This paper explores how the websites of Philippine higher education institutions (HEIs) serve as virtual linguistic landscapes that reinforce the homo economicus perspective. As universities pursue internationalization, their digital presence increasingly reflects market-driven discourses that frame education as a commodity, prioritize global rankings, and align with neoliberal economic goals. University landing pages, as curated representations of institutional identity, play a crucial role in shaping perceptions of higher education. Using multimodal critical discourse analysis, this paper interrogates the textual and visual elements of these websites to uncover how HEIs construct narratives of employability, global competitiveness, and economic utility while marginalizing indigenous epistemologies and local linguistic diversity. A purposive sample of public universities across the country was analyzed to capture how marketized language, Westernized aesthetics, and corporate-style branding contribute to the internationalization agenda while erasing alternative community-based understandings of education. This paper contributes to educational policy by exposing the digital marketization of HEIs in the Philippines. It critiques the dominance of Western metrics of academic legitimacy and calls for context-sensitive, equitable, and decolonial approaches to internationalization. Consequently, it advocates reimagining university websites not as neoliberal clickbaits or corporate branding tools, but as sites for featuring student-centered, community-based and culturally responsive education.
Financial literacy is an essential component of human capital to help enhance financial wellbeing. However, systemic oppression can create significant barriers for many LGBTQI + individuals accessing financial education. Consequently, they may have insufficient financial literacy, causing financial exclusion and vulnerabilities to financial fraud and scams. Data availability and advice, and specifically qualitative data regarding financial literacy education of LGBTQI + people in Vietnam, is very limited. Drawing on concepts of financial literacy, critical pedagogy, intersectionality, and Thich's teachings about diversity, transformation, and emancipation, this critical ethnography, using data gathered through surveys and focus groups, examines the problematic nature of financial literacy education and its impact on LGBTQI + young adults (aged 18-35) in Vietnam, a Global South context impacted by pedagogical paradigms rooted in the Global North. The analysis includes overarching themes: (1) discrimination and exclusion of LGBTQI + individuals' access to financial literacy education; (2) the impacts of laws on LGBTQI + individuals' sense of insecurity and insufficient financial literacy; and (3) resiliency and transformation. This small, mixed-methods study shares the counter-stories of participants with limited generalizability of results.
This quantitative research study investigates U.S. K-12 teacher perceptions of book censorship using five ethical paradigms as a conceptual framework. This study surveys 276 educators throughout the United States from all geographic regions and academic disciplines. The findings indicate that (a) most K-12 educators believe the censorship of books jeopardizes students' abilities to build and sustain strong, equitable communities at the local, national, and international level; (b) many K-12 educators believe the censorship of classroom books undermines their professional responsibilities as teachers; and (c) the majority of K-12 educators do not want school districts or politicians to censor classroom books; however, many educators are willing or compelled by law to accommodate parental requests for their own child especially in grades K-5. Results indicate that educators-regardless of geographic location and discipline-hold similar beliefs on book censorship.
A sense of belonging is crucial for student success. Yet, cross-national research on this topic is scarce. This study addresses this gap by examining the relationships between belonging, mental health, and well-being among 2072 students at five universities across five European countries. Using network analysis, we found a robust positive association between a sense of belonging and both well-being and life satisfaction across all institutions. The negative correlation between belonging and loneliness was strongest at the two universities with the largest international student populations. These findings underscore the universal importance of belonging and suggest that tailored university interventions, especially those focused on including international students, can be highly effective in mitigating loneliness and supporting student mental health.
This paper applies Wilkinson's Islamic critical realism to analyze Iran's higher education policies concerning the ideal of the "educated person." Drawing on three key policy documents-the Strategic Transformation Document of Science and Technology, the Comprehensive Scientific Map of the Country, and the Document on the Islamization of Universities-the study identifies two dominant yet fundamentally conflicting orientations: economic and religious. Using the seven thematic elements of Islamic critical realism as an analytic framework, the paper highlights deep tensions between these orientations, as well as further inconsistencies across policy aims. These include mismatches between employment and technology goals, the Islamization of science and market-driven reforms, Islamic social ideals and neoliberal imperatives, and the aspiration for entrepreneurial graduates versus prevailing university conditions. The findings indicate that these unresolved contradictions produce an unstable system that imposes a double burden on students and faculty while generating mission ambiguity for universities. Ultimately, the policies fail to reconcile their divergent aims, undermining the possibility of cultivating an integrated ideal of the educated person as both economically productive and religiously committed.
