My thesis sets out to present a critical ethnography of the education of Mainland Chinese children - at home, in a community school setting and in aspects of mainstream schooling - in the town of Reading in southwest England．

In May of 1995, I came to University of Reading as a visiting scholar from the People's Republic of China. The Mainland Chinese form a close knit community in Reading, composed largely of students registered for higher degrees and their dependents. As a member of this community, I soon got to know all of the twenty or so families and their children and I noticed that, almost without exception, parents were preoccupied with their children's education. A pattern soon became apparent. When the families first arrive in the UK, parents feel anxious about their children's level of English. Common reactions are to look for suitable books and videos and even to try and speak English to the children themselves. As time goes on, however, there is a gradual shift from Chinese to English. Children begin to speak English among themselves and are sometimes reluctant to use Chinese even with their parents. This reaction causes deep anxiety in parents： 'We will be returning to China one day. And even if we don't go back, we are Chinese, it's essential that our children speak the language.'

When I had the opportunity to extend my stay and to register for a higher degree, parental concern about their children's education seemed an obvious starting point for my research. I was interested in working in the field of cross-cultural communication and multicultural education; in particular, I wanted to identify research questions which were relevant to my community. The opportunity soon arose both for me to study in depth the teaching of Mandarin or Putonghua, a matter of concern for Mainland Chinese families．

Although there was already a well-established Chinese Sunday School serving the Hong Kong Chinese community, the medium of instruction was Cantonese. Mainland Chinese parents were very keen for their children to attend Putonghua classes but had not yet found a way of overcoming the various obstacles: as students on very small incomes, they could not afford to pay the teachers and to rent classrooms. These problems were finally resolved when the Reading Chinese School generously allocated the use of a classroom to the Putonghua classes, and I became a volunteer teacher．

My community involvement allowed me to observe the teaching of Putonghua not only in a community school setting, but also in the Children's homes. My data consist not only of formal interviews and video-recordings but also informal conversations with parents and children who accept me as their friend. This experience allowed me to identify a range of other situations which I wanted to explore. The focus for the thesis broadened to include the perceptions of Chinese families of British education, paying particular attention to the maintenance of language and literacy in Chinese and to the question of cross-cultural communication between Chinese parents and British teachers．

A framework for research

At the beginning of the research process, I was able to formulate a number of key questions which would help me understand the experience of Chinese families:

●What are the attitudes of Mainstream Chinese parents to both British and Chinese education?

●Are there any problems in communication between Chinese parents and  British teachers?

●What are the main issues for community language teaching in the  Mainland Chinese community?

●What is the nature of the literacy teaching and learning which takes  place at home?

There was a dearth of information on these questions. Any study which set out to explore issues of this nature was likely to be breaking much new ground. For this reason, ethnography, with its emphasis on generating rather than testing hypotheses, was the most appropriate framework for research. Various researchers have adopted this approach in relation to many different aspects of culture and society, including the study of language and literacy learning. Arguably, the most notable of these is Heath(1983) who undertook a ground breaking study of literacy learning in three communities - African American, White working class and White middle class - in the Piedmont region of the USA. Similar studies of homes, classrooms, and neighbourhoods have subsequently been undertaken by many other writers (see, for instance, Michaels, 1986; Auerbach, 1989; Au, 1993)．

The reliability of qualitative research

Mason (1996: 36) argues that the researcher actively constructs knowledge about that world and is therefore involved in generating rather than collecting data. This process of data generation is intellectual, analytical and interpretive. It is impossible to take a neutral stance: the researcher is necessarily active and reflexive in the process of data generation. This realisation gives rise to some important questions concerning the reliability of data. As Mason (1996: 52) points out: 'How can you be sure that you are not simply inventing data, or getting it "wrong" ?'

Important and frequently cited discussions of the generalizability of qualitative research can be found in Stake (1978), Guba ＆ Lincoln (1982), Goetz ＆ LeCompte (1984) and Schofield (1993). Stake (1978) agrees that one cannot confidently generalize from a single case to the target population, since single members often poorly represent whole populations. However, he points out one can take the findings from one study and apply them to understanding another similar situation．

In a similar vein, Guba & Lincoln (1982: 238) argue that 'generalizations are impossible since phenomena are neither time-nor context-free'. They suggest replacing the concept of generalizability with that of 'fittingness' by which they mean that the researcher should supply full information about the entity studied and the setting in which that entity was found. Goetz & LeCompte (1984: 228) also emphasize the importance of clear and detailed description in deciding the extent to which findings from one study are applicable to other situations. They emphasize 'comparability' and 'translatability'. That is, the findings should be 'sufficiently well described and defined that other researchers can use the results of the study as a basis for comparison'.

Schofield (1993: 93) also argues that data collection and analysis are inf- luenced by the researcher's individual attributes and perspectives. He thinks the goal of qualitative research is not to produce a standardized set of results that other researchers can reproduce, but rather 'a coherent and illuminating description' of a situation that is based on detailed study. He also points out that qualitative researchers need to consider seriously the internal validity of their work．

In ethnographic research, this internal validity is usually achieved in two main ways - through triangulation, respondent validation．

Triangulation

Triangulation is one of the best known ethnographic techniques for ensuring the accuracy of data collection and analysis. The term originates from land surveying where it is used to locate one's position on a map using two landmarks (Webb et al, 1966). As Hammersley & Atkinson (1991: 199) explain, 'links between concepts and indicators are checked by recourse to other indicators'. The two main techniques are data triangulation and methodological triangulation. In data triangulation, the information may be collected from different sources; whereas methodological triangulation refers to different methods to data collection.

In the present thesis, I used both data and methodological triangulation techniques. For instance, the data for my research come from parents, mainstream teachers, community school teachers and students; I collected these data through interviews, observation, questionnaires and documentation.

Respondent validation

One of the main potential pitfalls in ethnographic research is that researchers may impose their own interpretations on the data. As a safeguard, it is very important to allow those involved in the research process the opportunity to comment on - and, if necessary, correct the researcher's analysis - a process known as respondent validation. This can be achieved in a number of ways. Woods (1991) suggests revisiting informants on a nu- mber of occasions and in a variety of settings. It is also possible to provide participants with written summaries of interviews or meetings and to offer them drafts of reports on issues which involve them for comment.

Respondent validation is a principle which I used throughout my fieldwork. The interview data reported in chapter three and six, for instance, were collected in two separate rounds; the second round was used to check the validity of the preliminary findings and to explore a number of issues which had emerged in the first round in greater depth. Similarly individuals involved in the parent-teacher interviews were presented with written summaries of the preliminary analysis and given the opportunity to comment and amend.

Critical ethnography

Growing numbers of researchers(see, for instance, Lather, 1986; Simon & Dippo, 1986; Thomas &o'Manolchatha 1989) have pointed out that traditional ethnographers have been so preoccupied with describing different social settings that they have missed valuable opportunities for challenging the status quo. More recently, there has been a move to overcome weaknesses of this kind by developing what has come to be known as 'critical ethnography'. Thomas(1993: 4) offers the following explanation:

Conventional ethnography describes what is; critical ethnography asks what could be...Conventional ethnographers generally speak for their subjects, usually to an audience of other researchers. Critical ethnographers, by contrast, accept an added research task of raising their voice to speak to an audience on behalf of their subjects as a means of empowering them by giving more authority to the subjects' voice．

It might be argued that the obvious involvement of the researcher is an obstacle to objectivity. Given the growing consensus, however, that all forms of knowledge are ideological, a more pertinent question might be to ask whose interests are served by research rather than whether the researcher is biased. In order to safeguard against concerns that critical ethnography is too subjective, however, two additional techniques have been proposed to ensure the reliability of the analysis: reflexive subjectivity and catalytic validity.

Reflexive subjectivity

It is essential that researchers undertaking a critical ethnography should be aware of how their personal values may affect their work; it is also essential that these values should be made explicit to readers so that they can evaluate for themselves their possible impact on both the construction and the reporting of research. Simon & Dippo (1986: 200) explain the reflexive nature of critical ethnography thus:

We need to recognize our own implication in the production of data and thus must begin to include ourselves  (our own practices and their social and historical basis) in our analyses of the situations we study.

In the present thesis, I have attempted to acknowledge the importance of reflexive subjectivity by including a personal statement of my reasons for undertaking research on the Mainland Chinese community in the UK.

Catalytic validity

Catalytic validity is another technique which attempts to ensure the reliability of research findings in a critical ethnography. Its aim is to ensure that the research process results in increased awareness and participation of informants: in other words, the subjects should be able to use ethnographic research as a resource and reference. A critical ethnography, according to Thomas (1993), should be emancipatory in intent.

In the context of the present study, the findings have been shared with the parents and teachers who have taken part in the study; they are also of particular importance to the main Chinese teacher organisation, which will be receiving a full report of the work undertaken for this thesis．

Data collection

Ethnography - whether conventional or critical - involves the collection of data using a wide range of methods. The present study drew on questionnaires, interviews and observation.

Questionnaires

Questionnaires are usually associated with quantitative research. They are a very convenient research tool. As Walker (1985) points out, they are easy to administer and quick to fill in; they make it possible to focus on specific topics and they allow for the direct comparison of groups and individuals. However, questionnaires also have some disadvantages. For instance, they rely on the researchers perceptions of events as expressed in the questions; and respondents' answers are often superficial. When questionnaires are administered by post, response rates are often very disappointing.

Questionnaires were used twice in the course of my research. On the first occasion, my aim was to collect basic information from the seventeen families in the Reading Chinese community on parents' and children's background, such as length of stay in Britain, self-reported levels of proficiency in Chinese and English, gender and age. These were handed to the parents by the researcher and completed in her presence. On the second occasion I used a questionnaire to collect information about Mandarin Chinese Schools in the UK (see Appendix A). This questionnaire was distributed by email to representatives of the twelve Putonghua classes co-ordinated by the Chinese Student and Scholar Association (CSSA); the response rate was 100 per cent reflecting the level of interest in the topic on the part of those involved in Chinese teaching in the UK. However, the questions were limited to collecting basic information; other techni- ques were necessary for building up a more detailed picture of considera- tions such as school management and teaching methods．

Interviews

The term 'qualitative interviewing' usually refers to in-depth, semi-structured or loosely structured forms of interviewing. It is one of the most commonly recognized method of qualitative research. Brigge (1986) claims that 90 percent of all social science investigations use interviews in one way or another to collect information. Sociologists, psychologists, anthropolgists, psychiatrists, clinicians, administrators, politicians and pollsters all treat interviews as their 'window on the world'  (Hyman et al., 1975).

Pool (1957: 193) suggests every interview is an 'interpersonal drama with a developing plot'. In this sense, interview participants are practitioners of everyday life, constantly working to notice and communicate the recognizable and orderly features of experience. The process of interpretation, however, is a two way process. Holstein & Gubrium (1997: 114), for instance, point out that:

Meaning is not merely elicited by apt questioning, nor simply transported through respondent replies; it is actively and communicatively assembled in the interview encounter. Respondents are not so much repesitories of knowledge - treasuries of information awaiting excavation, so to speak - as they are constructors of knowledge in collab- oration with interviewers. Participation in an interview involves meaning-making work.

Holstein & Gubrium (1997) also point out that writing up findings from interview data is itself an analytically active enterprise in which the active analyst empirically documents the meaning-making process. They argue that the analyst's reports do not summarize and organize what interview participants have said; instead, they show the reader both the hows and the whats of the narrative dramas.

I make extensive use of interviews in the present study with parents, children, community school teachers and mainstream teachers. These interviews were all intersectional, guided conversations and free-flowing informational exchanges. The conditions under which different interviews were undertaken, however, varied according to the subject. Because I was an insider in the community being studied(c.f.Milroy, 1987), it was not difficult to create an atmosphere of informality and trust in interviews with the parents and community school teachers who were essentially my peers. The children also knew me well but were interviewed in small groups so as to reduce any feelings of formality because of the differences in our age. The mainstream teachers were interviewed by a British researcher, to minimise the social and cultural distance (see chapter four).

I asked permission to use a recorder and took no notes so that I could give the interview my full attention. Afterwards I transcribed each interview in Chinese, translated into English, and added any observational notes.

One other source of data can be conveniently mentioned at this point. Two of the founders of the Reading Chinese School who now live in Canada responded to my request to describe how the school had come into being in letters to which I refer in chapter seven. These accounts were offered in response to broad questions rather than a structured questionnaire. Thus, although the exchange was written and not verbal, it seems more appropriate to treat this data under the same heading as the interviews．

Observation

Mason (1996: 60) defines the term 'observation' as follows:

［It］ is usually used to refer to methods of generating data which involve the researcher immersing herself or himself in a research setting, and systematically observing dimensions of that setting, interactions, relationships, actions, events and so on, within it．

Observation can take a number of different forms. It is important to remember, however, that, in most cases, there are no rigid divisions between different kinds of observation and the same researcher may observe in different ways in different situations. Different observer roles allow the researcher to access different kinds of data.

According to Jorgensen(1989: 12), participant observation is especially appropriate for those problems 'when little is known about the phenomenon' in situations where access is not a problem. Participant observation works well in exploratory studies, descriptive studies, and studies aimed at generating theoretical interpretations. Through participation, the researcher is able to observe and experience the meanings and interactions of people from the role of an insider.

Although participant observation is the main method of data collection in ethnographic research, the use of non-participant observation is becoming increasingly popular (Walker, 1990; Woods, 1991). It is simple, requires no sophisticated equipment and, in an educational context, does not interfere with the teaching process. However, it also has disadvantages.For instance, it may make it difficult for the researcher to truly penetrate the group being studied. Complete observation may also require the researcher to be present for long periods of time to be able to fully understand what is happening.

The nature of my role as observer varied according to the situation. When I videoed mothers reading with their children, I was a complete observer and did not participate in any way in their activities. The fact that I was a member of the community being observed allowed me to overcome the disadvantages associated with this role. However, when teaching the Putonghua classes l was a participant observer; the same was true during the seminars for teachers organised by the UK Federation of Chinese Schools. Selected lessons and events were videotaped and either transcribed and translated into English or summarised in English.

Analysis

The data were analyzed in a number of ways. Interviews with parents, teachers and children were fully transcribed and coded according to categories which were accepted, refined or abandoned in the course of the analysis using NUD.IST (Non-numerical Unstructured Data Indexing Searching and Theorizing), a statistical package widely used with qualitative data. NUD.IST is also suitable for the coding of observational and documentary data. Care was taken at all times to ensure that the categories emerged from the data rather than being imposed on the basis of the researcher's preconceptions of what was taking place.

In contrast, the videotapes of teacher seminars and lessons in the Reading Chinese school were not fully transcribed; instead English summaries were made of key points. The main aim in this case was to provide corroboration and further examples of issues which had already been identified in interviews.

Finally, the videotapes of the reading interactions were fully transcribed and translated into English and subjected to detailed analysis. The aim was to determine and describe the different kinds of teaching strategies which mothers used when helping their children to read and write in Chinese. This approach was clearly influenced by conversational analysis which, in turn, is based on the techniques of the American sociological movement of the 1970s known as ethnomethodology. The core of conversational analysis is to investigate talk-in-interaction, as a phenomenon in its own right (Goffman, 1983;  Sacks, 1984).

The structure of the thesis

This thesis will set out to explore as many perspectives as possible of the educational experiences of Mainland Chinese children in Britain. Chapter two provides an overview of research relating to the wider Chinese community in Britain. As has been mentioned, the Mainland Chinese are relatively new arrivals who have received very little attention to date. Background information will be presented on the numbers of Mainland Chinese in the UK and the reasons for their stay and the differences between this community and the larger Hong Kong Chinese community will be considered. In this chapter, I will also examine the Chinese language, including salient features of its typology, phonology and grammar and its complex interrelationships with Chinese culture. An understanding of these issues is essential for the discussion in the chapters which follow．

Chapter three sets out the main differences in educational philosophies between China and the UK, drawing both on the research literature and interview data collected from Mainland Chinese parents and children in Reading. By exploring the issues which parents and children themselves identify as problematic and their attempts to make sense of their experiences, it will be possible to build up a clearer picture of both Chinese and British education．

Having established issues which are potentially problematic, chapter four goes on to consider the implications of any differences in perception in the context of mainstream schooling. As a background to this discussion, an overview is provided of the literature on cultural differences in education. Then interviews with parents and teachers before and after parent-teacher meetings, as well as recordings of the meeting themselves, are analysed. The focus throughout is on the extent to which teachers and parents successfully communicate the issues which they themselves identify as important.

Chapter five provides an overview of the main issues relating to the Chinese language and writing system and forms an essential underpinning for the empirical chapter on reading and writing which follows. It examines the reading process in English and Chinese and methods of teaching reading in the UK and China. The cultural nature of reading will also be discussed, together with the implications of different approaches to the written word for teachers in multilingual classrooms in the UK and beyond．

In chapter six, the focus moves from school to home. Particular attention is paid to the role of parents in language maintenance and shift in the UK Chinese community. Interviews with parents and observational data are used to build up a picture of community concerns that children should develop a level of competence in Chinese language and literacy which will allow them to reintegrate successfully on their return to China. Videotaped data of five mother-child dyads reading together are used to analyse the instructional style associated with learning to read and write Chinese. Differences between Chinese and British approaches are highlighted．

Chapter seven moves from the home to the wider Chinese community. A review of the literature on community language teaching in the UK. Particular attention is paid to the Chinese community, drawing on analysis of video-recorded data of two meetings of teachers from the UK Chinese Students and Scholars Association. A detailed case study of the Reading Chinese School is offered in three parts. The first part gives an historical overview of the development of the classes based on interview and documentary evidence; the second part offers a description of a typical Putonghua class; finally there follows an account of a handwriting lesson．

Finally, in chapter eight, I will summarize the main findings of the thesis, and discuss the implications both for the Chinese community, for British education and for future researchers working in this area.