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Information technology (IT) is transforming the world. Therefore, exposing students to computing at an early age is important. And, although computing is being introduced into schools, students from a low socio-economic status background still do not have such an opportunity. Furthermore, existing computing programs may need to be adjusted in accordance to the specific characteristics of these students in order to help them to achieve the learning goals. Aiming at bringing computing education to all middle and high-school students, we performed a systematic literature review, in order to analyze the content, pedagogy, technology, as well as the main findings of instructional units that teach computing in this context. First results show that these students are able to learn computing, including concepts ranging from algorithms and programming languages to artificial intelligence. Difficulties are mainly linked to the lack of infrastructure and the lack of pre-existing knowledge in using IT as well as creating computing artifacts. Solutions include centralized teaching in assistive centers as well as a stronger emphasis on unplugged strategies. However, there seems to be a lack of more research on teaching computing to students from a low socio-economic status background, unlocking their potential as well to foster their participation in an increasing IT market.

Compulsory attendance in communication skills courses offered at colleges of engineering seems to be a problematic issue for many students because it prevents them from performing well in such courses. Many students believe that time spent on these courses comes at the expense of focusing on core courses and worsens their overall performance in these courses. As such, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between attendance and students' overall performance in communication skills courses for the sake of providing suggestions that would enhance students' performance as well as allowing them to allocate more time to the core courses they are enrolled in. Making students' life easier would not only improve their status at the educational level but would also create a feeling of comfort and satisfaction in their surroundings, particularly among family members and friends. Participants in the study are university students enrolled in the college of engineering at a Middle Eastern university. The study yields significant results showing that compulsory attendance has no significant relationship with students' overall performance in communication skills courses. Relaxing attendance regulations might provide some margin of freedom for students to focus more on the engineering core courses without compromising their success in communication skills courses. The study provides significant recommendations that stakeholders can utilize to motivate students to perform well in communication skills courses while addressing any concerns they might have regarding the core courses they are enrolled in.

Scholars' engagement with digital social networks is complex, warranting a comprehensive understanding of their use and participation. Current research has not yet grasped the motivators, gratification, and challenges that academics encounter across multiple digital social networks. With this in mind, this study surveyed scholars who purposely participate in digital social networks for professional endeavors. The theoretical frameworks guiding this research are the Uses and Gratification framework and the networked participatory scholarship conceptualization. A total of 307 higher education scholars completed an electronic survey with closed and open-ended questions. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and a team-coding approach for qualitative data. The results of this investigation highlight specific motivators for using digital social networks to support the scholar's teaching, research, and professional development. The results of this investigation suggest that scholars are constantly navigating challenges and trading them off against the benefits. The results of this investigation also helped determine the imagined audiences that scholars perceive as potential spectators when using digital social networks for their scholarly efforts. The results illustrate the many reasons provided by scholars, which aligned with the self-presentation and impression management theory.

Self-regulation of learning behaviour is particularly important when it comes to vocabulary learning for academic purposes in a second language because it often needs to be done on a regular and consistent basis and mostly in out-of-class, self-directed settings to be successful. Self-regulation is also vital when this learning takes place using digital activities on smartphones because these are now ubiquitous devices and deeply embedded in both daily life and higher education settings. Features such as notifications from social media applications can end up distracting students from their academic tasks unless they have the capacity to manage and control their behaviour. This naturalistic, mixed methods study conducted with students on an academic English foundation course in a higher education context aimed to measure their capacity for self-regulated vocabulary learning through technology before and after 10 weeks of intentional digital vocabulary learning in out-of-class settings and to see if there was any difference between learning on a laptop and a smartphone. The purpose of this study was to find out if device control was a relevant dimension of self-regulation, which is an under-researched area. The study collected quantitative data through a recently developed self-report survey tool, and differences in scores were measured using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests. Qualitative data was also collected from students through paired-depth interviews, and this was analysed using typological analysis. The results revealed that the students' self-reported capacity for self-regulated vocabulary learning through laptops was significantly higher than their capacity for self-regulated vocabulary learning through smartphones. In addition, commitment regulation when using a smartphone decreased significantly over the 10-week period primarily due to distractions from social media notifications. At the same time, students were aware of when to use each device for different types of learning activities and under different temporal and spatial conditions. Overall, this study showed that device control should be considered an additional dimension of a model of digital, self-regulated vocabulary learning and should also be incorporated into future research in the field of e-learning. In addition, students in higher education need to be given more guidance about the benefits and drawbacks of different devices and how to develop their capacity and strategies for greater device self-regulation.

With the rise of many coaching regulatory organizations, such as The International Coaching Federation (ICF) and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), women are becoming central to the dialogue. This is especially the case with The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (GCC, 2024) which sees encouraging women and providing empowerment tools and strategies as part of the future strategic transformation in the region. This research essay is based on a survey conducted to explore public opinion on women's participation in coaching as leaders and coaches in Arab local organizations. The survey was launched and circulated in social media and WhatsApp groups using Google Forms. The data collected are representative of both women and men who live and work in Arab cultures and speak Arabic. The survey conveys the perceptions, beliefs, and values of the participants and how they view women's empowerment, leadership, and coaching in organizations. The purpose is to inform women coaches, policymakers, and consultants who support organizational development in MENA. This data-driven article will help enrich the lives of professional women in the field of coaching while supporting practitioners in understanding the landscape.

This paper reports the findings of a bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer on 392 Scopus database documents published from 2003 to 2022, aiming to understand the global landscape of the e-learning field and to identify the most prominent authors, institutions, countries and reference publications, as well as the research topics that have recently received the most attention in students' readiness for e-learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The findings indicate that there has been an upward trend in e-learning readiness among students in HEIs over time. Among the countries studied, the United States, Taiwan, Australia, and Malaysia were found to have the most effective approaches to addressing students' readiness for e-learning. The most highly cited author in this field is M-L. Hung. Based on the citations, the most recognised journal in this field was "Computers and Education" and the universities that were most persuasive were two Taiwan universities in the first position. The data also revealed relatively low levels of collaboration among authors, institutions and nations regarding students' readiness for e-learning.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a worldwide commitment to a set of ambitious goals that advance sustainable social justice across the globe. Higher education (HE), while featuring in SDG 4: Quality Education, needs to occupy a bolder and more explicit position in the formulation of the SDGs and in their attainment, not only as an instrument toward the achievement of the SDGs but also in the sociocultural consciousness of countries towards a more sustainable and socially just world. Engaging with students in HE around these issues plays a vital role. Given Student Affairs and Services' (SAS) role and position in terms of support and development of students worldwide, it is a key player in supporting HE to become a more effective instrument in advancing the SDGs and in advancing students' attitudes and commitment to SDGs. To explore how SAS can play a more impactful role in advancing the SDGs and SAS' role in and contribution to SDGs around the world, we researched SAS practitioners' awareness of and engagement with SDGs. To collect data, we used a survey with open and closed questions via snowball sampling with self-selected participants from fifty-three countries (N=318). The results of our study suggest that SAS practitioners engage with and utilize the SDGs in a variety of ways across the globe, thus contributing to the role HE plays in advancing SDGs. In exploring the patterns, it emerges that SAS in the Global South (GS) and Global North (GN) engage differently with the SDGs. According to the results of our study, SAS in the GS appears to have more awareness of, engage more deliberately with, and use the SDGs more broadly in their work with students. While there are different trends on the role SDGs play across the global HE sector, the consensus seems to be around the need to discuss and engage with the SDGs more deeply, at curricular and co-curricular levels in higher education. Our research suggests that HE and SAS can do much more to generate awareness of SDGs, particularly in the GN.

As part of the fabric of college students, minority international students undergo specific and unique challenges to their health and wellness. Little is known about how and what constitutes wellness for minoritized international students and the impact of wellness on their university adjustment. Using a systematic grounded theory approach, this study interviewed 12 (8 men & 4 women) middle eastern international students (MEI). Following the constant comparison method and theoretical sensitivity, the study generated a wellness practices model for MEI students. Results showed that wellness had two levels: primary (physical, social, mental, and mindfulness) and secondary (religious, academic, and coping). Results also showed that engaging in wellness practices was key to university adjustment. Individual factors affect how salient a wellness domain is in the student's life, such as optimism, hope, knowledge of self-care habits, and attitudes toward self-care. Implications for helping minoritized international are suggested considering wellness practices model.

This systematic review aimed to provide a comprehensive view of critical pedagogy-informed collaborative professional development practices in English language teaching. Using four databases and relevant keywords, we found 67 studies conducted in Asia, South/Central/North America, Europe, Australia, and the Gulf countries and systematically analyzed them. Results show that critical collaborative practices enabled teachers to develop a critical stance, implement pedagogically critical actions, and initiate social change regarding social awareness and power distribution. However, these changes, visible in teachers' pedagogical practices, have not expanded onto a macro-social level. Implications for language teacher development program planners and policymakers are discussed.

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between foreign higher education and corruption in 14 home countries in the MENA region and 13 host countries from 2007 to 2021. Panel-estimated generalized least squares, robust least squares MM estimation, dynamic panel data estimation, and one-step difference generalized method of moments was used to overcome heterogeneity and endogeneity issues and increase robustness. The study adopted the positive grease-the-wheels theory of corruption and the greed or need (GONE) theory in which the need for corruption develops into greed for corruption, revealing a significant positive relationship between foreign higher education and corruption in the MENA countries. Meanwhile, the sand-in-the-wheel theory of corruption and anti-corruption mechanisms that encourage less greed per the GONE theory revealed a significant negative relationship between foreign higher education and corruption in origin countries after students returned to their home countries. The study findings support the idea that foreign knowledge is a blessing for MENA countries. Furthermore, there was a significant positive relationship between foreign higher education and corruption in the host countries because students adapted to the host country's environment. The main conclusion was that governments should encourage students to study abroad in countries with less corruption, supporting the main hypothesis, which posited that ethics and values are adopted abroad and transferred to home countries. Furthermore, constitutional reform and economic development should be adopted to implement the anti-corruption system and control public spending on education.

Although considerable discussion has been devoted to the macro determinants of labor market variables across genders, comparatively little attention has been given to the contribution of the informal economy to this market. This study was aimed at empirically investigating the impact of the size of the shadow or informal economy (IE) on labor market variables across genders in 12 Middle Eastern countries. The study used quarterly time series data on each country under investigation, covering 1991 to 2015. Phillips-Perron unit root tests were carried out to verify the stationarity of the examined economic series. An autoregressive distributed lag approach was adopted to conduct cointegration tests and estimate long-run regression coefficients and error correction terms. The results indicated that the IE served men and women differently across countries. Whereas this economy had a long-run positive relationship with men's employment rates in Bahrain, Iran, Qatar, and Turkey, this relationship existed among women only in Israel. IE activities matter in the employment of men and women in Middle Eastern countries. The sizes of IEs in the labor market are a significant factor that favors men's employment rather than that of women.

Racism in TESOL and other academic fields is nothing new, nor are discussions on the topic. However, a majority of the racist encounters discussed in existing literature report on the negative experiences of language teachers and/or students. An area that has historically been ignored and is long due exploration is the negative experiences of nonnative English-speaking leaders (NNESLs), especially when they lead and/or interact with colleagues among whom ideologies of Whiteness and native English speakerism are dominant. With an aim to fill this gap, this article provides a narrative inquiry of an NNESL's experiences of facing epistemological and institutional racism as she leads a division within an International Branch Campus (IBC) of a U.S. university in an English as an international language (EIL) context in the Middle East. As the NNESL attempts to introduce necessary innovations and policy changes, her capacity as a change maker is questioned, partly due to her nationality, nonnativeness, race, and gender. This article is an attempt to uncover the racial discrimination experienced by NNESLs by providing examples of epistemological and institutional racism embedded in racist discourses and practices, and how it, directly or indirectly, plays a significant role in power relations, institutional structures, and identities, and has implications for the field of TESOL leadership.

Following the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Islamophobia became increasingly visible across the U.S, impacting anyone perceived to be Muslim. Despite being named after a religion, Islamophobia is a racial ideology predominantly targeting people of Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian (MENASA) descent. In this qualitative study, the author explores how MENASA students navigated their college campuses in the period shortly following the 2016 election through examining the ways in which MENASA-focused cultural centers provided spaces of inclusion and belonging. The findings suggest that processes of racial formation and panethnic identity formation influenced the experiences of MENASA students in this period. Students demonstrated both a clear sense of racialization outside of whiteness, and the beginnings of panethnic identity formation across groups. These findings are situated in the particular temporal context of college-aged adults who both experienced 9/11 as young children and the 2016 presidential election in early adulthood.

This study explores possible reasons for cancel culture in higher education in the Arab world. Specifically, through Q methodology, it investigates the perceptions of twenty-one academics of different nationalities and from different backgrounds working in various universities in the Arab world as to the causes and their professional experiences of cancel culture. The aim is to contribute to a necessary discussion of cancel culture and its impacts on Arab higher education, with the hope of strengthening the region's academic freedom. The data reveal that several political and social issues engender cancel culture in Arab universities. In effect, results indicate that academics working in higher education in the Arab world embrace a 'culture of safetyism' to keep themselves, their students and the societies in which they live 'emotionally safe'.

Mobile phones have become essential learning tools with their extensive features and functionalities, contributing to the emergence of mobile learning. These devices enable communication and collaboration both inside and outside the classrooms while also aiding in information seeking, collection, and content generation. Yet, the use of mobile phones in education is met with varying opinions; while some view them as potentially distracting, others see them as facilitators of learning environments. Personal traits, such as previous knowledge, motivation, and needs, significantly influence the educational use of mobile phones. Consequently, this study aimed to investigate undergraduate students' educational mobile phone use and explore the effect of certain learner characteristics (demographic characteristics, technology-use-related characteristics, the motives for mobile phone use, self-directed learning, and self-efficacy beliefs) on mobile phone use in an academic environment (MPUAE). The participants consisted of 1928 students from all departments of Middle East Technical University, which were selected by stratified sampling method. The results showed that students used their mobile phones primarily for communication and interaction, and then for getting/searching for information. To predict the contribution of the personal factors on the total MPUAE scores, a hierarchical regression analysis was performed. The findings revealed that personal factors, except self-directed learning, significantly predicted students' total MPUAE scores, which explained 32% of the variance in educational mobile phone use. Specifically, the motives of mobile phone use and self-efficacy beliefs were the most notable predictors based on the analysis.

The purpose of this study is to explore the current status of micro-credentialing policies and practices in Middle Eastern and North African universities. Using a quantitative approach and a comprehensive questionnaire based on recent work by the Australasian Council on Open, Distance, and e-Learning (as reported by ACODE, Survey of micro-credentialing practice in Australasian universities 2021: An ACODE Whitepaper--October 2021, 2021), the study investigates areas such as standards, policies, adoption rates, integration into the curriculum, credentialing engines, and professional development. The findings indicate that micro-credentialing is still in its early stages in the region, with most universities initiating micro-credentialing within the past four years. The lack of a favorable policy ecosystem and standards for learning design, content, delivery, assessment, sizing, and issuance are identified as significant hindrances to the adoption of micro-credentials. To advance the micro-credential market, the study recommends that stakeholders collaborate and create quality standards, accountability mechanisms, financing strategies, and documentation frameworks that promote interoperability. The study suggests that improving policies for micro-credentials could help legitimize them and promote a more unified vision of micro-credentials as a crucial component of the national educational strategy.

Gender differences in early childhood development are under-researched in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where almost 90% of the world's young children live. This study examines the direction, magnitude, and variation of gender similarities and differences in 3- and 4-year-olds' early childhood development in 71 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Moreover, we explore whether country-level gender inequality correlates with gender differences in early development. We analyzed Early Childhood Development Index (ECDI) data from UNICEF's Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys and the Demographic and Health Surveys between 2010 and 2019 (n = 226,980). Using logistic regression, we estimated children's odds of being developmentally on track in literacy-numeracy, approaches to learning, social-emotional, and physical domains. We also used meta-analytic regression to examine associations between early childhood development and country-level indicators of gender inequality. In approximately one-half of LMICs, odds of being developmentally on track did not significantly differ for girls and boys; in countries with significant differences, girls were more likely to be on track than boys (odds ratio [OR] = 1.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.18-1.24], p < 0.001). Differences favoring girls were largest in the social-emotional domain (OR = 1.27, 95% CI = [1.24-1.30], p < 0.001). Country-level gender development index explained a substantial amount of variation in gender differences across countries. Overall, findings suggest that when gender differences exist, girls are more likely than boys to be developmentally on track, particularly in the social-emotional domain and in countries with greater gender equality.

International schools exist in almost every country of the world, and international school educators come from a variety of countries, often teaching students from cultural and linguistic backgrounds different from their own. This article reports on a study that examined English-speaking educator beliefs about their Arabic-speaking students in a bilingual, international elementary school in the Middle East Near Africa region. Using mixed methods, the study also explored English language educators' culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy. Educators expressed high levels of self-efficacy in using culturally responsive teaching practices, but were unsure how to bridge the differences between home and school cultures. Additionally, educators expressed deficit beliefs about their students. These beliefs framed students as victims of their own culture, held back from academic success by home cultural practices, beliefs, and norms. Results suggest educators at the school may not be prepared to facilitate students' negotiation of identities, bridging home and school languages and cultures, due to deficit beliefs about students' home culture that lower educator expectations and students' opportunities to learn. The article concludes with discussion of the effects of these educator beliefs on students and ways in which international school leaders and policy makers may productively address them.

Following the 9/11 tragedies, the interest in Arabic language and culture in nontraditional destinations such as MENA (Middle East & North Africa) has become vastly obscured with sociocultural and political issues. The mandate to maintain national security served to designate the language and its destinations critical, producing the hegemony of a political rationality that thrives on the globalist commodification of language and risks the homogenization of world cultures. To interrogate these essentialist discourses and others, we examine the ideologies underlying MENA host-grounded discourses to discern the valorization of the language in those destinations, as steered by the needs of globalization and power relations. Drawing upon an adapted, complementary multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) approach, the current study analyzes the linguistic and visual resources of three study abroad (SA) programs' websites. We argue that the orientalist gaze is bidirectional within the host and U.S. based discourse for matters of sociopolitical and economic interdependencies and that joint constructions of global hierarchies and economic inaccessibilities remain prevalent.

Arab researchers encounter formidable obstacles when conducting and publishing their scientific work. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 17 Arab researchers from various Arab Middle East countries to gain a comprehensive understanding of the difficulties they face in research and publication. We analyzed the transcripts using reflexive thematic analysis. Our findings revealed several key challenges. First, Arab researchers struggle to conduct high-quality research due to limited resources, inadequate funding, and a lack of a supportive research infrastructure. Furthermore, a shortage of teamwork and mentoring diminishes research productivity. Perverse promotion policies, heavy teaching loads, and low salaries force many researchers to seek external income sources, leaving them with insufficient time for research. Regarding publishing in high-impact journals, Arab researchers confront challenges existing of insufficient scientific writing skills, underrepresentation on editorial boards, and unconscious biases against researchers from economically challenged areas. Finally, achieving research integrity is closely tied to lack of access to essential resources. To address these issues, our participants proposed targeted interventions at the institutional and external levels. For example, universities can implement mentoring programs, offer workshops on scientific writing and publishing, and foster a supportive institutional culture for research. Addressing the underrepresentation of Arabic researchers on editorial boards is crucial for equity in global scientific publishing. In conclusion, acknowledging and addressing these challenges will empower Arab researchers, elevate research quality, and promote equitable global scientific collaboration. Our findings provide guidance for universities, governments, and international donors seeking to enhance research and publication practices in the Arab Middle East.

The rise of English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) threatens to upend traditional teaching and learning practices. Writing, speaking, and communication instruction will all need to evolve. This article presents a case study of one institution's efforts to design and implement a communication curriculum responsive to the unique demands of the EMI environment. The curriculum proposed enacts an interdisciplinary, multimodal approach to the teaching of communication. We discuss the specifics of the curriculum, the process of its creation, the principles underlying it, and how these principles play out in practice. In doing so, we hope to provide a model both for global communication instruction and future curricular design efforts.

Qualitative content analysis is used in this study to review related online education since the outbreak of COVID-19. The aim of this study was to summarize the impact of online teaching on the education industry during the pandemic, sum up the viewpoints of all kinds of people to draw conclusions, and conclude the practical countermeasures. Based on the result of the analysis, firstly, we think that students and teachers are satisfied with online education, but parents have expressed dissatisfaction with this kind of education. Secondly, this paper lists the advantages and common problems of online teaching during study at home from different aspects. According to deficits, we summarize the solutions from three aspects: network equipment, teaching, and self-adjustment. This research is of great significance. It is not only beneficial to the development of educational platforms and personalized teaching but also helps formulate education policy to reduce the burden of education.

The DigiLit Framework suggests criteria for digital text and tool selection (content accuracy, intuitiveness, interactivity, quality) and integration (model a literacy skill or strategy, guide a literacy skill or strategy, model digital feature use, guide digital feature use) in literacy lessons. Using survey research, we explored which DigiLit criteria literacy professors prepared preservice teachers to use in K-12 settings. Participants included 199 literacy professors (194 from USA and one each from Australia, Canada, Caribbean, Middle East and Europe). We used a multivariate outcome logit/probit model to analyze how this was related to (a) professor characteristics, (b) institution characteristics, and (c) time. Findings showed that certain professor characteristics (e.g., interest in integrating technology, being knowledgeable about digital literacies), institution characteristics (e.g., access to equipment, professional development, technical support, incentives), and time to plan and practice integration were related to literacy professors' increased preparation of preservice teachers to use digital text or tool selection and integration. These findings provide specific ways to improve literacy teacher preparation by providing specific kinds of supports.

Universities in Canada are increasingly attracting international students, but few studies have examined their academic and social experiences. This research identified the key supports and barriers for international students in order to make policy-relevant recommendations. This convergent mixed-methods study combined survey (n = 104) and interview (n = 14) data to investigate international student experiences through the lens of international students. Exploratory factor analyses revealed writing and mathematics skills and relationships with faculty and students as key factors for success. Frequency analyses revealed that racism was a persistent barrier. Assistance, access, diversity and equity issues were also raised. Open and axial coding of qualitative data corroborated these findings and revealed three dimensions of internationalization according to international students' perspectives: Exchange; Understanding, Sharing, and Support; and Transformation. Recommendations to universities included offering bursaries to international students from underrepresented regions, developing intercultural awareness of faculty, and providing program-specific student support centres with peer mentors.

This study aims to examine the effects of flipped learning on L2 students' overall academic achievements through meta-analysis. Forty studies (e.g., journal articles, M.A/Ph.D. theses and conference papers) on 'flipped classroom', 'flipped learning' and 'academic achievement' were included in this meta-analysis study. The data was analyzed by using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Software. The random effects model was used in analyzing the overall effect size and the heterogeneity of the studies included in this meta-analysis. The results revealed that flipped learning has statistically significant effect on L2 learners' academic achievements (g=1.303) compared to traditional learning approaches. This result does not differ according to publication type, educational level and four basic language skills and sub-skills, but it differs according to sample size of the selected studies.

A learning crisis across Arabic-speaking countries is leading to human capital deficits, undermining efforts to reduce poverty and putting achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals at risk. The World Bank has introduced the concept of learning poverty to highlight this crisis -- measured as the percentage of 10- year-old children who are unable to read and understand a simple text. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, this affects around 6 in 10 children, and likely more, because of the COVID-19-related school disruptions. The World Bank has proposed a path to reduce learning poverty through advancing Arabic language teaching and learning. The proposed path comprises a set of purposeful actions that governments and stakeholders can take to reorient education systems so that they can best achieve essential core Arabic language skills and learning for all. This includes, for example, setting literacy goals, aligning instructional resources to follow a systematic phonetic approach with a focus on reading comprehension in a literature-rich environment, ensuring high-quality instruction, and identifying and intervening early with struggling readers. As the largest external financier of education in the developing world, the World Bank has a significant role to play in helping countries to recognize these key challenges and to mobilize resources to address them effectively and efficiently. This paper outlines the World Bank's approach and explores how it is taking shape in the World Bank's support to countries' education programs across the MENA region.

The primary objective of this study is to examine the relationship between education aid and different levels of schooling, specifically primary, secondary, and tertiary education, from a gender perspective, with a particular focus on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) four. The study is structured into three main parts: the analysis of female outcomes, the analysis of male outcomes, and conducting a comparative analysis of results between females and males. Firstly, the study analyzes the impact of education aid on completion rates for females and males at the primary level, net enrolment rates for females and males at the secondary level, and gross enrolment rates for females and males at the tertiary level. Subsequently, a comparative analysis of the female and male outcomes is conducted. The study drew data from a 19-year panel (2002-2020) of fifty low and lower-middle-income countries. The system GMM (One-step GMM and Two-step GMM) was utilized for the analysis. Both methods demonstrated a favorable correlation between education aid and primary and secondary education. However, the results suggest that males benefit more from education aid than females at primary and secondary levels. Additionally, the findings for the tertiary level demonstrate that the relationship between tertiary education aid and tertiary education is not optimal. The primary contribution of this study lies in its focused examination of the impact of a specific level of educational aid on particular educational outcomes, with a special emphasis on gender considerations within a comprehensive framework aligned with SDG four.

Due to the quick effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the educational system, English instructors were required to retrain and build a new normal in order to prepare for an online classroom while still keeping their teaching style and professional identity. The study's overarching goal was to look at how English teachers' developing senses of who they are as professionals have affected their views on remote learning. 135 Middle Eastern English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers were surveyed for the research. Responses to a questionnaire based on the teacher professional identity scale and semi-structured interviews with 13 participants provided the data for this analysis. Content analysis was used to categorize the codes representing the qualitative information gleaned from the semi-structured interviews. It seems that many EFL teachers were unprepared for the pedagogical and technical problems they faced while teaching English to foreign students online, and this has had a profoundly destructive impact on the instructors' professional identities as they migrate away from teaching in-person. The findings revealed that the participants' long-term engagement with Edu-Tech during and after their formal education significantly influenced their perception of themselves as professionals. Possible avenues for further research include action research, increasing faculty and staff awareness, and continuous professional development.

Education plays a pivotal role in fostering socio-economic development, and the phenomenon of globalization has significantly increased the influx of students pursuing studies in foreign countries. Given that education serves as a catalyst for economic and cultural advancement, nations face the challenge of enticing international students. Consequently, this research seeks to scrutinize the interplay of social, cultural, and academic factors influencing the satisfaction levels of international students. Additionally, the study investigates the moderating role of language proficiency in this context. Adhering to a positivist philosophy, the research employs a quantitative deductive approach. Data collection involved the distribution of questionnaires to students from Middle Eastern countries enrolled in Malaysian universities. Out of the 500 questionnaires distributed, 383 were subjected to statistical analysis using SPSS. The findings indicate that positive interactions between students and teachers contribute significantly to international student satisfaction. Similarly, favourable social interactions on the university campus, successful adaptation to cultural differences, and a well-balanced academic workload are identified as key determinants of student satisfaction. Moreover, the study highlights the mitigating impact of language deficiency on the aforementioned relationships. In conclusion, the research underscores the imperative of prioritizing the satisfaction of students studying at host universities to attract a greater number of international students. Universities are advised to focus on enhancing the academic, cultural, and social dimensions of the student experience to create an environment conducive to satisfaction.

Within an ever-increasing time of globalisation, globalised learning and international mobility, international professional experience can provide a range of opportunities for personal and academic growth. Perhaps unsurprisingly, pre-service teachers commonly attest to the positive impact of international placements. What is less well understood is the impact on the learning and teaching that occurs at the university curriculum level prior to and after an international placement. An emergent aspect of this research and the focus of this paper is the impact of these experiences in terms of what they offer the university teaching and learning context. To gain a further understanding of the extent of these impacts, a set of reflective narratives from 10 pre-service teachers and seven teacher educators were gathered and analysed using inductive, thematic analysis. The findings showed that for pre-service teachers and teacher educators that context both culturally and educationally were paramount. The reflections highlighted the impact on the development of a range of general capabilities for both sets of participants. Additionally, international placement experiences increased levels of reflection for both pre-service teachers and teacher educators, which led to further understanding and refining their teacherly identity.

A growing portion of international schools are franchised branches of schools originally founded in other countries. The first of such schools opened in 1996 and there are now almost 100 globally. Expansionist schools are primarily elite, English private schools, with concentrations of their franchises developing in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and East Asia over the past quarter of a century--particularly in mainland China over the past decade. This study explores how such schools adapt the language and focus of their marketing and, in doing so, sustain their privilege across various contexts. A qualitative textual analysis is conducted of the websites of 11 schools run by Dulwich College and Harrow School, the first brands to expand overseas and with the most extensive networks of schools today. A lens of international schools as enclosures of privilege is used to demonstrate how schools adapt themselves and their framing. The study finds the promotional focus of the schools depends not just on whether they are the founding school or a franchise, but also on their relative ages, and on their varying locations within specific sociocultural contexts. An emergent hybrid model, catering to both local and international curricula, blends the local with the global and complicates the conventional notion of the international school. Finally, the study suggests that further research is focused on the franchising of elite education, particularly as the focal point of expansion begins to shift away from the mainland Chinese boom of the past decade.

The United States continues to be a top destination for international students pursuing an advanced degree. Some information about the characteristics of international students applying to graduate programs in the United States is available, but little is known about how these characteristics are related to test taker performance on graduate admissions tests and how performance may be related to graduate program characteristics. The purpose of this study was to investigate different patterns of performance of international test takers from four cultural regions and two large countries (China and India) on both the "GRE"® test and the "TOEFL"® test and the relationship with demographic and graduate program characteristics. Using finite mixture modeling, we investigated the most common score profiles using GRE and TOEFL for international students intending to pursue a graduate program within the United States; evaluated the demographic and college-level factors related to the profiles; and evaluated whether the profiles were differentially associated with gender, intended field of study, and intended degree level. Results showed the following broad patterns of results: (a) Most countries and cultural regions, except for the Middle East, had three or four latent profiles representing low, medium, and high scores on the GRE and TOEFL sections; (b) two high-performing profiles were found in Confucian Asia, one with higher GRE Quantitative Reasoning scores and the other with higher scores on GRE Verbal and TOEFL; (c) regardless of profile, test takers from China performed highest on the GRE Quantitative Reasoning section as compared to other GRE and TOEFL section scores; (d) in general, there was a relationship with students in the lower performing profiles taking the TOEFL and GRE multiple times; (e) regardless of country or cultural region, men were represented more than women overall and across most of the profiles; and (f) test takers showed a preference for science-, technology-, engineering-, and mathematics-based fields and master's degrees, but this varied across country and cultural region. Implications for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this study was to identify the main problems elementary teachers face when teaching online. 13 elementary teachers were interviewed and asked to list the main problems they face when teaching online. Their answers were grouped into the following groups: Assessing students; Behaviour; Communication; Engaging students; Incorporating social-emotional learning; Instructions, modelling, demonstrating; Motivating students; Organisation; Parents over or under support; Planning and delivering lessons; Supporting students; and Technology issues. Then, 554 elementary teachers were surveyed using Microsoft Forms. The findings indicated that the four main problems teachers face when teaching online are related to assessing students, engaging students, parents over or under support and technology. When teacher votes were grouped by country, the findings correlated cross-culturally at 0.92 correlation, indicating a correlation of significance. A secondary aim of the study was to find whether teachers felt as competent in the online teaching environment as they do in the traditional classroom. The survey showed that 55% of teachers did not feel as competent.

The purpose of this study is to identify and characterize the state of social construction of learning in virtual communities within online learning environments and to identify the advances and research challenges of social learning. The method was a systematic mapping to analyze the evidence published on the topic in 2015-2020. We automatically searched the Scopus and Web of Science databases, applying inclusion and exclusion criteria to obtain the maximum relevant information. The pre-designed search strategy resulted in 187 articles. The main research topic addressed in most of these is learning as a social construction in training contexts, primarily virtual communities. In higher education, the United States is the country with the most active researchers on this topic. In addition, the most significant findings show that in a virtual learning community, social and cognitive interactions with teaching presence are crucial for students to build knowledge and achieve a higher level of learning. This study describes challenges related to the various methodologies, geographical scope, and types of social construction learning in virtual learning communities. This research is intended to be of value to teachers, decision-makers, designers of research and researchers interested in the social construction of learning in online learning environments.

Previous studies have mainly investigated major massive open online course (MOOC) platforms such as Coursera, edX, and Udemy. This study used 21 metrics to explore 35 MOOC platforms from across the world. Five Web analytics tools were used to analyze these MOOC platforms using data from MOOC platform directories and exploration of platform sites. The findings revealed that many universities, companies, and organizations have cooperated with the platforms and provided MOOCs through them. Major global platforms have offered thousands of MOOCs while regional platforms were more likely to have offered dozens. Some large platforms had millions of registered users while others registered just thousands. The major global platforms were established in the US to offer MOOCs mainly in English, though they offered MOOCs in other languages as well. The regional platforms offered MOOCs mainly in local languages, and to some extent in English and other languages. Some platforms engaged users for long periods while others failed to keep users after they viewed the first page of the platform. On average, a visitor stayed on a platform for 8 minutes visited 7.2 pages per visit. Major global platforms attracted users from all over the world, while regional platforms mainly attracted users from countries where the regional platform language was spoken. Some platforms had very few accessibility and contrast errors while other platforms performed poorly. Most platforms were mobile-friendly. However, administrators of almost all MOOC platforms should take actions to increase the speed of their platform. Other recommendations include undertaking marketing campaigns to increase the number of partners, the number of MOOCs offered, and the platforms' visibility.

This study investigated the impact of virtual exchange on disrupting dangerous narratives about the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region among pre-service elementary teachers in the Midwestern region of the United States. The virtual exchange program provided direct interaction with teacher candidates in Morocco. Analysis of pre- and post-exchange memos revealed a significant shift from negative narratives to positive, generalized perceptions of the MENA region. While the shift towards positive generalizations represents progress, it also emphasizes the need for nuanced understanding and ongoing engagement. After participating in the exchange, pre-service teachers also communicated a strong desire to teach about the world and its people. This study highlights the possibilities of virtual exchange as a tool for preparing future educators who have been influenced by post-9/11 educational and media narratives. It advocates for the integration of virtual exchange as a mainstream approach to foster teaching for global understanding among teacher candidates.

This paper uses the Mincerian approach in an experimental way to examine the impact of education on household incomes (not labor earnings) of all workers (not just employees) across 162 countries. Our results are broadly similar to the conventionally estimated rates of return to education after allowing for the fact that earnings are only a part of total household incomes. We then apply the results to the case of Arab countries and find that our experimental approach can promisingly be used for the study of the impact of education not just on individual earnings of employees but also on total household incomes of all workers and more broadly on the economy and the labor market.

Purpose: Artificial intelligence (AI) is constantly evolving and is poised to significantly transform the world, affecting nearly every sector and aspect of society. As AI continues to evolve, it is expected to create a more dynamic, efficient and personalized education system, supporting lifelong learning and adapting to the needs and pace of each student. In this research, we focus on testing the model of AI acceptance in higher education (HE) through human interaction-based factors including attitudes, competencies and openness to experience. Perceived benefits were our expectation to enhance AI acceptance in HE. Design/methodology/approach: To test the model, we collected data from Arab HE institutions by spreading an online questionnaire. The sample consisted of 1,152 of teaching staff and students in Arab region, which were selected randomly. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to determine the interrelated dependence of relationships among variables. Furthermore, processing analysis was conducted to ensure the reliability and validity of questionnaires, multicollinearity and factor loading, in which the items were tested one more time to ensure their validity after translation into Arab language. Findings: Results reveal that adopted attitude, digital competency and openness to experience have positive and significant relationship with both perceived benefits and AI acceptance in HE in the Arab region. The results also demonstrate the indirect impact of digital factors on AI acceptance in existence of perceived benefits, which was important in the validation of the model. Originality/value: The research contributes to AI acceptance theory and research by providing evidence of AI acceptance in the Arab region. As generative AI applications continue to expand and change, the way we accept and interact with them will be different. This model could be adopted by authorities to facilitate the acceptance of AI in Arab HE institutions.

Students from economically disadvantaged nations (EDN) face significant challenges in accessing high-quality education and securing global internships due to inadequate resources, funding, and infrastructure. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the potential of online platforms for providing accessible, remote education and internship opportunities, aligning with UNESCO's sustainability education objectives. Using the SWOT analysis tool within the context of the experiential learning-driven integrated reflective cycle model (IRC), the research compares onsite and online internship types in higher education to identify areas where interventions can be applied to enhance the online internship experience. The study analyzed 42 interns, both on-site (OSIs) and online (ONIs), to evaluate the constructs of 'experience,' 'action,' 'preparation,' and 'theory". The findings suggest that OSIs have weaknesses such as poor goal planning, a lack of awareness of relevance, and low communication confidence, while ONIs include a lack of exposure to teamwork and in-person experiences.

This article focuses on the relationship between elite British boarding schools and the overseas branches ('satellites') that they have established around the world. While British schools are categorised as charities, the satellites are operated as commercial ventures through subsidiaries. The UK-based schools can thus profit from the export of their 'brands', extracting capital from their satellites overseas and channelling it back to the UK. Drawing on interviews with staff of these satellite schools and on documentary analysis (including Charity Commission reports), we use the lens of racial capitalism to analyse the relationships between British elite schools and their overseas branches. We argue that through their overseas operations, British elite schools engage in extractive practices and are complicit in processes of enclosure and dispossession. These processes are premised along racialised lines and ultimately ensure that the promised 'British eliteness' remains out of reach for those who subsidise its social reproduction.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences and challenges of Middle Eastern refugee mothers in using technology for language learning in regional Australian context. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a qualitative research design and used a narrative enquiry technique to understand participants' experiences of language acquisition with limited access to technology in new resettlement setting. Findings: The findings presented in this paper were derived from a qualitative investigation conducted on a sample of 21 refugee mothers from Middle Eastern countries. The research aimed to explore the role of a language education programme on their integration within the regional Australian context. Participants discussed a variety of aspects of their everyday lives within their new resettlement context while offering insights on the language education programme and its impacts on their educational progress. The theme "lack of access/use of technology in English language learning" emerged from the narratives. This paper draws on selected interview data from the participants. Originality/value: This study fills the gap in the literature on Middle Eastern refugees in regional Australia by exploring how lack/limited technology access can impact language acquisition of women from under-represented contexts.

Children's literature can serve as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. They are mirrors for marginalized groups to see themselves represented, windows for dominant cultures to learn about marginalized groups, and sliding glass doors to develop empathy. In this study, I examined Middle East Picture Book Award to address what books are available about Middle Eastern Muslims who experience xenophobia and Islamophobia; and identify the books that serve as mirrors-windows-sliding glass doors.

This article is a conceptual examination of tolerance and pedagogy with regard to the prevention of violence in the Arab world from a critical theory perspective. Tolerance is a socially and culturally bound system, indicating that any pedagogy of tolerance must be authentic to its context. Therefore, the value of adopting a nuanced Western pedagogy in the Arab world is limited. Consequently, a pedagogy of tolerance in the Arab world must incorporate its diverse codes of ethics and reasoning, and the dominant Arabic Islamic culture. However, politically constrained education systems have questionable abilities to help those previously colonised accept the negative impacts of colonialism and serve as an effective tool against ignorance-based intolerance and violence, especially since the tolerance agenda is largely driven by the formerly colonising countries. Thus, to reduce intolerance-based violence in the Arab world, the pedagogy of tolerance must depart from Western-based constructions and reflect the region's values.

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, Industry 4.0 stands as a monumental revolution that intertwines man and machine, reshaping the dynamics of labor and work environments. This paradigm shift demands a new outlook and necessitates a fresh set of skills and competencies to navigate the intricate web of advancements. From engineers to entrepreneurs, programmers to workers, the fourth industrial revolution mandates a versatile skillset to embrace its technological leaps. Amidst this transformation, the role of remote labs emerges as a potent platform, offering efficient and dependable means to cultivate students' expertise, thus preparing them for the dawn of the Work 4.0 era. This article delves into the story of Princess Sumaya University for Technology, shedding light on its ingenious employment of remote labs to provide students with a firsthand encounter with Industry 4.0. Furthermore, it explores innovative assessment techniques to foster virtual collaboration, social intelligence, and communication skills among students, highlighting remarkable enhancements in performance and achievements.

Background: Parents play a central role in the treatment of childhood stuttering. Addressing parental attitudes toward stuttering is helpful therapeutically. The extent to which differences in attitudes toward stuttering exist on the basis of sex, geographical region and parental status (e.g., parent of a stuttering child, parent of a nonstuttering child, nonparent) is unclear. Many studies investigating such factors have used the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S) questionnaire. A large POSHA-S database has collected responses from over 20,000 people from 49 countries. Aims: The aim of this study was to use the POSHA-S database to examine the extent to which the following variables influence attitudes toward stuttering: (1) parents' sex (mothers vs. fathers); (2) geographic region (Middle East vs. Europe and North America); (3) parents' children (stuttering vs. nonstuttering); and (4) parental status (parents versus nonparents). Methods & Procedures: Data used in this study were extracted from selected, relevant studies that administered the POSHA-S to respondents. The Overall Stuttering Scores were compared on the basis of sex and parent status (i.e., mothers and fathers; nonparent women and men) and were then compared within and across the two geographical areas. Group comparisons were performed using analysis of variance followed by independent t-tests, and Cohen's d was calculated to determine effect sizes. Outcomes & Results: Statistically significant differences were observed upon the basis of geographical region. In general, male parents and nonparents tend to have more positive stuttering attitudes among the Middle Eastern samples while female parents and nonparents tend to show more positive attitudes in European and North American samples in the POSHA-S database. Effect sizes were small for all comparisons. Conclusions & Implications: The effect of geographic region and culture may predict sex-based differences among mothers' and fathers' attitudes toward stuttering; however, the clinical significance is unclear. Additional research is needed to better understand how children who stutter are affected by their parents' attitudes toward stuttering.

Purpose: Nowadays, universities increasingly consider reputation as a key component for improving quality and rankings. A positive reputation opens doors to added value and diverse opportunities. This paper aims to explore Middle Eastern higher education managers' perceptions of university reputation components. Design/methodology/approach: Given the significance of this concept in Middle Eastern universities, a descriptive phenomenological qualitative approach is adopted to identify these key components. The study includes interviews with university managers, and data are collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed thematically. Findings: The findings reveal that, from the perspective of higher education managers, university reputation is influenced by four main components--university management and leadership, quality and performance, identity and image and social responsibility. These components are tailored to the context of Middle Eastern countries. Practical implications: Practical implications are clearly laid out in the form of four key themes for higher education managers in Middle Eastern countries to manage reputation. Originality/value: The study's outcomes can be used as a guide for university managers in developing countries to change the situation in their favor and achieve great success in the competitive condition of universities by planning and making policies in this direction. Also, the managers of higher education in the Middle Eastern countries can take advantage of the components of this study to improve the quality and quantity of their universities and take an important step towards increasing the university's reputation at the international level.

Children and youth from refugee backgrounds have complex language experiences owing to their journeys away from their homelands often taking them through multiple contexts. This study was motivated by a desire to better understand the language resources of students newly arrived as refugees in Australia and their embodied and contextualised experiences of their languages. Language portraits are a tool used to generate insights into language experiences. For this study, the language portrait tool was extended beyond the body to include contexts within which languages are experienced (school, home, the digital domain, other). Participants were 41 secondary students, who arrived as refugees from South Asia and the Middle East and were either enrolled in, or recent graduates of, an intensive English language programme. Findings were derived from (1) coding of languages according to embodied experience and context and (2) thematic analysis of students' transcribed discussion. Patterns across the cohort indicated that these students primarily experience their thinking as monolingual in their L1. However, the coding of sensory zones indicates that multilingualism is experienced as a multisensory flow of viewing, listening, speaking, eating and otherwise experiencing. Challenging assumptions of the home language environments of refugee students, homes appeared as multilingual domains.

Over the past three decades, various efforts have been made to develop special education policies and services in Syria. However, to guarantee the improvement of special education services and to develop sustainable national enhancements during both the emergency and reconstruction phases of the Syrian Civil War, it is necessary to continue to address the intersectional ways by which people with disabilities have been disproportionately impacted. This paper provides an update on disability and special education in Syria, including a brief account of the historical development of, impact of the civil war on, and major current challenges for the field of special education. These challenges include, but are not limited to, inadequate financial resources, a scarcity of integration programs, negative social attitudes because of a lack of knowledge, limited accessibility to services, and barriers to appropriate disability programmes. Recommendations for action are also offered. Further, we provide suggestions to improve special-education services for people with disabilities in Syria, as well as to develop sustainable national improvements for them.