professors and easily available resources. Nevertheless, several participants mentioned that the curriculum could have been more rigorous, particularly in theoretical courses. It was contrasted with memories of sound foundation courses offered back home in Ukraine. Such sentiments are supported by the research literature providing Canadian examples of community schools organized by the members of the Russian-speaking community, which is also corroborated by data from Israel (Asanova, 2005).

To sum up, Ukrainian students have high levels of social, cultural and linguistic capital resulting in successful experience in a Canadian university, which is confirmed by their high GPA and external funding secured by graduate students. At the same time it is the cultural capital that crosses the border well, whereas social networks get weaker and need reinforcement after such a transition. The factors behind their high level of capital are centrality of children, importance of education, high parental educational capital,

95 popularity of reading and high level of linguistic capital. The peculiarity of acquiring cultural capital in Ukraine has been influenced by its communist past and post-communist present and is displayed by a different approach to availability of print, access to extracurricular activities and popularity of enriched curriculum. Despite their academic success in Canada, Ukrainian students experience several obstacles: lack of presentation skills and dissatisfaction with the curriculum. Implications for further research and classroom practice will be discussed in the next chapter.

CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

The purpose of this study was to explore the academic experience of Ukrainian university students in Canada as under-researched invisible minority group with the help of Bourdieu’s capital theory (Moore, 2008). Invisible minorities are often presumed not have any barriers in education, but their experience is always shaped by different circumstances, and might result in obstacles on the path to educational success. My goal was to get an insight into how the social and cultural capital of Ukrainian international and immigrant university students affects their academic experience in Canada, and which types of capital are more portable across the borders.

Additionally, I wanted to distinguish the elements of Ukrainian students' background, which affect their educational experience and success in Canada. Social capital is expressed in valuable resources acquired through membership in a particular social group, while cultural capital denotes a set of socially desirable skills and dispositions (Wacquant, 2008). Linguistic capital is an element of cultural capital, which describes the legitimate language associated with the dominant social group, and allows its users to receive benefits in the field of education by meeting established expectations (Bourdieu, 1976).

Scarce quantitative data on Ukrainian school students in Canada (Samuel, Krugly-

Smolska, & Warren, 2001), nevertheless, proved to be a proxy for university success among

Ukrainian participants of this study as represented by self-reported GPA and external funding for doctoral students. Interviews shed light on participants’ family background and formative educational experiences in Ukraine, their lives and education trajectories in Canada. Crucially, their cultural preferences and linguistic repertoire clarified the connection between the elements of culture and educational experience of Ukrainian university students in Canada.

Unsurprisingly, it was revealed, that cultural capital crosses the border more easily than social capital (Bhattacharya, 2011). Ukrainian immigrant university students in the sample

belong to the fourth (economic) wave of Ukrainians in Canada, which determines their alienation from earlier (political) waves. Modern migrants do not have strong social networks (Satzewich,

Isajiw, & Duvalko, 2006), while Ukrainian international students leave their networks behind by definition and need social capital renewal to enhance their well-being (Neri & Ville, 2008).

Respondents did not show significant attachment to the Ukrainian community and exist on campus as if on their own in the cultural sense. They differ in their cultural background from

White Canadians, but due to their invisibility as a group, they cannot rely on community support similar to that of racial and/or religious minorities (e.g. Chinese students, Jewish and Muslim students. This leads to the implications for university administrators, who should not assume that invisible minority students are culturally indistinguishable from the White Canadian group erroneously considered monolithic. Ukrainian students do need their own representation on campus.

Despite high levels of cultural capital enjoyed by Ukrainian university students due to the centrality of children, high status of education, high level of parental education, popularity of reading and high linguistic capital, Ukrainian students come from an educational background different from that of Canada. Teacher-centred content-based pedagogy (Koshmanova &

Ravchyna, 2008) shapes students, who feel discomfort speaking in public, but have other strengths, for example, ability for rigorous theoretical study and deep analysis. Moreover, they do not display high level of self-confidence, a prized asset in North America, but a quality often frowned upon in Ukraine. Wide-spread high-stakes examinations in Ukraine often create perfectionist students, who suffer from educational culture shock in Canada when their participation marks are significantly lower than grades for written work. It affects their self- esteem and contributes to stress and low self-worth. Many students feel they are academically inferior to their Canadian counterparts, even though it is not supported by their average grades.

The implication for university professors is to acknowledge different learning styles and multiple intelligences, which could be achieved by combining all class discussion with pair and group work in seminars. Sensitivity to different cultures in the classroom, which influence students' behavior, must be applied as well.

Particular ways of acquiring cultural capital in Ukraine represented by a different approach to the availability of print, access to extracurricular activities, and popularity of enriched curriculum can be taken into account during further research on cultural capital in post- communist countries, which is the main implication for researchers. Specific patterns of social inequality and state-sponsored obstacles to social reproduction make these countries different from capitalist societies.

Finally, availability of print proved to be crucial in enhancing students’ cultural capital with the maximum benefit for their educational outcomes (Cummins, 2011), which could serve as the implication for primary and high school educators, who are working with socially and culturally diverse learners and would like to bridge the gap between groups enjoying different levels of cultural capital to facilitate more inclusive approach to education.

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APPENDIX A: RECRUITMENT LETTER AND CONSENT FORM [Departmental Letterhead]

November 21, 2013

Dear Student,

My name is Maksym Antonenko and I am a graduate student at Ontario Institute for Studies in

Education/University of Toronto at the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning. I am writing to inquire if you are interested in participating in my Master’s research titled Symbolic

Capital of Ukrainian Immigrant and International University Students in Canada and Its

Influence on Their Academic Trajectories. The study aims at finding elements of cultural background, language practices, upbringing and educational experiences of Ukrainian students, which affect their learning in Canadian universities. I am planning to conduct my study between

June of 2013 and April of 2014.

Participating Ukrainian immigrant students would have arrived in Canada after their 13th birthday ensuring no less than 6 years of formal schooling in Ukraine, while international students should be currently enrolled in such a capacity and not be Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

Your participation will include a 1-hour interview conducted on the premises of the University of

Toronto you find the most convenient and it is absolutely voluntary. Interviews will start only after you sign the consent forms and will be audio recorded as long as you give your consent for such recording. Responses will not be judged and participants will have the opportunity to withdraw from the interview at any time or refuse to answer any questions without any negative

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117 consequences. In case of withdrawal all unanalyzed data will be immediately destroyed. No real names of participants, their teachers, educational establishments or geographical locations will be used in transcribing, analyzing or presenting the data.

Gathered data will be accessible only to me, Maksym Antonenko, and my supervisor, Professor

Diane Farmer. All audio recordings will be destroyed at the end of the study, while interviews transcriptions will be stored on my personal computer protected by a password for five years before being deleted.

Questions asked during the interview are not intended to be embarrassing or upsetting. They will deal with your schooling experience, cultural preferences, patterns of social interaction and linguistic behavior. Your social status, privacy or reputation will not suffer, because all personal information will be kept confidential. Due to the nature of questions no physical, social, psychological or legal risks are associated with this research. The research poses low group vulnerability and low research risk, because all participants will take part in interviews voluntarily, will have the right to withdraw from the project at any time and will be aged 19 or older.

I will gladly send you a summary report when the project concludes in April of 2014. If you agree to participate in accordance with the above-mentioned conditions please return the consent form with your signature, date and name to me. Please keep one copy for your reference.

Thank you for your time and cooperation.

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Sincerely,

Maksym Antonenko

MA student, Second Language Education Program Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning

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Student Consent Form

The signing of this form is strictly voluntary. I acknowledge that I have read and understood details of the research described in the recruitment letter written by Maksym Antonenko on November 21 2013.

I fully understand that my participation will involve the following activities and conditions:

Activity:

1-hour interview to be audio recorded

Conditions:

1. All my personal information will be kept confidential 2. I will be free to withdraw from the study at any time without any negative consequences

I agree to participate in the study Symbolic Capital of Ukrainian Immigrant and International University Students in Canada and Its Influence on Their Academic Trajectories.

I am returning this signed and completed consent form to Maksym Antonenko, and I have been given a copy of the recruitment letter and this consent form.

Name ______Signature ______Date ______

Comment: At the stage of writing up this thesis I changed my name from Maksym Antonenko to Max Antony-Newman. The recruitment letter and consent form have the name I used at the time.

APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Topic: Educational Experiences

3. What was your background in Ukraine? Tell me about your family. What is/was their occupation in Ukraine? 4. Did your parents help you with homework or discuss school related questions? Did they meet with your teachers regularly? Did they know someone who worked as a school teacher? 5. What extra-curricular activities did you have while studying in Ukraine? 6. Have you ever thought of dropping out of school? What would your parents say if you did? What is the purpose of education from your point of view? 7. When did you decide to go to university? What was your parents' opinion? Did they help you make the choice? Did your friends also decide to enter the university? Did your parents participate in your decision-making and help with applications, campus visits? Did they know any university teacher who could have provided valuable insider information? 8. Tell me about your major academic success in Ukraine and in Canada? What motivated you to do well in school and continue to the university? What helped you to succeed academically in Canada? What hindered your path here? Whom do you attribute your academic aspirations and success to? 9. Tell me about your plans for the future. Have they changed since you were a child? How do you think education will influence your future? What are your hopes and aspirations for your children? Will you expect them to reach the same level of academic achievement? Why or why not?

Topic: Cultural Experiences

Do you like reading? How many books a year do you usually read? Do you often go to the library or buy books? Did your family have a lot of books when you were a child? Did they read books to you? Did they read themselves? Do you like arts? What do you prefer from the following list: visual arts, music, theatre, literature, TV, movies? How often did you go to museums, exhibitions, theatrical productions and concerts as a child? What about your parents? What was your active participation in arts, when you were in school? Did you act in theatre performances, play musical instruments or take drawing or dance lessons?

Topic: Linguistic Experiences

1. What is your first language? How many languages do you speak? What was the language of instruction in your school and university in Ukraine and/or Canada? From your point of view is it important to be able to speak more than one language? Did your parents encourage you to learn a second, third, etc. language when you were a child? 2. Did you know English well when you came to Canada? Did you study in English before coming to Canada? 3. Have you ever taken a standardized English test? How can you characterize your English proficiency level? Do you feel confident participating in academic discussions and making presentations? Do you feel intimidated in the presence of “native speakers”? Is it

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difficult for you to take the floor in discussions?

Topic: Mobility and Social Networks

1. How long have you been living in Canada? Do you like it here? Why have you decided to move/study in Canada? What difficulties did you encounter when you came to Canada? Did you have any culture shock? 2. Do you think it is easier to study in Canada? Did you think so before? Have you changed your opinion? How can you compare your educational experiences in Ukraine and in Canada? 3. Do you know any other Ukrainian students at the University of Toronto? Do you often communicate with them? Do you participate in any activities for Ukrainian students at the University of Toronto or Ukrainian community in Toronto?

APPENDIX C: RESEARCHER'S ANSWERS TO INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Topic: Educational Experiences

1. What was your background in Ukraine? Tell me about your family. What is/was their occupation in Ukraine?

I come from a mid-size city in the east of Ukraine. It is an industrial place. My family is quite small – only my parents and I. My mother was a music teacher in the kindergarten, then she worked as a principal there for a couple of years, while the second part of her career was spent in the capacity of an educator at the boarding school for children with disabilities and speech disorders. She graduated university as a Russian teacher, but she was mostly involved in teaching music and working with kids. My father got a college education and was trained to be a technology education teacher, but he survived only one year at school, and all his life he worked as a photographer in a local newspaper. He is a small business owner now dealing with newspapers, periodicals and stationery.

2. Did your parents help you with homework or discuss school related questions? Did they meet with your teachers regularly? Did they know someone who worked as a school teacher?

If I struggled with homework, my father would always help me to complete it especially in math. When he ran out of ideas in higher grades, he used to call his friends who could help. My father attended all mandatory teacher-parent conferences, but other encounters with teachers were rare, as it was not required by the system. If my grades were not good enough, my father would go to school and talk to my teacher asking for advice. My godmother has been working as a Biology teacher for more than three decades and she is currently occupying the position of vice principal. One of my mother’s best friends worked as an English teacher all her life, and in Grade 8 she was my tutor for more than a year.

3. What extra-curricular activities did you have while studying in Ukraine?

I attended dancing and swimming lessons for about one year, when I was in elementary school. I also went to car modelling club for a short period and participated in the stamp collecting for three to four years. The latter was my father’s idea, because he used to be an avid collector of stamps and badges in his childhood and teens.

4. Have you ever thought of dropping out of school? What would your parents say if you did? What is the purpose of education from your point of view?

I never had such an idea, because this option was never on the agenda. I did not know it was possible, and there was no precedent in my school. I was a good student with mostly As and Bs, and obviously my parents wouldn’t have understood, if I suggested dropping out of school. I think that education opens doors to understanding of numerous phenomena and helps you structure the world around

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you. When I was in elementary, I did not think much of it though.

5. When did you decide to go to university? What was your parents' opinion? Did they help you make the choice? Did your friends also decide to enter the university? Did your parents participate in your decision-making and help with applications, campus visits? Did they know any university teacher who could have provided valuable insider information?

At the end of junior high school my parents decided I had to go to the technical college instead of finishing high school and going to university. Their idea was that by lengthening my studies (4 years at technical college instead of 2 final years at high school), I would escape being called up to the Ukrainian army. I wanted to go to university and study English. My mother’s friend was my tutor for some time, and my parents suggested that, if I hated the technical college, then I would return to high school and then apply to university. It did not happen, so I spent four years at a technical college before entering the university in my home town. Approximately half of my classmates went on to get higher education. The rest graduated from technical colleges and entered the labor force. My parents did not help me much with applications, because those were short one-page documents, but my father went with me to apply. Another English tutor who helped me prepare for entrance exams worked at the university and provided my family with the necessary information about departments, professors and application procedures. My mother’s school friend worked in another university 200 miles away from my home city, and she was consulted prior to my application as well.

6. Tell me about your major academic success in Ukraine and in Canada? What motivated you to do well in school and continue to the university? What helped you to succeed academically in Canada? What hindered your path here? Whom do you attribute your academic aspirations and success to?

I was a good student in school and technical college, but it was at the university when my GPA went up, and I graduated with all As with the exception of one B in Latin. I enjoyed English and Comparative Literature, and these were the prime motives behind my desire to do well. I also liked Social Studies. I think my major academic success in Canada was successful application to the Master’s program. My GPA is A and I am thoroughly enjoying the experience. The only serious obstacle I can talk about is the fact, that I had to work full-time during my studies, which severely limited opportunities to visit any university-related events apart from attending classes and completing assignments.

7. Tell me about your plans for the future. Have they changed since you were a child? How do you think education will influence your future? What are your hopes and aspirations for your children? Will you expect them to reach the same level of academic achievement? Why or why not?

When I was a child, I had a typical collection of exotic dream jobs like circus ticket seller, car engineer and several others I cannot remember now. I wanted to be a translator, when I studied at university and, though I dedicated three years to full-

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time translation work, most of my experience was confined to teaching. After completing my Master’s degree, I hope to proceed to the PhD studies and become a university professor at some point down the road. I hope my children (we have two sons) will enjoy their educational experiences and grow up to be happy and balanced individuals. As far as educational credentials get devalued and to enter a successful career one needs a couple of degrees these days, I will help my children on the road to success.

Topic: Cultural Experiences

8. Do you like reading? How many books a year do you usually read? Do you often go to the library or buy books? Did your family have a lot of books when you were a child? Did they read books to you? Did they read themselves?

When I was in Grade 1 or 2 reading long pieces of prose was not easy for me, but at some point in Grades 4 to 6 under the influence of my mother, I began enjoying reading for pleasure. When in university taking Comparative Literature classes I would read around 25-30 books a semester. These days I read many scientific articles and books, so my fiction reading list is a bit thinner and contains around 1 book a month. I go to the library on a regular basis, especially in Toronto due to wonderful resources available to public. I borrow so many books for myself, my studies, and my children, that I cannot return them on time and have to pay fines. My parents had around 2000 books, which were in every room excluding kitchen and bathroom. My father was obsessed with buying books, though he rarely read them himself. Many books were bought for me and included children’s books, classics and reference materials. He is also collecting miniature books and had one of the largest collections in the country. He donated some of them to the local museum and was always involved in the local community of collectors. Many of his friends were librarians, so we had access to books in public libraries. My mother was an avid reader in her youth, but later on she switched from fiction to reference books and popular science.

9. Do you like arts? What do you prefer from the following list: visual arts, music, theatre, literature, TV, movies? How often did you go to museums, exhibitions, theatrical productions and concerts as a child? What about your parents? What was your active participation in arts, when you were in school? Did you act in theatre performances, play musical instruments or take drawing or dance lessons?

I love literature and music most of all, but I also enjoy visual arts and architecture. As a child I did not go to museums and exhibitions often, because in my home town there were not many. I would gladly attend an international exhibition whenever one is in town and hope to visit famous world museum on my future travels. My maternal grandparents, who had died before I was born, used to fly to Moscow to attend theatre performances or first night at the opera, but my parents only went to local venues, which were frequented by musicians and stand up comedians in Soviet times. I never did anything artistic myself (apart from dance lessons) and the same can be said about my father, while my mother worked as a music teacher for 20

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years and as a teenager participated in drama and comedy clubs.

Topic: Linguistic Experiences

10. What is your first language? How many languages do you speak? What was the language of instruction in your school and university in Ukraine and/or Canada? From your point of view is it important to be able to speak more than one language? Did your parents encourage you to learn a second, third, etc. language when you were a child?

My first language is Russian, but I can also speak Ukrainian if necessary, though I am not that fluent. I was always involved with English both as a student and a translator/teacher. I also studied German and French in university, but never had a chance to use them, so my skills have deteriorated over the years. The language of instruction in my school and technical college was Russian, though after the Ukrainian independence in 1991 some courses were taught in Ukrainian. In University most courses were in English, while the rest alternated between Russian and Ukrainian depending on the proficiency of instructor. I liked English as a child, and when necessary my parents arranged for me to have a tutor.

11. Did you know English well when you came to Canada? Did you study in English before coming to Canada?

Having spent 10 years teaching English and working as a translator on top of five years of University study in English, I think, I was quite advanced, when I came to Canada around 4 years ago.

12. Have you ever taken a standardized English test? How can you characterize your English proficiency level? Do you feel confident participating in academic discussions and making presentations? Do you feel intimidated in the presence of “native speakers”? Is it difficult for you to take the floor in discussions?

I took CAE in Ukraine and got B falling just two points off the A mark, and to apply to my Canadian university I had to take an IELTS test, which I passed with the grade of 8.5. I think my English is good enough for most purposes, but there is always room for improvement. Native speakers do not intimidate me, but if I do not know the people, it takes me some time to feel comfortable and speak a lot, because I tend to be reserved, when I meet unfamiliar people. Taking the floor in discussions is not always easy, but I am trying to get better and become more confident.

Topic: Mobility and Social Networks

13. How long have you been living in Canada? Do you like it here? Why have you decided to move/study in Canada? What difficulties did you encounter when you came to Canada? Did you have any culture shock?

I came to Canada less than four years ago, and I feel rather comfortable here. Our family decided to move to Canada in pursuit of employment opportunities and

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better educational options for children. I was always attracted to the culture of English-speaking nations, and that was an important factor too. I did not have any culture shock, but my wife had, and that was the most considerable obstacle I encountered in Canada.

14. Do you think it is easier to study in Canada? Did you think so before? Have you changed your opinion? How can you compare your educational experiences in Ukraine and in Canada?

It is difficult to tell if it is easier or not, but it is definitely different. Mind you I have no undergraduate experience in Canada, but overall it seems that students have more choice in the selection of courses and it is more flexible in general. Canadian universities clearly have advantages in terms of resources and facilities. Ukrainian programs are heavy in theory, but might often lack in practical components. I expected education in Canada to be the way it is, though I was afraid of being overwhelmed by world-class institutions and their professors. Everyone turned out to be approachable and nice.

15. Do you know any other Ukrainian students at the University of Toronto? Do you often communicate with them? Do you participate in any activities for Ukrainian students at the University of Toronto or Ukrainian community in Toronto?

I know several Ukrainian students at the University of Toronto. I took classes with some of them, while I was introduced to the rest by their friends. I am not very active in the life of Ukrainian community, but I did attend Ukrainian festival several times.