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      Lifting the Veil: Muslim women's adjustment to a New Zealand university

      Bahiss, Zainab
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      Bahiss, Z. (2008). Lifting the Veil: Muslim women’s adjustment to a New Zealand university (Thesis, Master of Education (MEd)). The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10289/2493
      Permanent Research Commons link: https://hdl.handle.net/10289/2493
      Abstract
      Abstract

      Due to a decline in the number of domestic students in many New Zealand and

      other foreign Western countries' universities, there is more recruitment of

      international students. In New Zealand universities, beside the increase in the

      number of other foreign international students, the number of Muslim

      international students and especially Muslim women students has increased in the

      past few years. This is due to internationalisation of New Zealand education and

      the economic benefits which international students provide to New Zealand

      economy.

      The reason for undertaking this study is because as a Muslim women and a

      student myself, I wanted to investigate the adjustment problems of the increased

      number of Muslim women international students at the University of Waikato.

      This is because, it would provide information to researchers, theoreticians and

      policy developers regarding adjustment issues that might be specific to Muslim

      women. Unfortunately, this area is under researched; hence this study could assist

      in filling the vacuum in this area.

      The literature so far has discussed the adjustment issues of international students

      in general and from the literature there seems to be two main dominant areas

      where international students suffer adjustment problems. These two areas are the

      academic environment of the university and the socio-cultural environment of the

      university. The academic environment has many elements to which many

      international students are believed to face adjustment problems such as adjusting

      to the 'study shock'. On the other hand, in the socio-cultural environment,

      students are believed to face adjustment problem to the culture shock. However,

      there are many flaws in the existing literature which results in its weakness and

      hence the need for this study.

      In order to discuss the adjustment issues of Muslim women international students'

      one has to examine the educational background of these students. It is important

      to also examine the religious and cultural backgrounds of these students because

      religious beliefs and practices combined with their cultural background have an

      impact on their adjustment into the foreign academic and socio-cultural

      iii

      environment. Islam strongly encourages the acquisition of education for women.

      Looking at the history of Muslim women, one can find great scholars who

      achieved enormously from their right to education. However today there is great

      tension in the Islamic world regarding women's education which makes this issue

      very complex. This is due to the different interpretations of the Islamic scholars of

      the verses of the Quran, and Muslim people cultural and tribal codes. Therefore,

      many Islamic countries have taken different approaches to the education of their

      female population that is from very conservative to liberal ones.

      The qualitative approach used in this chapter helped in understanding the

      perspectives and world views of the respondents which would have not been

      possible otherwise.

      The confidentiality and anonymity of the respondents was catered for before

      conducting the interviews and pseudo names are used in this study to refer to the

      respondents of this study. This study is however limited in that the time constrain

      did not allow me to do a longitudinal study in order to discover the many un

      answered questions or ambiguous sentences.

      This study has revealed four major themes which were identified through this

      research as being specifically important to the adjustment of Muslim women

      international students. These women did not view their adjustment as a huge shift

      instead for them it required more of gentle shift in their adjustment. The

      similarities in the academic environment of the international students and that of

      New Zealand universities made the adjustment to the academic environment even

      smoother. There are also other positive adjustments these international students

      make while in New Zealand universities. They are more independent and are able

      to communicate in English language which for most international students seems

      to be main reason for coming to Western universities.

      There is need for the staff and students to understand the religious and cultural

      beliefs of these international students so that they can help them in the adjustment

      process. There is also increased need for the universities and policy developers to

      provide help and support for the international students.

      iv

      There are many issues that seemed to need further exploration which this study

      has not managed to find out. The research needs to be done to discuss the huge

      emotional or psychological impact on the international students' due to teachers'

      and local students' lack of knowledge of their religious and cultural beliefs.

      The researchers also need to investigate how this change in the personality and

      thinking of women impacts on them when they go back to their home countries.

      In theorisation, there is need to theorise the adjustments of students who belong to

      other religious and cultural groups and how it might impact their adjustment

      process.

      For the practitioners, there is need to investigate the role of the staff and institutes

      to clearly identify to the role of staff in how they could make international

      students transaction to the university smoother.
      Date
      2008
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Name
      Master of Education (MEd)
      Publisher
      The University of Waikato
      Rights
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