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Compared to the abundant generic research on technologies and education, few studies focus on the scope of whether the technologies used meet the expectations set forth in international reports and to what extent technology contributes to transforming educational practice. Our objective was to identify and analyze the characteristics of educational practices that are being developed in higher education and to assess the value that technology brings to educational practice. We conducted a systematic review of academic papers published in scientific journals: a corpus of 1,207 articles from six journals included in indexed databases (JCR and SJR), selected using Google Scholar Metrics. According to the various records screened, the study we present is based on 49 articles, published between 2018 and 2019. We conclude that beyond their reproducible, enriching, or transformative nature, most of the articles analyzed address the improvement of students' performance, engagement, or self-perception, in which they positively value the experience of learning mediated by digital technology, although they do not have an impact on the transformative value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus remains an important theoretical framework educational researchers draw upon to explore the learner identities of students as well as their learning trajectories. As scholars grapple with habitus, as both a theory and a method of working with the data, they have drawn upon different research methodologies. To date, what has been largely absent in Bourdieusian educational research is how narrative inquiry can enhance our understanding of how habitus shapes learner identities. Narrative inquiry, as a research approach, seeks to understand and interpret human experiences through the collection and analysis of participants' life stories. This article first explains how to operationalise Bourdieu's habitus to understand learner identities and aspirations. Second, narrative inquiry is introduced as a methodology. Third, the paper offers a case study of Chinese female STEM students' experiences in higher education where the first author reflects on how narrative inquiry allowed for a deeper exploration of the formation and maintenance of their habitus as learners. Lastly, the paper concludes with the first author's own reflexive deliberations on what narrative inquiry can offer researchers interested in habitus. In exploring the relationship between narrative inquiry and habitus the paper highlights the continual dialectical relationship between theory and method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the World Declaration on Higher Education for the 21st Century that education is the ultimate support of human rights, and that access and participation remain key catalysts to accelerating equal educational opportunities for all, females continue to trail their male counterparts in educational outcomes across sub-Saharan Africa. This study focuses on the Ghanaian context and assesses the gender dimensions of student enrollment in higher education, highlighting the disparities therein. We adopt a typical case study design, and a mixed method approach, involving quantitative analysis of student enrollment data, qualitative interviews, and focus group discussions with administrators and students at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. We find generally low female participation across all colleges of the university, except for the College of Health Sciences. We also find low female participation across three dimensions: qualified applicants, admissions, and enrollment. The causes of disparity in the dimensions of student enrollment are rooted in four main factors: institutional, socio-cultural, economic, and awareness of STEM policy and opportunities. The present findings have implications for the implementation of STEM and other gender policies at both the pre-tertiary and tertiary levels of education across sub-Saharan Africa. Plain Language Summary: How Far Is Progress? Gender Dimensions of Student Enrollment in Higher Education in Ghana: The Case of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology This paper examines the gender dimensions of higher education in Ghana between 2010-2020. It seeks to understand the extent of gender disparity in three key dimensions of student participation in higher education: qualified applicants, admissions, and actual enrolment. The paper also examines the causes of gender disparities across these three dimensions, and the impact of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) policies intended to improve female participation in these areas of science. We use a typical case study research design, and a mixed-method approach involving quantitative analysis, interviews, and focus group discussions. We chose the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi as our typical case, to help examine in-depth, the trends and causal mechanisms underlying gender participation along the three dimensions. Our findings show that gender disparities continue to exist, with particularly wide disparities in some academic disciplines. Notwithstanding, the university seems to have made significant strides in bridging the gender gap in enrolment in the last five years of the study period. The full potential of STEM policies, however, remains underexplored, importantly because the targets of the policy, females, are largely unaware of the opportunities available to them to pursue higher education. We also report the socioeconomic and socio-cultural bottlenecks girls continue to face in their quest to attain higher education, and the key role female role models can play in improving gender parity in higher education. Given the limitations of single case studies, we recommend large-n or comparative designs in future research on the subject [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The developing status of the Omani higher education has made this sector subject to both national and global influences. Such influences created inconsistencies between the demands of the local context and those of the increasingly globalizing context, which resulted in a nationally diverse faculty body. This paper draws on the Social Identity Approach (SIA) and the intersectionality theory to argue that identity in the workplace could be understood better through focusing on processes rather than individual narratives since processes reveal much of the complexity of prototypes especially when applied to workgroups. The paper reports the findings of a qualitative case study conducted in an English language-teaching department in Oman. The study explored identity intersectionalities within a workgroup by analyzing the data generated through 16 interviews, eight meeting observations and document analysis. The thematic analysis reveals that identities are constructed based on intersections of language, nationality, contract and professional identity. Such intersections were evident in relation to the process of recruitment, employment security and retention, staff inclusion, and professional identity enactment. These findings demonstrate that analyzing identity at the intra-categorical level sheds light on its effects at the individual level. The paper concludes by highlighting theoretical and practical implications that are relevant to ELT contexts internationally. Plain Language Summary: The developing status of the Omani higher education has made this sector subject to both national and global influences. Such influences created inconsistencies between the demands of the local context and those of the increasingly globalizing context, which resulted in a nationally diverse faculty body. This paper draws on the Social Identity Approach (SIA) and the intersectionality theory to argue that identity in the workplace could be understood better through focusing on processes rather than individual narratives since processes reveal much of the complexity of prototypes especially when applied to workgroups. The paper reports the findings of a qualitative case study conducted in an English language-teaching department in Oman. The study explored identity intersectionalities within a workgroup by analyzing the data generated through 16 interviews, eight meeting observations and document analysis. The thematic analysis reveals that identities are constructed based on intersections of language, nationality, contract and professional identity. Such intersections were evident in relation to the process of recruitment, employment security and retention, staff inclusion, and professional identity enactment. These findings demonstrate that analyzing identity at the intra-categorical level sheds light on its effects at the individual level. The paper concludes by highlighting theoretical and practical implications that are relevant to ELT contexts internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research involving and impacting Indigenous Peoples is often of little or no benefit to the communities involved and, in many cases, causes harm. Ensuring that Indigenous research is not only ethical but also of benefit to the communities involved is a long-standing problem that requires fundamental changes in higher education. To address this necessity for change, the authors of this paper, with the help of graduate and Indigenous community research assistants, undertook community consultation across their university to identify the local and national ethical needs of Indigenous researchers, communities, and Elders. This paper provides an overview of the consultation process, the themes that emerged from the consultations, and a model of the Wholistic Indigenous Research Framework that emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most research on social identity theory has been separately examined either at the team or individual levels. This paper aims to expand the use of the social identity theory and illuminates an emerging mechanism of task interdependence at the individual level that can affect the nature of the team identity by testing how team power distance act as a moderator Iraqi universities, this study employs multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) with Mplus 7.2 to test the model. The results reveal a positive indirect relationship between individual-level task interdependence and team performance through team identity. In addition, team power distance does not moderate a positive relationship between individual-level task interdependence and team identity. This study illuminates the link between task interdependence and team identity, which can eventually occur through a bottom-up mechanism to obtain high team performance. This study is novel for several reasons. First, this study finds a bottom-up mechanism between task interdependence at the individual level to team performance through team identity. Second, this study offers new empirical findings that, in the context of a middle east culture known as the high level of power distance, team power distance (i.e., contextual variable) does not associate with the interdependence of an individual to perform tasks and team identity. In addition, this answers the research call to investigate the dynamic interactions between individuals in teams and team-based overall, which has not been discussed in previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With economies and business becoming knowledge intensive, the role of education industry has immensely risen in significance. This has given rise to a highly competitive landscape in higher education, with faculty retention as a major challenge for the institutions leading to negative consequences in terms of education quality, stakeholder satisfaction and rankings. This paper discusses the factors influencing faculty retention in HEIs in India within the framework of Social Exchange Theory. The sub dimensions of HR climate were explored using Principal Components Analysis. The relative importance of sub dimensions in forming the overall climate was estimated and the effect of HR climate on faculty retention was studied with Organizational Commitment and Organizational Trust as mediators employing a hierarchical components model in the PLSSEM analysis. The results indicate that HR climate has a significant positive effect on faculty retention through organizational commitment and organizational trust as partial complementary mediators. Findings have significant theoretical as well as practical implications in extending the present knowledge regarding the subdimensions and effect of HR climate on faculty retention and the suggested measures to be taken in implementing effective HR Management systems in the Higher Education Institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the motivations of middle-class Asian students who choose German universities of applied sciences under the third wave of international student mobility. It aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the students' qualitative experiences in Asian countries that influenced their preference for German universities of applied sciences and their expectations of their German degree as cultural capital. The research analyzes the family, school, peer experiences of 23 Asian students currently enrolled in a German university of applied sciences to understand their motivations for choosing this type of institution and Germany. The findings reveal that the cultural capital that influenced their choice includes differentiation strategies of middle-class students, reasonable education investment choices of Asian students, and the use of a German degree as a trump card in the labor market. The study provides implications for the development of international higher education by connecting Asian students' aspirations for global cultural capital to a complex and atypical structure that encompasses global, national, and individual dimensions simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the COVID-19 virus outbreak, there has been a dramatic change in the educational landscape, and traditional classroom instruction has shifted to the online environment. Previous research has yielded contradictory results regarding the effect of different instructional modalities on student achievement. This study aimed to examine the impact of teaching mode (online vs. face-to-face) on academic outcomes in the context of Spanish as a foreign language in China. A comparative analysis was conducted between two cohorts of students, one receiving online courses and the other undergoing in-person instruction, and their respective scores for Spanish tests are reported. Additionally, a questionnaire was administered to the online cohort to gain insight into their learning motivation. The results showed that students who received online instruction outperformed those who received face-to-face instruction. Regarding the potential factors underlying the superior academic outcomes of online learners, examination of questionnaire responses pertaining to their learning experience reveals that students' motivation, learning strategies, self-regulation, and self-efficacy are crucial factors of successful learning results and may have positively contributed to such outcomes. Plain Language Summary: How do online and f2f learning differ in SFL students' academic achievements and experience? The paper examines the effect of learning modality (online vs. face-to-face) on SFL student's academic achievements during COVID-19. Previous research indicated mixed findings on the effects of learning modality on student achievement. Few previous studies have focused on the effect of teaching mode in a Spanish as a foreign language setting. Based on naturalistic data, we compared two groups concerning academic achievement. The online group also answered a questionnaire about their attitude toward learning modes, motivation, strategies, and self-reported skills. The study is a mixed design; academic achievements were measured with two exam scores on both groups (before and after the implementation of online teaching), and the answers from the questionnaire also provide some insight into possible reasons for the difference. The main findings are: (1) The online group outperformed the face-to-face group after online learning. (2) Results of the questionnaire are discussed related to the literature. (3) Possible explanations for online learners' success include learners' motivation, learning strategies, self-regulation, and self-efficacy; multiple activities in the online course that can improve learners' participation and provide them instant feedback; students, instructors, and universities' preparedness for online teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact and changes due to sudden internal or external occurrence are difficult scenarios faced by many business organizations. The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the nation's economic, social, and technological progressions. The effects of the sudden, extreme changes and uncertainty toward the environment require business organizations to further adapt and change to improve their survivability. Dynamic leadership requires leaders to make sudden changes improving adaptability or marketing capabilities to stay resilient and relevant to the mass market. Thus, the goal of the present study was to investigate the influence of dynamic leadership and marketing planning on organizational resilience in the context of Malaysian Private Higher Learning Institutions (PHLI). In this paper, the study performed PLS-SEM on the data collected using purposive sampling of 224 respondents, consisting of managers from colleges and universities in urban areas of Malaysia. The SEM was used to test on the levels of relation and whether there was any mediation between the tested variables. The study revealed that the dynamic leadership and marketing planning of Private Higher Learning Institutions' (PHLI) managers can improve organizational resilience. It highlighted the impact of leadership values has on improving overall market plans and affecting their resilience. Marketing planning should not be neglected as it is one of the crucial factors in achieving resiliency. The study's results are timely as they provide information for users to improve their overall survivability. The value of marketing planning should not be lightly treated as it has a serious impact toward organizational resilience. It is an important element for organizations in the current state of where survivability is essential in an unpredictable environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International students leave their countries to pursue their educational goals in a different country and must adapt to succeed. However, they may face challenges when adapting to and learning a new culture. This study investigates the challenges common to international students in their host countries and summarizes the publishing trends. A literature search of peer-reviewed articles published in Scopus, Taylor & Francis, EBSCO Host, Web of Science, Springer, PubMed, and Wiley Online over 21 years (2002–2022) was done for data collection. After the screening, a total of 175 articles were included in this review and analyzed with content analysis. The findings show that the top four destinations for international students (USA, UK, Australia, and Canada) produced the most articles about international students' challenges. Additionally, most papers investigated more than one challenge, and sociocultural (82.9%) and academic challenges (82.3%) were the most researched, with language issues as the primary cause. The results also show no changes or improvement in the challenges of international students in 21 years, and areas such as psychological and economic challenges need more research. These challenges and other trends found in the articles are discussed and directions for future research are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Chinese college graduates have faced a challenging employment situation, calling for an analysis of the social stratification function of higher education. This paper used linear regression to analyze factors influencing the occupational status attainment of college graduates. The social stratification function of higher education was found to be significant. Educational factors were essential for occupational status attainment. Nevertheless, new graduates' occupational status could also be affected by individual and family factors. On the whole, college graduates achieved stratum promotion. Men had higher occupational status and longer mobility distance than women, and rural graduates had higher occupational status and longer mobility distance than urban graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the service quality (SQ) of higher education institutes (HEI), offering professional courses from the perspective of faculty as they are the service providers as well as a major stakeholder in the educational arena. PHEISQUAL (Professional higher education institute service quality) scale has been developed to measure the service quality of HEI offering professional course using mixed methodology. Four factors namely—Training & Placement, Faculty Resource, Learning Infrastructure, and Assessment & Evaluation have been extracted. The scale has been subjected to rigorous analysis of scale development process and has complied with same. Thus this study accrues a new instrument to measure service quality of professional institutes offering higher education by taking into account the technical as well as operational factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to highlight timeline mapping exercise as a research tool and the benefits and challenges of incorporating this method into research. Timeline mapping offers a novel methodological approach toward gathering and accessing rich and meaningful data in the study of life transitions for instance from secondary education to higher education or from education to employment. This paper especially focuses on how it can be incorporated into research studies specific to HPE (Health Professions Education). It also offers researchers step-by-step instructions on how to conduct timeline mapping exercises and how to go about analysing the findings and gathering insights from the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus remains an important theoretical framework educational researchers draw upon to explore the learner identities of students as well as their learning trajectories. As scholars grapple with habitus, as both a theory and a method of working with the data, they have drawn upon different research methodologies. To date, what has been largely absent in Bourdieusian educational research is how narrative inquiry can enhance our understanding of how habitus shapes learner identities. Narrative inquiry, as a research approach, seeks to understand and interpret human experiences through the collection and analysis of participants' life stories. This article first explains how to operationalise Bourdieu's habitus to understand learner identities and aspirations. Second, narrative inquiry is introduced as a methodology. Third, the paper offers a case study of Chinese female STEM students' experiences in higher education where the first author reflects on how narrative inquiry allowed for a deeper exploration of the formation and maintenance of their habitus as learners. Lastly, the paper concludes with the first author's own reflexive deliberations on what narrative inquiry can offer researchers interested in habitus. In exploring the relationship between narrative inquiry and habitus the paper highlights the continual dialectical relationship between theory and method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to highlight timeline mapping exercise as a research tool and the benefits and challenges of incorporating this method into research. Timeline mapping offers a novel methodological approach toward gathering and accessing rich and meaningful data in the study of life transitions for instance from secondary education to higher education or from education to employment. This paper especially focuses on how it can be incorporated into research studies specific to HPE (Health Professions Education). It also offers researchers step-by-step instructions on how to conduct timeline mapping exercises and how to go about analysing the findings and gathering insights from the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of how local and global norms and requirements are negotiated in the early stages of development of Social Science research ethics policy in a Global South context. A review of relevant literature followed by analysis of relevant national and institutional policies highlights both tensions and creative potential for ongoing research ethics initiatives. It was found that safety, trust and confidentiality issues are common problems reported by social science researchers in Kyrgyzstan. National level documents do not directly address these ethical research issues, but the need for international research ethics principles is recognized. A limited number of institutional policies address research ethics issues, with the majority of relevant documents being codes of conduct focused on virtue ethics. The paper argues that this analysis of the current situation in Kyrgyzstan is likely to be of relevance to many countries, where those responsible for governance of research at all levels are grappling with the tensions of navigating research ethics in ways that are meaningful in local contexts while being congruent with Global North ethics requirements of funders and publishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Previous research has evaluated the sources of post-secondary student stress, but has failed to explore whether stressors fluctuate over time. The purpose of this research was to use the Post-Secondary Student Stressors Index to examine whether stressors changed significantly and meaningfully over the course of an academic year. Due to the timing of data collection, results also provide context around students' experiences of stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Cross-sectional data was collected at 3 time points via online surveys over the course of the 2020–2021 academic year from >10,000 students. Participants attended 15 post-secondary institutions across Canada, representing 9 provinces and 1 territory. Validated instruments were used to assess levels of stress, distress and the severity of student-specific stressors. Kruskal–Wallis ranked tests and multiple pairwise comparison analyses were conducted to assess whether the mean severity of stressors changed over time. Standard effect sizes were calculated using Cohen's d. Results: Mean levels of stress and psychological distress were high at the start of the study and remained high across time points. A similarly high level of stress was observed on average for student-specific stressors. While significant differences in mean severity were observed over time for some stressors, standardized effect sizes were negligible, suggesting little meaningful change and consistent levels of chronic stress over the course of the academic year. Conclusions: This is the first paper to examine trends in student-specific stress using a nationwide sample of Canadian post-secondary students during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Patterns observed in student-specific stressors reflected changes likely to be indicative of the pandemic, including the most severe stress associated with academics, finances and concerns for the future. Implications for future research are discussed, in particular, the importance of examining stressors related to COVID-19 and their impact on student mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of constructing regional education and talent hub, Macao's higher education talent development strategy impacts the creation of a regional talent hub and the process of industrial diversification. This study adopts a text analysis approach. Through the analysis of 118 texts and the construction of the game model, it reveals that Macao's talent development has been passing through a "market-controlled" and "policy-driven" stage due to the uniqueness of economic and social development. The model of cooperative game based on endosymbiosis implicates that the talent attraction strategy of higher education can play a leading role in socio-economic development to form a cooperative and symbiotic equilibrium with the region as a whole through the "climbing period" when the "actual state" catches up with the "expected value." This paper proposes some policy recommendations, including: prospective discipline layout, breaking down of institutional barriers, cooperation and exchange of talent cultivation, and the creation of a talent-sharing mechanism for promoting the construction of a regional talent hub. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of China's Education Modernization Plan 2035 has signified the Chinese government's commitment to advancing the quality of education. Recent studies have shown that the prioritization of instructor continuous professional development (CPD) through the Ministry of Education mandates has positively affected talent development and student achievement at the K12 level; however, examination of the reform's impact on Chinese higher education is limited. This paper explored the effect academic optimism, institutional policy and support, and instructor self-efficacy had on instructors' CPD within Chinese higher education institutions. This study collected data from 456 Chinese higher education instructors, employing a structural equation model to examine the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Findings indicate academic optimism and institutional policy and support have a significant positive effect on CPD, β =.645 and.2, respectively, while instructor self-efficacy has nearly no effect on CPD, β = −.031. Institutional policy and support have a significant, influential effect on academic optimism, β =.652; however, there is nearly zero impact on instructor self-efficacy, β =.032. The implications of the findings indicate that institutional leadership is crucial in developing an academic culture that promotes and supports continuous professional development; however, individual drive to pursue CPD is limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been increasing use of comic-based approaches within qualitative research as part of an increase in creative and visual methods more generally within social science research. However, whilst increasingly prevalent in dissemination, their use within data collection is less common. This paper examines the dual use of a comic-based approach embedded within a study that explored widening participation in higher education. Initially developed for the triangulation of emergent research findings with a wider group of participants, a comic panel was developed to be used as a focus of discussions within a workshop with 11 practitioners. This was then further developed for wider dissemination and to create a space for dialogue and to engage wider publics with the study's recommendations. Both uses are critically examined, highlighting the affordances of comic-based approaches such as their capacity for supporting dissemination to a wider audience by distilling the findings and presenting them in an engaging way. Furthermore, it argues that the form can allow for creating points of ambiguity that create spaces for the audience to challenge and question taken for granted assumptions on a topic. The paper also sets out possible challenges such the need for specialist skills, the potential for oversimplification and misrepresentation of complex issues. This paper argues that with careful planning, comic-based approaches can add significant value and increase engagement with research. Finally, it offers suggestions for how this approach could be developed by future researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality assurance of higher education has been carried out across the world in the past few decades. Therefore, setting up an effective internal quality assurance (IQA) system that fosters improvement in teaching and learning is of great significance. This research examined whether the IQA system was associated with the continuous improvement in the quality of academic programs in Vietnamese higher education institutions (HEIs). The study looked into the IQA system's infrastructure, its instruments and its efforts at program improvement across different types of HEIs including infrastructure, instruments, and continuous quality improvement efforts in academic programs that are implemented across the different types of institutions. A total of 715 responses from the survey and 46 interviews were analyzed for this paper. The findings demonstrated that the IQA of academic programs in Vietnamese higher education built the fundamental infrastructure and used indirect instruments but did not frequently use the IQA results to continuously improve educational quality. On the basis of these findings, recommendations are made to improve the IQA system of academic programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student engagement, while widely recognized as both important to outcomes of higher education institutions and critical to student learning, is still missing a unifying model addressing students both inside and outside of the classroom. This mixed-methods paper will explore the existing models of student engagement and propose a model which better supports analysis from multiple perspectives. This model was validated within the context of Vietnamese higher education. The results indicate that student engagement, both in-class and out-of-class, can be modeled through the four sub-components of emotional, cognitive, participatory, and agentic engagement. Having these common elements allows analysis vertically, through these four dimensions, or horizontally, across two contexts, providing greater flexibility for future investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, the world faced a sudden change and general disruption that included all aspects of life because of the corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic. It has made the whole world adopt general and comprehensive emergency measures that have affected every sector, including health, business, and especially education. In order to continue the education process, educators have responded by adopting distance education. This paper explored the attitudes, practices, and emotions of faculty members in a college of education toward the forced adoption and educational transformation to distance education during the corona pandemic. A coding approach was used to analyze 20 reflective articles, which revealed main themes related to difficulties and challenges. The findings highlight skills and experiences that were gained. Hence, the findings promote that faculty members understand professional practices and behaviors in using distance education as an emergency solution for supporting the education process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we critically reflect on our conceptualization and operationalization of "rapid photovoice" as a close-up, emancipatory, action research methodology which has multiple, intersecting social-justice goals; and consider the methodology's potential for helping to achieve such goals. We first consider photovoice in relation to its typical use in public health research, as well as in prior research into student experiences of higher education. We then consider our pragmatic redesign of the methodology as rapid photovoice (RPV), which we conceptualized in response to the goals, parameters, and constraints inherent in our project, which studied student movement violence and wellbeing. In the third part of the article, we describe and discuss our operationalization of RPV in this study on four university campuses in South Africa. In the fourth section, we reflect on some of the ethical considerations arising from the topic and the methodology. In the final section of the article, we critically assess the interim outcomes of our use of RPV in terms of (1) psychologically empowering students to reflect on traumatic experiences in a safe space and enhancing their self-awareness of wellbeing, wellbeing resources and coping strategies; (2) the politically emancipatory potential of photovoice to represent student experiences authentically and with immediacy to higher education policy role-players, and (3) its ability to co-create artifacts of collective memory that provide authentic empirical material for making trustworthy knowledge claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Like many international universities and institutions of higher education that have shifted the entire educational system from the traditional face-to-face education model to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, universities in Saudi Arabia have expended great effort to change the behavior of educators and students to accommodate the transition. This rapid shift has had a significant impact on students, especially in programs such as interior design, in which different practical courses are taught along with the theoretical ones. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the benefits and challenges senior interior design students experienced while taking their classes online. Design and Methods: The current paper has adopted a qualitative approach for assessing the data obtained. Semi-structured interview was used to collect all the needed information regarding participants' opinions about distance learning. Results: Increased time to spend on assignments, reduction of costs to the student, and improvement in achievement of learning outcomes were the three main benefits students reported in their experience of distance learning. On the other hand, technical issues, changes in grade distribution, and changes in project types were identified as student concerns. Although students found many advantages in communicating with others remotely, some issues arose. Conclusions: Students expressed a preference for the hybrid learning method, or at least for having their exams, juries, and presentations on campus in person, not remotely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares labor market effects on the expansion of higher education after World War II for men and women in two- and four-year institutions. The paper shows that across all groups, professional-technical employment had a positive effect on enrollment expansion. Contrary to the hypothesis that students in two-year schools provide a better surplus labor pool than students in four-year schools, I found few significant differences in the predictors of expansion in these two sectors. Growth in men's enrollments was largely unaffected by labor market conditions, but growth in women's enrollments was affected by a variety of factors, some of which appear to be due to a surplus labor pool dynamic and some of which appear to be due to women's attempts to prepare themselves for occupational roles. I argue that enrollments respond to labor market conditions only when they are expanding rapidly, which was more the case for women's enrollments during this period than for men's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This newsletter touches on several recent developments, opportunities, and events in gaming, simulations, gamification, and serious games—for example, The De Montfort University Games Festival, Gamification Workshops in Malaysia and Thailand, Thaisim 2013 and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Workshop, Call for Workshop Proposals GALA (Games and Learning Alliance) Serious Games Conference at Dassault Systemes HQ, Paris, ImREAL Augmented Virtuality Video, Machinima for Business Communication, Caspian Learning White Papers on Games-Based Learning, Unity Serious Games Website, Upcoming Conferences and Seminars, Heroes Gallery—Cathy Davidson and Rohit Talwar. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Higher education is crucial to the outcomes of the second generation. This paper explores the contrasting views second-generation Dominicans and Chinese have on their educational trajectories and social mobility. Drawing on interviews with individuals who have gone on to college, I argue that the optimism of the Dominicans emerges from their use of both transnational and ethnic/panethnic perspectives. The Dominicans believe they are doing better than peers in the Dominican Republic and in the United States. The pessimism of the Chinese can be traced to their use of ethnic/panethnic frames of comparison. The Chinese believe they are faring worse than peers in the United States. The results complicate segmented assimilation and transnationalism theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on data from an on-going ESRC project on choice of higher education. It focuses primarily on the experiences of non-traditional applicants to higher education. Although these students are not typical of the entire university entry cohort, their narratives raise important issues in relation to race, class and higher education choice processes. These 'success stories' reveal important causes for concern as well as reasons for celebration. In particular, their experiences of the choice process are qualitatively different from those of their more privileged middle-class counterparts, highlighting key class and racial differences and inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Users of intensity-regression techniques in event-history analysis based on occurrence and exposure matrices frequently encounter zero-valued exposures where there is no observation for selected combinations of factor levels, either because they are logically impossible or because the observational design leaves them out. For example, higher educational levels cannot be attained at very young ages, and observations collected over a given calendar period cannot contain data for older birth cohorts at younger ages or data for younger cohorts at older ages. Unless the exposure matrix is too badly full of zeros, this does not necessarily cause problems for the estimation of regression parameters, but interpretation of results may have to be carried out with extra care. In this paper, we discuss why this is so and show how deft handling of systematic patterns of zero exposures can facilitate analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THIS PAPER EXAMINES THE RELATIONSHIP between the National College Entrance Examinations (NCEE) and political centralism in China's higher education. A brief history of the NCEE system is provided; its purposes, the characteristics of its administration, its influence on secondary and elementary education, its strengths and limitations, and its future are then discussed. Recognition is made of the ways this system has served the political needs of both commoners and the power class and has contributed to the continuity of political centralism in contemporary China. By way of conclusion, necessary reforms facilitating enhanced efficiency, greater access, and universal literacy are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the value-added character of sociology? In an era of change and unease in higher education, can a case be made for sociology in terms of intellectual and scholarly substance rather than in terms of bureaucratic and political considerations? As a scholarly and instructional activity, what is the value of sociology beyond what other disciplines have to offer? I address these questions affirmatively in this paper by identifying and elaborating four distinctive foci of the sociological eye that together frame the window onto the world that sociology provides. These distinctive features are a focus on the relational connections among the constituent elements of the objects of sociological analysis; a focus on the socially contextual embeddedness of those objects of analysis; a focus on vexing social conditions and processes construed as social problems; and an ironic perspective, that is, a penchant for discerning and illuminating the incongruous, unexpected, discrepant aspects of social life. I argue that these foci are more pronounced in sociology than in other social sciences and that together they congeal into a window onto the social world that is unique among the social sciences and humanities, thus accounting for the value-added character of sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between organizational characteristics and earnings differences between male and female faculty from two theoretical perspectives. Two general sets of organization variables are considered: (1) characteristics that index an organization's power and autonomy in environmental relations, and (2) demographic characteristics. Results show that these characteristics define important aspects of the organizational context in which earnings differences between males and females are most likely to occur and to be maintained. The implications of this research for further research on organizational sources of earnings differences are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a discussion of the contemporary phenomenon of overeducation and underemployment among college graduates. The long-predicted glut of college graduates without college-graduate jobs has been upon us for at least 15 years. However, this "crisis" appears to have had a minimal impact upon American society, and subsequent cohorts of young adults have not reacted to it in a manner consonant with predictions derived from demographic and human capital theory. I argue that our misapprehension of the consequences of the occupational mismatch of college graduates stems from an overemphasis on the traditional role of higher education in both economic production and occupational attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the educational attainment experiences of a cohort of young men in the Pacific Northwest between the ages of 16 and 31. The experiences of this cohort reveal that a college degree is the net result of movement through a complex series of steps. We traced the movement of the cohort through these steps and found that completion of a college degree and graduate school attendance required success at every stage in the process. In other words, though early academic success did not assure later success, early academic failure strongly predicted later failure. Rosenbaum (1976) compared this process to a single-elimination tournament. However, unlike Rosenbaum, we found that early academic losers did not abandon educational pursuits but continued to struggle. Education is not a tournament; once out, an individual does not necessarily stay out. At least some unsuccessful students work their way back into the success flow and attain high levels of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]