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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]

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 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]