Search

Since the mid-twentieth century, higher education systems worldwide went through huge transformations as a consequence of massification and the recognition of knowledge as key for economic development. The emergence of new teaching modes, the intensity of research, and performativity and accountability pressures impacted directly on academic work and, as a result, on academic working conditions. In this article, we examine the changes that the Argentine professoriate has experienced in recent decades. We argue that the process of fragmentation of the academic profession presents particularities in regard to global trends. We analyze the current state and evolution of the academic workforce in public universities by focusing on different aspects related to its academic profile: gender, training, working conditions, employers, positions, types of contracts, academic practice, perceptions about the career, preferences, and job stress/satisfaction. To achieve this, we have relied on data from the Academic Profession in the Knowledge-Based Society (APIKS) survey.

Knowledge applied to innovation is increasingly recognized as an explanatory factor of economic growth. Innovation derives from applying knowledge to generate new products or processes. National Innovation Systems (NIS) performs as the formal or informal network of people within institutions interacting to produce and apply knowledge to innovation. NIS can be understood as two subsystems: one based on scientific and technological work, producing codified products (publications and patents), and the other centered on practical actions to diffuse, apply, and use knowledge. Our objective is to assess cost efficiency in the production of codified knowledge outputs (CKO), being our unit of analysis NIS (countries). To attain our goal, we apply a Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) to estimate a cost frontier of CKO. The panel sample includes 1189 observations for 23 years (1996-2019) and 82 countries. Our main results identify determinants and patterns of efficiency and productivity, tendencies, and specifics of countries and groups of them.

Education plays a pivotal role in fostering human capital across various domains such as science, politics, and the economy, thereby significantly affecting economic growth. Turkey (Türkiye) stands as a prominent destination for international students seeking continued higher education, yet it faces challenges and opportunities, according to prior research. Responding to these dynamics, this study constructs a research model by integrating social identity theory and contingency theory. With a deductive approach and quantitative techniques for data analysis, our research aims to explore the antecedents of institutional reputation in the Turkish higher education landscape. The population of the study is international students (N = 200,000 and n = 250) who are studying at different public higher education institutions in Türkiye. The data have been analyzed using the Smart PLS 4 program. This investigation hypothesizes that informational influence, online learning quality, perceived value, perceived service quality, and an institution's image exert positive and significant effects on institution reputation. However, our empirical findings challenge one of these assumptions, revealing insufficient evidence to support the assertion that online learning quality significantly influences institution image. Consequently, our study adds to the scholarly discourse by contributing empirical insights into the phenomenon within the context of Turkish higher education institutions.

Through a multistakeholder partnership, this research aims to catalyze the development of a blue economy corridor (BEC) through community-based asset mapping in the eastern portion of the Tar-Pamlico River Basin in North Carolina, a geographic area predominated by physically and culturally rural landscapes. Underpinned by appreciative inquiry, this project aims to counter a deficit model of community development in this portion of eastern North Carolina by increasing awareness of quality of life assets that communities currently possess and may leverage for sustainable economic, environmental, and social development through their inclusion in a digital interactive map freely available to the public.

Anchor movements rest on the premise that people- and place-based initiatives can be mutually reinforcing. The community development movement, however, has been haunted for years by the people-place dilemma -- the idea that efforts to help people harm efforts to uplift places and vice versa. Most of the literature on the anchor strategy has focused on one horn of the dilemma, namely, the problem that revitalizing a place may lead to rising housing costs that burden and ultimately displace longtime lower-income residents of the neighborhood. In this article, we examine the other horn of the people-place dilemma -- that helping people in disinvested communities may enable them to move elsewhere, leaving behind poorer communities. We examine this issue through a case study of the St. Louis Anchor Action Network (STLAAN), a collaboration of 16 anchor institutions. St. Louis is a classic legacy city that once enjoyed rapid growth but is now characterized by a falling population and high poverty. We document longstanding trends that have drained STLAAN's focus geography of people and resources, as well as more recent growth of an "eds and meds" economy that presents an opportunity to address decades of disinvestment and decline. We document STLAAN's efforts to invest in its focus geography and the people who live there and conclude with research proposals that could help guide anchor initiatives facing similar challenges.

This article aims to identify the mutual relationship between the awareness of the importance of mathematical competencies for the acquisition of work-related skills and the perceived importance of the latter for performance in future work and successful participation in the labor market. How these issues relate to math anxiety is also explored. The above is examined on a sample of university students in the selected education institution (HEI) N =297 in the Czech Republic in 2022. Subsequently, a series of semi-structured interviews were conducted with the students in 2023. It was found that by improving work-related skills for a future career, math anxiety increases. A crucial finding is up to 47 % of the perceived importance of competencies for future job performance can be explained by understanding the importance of mathematics for their acquisition. The findings of this study have the potential to contribute to the improvement of mathematics education and the development of a more skilled and capable workforce, which can ultimately lead to greater economic growth and social progress. In addition, this article contains practical recommendations on how to use these findings in the practice of mathematics education not only in the selected higher education institution.

There is an increasing trend toward regionalization as higher education adapts to openness and globalization. In response, East African countries formed networks and partnerships that strengthened business, higher education, student and staff mobility, and research. This is because regionalization is embedded in East Africa's economy, politics, culture, and social norms. In addition, regionalization is influenced by internationalization and globalization. It promises development opportunities, although challenges are inevitable. This paper examines the contributions of regional student mobility to East Africa's development. We use neoliberal and world systems theories to illuminate the advantages and disadvantages of regionalizing higher education and explain how partner states can maximize opportunities and minimize challenges. Data was collected through convenience sampling of two hundred international students and two staff members in international students' offices. Data analysis revealed that the regionalization of East African higher education reflects historical power relations; it has benefits though founded on inequalities.

The objectives of this research were 1) to study creative economy learning approaches to promote sustainable citizenship for secondary school students in the Upper Northern Special Economic Development Zones, Thailand, and 2) to design guidelines for creative economy learning management to promote sustainable citizenship. for secondary school students in the Upper Northern Special Economic Development Zones, Thailand, and 3) to study the results of using creative economy learning management approaches to promote sustainable citizenship for secondary school students in the Upper Northern Special Economic Development Zones, Thailand. The research was action research. Samples in this research included 1) a group of 15 people who provided information on creative economy learning with the selection based on purposive sampling, 2) a group of 7 people who evaluate learning innovations with selection based on purposive sampling and 3) learning innovation trial group including 299 secondary school students with selection based on simple random sampling, coming up with a total of 321 students. The research tools included 1) a semi-unstructured interview form, 2) a form to evaluate the effectiveness of learning management approaches, and 3) a sustainable citizenship assessment form. The research results revealed that: (1) The study on creative economy learning approaches to promote sustainable citizenship for secondary school students in the Upper Northern Special Economic Development Zones, Thailand revealed that creative economy learning management is an integration of creative economy concepts and a basis for learning for students to focus on skills, knowledge and understanding of the economic system with a production system of products and services that rely on the existing experiences and knowledge base. This can be done by making use of cultural resources, including economy, traditions, ways of life, and ways of living, combined with knowledge. creativity and technology level to lead to the appropriate upgrading of one's own economic system. The creative economy learning management to promote sustainable citizenship for secondary school students in the Upper Northern Special Economic Development Zones, Thailand will require promotion to bring about learning competency in 4 areas, consisting of 1) Competency regarding Community Engaged Learning 2) Economic Literacy Competency 3) Competency regarding Environmental Awareness and Green Citizenship and 4) Competency regarding Creative Economy Innovation Development; (2) Designing creative economy learning guidelines to promote sustainable citizenship for secondary school students in the Upper Northern Special Economic Development Zones, Thailand, it was found that the researcher had designed a learning plan that integrated creative economy learning methods. It is designed as a lesson plan for the creative economy by using the area-based learning cycle teaching strategy (AAAR Teaching Approach) of Mangkhang (2023) together with creative community economics learning activities for 12 class periods, with evaluation results for the overall quality at the most appropriate level; and (3) The study on the results of using creative economics learning management approaches to promote sustainable citizenship for secondary school students in the Upper Northern Special Economic Development Zones, Thailand revealed that the level of students' sustainable citizenship in an overall picture was at the highest level.

This paper used graduation statistics of the Namibian secondary higher education over two decades to determine linkages to human capital of the youth and its multiplication into economic development. The paper assessed the effect of regional differences to show historic educational discrimination and why the education reform was required to correct the skewed past. It was hypothesized that the educational reform would result into improvements of the academic levels within the disadvantaged regions and anticipated that the correction will partly have negative effects on the previously advantaged regions. By applying panel data, the paper attempts to simultaneously address the complex relationships of development, education, and the underlying causalities within the economic system of Namibia. Concepts in the testing of socio-economic components are done by looking at confounding logics, stochastics, and the use of latent variables to determine linkages by using the canonical correlation method. This approach could be extended in future as guide for decisions on education. Our study shows that the implementation of the Namibian education reform resulted into increased enrolment numbers, but unfortunately also into the declining of academic levels, combined with the narrowing of learners' outputs. The reform response in the previously disadvantaged regions was slower than expected. Findings of the longitudinal data show that education levels in Namibia partly contributed towards human capital formation to multiply into economic development. The study shows that the method of analyzing linkages between cause and effect by means of causality provides advantages for analysis. The results confirm findings that human capital formation has a positive effect on the country's economic status, but for efficacy analysis of policy, we need regional information.

Through higher education-migration ('edugration') systems, many immigrant-dependent countries have become structurally reliant on the retention of post-secondary international students as a source of the so-called global talent. This emerging area of research focuses primarily on the "potential" economic contributions international students may perform post-graduation. However, the labour international students perform "during" their studies--both within the broader labour market and, more specifically, the higher education sector--is relatively absent in the academic and public discourse, despite its growing significance. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of the modern/colonial global imaginary and the ways in which this imaginary frames international students as 'cash, competition, or charity' in the Global North (Stein & Andreotti, "Higher Education," 72, 225 239, 2016), we call for a renewed understanding of governments' engagement with--and higher education's complicity in--the framing of international students as workers. Utilizing collaborative autoethnography (CAE) as a method of inquiry, we explore ways the 'cash, competition, or charity' framing impacts international graduate students' experiences in the Canadian post-secondary context. We suggest an update to Stein and Andreotti's framing by adding 'labour' as a fourth dominant trope framing international students in Canada and, increasingly, across the Global North.

Higher Education Institutions are expected to stimulate the innovation system and to contribute to the development of societies in a global perspective. Within this context, there is an increasing focus on internationalization. HEIs are developing institutional mechanisms to support internationalization while academics are expected to carry specific practices that allow them to improve the internationalization of knowledge production. At the same time, they are encouraged to engage with non-academic partners to co-produce and transfer knowledge, contributing, in this way, to economic and social development. Although there is some research on the impact of internationalization on academic entrepreneurship, studies on the effects in other dimensions of academic engagement with society are almost absent. This paper aims to fill this gap by analyzing the relationship between academics' internationalization practices and perceptions and the development of different types of academic engagement. Our analysis draws on quantitative analysis with data provided by an international survey (APIKS) and explores the Portuguese context. Findings show that the different practices and perspectives on internationalization impact differently on the way scientists engage. While there are positive effects of internationalization of research on engagement, the time academics stay abroad and the high focus on publishing in internationally high-rated journals may negatively affect academics' orientation towards the local community. This paper contributes to the debate on the role of the internationalization in the context of a knowledge-based society, considering different dimensions and a broad spectrum of knowledge-based engagement activities.

This critical interpretive paper deploys Walter Mignolo's geopolitics of knowledge concept to examine higher education internationalisation in Kazakhstan. Amidst growing concerns about economic and environmental sustainability, elitism and cognitive justice, among other critical issues, internationalisation remains a vital government policy. By tracing Kazakhstan's development since independence from the Soviet Union and focusing on key higher education development policy frameworks, the paper argues and illustrates that: (1) the internationalisation of higher education in Kazakhstan promotes a specific representation of the world that is considered universal and modern; (2) the internationalisation of higher education in Kazakhstan illustrates the existing hierarchical global higher education system that is dominated by the West as centres of knowledge and learning while allocating other countries peripheral roles; and (3) the geopolitics of knowledge concept enables the reading of higher education internationalisation beyond what is knowledge to who, why and where knowledge is produced. The data for this paper came from a qualitative study that involved 15 semi-structured interviews with graduates who studied abroad at Western universities through the government-sponsored Bolashak Scholarship. Three focus group sessions with 21 graduate students at Nazarbayev University complemented the interviews. The qualitative data suggest that Mignolo's geopolitics of knowledge offers a close-to-perfect description of the internationalisation of higher education in Kazakhstan. The conclusion drawn from this post-Soviet study is the universalisation of Western knowledge as nations utilise it for meaningful development, despite decolonial and cognitive justice concerns.

This study examines hegemonic discourses on English and socioeconomic development from teachers' perspectives. Specifically, it scrutinizes the sorts of positions a group of 36 teachers of English, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese in an undergraduate program of modern languages take towards both the predominant narrative of English as the language of development and the role that the languages they teach may also play. Using postdevelopment as a theoretical framework, teachers' social representations around the languages they teach are analyzed. Findings suggest that, although there is a strong tendency to uncritically accept and accommodate instrumental and Anglo normative views of development, "small hopes" for configuring plural, locally sensitive, less instrumental, and ecological understandings are also emerging.

In order to promote Canadian students' mobility to China, it is essential to understand their motivations to study in Chinese universities because it influences their learning experiences. Through the application of the push-pull model as a conceptual framework (Altbach, 1998; Mazzarol & Soutar, 2002), this study explores the factors that motivate Canadian exchange students to study in China. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 non-Chinese spoken Canadian exchange students from 9 universities. The findings reveal that both push and pull factors affect students' decisions to study in China. The key push factors are learning the Chinese language and culture and personal growth; the primary pull factors are China's potential for economic development, future opportunities, and the availability of exchange programs. This study provides stakeholders with insights into designing exchange programs targeted to students' needs and developing marketing strategies to attract Canadian international students. [Note: The publication year (2024) shown on the PDF is incorrect. The correct publication year for this article is 2023.]

The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of the change in the vision of vocational education within the scope of the "Modernization of Vocational and Technical Education Project" (MTEM) and "Strengthening the Vocational Education and Training System" (MEGEP) financed by the EU, which was concluded by the Ministry of National Education. Vocational education is a type of education that increases the employability of students by providing vocational skills and is very important in the economic development of countries. Vocational education has gained even more importance in recent years due to the increasing need for human resources. This increasing importance obliges to take some decisions about education locally and to transfer some responsibilities to local administrations as a means of development and development. In addition to this, it is necessary to set standards for each occupational group for an advanced vocational education and citizens to take responsibility for a qualified vocational education. In the relevant literature review, it was seen that there are limited studies that evaluate the policies and practices vocational education that Turkey has been involved in and implemented in the European Union harmonization process in a holistic manner. In this study, which was conducted based on qualitative research method, a holistic single case design was used and the data was analyzed by document analysis method. A total of seven documents were reviewed within the scope of the study. This study evaluates the studies on the development and standardization of the vocational education system through the projects made on this subject and sheds light on the development of the last twenty years.

This paper is a systematic review of empirical research on "tourism problems and entrepreneurship development" in the context of Vietnam. Its significance and urgency rest upon a prolonged and immense decline in Vietnam's tourism revenue due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and its stagnation of tourism recovery. The systematic review methodology provides rigorous procedures to achieve reliable and accurate results. Besides evaluating and identifying gaps in existing studies, tourism problems are discussed, and coherent resolutions are provided. As a result, a holistic picture of current studies and relevant approaches to tourism entrepreneurship development in Vietnam is projected.

In the 1960s and 1970s, mass campaigns were the dominant model of adult literacy provision, especially in countries of the Global South. After a long absence, there is now a revival of international interest in this model. This paper looks back on the earlier history of mass campaigns and the geopolitical reasons for their rejection, to help make sense of the problems encountered by more recent attempts to mount literacy campaigns in Timor-Leste and Australia. This analysis problematizes the concept of innovation, by identifying its association with a neo-liberal ideology of economic development which continues to produce adult literacy policy and programs which are ineffective at a national or global level.

The efficiency of universities, which have a network structure of production process, is an essential component of performance measurement in education. However, most previous studies use traditional Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which disregards the network structure of the production process in universities. This study adopts a two-stage Network Data Envelopment Analysis (NDEA) with shared inputs model to assess the overall, teaching and research efficiencies of Turkish research universities. The findings show that only 6 out of 23 research universities are efficient, and some universities with lower world rankings are more efficient than those with higher rankings. On the other hand, no significant difference was found between the efficiency levels of regions with a high level of socio-economic development and regions with a relatively low level of socio-economic development. The study also evaluates the effects of different priority scenarios on efficiency and the optimal allocation of shared inputs between sub-processes. This study provides guidance for universities seeking to improve their performance and for the Council of Higher Education (CHE) in determining incentives for research universities. It also promotes the use of multi-stage NDEA with shared inputs model over traditional DEA for accurate efficiency assessment in the field of education.

Education has been considered a cornerstone for human and economic development. Although there is a national educational strategy in most countries, various implementations are at the state level. This paper studies academic efficiency at the primary and secondary levels and the human development dimensions -- long and healthy life, being knowledgeable, and enjoying a decent standard of life -- at the state level. For this purpose, a network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) with two stages was proposed. The first stage studies the educational process efficiency, while the second evaluates its impact in the form of the human development index. The study found significant differences between the evaluated states in the education stage, where the lowest efficiencies are mainly in the southwest of Mexico. The results also indicate that better education quality leads to greater regional, economic, and social development at the state level. This study contributes to the NDEA applications on the understanding of the impact that education has in improving the development of the regions holistically.

This systematic literature review (SRL) examines the impact of English educational tourism (EET) on the growth of local Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Through a comprehensive search of academic databases and systematic assessment of study quality, a total of 49 studies were selected for inclusion. The studies varied in design, location, and intervention, but all focused on the relationship between English educational tourism and the growth of local SMEs. This SLR focuses on the typology of SMEs in EET, its impact on rural economy and local community empowerment, and SMEs' challenges in growing their businesses. The findings suggest that English educational tourism can have a positive impact on local SMEs and rural communities, including increased revenue, community empowerment, cultural preservation, and poverty reduction. However, it is crucial to ensure that the benefits of EET are distributed fairly and that local communities are actively involved in the decision-making process to maximize positive impacts and mitigate potential negative impacts. Overall, the results suggest that English educational tourism can be a promising strategy for promoting the growth of local economy, but more research is needed to fully understand the conditions under which this impact is most effective. [The page range (304-318) shown on the .pdf is incorrect. The correct page range is 304-319.]

Educational marketing enabled higher education institutions (HEIs) to identify consumer needs and prepare actions to enhance their competitiveness. The educational field specificities are not considered and HEIs use the same business strategies, despite the importance of educational marketing. This is due to the lack of theories and models consistent with educational marketing and this study sought to understand educational marketing management practices focusing on innovation in Brazilian private HEIs. We performed a qualitative approach through multiple case studies by creating two instruments for interviews at various structure levels. We selected active HEIs in Brazil's different regions, given the diversity of regional development that surrounds the country. We performed content analysis for each case study individually and subsequently all cases together in a comparative and integrated method. The results showed common points between conceptions and actions developed by marketing managers in the HEIs, investigating how management and innovation practices in educational marketing occur in Brazilian's HEIs. This study permits replication of good practices in other HEIs; mainly assisting the ones with financial resource limitations in developing their marketing strategies.

Existing literature has noticed two competing ideas about the state-citizen relationship promoted in China's moral education curriculum: protecting one's freedom and rights, and contributing to and even sacrificing for the country. To reconcile this contradiction, this study uses the framework of 'neoliberalism as exception' to analyze the textbooks of "Morality and Laws," the primary teaching and learning materials in China's moral education. Defining neoliberalism as a focus on individual conduct, including self-reliance, self-entrepreneurship, and individual rights and freedom, this study shows how these textbooks selectively employ neoliberal ideas to promote an understanding of personhood where students are expected to not only practice self-reliance but also prioritize collective and national interests over their rights and freedom. This selective adoption of neoliberal tenets contributes to China's economic development and national cohesion, but it risks perpetuating systemic inequity since all students are posited as coming from the same socioeconomic background.

This article develops a model of education from Murray Bookchin's social ecology by demonstrating how "the economy," specifically growth and employment, intervenes between the environment and education, impeding the goal of environmental education. By reformulating Bookchin's central claim in terms of power, rather than domination, the argument for limits to growth is strengthened and gives rise to a necessary feature of ecological sustainability; namely, the collective imposition of limits on throughput, the technical term for resource use. To make such collective action effective, the model proposes that active citizenship become a more common aim of education, especially in relation to the increasingly narrow goal of education for employment.

Background: Mathematics homework is highly prevalent in East Asia. Teachers and parents expect mathematics homework to improve students' performance; however, studies have not clearly defined the effectiveness of the assignment of different amounts of homework. Aims: This study analyses the differential effect of homework amount on various facets of Chinese students' mathematics achievement using a longitudinal design. It aims, thereby, to contribute to the existing knowledge of homework effectiveness and mathematics learning and to provide insights for student development. Sample: The sample included 2383 grade 9 students from a mid-sized city with a moderate level of economic and educational development in central China. Methods: We administered a student-reported questionnaire, collected school reports of mathematics achievements to track retrospective longitudinal variations in mathematics over half a year and analysed the differential effectiveness of homework on mathematics achievement at four hierarchical cognitive levels with Hierarchical Linear Model. Results: The results indicated that assigning more homework at the class level could enhance students' mathematics achievement at a low cognitive level, although this effectiveness tended to disappear when the set homework time reached about 1.5-2 h. We did not find evidence that assigning more homework enhances students' mathematics achievement at higher cognitive levels. Conclusions: Overall, this study provides evidence on the effectiveness of homework and offers implications for educational practice and future research.

This study explores to conceptualize and practicalize three-dimensional interaction model of internationalization from China's higher education perspective. Applying documentary analysis, a qualitative method, and interviews, 15 international administrative staff and directors from eight sampled local universities were interviewed to present in-depth insights into the internationalization of the local higher education system in Beijing. The major findings are that strategic positioning in terms of the internationalization of local universities should be based on the following: top-level design of a national macro internationalization strategy; a focus on the internal need for internationalization at the regional level; and understanding the distinctive advantages of internationalization at the local level. The choices for the internationalization of local universities should focus on the absolute advantages of the 'scale' of resources and rationally expand the relative advantages concerning the 'structure' of resources. Implementation of the strategy for internationalization of local universities should actively build on the competitive advantage of 'strategic resource integration'. In conclusion, the need to combine national needs with regional development, the importance of combining connotation and capacity building, and of adhering to a combination of a top-level layout or design and local practice are explored and summarized. Finally, both the theoretical contribution and practical implications of this study are discussed.

The digital gender divide is one of the most critical issues in education today. Digital gender gaps can exist in students' access to and use of ICT, attitudes toward technology, and digital knowledge and skills. However, previous research has primarily examined these divides in isolation and largely ignored their interdependencies. Using student data from the 2013 and 2018 International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS), this study examines how these gaps are related. Specifically, we synthesize evidence on gender gaps in digital knowledge and skills, controlling for differences in ICT access and technology attitudes. In addition, we examine the role that technology attitudes play in the gender gap in digital knowledge and skills. Our findings suggest that (a) girls outperform boys in digital knowledge and skills ([beta] = -0.11 to -0.29); (b) gender differences in attitudes toward technology partially explain gender differences in digital knowledge and skills; (c) the variability within and between countries in the gender gap in students' digital skills is partly explained by the type of digital skill and the country's socio-economic development and gender inequality. Overall, this research shows a relationship between the gender gaps in students' digital knowledge and skills and the gender gaps in students' attitudes toward technology. We conclude that the first- and second-level gender digital divides are connected.

In this essay, I argue that we should radicalize managerial climate change education given that incremental and accommodative forms of responsible management learning and education (RMLE) are at odds with the urgency, nature, and magnitude of the climate crisis. I argue for three practices to radicalize RMLE, and illustrate them through examples from a degrowth context. First, management educators should engage in anti-paradigmatic performative politics to disrupt the reality-making of climate damaging theories, and "realize" better alternative theories. Second, as management educators, we should engage ourselves, our students, and wider stakeholders in anti-paradigmatic thought that transcends and challenges problematic mainstream management paradigms. Third, we should explore what and how we and our students can learn from radical climate movements' civil disobedience, in order to disrupt climate-damaging practices. In this paper, I aim to provoke and facilitate urgently needed discussions about the radicalization of RMLE for climate change education and beyond. Therefore, I close this essay with an invitation for rejoinders and suggest salient implications for educational practitioners and researchers.

The article synthesizes ideas from the capability approach, the embeddedness approach, and Nancy Fraser's three-dimensional scale of justice and develops a theoretical framework for understanding subjective well-being (SWB) as a positive functioning. It also proposes an instrument for measuring SWB and its relationship with participation in non-formal adult education. Using data from the European Social Survey, carried out in 2012, for 24 European countries and applying multilevel linear models for the analysis, the study finds evidence for a positive association between participation in non-formal adult education and SWB. The results show that differences in the SWB among people who have participated in non-formal adult education and those who have not are higher for those who have no higher education and are unemployed than for those who have higher education and paid work. This study also reveals that when people live in countries with better economic and democratic development and a more individualistic culture, the differences in their SWB by participating in non-formal adult education are smaller than when they live in countries with worse economic and democratic development and a more collectivistic culture.

This paper investigated the impacts of education on women's empowerment in Kenya using six waves of nationally-representative KDHS data. Our study utilizes the change in educational structure in 1985 as an instrument and finds that women under the new system enhanced their schooling by approximately two years. One year of education prolongs women's timing of the first birth, decreases female genital mutilation for the first daughter, reduces intimate partner violence, and improves women's household decision-making. Our findings are robust to several robustness checks. We examined different paths to explain these results, including information exposure, partner matching, and labor market engagement.

This paper unpacks our efforts as external evaluators to work toward decolonizing our evaluation practice. Undertaking this writing exercise as a form of reflective practice demonstrated that decolonization is much more complex than simply translating materials, organizing locals to collect data, and building participants' capacity around Western modalities. While this complexity is clear in the decolonization literature, practice-based examples that depict barriers and thought processes are rarely presented. Through this paper, we deconstruct our deeply held beliefs around what constitutes good evaluation to assess the effectiveness of our decolonizing approach. Through sharing our critical consciousness-raising dialoguing, this paper reports our progress thus far and provides information and provocations to support others attempting to decolonize their practice.

This paper demonstrates how the innovative application of a Collective Intelligence approach enhanced Local Skills Improvement Planning information for employers, education and skills training organisations and regional economic policy organisations. This took place within a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between a Chamber of Commerce and a University. This aimed to develop and deploy regional business intelligence for enhanced policy and decision-making in enterprise and economic development. The project converged knowledge from several research centres including economics, entrepreneurship and innovation, data science, and Artificial Intelligence. The paper presents a project case study which provides two contributions to applied knowledge. Firstly, it demonstrates how a Collective Intelligence (CI) approach can be applied to achieve rapid results in resolving the real-world problem of local skills information availability. Useful real-time data was gathered from employers in three sectors on skills requirements, supply and training. This was analysed using Artificial Intelligence tools, then shared publicly via an automated Internet portal, providing a scalable model for wider use. Secondly, it explores and evaluates how the knowledge exchange (KE) process can function effectively and quickly in applying CI-based innovation in practical ways which create new value, within a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between a University and Chamber of Commerce.environment.