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In 2011, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education issued a policy on the internationalisation of schooling. The policy assumes that being 'international' has become necessary in order to maintain economic competitiveness in a globalising world. It was published in two languages: Mandarin, the official language in Taiwan, and English, presupposed as a lingua franca. Treating 'policy as discourse', the article analyses internationalism and its performativity through the publication and specific textual construction of this policy. The analysis considers the layout, target readerships, conceptual translation, and spatial representation and construction of 'Chineseness' in the two policy texts. This attempt at internationalisation is related to the very specific historical and geopolitical conditions of Taiwan and its liminal position in the globe. The significance of the article rests in expanding ideas of 'translation' in education policy studies and in the analysis of the specific geopolitics of East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compare is a leading journal in the comparative and international education research field. To assess this journal's productivity and influence, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of 428 papers published in Compare between 2010 and 2019. The findings show that in the past decade, Compare experienced significant growth in the number of publications and citations. This growth primarily stemmed from England, which yielded over half of the top 20 most productive authors and institutions. Among the numerous research topics discussed in Compare, the disciplinary development of comparative and international education, the internationalisation of education, gender studies in education, and citizenship education were the most frequently addressed. A detailed analysis of these four topics reveals that despite having published many papers falling within the scope of international education, Compare is encouraged to publish more papers about this subfield in the post-COVID-19 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses how 'criticality' is negotiated in the global policy frameworks on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and re-conceptualised in Vietnamese ESD policymaking. Taking the context of Viet Nam, this paper reflects on what constitutes criticality in education in the light of cultural and historical contexts of the education systems. The comparative perspective helps explore whether (1) universal or decontextualised 'criticality' exists or (2) whether 'criticality' is culturally negotiated based on the premise that educational imaginaries of societal formation and transformation are historically and contextually embedded and contingent. In addition, this paper connects the ongoing debate on the critical potential of ESD within the field of environmental education (EE) research to comparative education research by highlighting both what a comparative perspective might offer to EE research and what recent developments in EE research might contribute to comparative education research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With dramatic global expansion of secondary schooling there has been significant research interest in how education is related to future aspirations, with important calls to acknowledge connections within processes of aspiring to young people's social, economic and cultural circumstances. This paper presents findings from thematic analysis of interview, participant observation and classroom observation data from an ethnographic study in two secondary schools in Tanzania. It argues that an important, and often overlooked, aspect of this complex process is the way in which aspirations for the future are connected not only to present realities, but also aspirations in the present. Focusing on students' aspirations relating to 'being a "good" student' and being able to 'soma kwa bidii' or 'study hard', this paper uses the conceptual language of the capability approach to assert the importance of considering aspirations for 'being' in education in conjunction with future aspirations for 'becoming'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional approaches to ethics in comparative and international educational research often entail researchers seeking institutional ethics approval; attempting to manage fieldwork's practical ethical dilemmas using institutional and disciplinary protocols; and 'writing up' methodology, primarily an account of the institutional ethics approval process. This approach largely excludes participants' conceptions of ethics, manifested through their ethical values, virtues, worldviews, knowledge, perspectives, traditions, norms, epistemologies, etc. This paper proposes a participant-centred, values-based approach which deepens the conventional approach by positioning participants' values alongside institutional and disciplinary ones; centring participants' values during fieldwork's ethical dilemmas; and articulating a situated ethics account. This alternative approach deepens researchers' capabilities for situated ethical action, and underscores the need for continuous negotiation of ethics with participants towards meaningful ethical partnerships. Such partnerships are ultimately facilitated by institutional ethics committees' flexibility in enabling, and even encouraging, researcher-participant ethical negotiations at various stages of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several communities in India have defined the contours of the extent and quality of women's education based on the shifts in the demands of marriage within the community. The following paper traces a similar pattern in the educational trajectories of first-generation women of the Meena community across the rural and urban areas, to access the state government's women's college in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan, India. The relevant data has been collected through fieldwork conducted in Sawai Madhopur in the year 2017. The paper explores the complicity of the women's college with the institutions of family and marriage that result in a complete elimination of the classroom as a meaningful space of learning for women. The paper focuses on these and other such costs that Meena women bear for access to education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2015, UNESCO has developed a variety of programmes for preventing violent extremism through education (PVE-E), under the framework of Global Citizenship Education and Target 4.7 of Agenda 2030. There have been formal board decisions to promote PVE-E, regional and international conferences and three key publications: a Teacher's Guide (2016), a Guide for Policy-makers (2017), and a Youth-Led Guide (2017 and 2018). Through a discourse analysis of these key documents and a critical engagement with the institutional politics of UNESCO, the paper delineates the discursive constructs of PVE-E that are mobilised and sheds light on the under-researched politics of production that affect the nature of these texts. Taking a comparative perspective, the paper shows how PVE-E is represented within and between these different texts, exposes the normative values and ideological assumptions underpinning these representations and argues that we are ultimately witnessing a declining legitimacy of UNESCO's normative power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies the reasons children and young people leave school early in Merauke, Papua, and advances education policy initiatives to address these causes. Indonesia has a policy of 12 years of compulsory schooling, but many in Papua leave school early. The Indonesian government considers that children mainly leave school early for economic reasons, and addresses the problem through its social welfare programmes, as well as 'supply- side' factors such as the number of schools. This paper uses mainly ethnographic data, especially life histories collected from 22 young people and adults who left school early, to argue that besides economic reasons, the on-again- off-again history of schooling, the extremely problematic nature of that schooling, as well as socio-cultural causes such as the stigmatisation of the local Marind people, self-stigmatisation and cultural discontinuity, combine to push children to leave school early. Multiple initiatives are suggested to improve the quality of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to common assumptions, the vast majority of the world's refugees reside in neighbouring countries in the Global South. This paper explores the complex interaction of global vocational education policies with the local realities of five communities within the under-researched yet highly relevant refugee context of India, across three major cities. It examines whether the stated policy purpose of VET addresses the practical requirements and aspirations of refugees. Drawing on interviews, focus groups, and participatory drawing with 66 respondents from Afghan, Rohingya, Somali, Chin, and Tibetan communities, and staff members from refugee organisations, this paper argues for a move away from the unidimensional goal of economic self-reliance for refugees. By bridging the capabilities approach with intersectionality, the paper calls attention to, and draws policy suggestions for, increment and diversification of VET opportunities to address multiple facets of refugees' lives, and their inclusion in national VET institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines school management and policies in Germany and Australia during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study, which is comparative and qualitative, explores the interrelationship between different levels of governance and the responses of teacher unions. The inquiry is informed by the perspectives of historical institutionalism and path dependency, and the document analysis is conducted by utilising the justification categories of value, collective, and formal and procedural driven arguments. We argue the contestation which occurred between different levels of school governance and the teacher unions amidst the pandemic created the potential for changes in policy settings and influence over the administration of schooling. However, there is no indication of fundamental shifts in the organisation, policy direction or control over schooling in Germany or Australia. Instead, there is a conformity to established institutional arrangements and path dependencies, which secure and protect the vested interests of the different policy actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to demonstrate the analytical potential of initial vocational education and training (iVET) in the debate on the costs of social mobility. It is based on extensive qualitative fieldwork with over 250 young people in Romania's iVET (around 20% of whom were Roma). Central to the discourses of young Roma are the experiences of discrimination, the absence of a 'vocational habitus' and an awareness of credential inflation, despite the social and economic costs of attending iVET. The research calls for a recalibration of the narrative on social mobility, in an economic context where work is becoming increasingly precarious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal education has all too often been portrayed as a means of achieving social and economic mobility, there is a need to address the unequal footing for adolescents in the Global South attempting to achieve social mobility through education. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Sri Lanka, this article considers the impact of upward mobility-driven discourses of the North on the type of aspirations formed by adolescents in the Global South, and the social implications that arise as a result. Through observation, interviews and focus groups carried out at a secondary school for girls and a private tuition centre in Sri Lanka, the paper considers the value given to private tuition compared to government-funded schooling. In doing so, it examines the implications of mobility-driven discourses on the schooling experiences of adolescents in the Global South, particularly the heightening of educational and social inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growth of the International Baccalaureate (IB) worldwide is part of a global trend towards the internationalisation of education (IE). Its implementation, nonetheless, takes different forms depending on national and local contexts. This paper examines the recent expansion of the IB in Madrid, drawing upon the sociology of education policy enactments and recontextualisations and the Cultural Political Economy approach. Combining in-depth interviews, document analysis and secondary quantitative data, this paper shows why Madrid has led the expansion of IB schools in Spain in the last decade, an expansion, which has nonetheless remained relatively unnoticed. Our findings suggest that the growth and penetration of private international education initiatives such as the IB may be related to particular social factors, education system characteristics and education policy ensembles, with a particularly intense manifestation in decentralised systems where neoliberal and neoconservative policies foster autonomy, competition, internationalisation and 'excellence'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates intersecting rights and ways of thinking in faith-based schools. It outlines current legislative attempts to manage anti-discrimination in Australian schools and proposes a dialogic model of reciprocal anti-discrimination for educational leaders and administrators. This paper proposes that reciprocal anti-discrimination will require rigorous clarity in organisational beliefs, values and philosophies of education. Differences of power, prejudice and assumptions are also addressed. The goal of the proposed model is to find a way forward where rights and values intersect while supporting student and staff wellbeing and preserving religious and moral conscience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing literature, much of it with cross-national comparisons, employs geographic lenses to secure insights into educational studies. Most of this literature focuses on schooling, though parts address kindergartens and higher education. The present paper, by contrast, employs geographic lenses to focus on the shadow education system of private supplementary tutoring. It is called shadow education because much of its content mimics that in schooling, but the paper shows that many dynamics are significantly different from those in schooling. Insights may be gained not only from physical geography but also from political, economic, cultural and pedagogical geography – and from relationships between them. Intra-national, cross-national and cross-cultural comparisons show forces in a domain that is gathering momentum across the globe and causing significant shifts in the overall nature and role of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1989, councils involving young people have become widespread, both in developed and developing countries. However, these councils are said to reflect the hierarchical nature of parliamentary and representative democracy, leading to tokenistic participation. Studies on the formal structures of youth participation have tended to focus on their failings and reveal little about structures and processes that might encourage youth participation. To address this gap, this paper examines three youth councils in Denmark and argues that the structures of these youth councils – referred to as 'dialogic democracy' in this paper – are what encourage effective participation, ensure the fairness of decision-making processes and develop young people's citizenship skills so that they can have agency in the arena of local policy. Crucially, dialogic democracy can be seen as a form of informal learning, with peer learning being central. Lessons can therefore be drawn for developing citizenship education programmes in other national contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on higher education regionalism, this paper explores international branch campus (IBC) initiatives undertaken by one of the largest Russian IBC-exporting institutions, the Lomonosov Moscow State University (LMSU). To date, very little is known about higher education (HE) export-import between the post-Soviet countries. This qualitative inquiry critically examines the Soviet legacy of LMSU IBCs to understand their origins, purposes, and utility as a form of HE export. This paper sheds light on (1) the similarities and differences between six LMSU IBCs and (2) discourses used to rationalise the establishment of LMSU branch campuses. The findings from this paper suggest that LMSU IBCs are established (a) to promote the Russian HE model, (b) to strengthen political and cultural ties with neighbouring countries, and (c) to bolster LMSU's image and brand appeal in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2014, the OECD-PISA's Governing Board approved the addition of a set of global competence measures to its Programme of Student Assessment. In our paper, we explore whether and how there are discursive shifts between the two framing papers (2016/2018) and what the outcomes are for policy-shaping. To this end, we employ Network Text Analysis to map shifting semantic configurations. We show that (i) the concept of 'global competence' is radically redefined through the simplification and polarisation of the semantic universe surrounding it, (ii) that the concept 'global' becomes a shifting signifier which enables the establishment of an equivalence between the two studied documents, and that (iii) in this process, concepts such as 'culture' are now erased in the 2018 text. Our findings show the dramatic change of approach between the two documents reinforces a narrative that is familiar to the OECD around knowledge economy proxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational reform in China has brought about many Western educational approaches for teachers to consider as part of their pedagogy. An example of this is the theory of multiple intelligences (MI theory). This paper presents how a theory grounded in a Western context is locally reconceptualised by kindergarten teachers who grew up in a different context. A qualitative case study was selected to investigate seven kindergarten teachers' understandings of MI theory in China. Three methods were employed to gather data; semi-structured interviews, field observations and documentation. Evidence from the three sources were analysed using a thematic approach. This paper reports contextual factors that had an influence on the teachers' understandings of MI theory and thus its implementation, and argues that the introduction of new educational theories or approaches should be grounded in the local context in which the teaching will be embedded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a Latin American perspective on ESD, with a focus on transformative and participatory learning in community contexts. With a long history of critical pedagogies, Latin America provides a fertile ground for exploring alternative forms of education as a means to address deep-rooted challenges in western traditional strands of education. We start by providing an overview of pertinent educational currents present in Latin America, then ground these perspectives in two case studies carried out by the authors – one from Colombia, the other from Brazil – which explore grassroots initiatives in community settings that utilise different forms of education and learning. We then propose an integrative model to foster alternative educational approaches that might lead to decolonial and regenerative praxis, finishing with a discussion on how Latin American-rooted regenerative decolonisation perspective and praxis can inform global ESD discourses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to unpack global-local dynamics in education drawing on the cases of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and ASEAN Citizenship Education in Cambodia. By analysing recent education strategies and policies, curriculum framework, and textbooks, this paper unveils (a) to what extent have ESD and ASEAN citizenship been incorporated in education plans and policies, as well as curriculum and textbooks, (b) what changes are there in the discourses around each norm over time; and (c) how has the ministry appropriated these two norms similarly and differently to fit its agenda. These two cases highlight the fact that nation-(re)building has been, and still is, the key development agenda in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia, and this agenda works as a filter through which transnational norms are interpreted and appropriated. A comparison between the two cases also highlights that the ministry strategically utilises time to achieve their best interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the development of UNESCO's Mahatma Gandhi Institute on Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP), examining its record from global, national and institutional perspectives. The global perspective encompasses challenges to UNESCO's attempts to articulate a distinctive, humanistic vision in competition with other multilateral bodies. The national perspective relates to India, which hosts MGIEP, provides the bulk of its funding and exerts significant influence over its governance. Consideration is also given to the relationship between MGIEP's work and Mahatma Gandhi's ideas. Finally, the institutional perspective relates both to the author's own experience with MGIEP, and to information gained through interviews with others involved with the institute. It is argued that MGIEP's story illuminates challenges to attempts, within India and internationally, to sustain a humanistic vision of education in the face of powerful countervailing interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Target 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls on states to ensure, by 2030, that "all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development". This paper argues that the wording of this target holds three inherent problems, which, together with a commitment to using existing datasets to measure progress towards the SDGs, are resulting in indicators and assessment tools that are not fit for purpose. In response, an alternative "Inside-Out" design strategy is proposed, which is grounded in inductive, intersubjective and values-based approaches for designing indicators and assessment. The approach is elaborated, along with the ways in which it addresses the inherent problems of Target 4.7, its potential challenges, practicalities and caveats. A case study is provided, exemplifying how the "Inside-Out" design is being applied to the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) process being developed within the Transforming Education for Sustainable Futures (TESF) research and practice Network Plus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education is increasingly becoming central to debates about how to promote peace in conflict-affected societies. Equitable access to quality learning, promotion of social justice through educational reforms and conflict-sensitive curricular and pedagogical approaches are viewed as peace supporting educational interventions. Drawing upon the existing body of literature in the area of education, conflict and peace in Southern Thailand and reflecting on Nancy Fraser's theory of social justice and applying the 4Rs framework, this paper provides a critical analysis of inequalities, cultural repression and epistemic domination through education. The paper argues that the 4Rs framework usefully exposes underlying structural tensions in education but does little to show avenues for rupturing unequal power relations and hegemonies that reproduce systems of domination and social exclusion at the macro level. The real hope, however, lies in the potential use of the 4Rs as a tool for grassroots political socialisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to contemporary theorising in comparative education by exploring how narratives of 'victims' and 'perpetrators' in postcolonial settings are understood in terms of affective justice. Affective justice is introduced as a framework for understanding justice as an affective practice. Through the analysis of two examples of girls' education in the Global South - Malala's shooting in Pakistan and the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls in Nigeria - the paper shows how these stories are circulated through sentimental narratives that fail to recognise long-standing colonial conceptualisations of education and schoolchildren. It is suggested that the notion of affective justice helps reorient understandings of education in postcolonial settings by turning educators' attention to three domains - pedagogical practices, embodied affects, and emotional regimes. It is argued that a nuanced conceptualisation of affective justice offers insights into how educators and students can move beyond sentimental narratives to acknowledge coloniality and structural injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a theoretical contribution to discussions about the emancipatory potential of citizenship education across four sites (i.e. Catalonia, Colombia, England, and Pakistan). By reflecting on policy and empirical data from our four contexts of study, we discuss whether citizenship education manifests different conditions of emancipatory education (modern, postmodern, and posthumous). We argue that citizenship education offers possibilities for emancipation, but these are constrained by capitalist and Enlightenment barriers. We conclude that if an emancipatory form of citizenship education is to be possible, there is a need to make room for politics in school classrooms and further politicise epistemological and anthropological assumptions. We recommend a form of citizenship education that conceptualises emancipation as our ability to respond ethically to situated challenges by thinking by ourselves with others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The arena of international schools is continuously growing. One under-researched 'traditional' grouping is the United World College (UWC) movement. Its idealistic long-term mission to facilitate global peace and sustainability by 'sparking change' in young peoples' lives represents an important area of study. As well as preparing young people for the two-year International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme amidst a background of co-curricular experiential learning, the UWC movement offers 'Short Courses' each year around the world. Our paper explores, for the first time, the 'Short Course' and its potential to transform and build character for social change. We present five vignettes of participants' experiences and perspectives of a 'Short Course', revealing how the every-day rhythm and interactions of the course rituals coupled with an intentionally deeply emotional experience can transform young people and empower them with the positive emotional energy needed to 'spark change' in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education markets have spread worldwide over the past few decades. Frequently, the expansion of markets in education is presented by their promoters as a means to improve the opportunities of the most socioeconomically disadvantaged students. However, the evidence available shows that market-oriented policies that enhance competition and choice tend to produce negative effects on equity by boosting school segregation and social stratification among public and private schools. This paper aims to unpack the mechanisms through which market-oriented policies and the involvement of private actors in education can foster the uneven distribution of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. By using a mechanism-based explanation, this paper identifies and describes the functioning of three main mechanisms by which pro-market policies generate school segregation. Finally, the paper addresses the analytical benefits of the mechanism-based approach and reflects on its policy implications regarding market-oriented reforms in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing literature on international health partnerships is largely normative, with an evaluative interest in their impacts in terms of learning and knowledge transfer. Rarely has research attended to how learning and knowledge transfer transpire in practice. This paper addresses this gap with a case study of a partnership between two hospitals in Canada and China. Conceptually, drawing on Actor Network Theory, it posits learning and knowledge transfer as a process of translation. Empirically, it traces the assembling of the programme, and identifies the pedagogical features at nodes of associations. It reveals that health professionals in both countries have expanded their clinical and medical knowledge and practices, and professional senses and sensitivities, which were subsequently amplified, deferred or diminished within their respective practices. It argues that the capacity of individuals to translate learning into practice is contingent on institutional and cultural differences that constitute the ecology of work for health professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education in the Gaza Strip has been subjected to four wars and over a decade of blockade. University staff and students have been killed whilst campus infrastructure has been attacked, rebuilt, and destroyed again. This paper examines opportunities for, and limits to, protecting higher education from attack in Gaza. It presents a framework for categorising protection measures and empirically explores the effectiveness of measures to protect higher education from attack in Gaza since 2007. It finds that whilst Gaza's academics and students generally express hopelessness at protection under blockade and asymmetric warfare, there are promising potential avenues for protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers matter. They make a difference in the life of the individual and the society at large. Hence, their education and training has always been at the centre of any government's education policy. This paper focuses on teacher education in Albania. The narrative describes and analyzes the main milestones in teacher education during the four historical periods of Albania: the National Awakening, Independence, Totalitarianism and Post-totalitarianism. The main thrust of the paper is to examine how the historical, political and socio-cultural factors interrelate to influence on teacher education and pedagogy at certain points in time of Albania's history. The paper reveals the way the western educational ideas that emerged and evolved during the pre World War II period were suppressed during totalitarianism, but were reasserted when Albania transitioned to democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the utility of critical realism as an ontological foundation for the analysis of education policy in emergencies. By exploring the synergy between critical realism and a method to analyse policy known as Critical Policy Analysis, the paper argues for the use of conceptual analytical tools when examining education policy in conflict-affected contexts. It illustrates the value of theory-informed analysis by reflecting on a recent study of Afghanistan's higher education strategic planning, and advocates for critical engagement with broader cultural, political, and economic factors in the analysis of education policies during conflicts and crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situated within the changing dynamics of international student mobility, this paper explores the meaning of transnational in-between identity. The empirical evidence is based on the key findings of a four-year qualitative study on Chinese students who returned from the UK after completing their university degrees. The paper argues that transnational in-between identity is a fluid and diverse process of self-formation through which agency interacts with the four key dimensions of intercultural competence, reconstruction of locality, diaspora consciousness and mixed senses of belonging. The conceptual contribution of this research is that it combines transnationalism, a theory normally confined to the field of migration studies, and the concept of in-betweenness, derived from intercultural adjustment, to investigate the identity changes experienced by student returnees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prizes and awards have received limited attention in scholarly research. The present paper engages with the prestigious UNESCO-Japan Prize on Education for Sustainable Development, which annually honours three outstanding projects related to education for sustainable development (ESD). Drawing on biopolitical theory, the paper explores what this prize can tell us about the global community's quest for sustainable development. While the award is global in scope and alludes to humanity's joint responsibility for the planet, the analysis shows that the winning organisations approach rich and poor populations around the world in entirely different ways; assigning to them different roles, responsibilities and lifestyles. ESD discourse thus displays a remarkable ability to accommodate the lifestyle divide that separates rich and poor; suggesting that inequality has become effectively normalised. Ultimately it is argued that differentiating practices in the global implementation of ESD constitutes an urgent area of further research for comparative and international education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses how mid-level bureaucrats in sub-national offices navigated political considerations when trying to fulfil their roles and responsibilities in the post-conflict context of Nepal. Utilising interview data from a wide range of stakeholders, I focus my analysis on perspectives from district level officials who were called on to fulfil multiple roles in an increasingly decentralised context. Their views reveal an acute awareness of the intensification of challenges and patronage politics that resulted from the conflict and prolonged uncertainty. At the same time, several officials found ways to navigate these political waters, and provided insights into what they think can help in ensuring educational success in such conditions. These assessments are likely to remain relevant today, as other local officials begin to take the responsibility of education governance in Nepal's new three-tier governance structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows how one mathematics teacher, in a government secondary school in rural Rwanda, re-contextualises learner centred education (LCE) and English medium instruction (EMI) policies in classroom practice. Data are drawn from an ethnographic, critical case study and include lesson transcripts and teacher and student perspectives. The study indicates the importance of including non-verbal language in investigations of classroom interaction, and problematises the tendency to equate LCE with student talk in groups. In these lessons, whole-class interactions are managed by the teacher and student verbal participation is limited. Nevertheless, students co-construct and participate in activities and communicate mathematical meanings. The teacher observes and responds to students and enables students to access the English and mathematics they need for examinations. EMI limits student verbal participation and access to the textbook. The study indicates the importance of learning from and responding to classroom realties rather than pedagogical and linguistic ideologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curriculum has become a core element of universities' competitive positioning, internationally and nationally. This paper presents a longitudinal analysis of policy processes and outcomes associated with 'radical' university curriculum reforms that resulted in divergence from institutions' own historical patterns and national conventions and traditions. The empirical investigations draw on a policy trajectory conceptual framework and focus on how two research-intensive Australian universities navigated global–local policy flows throughout their curriculum transformations. Findings revealed that each reform project manifested proactive policy learning and, ultimately, agency, as global and national influences were articulated into local contexts, with the effect of 'breaking the mould' of relatively standardised university curriculum provision in Australia. At the same time, the analyses revealed a similar pattern of intensified bureaucratisation of curriculum governance within the two universities, as well as the compromising of initial reform objectives in key curriculum areas such as interdisciplinarity, internationalisation and so-called twenty-first-century skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although concepts such as research without borders have become more commonplace in recent decades, few studies have investigated the capabilities that global researchers require to cross both cultural and disciplinary borders. This paper explores global capabilities along with strategies and spaces that may facilitate academic researchers' acquisition and development of global research competence. The study's dataset comprises responses of 26 participants across 15 countries – all of whom are members of a specific comparative education society – who contributed their views via e-questionnaire. Findings indicate that research capacity building is a dynamic process and global competence calls for complex skills and conscious attitudes. Commitment to expand scientific curiosity beyond one's own culture and academic discipline appears to be a main criterion in achieving global competence. Results of this study are not meant to be prescriptive but rather exploratory and informative for a broad group of academic stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The underrepresentation of female faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is a globally acknowledged gender equity concern; however, it remains under-researched in post-Soviet contexts. Using a theoretically informed analysis, this paper explores how female STEM faculty members navigate their gender identities in domestic and academic spheres in post-Soviet Tajikistan. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 female faculty members. The results indicated that parental discourses and family circumstances enabled female faculty members to defy the gendered oppositional inscription of STEM, while the performance of non-hegemonic masculinities by spouses, male mentors, and academic supervisors supported their career advancement. However, the gendered micropolitics of higher education institutions significantly undermined the performance of female STEM faculty members' identity and subjected them to discrimination, marginalisation, and isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper offers an examination of the dynamics between silence, agency and power for students and instructors in intercultural classrooms at a UK university. Silent students are often stereotyped as passive learners or incompetent in critical thinking, lacking interest or having insufficient understanding. Despite the devaluation of silence, research reveals its significant role in pedagogy and its foundations in culture. The paper explores second language (L2) postgraduate international students' classroom experiences and voices behind the silence in comparison with their peers' and instructors' perceptions and interpretations of students' lack of vocal participation. Challenging talk as the privileged form of classroom communication mode, we argue for a better understanding of L2 international students' participation and call for recognition of the pedagogical merits of silence and legitimate some forms of it as a pattern of participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a qualitative study of teachers, teacher educators and educational policy makers, this paper examines how political history is framed within national history curricula at primary level and practised within classrooms in Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (ROI). Within the ROI, educational policy and practice appears underpinned by belief in children's capacities to engage with complex ideas, against a relatively benign view of political history and within a tradition of teaching political history at primary level. In NI, political history is perceived primarily as contested and, despite challenge from teachers, policy level concerns cite the complexity of political history as necessitating the postponement of issues until second-level. The paper highlights the commitment of curriculum policy makers and educators, north and south, to further progressive history education and argues for curriculum, teacher education and ongoing consideration of children's capacities to support these endeavours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a relatively novel theoretical approach to investigate cross border student mobilities in East Asia, a region growing in importance as a provider of international education. It does so by bringing Sara Ahmad's writings on the sociality of emotions, with Jacques Derrida's analyses of hospitality, We draw on empirical data from a cross national study to explore the emotions that shape student decisions to choose East Asian study destinations. By problematising the gift of the scholarship, using Derridean understandings of hospitality, we reveal the limits of contemporary forms of international education. Reflecting on histories of Asia-focused student mobilities, the paper highlights the entanglements of hostility and hospitality, and the inseparability of hosts and guests. It is this realisation that will enable ethical, non-exploitative forms of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mother tongue-based education has been central to the promotion of early literacy skills in many multilingual contexts of the Global South. However, learners in such environments may face significant linguistic challenges when changing language of instruction during schooling. In particular, the linguistic distance between mother tongue and official language may be a significant barrier to learners. This paper provides an empirical approach to this issue by employing language matching based on linguistic distance between languages to explore changes in literacy scores for learners who change language of instruction. Findings show that the greater the linguistic distance between two languages, the larger the loss in foundational literacy. We conclude that language matching could be introduced as a tool to identify at-risk learners during transitions and, if possible, as a tool for linguistic allocation of students who have the possibility of selecting between schools with different languages for instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupationally mobile families exist in multiple forms globally. While these families contribute significantly to the socioeconomic life of the locations that they traverse, sometimes their mobilities generate hostility in those locations. This hostility in the form of an anti-nomadic/sedentarist ideology creates corresponding difficulties for the schooling options and outcomes of the children of these mobile families. This paper explores the educational applications and implications of the anti-nomadic/sedentarist ideology as experienced by occupationally mobile families globally, and investigates also several successful schooling approaches for their children. The analysis identifies effective forms of schooling provision implemented in specific ways in these distinctive learning contexts. The author posits that 'innovative' in relation to the education of occupationally mobile communities is enacted in the historically constructed and materially grounded mobilities of each community, and 'works' and 'makes sense' only when conceptualised with references to those mobilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global citizenship education (GCE) has emerged as a powerful force in global and national discourses, with scholars and dominant international organisations stressing it to be the overarching educational framework. Although numerous approaches have been adopted to promote it, most of the strategies focus on transnational activities. There is less focus on national engagements. Utilising a qualitative study and a decolonial framework, this paper draws upon data in the Ghanaian context to discuss the potentiality of utilising the Third Trimester Field Programme of the University for Development Studies to develop the global citizen. The paper concludes that the programme provides heightened opportunities for GCE. To enhance this process, efforts should be made to avoid perceiving the programme as a 'civilising' mission or of perpetuating colonial legacies. Whilst participants develop critical values, they should also be encouraged to think critically about issues of social justice in and beyond the communities they visit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global landscape of higher education is an uneven field where players like nation-states are placed in hierarchical and centre-periphery relations. This paper focuses on the global field of international student mobility (ISM) and investigates China's place in the field using an analytical framework consisting of three key categories of 'capital': economic, human, and symbolic. Drawing on existing scholarship and author's first-hand ethnographic research, the paper examines the case of China as both a source and a destination of ISM, and analyses the flows and accrual of these three forms of capital as consequences of outbound and inbound student mobilities. Analyses show that in a global ISM field characterised by asymmetries and inequalities, China's place is arguably semi-peripheral economically and symbolically. It is argued that this country-focused macro perspective complements existing ISM scholarship's emphasis on social reproduction at individual and private levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science education projects are being used to improve attitudes between conflicting groups, but it is not clear which aspects of science make it an effective agent for this purpose. This paper investigates how attitudes towards intergroup cooperation relate to different perceptions of science. Regression analyses are conducted on questionnaire data (N = 246) collected from Arab-Palestinian minority high school students in Israel, comparing students who identify primarily as Israeli, Palestinian, and pan-Arab. The analyses indicate that perceiving science as global and international is strongly associated with a preference for mixed work or study environments. The paper suggests that for many students, science and technology in Israel have become globalised and internationalised to the point that science education represents a distinct social space from mainstream Israeli society. By border-crossing into the science classroom, students enter a 'global space' wherein the challenges associated with minority status and poor minority–majority relations are less salient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the challenges and prospects of inclusive education for learners with disabilities in the integrated education system in Kenyan primary schools. Data were collected in five and nine public schools in Nairobi and Marsabit respectively, by means of questionnaires administered to 126 teachers, semi-structured interviews with 14 head teachers or their deputies, and one focus group discussion. County education officials were also interviewed. The findings reveal that although the integrated education system is dominant in Kenya, local schools that accommodate learners with disabilities put much effort into creating an inclusive setting. This paper appreciates the challenges and potential associated with inclusive education and thus recommends deeper reflection on the operationalisation of inclusive policies in the context of Kenya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been an increasing effort to deliver Education in Emergencies (EiE) from the international community since the 1990s because of protracted humanitarian situations. Despite the growing attention to EiE, many children in conflict-affected situations miss schooling without having the opportunity to receive a second chance education (SCE), or voice their perspectives on this situation. Given the gaps within EiE, this paper focuses on the largely overlooked issue of out-of-school children and young people resulting from conflict, and potential for an SCE. Based on 23 life story interviews conducted in Rwanda, it examines how learners in post-genocide Rwanda made sense of the complex education journey that they undertook and their motivations for an SCE. The research demonstrates various motivations, including both intrinsic and extrinsic, using self-determination theory. It provides learners' perspectives on education that are currently missing in the EiE field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]