Abstract This study investigates how internationally educated Mongolian graduates pursue professional projects after returning to Mongolian higher education and how some of these projects develop from individual academic agency into collective action. It draws on semi‐structured interviews with 30 graduates trained in Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Germany, Czech, Hungary, the United Kingdom and the United States, across engineering and technology, agriculture, natural sciences, health and medical sciences, social sciences and humanities. The findings identify a layered pattern of post‐return agency. Graduates first repositioned themselves as ‘local experts with international experience’ and adapted their teaching, research and professional expectations to local conditions. Some then coordinated through departmental relationships, while a smaller subset built institutional, professional and transnational alliances. The clearest collective initiatives were found among seven participants. When individual action proved insufficient, some graduates extended their agency through institutional, professional and transnational alliances, including committees, cross‐departmental networks, NGOs, professional associations and international collaborations. By illustrating post‐return academic agency as layered across individual, departmental, institutional and professional/societal spaces, this study shows how internationally shaped professional projects may remain individual, become coordinated within institutions or move beyond the institutions through professional and transnational alliances.
Abstract The increasing heterogeneity of learning needs and preconditions in inclusive mainstream classrooms entails that not all learners are equally able to meet the regular learning objectives. In response, various integrative measures have been implemented to tailor instruction to students' individual needs. However, limited empirical evidence exists on how such measures shape students' subsequent educational pathways. The present study focuses on curriculum modifications, a measure for low‐achieving students that entails individualised adaptations of learning objectives, and examines their association with educational pathways in secondary education, using Switzerland as a case study. Drawing on stigma and signalling theories, the study investigates whether receiving curriculum modifications is linked to differential educational trajectories. The analysis is based on large‐scale, administratively linked test score data from four Swiss cantons and employs a propensity score matching approach to account for the multidimensional differences between students who received curriculum modifications and those who did not. Results from a series of logistic regression models indicate that students receiving curriculum modifications are more likely to enter less academically demanding educational pathways and to experience disruptive educational transitions than comparable students without curriculum modifications. These findings suggest that, despite their intention to promote inclusion, curriculum modifications may inadvertently pose an obstacle for students' educational pathways in secondary education.
Abstract This exploratory article explores how one UK university sought to understand and enhance its engagement with the local LGBTQ+ community. Drawing on poststructuralist queer and homonormative theories and civic university frameworks, the study analyses data from a community‐facing Pride survey completed by 53 LGBTQ+ individuals. Through emergent coding and thematic analysis, eight key issues are identified: experiences of marginalisation, visibility and community engagement, safe and inclusive spaces, support services, outreach, inclusive institutional values, LGBTQ+ learning opportunities and the need for community connection. The findings highlight the persistence of cis and heteronormativity and the importance of universities as sites of refuge, affirmation, inclusion and resistance. This study shows that LGBTQ+ individuals look to their local university not only as an educational provider but also as an ethical leader, a support network and a cultural anchor. As an exploratory study, these findings are intended to provide indicative insights into how universities are perceived, rather than generalisable conclusions about institutional practice. While the study is limited by its small scale and event‐specific context, it offers learning for other universities aiming to enact their civic mission through meaningful engagement with LGBTQ+ communities. At a time of increased political contestation around gender and sexuality in the United Kingdom, this article offers insight into the role of universities as inclusive civic actors capable of challenging exclusion and fostering social justice.
Abstract In recent years, there has been increased attention on the effect of extracurricular activities on the academic performance of students, especially in the music education (ME) programme. The study aimed to analyse the relationship between participation in the ME programme and the academic performance of learners between 6 and 17 years. A quantitative survey design was used to collect data from 420 students in three British international schools in China through self‐report questionnaires that examined students' perceptions of ME participation, learning experiences and skill development. ME participation was positively associated with cognitive skills, academic engagement and self‐regulation skills. In turn, cognitive skills, academic engagement and self‐regulation skills were positively associated with perceived academic outcomes. Mediation analysis further indicated that these factors significantly explained the relationship between ME participation and perceived academic outcomes. Age group comparisons showed that older students reported higher levels of ME participation, cognitive skills, academic engagement, self‐regulation skills and perceived academic outcomes than younger students. As the data were based on self‐reports, the findings reflect students' perceptions rather than objectively measured academic outcomes. This investigation extends existing literature by examining how cognitive skills, academic engagement and self‐regulation skills jointly explain the association between ME participation and perceived academic outcomes across a broad age range of school students. ME participation was positively associated with key learning‐related competencies and perceived academic outcomes, highlighting its potential role in supporting students' academic development and engagement.
Abstract The intertwined crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation represent profound global challenges. Education holds a unique role in enabling all young people to navigate uncertainty, participate meaningfully in decision‐making and contribute to more just and sustainable ways of living. In 2022, the Department for Education in England published a sustainability and climate change strategy which included the National Education Nature Park (NENP) programme. Using Carol Bacchi's ‘What's the Problem Represented to Be?’ (WPR) approach, we examined the first two years of the implementation of the NENP, analysing published materials ( n = 20) to consider how the purposes of Environmental Education are understood, constructed and implemented. We identified three broad themes: (1) Science and/or STEM knowledge and skills are fundamental to engagement with nature, (2) Measurement is the ‘signature pedagogy’ of the NENP and (3) Nature Connectedness is broadly understood as individual and linked to personal wellbeing. These framings remain largely aligned with a neoliberal, measurement‐driven logic that privileges scientific knowledge and quantifiable outcomes over broader educational purposes. However, there is much to be hopeful about. The whole‐setting approach embedded in the NENP offers valuable scope for cultural and pedagogical change, and the planned broadening of curriculum‐linked resources is promising as it signals a movement beyond a STEM‐dominated model. Furthermore, the professional learning structures afforded by the NENP represent a significant foundation for strengthening teacher confidence, skills and capacity across phases and disciplines. These are hopeful possibilities for strengthening school‐based Environmental Education in England.
Abstract This paper presents an exploratory analysis of contemporary curricular and professional qualification policies in the Scottish education system, focusing on minimum qualification thresholds for mathematics teaching. The study examines how veteran secondary mathematics practitioners perceive the structural and pedagogical implications of using an SCQF Level 5 qualification baseline for primary and out‐of‐field educators within the Broad General Education. Grounded in Michael Young's ‘powerful knowledge’ paradigm and the Three Futures framework, the paper analyses systemic tensions between educational genericism and disciplinary mastery. Adopting an interpretivist framework, the study employs Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) to evaluate qualitative data drawn from the asynchronous written reflections of a purposive cohort of six veteran secondary mathematics teachers. The analysis indicates that participants view the lower qualification ceiling as institutionalising an instrumental approach that disconnects early secondary curricula from formal abstract structures, such as algebra and deductive proof. Furthermore, this constraint is seen as potentially limiting a practitioner's capacity to navigate non‐routine pupil inquiry, thereby encouraging a retreat to procedural delivery. The paper concludes that these minimum entry standards, compounded by out‐of‐field deployment, risk exacerbating regional educational stratification, potentially compromising the long‐term STEM pipeline and straining the egalitarian aspirations of the Scottish educational model.
Abstract Debates surrounding motherhood have long centred on women's roles as carers. Although motherhood is now more widely recognised within feminist scholarship, it often remains conceptually separate from identities associated with formal educational discourse. Yet mothers frequently act not only as facilitators of learning but also as reflective actors who shape how education is understood and practised in everyday life. This paper engages with these debates to argue that, while mothers undertake care work, they also participate in the facilitation and interpretation of knowledge, engaging with their children's learning at a deeper, reflective level. Drawing on the work of Bell Hooks and Richard Pring, we suggest that mothers may be understood as informal education providers who facilitate holistic learning experiences for their children. At the same time, their everyday engagement with children's education involves reflective interpretation and meaning making, which can be understood as a form of philosophising about education. The identities of mother and teacher therefore intersect, positioning women in transitional spaces of agency in which they continually adapt their practices in response to their children's needs. The analysis draws on narrative interviews with nine mothers of primary school‐aged children (4–11 years) from diverse immigrant communities in England, conducted in 2021 following the major COVID‐19 lockdowns. The pandemic period provided a unique context in which education moved into the home, blurring the boundaries between home and school and creating liminal spaces where learning occurred through multiple modalities. Within these spaces, mothers engaged closely with their children's learning while negotiating their own identities as carers, facilitators and educators. Through a thematic–narrative analysis, the paper explores how mothers construct these identities while integrating play, culture and context into their children's formal learning. In doing so, it contributes to the growing literature on mothers as educational partners and facilitators by proposing that their everyday practices also contain philosophical dimensions. By shaping learning environments, drawing on cultural resources and reflecting on the purposes of education within family life, mothers can be understood not only as supporters of schooling but also facilitate pedagogy through their own philosophical approaches to learning.
Abstract This longitudinal study explored the distinct trajectories of remote parenting practices as perceived by China's left‐behind middle school students and the associations of these trajectories on academic achievement and resilience. Data were collected from 2981 first‐year middle school students whose parents are migrant workers. Using parallel‐process growth mixture modelling, we identified five distinct trajectories of remote authoritarian parenting and remote parental involvement in learning. The High Stable Remote Involvement with Decline in Remote Authoritarian Parenting trajectory (54.38%) achieved the highest academic performance and academic resilience. Conversely, the Decreasing Remote Involvement with Rising Remote Authoritarian Parenting trajectory (9.39%) showed the lowest outcomes. These findings underscore the critical importance of maintaining consistent and supportive remote parental involvement while reducing controlling behaviours to enhance the academic and psychological well‐being of left‐behind adolescents.
Abstract Hope is frequently invoked in education, yet rarely theorised. Where it has been theorised, it has been understood in two largely separate ways: as an individual psychological capacity, in the positive‐psychology tradition and as a critical‐emancipatory stance, in the pedagogy of hope. This article proposes a third: a theory, the ecology of hope, that locates hope not in the individual alone but in the relationship between a person and the systems that surround them. Bringing the cognitive psychology of hope into dialogue with ecological systems theory, the social‐ecological account of resilience, and utopian methodology, in which a better society is something deliberately designed, it argues that hope is an emergent and designable property of educational ecologies: something a system can build, a learner can be helped to perceive and may in time learn to seek for themselves. For young people who have experienced adversity, and who often arrive with hesitant hope, or with little hope at all, this cultivation is especially consequential and involves the gradual development of learned hopefulness. The theory is organised around three interdependent dimensions: architectural, transformative and tangible, through which hope can be understood, deliberately built and studied as a property of educational ecologies.
Abstract This study explores lecturers' educational curation, that is: how they select, structure and share educational resources, and how this curational behaviour is shaped by their beliefs. Semi‐structured interviews with 23 lecturers at a Dutch University of Applied Sciences show that curational behaviour comprises five curational activities: searching for resources, assessing and selecting resources, creating and editing resources, structuring resources and sharing resources. These are complemented by the meta‐activity of soliciting feedback. The findings illustrate how these curational activities are shaped by a diverse and personal mix of behavioural, normative and control beliefs. Lecturers emphasized the activities of searching for resources and subsequently assessing and selecting them, and for this, mainly considered content‐focused beliefs about student learning outcomes, quality of resources and resource availability. This may reflect the nature of curation: even within student‐focused approaches of education, lecturers believe that learning requires a foundation of appropriate content, leading to content‐focused beliefs being particularly salient. Subsequently, structuring and sharing resources receive less explicit attention and may be embedded in routine classroom practice rather than part of deliberate curation, even though this contradicts views that offering organization, structure and context when sharing resources is important for students' learning. Overall, the study shows that curational behaviour is a multifaceted and belief‐driven process, calling for flexible, belief‐aware conceptual models for curriculum design as well as professional development as institutions adapt to evolving resource ecosystems.
Abstract Although constant changes driven by reforms, technological adaptations and shifts in formal rules and regulations have contributed to the emergence of change fatigue in education, the consequences and mitigating factors remain largely underexplored. This study examined the extent to which change fatigue was related to teacher emotional exhaustion and work engagement in Türkiye. Additionally, it examined transformational leadership as a buffering mechanism in the relationship between change fatigue, exhaustion and engagement. Data were collected from 516 teachers and analysed using structural equation modelling. Findings revealed that perceived change fatigue was significantly associated with emotional exhaustion, which in turn was negatively associated with work engagement. The relationship between change fatigue and work engagement was rather indirect, with emotional exhaustion as the mediator. Furthermore, transformational leadership played a protective role by weakening the negative link between exhaustion and engagement, but not the relationship between change fatigue and emotional exhaustion. Our research concludes that transformational leadership may function as a potential moderator, pacifying the indirect effect of change fatigue on engagement through exhaustion.
This study explores the role of auditory arts-particularly music, rhythm and sound-based activities-in shaping linguistic identity within Saudi Arabian early childhood education (ECE). Grounded in the philosophical insights of Al-Farabi and the contemporary framework of Gert Biesta's World-Centred Education theory, the research examines how audio-musical experiences support children's linguistic, cognitive, social and aesthetic development. Using a qualitative descriptive design, the study employed two methods: (1) focus group discussions with 12 trained early-childhood teachers; and (2) a conceptual content analysis of the national Teachers' Guide for Auditory Arts Activities for KG3. Findings from the content analysis revealed three overarching themes-the competency pulse, the social cadence and the self in motion-with a strong dominance of cognitive and linguistic skills across all units, while social, cultural and creative components appeared less frequently. Focus group findings reinforced the guide's emphasis on cognitive and linguistic gains, highlighting teachers' observations of improved vocabulary, pronunciation, listening skills and rhythmic coordination among children. However, teachers also emphasized the limited presence of cultural depth, native-language identity and creative autonomy in the current curriculum. The integration of auditory arts was viewed as a powerful tool for supporting memory, emotional engagement and classroom interaction. Overall, the study identifies a significant gap between the cognitive strengths of the program and its underdeveloped social, cultural and identity-forming dimensions. These findings underscore the need for more balanced auditory arts curricula that cultivate linguistic identity, cultural belonging, creativity and world-centred engagement in early childhood classrooms.
In England, education is compulsory, but schooling is not: it is legal for families to home educate their children. This form of education is officially termed by the Department for Education as 'Elective Home Education'. As this designation implies, many families home educate as a positive and preferential 'choice'. For others, however, home education is not their desired first option. Drawing on a longitudinal research study that has explored the unfolding educational trajectories of home-educating families, this paper focuses on parents who feel they have no other choice but to home educate to resolve broader issues their children are experiencing in secondary school. Margaret Archer's concept of 'fractured' reflexivity provides a novel lens for unpacking the understudied processes through which such families move involuntarily into home education. It supports understanding of the considerable distress families can endure within the school system, and how this makes it increasingly difficult for parents to construct a pathway out of the situations they find their families in. Positioning the parents in this study as both courageous subjects and the 'casualties' of the modern education system's imperative to act reflexively highlights how their educational decision-making is conditioned structurally and frequently feels anything but free. Overall, the limited agency they experience when they de-register their children from school provides an important sociological challenge to the government's language of home education as 'elective'.
The 2020 resurgence of Black Lives Matter (BLM) mobilised students in England to demand greater representation of racially minoritised voices in English curriculums-a call highlighted by stark inequity: just 1.5% of GCSE texts studied are by racially minoritised authors, despite racially minoritised students comprising 38.0% of the student population. Drawing on Critical Race Theory (CRT), I investigated how 11 secondary school English teachers responded. Through thematic analysis of interview data, aided by a visual timeline stimulus, I examined both the transformative possibilities and the institutional constraints that teachers encountered. Three key findings emerged. First, BLM acted as a definitive catalyst, igniting a pedagogical desire for change. Second, change was facilitated by specific opportunities: student activism, profound engagement with new texts, diverse classrooms and examination boards' expanded offerings. Third, teachers' journeys were curtailed by systemic barriers: canon-centric training, critical resource gaps and multifaceted institutional resistance. My study advances CRT in English education by mapping the mechanisms of exclusion that preserve the canon. I propose four evidence-based interventions: integrating CRT into teacher education; centralised funding for inclusive resources; embedding representation standards in Ofsted frameworks; and formalising student curriculum co-design. Ultimately, my research demonstrates that without institutional transformation, the disruptive potential of BLM remains unrealised, perpetuating the exclusionary dominance of the literary canon.
Study-abroad programs are increasingly adopted and supported by institutions and governments as a strategic tool for deepening internationalisation and public diplomacy through people-to-people, institution-to-institution and country-to-country connections. Yet, the agency of study-abroad students who are engaged in outbound mobility as part of their study program in their home institution has long been neglected. This article draws on a study of the New Colombo Plan (NCP) to explore how Australian students exercise agency during their experiences in China. The article is based on 44 in-depth interviews with Australian students learning abroad in China. It uses a theoretical framework combining Sen's capability approach, Marginson's notion of student self-formation and Tran and Vu's conceptualisation of 'agency in mobility'. The article analyses student agency in developing ethno-relative perspectives, comparative curriculum-specific knowledge, empathy, intercultural competence and professional skills. The research unpacks and conceptualises the five main forms of agency that Australian students exercise to navigate their experiences in China: agency for becoming, needs-response agency, agency for connecting, agency for disrupting and agency for contributing. The article highlights how reverse student mobility, such as Australian student mobility to China, and cross-border student agency in this process can be a powerful mechanism to disrupt coloniality in international education.
Children as activists have become more prominent in recent years. Their activism is manifest in relation to conspicuously political topics such as Black Lives Matter, voting rights, being able to air their views or protesting against injustices related to race, culture and other identities. Less often, if at all, do children engage politically with issues related to food. In discussing questions of food activism, this article draws on reflections from the 'Food activism in the schoolyard' knowledge exchange project that prompted discussion amongst practitioners working with children across formal and informal education contexts in Scotland. Specifically, the article puts a spotlight on the topic of learning for sustainability to address the question of children's food activism. It does so by highlighting two key considerations that impinge on it being a prominent feature in children's lives educationally and more broadly: children's knowledge (or lack thereof) in relation to food, and the question of whose responsibility it is to be concerned about issues related to food. While food is a key component in school curricula, opportunities for interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral collaborations would prove useful. The article seeks to advance the conversation about children's activism, drawing the topic of food activism into focus.
This study examines how Chilean secondary science teachers conceptualise disability when teaching students with autism in integrated classroom settings. Grounded in critical disability studies, the research employs a qualitative story-completion method, using a fictional classroom scenario to prompt teachers to construct narratives that reveal underlying assumptions, discourses and practices regarding disability. Data were collected from 31 in-service science teachers (18 female; 13 male) and analysed using thematic analysis. Three interrelated themes were constructed: (a) managing regulation-the production of the 'calm and functional' science classroom, where disability is framed through behavioural control and participation is contingent on alignment with normative expectations; (b) teachers' positionings-how teachers' pedagogical decisions and interactions actively shape students' experiences, positioning students with autism as subjects of coordination, differentiation and, at times, surveillance; and (c) disability as a model of inspiration-where students are identified as exceptional, with inclusion often tied to displays of excellence or symbolic value. Across these themes, disability emerged as conditional rather than inherent, with participation dependent on behavioural compliance, structured support or demonstrable achievement. The narrative-based approach enabled access to implicit beliefs and socially circulating discourses that may remain less visible in direct questioning methods. The findings suggest that teachers' accounts point to how everyday practices respond to and construct disability within the classroom, often reinforcing social hierarchies within integrated settings. This study highlights the need to critically examine how disability is enacted in practice and calls for pedagogical approaches that support participation for students with autism.
This paper explores what can be learned when educational research "fails." Drawing on a Welland Trust-funded project in the North East of England that aimed to support care-experienced students transitioning from further to higher education, we reflect on why, despite sustained effort, there was a lack of engagement. We situate this "failure" within wider debates on participation and ethics in research with marginalised people. Rather than treating non-participation as absence or dis-engagement, we argue that it constitutes data - a response that signposts to systemic, relational and methodological tensions between researchers, institutions and the communities they seek to involve. Considering research fatigue, institutional gatekeeping and top-down assumptions within widening-participation work and drawing on concepts of refusal, silence and relational ethics, we reposition "failure" as an opportunity for learning about how research constructs and constrains voice, agency and belonging. We conclude with implications for design and governance of future studies with care-experienced and other seldom-heard groups, emphasising slower timelines, genuinely co-created processes and attention to relational trust.
Abstract Studies suggest that adventure learning can develop children's cognitive skills and promote social and emotional learning. However, evidence is needed as to whether the design of adventure learning—school‐based or external/residential—plays a role in that development/promotion, and whether learning gains are maintained. This paper reports the findings of a large‐scale randomised controlled trial with a synergic implementation process evaluation. Randomisation was at the school level. The trial was carried out in 97 schools in the United Kingdom with children aged 11–12. We investigated two different approaches to adventure learning delivery (5‐day school‐based and 5‐day residential) and the longer‐term impacts. The short‐term impact was assessed immediately after the intervention. The long‐term impact was assessed after 8 months. Data revealed that both programmes had a positive short‐term impact on student engagement and self‐regulation but limited longer‐term impact on student engagement and behaviour. The residential experience facilitated the development of positive student–teacher relationships, while the school‐based programme better promoted students' engagement in school. Interpreting our data through the dual lenses of bioecological theory and transfer, we provide new and robust evidence that while not a panacea, adventure learning can promote improved peer relationships, help repair broken student–teacher relationships and engage disengaged learners, potentially coalescing into an improved sense of school belonging. However, for sustainable long‐term change to occur, attention should focus on establishing effective transfer mechanisms to ensure gains are maintained in school. Our findings constitute, therefore, a (semi)cautionary tale for policymakers seeking to implement adventure learning in schools.
