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This commentary presents a nuanced, dialectical, and empowering perspective on research pertaining to language teacher emotions, drawing upon empirical research papers featured in this special issue, as well as other relevant literature in the field of language teacher education. Recognizing the embodied, dynamic, and potentially contested nature of teacher emotional labor, the paper emphasizes the importance of presenting a nuanced portrayal, adopting a dialectical approach, and embracing an empowering mindset when investigating language teacher emotions. It also highlights important directions for future research, advocating for a conceptual shift toward examining teacher emotional labor as a distributed practice with a participatory and transformative orientation. Furthermore, the significance of both "looking inward" to delve into specific types of emotions and their interactions as well as "looking outward" to explore how emotions relate to other crucial dimensions of language teachers' professional practices such as identity, mindfulness, and resilience, is emphasized. [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]

The market for degrees preparing for careers in European politics has developed over the last 20 years. Starting from the French case, this paper proposes to understand how students move towards these orientations. Based on mixed-methods sociological study, the article shows that students in European politics masters programmes are not so much from the international upper bourgeoisie as from the rising middle and upper social classes, for whom international capital is a distinctive resource. Then, it shows that pursuing a European career allows them to reconcile two seemingly contradictory rationales: on the one hand the incentive to specialise urgently to enter the job market and on the other hand the eagerness to prolong their Erasmus experience. The driving force behind these careers is accordingly as in the possibility of starting more an international career than a European one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Singapore has prospered since independence by developing its human resources under a distinctly Singaporean meritocratic system. Recent developments in public discourse, and findings from interviews with leading Singaporean personalities, however, point towards the system's increasing undesirability. Among other problems, our study participants blame the system for worsening class divisions in society; for damaging the mental well-being of students; and for leading to a narrowing of society's definitions of success while leaving Singaporean workers unprepared for challenges of the future economy. Our paper shows that for Singaporeans to be ready for these challenges and to find purpose and meaning in the future economy, the current meritocratic systems require reform. We argue for a new kind of political decision-making to allow Singaporean society to reorder its basic values and priorities towards a more democratic, inclusive and compassionate meritocracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chilean educational system is widely known as one of the most marketized systems globally. However, new political dynamics have emerged, challenging the extent to which education has been privatised and set in train what we might call the 'unmaking of the market'. Across the literature, there are numerous accounts on making markets. However, what does 'unmaking' the market look like as a project, process, and set of outcomes, especially in a context where markets as a mode of coordination of social life more generally, and education as a sector in particular, have become common sense? This paper draws from a larger study on the making of the education market in Chile over a forty-year period. Focusing on the latest Bachelet's reforms (2014–2018), which aim to roll back privatisation and put into place the strengthening of public education, undoing the institutionalisation and legitimation of market-making mechanisms, and the materialisation of the market through its interiorisation in education actors. Here I show the emergence of a new discourse: a progressive dispute of the public(in)education. Chile finds itself in an interregnum; the old is potentially dying, but a new social order is yet to be born to stabilise a new epistemic moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the emotion labor experienced by transnational world language teachers (TWLTs), with a focus on Chinese language teacher candidates in a US dual immersion school residency program. Despite existing research on emotion labor in language teaching, the experiences of Chinese TWLTs have been underexplored. Through an analysis of mentorship and co-teaching, our findings reveal that much of the emotion labor among our participants stems from hierarchical mentorship structures influenced by Confucian ideologies. This hierarchical system constrains pedagogical autonomy, hindering TWLTs from fully embodying their transnational teacher identities. Consequently, the lack of power negotiation exacerbates the issue, leading to internalization of emotion labor and reduced teaching agency. We conclude by offering recommendations for future research on TWLTs' emotions and advocating for a renewed emphasis on their mentoring experiences during teacher preparation programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new visualisation of tensions in developing and delivering undergraduate higher education. It links qualitative research on academics' perceptions of education in one English research-intensive university to known models of knowledge, curricula, pedagogies, student engagement and identities to propose a new conceptual framework. Reworking the 1980s Clark triangle, with its apices of academic oligarchy, state authority and market denoting system tensions, a common apex now merges state and market agendas, and societal pulls are introduced at the third. The paper acknowledges today's complex higher education environment and responds to critiques about the original triangle's static nature, recognising oscillation within the space and adding a fourth apex representing students' identities. The adapted model, supported through academics' lived experiences, makes explicit the spectrum of choices and desired educational outcomes. It offers an important aid to debates on the purpose of higher education and learning and teaching policy and practice. [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]

Households with children eligible for Free School Meals are at risk of food insecurity. This paper reports on a rapid‐response study that investigated the impact of the school food voucher scheme during the COVID‐19 crisis on young people, families and schools. It pays close attention to the reliance of the state on the goodwill of society and its citizens in feeding those most in need. The Capabilities Approach is used to highlight factors that inhibited and restricted the use of the vouchers to produce the capability of having good nutrition for children in need of Free School Meals. The approach moves towards creating a society where children and young people are able to lead a life of their own choice and contribute to key policy decisions. This qualitative study funded by the British Education Research Association was conducted between September 2020 and March 2021. The study posed two research questions: (1) how have schools responded to COVID‐19 in relation to food during holiday provision; and (2) what have families identified as barriers to accessing the school food voucher scheme? Data collection involved online interviews with young people, schools and organisations (i.e. public health, director from the food industry. etc.). The findings highlight the difficulties with accessing and using the school food voucher and implications for future policy directions. Owing to this being a small‐scale study, it is not generalisable to the wider population but does highlight localised issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of a systematic review of qualitative research exploring the views and experiences of pupils moving from primary to secondary school in England. The concept of transition is explored before a brief discussion of the policy and legislation surrounding educational transition. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework was used to ensure a systematic search, following which seven papers were identified. These were reviewed and appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist. Analysis of the literature using thematic synthesis identified key concerns for children who had undergone transition from primary to secondary school and factors that supported this. A key theme highlighted was that of relationships, suggesting this as an area that would benefit from further support. Additional factors including emotions, identity, environment and strategies/recommendations were explored. This review is relevant for professionals working with children who will, or have, undergone the transition from primary to secondary school, and explores recommendations to support this transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of schools in developing a sense of common British identity has taken centre stage in the face of 'racialised' accounts of violence during the twenty first century. In this paper, we argue that certain British education policy documents can be understood as hegemonic interventions seeking to resolve ambiguities surrounding constructions of British identity. We do so by examining the Department for Education (DfE) 'Fundamental British Values' (FBV) guidance within the context of its relationship to the Prevent Duty anti-terrorism programme as well as the 'Political impartiality in schools' guidance released by the DfE in 2022. Utilising Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and applying Laclau and Mouffe (2014/1985) conception of hegemony with Hall's (2021/2000) claim that 'Britishness' is an empty signifier, this paper argues that the ambiguities of 'Britishness' present a number of opportunities for power to be exercised and consolidated. Finally, we explore the possible implications for demands to 'decolonise the curriculum' within schools' existing duties and propose possible structural limits placed upon these demands by said duties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transitions from education into work, or as part of career change and development, are increasingly central to policy debate and academic inquiry. However, the role that employers play in shaping transition is often overlooked. In this paper, we examine this issue through the experiences of a graduating cohort of 'degree apprentices'. We present original analysis of new empirical data from what we believe to be the first substantive qualitative longitudinal research conducted with those experiencing this new vocational pathway in the English Apprenticeships system. Through analysis of repeat semi‐structured interviews with 22 degree apprenticeship graduates (44 interviews in total), we provide early empirical insights into experiences of this new pathway and add to existing theoretical conceptualisations of transition within the educational literature and the employer's role within it. We show that the degree apprentice to graduate transition can be broken down into three key stages: 'getting in', 'getting on' and 'going further', and that employers—at both strategic and relational levels—shape experiences at each stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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We reconceptualize co-teaching in higher education to be more than a method for professional development or adapting to student preferences. Instead, co-teaching offers community and collaboration that can sustain the holistic well-being of professors, especially marginalized faculty who navigate high service loads and extra scrutiny from students. Drawing upon our Chicana/Latina feminist onto-epistemologies, we leveraged embodied pedagogies of care and plática to self reflect and critically analyze our particular approach to co-teaching–what we term 'comadre co-teaching.' This paper demonstrates how co-teaching meets institutionalized expectations for teaching excellence, but most importantly, serves to sustain us as faculty of color and mothers. We present brief narratives of our co-teaching experiences as examples of what it looks and feels like to have support in navigating the chaos of teaching during a pandemic. We also offer lessons learned of what it takes to create and sustain a support network among historically marginalized faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant proportion of the teaching and learning in PhD programs is conducted independently by the candidate under the supervision of one or more supervisors. Supervisors and students are usually expected to meet regularly to ensure that students are on track to produce a dissertation as independent researchers. Yet few studies to date examine how teaching and learning within supervision meetings is interactionally achieved. In this paper we use a conversation analysis approach to study how supervisors formulate their student-solicited feedback. Specifically, we show that equivocation in giving feedback serves a pedagogical purpose that balances competition between the institutional goals of teaching with the expectations that PhD students should already be competent researchers. While supervisors provided equivocal feedback in both early and late stages of candidature, we show here how the nature of this feedback changes, showing the sensitivities of supervisors to the developing capacities of their supervisees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explicates the codes that prescribe and shape the marine engineer student in times of massification and high attrition rates in Danish non-university higher education. In a case study of a Danish school of marine engineering, the Bernsteinian concept of knowledge structures and Legitimation Code Theory support analysing the official curriculum along with teacher and student interviews to determine what is considered knowledge and whose knowledge is deemed important. We find that teachers' pedagogical decisions are embedded in the epistemological and social conventions of their individual educational backgrounds. Their struggles on content and pedagogic approach make it difficult for students to understand what is legitimate knowledge and who can claim to be a legitimate knower. To offer more students epistemic access to non-university academic study and increase student success, the epistemic and evaluative logics of the pedagogic discourses to which students are exposed must be clarified and made explicit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak forced universities to immediately shift to online teaching, and the transition presented unprecedented challenges. This paper reports our findings from a collaborative autoethnography study with a special focus on the challenges we encountered and our agentive responses in teaching online. Data reveal four major challenges (1) unpredictable situations, (2) shifting teacher roles in online context, (3) issues on course design, expectations, grading, and feedback, and (4) technology issues. Also, we reported four agentive responses (1) adopting a positive attitude, (2) reexamining our teaching practices and educational goals, (3) exploring alternative pedagogical approaches, and (4) strategically implementing technology to enhance teaching and learning. These intentional reflections became opportunities for us to revisit our positionality, analyze our teaching experiences, and transform them into tools in supporting students. This study calls for more resources for professional development, as well as further conversations and collaborations among teachers and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Authentic learning is gaining popularity in higher education, particularly for courses related to research skills, where authentic assessments can overcome trepidation from both students and faculty. Prior literature has demonstrated the potential value of authentic client-based projects (CBPs) in such settings. However, questions remain about how best to scale authentic learning across different student cohorts, including both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. This paper explores two case studies of authentic learning applied across undergraduate and postgraduate research courses. We explore the impact of different forms of authentic learning, ranging from in-class activities to fully authentic client-based projects, on both student satisfaction and success rates. The results suggest that client-based projects represent a trade-off between satisfaction and learning at the undergraduate level but can be highly successful at postgraduate level if implemented effectively. We provide practical tips for how faculty may scale authentic learning and assessments across undergraduate and postgraduate courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates practitioners' perspectives on the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) and its use for looked after children (LAC) in England. The paper considers what practitioners in one Local Authority (LA) think now that the funding has passed its infancy. Specifically, does EYPP funding help 'close the gap' for LAC? Q-methodology was used to investigate 19 practitioners' perspectives; all were owners or managers in 19 different settings. This approach was complemented with a questionnaire survey and focus groups held with 14 practitioners in 13 different settings in the same LA. The findings revealed that practitioners consistently focused on whether all LAC should be eligible for this funding and/or whether the funding is able to 'close the gap' between them and their peers. It concludes that EYPP funding can support 'closing the gap' for LAC with developmental delay, but its purpose needs to be clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores curiosity of Further Education (FE) lecturers in the United Kingdom through personal narratives and focused group discussions. The paper identifies how curiosity is viewed by FE lecturers as a positive trait for learners to possess, yet when discussing their own curiosities, views changed. Narratives emerge of curiosity being more of a problematic trait to possess whilst lecturing within the business-like structures and an outcome driven environment of FE. The lack of space for lecturer's curiosity was viewed not as a specific institutions problem, but as a system wide problem across the culture of FE. Lecturers felt that creating curiosity, created more work for themselves and was neither celebrated nor embraced within their FE settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I argue for expanding language socialization research on the academic discourse socialization of speakers of English as an additional language to less-commonly researched settings outside of English-dominant countries. Following an overview of some theoretical and methodological issues involved in conducting such research, I lay out a research agenda, focusing on several topics and issues that have the potential to illuminate issues of interest in both language socialization and second language acquisition regarding how competence and community are defined in a globalized, multilingual world. These include: (a) closer investigation of presumed 'cultural differences' between 'Western' and 'Asian' academic discourse practices, (b) the effect of social categories such as ethnicity and 'nonnative speaker' status on the construction of 'expert' and 'novice' identities in these settings, (c) the role of socializing agents outside of the classroom, and (d) the extent to which students in these settings are being socialized into practices and ideologies that promote multicompetence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary methodological thinking, replication holds a central place. However, relatively little attention has been paid to replication in the context of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST), perhaps due to uncertainty regarding the epistemology–methodology match between these domains. In this paper, we explore the place of replication in relation to open systems and argue that three conditions must be in place for replication research to be effective: results interpretability, theoretical maturity, and terminological precision. We consider whether these conditions are part of the applied linguistics body of work, and then propose a more comprehensive framework centering on what we call substantiation research, only one aspect of which is replication. Using this framework, we discuss three approaches to dealing with replication from a CDST perspective theory. These approaches are moving from a representing to an intervening mindset, from a comprehensive theory to a mini-theory mindset, and from individual findings to a cumulative mindset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given that I have been a teacher of one kind or another for practically all of my working life, starting as a high school English teacher before moving into TESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages), I would like to suggest (in all modesty, of course!) that I am in a good position to understand the stresses of the job. In this position paper, I would like to try to explain the background to the issues of teacher stress, to identify contemporary problem areas, to suggest some possible ways to address the problems, and also to explain why tackling teacher stress is so important – both for teachers themselves, and also for the other stakeholders, especially the learners. Although this article draws essentially on the experience of language teachers and related literature, many of the issues described could apply to teachers of any subject at any level anywhere, a point that will be taken up again when suggesting areas for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To be competitive, universities across the world are embedding an international perspective into every layer of an institution's operational structure. For higher education (HE) providers that offer sandwich degrees (4-year undergraduate courses with a compulsory placement after the second year), this allows students to choose a range of options. Students can enter the labour market for one year, or they can go overseas to study at a foreign institution. For some students, it might even be possible to do both. However, regarding final year degree performance, which option leads to higher student performance? In this paper, we aim to shed light on this empirical question. Our results are drawn from Aston University (UK) which is a world-leading University in Advanced Technology. Overall, using a large student dataset, we find that for students who have a compulsory placement built into their degree programme, the work placement has a more powerful impact on student performance compared to an international study placement abroad. Our findings have important implications for universities across the world that offer sandwich degrees to their students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent decades have seen the evolution of UK business schools into international mass education providers. This transformation has developed against a background of institutional changes that jeopardise work conditions in academia. As few studies have examined the relationships between organisational, social and psychological aspects of academic work life, this paper employs the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model to explore empirically the interplay between business school workplace conditions, burnout and retention rates, based on a national sample. We show that higher demands and lower resources are significant in increasing burnout and turnover, whereas the 'metrics' culture has done much to increase workloads and reduce academic freedom and workplace support. These negative impacts can be offset by creating a collegiate and engaged work environment that promotes greater skills utilisation, autonomy and recognition. Such findings are reported for the first time in the literature with important implications for higher education and the academic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The OECD has become a notable predictor of the future needs of society and education. In youth education, the OECD spearheads global strategies, initiatives and recommendations about the curriculum and goals for education. By evoking the sense of 'crisis' in 'traditional education' the OECD functions as a central node of precision education governance, in which so-called best practices of precise, flexible and highly individualised and personalised youth education are disseminated throughout its member states. In the most recent OECD youth strategies and education policy initiatives, we show how the present youth education is governed through evoking various future(s) of youth education. By analysing these predictions and visions discursively, we argue that the future of youth education is approached from both utopian and dystopian predictions by the OECD, and this works as a premise for arranging present and future youth education in a highly targeted and individualised manner. We argue, that the future visions drawn up by the OECD are an example of precision education governance, where the future education is hyper-individualised, arranged by co-operation of public and private sector, and where the goals and contents of education follow global recommendations and 'best practices'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from its national university entrance exam, we examined the relationship between armed conflict and student achievement in Afghanistan. Exploiting the province-year variation in exposure to conflict intensity, we estimated the relationship between conflict and exam results generally and by gender for all test takers from 2014–2019. Findings show that a one standard deviation increase in conflict intensity at the province-year level was associated with a 2.9 percentage point reduction in the probability of passing the exam, a 0.096 score point reduction in total exam scores, and a greater detrimental impact on women's exam results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the roles of university elites in enhancing internationalisation agenda in Indonesian higher education. This is done by exploring the relationship between internationalisation and cosmopolitanism. Drawing from two stages of field studies of the internationalisation of Indonesian universities, interviews with key correspondents in the sector, and an analysis of related documents, I argue that there is a tension between the way the university elites see themselves as the agents of cosmopolitan culture and the way they are positioned as intermediaries of global interest and agenda. Cosmopolitan culture that appears to be symbolic, universal, and democratic as represented by the university elites belies the instrumental purpose of internationalisation that yokes higher education into the global marketplace. A shift from mere cosmopolitanism to cosmopolitics would equip the university elites with the analytical tools of global geopolitics regarding the internationalisation of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tensions between external sources of power and internal feeling rules in the workplace, i.e., emotion labour, can have a profound effect on professional dimensions. The purpose of this article is to report on a study that explored a secondary language teacher's emotion labour and its influence on her professional (de)motivation and agency. Framed in narrative inquiry, this longitudinal study collected data through narrative interviews and drawings between February 2020 and March 2022. The participant was an EFL (English as foreign language) teacher who held teaching posts at three different state secondary schools and a private language centre in Argentina. During this period, the teacher grappled with emergency online teaching due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lengthy teacher strikes. Drawing on analysis of the short stories constructed from the narrative interviews, the tensions between external and internal feeling rules and their interplay with (de)motivation and agency are chronologically mapped out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been many studies on teachers' emotional labor and on how the ethics of caring affect teachers' emotional labor. Yet, little research has examined teacher emotional labor under current neoliberal discourses in the education systems in Brazil. Using interviews and diaries, this study investigated the emotional labor of a Brazilian school teacher of English when teaching according to critical literacy studies. The findings indicated that her emotional labor was related to the political situation in Brazil, neoliberalism discourses and emotional rules, as well as clashes between teacher roles and her desire to teach critically. She felt torn between acting according to what she believed was good for her students and her critical literacy practice versus obeying the emotional rules for teachers' and students' roles at her school. As she did that, she experienced both domination and resistance. The study concludes with implications about neoliberalism as related to teacher emotional labor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between school principals' instructional leadership and collaborative culture in schools. The study was conducted using a cross-sectional survey with a sample of 382 teachers. The data were collected through the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) and the School Culture Survey. Multiple regression analysis was used to estimate relationships among the variables. The study findings indicate that instructional leadership practices were significantly and positively related to collaborative culture in schools. The findings are discussed according to the related literature, and suggestions are made for policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]