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Peer review has been the focus of an ongoing study at a series of recent annual conferences of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE). A further development of this study has been to explore the perspective/s of the authors of these conference papers and the impact that peer review can have on their development as researchers. This paper uses the identity-trajectory framework to illustrate relationships between peer review and academic identity construction for engineering education authors in the AAEE community. Participants' responses illustrate how various aspects of responding to reviews and writing reviews for other authors, contribute to the development of the networking and intellectual strands of their academic identity as engineering education researchers. We suggest that members of the global engineering education community should be mindful of how they write their peer reviews of conference papers to ensure the opportunity to constructively contribute to their peers' successful transition into this different research paradigm is not missed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both participation in dialog and exposure to others from different cultures have been theorized to increase the ability of an individual to be creative. This study focused on the multicultural student-to-student dialog that took place in one graduate level course. The purpose of this study was to explore how participation in this dialog might influence student creativity, specifically how the students generated creative ideas for their final course papers. No connection was found between participation in the multicultural student-to-student dialog and the generation of creative ideas for their final papers. However, insight was gained into the creative process used by students in generating their final paper ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses emergent issues from four conceptualisers of FEResearchmeet. FEResearchmeet claims to be a free and democratic model for building and supporting engagement with research, led by practitioners. The narratives presented seek to document and analyse FEResearchmeet as a movement across the first three years since its inception (2017–2020). After setting out the context and methodology of the work, narrative one explores how a reaction against New Public Management (NPM) sparked an event and how this grew into a movement of collaborating individuals seeking to reposition their voices and knowledge. The second narrative looked at how an early 'meet' was used to challenge norms and barriers to research by creating safe spaces for the development of expertise. Narrative three journeys through the early months of COVID-19 to explore how capacity building through collaboration allows sector workers to value their voices. These narratives lead to a critique of the epistemological changes these experiences have developed and have the potential to develop in the future. The paper concludes by arguing that FEResearchmeet was a reaction against NPM by agentic practitioners who used collaboration and capacity building as tools to create new pools of knowledge in an attempt to change this position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the delivery of Professional Doctorate programmes from a sample of educational (EdD) and sustainable built environment (DSBE) practitioners at a Welsh University in the United Kingdom (UK). The paper explores the 'learner journey' of a sample of Professional Doctorate students as they navigate their studies during COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative approach was adopted, and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data from students on the EdD and DSBE pathways. A thematic analysis was conducted, and the data presented explored how students have navigated their respective pathways and change projects across various modules, during their 'learning journey' and how successful they perceive that journey to be, in relation to a range of factors. The findings from this paper provide a unique insight into the experiences of Professional Doctorate students during a period of significant upheaval. Recommendations are provided for supervisors of Professional Doctorates, Higher Education Managers, as well as Policy Makers in supporting Professional Doctorate students during the studies. Best practice is highlighted with regard to practice-based approaches and demonstrates the differences across two academic disciplines. The use of agile digital and online learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic further suggests an ongoing model for leadership in Higher Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the ideal student is one that has generated much research across many disciplines across the globe and continues to stimulate debate about teaching and learning within higher education. This paper explores the concept of the ideal student in relation to the experiences of mature female students enrolled onto a Foundation Programme in Business and Management. Although some Foundation Programmes are intended to recruit international students, most are conceived for school-leavers who are deemed to be the ideal cohort for this programme by the university. As such, there exists the potential for a disconnect between the concept of an ideal student which is generally associated with an implied curriculum model and the experiences of mature students. This paper explored the experiences of mature female students on a Foundation Programme at an English Business School that prepares students for undergraduate study. The research involved interviews with five mature female students, three of whom are mothers. The findings were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis and challenges the concept of the ideal student as useful theoretical model upon which to construct the curriculum. This paper also conceptualises the mature student learning journey through the PIPE support model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While studies on refugee-background students in school contexts have been prolific, research of this population in higher education or post-tertiary education is still emergent. The paper attends to this gap by drawing on the narratives of five refugee-background young adults who are undertaking Australian higher education or have completed university studies. An interpretive analysis of their life-story interviews is drawn from Appadurai's concept of 'voice' as a tool to understand the intergenerational nature of 'aspiration'. We illustrate the heterogeneous ways their resourcefulness is activated in pursuit of their aspirations, and the enabling role parental aspirations play in realising their pathways. It offers new insights on the enabling role refugee parents play to support their children's pathway into higher education. It also highlights the significance of individual refugee youth agency in navigating on-going challenges to attain their personal aspirations through education. We argue that the concept of inclusive education should contain a strength-based view of refugee students that positions them as aspirational individuals who are actively engaging in complex forms of negotiation, adaptability and resistance. Further research into inclusive education for increased social inclusion, incorporating the intergenerational aspirations of both refugee youth and their parents is clearly warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses narrative inquiry to explore the formal-informal learning continuum in the context of a higher education institution in Kathmandu, Nepal. The paper finds a gap within the official curriculum and pedagogy in its lack of recognition for informal ways of learning. Similarly, the everyday life activities and the cultural context of youth are not reflected within the formal structure of university programmes. Youth learn from collaborating with their peers in informal and incidental ways. Such informal ways of learning complement and contest the formal learning situation and process. The research concludes that for higher education to be relevant to youth, attention needs to be paid to these forms of informal learning that reflect their everyday learning and prepare them for lifelong learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the impact of the 'publish or perish' adage has received considerable attention from academics in the West, it remains under-researched in non-Western contexts, such as China. We address this gap by examining our lived experiences of navigating Chinese academia and academic publishing in the form of a duoethnographic collaborative self-study. We utilise the concept of precarious privilege in order to tease out a third space between publish or perish. Accordingly, we identity three over-arching themes related to academic publishing in China, which coalesce around the notion of academia as a 'game' with hidden rules. These themes are pursuing, playing and paying. Through our dialogues, we highlight our precarious privilege as early-career academics in China, yet also draw attention to how the logics and rules of the academic 'game' provide us with the tools we need to survive and thrive within academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses performance-based research evaluation for the higher education sector in a postcolonial context through a Foucauldian lens. Using Hong Kong as an example, this paper examines the formulation of and receptions towards the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). It is argued that Hong Kong academics, especially those working in the humanities and social sciences, associate the key concepts of 'world-leading' and 'internationally excellent' research in the RAE framework with Western knowledge that undermines local and regional research. They respond to RAE in four main ways: pragmatic compliance; refusal to conform to the demands of RAE; adoption of a dualistic strategy by publishing internationally and locally; and re-imagining of research assessment coupled with the promotion of indigenous knowledge. Two significant implications are highlighted in this article. First, the preservation of a research evaluation mechanism inherited from a colonial government perpetuates and entrenches external control and dominance in the former colony. Secondly, there is a need to re-construct the research appraisal apparatus as well as advance indigenous and hybrid knowledge in a postcolonial educational landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment drives learning and determines success in higher education. In a robust and defensible system, assessment should not exclude based on extraneous student characteristics, particularly as the student body becomes more diverse. This research sought to examine classroom assessment designs that might make assessment inclusive. A critical literature review was conducted identifying 13 research papers where outcomes of inclusive assessment were reported. Included studies focussed on students with disabilities, international and linguistically diverse students. Only one study examined the effects of inclusive assessment design on student learning. Efforts to make assessment more inclusive were as follows: offering students choice, programmatic approaches to assessment and co-design of assessment and policies that promote inclusion. Universal design for assessment has not been widely implemented within the sector. This is likely due to limited theorisation and operationalisation of inclusive assessment and assessment design processes that favour tradition and taken-for-granted assumptions about how assessment should be. Assessment designers should consider the ways in which assessment might exclude and to foster wider scholarship towards assessment for inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital technologies are now part of our daily lives, and the speed of their implementation and use has been accelerated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital transformation, seen in the past as a problem, is now perceived as an important component in the future of sustainable development (SD), especially at higher education institutions whose operations have been adversely affected by the pandemic in many ways. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the subject matter of digital transformation and how it relates to a SD context. It reports on the results of a worldwide survey at higher education institutions, which identified some areas where the pandemic impacted and/or influenced their activities. The survey received 158 responses and a principal component analysis was performed to model the items associated with digital tools boosting SD, innovative business opportunities and ideas, and needs for improvement at HEIs. The results indicate that most part of the respondents developed digital skills and increased their involvement with e-learning and distance learning; however, more digital training is needed. Findings also support the role played by digital technologies in boosting SD at HEIs, and the role of institutions in promoting innovation through digital tools. Apart from an analysis of the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to digital transformation in an SD context in higher education institutions, the paper provides an assessment of trends and recommendations that may guide future developments in a post-pandemic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bullying in higher education institutions amongst staff is an evolving area of research that has been examined from multiple perspectives, but significant scholarly voids remain. This paper examines the views of 20 faculty deans and their experiences with bullying and the hostility of workplace incivility. The paper examines what bullying looks like in contrast to existing scholarship which is frequently focused on the issues of defining the practice, and regularly examines hierarchical/descending bullying based on power dynamics. The study also evaluates these experiences in a field of research that is usually systematic in its data as studies have been designed to influence policies relating to bullying and codes of conduct. This paper's focus on bullying and acts of incivility toward leaders at the deans' level augments these existing areas of research, provides examples of what acts bullying and incivility can include from deans' perspectives, and the medical, personal, and family repercussions of the victims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we take a critical discourse analytic approach to short notes written at the end of exam papers by Iranian students asking for a higher score. Such notes are sometimes written when the student has a feeling that they might fail the exam as a result of not providing satisfactory answers to questions. We consider this to be a manipulative strategy employed by these students to control their professors. Manipulation, however, is often considered an illegitimate source of power abuse by people having the higher hand in unequal power relations [Van Dijk, T.A. (2006). Discourse and manipulation. Discourse & Society, 17(3), 359–383]. The present paper argues for a new understanding of this important concept in the critical discourse analysis (CDA) tradition by highlighting manipulative strategies used by less powerful people. The analysis of 71 such notes written by students in two Iranian universities suggests that the students, as people in a lower position of power, resorted to certain manipulative strategies to exert influence on professors, people in a higher position of power. Four of the most frequent strategies identified in the data will be discussed: (1) tapping into religious beliefs; (2) highlighting personal and social problems as causes for inability to prepare for the exam; (3) referring to negative consequences for failing the exam, and therefore tapping into the examiner's conscience; and (4) resorting to honorific terms to address the examiner. This study would have implications for application of CDA in Higher Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the 2005 Biennial Award of the "Journal of Geography in Higher Education." The award aims to elevate excellence in teaching and learning geography by increasing the influence of research papers among students. The nominated papers for consideration by the judges are presented. The shortlisted papers were judged on the basis of scholarship, rigor of approach, originality, potential influence on practitioners and overall contribution to teaching and learning in geography at higher education level.

Focuses on the 'Journal of Geography in Higher Education' journal's launching of a biennial award for the best academic paper promoting excellence in teaching and learning in geography or closely allied subjects at the higher education level. Basis of the papers' assessment; Titles of the winning papers.

When laws change the rules of the game, it is important to observe the effects on the players' behavior. Some effects can be anticipated while others are difficult to enunciate before the law comes into force. In this paper we have analyzed articles authored by Spanish accounting academics between 1996 and 2005 to assess the impact of a change in the Spanish university regulation. Results indicate a switch from publishing professional papers to academic ones and also to change research methodologies in order to meet the new requirements. This was to be expected due to the explicit mention of the law in favor of academic journals. However, we have also detected a significant decrease in the publication of professional papers. These side-effects could have a negative impact on the transmission of knowledge from university to society putting the relationship between accounting research and professional practice in jeopardy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An editorial is presented on Open Learning. Topics include Open University distance learning tutors enhancing the expertise and practice through training and development, support, and resources; and focusing on higher education, secondary and primary education, and corporate training as a Foreign Language (EFL) students based at a language school in Tehran.

Through activities such as institutional partnerships, scholarships, mobility and, most recently, offshore campuses and satellite offices, universities and their nations of origin have furthered their relationship with key-countries. This paper aims to understand what factors universities considered when choosing the host country of their satellite offices and possible interest in diplomacy. The exercise focused on the efforts of US universities in Brazil. It tested expressions of soft power versus internal elements of universities' administration to verify their significance. By checking the efforts of 131 US universities, this paper hints that non-academic elements, such as a country's foreign policy, were also statistically significant and must be taken into account when analysing universities' internationalisation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues for recognition of the centrality of relational pedagogy for student learning and the important role played by academic developers in supporting this. In the paper, the authors situate relational pedagogy within the context of contemporary marketized higher education, explore the nature and importance of relational pedagogy, and they illustrate some of the ways in which it may be developed and enacted. Academic developers play a significant role in supporting academics' understanding and practice of relational pedagogy. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of a relational pedagogy at a time when care and relationships with others have mattered more than ever. Therefore, the authors suggest that relational pedagogy is an important area worthy of academic developers' attention and institutional backing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The doctoral journey is a complex endeavour, and like any complex project, deserves to be managed accordingly. Agile Project Management has been used successfully by practitioners in the Software industry for the last two decades and recently is being adopted in other industries, including in Higher Education. Based on the author's personal experience, this autoethnographic paper discusses the situations in which a model based on Agile principles might be applied to doctoral research and thesis write-up and the ways in which it might make the process more predictable and successful. The model developed in this paper can be generalised at least in part to various types of doctoral programmes, where candidates and supervisors can benefit from risk reduction through incremental knowledge creation, continuous learning, and increased visibility into progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future engineering professionals have to deal with increasing complexity and uncertainty, as global challenges, such as climate change, globalisation and digitalisation, require creative, innovative solutions and interdisciplinary perspectives. Accordingly, engineering graduates have to be prepared to deal with those kinds of problems at different levels. Coping with uncertain and highly complex problems as well as learning from them is referred to as resilience. However, it is not well understood how and to what concern resilience is discussed in engineering education. Therefore, this systematic literature review aims to clarify meanings, definitions and applications of resilience within engineering education. We reviewed 67 research articles and found that resilience in engineering education is either linked to engineering students as a personal attribute or to systems, in this case describing a teaching content. Moreover, the concept of resilience was seldomly defined and explained, indicating that future research should put greater emphasis on doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between theory and qualitative research has been extensively examined in the literature and has emerged as a problematic matter. This debate has been driven forward mainly in Anglo-Saxon countries and has done scant justice to an understanding of these issues in regions of the South. This paper addresses this matter by drawing on a geopolitical perspective. The study here provides an analysis of 24 papers by Latin-American researchers in higher education, as included in the Web of Science between 2006 and 2015. Theories in Latin America are mainly produced in the North and exhibit two patterns: (i) critical perspectives are used to address local problems – 'epistemic problematization'; and (ii) a nuancing of Northern theories so as to contextualize them – 'epistemic nuancing'. Suggestions are also made for a new configuration of knowledge production in higher education studies – a model of knowledge from and for the South. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Student feedback can be used to enable institutions to achieve the best possible outcomes for students through informing changes which enhance the quality of teaching and learning. Following the introduction of an online survey platform to gather student feedback at a top-performing UK university, anecdotal concerns raised by academics suggested students were being more critical. This exploratory study investigated the effects of switching from a paper to an online survey by comparing the open-ended responses between the two methods of collection. The main contribution of this study is the development of an analytical framework which can be used by other institutions to evaluate student comments, in order to understand and improve the student experience. Three key findings in this study were uncovered. Firstly, the quality of student feedback is not undermined by a switch to a more efficient online collection. Secondly, student comments via both methods of collection predominantly continue to focus on fulfilling basic needs, such as study resources. Finally, a small number of comments online revealed a lack of behavioural constraint and were considered to be inappropriate. These findings have important policy implications for the global higher education sector, highlighting the need for students to be given guidance on providing constructive feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores whether collaboratively writing about local issues would enable learners to deepen their understanding of their relationship with their own social context. A discursive space within an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course at an institution of higher education in Qatar was created. This was accomplished by replacing the readings within a mainstream EAP textbook with texts which explored local issues. This provided an opportunity for female undergraduate students (N = 30) to write term papers about some of the discourses which permeated their lives. Data were collected using open-ended questionnaires as well as examining participants' term papers. Writing the term papers enabled some participants to become more aware of ongoing societal change and reflect on how they are located within this process. Elements of critical pedagogy were brought into a mainstream EAP course whilst at the same time respecting Qatar's traditions and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education research tends to exhibit interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary characteristics. Based on the subject areas in Google Scholar, within the 51 disciplines under social sciences, nine subjects are directly related to education (early childhood education, education, educational administration, educational psychology & counselling, educational technology, higher education, science & engineering education, special education, teaching & teacher education). The interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary characteristics of education research make it difficult for researchers to identify the overall development of specific topics within the field. In this paper, we first collect core papers from the field of education. Then, we construct keyword co-occurrence networks using these papers. Finally, based on the density distribution of keyword co-occurrence networks, we analyse changes in network density at each stage of educational research. Last, we identify the development trends of core topics in the education field. Our main contribution is the quantitative methodological design for examining the hot topics and evolution of education research, which is highly multidisciplinary and covers a large volume of publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to learn the concept of statistical techniques one needs to run real experiments that generate reliable data. In practice, the data from some well-defined process or system is very costly and time consuming. It is difficult to run real experiments during the teaching period in the university. To overcome these difficulties, statisticians developed simple and very economical experiments, which can be performed in the class by the students. Stone studied the variation, bias, stability and statistical quality control through the Blind Paper Cutting (BPC) experiment. In this article, the Blind Paper Cutting experiment is demonstrated on the basis of basic principles of experiment design. A BPC experiment is performed considering different factors, and important factors to optimise the response are identified through complete factorial design. The appropriate response model using important factors has been constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we report on an attempt to systematically discover reliable and high-quality evidence on teaching practices that have an impact on student learning. We adopted an innovative approach that was modelled on some of the practices of a systematic review. Papers that met certain quality criteria (population generalisability, ecological validity, measurement validity, logical clarity and design justification) were examined and a weighted-average score for each paper was calculated. These were then ranked to derive lists of best-evidenced and most impactful teaching and curriculum strategies. The results reveal that this method provides a reasonable approach to distilling the available literature into a concise representation of the most effective practices that are backed by good research design attributes. The results will be useful for curriculum designers, university leaders and policy makers, and have already informed policy at one Australian university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of society is greatly influenced by the physical strength of its individuals. As heirs of social construction, college students play a crucial role in national progress, and their physical health is an essential component of their well-being. However, the increasing competition for talent in today's rapidly advancing world has led to significant pressure on college students in various aspects of their lives. Despite the importance of physical exercise, students often lack the time and knowledge to engage in appropriate exercise programs that suit their individual needs. To address this issue, this paper proposes an improved K-means algorithm for the classification of college students' physical health data. The traditional K-means algorithm is known to be sensitive to noisy data, and thus, we introduce a variance-like weighting mechanism to improve its clustering accuracy. Our experimental results demonstrate that this algorithm can quickly and accurately cluster physical health data to provide a classification of each student's physical fitness. By using the physical classification of each student, we can recommend more suitable exercise programs to prioritize physical health management. This study highlights the significance of physical health in college students and encourages education departments to improve the efficiency of physical health management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper turns our attention to a rather neglected dimension of (de)colonization, namely, the affective elements of (decolonization in the context of higher education. Affective decolonization highlights that decolonization has to also happen at the level of affective life. The notion of affective decolonization complements the work taking placing in the realm of "intellectual decolonization" in higher education, by exploring what it would mean to decolonize the deeply affective structures and sensibilities of coloniality entrenched in contemporary universities, especially in the Global North. The analysis traces the potentiality of a particular affect, namely, decolonizing solidarity, and illustrates how it might be possible to build deep decolonizing solidarities within and across higher education institutions. The paper proposes that the deployment of a "public pedagogy" of decolonizing solidarity pays explicit attention to affective decolonization and works to create teaching and learning environments in higher education that nurture affective practices of decolonizing solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper puts forward a conceptual framework to support the dual challenges of strategic and practical integrative action of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) across Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). There are numerous existing resources and toolkits providing appropriate actions, guidance or approaches to monitor and measure ESD engagement. Our intended distinctive contribution in this paper is to complement these with heuristic ways of thinking that offer clarity on the context and evolution of progress on ESD at an institutional level. Our proposals were developed through structured comparative discussions by ESD practitioners from seven European universities, leading to a consensus view on key contextual influences across a range of environments, embodied in our proposed heuristic metaphors. The resulting proposed framework, built upon a systems-based visual metaphor of a forest ecosystem of HEIs, proposes the use of the dimensions of capacity and commitment, to define an integrative framework with four positional scenarios: "Pockets of Practice", "Emerging Agenda" to "Integrated Impact" and "Off the Agenda". To illustrate its application, it is used to contextualize relevant steps to progress ESD associated with each scenario in the areas of strategy, staff development, formal education and extra-curricular opportunities. We argue that the adoption of such a framework by HEI practitioners could support day-to-day decision-making and strategic planning towards an integrated approach to ESD that engages with all areas of university activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines staff perspectives on institutional representations of a range of areas of diversity and inclusion in a key post-compulsory education sector: that of UK Higher Education (HE). The paper focuses on comparing representational statements made by institutions with the reality of their lived experiences as perceived by staff. The paper first reviews literature around key issues of promoting and progressing in these areas, and how these areas are represented by institutions and the sector as a whole. It presents and discusses data from a survey (n = 300) to show strong agreement with representational statements as mirroring those of institutions, yet statistically significant differences between representations and the reality of lived experiences, particularly in relation to the lived experiences of staff. These data are discussed in the light of progress made by institutions, and the challenges faced in translating representations into real lived experience. Suggestions for institutions and policy makers are made to help better align reality with these representations in the UK Higher Education sector and, theoretically, for post-compulsory education sectors elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Service Industries Journal is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Recent years have witnessed a heightening of interest in the role of teachers working in EAP (English for Academic Purposes), particularly with regard to defining and debating their professional identity. However, it must be said that most authors have painted a rather dismal picture, when comparing the status and professional standing of English language teachers in Higher Education with that of academics working in other disciplines. Drawing on concepts and models developed by the educational sociologists Basil Bernstein and Pierre Bourdieu, this reflective paper proposes a theoretical framework to account for why these differences in status might be so. The paper concludes that EAP as an academic discipline currently faces some significant threats. However, the paper also argues that if EAP practitioners are to gain the professional recognition they desire, then they themselves must strive to trade more explicitly on the forms of capital valued by the academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

University systems maintain prohibitive closures that constitute a closed-loop system: opaque academic practices, control of what counts as knowledge, financial and social exclusion, and the perpetuation of privilege. Yet this closed-loop system is also governed by adherence to values around education as a public good, openness, and authenticity, and education as a vehicle for social mobility. The closures and openings created with such systems are in tension. Open education in universities is entwined in these tensions. In this paper, we differentiate between prohibitive closures and enabling closures. We define enabling closures as closed loops of activity that allow for openings both at the boundaries of the university and within. It is through these enabling closures that universities can adhere to open education as accepted policy and practice. As such, in this paper we explore how open education sits in tension with closed technological and increasingly commercialized educational infrastructures in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Patterns of research funding in the UK clearly evidence unequal awarding to the detriment of applicants of African descent. This paper presents a case from 'within' this larger machine of knowledge production: a failed funding application made by two applicants to establish a social science network connecting African/ist scholars in Northern Ireland (UK) to those of its neighbouring Republic of Ireland (EU). Rated highly in the positive peer reviews of those appointed by the funding agency, the deficit cannot be readily placed on the content of the application nor on the universities of the applicants at the time, both highly positioned within the institutional stratifications in the UK and ROI. To illuminate from within this darker side of structural knowledge delegitimation in the global North, we situate this application as an insider example of the conditions which militate against advancing marginalised study areas. We do so to work against the prevailing impression of such work being impossible; turning to that which is not structurally delineated by institutions nor national funding mechanisms. In publishing this paper, we re-assert our ethical obligations and agency as intellectuals to bring to light the defunding of such endeavours and the larger genealogies of influence in our times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the status of English as a lingual franca and the ongoing trend of internationalization of higher education, English medium instruction (EMI) has become increasingly popular in many EFL university settings. However, taking up EMI teaching can be an emotionally complex and daunting task for disciplinary teachers. Informed by a post-structuralist perspective, this Forum paper argues for the need to embrace an emotional focus in current EMI teacher education. Based on the critical analysis of a Chinese case, the paper presents and analyzes the complexity of EMI teacher emotions entangled with different power relations and rules in university contexts. The paper culminates in a critical discussion on how to foster and promote EMI teachers' emotional awareness and intelligence with a view to facilitating their ongoing classroom practice and professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social & Cultural Geography is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper aims to share new knowledge about tensions in establishing a new school in a marketised educational landscape, with a special focus on teachers' experiences of enacting a highly profiled vision. The paper is based on a single case study using observations, surveys, interviews and document studies. To cover the complex enactment process, we have created a multilayered enactment triangle to analyse the enactment process of the school and strategies the teachers use to realise the vision. To be able to hold on to the vision when the first generation of students arrive, the teachers in this study connect the vision to a more abstract 'future school'. Meanwhile, in the daily practice in the 'present school', they perceive difficulties in working in line with the vision. The relations between teachers and vision and the relations between teachers and students, respectively, become parallel lines. It seems then, that for visionary work to function from the start in a newly established school, all the relations in the enactment triangle, i.e. between the vision and the teachers, the vision and the students, and the teachers and the students, need to be there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that contemporary Western societies' fixation on different elements of capitalist production, consumption and distribution lies at the heart of the crisis in mental health and wellbeing increasingly experienced by individuals within key state institutions. The paper weaves together Lefebvre's and Marcuse's theoretical insights to explore the generation of (time-)spaces in contemporary societies, focussing on higher education and specifically on the lived experiences of postgraduate researchers. The insistence that welfare states, turned into workfare states, treat the symptoms through drugs and sedation, shows the reach of consumption and distribution as a means to address the problems caused by production. Against this backdrop, the paper draws on empirical data from a recent study undertaken by the authors examining the challenges to mental and physical health that postgraduate study posed at a university in the English Midlands. The obliteration of the social, cultural and political determinants of this malaise is expedient to place the onus of corrective measures on the individual through a series of self-help strategies, which again, privatise the atomised self to its lowest common denominator: the cerebral, emotional self. If the body becomes sick in industrialisation, is it any wonder the mind becomes sick in cognitive capitalism? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given their potential, Big Data and Analytics can help institutions of higher education to thoroughly examine newly emerging challenges, explore and identify new ways to address them, and predict future outcomes for growth. Considering how new Big Data and Analytics are, existing knowledge about the potential value to higher education is limited. To bridge this gap, a modified version of Porter's Value Chain Model is utilised to explain how Big Data and Analytics improve value creation in higher education. The paper demonstrates, using real examples, how early adopters utilised the potential of Big Data and Analytics to improve several primary activities along the higher education value chain. While contributing to the academic literature, this paper provides insightful practical implications. These insights can help higher education leaders, administrators, and senior managers deal with newly emerging challenges and plan the strategic direction of their institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an exploration of evolving ideas, urgencies, and actions that we have experimented with in our teaching of an environmental sustainability subject with pre-service teachers at an Australian university. It is a work in progress. Through this shared educator-student teaching and learning process we feel the tensions of contradictory forces that disrupt the flow of prior teaching as we all become unsettled by hope and reality, grief, and loss, all mixed in with a sense of urgency and tempered by a set of often unimaginative contemporary pedagogical practices. These tensions often resort educators like us, to perpetuate well-worn and critiqued tropes such as how to 'care for the planet' through 'greening' practices in schools such as recycling and energy conservation. Always inadequate and limited we are experimenting in our pedagogical repertoire with new ways to teach as we could no longer keep up the charade of agitating for change in the same way. In this paper we explore some of the opening and closures that effect environmental sustainability teaching. We consider how through a reimagining of sustainability education with new pedagogical openings of 'making kin' we first attend to these emotional tensions as a means of waking up to who we are in the Anthropocene and then find ways to identify relational ethico-onto-epistemologies in our teaching. By disrupting humanist paradigms and embracing critical posthumanist sensitivities the educators and students nuzzle into new ways of knowing and being in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work academic literature has consistently documented the detrimental effects of the neoliberal phase of capitalism on society and has issued calls against it. This paper supports and furthers these claims. It is informed by a critical pedagogy and Gramscian lens and argues that the COVID-19 public health emergency context provides some lessons which can be used to discredit the 'There is No Alternative' (TINA) neoliberal discourse. More specifically, it argues that the pandemic offers an updated critique of the TINA discourse, as it revealed that there is an alternative to public spending cuts, that market-based solutions are irrelevant for the well-being of society, and that the social value of life-sustaining activities such as caring, is important for the social reproduction of society. This paper is a call for action to all social work educators who espouse the progressive values of our profession, to utilize these lessons learned and challenge neoliberalism. Relevant examples towards this aim are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many institutions of higher education have committed to the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). This collective move signifies an effort to identify and confront systemic issues of marginalisation and exclusion of minoritised groups in contexts of higher education. Nevertheless, international students are not always considered an equity-seeking group, despite the structural barriers international students face. As a result, international students' experiences of EDI remain underexplored and are typically examined from a perspective of internationalisation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of five international students from the broader perspective of EDI at a Canadian university through a case study design. The findings demonstrate that, in spite of the university's long-standing commitment to aspects of EDI, international students felt excluded and othered in the community. Their experiences pointed to a lack of intercultural awareness and sensitivity on the part of the superficially multicultural community, a lack of institution-led initiatives to include the students through socialisation with peers, and the limited internationalisation of the curriculum. This paper is concluded with a call for universities to recognise international students as a marginalised group in their EDI efforts and, potentially, address structural issues that internationalisation frameworks have neglected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the special issue entitled 'Beyond academic development as institutional practice: advancing community-led approaches' and offer critical commentary that advances the concept and practice of academic community development. Through repeated readings of the 10 articles from diverse contexts included in this issue, we draw out four main themes highlighting why and how academic communities beyond single institutions support academic development. First, we revise the initial conceptual framework of 'academic community development (ACD)', which focused the call for papers, presenting six dimensions rather than the previous three continua. Then, we consider the degree of 'institutionalisation' of this range of initiatives. From that analysis, we derive a typology of ACD initiatives. We then consider a) what common interests have been served by these communities, and whose they are; b) the focus of these communities in relation to the revised conceptual framework; and c) the essential ingredients for success. We emphasise that communities leverage assets in ways that traditional needs-based academic development often does not. We conclude with implications for typical academic development work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The few existing studies in international literature about students with learning disabilities' postsecondary persistence and academic performances show varied outcomes. Rigorous research has been limited. Moreover, in Italy there is a dearth of public data on students' careers and clearly a deficiency regarding literature on this topic. To tackle this situation, propensity score matching techniques were used in this paper to compare data about persistence and academic success of students who reported a learning disability with those who did not, all enrolled in a large University in Northern Italy. Once potential confounders were taken into account, our findings indicated that students with an attested learning disability were as likely to persist in academic context as peers without any LD. However, for what concerns academic performances, the outcomes varied according to the measures being used. Although there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of the number of course credits (ECTS) earned, students with learning disabilities continued to lag behind their counterparts without disabilities concerning first-year grade point average achieved. This paper includes final recommendations for future research, in order to fill existing gaps in methodology and area of study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the Caribbean, the number of students pursuing postgraduate studies in higher education institutions (HEIs) has increased over the years. Consequently, locally contextualised epistemologies and empowering methods are needed to help adult learners in Caribbean higher education (HE) navigate their studies. This paper presents findings from a photovoice study undertaken with postgraduate adult learners at an HEI in Jamaica. Participants used photographs, written reflections and group discussions to explore their HE journey. Given the intervening nature of the pandemic in the immediate period after the study was conceptualised and participants engaged, this paper focuses on the ways in which photovoice offered participants opportunities to make meaning of their HE journey. Findings demonstrate that the use of photovoice was transformative in how it empowered participants through the opportunity to engage in self-discovery and discuss their thoughts and emotions, facilitated peer support, and how it enabled adult learners to forge resilience as they undertook their studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient Chinese civilisation developed two ideas about the ordering of large human spaces. The first was tianxia or 'all under heaven', the inclusive and cosmopolitan world as a whole, with no exterior, and governance on the basis of shared values and benefits, which first shaped statecraft in the Western Zhou dynasty (1047–1771 BCE). Second, the centralised nation-state which emerged in the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE). Both strands have been influential through Chinese history. In the last twenty years discussion of tianxia has revived, especially through Zhao Tingyang, stimulated by globalisation and the need for practical relations beyond the nation state. This paper proposes one version of tianxia as a heuristic for understanding, rethinking and remaking ethical relations in worldwide higher education. It reviews different understandings of tianxia in China, identifies a world-centred (rather than China-centred) tianxia , and discusses the potentials of tianxia in higher education. Tianxia is appropriate to world higher education because of its spatiality and its ethical commitment to universal benefit in diverse settings on the basis of mutual respect. The article suggests four clusters of relational values that could constitute a tianxia order in higher education, and compares tianxia to existing practices of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]