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With the rise of neoliberal reforms and efforts to privatize education, there is a growing need to examine how actors and groups from the public and private sectors influence educational policy change together. In this article, we advance a critical approach to understanding the changing discursive space of educational politics by following discourses through an expansive policy network that goes beyond its traditional boundaries. Specifically, we draw on argumentative discourse analysis (ADA), which allows for the analysis of how and why various actors and groups come together to assign certain meanings to educational phenomena or problems, leading to policy responses or changes. Rooted in Foucault's notions of discourse and power, ADA offers a unique approach to discourse analysis that can illuminate policy change through discourse coalitions. Three case studies from educational policy scholarship are discussed to illustrate the value and utility of ADA in future critical education policy studies.

This protocol serves as a guiding source for a Campbell registered systematic review aiming to assess the effectiveness of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in education in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). The primary question for this review is: What is known about the impact of PPPs on improving access (i.e., enrolment, attendance, drop-out, and completion) and quality (i.e., students' learning outcomes and teachers' teaching practices) of primary and secondary schooling in LMICs? Using a predefined search query, we will retrieve studies from various databases including Scopus, Campbell Library, EBSCO Education Research Complete, NBER, Dissertation and Theses Global (ProQuest), along with other sources of grey literature. Covidence will be used for screening and extraction. A bias assessment tool will be used for the included studies. A standardised mean difference (SMD) effect size of Hedges' g will be calculated for the outcome variables using RevMan.

Lifelong education has proven to be a significant challenge in the policy arena. The combination of formal education and labor-centered institutions has pressed the development of different mechanisms to understand the role of human capital accumulation in socioeconomic mobility and organizational performance. While the narratives of lifelong education have primed labor and educational studies across developed economies, in the case of developing economies, those logics appear contested by development economics conditions. In this paper, I use the context of the expansion of the graduate educational market and its policy reforms to analyze how a developing economy copes with a change in the availability of a highly educated workforce. Using panel and pseudo-panel data, I examine the evolution of educational returns for the graduate workforce in Chile between 1990 and 2018, considering the differences between industries and public and private sectors. The results point out that there are no public-private differences and high heterogeneity across economic sectors. The policy- and individual-level consequences are discussed.

Global policy mobilities have been studied predominantly at the national level of education, but their implications and effects at the subnational level have been disregarded. This paper analyzes Proyectá tu Futuro, the first social impact bond (SIB) for education and employability implemented in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since 2010, SIBs have become a booming type of policy, rapidly traveling and being adopted across countries and policy spheres. SIBs aim to align the incentives of the private sector--the third sector--and the public sector to obtain results while improving public-policy efficiency. However, often it is policy entrepreneurs' agendas and not results or efficiency goals that trigger SIBs' adoption. In this study, we analyze the diffusion of SIBs as policy mobilities and the processes of adoption and translation in the context of Buenos Aires. To this end, we draw on an analysis of policy documents, existing legal frameworks, and interviews with key actors. Our findings point to the role of "glocal" policy entrepreneurs as key agents for the adoption and translation of SIBs, as well as their capacity to advance their own agendas in the context of global policy mobilities in federal education systems.

Using data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, this paper compares the earnings premium and employment share of jobs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) across 11 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The results reveal that the STEM wage premium is higher in the United States than in any of the other comparison countries, despite the fact that the U.S. has a larger share of workers in STEM jobs. We also find evidence that the premium varies significantly across STEM sub-fields and education levels, and that the premium tends to be higher in countries with lower unionization rates, less employment protection, or a larger share of employment in the public sector.

One of the challenges in substantiating deliberative democracy as a normative theory is the educational challenge of how to cultivate civic virtue, especially mutual respect and civility, in children. The cultivation of civic virtue is not limited to school education, but is also an activity related to family education. However, liberal theorists who advocate the theory of deliberative democracy, based on the dualism of public and private, have limited their discussions to the issue of civic development in the field of public education. This article proposes to understand and compare the many competing theories on public-private dualism, particularly in liberal and feminist spaces. Beginning with an analysis of the work of liberal theorists such as David Archard as well as Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift, and moving on to that of feminist theorists such as Susan Okin, this article examines competing theories on education in school and in the family, to whom the responsibility of education belongs, and where feminist and liberal thought enlighten these debates. This article will clarify the theoretical tendencies and principles of liberal arguments aimed at overcoming the public-private dualism in education, and present a strategy for overcoming the challenges that this theory encompasses by seeking reference points in feminist thought, especially with attention to conception of relational autonomy.

As the role that publicly owned and private think tanks play in evidence-based governance grows, several parameters that have a bearing on the agenda, schedule and timetable of the think tanks have already been studied. Here we look at the interplay between the funding model (public vs. private) and the analysis intention (the temporal outlook; "ex-ante vs. ex-post" approach), choosing Lithuanian education policy, system and agents as the study domain. Among other findings, we see that the funding model correlates with the temporal outlook: the investigated representative of private think tanks tends to engage in ex-ante work more intensively, while the publicly funded equivalent is exhibitive of both "ex-ante" (preparatory) and "ex-post" (evaluative) research tactic in almost equal measure. We conclude that the private sector may afford the luxury of being more focused and efficient in its information behavior mostly due to the clear and nondebatable ideological commitment. In a deliberative democracy this is rarely possible. It would be of great interest to check whether the same generalizations hold for jurisdictions that are free from the post-Soviet administrative tradition.

Oman Vision 2040 strives to continue shifting the country from an oil to a non-oil-based economy by emphasizing the value of diversification in HEIs. This study aims to provide in-depth insights into implementing the knowledge economy strategy in Oman's higher education system and uses a case study methodology, draws on thematic analysis, and adopts an interpretive perspective employing semi-structured interviews conducted with the dean, assistant deans, and heads of academic departments. The study manifests a common sense among the academic leaders that espousing the policy of the KE in HE is agreed upon. This approbation of KE is ascribed to the discrepancy between developed and developing countries concerning the reality of the higher education systems and the embedded influence of neoliberalism. The study identifies the four fundamental pillars of KE in HE, whereby the study could interpret the existing educational leadership style undertaken and speculate on its future directions. The research indicates three obstacles facing educational leadership; challenges of practicing leadership, lack sustainable system (within the college), and external factors (beyond the college). It also unveils two significant benefits: preparing students for employment in the private sector will reduce the burden on the government to provide careers. Second, the potential reciprocal gains that are pursued in industry and HEIs through funding research, reviewing curriculum and learning outcomes together, and offering a hands-on approach to tackle challenges confronting the national labor market.

In this critical discourse analysis, we examined 18 college student government campaign platforms from 9 institutions in the state of Florida. We used neoliberalism as a conceptual framework to examine platforms and, in particular, the way(s) students running for office described neoliberal agendas, policies, and thought. Findings revealed concern for student finances and increasing student fees, proposed private sector solutions, an unacknowledged political climate, communications trends, and notable differences by institution type.

As teachers play a significant role in language learners' academic achievement, their training programs should be subjected to ongoing evaluation and analysis in order to ascertain teachers are equipped with adequate knowledge and skills. This study aimed to evaluate a private sector pre-service teacher-training program using the Context, Input, Process and Product (CIPP) model. For such a purpose, the program policies, planned course of actions and real practices, as well as the outcomes were closely studied through a sequential mixed-method design. The required data were obtained from the program's stakeholder layers (N=296: 100 supervisors, 58 trainers, 100 teachers, and 38 trainees) participating in data collection phases using multiple methods and instruments including interviews, observations and surveys. All instruments were subjected to detailed validation and reliability investigations. The results revealed degrees of positive perspectives towards the program's functioning and outcomes in training reflective, creative and energetic teachers. Although the participants reported optimistic views about the program quality, required modifications and essential improvements were strongly stressed by the trainers in terms of the length of the course, focus on classroom management, and provision of practice opportunities. The findings have implications for evaluation of teacher training programs implemented in similar contexts elsewhere.

Purpose: In the last 5 years, many states have introduced science of reading (SOR) reforms that require increased attention to foundational skills instruction in grades K-3. The fast spread of these policies raises questions about the mechanisms that facilitated their rapid adoption. The purpose of this article is to examine how SOR discourses obscured or legitimated agendas of various policy actors involved in promoting literacy reforms. Research Methods/Approach: Grounded in anthropology of policy, this study examines interactions between legislators, policy makers, and policy advocates in Tennessee. Data sources include video recordings of legislative sessions, policy artifacts, reports, media articles, and interviews. Findings: The study documents how the focus on the "science of reading" disguises pursuits of conservative think tanks and major philanthropies in promoting curriculum reforms. Intermediary organizations' advocacy for particular instructional materials and consulting services aligned with Common Core State Standards, even in the states that moved away from them, paves the way for greater standardization, centralization, and expansion of private sector involvement in educational services. Implications: Positioned in the wider sociopolitical context of neoliberal education reforms, SOR advocacy becomes a performance that obscures privatizers' efforts to use literacy legislation as a mechanism for securing a market share for their products and services.

The 'googlization' of education is emblematic of the growing power of private tech companies in schools across the globe, challenging education as a public good. While critical scholarship has started unpacking the ideological, pedagogical and economical logics underpinning Google's digital infrastructure in schools, we have little insight into how googlization unfolds in education systems across the world. This article addresses this by examining the googlization of education across three countries -- The US, Australia, and The Netherlands -- focusing on the work by new and established intermediary actors which mediate platform power between private tech companies and public education systems. Our findings highlight five different types of intermediary work that broker dependence on Google in schools. The paper concludes by outlining how education researchers and institutions might reclaim public education by intervening in the googlization of education.

Universities and management consultants are locked in a "danse macabre." We turn to the vampire genre to elaborate on the relationship of consulting companies to the university sector, focusing on the University of Alberta in Canada and Monash University in Australia. We are academics with long experience of the consequences of change management and the employment of consultants in universities. Deb is sufficiently "long in the tooth" that her entire career spans the period of heightened government and private sector intervention in Australian universities that began in the late 1980s and more recently she has had the experience of watching this process occur again, at speed, in Canada. Ben is a representative of the National Tertiary Education Union at Australia's largest university. He is also an experienced journalist who has reported on Australian higher education and public policy for more than two decades. The essay argues that consultants and universities are engaged in a mutually dependent relationship designed to sustain each other at the expense of the public.

Education governance networks are increasingly common and very diverse. In a strategic case study, we apply a new social network analysis method to evaluate the sustainability of a public-private education governance network. We examine the balance of satisfaction across public and private sectors and the network's fairness in terms of whether actor groups' investments in the network are proportional to their influence. We find that this established, long-term network is not entirely balanced but is fair, and argue that the fairness contributes to its sustainability. This fairness might arise due to the existing intermediaries in the network. Intermediaries play important roles in many networks, operating between other actors to build capacity and facilitate cooperation. We investigate how intermediaries operate, especially in networks that connect the public and private sectors. We find that intermediaries' roles differ according to sector. Public-sector intermediaries perform a direction function, complementing the effort and interconnectedness of individual actors. In contrast, private-sector intermediaries play a representing role, substituting for individual actors' effort and interconnectedness. These different roles of the public- and private-sector intermediaries contribute to the sustainability of the network.

In response to COVID-19 many companies, particularly technology companies, voluntarily attended to the strained education sector by donating or temporarily discounting their core products, generating public support and gratitude. This type of philanthropic corporate action demonstrates an expansive and perhaps increasing function in the provisioning of certain educational materials and resources by private actors. This article analyzes this strand of corporate activity as "pipeline philanthropy" and shows how this model of strategic corporate giving differs from existing models of philanthropy in education. Through illustrations this study assesses the democratic implications of corporate entanglement through philanthropic action to evaluate whether the benefits brought about by an enhanced role for corporate actors in education are worth what they compromise.

The Olympics is one of the world's biggest marketing platforms and, as such, presents the private sector with a vast range of advertising opportunities. One new area of opportunity is school-based Olympic education. While previous studies have revealed some of the marketing strategies used by Olympic sponsors in Olympic education, there is still a lack of understanding about how advertising tactics are employed by private sector players in Chinese Olympic education. In this article, we draw on a critical ethnographic research project conducted within two primary schools in Beijing to examine how and why private sector actors extend 'market logic' into schools through Olympic education programmes in 2022. We use the Foucauldian-inspired concept of "technologies of consumption" [Miller & Rose. (1997). Mobilizing the consumer: Assembling the subject of consumption. "Theory, Culture and Society," 14(1), 1--36. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F026327697014001001] to demonstrate three technologies that private companies used to market their brand through Olympic education: provision of winter sports equipment and initiatives; collaborating with 'experts'; and, hidden support from 'star' teachers. We argue that these technologies enabled private sector organisations and actors to promote their products and brands in schools under the umbrella of Olympic education, and attempt to shape students, teachers, and schools as consumers. We also argue that the 'master key' used by these businesses to access public education in China was aligned with the needs of government, the formation of mutually beneficial relationships with authorities, academics, and schools, as well as the covert involvement of teachers. We conclude by considering ethical and political issues that arise as external Olympic education providers profit from their relationships with children, teachers, and schools.

This article sheds light on governance mechanisms at work when decentralised implementation of national educational and welfare policies encounters a heterogeneous sector of private service provider organisations. It illuminates how isomorphic pressure plays out at the interface between local governance and private providers' organisational strategies for quality development in early childhood education and care (ECEC). Key informant interviews are employed to investigate the function of local non-mandatory quality and competence-developing networks (QCDNs) as a locus for these interactions. Findings indicate that QCDNs contribute to shaping private ECEC providers' quality development efforts, and that coercive, normative, and mimetic isomorphic pressures become intertwined in this process. Most private provider organisations choose to participate in these non-mandatory networks. However, ECEC corporations and small private providers assign different meanings to their participation, and the networks thus appear to spur different organisational strategies. While small private providers harmoniously align their ECEC quality development strategies with institutionalised municipal practice, the provider corporations, while in formal compliance, exploit the resulting inter-municipal variation as one argument among many for more stringent national governmental standardisation. We demonstrate how isomorphic pressure may create and enable an impetus for endogenous and gradual institutional change agency.

This article explores how responses to a generic skills framework are materialised in Irish schools, and the main aim is to shed light on multiple dimensions of policy enactment. The Key Skills Framework (KSF) was introduced as part of a curricular reform in Irish lower secondary schools -- a reform that has met substantial resistance locally and nationally. This study investigated local responses to the KSF specifically by interrogating its particular materialisations in practice through Actor-Network Theory ('spaces of prescription' and 'spaces of negotiation'). The findings indicate that there is an inherent multiplicity to the KSF that nevertheless suggests it has been reduced to represent national traditions of behaviour monitoring and disciplinary routines, rather than intentions of enhancing thinking, learning and living more commonly found in generic skills frameworks. These findings are coupled with discussions of the nature of governing actors in Irish education, including the presence of (new) private vendors.

This study investigates the employment landscape and career expectations of doctoral graduates in Japan through the analysis of three national surveys conducted in 2012, 2015 and 2018. The research explores the changing factors influencing graduates' employment destinations during this period, encompassing changes by discipline and proposing strategies to address challenges faced by these graduates. Unlike previous studies, which predominantly focussed on analysing data and interviewing students, this research offers both descriptive insights and analytical perspectives on Japanese doctoral education. Key fndings include an increase in doctoral graduates employed in universities and the private sector, while academia employment varies by discipline. Humanities exhibit the highest academic employment, while engineering shows diverse fluctuations. Additionally, career expectations shift, with declining interest in tenure positions and growing inclination towards non-academic paths. The study identifies challenges stemming from shifting academic appeal, skill mismatches, sector concentration and field-specific hurdles, providing insights into global trends while emphasizing Japan's unique complexities.

As research of benefits and detriments of pesticides and biocides progresses, people's knowledge needs to be updated. This study takes an audience perspective on how practitioners may improve communication. Through online focus group discussions of how and why Danes acquire knowledge of pesticides and biocides, we find that focusing on improving people's knowledge structures, heuristics and self-efficacy may improve people's ability to acquire such knowledge and in turn improve their motivation. This paper provides suggestions for how practitioners may create more effective communication.

Empirical research on international student migrants has sometimes homogenised this group, framing it as predominantly made up of privileged members of the global middle-class. This has led to calls to acknowledge and address the precarity faced by international students in their respective host countries more comprehensively. This study aims to explore how levels of financial precarity vary among international students in Australia, and how this in turn contributes to varying levels of precariousness in the personal spheres of students' lives. In doing so, we centre and refine the concept of precarity for use in studies of internationally mobile students, arguing for its use as a 'relational nexus', bridging financial precarity and broader lived experiences. Drawing on a large-scale survey and semi-structured interviews with 48 students, we emphasise the linkages between financial precarity and precariousness as a socio-ontological experience, explored through the examples of time poverty, physical and mental wellbeing, and relationships.

The relationship between concepts of 'native-speakerism', English language education and their effects on local stakeholders are continually evolving. As such, this paper critically analysed native-speakerist ideologies in the Japanese EFL teaching context with the aim of illustrating the complicated nature of native-speakerism as it currently exists. The findings of the review show that native-speakerism and associated ideologies can be seen in various aspects of ELT and ELL. Private English language teaching sectors, as well as higher educational institutions appear to employ elements of native-speakerism, such as the native-speaker fallacy, to the detriment of both native speakers and non-native speakers alike.

Community engagement has become an increasingly prevalent part of dance education. This study responds to the need for additional research on community engagement activities in private sector dance studios in the United States. Using a combined qualitative and quantitative approach, we provide an in-depth look into the current types of community engagement activities that studio owners are implementing in their programming and analyze specific motivations for conducting community engagement events in their specific regions and beyond. We also consider the challenges and obstacles that private dance studio owners face when conducting community engagement activities and aim to provide practical suggestions for those hoping to increase their activity in this area. These results lend ideas for future research on community engagement to continue to develop this field of study.

Purpose: Drawing from organizational learning theory, social exchange theory and positive psychology approach, this study aims to examine the relationship between commitment to learning and prosocial silence, as well as the mediating role of perceived organizational support (POS) in this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used path analysis to examine the relationships between research variables. Data were collected from 275 employees of private sector companies in Turkey through an online survey platform. To test the proposed hypotheses, the authors conducted regression and mediation analyses using the bootstrapping method. Findings: The results indicate that the organization's commitment to learning positively and significantly impacts employee prosocial silence, and POS partially mediates this relationship. Practical implications: Managers who aim to promote other-oriented and helping behavior in the organization should understand how prosocial silence can be golden. They should cultivate and model a learning mindset by focusing on strengths instead of weaknesses, reward experimentation and provide employees with timely feedback allowing them to think and reflect on their failures. Originality/value: Although the dominant position of previous studies endorses the detrimental sides of organizational silence, less research has focused on employees' prosocial silence behavior and the underlying mechanisms that may explain employees' tendency to remain silent with helpful intent, a gap this research attempts to fill.

A prominent factor contributing to the success of Hong Kong as one of the high-performing learning systems around the world throughout the decades is its responsive and innovative as well as resilient and sustainable learning ecosystem. Hong Kong's learning ecosystem has long been remaining tripartite, which involves the conventional top-down and bottom-up dimensions, namely, the government and schools, as well as the middle-out dimension, namely, the cross-sectoral collaboration. Most importantly, all of them are unleashing their unique potentials and creating collaborating synergistic dynamics towards the overarching goal of enhancing student learning in view of the complex, dynamic, and evolving future ahead. Therefore, the notion 'versatile learning ecosystem' can be succinctly employed to portray Hong Kong's learning ecosystem. This conceptual article aims to contribute to the field by offering a springboard for the wide range of nexuses and networks manifested in the public and non-public sectors in education, especially in terms of the dimensions of 'what', 'why', and 'how'. The focus will be placed on illustrating the five major areas of Hong Kong's learning ecosystem that include (1) promotion of consultative and participative policy formulation and implementation; (2) enhancement of learning and teaching experience; (3) facilitation of students' holistic well-being; (4) support of underprivileged students in learning and teaching; and (5) cultivation of collaborative teaching, research, and service networks. In the future, it is anticipated that the public and non-public sectors will be working more frequently, closely, and intensely in supporting and promoting student learning in various levels and modes.

In most countries, people with intellectual disability are largely excluded from competitive employment. Research has identified school- and workplace-related barriers that may hinder their participation in the labour market. Yet, information about available work opportunities for employees with intellectual disability is lacking. This study aims to address this knowledge gap by mapping work tasks for which Norwegian employers report hiring employees with intellectual disability. Through an online survey, 478 employers in competitive employment companies provided information about whether they had prior experience with hiring employees with intellectual disability and, if so, which work tasks these employees performed. In the study sample, large, private companies within hotel, restaurant and catering were more likely to hire employees with intellectual disability than companies that were small and public and in other sectors. However, findings also indicate that a wide variety of work tasks with different degrees of complexity is available within all of the sectors. These findings may inform adolescents with intellectual disability and transition teams about work opportunities that may be available in their community. This information may further help schools to partner with local businesses for the planning of employment training in upper secondary school.

As the privatisation of the public sector has grown rapidly in Sweden in the last decade, private companies have become an imperative part of education. Private companies sell and deliver consultancy, hardware, software, services, etc. to schools and municipalities. This study examines a growing rate of activities from companies and businesses working within public sectors. It also examines consequences of cooperation between private and public actors. Findings show that multiple actors meet in different forms and with different functions, in multiple ways and with diverse agendas. What can be discerned is strong Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), where actors and networks are linked together, directly or indirectly, in fluid and flexible relations and partnerships. Private actors on educational markets not only becomes edupreneurs but policyneurs, a new concept introduced. As private actors engage in the policy making and the public sphere, a complex and disorganised landscape with new formations of strong actors emerge, entailing a number of consequences. One implication is the establishment of lobbyism in the Swedish educational landscape, with potentially negative consequences for democracy. One conclusion is that new formations of power dissolve the roles and functions of private and public actors within education, with implications on decision-making, transparency, and democracy.

A growing number of doctoral students work during their Ph.D., which is commonly associated with higher risks of dropout. This paper investigates whether the sector of employment (public or private) is also a predictor of student outcomes in Ph.D. programs. Using a dataset on doctorate students in Brazil, the association of employment with the likelihood of graduation and dropout is estimated using a logistic regression and an event history analysis. The results indicate that students employed exclusively in the public sector during the program are approximately 80% more likely to graduate than those working only for private organizations.

International actors increasingly advocate for partnerships in education in emergencies (EiE) to address the dire educational opportunities of school-aged children in sites of disaster, armed conflict, forced migration, and other humanitarian crises. This study explores the nature of partnerships in EiE. We examine the impetus behind an expansion of partnerships among diverse global actors and key characteristics, relationships, and dynamics within these partnerships. Using data collected from key informant interviews and documents from organizations involved in the Syria refugee education response (2018-2021), we detail two emerging characteristics of partnerships in EiE: (1) market-based principles in rhetoric and practice; and (2) a rise in private sector participation. While partnerships aim to improve coordination between agencies, our study uncovers the counterintuitive finding that competition characterizes the EiE partnership space more often than coordination. Furthermore, despite the education and humanitarian community's promotion of a "localization agenda"--prioritizing full participation of affected local communities as partners in education policy and implementation--our research points to a maintained hierarchy where international actors hold most influence in EiE. We discuss the practical implications of this power asymmetry within the broader context of marketized humanitarianism, and raise concerns regarding equity within unchecked partnerships.

The increasing influence of private interests in public policy has been facilitated by a growth in sources of "alternative" information and expertise. In education, teachers and schools are often the targets of these sources. This has been associated with a new political economy where private interests advance reform agendas largely through funding new information sources that ignore long-standing empirical evidence on factors shaping school outcomes in favor of anecdotes and misunderstandings about issues in education. This manuscript argues "information pollution" relative to U.S. politics and policy is presently at crisis levels, and that it is particularly acute relative to education policy. In this policy area, we show how special interests are using (mis)information strategies to purportedly elevate parent voices but are in effect promoting the interests of private actors and de-professionalizing both expertise and educators. We seek to understand this major issue, placing it within a broader sociopolitical context. The concluding discussion considers what might be required to move in a healthier direction that would bring U.S. education policy and practice into closer alignment with evidence and expertise.

In this study, we used the career construction theory (CCT) to examine the effects of career adaptability resources and career adapting responses on the career readiness of young adults in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using data from a sample of 635 senior business students at two universities, we found that career adaptability has a positive impact on two measures of career readiness including career decidedness and perceived employability. Our findings also indicate that career adaptability, as expected, predicts two relevant career adaptive responses within the United Arab Emirates context including intentions to seek "Wasta" (using social connections to help in finding a job) and willingness to work in the private sector (WWPS). We further found that WWPS mediates the relationship between career adaptability and perceived employability. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

This study aims to contribute to the literature on digitalization in education. In the study, a semi-structured interview form is used. The experts working in the educational field in private institutions were interviewed for this study. The study examines the effects of digitalization in education; although there are no specific studies for education departments in the private sector in the literature, it has been seen that the effects of digitalization are similar. The study also shows different factors such as the people's fears about digitalization in education, lack of authentic educational materials, its ineffectiveness compared to face-to-face education, and the scarcity of digital literacy. With digitalization in education, arranging educational content using technological opportunities, creating educational materials combined with virtual reality, and applying gamification in education becomes important in terms of the effectiveness of education.

English teachers in Vietnam have integrated technology in education for the past several years, particularly those who are working in the private sector. Regardless of the high number of Vietnamese teachers working in this sector, how they perceive technology integration and how important it is to their professional development have not yet been thoroughly studied. Therefore, this study sought to provide evidence to understand Vietnamese teachers' perspectives toward technology in more detail and shed light on how to support them with technology training so that the training not only improves their teaching skills but also helps facilitate their professional development. The study employed a mixed-methods approach with classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, and a questionnaire survey. Data collected were analyzed by using thematic analysis and triangulated to ascertain the final findings. The results have shown that the language teachers in this study expressed enthusiasm toward technology regardless of the insufficient training and the challenges of technology self-education. Interview data also revealed the importance of a community of practice to the participants as it encouraged them to learn and overcome technology-related difficulties. The community in this study has also played a key role in the relationship between technology education and teachers' professional development in their workplace. Finally, based on Cairns and Malloch's (2011) concept of workplace learning and the results of data analysis, the study advocates for a comprehensive three-level CALL training scheme which are individual, peer, and institutional that can promote technologies and facilitate support teachers' professional development.

Digital skills are now essential, not only in information and communications technology (ICT) jobs, but for employees across all sectors. The aim of this article is to detail how employees' digital skills can be fostered through a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), how such an offer is used and what the effects of such a measure are. Using an approach oriented at action research and design-based research activities, the authors describe the basics of their finding on existing European competence frameworks for digital skills and European projects that used MOOCs, the development and design of the MOOC, the evaluation on the basis of learning analytics insights and a questionnaire, as well as a reflection. The MOOC was offered as Open Educational Resources (OER) on the Austrian MOOC platform iMOOX.at from March to April 2021, with 2083 participants, of whom 381 fully completed the course (at end of June 2021) and 489 filled out the final questionnaire.

Context: Against a backdrop of dwindling oil resources and increasing unemployment rates, the government of Oman has set out to diversify its industry and establish a knowledge-based economy. In this context, forming a highly-skilled Omani workforce is considered to be of crucial importance. Yet, the national TVET system suffers from low social status, poor quality, and limited labour market connectivity. This paper offers an analysis of Oman's TVET system in the socio-economic and cultural context of a rentier state. Approach: We draw on the political economy of skills and socio-cultural approaches that understand TVET systems and the broader skills regimes in which they are embedded as part and expression of particular patterns of the social organisation of work. This helps to locate TVET systems' strengths and weaknesses in the context of their underlying social relations instead of considering them as mere dysfunctionalities at the systemic level. This paper draws on an unpublished study on TVET for industrialisation commissioned by an Omani line ministry in cooperation with an international organisation. For this study, the authors carried out a literature review, undertook two field trips to Oman in 2018 and 2019 and conducted forty semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from government, private companies, business associations, and TVET and higher education institutions. Findings: Our analysis highlights how skill formation in Oman is shaped by the socioeconomic and cultural context of the Omani rentier state. First, the availability of cheap expatriate labour and Omanis' traditional preference for public sector jobs culminate in poor incentives for employing Omani nationals in the private sector. Second, reluctant employer attitudes towards national skill formation deepen quality issues in the TVET system, especially with regard to work-based training. This reinforces negative perceptions of the local workforce, which in turn contribute to biased employment patterns. Both social processes mutually reinforce each other, eventually preventing the emergence of strong national skill formation dynamics. Conclusions: While immediate structural change appears challenging, it is evident that reforms of the TVET system alone will not lead to its sustainable improvement. More research into how skill formation relates to Oman's specific socio-economic structures, how employment dynamics relate to educational credentials and how cultural traditions shape educational and work practices is needed.

Campus-community partnerships are integral to community-engaged learning, service-learning and similar pedagogies that extend project-based learning beyond the classroom into "real world" communities. Community-engaged courses have increased in prevalence in engineering education. Evidence suggests that they are effective at connecting engineering theory to practice, engaging students motivated to "make an impact," and preparing students for global and multicultural collaboration. In community-engaged courses, campus partners (students, faculty, staff) and community partners (individuals or organizations from non-academic communities) collaborate on an engineering project that, if successful, benefits community members and contributes to student learning. However, partner relations are not always a primary focus, and partnerships can flounder and fail resulting in limited or imbalanced outcomes, dissatisfaction among partners, or even harm. Building upon documented principles for community engagement and frameworks such as critical service-learning, this paper directs attention to the relationships between campus and community partners as a crucial yet under-studied aspect of engineering community-engaged learning. We interviewed 22 campus and community partners involved in engineering projects spanning seven engineering colleges and five continents. The findings are presented in the form of a Partnerships Compass with guiding questions for nurturing partnerships that are both impactful (in achieving partners' collective goals) and equitable (in attenuating power imbalances, unequal risks of harm, and outcome disparities between partners). Ultimately, the paper aims to provide a timely perspective and actionable tool for engineering instructors, students, and community partners who aim to jointly build enduringly equitable and impactful partnerships.

This paper discusses the qualifications of operators of Malaysian childcare centers, namely TASKA and TADIKA, and the challenges faced by practitioners in the industry of early childhood education (PAKK). This research used both qualitative and quantitative methods involving interviews and a survey. The sample study comprised 727 respondents consisting of 282 operators of TASKA and 343 operators of TADIKA. The research used a set of questionnaires and interview guidelines. The findings of the quantitative method showed the operators of TASKA and TADIKA had a diverse range of professional and academic qualifications, while the findings of the qualitative method highlighted a wide spectrum of challenges faced by operators of centers involved in the early childhood education industry. Collectively, such findings suggest that running a childcare center is fraught with a myriad of challenges encompassing economic, logistical, social, educational, and financial factors, which have to be addressed effectively. Certainly, prospective operators must seek assistance from those who are involved in the running, monitoring, and managing of such centers, notably experienced practitioners and relevant government officers. Also, to become successful entrepreneurs in this industry, they need to develop the passion and zeal to operate such centers with great success.

This study aimed to determine the factors that are considered by accounting students who choose careers as public accountants and private accountants. Three factors that became the focus of observation are intrinsic motivation, career exposure, and quality of life. Data collection in this research was organized in several public and private universities in Java. The survey was distributed online and obtained 445 valid questionnaires used to test the research model. The findings indicated that students who have more career information are more likely to choose a career as a public accountant. Besides, students who have a higher perception of the quality of life tend to choose a career as a private accountant. This study has not found significant evidence on the effect of intrinsic motivation on career choice. This study promotes accounting career institutions and universities in developing the interest of the younger generation in the accounting profession, be it public accountants or private accountants. Developing from the limitations in this study, further research can develop this accountant career research model by considering other factors, as well as observing accounting students in various demographic variations.

This paper reviews algorithmic or artificial intelligence (AI) bias in education technology, especially through the lenses of speculative fiction, speculative and liberatory design. It discusses the causes of the bias and reviews literature on various ways that algorithmic/AI bias manifests in education and in communities that are underrepresented in EdTech software development. While other recent work has responded to mainstream or private sector technology development, this review looks elsewhere where practitioners, artists, and activists engage underrepresented communities in brainstorming processes to identify and solve tough challenges. Their creative work includes films, toolkits, applications, prototypes and other physical artifacts, and other future-facing ideas that can provide guideposts for private sector development. Acknowledging the gaps in what has been studied, this paper proposes a different approach that includes speculative and liberatory design thinking, which can help developers better understand the educational and personal contexts of underrepresented groups. Early efforts to advocate for fairness and equity in AI and EdTech by groups such as the Algorithmic Justice League, the EdTech Equity Project, and EdSAFE AI Alliance is also explored.