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Shujuan Luo dissertation-final copy.pdf (1.57 MB)

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YOUNG FEMALE MIGRANT WORKERS' LIFE SKILLS LEARNING AND PRACTICE, ITS SOURCES AND EMPOWERMENT PROPERTIES IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Luo, Shujuan
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8863-0418
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1500459758354548

Abstract Details

2017, PHD, Kent State University, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration.
This study investigated the experiences of informal learning of life skills, the learning sources and possible empowerment properties on the part of young female migrant workers in China. This study employed a basic interpretive research design, using semi-structured interviews, observations and field notes. The Capability approach provided the conceptual framework underlying the research and analysis. This research found that the migrant women, though impeded by many structural constraints, informally learned and practiced key life skills to some extent as they adjusted to the urban life. Most of them had developed aspirations to learn better communication and occupational skills to integrate better into the urban environment. The sources of learning were confined to rural migrant social network from home, at work and church, the occasional self-help book, and growing phone and Internet use. Informal learning created a fertile space for empowerment, where migrant women enhanced their agency, capabilities and material and inner well-being. Yet, government policy, social-economic and residential segregation often confined the migrants to second-class status in the city and diminished the empowering impact of life skills. This research covered a gap in literature by investigating life skills and capabilities of migrant women and the connections between life skills and empowerment. It applied theory to explain practices and provided theoretical support for the importance of life skills which NGOs failed to address. Moreover, since internal labor migration is undertaking worldwide, this study is useful to suggest explanations of similar phenomena in other countries.
Vilma Seeberg (Advisor)
Natasha Levinson (Committee Member)
Suzanne Holt (Committee Member)
200 p.
Education; Educational Sociology
Life skills, young migrant women, rural-to-urban migration, informal learning, empowerment, capabilities, well-being, China

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Luo, S. (2017). YOUNG FEMALE MIGRANT WORKERS' LIFE SKILLS LEARNING AND PRACTICE, ITS SOURCES AND EMPOWERMENT PROPERTIES IN THEIR OWN WORDS [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1500459758354548

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Luo, Shujuan. YOUNG FEMALE MIGRANT WORKERS' LIFE SKILLS LEARNING AND PRACTICE, ITS SOURCES AND EMPOWERMENT PROPERTIES IN THEIR OWN WORDS. 2017. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1500459758354548.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Luo, Shujuan. "YOUNG FEMALE MIGRANT WORKERS' LIFE SKILLS LEARNING AND PRACTICE, ITS SOURCES AND EMPOWERMENT PROPERTIES IN THEIR OWN WORDS." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1500459758354548

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1500459758354548
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© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.