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This paper draws attention to how markers of adulthood linked to education and employment form an influential social narrative and argues that these help to construct teenage motherhood as problematic. Social policies, informed by this narrative, reinforce the idea of a "correct" path through education and into employment from which young mothers deviate and must be realigned to. This paper draws on a sample of former young mothers who had largely progressed into higher education and sheds light on how their pathways were possible and what challenges they encountered. It therefore joins others in challenging common conceptualisations of teenage motherhood as inevitably leading to educational failure. This paper seeks to open a further avenue to this debate however, in that it questions the wisdom of utilising predetermined markers of success to measure the achievement of young mothers. As the accounts discussed here show, a later data collection point enables us to see how "outcomes", but also priorities, change. Furthermore, by highlighting stories of pride and joy outside of markers of adulthood, it also encourages us to reflect on the effects of a normative social narrative which depicts divergence as failure. The paper therefore seeks to strike a note of caution in the ways in which we define success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents a case study examining collaborative transdisciplinary (TD) and interdisciplinary (ID) graduate programmes at the University of British Columbia (a large, public, research-intensive university in Canada) – serving as a model for other universities globally. TD and ID programmes in higher education can ultimately create a new generation of researchers who are capable of contending with complex problems by equipping them with a broad range of research competencies and expertise. This study used open-ended surveys and semi-structured focus groups and interviews to understand how students, faculty members, and programme coordinators experienced these programmes, focusing on specific competencies (e.g. values, knowledge, interpersonal skills). We then highlighted how programmes may be preparing students to engage in collaborative applied research (i.e., TD and ID) in real-world contexts. Our findings suggest that "breadth" programmes exposed students to a wide range of disciplinary perspectives, while "depth" programmes focused on a specific research problem in fewer disciplines. TD and ID co-supervision and thesis committee membership emerged as rich avenues for students to receive mentorship from faculty members. Lastly, respondents wanted more applied research and opportunities to connect with potential employers outside academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing policy emphasis on supporting diversity and inclusive practice, as well as graduate employability for higher education students. Work-based learning (WBL), placement learning, or work integrated learning (WIL) is a key component of many undergraduate degree programmes. However, for many students, factors such as disability, ill-health, caring or work responsibilities can impact on their placement experience. This paper presents research based upon students' experiences and staff members' views of placement learning. It offers a wider discussion of inclusion and inclusive practice that goes beyond a single focus on disability. Firstly, the paper addresses the challenges that a diverse range of students face when considering placement and then discusses the experiences of staff in support of this activity. These are conceptualised within the three themes of anxiety, uncertainty, but also opportunity. As researchers and reflective practitioners, the authors present discussion that aims to develop our understanding of inclusive practice, inclusive placement learning, and meeting the needs of diverse groups of students. These are universal requirements, relating to themes of social justice, reaching across different institutions, subject disciplines, and international boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a bibliometric overview and evaluation of peer-reviewed articles on governance in higher education. The study uses meta-data from the Scopus journal repository, retrieved using relevant keywords. We analyse the data in VOSviewer software. A content analysis of selected papers is undertaken to comprehend the thematic focus of the knowledge domain. Results show that the field of this research topic has grown exponentially both qualitatively and quantitatively. The conceptual dynamics of the literature unfold the multidimensionality of the topic of this inquiry. Our significant contributions are the scholarly audit of higher education governance research and the identification of several structured research questions for future investigations. This is a maiden attempt to employ bibliometric and content analysis for science mapping and qualitative review in the topic of inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Australia, there has been increased attention to attracting Indigenous peoples into higher education but, despite a recent growth in enrolment numbers, they remain severely underrepresented. This underrepresentation is particularly notable among Indigenous males, who are the least likely to attend. In this paper, we investigate the experiences of four Indigenous young men who attended an elite higher education institution. Aligned with other research on the experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic males in higher education, the article captures how their experience in privileged institutions compels them to reflect on their own positionality and the cultural interface between Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledges. All data were thematically analysed and this paper reports on two key themes: influencers to pursue higher education and motivational factors at university. In considering the journey of these young men into elite higher education spaces, we are interested in the discursive constitution of their Indigenous identities and how their aspirations are realised in reference to a strong sense of cultural pride and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vice Chancellors, Presidents, or Rectors occupy elite public positions in universities. A cursory glance of the roll call of names across elite universities ('top 100') globally reveals the dominance of white males. Research has given us some insight into the profiles of these senior leaders and their selection, but not with a particular focus on elite universities. Our theoretical disquiet in this conceptual article is linked with an enduring unease that processes of formal and informal merit work to reproduce, not eradicate, deep inequities in the recruitment and appointment of Vice Chancellors, Presidents, or Rectors at elite universities. In this article, we suggest that we need to rethink and reframe how we approach equality, diversity and inclusion in higher education leadership at elite universities We propose a different set of questions need to be asked; questions about performative understandings of merit and meritocracy. We argue that underpinning rhetoric of meritocracy works as a visible and audible performative tool that offers an appearance of a just, fair, and neutral process, yet reinforces the sameness of leadership. In querying discourses of merit and troubling the façade of diversity we take an intersectional approach, moving beyond single and conventional forms of discrimination. This conceptual paper draws upon a range of literatures and illustrative biographical examples to highlight the critical importance of an intersectional analysis that situates merit as form of advantage/disadvantage precisely because of the way in which these discourses are framed and enacted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses a problem that greatly complicates the implementation of dialogic educational approaches in schools: the dilemma between driving children's talk towards normatively accepted conceptions and, at the same time, avoiding the introduction of these normative conceptions into the dialogue by the teacher. I argue that this dilemma is in fact the expression of an unarticulated theoretical tension between teleology and dialogicity in Vygotsky's theory, which is the foundation, together with Bakhtin's work, for many dialogic approaches to education. This paper describes this tension in Vygotsky's theory and presents a type of talk that enables the articulation of teleology and dialogicity at a practical level: conceptually driven inquiry. In this type of talk, children form meaning spontaneously in conditions of dialogicity, but under the influence of a higher-generality meaning that the child simultaneously forms non-spontaneously – through intellectual imitation. Although not itself the telos, this higher-generality meaning provides teleological direction to children's dialogic inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widening participation in England has been framed around two primary needs; raising attainment and raising aspiration. Whilst aspiration is complex, policy definitions often frame it in narrow economic terms and see access to higher education as primarily about developing a workforce, the underlying logic being that to improve social mobility that individuals need to "aim higher". Pre-entry work with under-represented groups therefore has tended to adopt a deficit of aspiration approach. There has been extensive critique of the deficit model yet "raising aspirations" still endures in both national and institutional policy. Drawing on sixteen semi-structured interviews with widening participation practitioners in England, this paper considers the alignment between policy and practice. It explores the more complex and nuanced view of aspiration held by practitioners and how this more closely aligns with the theory of possible selves. This paper argues that there are two key issues; a disjuncture between policy and practice and a gap in understanding of the structural issues associated with aspiration. The paper argues that the solution involves a radical rethink of policy that returns to a focus on helping individuals to realise their own individual aspirations and more clearly acknowledges the structural constraints shaping the formation, vocalisation and realisation of aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically surveys four typologies that have been used to identify and understand international school teachers. The critique highlights two main limitations with the typologies. The first, ontological in nature, is that reifying teachers as a type does not capture the complexity of lived experience. The second, ethico-political in nature, is that labelling marginalises the teacher in the research process. Research is done on, rather than with, teachers. This paper's central argument is that the typology represents a form of symbolic violence that silences teachers' voices. In order to address the issues highlighted above, this paper proposes an alternative approach to researching international school teachers, which is situated within postmodern accounts of identity and relational ethics. This paper's contribution lies in highlighting the limitations of typologising international school teachers and teachers in general and proposing an alternative approach that reconfigures the researcher-teacher dyad within the context of a relationship of care, mutual respect and negotiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present insights from the qualitative data collected during a process evaluation of a reading intervention project carried out in primary and secondary schools in West Yorkshire, England. Commercially available reading interventions, financed by the Strategic School Improvement Fund, were delivered by school staff to disadvantaged pupils over a period of four half-terms, and a team of university-based researchers carried out qualitative interviews with members of school staff in order to discover factors that affect the sustainability of school-based reading interventions after the initial funding period, and identify good practice in planning for and meeting sustainability objectives. The data from the interviews enabled the researchers to compare and contrast the experiences of the staff following the different interventions. The findings presented in this paper have generated some helpful guidance about the process of implementing reading interventions in schools successfully, and factors such as staff training, fidelity of implementation and organisational context are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken an extraordinary toll on racially minoritised and economically disadvantaged communities. The United States has been no exception. In the U.S., serious illness and death are two- to three-times more common among Black, Latinx, and Native American populations than among white people. In the summer of 2020, growing outrage over the racialised impact of the pandemic coincided with weeks-long protests of police killings of Black Americans—George Floyd in Minnesota, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, and Tony McDade in Florida, among others. The convergence of two racialised phenomena, a public health crisis and police violence, intensified public scrutiny of the practices that sustain racial inequalities, including within higher education. Even as U.S. colleges and universities issue statements decrying the burden of the pandemic and the concomitant racialised violence on communities of colour, racial inequalities persist in higher education and pedagogical practices centring racial justice remain largely uncommon. In this paper, we argue that U.S. institutions of higher education are complicit in the perpetuation of fallacies surrounding race and racism when their curricula fail to prepare students to understand and address these issues. Using survey data from two undergraduate courses taught at an elite, predominantly white institution in Fall 2020, this paper examines how specific pedagogical approaches led to increases in students' self-reported confidence and capacity to discuss race and racism. Based on our findings, we demonstrate that undergraduates benefit from teaching that specifically develops their capacity to understand, discuss, and address racism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the COVID-19 pandemic as a test that has disrupted the flow of a particular type of social and physical mobility. It takes pathways embarked upon by students from Asian countries to "prestigious" anglophone universities as its focal point of analysis, considering how the residential, consecratory experience of attending elite institutions has been disrupted when universities go virtual or as students are prevented from travelling to their university's country destination. Building theoretically on the sociology of conventions and testing, I analyse public institutional responses at the commencement of the outbreak from elite universities in the US and the UK, which have hosted large numbers of students from Asian countries in past decades. This paper focuses on how these universities responded to international students under conditions of uncertainty, examining how they justify their role, purpose and operations, while canvassing for continued support from this student segment. The findings highlight contesting orders of worth between states and institutions, as clashes between market, civic and domestic regimes exert significant pressures on organisational efforts to coordinate and cope during this critical moment, thereby raising questions about how prevailing logics of elite transnational education have been altered in the face of a pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we have investigated students' motivations for undertaking a full degree abroad. It examines how motivations can be categorised, and if this varies according to gender, social origin, field of study and mobility capital (previous experience of living abroad or parents who have done so). The analyses are based on a survey of Norwegian students abroad, containing information from more than 4100 respondents. The three underlying dimensions of motivations identified are "Exploration", "Pragmatism" and "Differentiation", indicating that the traditional division between push and pull motivation is too simplistic. "Exploration", the most strongly accentuated dimension, is particularly prominent among female students. "Pragmatism" is highly important for students enrolled in long, professional programmes with strict admission restrictions in Norway, such as medicine. "Differentiation" is more emphasised by students with high mobility capital. In general, motivations are more likely to vary according to field of study than sociodemographic factors, but mobility capital also exerts a substantial influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marketisation has directed higher education institutions and policies to focus on student support and provisions that promote better experience and value. By contrast, expectations of university students are under-researched and understated, with less attention placed on what and how students should perform in higher education. This paper further develops the concept of the ideal student at university, which aims to promote transparency and explicitness about what is expected of students, and potentially alleviate inequalities driven by implicit and unspoken rules of higher education. We report on the development and findings of the ideal student survey, conducted with 1,043 university students and staff in the UK. Factor analysis revealed eight dimensions of the ideal student, which we have tentatively described as Diligence & Engagement, Organisation & Discipline, Reflection & Innovation, Positive & Confident Outlook, Supportive of Others, Academic Skills, Employability Skills and Intelligence & Strategic Approach. Each factor is discussed with a focus on the differences between the views of staff and students. We conclude with a discussion of how the concept of the ideal student has the potential to promote better equality and opportunities for student success, by making explicit what is expected of university students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon a unique longitudinal study, which has followed the experiences of students with vision impairment (VI) in the United Kingdom (UK) through the full university student lifecycle, we report the findings of an original analysis that seeks to broaden understanding of the lived experiences of students with disabilities in higher education (HE) by critically assessing student outcomes with respect to "access", "success" and "progression". The paper presents evidence collected from 40 participants, captured through 205 interviews over a 7-year period, and uses this evidence to assist with interpreting patterns observed in national equality data, and in identifying hidden inequalities which these datasets do not capture. We examine how well this equality data represents the reported experiences of students with VI. We do this by firstly considering where the data might not fully represent the experiences of the student, and secondly by interpreting why some of the observed inequalities persist. We take a holistic view of the student experience, by examining factors that might impact upon the student at different levels through the perspective of the Bioecological Model of Inclusive Higher Education. The findings show that whilst national equality data in the UK capture improved access and attainment for students with VI in HE, it fails to capture poor lived experiences, and restricted choice. The findings also identify barriers to successful transitions into the labour market, in some cases intrinsically linked to barriers faced during their courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns have been raised about the quality of practice-focused research in education generally and in early years education specifically. Chris Pascal and Tony Bertram argue that a shift in worldview is needed to improve the robustness and overall quality of participatory research in the early years and proposed a "praxeological framework" for research comprising praxis, power, values, and methodology. This paper provides an example of how this praxeological framework was applied within an existing research-practice partnership focusing on autism education in the early years. We used a "non-orthodox" Digital Storytelling methodology to co-construct knowledge between researchers, practitioners, children and families about educational transitions. Our co-construction of knowledge involved the embodied knowledge of children and the exemplary (practical) knowledge of families and practitioners, leading to new insights into educational practices. In adopting a knowledge co-creation approach from the start, we established a powerful pathway to impact through which our research is already making a difference to practice. We propose that pathway to impact is an important element that could be made more explicit within a praxeological framing of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities have increasingly adopted "first-generation status" as a new category for addressing equity in higher education, especially in the UK and Australia. This category targets students whose parents do not have a university degree and therefore are "newcomers" to higher education. While the category is well-intentioned, given the persistence of inequitable enrolment patterns and the need to widen participation, it has resulted in a fairly narrow and limiting view of first-generation students. Typically, students have been set in binary opposition to their peers with university-educated parents and consequently positioned within deficit discourses – as sharing a similar set of "problems" that need to be remedied by policy and practice. This paper problematises such a totalising depiction of first-generation entrants by examining diversity within the category rather than simply demarcating differences from their continuing-generation peers. Drawing on focus group data from 198 prospective first-generation students enrolled in government schools in New South Wales, Australia, we utilise the Bourdieusian lens of social capital to explore the multiple social networks within which young people are situated. We propose a new continuum that better captures how students are differentially positioned in social space, and identify three clusters based on their capacity to mobilise capital – "inheritors", "opportunists", and "outsiders". In so doing, we unsettle the symbolic boundary around what it means to "be first", and argue that this more nuanced reconceptualisation of first-generation entry is critical if the category is to be a meaningful vehicle for redressing historical exclusions and widening participation in higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the differential ways that working-class sixth-form students in England utilise cultural and social capital when applying to university. This process is examined in terms of the university and course choices made and associated social advantage and prestige. It employs an interpretive paradigm using qualitative methods and a conceptual framework derived from Bourdieu. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were employed and a grounded approach to data analysis was utilised. Findings suggest that access to cultural and social capital is limited to familial influence and educational environment had a limited impact on student decisions. When making choices the most notable themes linked to general locality. Locational preference linked to degree of geographical cultural knowledge and led to the development of the notion of locational capital. This corresponded to intentions to avoid certain locations such as "the rural" or "the provincial" and helps to understand choice. These geographical constructions, linked to perceptions concerning Higher Education Institutions, often triggered concerns regarding "fitting-in" and "social class" and for many resulted in limitations on choice. This imposed a limitation on applying to prestigious HEIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing pandemic has affected all aspects of human life globally. Universities have faced significant challenges in continuing their educational and research activities while at the same time becoming more visible due to their work on identifying treatments, developing vaccines, understanding the impact of the pandemic and exploring the ways of recovering from the crisis. English universities have been at the forefront of these global efforts and have had unique opportunities to contribute, and demonstrate their contribution, to the common good. This study is the first of its kind to offer an analysis of the new empirical material on how English universities have dealt with the pandemic from the perspective of the common good. It also offers a new, literature-based conceptualisation of the material manifestations of common good in the context of the pandemic. These key manifestations include widening participation, promoting social cohesion and democracy, promulgating a global knowledge system, promoting a sense of community embeddedness, and designing and implementing common-good oriented financial models for higher education. The study demonstrates that, despite some potentially perilous financial implications, English universities' reactions to the pandemic indicate a move closer to the common good ideal. The paper explains this crisis of opportunity to argue that the pandemic offers potential for a shift towards the common good as a guiding principle for universities in order to support sustainable and equitable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on related academic and semi-academic discourse, this paper aims to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on important actors and their expectations in the higher education (HE) sector. As open organisations, higher education institutions (HEIs) are influenced and shaped by different stakeholders' numerous and often controversial demands. While HEIs strive to meet key actors' needs, these expectations have a determinative role in the future of HEIs. Therefore, the future-oriented horizon scanning method was used for mapping the explicit demands of actors and for analysing alterations in expectations due to the pandemic. The horizon scanning showed that one of the most pressing expectations of HEIs in Central-Eastern Europe (CEE) was digitalisation even before the pandemic. Due to the pandemic, the awaited digitalisation in HE was realised within a few weeks, and it affected all actors. The tangible daily experience of the digital mode of education changed the priorities and expectations of the actors. In addition, this unexpected situation brought to the surface HEIs' hidden potentials, resources and responsibilities. Although the role of digitalisation in the future of HE is clearly manifested, the impacts of social restrictions as well as the effects of the digitalisation of learning and life in general were perceived primarily in the field of socialisation. As a result, the need for socialisation has increased. The article highlights the dynamic interconnection between digitalisation and socialisation, and the changing expectations and voices of stakeholders, which should be considered when HEIs choose their future paths in the post-COVID-19 era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Curricula are an essential ingredient of academic activity in higher education institutions and so it is necessary to develop tools that help improve these curricula. The need to increase student employability has recently been highlighted as an objective for universities. This paper introduces a methodology to help assess curricula in the training of skills for the labour market. Using a combination of the technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS) method and an adaptation of importance-performance analysis (IPA), this methodology measures the gap between graduate perceptions of their university training and of its workplace utility. A dataset of 15,339 graduate opinions was used to analyse the mismatch between the two perceptions. To measure these differences, an index was drawn up enabling quantitative comparisons among subject areas. A ranking is provided, as well as guidelines for enhancing curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local-level, place-based scholarships – synonymous with "promise" scholarships – are a policy strategy to improve college completion in the United States by directing financial aid to students in a particular school, district, or geographical area. There are currently upwards of 90 place-based scholarship programs across the US, most of which share three broad goals: to increase postsecondary access by making college more affordable, to build a college-going culture, and to catalyse economic development by drawing middle- and upper-class families to an area and retaining existing residents. As place-based scholarships grow in popularity and more communities, especially ones seeking economic revitalisation, consider investing resources in their own scholarships, there is interest in what impact, if any, these programs have. This paper reviews the research on place-based scholarships, which demonstrates generally positive effects on district enrolment, postsecondary enrolment and persistence, and housing prices. While there is some evidence of improvement in teacher expectations and school climate, the scholarships have not been associated with fundamental changes inside schools. Although most programs have not been empirically studied, the 33 studies included in this review indicate that place-based scholarships have the potential to foster change within school districts and struggling cities and promote positive student outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) is an evaluation of teaching quality at UK universities. The aim of the TEF is to raise esteem for teaching in line with research and recognise teaching excellence. In 2017 all universities who took part in the TEF exercise were awarded ratings of gold, silver or bronze for teaching quality. These awards were based on a set of quantitative measures and a 15-page provider submission from each university to describe teaching at their institution. In this paper, we analyse the provider submissions that played a crucial role in universities' TEF rating. We conducted a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of all of the provider statements (232 statements; 1,742,438 words) submitted by participating institutions in order to un-earth the discourse of the TEF. We found that the themes driving success in the TEF are (1) employment, (2) employability (3) student outcomes and (4) research. Recognising what discourse is rewarded in the TEF has important implications for the accepted discourse of teaching excellence in UK higher education. It is anticipated that, in future, university discourse around teaching quality will continue to be dominated by employability discourse (rather than discourse around, for instance, social goods, personal development or equity). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]