This paper presents insights from a longitudinal study of girls' education in Zimbabwe; specifically, the relationship between adolescent girls' learning experiences and their freedom to pursue aspirations. These adolescent girls had only briefly attended formal school, and some enrolled in a non-formal education programme during the study. The research engaged the adolescent girls in a range of creative, dialogical and story-based research and analysis approaches over five years. It makes an original contribution to the study of 'girls' education' in global development by integrating a sociocultural, story-focussed lens on the emotional connections between learning experiences and valued futures, with an analytical, freedoms-focussed capability framework. This, combined with the longitudinal commitment, enables a unique perspective that challenges persistent, normative agendas for girls' education. It supports new ways of thinking about the hoped-for and possible futures for adolescent girls who have missed a significant amount of formal school, and how to implement the kinds of learning experiences that are valued in the pursuit of these futures. Finally, the paper demonstrates how the findings are contributing to a radically new policy landscape for non-formal education in Zimbabwe.
Positive psychology has drawn increasing attention to learner resources that support adaptive academic development. However, little is known about whether and how such resources reduce maladaptive achievement emotions and contribute to academic achievement. To address this gap, the present study examined the relationships among academic resilience, boredom, and academic achievement among English as a foreign language learners (EFL), with boredom as a potential mediator. Using data from Chinese senior high school students, the study employed simple and complex structural equation models in SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 24.0. In the simple model, boredom fully mediated the relationship between academic resilience and academic achievement, with significant negative paths from resilience to boredom and from boredom to achievement. In the complex model, boredom fully mediated the relationships between positive individual characteristics and academic achievement and between family support and academic achievement. By contrast, peer support and teacher support showed no significant direct or indirect effects. These findings indicate that English learning resilience may contribute to achievement primarily by reducing boredom. Pedagogically, the study underscores strengthening learners’ adaptive resources, diversifying instructional practices, and enhancing family-school collaboration to alleviate boredom and support EFL learners’ academic development.
This study addresses a research gap concerning the impact of Erasmus+ on education institutions beyond higher education contexts. Drawing on a mixed-methods approach encompassing 610 institutional survey responses and 11 semi-structured interviews, a comprehensive analysis of perceived programme impacts across Portuguese education sectors is presented. We propose a novel four-dimensional analytical framework examining strategic positionings, organisational capacity, stakeholder ecosystems, and cultural understandings, which can transcend the limitations of existing higher education-centric models. Key findings reveal that both HE and non-HE institutions report significant, long-lasting, and overwhelmingly positive impacts from Erasmus+ participation. Nevertheless, internationalisation is conceptualised and operationalised differently: higher education institutions view it as transversal, driven by research, global competitiveness, and financial benefits, leading to a broader range of activities. In contrast, non-HE institutions perceive internationalisation as complementary, prioritising educational quality improvement, employee training, and local community engagement through more focused interventions. Furthermore, the capacity of the programme to foster institutional change and transformation is clearly acknowledged by most institutions from different sectors. The primary contribution of the paper lies in extending the empirical understanding of Erasmus+ impact to under-researched non-HE sectors and offering a more suitable analytical framework for nuanced policy analysis of internationalisation across diverse educational contexts.
Research on institutional habitus often treats it as a stable legacy of past practices, with limited attention being paid to how everyday school decisions can reshape it over time. This study advances Bourdieusian institutional theory by theorising the recursive relationship between institutional habitus and practice, focusing on how between-class ability grouping (BCAG) both reflects and transforms schools' institutional logics. Drawing upon a multiple-case study of four Czech lower-secondary schools, we analyse how BCAG reshapes educational status, organisational practices, and expressive order, generating shifts that reinforce stratification and produce organisational inertia. Our findings reveal that BCAG evolved from a remedial intervention into a largely implicit strategy for attracting middle-class families, recruiting preferred teachers, and redefining success - changes enabled by state schools' unequal access to capital within a competitive early-tracking system. We argue that institutional habitus is not merely inherited but continuously reconfigured through everyday practices and field position. By situating this analysis within the stratified and under-resourced Czech school system, this study highlights how routine grouping practices can rapidly embed institutional inequality.
