Search

This article hypothesizes that one of the reasons for Chinese EFL learners' rigid use of nominalization and insufficient use of hedging in academic writing can be attributed to the unclear understanding of the relationship between these two expressions. The aim of the research is to first prove and then explain the possible co-occurrence of nominalization and hedging in scientific papers, with the intention of deepening Chinese EFL learners' understanding of the reasons for their possible co-occurrence. After a corpus-assisted statistical analysis of sixty abstracts selected from leading scientific journals written by native English speakers, it's been found that there is indeed a tendency for nominalization and hedge to co-occur both at the textual-level and clause-level. Besides, a tentative analysis is conducted to explain the pattern of their co-occurrence. It has been observed that the number of nominalized expressions in clauses is inversely correlated with the probability degree of hedging, and the position of nominalization in the clause (theme or rheme) influences the generalization level of hedging. The research results could shed light on the pedagogic approach in improving Chinese EFL learners' academic writing by making evident that the elusive Grammatical Metaphor competence could be enhanced by deepening the understanding of the inter-relationship between seemingly different in-congruent expressions like nominalization and hedges.

In this article, two co-authors share their immigrant stories of persecution and flight to the U.S. Txerthoj Vang is a refugee from Laos who supported the U.S. as part of the Hmong secret army during the Vietnam era. Mayra Pasayes is an immigrant from El Salvador who fled that country's civil war during the 1980s. Though they each faced a high level of violence in their home country, Txerthoj was granted official refugee status, while Mayra was not and only later obtained residency. The granting, or denial, of asylum to each would have major impacts on their lives and their perspectives. They each continue to support refugees with or without papers in their work as educators in public schools. Their individual stories mirror those of hundreds of thousands of others who fled Laos and El Salvador during the 1970s and 1980s, running from crisis and war, taking arduous journeys, and resettling, with or without official status, in the U.S.

As an important and a challenging source-based writing task, synthesizing offers rich opportunities to explore the connections between reading and writing. In this article, we report findings from a qualitative study of two Chinese students' learning experiences with academic synthesis writing in a university ESL composition course. Specifically, we discuss how the two students' understanding of synthesis and sources influenced their synthesis writing practices and how they perceived the connections between their reading strategies and synthesis writing processes. Our results reveal that the students' understanding of synthesis and the functions of sources played a crucial role in learning to synthesize, as did their ability to use rhetorical reading strategies to complete this new literacy task. We argue that whether second language (L2) students understand the complex reading-writing relationships underlying synthesizing is crucial for their successful textual production. These findings carry valuable implications for understanding reading and writing connections and teaching L2 source-based writing.

This instructional resource introduces a framework for authentic multicultural pedagogy through the lens of specific Asian artists, art processes, and connections to student experience. Resources discussed are all a part of a larger unit of study titled "Trash to Treasure," where students focused on various Asian artists, Tan Zi Xi and Yodogawa Technique, who highlight garbage and pollution as a social issue, sometimes using garbage as their art materials of choice. Big ideas and conceptual themes include consumption, upcycling, and transformation. This resource includes: (1) information and artwork from Singapore-born artist Tan Zi Xi; (2) information and artwork from Japanese artist Hideaki Shibata; (3) an introduction to Yodogawa Technique; (4) a brief history of the Chinese papermaking process to provide historical context; (5) inclusion of relevance to student experience in multicultural art units; (6) discussion questions that are aligned with the National Visual Arts Standards; and (7) web-based resources for further exploration.

There is an increasing sensitivity to the challenges posed by the language of examination papers and of instruction in scientific subjects, especially for non-native speakers of English. It has been observed that in addition to technical subject-specific vocabulary, non-technical words such as instructional verbs have been sources of difficulty, and there are indications that other "ordinary" English words cause problems. For many years the aerospace industry has striven to make its manuals understandable and unambiguous to non-native speakers, a goal shared by writers of examination papers. To achieve this, the industry uses Simplified English, a controlled language with limited vocabulary and restricted grammatical rules. While recognising the limitations of this approach, the authors considered that by testing examination papers against the rules of Simplified English, it might be possible to identify areas of potential difficulty for non-native speakers. This paper describes the results of a study which tests past examination questions using software based on AECMA Simplified English, the controlled language in established use in the British aerospace industry. The results identified many lexical items which were not in the original list of "Approved words". Some of these were technical words and others were non-technical terms which are in common use in an engineering context. However, some were potential problem sources, including implicit instructions and vague or ambiguous words. Software alerts that related to sentence structure, in particular those related to sentence complexity, indicated that some sentences had additional problems. (Contains 1 note.)

This study investigates research writing anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs among English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) graduate students in engineering-related fields. The relationship between the two writing affective constructs was examined and students' perspectives on research writing anxiety were also explored. A total of 218 survey responses from engineering graduate students at Taiwanese universities were analyzed, along with qualitative data from open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews. The findings show that while master's and doctoral students felt a similar moderate level of writing anxiety, senior doctoral students were more self-efficacious about writing research papers in English than their junior counterparts. Overall, students with higher writing self-efficacy felt less apprehensive. Additionally, among the individual variables, experience in writing for publication better predicted writing anxiety and self-efficacy than students' self-reported English proficiency and the number of writing courses taken. The qualitative findings indicated various sources of graduate-level writing anxiety, including insufficient writing skills in English, time constraints, and fear of negative comments. Furthermore, composing different sections of a research paper provoked different levels of anxiety due to the variations in the rhetorical purposes and discourse structures of particular sections. Implications on dealing with research writing anxiety are also discussed.

This paper examines the significance and potential of educational practices of evening junior high schools (yakan chugaku). After World War II, evening junior high schools were established for children who could not attend daytime junior high schools, and later those who had not completed compulsory education beyond school age began to study there. After the Act on Securing Educational Opportunities Equivalent to Ordinary Education at the Stage of Compulsory Education was enacted in 2016, new evening junior high schools have gradually begun to be established. This paper provides an overview of the history and present of evening junior high schools and then discusses the case of Osaka Prefecture, where the most advanced emancipatory educational practices, so-called "liberation education (kaiho kyoiku)," have taken place since the 1970s. It focuses on the practice of Kim Hyangdoja, a second generation Zainichi Korean who teaches at an evening junior high school in Higashi-Osaka City. She and her colleagues have sought a way for marginalized people, especially first-generation Zainichi Korean women, to become aware of their historical and social position. We considered the significance of her practice, "Writing my history with photos," similar to Paulo Freire's literacy education. We clarified that this practice is not only for making personal history, but is also an arena for expressing the identities of different social groups.

This paper investigates the author's classroom practice of implementing an interpretive perspective on intercultural language teaching and learning in two online intercultural workshops on the topic of face masks designed and delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic. It reflexively examines two critical incidents in classroom practice in terms of what these incidents reveal about the challenges faced by pre-service teachers in operationalizing an interpretive stance towards intercultural language teaching and learning in practice. Based on the epistemology of reflective practice, this self-study seeks to produce knowledge-of-practice by framing the author's practical knowledge as language teacher in relation to theories of intercultural language teaching. Classroom discourse analysis of teaching and learning sequencies provides an emic lens on the enactment of an interpretive perspective on intercultural language teaching at the micro level in terms of two basic aspects of pedagogical practice: 1) Embedding interpretation in learning design and 2) Mediating learners' interpretations in classroom interaction. The findings reveal that this author's attempts to personalise intercultural language learning and elicit meaningful reflections from students were constrained by the limited semiotic richness of the material presented and the difficulty of going beyond a superficial interactional format to provide effective scaffolding and successfully realize a dialogic stance towards knowledge building. The paper considers the implications of these challenges for pre-service teacher education and offers suggestions for supporting teachers hoping to teach interculturally.

I interrogate the Philippine Indigenous Peoples Education's operational construct of culture to explicate its indigenous knowledge systems and practices (IKSP) integration into the K-12 curriculum. Pragmatism as a philosophical framework mainly guides the argument in this paper. In the first part, I introduce the old and contemporary meanings of culture and point out flaws in the IKSP integration. Literature backing the essence of IKSP integration into the school curriculum dominated by the Western knowledge system is discussed in the second part, followed by a discussion on culture and indigeneity that nuance further the IKSP integration in public education. The Philippine Indigenous Peoples Education is presented next, highlighting its definition of IPs, focus areas, support systems, and recent developments, ending with a critique. Analysis and discussion follow. The paper concludes with a challenge, especially for the education sectors, to reframe their lenses at looking at culture to build authentic relationships with indigenous communities and provide indigenous learners with an education that is need-based and culture-sensitive, one that respects their worldviews, knowledge systems, heritages, and identities, one that is truly liberating. Providing IPs an education responsive to the changing society can help them achieve a real sense of self-determination for social progress.

This paper focuses on the diaspora Chinese community in Limerick--an Irish county town in the southwest of the Republic of Ireland--and examines how Chinese parents have responded to the education policy shift resulting from the 2017 Irish foreign language strategy, which added Chinese to the official educational curriculum. A semi-structured group interview was conducted with four Chinese-speaking parents. Analysis of the data revealed that identity preservation and maintaining bonds with extended family are the predominant expressed reasons for parents to cultivate their children's Chinese proficiency. English and Irish are prioritized over Chinese. Though the parents hold positive attitudes towards the inclusion of Chinese as a school subject in Ireland, they are disempowered from taking advantage of participating in the implementation of this national language shift due to a lack of access to social, cultural, and economic capital. Analysed through a Bourdieuian lens, the findings further expose the limitations or constraints placed on family language policy and the discrepancy between macro- and micro-level language policies. The paper is intended to shed light on education, social justice, and equality, bridging the gap between micro-level family language practices and macro-level language policy.

This paper draws on my experiences as a doctoral student undertaking a project to examine the professional adaptation of Asian immigrant teachers in Australia. Using a reflexive narrative approach, I examine how my position influenced my access to participants, the understanding of their contexts, and the nature of my relationship and interaction with the participants. The paper discusses the tensions that resulted from my insider-outsider positions and how they shaped my qualitative study's research process and outcomes. I conclude with recommendations for researchers to carefully consider the possible influence of their positionality in any research setting and its implications for informing future research.

Purpose: As UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs) are integrated across Asia-Pacific Higher Education Institutes (HEIs), the purpose of this descriptive and exploratory study is to investigate undergraduates' own self-stated commitment to the SDGs and their perceived feasibility by the 2030 target. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed-methodology approach covered quantitative and qualitative approaches facilitated by purposive selection of an Asia-Pacific HEI via a Japanese liberal arts college where a questionnaire survey was administered in Autumn 2021. Responses were monitored from freshmen students in twin courses within the same major (introduction to "Environment" and "Development" studies, respectively; "n" = 177) that both integrated SDGs within their respective curricula. Findings: Students in both classes rated the SDGs as a useful learning tool but were sceptical of their feasibility by 2030. A self-stated commitment was high, especially among environment studies students. Multiple regression was run to predict SDGs commitment from gender, major, perceived SDGs' usefulness and feasibility. These variables partially predicted SDGs commitment but only gender and major variables added statistical significance. Moreover, the same variables were less equivocal in terms of predicting the self-stated belief that the SDGs could be achieved by 2030. Practical implications: The findings can inform instructors of students' perceptions towards SDGs. Significant differences raise academic and applied discussion points, such as how to engage male students, for example, by setting up sustainability "business case" practicums. Originality/value: As global HEIs grapple with effective ways to vertically integrate SDGs into a university's curriculum, students' opinions are often underrepresented. This paper's originality and value address these gaps by exploring a holistic student-centric perspective on SDGs in the context of commitment. This paper also has implications for more effective cross-curricula integration of the SDGs.

In recent years, the emerging trend of mobile learning (hereinafter "m-learning") has obtained increasing attention from educators and higher popularity among students worldwide. Partly due to its short history, there seems to be a lack of comprehensive and in-depth understanding on the distinctiveness of m-learning. It is maintained in this paper that m-learning should be described and researched in three intertwined aspects: the mobility of devices, learners and materials. The multi-faceted mobility may help achieve highly portable and genuinely personal learning, which distinguishes m-learning from other forms of technology-enhanced education. This paper also reports an empirical study on m-learning for academic English. With a total of 60 participants (and six in the pilot study) over three progressive phases, the data obtained from mixed methods of automatic logging, questionnaire and interview were used to assess multidimensional learner engagement in the self-directed process of m-learning. The triangulated data can reflect and highlight some known features of m-learning, and they may also imply learners' expectations towards m-learning. Based on the literature review and data analysis, this paper aims to contribute to the (re)conceptualisation of "m-learning" and also provide some technical and pedagogical implications on future and further development of m-learning.

This paper analyses the Chinese party-state's production of visual racism towards Uyghurs as a discursive foundation for its ethnic policy, as globally reproduced and disseminated by non-state actors. The paper draws from theoretical literature on the relationship between visual politics and affect, stressing the need for visual literacy to reflect on how images emotionally affect audiences' identities and insecurities. It focuses this analysis on education texts in China's post-2012 'de-extremification' and 're-education' campaigns, specifically on how images tell stories about life-or-death security issues that define Chinese identity. Chinese education about Uyghurs tends to frame Uyghur identities as racialised, culturally external existential threats to be defeated by state violence or teaching them to be Chinese. However, Uyghurs' own visibility strategies in global advocacy counter the party-state's imagery by centring their lives and experiences. The article shows how these strategies can be used as resources for teaching about Chinese politics and society.

This paper narrates the concept of Sustainable Peace Leadership and examines how three prominent Peace Activists from South and Southeast Asia measure up to the concept. The article will consider the works and ideas of Mohandas K. Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi), Lhamo Thondup (The 14th Dalai Lama), and Nguyen Xuan Bao (Thich Nhat Hanh). Mahatma Gandhi was instrumental in achieving Indian independence from the British Empire. The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people and has managed a difficult relationship with the Chinese government following the occupation of Tibet. Thich Nhat Hanh was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist and is known as the 'father of mindfulness'. The paper identified several characteristics of Peace Leaders. These include being a charismatic leader who motivates their followers to achieve their goals in a non-violent and inclusive manner. Peace leaders meditate and spend time developing inner peace which then leads to outer peace. The paper also asserts that peace leaders are capable of recognizing the humanity in their opponents and seek a mutually beneficial solution. The three chosen individuals are all recognised as being charismatic leaders who were prominent peace leaders. All were deeply spiritual and practiced meditation and other inner work on a regular basis. They stressed the humanity in their opponents, based on their religious beliefs and the concepts of non-duality and interdependence.

This paper explores the professional identities of four Filipino English teachers (FETs) who instruct international students at a language academy in Bonifacio Global City (BGC), a special district for the Philippines' globalization. Employing a narrative inquiry approach, data was gathered through individual interviews, and subsequently analyzed using a thematic analysis framework. The findings indicate that the participants assume three distinct roles within the academy. As experts in English language teaching, they consider themselves the equal of, or even superior to, native English-speaking teachers, which they attribute to their language proficiency, pedagogical skills, and content-based teaching. In their role as educational caretakers, they prioritize their students' well-being, providing motivation for English language learning, and offering emotional support. Furthermore, they identify themselves as international teachers, having deliberately chosen BGC as their career destination to foster multiculturalism and global citizenship. This study is of particular significance, as it scrutinizes the roles of FETs, frequently categorized as "non-native teachers," within the context of globalization.

Chinese students studying abroad have been increasing rapidly in the past decades and become a significant financial contribution to receiving countries. Accordingly, understanding their enrollment choice is essential to facilitate college marketing and admission strategies. Though the decision process is believed to be different from domestic students, empirical analysis of Chinese students' enrollment choices is still lacking. This paper fills the void by examining the influential factors of Chinese students' enrollment choice with novel student-level data. We find that in addition to factors domestic students typically consider, such as financial aid and academic quality, Chinese students particularly emphasize college ranking, reputation, and location in their decision process. Furthermore, unlike domestic students who usually prefer colleges with proximity to home, Chinese students' location preference is linked to job prosperity. We also find that the impact of the factors varies for students from different regions of China, which can be attributable to uneven economic development within the country.

Native English speakers' accents are generally regarded as ideal models of English accents. However, in real-world communication, where English is used as a lingua franca for intercultural communication among people from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, English users inevitably encounter a wide variety of accents. This paper presents part of a broader study that explores the attitudes of Thai students and teachers toward native speaker accents, Asian accents, and their own accents (i.e., Thai accents). Specifically, we focus on the attitudes of 123 Thai students attending a public secondary school in Thailand. We collected data through an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews and analyzed it using descriptive statistics and thematic coding. Our findings indicate that American accents were overwhelmingly viewed as the most favorable and served as the standard for pronunciation. While Asian English accents were generally perceived as intelligible and acceptable, some participants expressed negative attitudes toward their own Thai accents, considering them to be deficient. These findings highlight the importance of raising awareness about the diversity of English accents in both English language teaching and policy.

This paper aims to explore the perception and usage of epicene pronouns in English among Chinese EFL teachers, as gender fair language becomes increasingly important for promoting inclusion, respect for identity and expression. This study employed a survey of 284 EFL teachers along with a follow-up written task to assess their views and actual use of epicene pronouns. The results indicate that while English teachers in China are familiar with the increase of "they" as an epicene pronoun, the use of "he or she" is their preferred choice in the survey, with generic "he" being more common in the written task. The study further reveals that the selection of the epicene pronoun is influenced by factors such as the antecedent type, social gender and the teachers' socio-cultural background. Promoting gender-fair language in L2 English teaching in China is crucial. Efforts are needed to increase awareness and usage of gender-neutral language among Chinese English teachers, emphasizing the importance of incorporating actual language use and adapting to grammatical changes.

This research was carried out to add to the current literature on learning styles by explaining various understandings of the topic and the previous research on it. Studies and information on learning styles and strategies are abundant, and the need for more research stems from the recent move towards student-centered classes. This paper is an attempt to do more specific research on the subject and answer the question of what the correlations are between learning styles and different factors such as gender and learner's cultural background. This study was conducted at the University of Nottingham. Seventy students have participated in the survey, 34 males and 36 females. The participants' nationalities were mixed, which was essential for the study; Kurdish (20%), British (40%), European States (10%) and Asian (17.1%). The questionnaire results were analysed by using IBM SPSS Statistics 21 software. Frequency tests, Correlation analysis, T-Tests, and One-way ANOVA test of the available data were studied. The findings show that Kurdish learners are auditory learners compared to other nationalities. Also, the study showed that language learners are more visually inclined learners than learners from the other majors. Finally, future researchers may expand on the findings of this paper by getting a larger sample.

As Korea has recently become a multicultural society, English teachers acknowledge the need to address anti-racism in the classroom. However, how to raise students' racial awareness and ways to incorporate racial issues into English language instruction have not been sufficiently studied in the Korean teacher education context. The aims of this study were to provide pre-service English teachers with a guide to implementing antiracist pedagogy in their language teaching and assessing its impact on their racial literacy development and to examine how pre-service English teachers' racial literacy can be developed through multiple self-reflective practices and microteaching experiences in their teacher education programs. This paper first introduces an anti-racist curriculum for pre-service English teachers intended to raise their multicultural awareness, and then provides multiple educational resources and teaching strategies to help them become culturally responsive language teachers. The paper concludes with some pedagogical implications regarding the necessity of including culturally responsive teaching in teacher education programs.

Migrant families often invite grandparents to move to Australia when babies are born. In order to provide support to their families, many of these grandparents have to retire from their own professional careers and migrate to Australia to start new lives. Some speak English as an additional language, with or without formal education, prior to arriving in Australia. Once in Australia, these senior migrants can only access limited government-funded English learning, and they are frequently left to capitalize on informal learning. This paper discusses a case study of two Chinese-heritage senior migrants and the role English plays in their lives, and grandparenting in Australia. We argue that having the English capability for everyday activity within the family is key to their overall well-being, and that drawing directly on their past experiences and learning strengths can enhance their quality of life.

The major analytical research question addressed in this paper is: What are Thailand's strengths and weaknesses as an international education hub for students from the Asian region? The key descriptive research question is: What is the nature of the educational experience of Asian students in Thailand? The two major research methodologies of the study are mixed research methods and comparative case studies, with the use of in-depth interviews of influential experts, surveys, and an autoethnography. In terms of major findings, there has been a dramatic growth of Asian students at Thai universities during the past two decades. Thailand's major advantages relate to low costs, location, quality campus facilities, and a welcoming attitude toward outsiders, while major disadvantages are the quality of many of Thailand's international programs often related to low English language capabilities. The paper concludes by presenting a creative new architecture for thinking about Asian study abroad in Thailand.

The objective of this study is to perform a meta-analysis of published data on the effects of active learning on Asian students' performance in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. This comprehensive meta-analysis study includes a systematic review of papers related to various active learning approaches and instructional methods such as collaborative learning, experiential learning, discovery-based, group-inquiry-based, problem-based and activity-based learning, specifically the effects these approaches have on Asian students' performance in STEM-related subjects. The Scopus electronic bibliographic database was searched with search terms and dates to identify and extract the relevant studies that met pre-stated inclusion criteria. A main criterion for inclusion of studies in this meta-analysis were Asian students' exposure to any active learning intervention in STEM-related subjects. Studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria were processed for data extraction. A total of 2810 full-text peer reviewed papers published from 2000 to 2020 were analyzed and 38 papers met the inclusion criteria established for the meta-analysis. Effect sizes between experimental (n = 2230) and control groups (n = 2510) were calculated using means and standard deviations which were collected and summarized for a comprehensive and systematic review based on the compiled data. Using means and standard deviations from the studies, a moderately large effect size (ES = 0.6596) was detected. Analysis of the pre-post effect sizes demonstrated a significantly higher mean effect size thereby indicating a positive effect of active learning on Asian students' performance in STEM subjects. Findings from the meta-analysis in this study provide a comprehensive understanding of the effects of active learning on Asian students' performance in STEM subjects. Finally, the significance and relevance of these findings for future research directions are discussed.

The VET sector can be located as one that sits within the intersections of the racial and spatial in addition to the classed; the traditional focus of research concerns. There is a direct correlation between towns and cities with high levels of deprivation and the recruitment of racialised and other marginalised groups into general further education colleges. This paper considers the intertwined nature of the racial and spatial and its implications for South Asian Muslim women students in VET spaces in terms of identity construction and possible futures. This paper critiques how geographical location and educational settings highlight the complex factors encountered by diasporic communities; patterns of historical migration; the educational space as a third space); the role of teachers as mentors. These factors contributed to students developing fluid and dynamic identities rooted in a critical self-awareness whilst resisting Western-centric notions of success. Whilst this created a self-realised agency in the narratives of South Asian Muslim women, it also created a cultural hauntology in the absence of a third space. This has various implications for future VET research in terms of how students from ethnically diverse groups, create or engage with a third space.

The disproportionately low degrees awarded to Ethnic Minority students are stark, representing an enduring challenge across the entire higher education sector including distance education. This paper reports on a study conducted in a distance learning university in the UK which employed a mixed-methods approach to explore the experiences of Ethnic Minority students. The paper draws on the concept of 'over-efforting' and research undertaken by Stevenson into personal educational histories. The methodology included quantitative analysis to provide a broad context with additional qualitative analysis of three case studies to provide rich, deep data. In combination, these data enable the authors to explore the significance of personal educational histories to understand the individual experiences of three students within the context of broader quantitative patterns. The paper offers some insights into these experiences in order to raise important questions about the impact of identities and personal educational histories on participating in tuition within the context of distance education.

Skilled migration to Australia depends on a good command of English. Where skilled migrants lack English -- like the participants in this study -- yet fulfil the vocational-skill employment requirement, they are granted temporary visas and provisionally employed but expected to improve their English on the job. They are assumed by mainstream society to practise with English-speaking colleagues; however, their conveyor-belt-like tasks make it impossible for them to engage in talk at work. While fulfilling their work contract, they need to improve their English proficiency to meet permanent residency requirements. Drawing on data from an ethnographic study with Filipino skilled migrants, this paper uses 'social acceleration' (Rosa [2013]. "Social Acceleration: A New Theory of Modernity." Columbia University Press.) as a lens to examine the processes this group experiences in their employment in Australia. These processes are varied and complex, referred to in this paper as macro- and micro-accelerants that contribute to both acceleration of social change and of their pace of life. This paper contributes to a nuanced understanding of the 'driving forces of acceleration' Filipino skilled migrants face particularly in the way they navigate their English language learning against the pressures of a monolingual mindset and of 'social acceleration'. (195)

The United Kingdom's (UK) goal of a 20% increase in participation of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups in higher education (HE) by 2020 has not been met. Pakistani and Bangladeshi students are some of the most underrepresented BAME groups in UK HE institutions. This systematic review included 20 papers that identified barriers and facilitators towards participation in HE separately for Pakistani and Bangladeshi students in the UK. Using thematic analysis, two overarching themes were constructed: (i) the interplay of culturally expected roles on HE participation and (ii) belief that HE is vital for success. This review identified the importance of role models to challenge cultural values that restrict women from participating in HE. Many parents and children viewed HE as a route to personal and community success. The findings support the relevancy of social learning theory in driving change for models of widening participation.

This paper presents data derived from a larger study related to the expectations and experiences of international students from the People's Republic of China with regard to studying in Australian secondary schools. The study involved 116 international students, and data were collected in two phases using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that English language experiences are a key concern and students do not always develop English language skills as expected during their period of study in Australia. To reduce dissonance between expectations and experiences of English language learning in Australia, it is recommended that substantial, ongoing English language support is embedded within the core curriculum for international students in Australian secondary schools.

The University of Minnesota Talented Youth Mathematics Program (UMTYMP) is a selective, five-year accelerated mathematics program for students in grades 6-12. During the program, students take college mathematics courses on University of Minnesota campuses, starting with algebra and continuing through logic and proofs, linear algebra, and multivariable calculus. The majority of UMTYMP students come from two demographic groups: White and Asian/Asian American. In 2020, we surveyed UMTYMP students to understand the impact of model minority stereotypes (MMS) on Asian/Asian American students, particularly girls, who are labeled as "gifted" and/or "talented." In this paper, we reveal the preliminary results of this study, discuss their implications, and provide recommendations for addressing the MMS in mathematics programs.

This paper proposes to use depth perception to represent raters' decision in holistic evaluation of ESL essays, as an alternative medium to conventional form of numerical scores. The researchers verified the new method's accuracy and inter/intra-rater reliability by inviting 24 ESL teachers to perform different representations when rating 60 essays written by Chinese ESL learners. During numerical representation, the raters expressed their evaluation in the form of numbers, while with the DP-based method, the raters expressed their evaluation by marking distances with nail tags on a wood ruler with hidden scale marks. Then the researchers translated the distance results into numbers and compared the accuracy and inter/intra-rater consistency of the two approaches by referring to these essays' criteria scores from eight expert raters. The results showed that DP-based method could improve raters' performance, producing more similar results to experts' scores, with higher consistency both among different raters and within the same individual rater.

This conceptual article is to problematize Western-centered comparative curriculum studies in South Korea, drawing on research related to postcolonial criticisms of comparative education and curriculum studies, and to suggest a decolonial research imagination for comparative curriculum research in South Korea and East Asia broadly, based on Kuan-Hsing Chen's idea of Asia as method. To this end, I elaborate on Chen's concepts of inter-referencing and critical syncretism for decolonizing the compliant research imagination. Additionally, I argue for the shift of the point of reference towards Asia, the extension of curriculum manifestation as a unit of comparison with curriculum conceptualized as a space for constructing cultural imaginary and subjectivity, and curriculum researchers' onto-epistemological considerations as a comparativist. I conclude the paper with a caution not to dismiss Western contributions to curriculum research in Asia and the possibilities of the existence of resistance to Western-dominant knowledge structure in South Korean curriculum scholarship in the forms of translation and/or hybridity. This study can contribute to decolonizing the intersection of comparative education and curriculum studies that has been Western-centered in South Korea and suggesting a transgressive onto-epistemological orientation for comparative curriculum studies in the contexts of South Korea in particular and East Asia in general.

This paper extends the dominant understandings of empathy -- as a trait, state, communication or relationship -- by conceptualising it as a virtue and as a tool to address anti-Asian hate crime. Drawing upon the writings of the Confucian philosopher Xunzi, this article interprets empathy as a personal quality that attests to one's moral excellence. It is argued that Xunzi's concept of empathy revolves around the ethical attributes of "zhong" (authenticity) and "ren" (humaneness). This article amplifies Xunzi's formulation of empathy by applying it to anti-Asian hate crime in the U.S. The authors propose that Xunzian empathy is a powerful tool to address racism and violence towards Asians through two related and mutually reinforcing approaches: undoing fixation by identifying and eliminating racial/ethnic prejudice and discrimination; and habituating humane conduct by internalising and exhibiting "li" (normative behaviour) towards fellow human beings. These two approaches and a Confucian construal of empathy as a virtue can be enacted in schools through the strategies of role-taking, empathetic pedagogy, and Global Citizenship Education curriculum.