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This study provides a "narrative synthesis" of the findings published in journal articles from a broad range of scientific fields about the impact of extracurricular activities (ECAs) on the academic success and employability of university students. The analysis included 39 articles from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, published over the period 2010-2021. Results show that the vast majority of ECAs have a positive impact on the academic success and employability of university students. ECAs showing a negative impact are residual. In light of these results, higher education institutions should promote activities with an educational purpose outside the strictly curricular objectives and beyond the classroom, fostering a more holistic development of students that combines academic success with a better capacity/preparation to enter the labour market.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) education has been actively implemented around the world recently. ICT curriculum in schools is intended to improve students' programming-oriented thinking rather than to train them as programmers. The core of ICT education is 'computational thinking'. Computational thinking is taking an approach to solving problems, designing systems and understanding human behaviour that draws on concepts. Various countries try to develop ICT curriculum based on this concept. However, unlike traditional subjects, the ICT curriculum has yet to create a unified structure. This research sheds light on the characteristics of ICT education curricula by comparing and contrasting curricula in the United Kingdom (UK), the United States and Australia. Finally, a common framework is proposed on the basis of the discussion. Furthermore, while ICT education is often addressed solely from the standpoint of science and technology, a social science perspective is needed. Therefore, the importance of social science in ICT education will also be clarified.

This paper examines the PhD by publication in the humanities and social sciences in US, UK, Canadian and Australian universities. A set of PhDs by publication from each of these countries were collected for the study. The theses were analysed to see to what extent they fitted, or not, with discussions of thesis types described in previous research into the PhD by publication. Interviews with students and supervisors were carried out to investigate the choices that students made in their writing. University rules for the submission of PhDs by publication and related policy documents are also examined. The study found that there seems to be a preference for different types of PhD by publication in each of the countries. In the US they were all prospective PhDs with the work being especially written for the thesis. In the UK, by contrast, retrospective PhDs, the PhD by published work, largely dominate. Canada was similar to the US, at least in the area of study where the data were collected for the paper, Education. In Australia, both prospective and retrospective PhDs were found, although it was the former, the prospective PhD, which dominated.

The use of advanced quantitative methods within mixed methods research has been investigated in a limited capacity. In particular, hierarchical linear models are a popular approach to account for multilevel data, such as students within schools, but its use and value as the quantitative strand in a mixed methods study remains unknown. This article examines the role of hierarchical linear modeling in mixed methods research with emphasis on design choice, priority, and rationales. The results from this systematic methodological review suggest that hierarchical linear modeling does not overshadow the contributions of the qualitative strand. Our study contributes to the field of mixed methods research by offering recommendations for the use of hierarchical linear modeling as the quantitative strand in mixed methods studies.

Academic networks have been found to play a significant role in career trajectory via employment opportunities, publishing openings, or being alerted to prospects not widely advertised. These results are reflective of Bourdieu's notion that social capital can see an individual's position within a field (in this article the field of academia) increase due to their network's aggregate resources, which can be leveraged and see them attain success they may not have been able to achieve without their network's capital and collective field position. This study surveyed more than 100 working academics and found that most participated in some form of academic networking. This article's significance comes from exploring the lived experiences that have been identified by academics engaging in active network building. The work demonstrates the significant benefits that can result from being involved in well-positioned academic networks, but also reveals how networks are viewed as methods that can subvert merit-based achievements within the field.

Rising worldwide scrutiny of the PhD has focused on issues such as return on investment and career outcomes. This article investigates PhD graduate careers and knowledge transfer looking at the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS). Firstly, our extensive literature review of PhD graduate outcomes reveals limited knowledge of HASS careers and a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) bias. Secondly, our case study of graduates suggests HASS PhDs provide a vital conduit for end-user engagement and knowledge transfer. Our findings deepen knowledge about the careers of HASS PhDs by revealing pre-existing professional networks may be harnessed to inform end-user relationships throughout candidature and post-graduation. Contrary to dominant assumptions, these networks may endure even for graduates in the academy. This under-recognized phenomenon demonstrates the multi-sector knowledge transfer capacity of HASS researchers with implications for their research capability and career development needs and perceptions of the value of their research.

By any metric, the twentieth century university was a successful institution. However, in the twenty-first century, ongoing neoliberal educational reform has been accompanied by a growing epistemological crisis in the meaning and value of the humanities and social sciences (HaSS). Concerns have been expressed in two main forms. The governors of tertiary education systems--governments, private investors, university managers and consultancy firms--have focused on how HaSS can adapt to the perceived research needs of the 21st century. At the same time, a competing set of discourses has been generated by scholars and researchers employed within the critical HaSS themselves. This article considers what these differing perspectives mean for reconceptualising HaSS for the twenty-first century. After surveying the contemporary climate, this article examines the findings of key reports on the future of the humanities from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Alongside those of Western Europe, these university systems are arguably the key drivers for the global university system. It is argued that these reports provide an opportunity for emerging universities to reflect on their research priorities and developmental strategies. The article concludes with some reflections on the wider consequences of the globalising of the university system, the increase of China's influence in Asia, and ponders the prospect of post-human/ist futures of the humanities.

This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of highly cited articles published in the Web of Science category "Education and Educational Research" in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). A total of 2091 journal articles published in this category and cited more than 100 times up to the end of the year 2016 were retrieved as highly cited articles. Distributions of highly cited articles per publication year, journals, institutions and countries were analysed, as well as the citation life cycle of the top-cited articles. The USA, its institutions and researchers are the absolute leaders in the category of Education and Educational Research according to the results of the conducted analysis.

There are well documented concerns with the imposition of high stakes testing into the fabric of school education, and there is now an increasing focus on how such tests impact children's "well-being." This can be witnessed in reports in the popular news media, where discussion of these impacts frequently refer to "stress" and "anxiety." Yet, there is no work that is able to tell us about what is happening in the bodies of the teachers and children who are living this schooling in the day-to-day; whether this is best considered through the languages of "stress"; or what the implications--emotional, educational, embodied--of these experiences might be. This paper develops a transdisciplinary approach that brings social and biological accounts together in order to address the "more-than-social" of the emotionality of childhood and schooling. We seek out opportunities for transdisciplinary connectivity and for new ways of seeing and knowing about learning. We consider what these ways of seeing and knowing might offer to education.

The commodification of research in the social sciences sees a focus on "inputs" rather than "outputs" and an emphasis on the "science" rather than the "social". The empirical prevails at the expense of the critical, with lessening interest in, and support for, knowledge designed to interrogate orthodoxy. Increasingly, scholars have to operate in a government-created culture of compliance. (Contains 3 endnotes.)

Educational policy-makers around the world are strongly committed to the notion of "scaling up". This can mean anything from encouraging more teachers to take up a pedagogical innovation, all the way through to system-wide efforts to implement "what works" across all schools. In this paper, I use Bourdieu's notions of misrecognition to consider the current orthodoxies of scaling up. I argue that the focus on "process" and "implementation problems": (1) both obscures and legitimates the ways in which the field logics of practice actually work and, (2) produces/reproduces the inequitable distribution of educational benefits (capitals and life opportunities). I suggest that the notion of misrecognition might provide a useful lens through which to examine reform initiatives and explanations of their success/failure.

The paper reports on the findings of a community learning approach to doctoral education involving scholarly writing groups (SWGs) which was developed and implemented in the context of a higher degree research programme within the social sciences in an Australian university. The research evaluated the impact of the teaching intervention on students' perceptions of the community learning experience, their knowledge of scholarly writing and their attitudes towards writing. The findings are suggestive of the advantages of community approaches to learning in higher degree research education as a supplement to independent supervision. The SWGs were associated with improvements in both participants' knowledge of scholarly writing and their attitudes towards writing. However, a variety of characteristics of doctoral education are potential impediments to the creation of ongoing and regular interactions in learning communities such as SWGs. The paper concludes that a flexible approach to the recognition and enhancement of community approaches to learning is required to acknowledge the complex and diverse context of contemporary doctoral education. (Contains 1 table and 1 figure.)

There has been an increase in the number of postgraduate students who have published papers from their research before submitting their theses. In this study we report on the experiences in this respect of 58 recent postgraduates, one-third of whom were non-native speakers of English. 32 of these 58 students (55 per cent) had published papers before submitting their theses, and all of them recommended that other students do the same. They also reported that (compared to the others) they had received significantly greater support from their supervisors, cited to a greater extent their supervisors as co-authors of their papers, and co-published papers with their supervisors in journals with higher impact factors. These same students considered that engaging with the peer review process was of considerable help to them in their thesis vivas, and that prior publishing had enhanced their future job prospects. However, the evidence also indicated that students who had published papers before submitting their theses took--on average--four months longer to complete their theses than did those who had not done so. (Contains 11 tables.)

This article offers an evidence-based argument for exempting the majority of LGBTTIQ youth from parental consent requirements in research studies. The argument is grounded in international research ethics principles and social science research studies of risks to the well-being of LGBTTIQ youth. A schema derived from consent concepts used in ethics frameworks in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States is presented for categorizing LGBTTIQ youth into three groups, each with different consent requirements: minors with parents or guardians who support their identity, emancipated minors, and mature minors. It is argued that regulatory frameworks should incorporate context-sensitive criteria for exemptions from parental consent requirements in order to avoid excluding LGBTTIQ young people from the benefits of research and to promote the advancement of knowledge about the issues affecting them. (Contains 4 notes.)

Two decades ago Wilf Carr and Stephen Kemmis published "Becoming Critical". Its impact upon burgeoning action research, particularly in the field of education, has been substantial and sustained. However, times have changed. The purpose of this article is to revisit this influential text and explore its currency today. The article is written from an Australian perspective in the light of the many changes that have occurred in the educational landscape in the intervening time in that country. The discussion also recognises the enduring nature of the core message; that is, the need to seek for a critical social science that can guide, illuminate and liberate educational practice. In its conclusion, it is argued that taking the book as a whole, its continuing impact is undeniable. Practitioners and academic researchers are in danger of becoming even more estranged than at the time of its writing. Carr himself recognises that research in education is an unfinished story; successive waves of varying paradigms underpinned by varying philosophies contribute to the education debates in an evolving rather than culminating fashion. We shall be reading this work for some time to come. (Contains 4 notes.)

Using a five-level system of classifying conceptions of teaching, conceptions held by science and social science teachers in a British distance university and a traditional Australian university are compared. The same system is then used to define the concepts of student-centered and teacher-centered instructional approaches. (Author/MSE)

Millions of people cross political borders yearly without having the proper documents. This has led to increased detention and deportation practices in destination countries for reasons related to security and sovereignty. The objective of the current study was to analyze and visualize research publications on the detention and deportation of migrants to identify current research hotspots, research gaps, and potential future research in the field. Relevant research articles were obtained from the Scopus database for the study period from 1900 to December 31, 2022. The analysis included presentations of key contributors to the field and visualization of topics, themes, and international collaboration. In total, 906 articles were found. The earliest was in 1982. The majority of articles were published in journals within the subject areas of social sciences and humanities. The number of publications showed a steep rise from 2011 to 2022. The Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies was the most prolific, but publications in the Citizenship Studies journal received the highest number of citations per article. Researchers from the United States contributed the most. Mexico ranked fifth in the number of publications. Oxford University was the most prolific institution, followed by three universities in Australia. The majority of articles were single-authored, indicative of limited author-author collaboration. Research hotspots in the field were "human rights" and "mental health". The detention and deportation of Mexican and other Latino migrants in the United States constituted a distinct research theme in the field. International research collaboration was limited by geographical proximity (e.g., the United States and Mexico) or common language (e.g., the United Kingdom and Australia). Future research topics should focus on alternatives to detention, family separation, and healthcare services for detained migrants. Research activity on detention and deportation is required from all world regions, including the source countries of migrants. Future research should promote alternatives to traditional detentions. The contribution of countries in Africa, the Middle East, and South-Eastern Asian regions needs to be encouraged. Future research on the detention and deportation of non-Latino migrants is highly required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents addiction-related news briefs on topics such as the establishment of the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis in the U.S., and it previews several conferences and events such as the 9th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Science in Paris, France on July 23-26, 2017. The legalisation of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) in New Zealand is examined, along with a cigarette tax increase in California.

The continuing controversy over the place of multiculturalism within national political cultures has been highlighted by recent international policy debates. Nations with European, and especially Anglo-Celtic, roots have been forced into a major re-assessment of their strategies in relation to culturally diverse populations living within the nation-state. The dynamics underlying these tensions reflect fundamental fissures that global terrorism has exposed, sometimes instigating the portrayal of international rifts as confrontations of civilizations. Great Britain and Australia have long historic links, sharing many cultural orientations, the one of course the founder through invasion of the other. To some extent they have shared a commitment to policies of multiculturalism, which they saw as ways of reducing risks of social conflict in late modernity. They both now experience societal debates where multiculturalism has come under strong political critique – ironically, for amplifying risk. Both societies have presented themselves to the international community as beacons of tolerance and diversity, as successful expressions of multiculturalism, and as examples of the power of the core values of Anglo-liberalism. Yet external audiences sometimes comment, and internal critics have persuasively argued, that such representations disguise systematic structures of racialized inequality masked by surface egalitarian discourses. As these contradictions become ever more apparent, we are thus directed towards a re-formulation of what a multicultural project would require if it is to demonstrate sufficient robustness to survive much into this century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion that social work is an international profession, operating with generally similar goals, methodologies, and common values is considered critically. Examining the political and social contexts of three countries with liberal democratic governments--Australia, Britain and the United States--the role of social work within the welfare processes of each country is compared. While social work as an identifiable professional activity shares some features, it is argued that the idea of its having a core essence needs to be tempered with a realistic assessment of the importance of contextually created difference. Recent and rapid developments in the institutional context, such as those experienced in these three countries, further underscore the limited utility of the notion of a common professional project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of ethnic revival movements emerged in Western societies such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia during the 1960s and 1970s. A major goal of these movements was to reform the school curriculum so that the images of ethnic groups and the roles that ethnic minorities had played in the development of their nation-states and societies would be accurately and comprehensively depicted. This article describes the curricular visions and goals of the ethnic revival movements, the limited extent to which these goals have been realized, and the factors that have prevented significant curriculum reform. In the final parts of the article, a reform strategy is proposed that conceptualizes the teacher as a cultural mediator and an agent of change and a social studies curriculum that promotes social criticism and civic action to improve the human condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]