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Before the launch of this study, a preliminary focus group was conducted with a sample of 8 Asian students as a simple pilot test to determine whether there were significant issues and concerns among the Asian high school students. The students also provided valuable inputs to the design and structure of the research. In addition, several discussion sessions were held with concerned stakeholders including representatives from schools, churches, city council, police, parliament, shopping malls, recreational providers and Asian community groups.
The importance of the preliminary work described above cannot be over emphasized. Owing to the sensitivity of the issues and the target population concerned, an enormous amount of groundwork had to be laid before the project could proceed smoothly. In particular, an extensive amount of networking had to be done among the various community wards, school administrations and Asian community groups to gain their trust and commitment to participate in the project. As a result of the extended consultation, several of the directions, scopes and objectives of the research were modified and refined.
The project itself was essentially an exploratory study since there was very little research conducted in this area, especially on the issues, concerns and needs of Asian high school students in New Zealand. Therefore, besides compiling and analyzing the secondary data available, this study also collected and analyzed primary data using a qualitative approach.
Secondary data from Statistics New Zealand, the various community boards, city council and high schools in the three relevant areas were compiled. In particular, demographic data and statistics on the Asian high school student population were analyzed with respect to the age, sex, and country of origin of the students to provide some insights into the trends and possible areas of concerns.
A qualitative approach was preferred in this study, for primary data collection and analysis, due to the exploratory nature of this research (Sekaran, 1984; Kinnear and Taylor, 1996). Consequently, several interviews and focus groups, which involved partially structured discussion facilitated by an experienced researcher, were conducted with selected groups of Asian high school students and teachers.
There are several advantages of using small discussion groups for exploratory study (Sekaran, 1984; Kinnear and Taylor, 1996). They are relatively inexpensive to conduct and yet they provide fairly dependable data within a short time frame. Also, small discussion groups provide a free-flowing situation designed to stimulate ideas and insights to a problem, particularly unexpected views on the issues that would not be captured in structured surveys.
The main disadvantage of using a qualitative approach is that the results are difficult to generalize to the relevant population due, in part, to its lack of known statistical properties.8 Although the extent of the bias present cannot be estimated, this problem can be minimized by the careful selection of respondents.
One problem encountered in selecting the appropriate respondents is that Asians comprise a great diversity of people based on race, religion, language and culture. Covering about one-third of the land surface of the earth and housing about two-thirds of the world's population, Asia is home to more than 3,000 languages and several hundred ethnic groups (Statistics New Zealand, 1995). It is also the birthplace of the four most popular religion in the world: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.
Geographically, Asia can be divided into four main regions:
After some preliminary analysis of immigration statistics and initial consultation with the stakeholders, it was decided that this study should focus on the students from East and South East Asia. In addition to these students, the project team also decided that it was essential to interview a group of teachers, especially the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)9 teachers since they were in closer contact with the Asian students in schools.
The primary targets for this research were the three largest groups of Asian students: Chinese, Koreans, and Malaysians. A standard focus group that consisted of six to ten students were conducted for each of these three groups. The Chinese group included students from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan because of their similarities in race, culture, religion and language. Although the Koreans share many similarities with the Chinese and Japanese, they are quite distinct and should be treated as a separate group. To minimize resources, the Singaporeans and Filipinos were grouped with the Malaysians because all these countries are multicultural and English is very widely used in these countries.
The secondary targets consisted of students from other East and South East Asian countries with fairly significant representation in the student population. Five smaller group interviews, comprising two to five students each, were conducted for the Japanese, Indonesian, Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese students.
Consistent with guidelines, from both the University of Canterbury and Lincoln University, on research involving human subjects, the respondents all participated voluntarily and were informed of their rights and issues pertaining to confidentiality and the Privacy Act.
The sample consisted of 50 Asian students from 11 secondary schools in three community wards in Christchurch. Thirteen of these students were chosen from St. Bedes College, Papanui High School and Marian College in the Shirley/Papanui ward. Another 13 students were selected from Burnside High School, Christchurch Boys High School and Rangi Ruru Girls High School in the Fendalton/Waimairi ward. The remaining 24 students were chosen from Christchurch Girls High School, Middleton Grange School, Hornby High School, Riccarton High School and Villa Maria College in the Riccarton/Wigram ward.
Categorized by their country of origin, the sample of 50 students consisted of five mainland Chinese, four Taiwanese Chinese, one Hong Kong Chinese, three Singaporean Chinese, six Malaysian Chinese, two Filipinos, ten Koreans, four Japanese, five Indonesians, four Cambodians, four Thais and two Vietnamese. Except for the English-speaking group comprising the Singaporeans, Malaysians and Filipinos, interpreters were engaged to assist in the discussions.
To ensure a more accurate representation of the student population, the respondents were selected from a good mix of both male and females students, and students from two age groups. Of the 50 students, 21 (42%) were males and 29 (58%) were females; 28 (56%) were between 13 and 16 years old and 22 (44%) were between 16 and 20 years old; 18 (36%) were fee-paying students and 32 (64%) were either New Zealand citizens or permanent residents.
To better fulfill the objectives of this research, the proportion of fee-paying students in the sample was chosen to be slightly higher than its population share. Fee paying students contribute proportionally more to the resources of the schools involved, enhance the international reputation of New Zealand as a center of education, and more importantly, they may have more difficulties in adjusting to the New Zealand environment and are in more need of assistance.
Last, but not least, six ESOL teachers from Hornby High School, St. Margarets College, Burnside High School, Shirley Boys High School, St. Bedes College and Papanui High School were also interviewed for this study. They provided valuable insights on the difficulties faced by Asian students from a teacher's perspective, as well as useful suggestions for addressing these problems.
Even though an additional focus group with some Kiwi students may provide a more balanced approach to the research, the project team felt that this was beyond the scope of this research. Similarly, extending the research to include the other areas of Christchurch had been considered and rejected due to the low benefit to cost ratio because 75% of the Asian students live in the Shirley/Papanui, Fendalton/Waimairi and Riccarton/Wigram community wards.
Harder to reject was the suggestion to follow up this research with a confirmatory survey of all high school students in these areas. A more comprehensive survey would provide the research with the requisite statistical basis to generalize the results and to help prioritize the issues raised by the respondents during the interviews. The project team, however, was not in a position to conduct the survey. As a result, this research remained as an exploratory analysis, albeit a very insightful study.
8 See Zikmund (1993) for a discussion on the various research methods.
9 Also widely known as English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers.
