Professional learning communities (PLCs) are widely researched and of growing interest internationally. In Oman, some research has been started at the school level. However, at the time of this study, no research had been conducted at the higher education (HE) level. Hence, the study took place at an Omani university through an action research project lasting one semester. It aimed at establishing and evaluating a PLC to understand the first-hand experiences of the members of this community. The study is based on the sociocultural theory of Vygotsky, which stresses that learning is social. Also, the study used interpretivism and social constructivism to deeply analyse members’ interactions and perceptions of the PLC. Data were collected via preliminary documentary analysis of the reports produced by Staff Development Committee, observations of PLC meetings, and semistructured interviews during and at the end of the semester. The findings showed positive attitudes towards the PLC, where the members could sense a supportive learning environment. They were happy sharing their classroom practices, challenges, reflections, and learning from one another. Overall, they found professional development (PD) sessions fruitful, and they encouraged establishing a PLC along with the current PD programme because the PLC directly spotlighted their needs. Although the members indicated the potential of creating a sustainable PLC, their participation was challenged by factors (e.g., workload, time constraints, and technical issues). The members suggested many solutions to make the PLC a successful learning experience. Implications for policymakers and educators were drawn from the findings.

The inception of Jamaica’s education system was built based on European settler colonial ideologies and White supremacist logic. Almost two centuries after the abolition of slavery and over six decades after independence from British rule, colonial vestiges pervade Jamaican education policy and practice, resulting in the continued marginalisation of Black students from low-income backgrounds. Despite the commissioning of multiple reports on the state of the education system, these racist and classist injustices persist. In this article, we examine social justice issues at the nexus of national education policy and school leadership practice in Jamaican public schools based on our reflexive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted with two Jamaican education policymakers, five education researchers and four public school leaders, alongside Jamaica’s National Student Dress and Grooming Policy Guidelines 2018. Our findings highlight a hierarchical relationship among stakeholder groups in the creation and implementation of Jamaican education policy. Our findings also highlight four themes suggesting that this results from deeply ingrained valorisation of Eurocentric values in policy design that leads to heightened tensions between the Ministry of Education and Youth (MOEY) and school administrators at the level of policy implementation, distraction of school staff from teaching and learning, and disproportionate exclusion of Black students from low-income backgrounds. Implications from our study are the need for stronger cohesion among education policy stakeholders, the incorporation of social justice in teacher and leader preparation and the integration of critical pedagogies at all levels of the Jamaican education system.

Current discourses on education in Australia link teacher shortages to lack of preparedness upon entering the profession. While initial teacher education (ITE) faces increased scrutiny, few studies examine how ITE content relates to subsequent career outcomes. This study investigates relationships between teachers' professional satisfaction and ITE content using teacher questionnaires from the Program for International Student Assessment collected in 2015 and 2022. The analysis reveals a decline in professional satisfaction between 2015 and 2022, with a sharp drop during teachers' early career years. Multilevel modelling indicates associations between professional satisfaction and specific ITE content areas, such as parent engagement and behaviour management. This modelling also shows changing patterns in satisfaction correlates: associations with gender diminished while career entry age became significant. While findings suggest ITE may contribute to professional satisfaction, these improvements appear modest compared to broader declining trends. These findings suggest recent policy emphasis on standardizing ITE content may yield modest benefits, but they are unlikely to address the systemic challenges driving declining professional satisfaction, particularly among early career teachers.

Recent scholarship in comparative and international education (CIE) has witnessed the emergence of two competing viewpoints on the history of the field. One draws increasing attention to the ways CIE has been implicated in colonial projects and how the underpinning racist ideologies persist in the field today. The other perspective rejects this argument on the basis that it engages with 'identity politics.' While discussions of racism, coloniality and the politics of representation have been mainstreamed in other areas of educational research, the reaction it has engendered in CIE offers insights into the workings of the field. In this paper, we draw upon intellectual resources theorising ignorance, white intermediaries and affect to better understand whiteness as an organising principle in the disciplinary identity of CIE. These tools offer possibilities for moving beyond a defensive response to decolonial critiques towards more dialogic and reparative histories of CIE.

This article reports the results of a network analysis on the financing and implementation networks of private foundations characterized as regional and/or domestic that supported targeted girls' and women's education initiatives in two subregions of Asia: South Asia and East Asia and the Pacific. It analyzes an originally constructed dataset of 318 unique funders, 52 targeted girls' and women's initiatives, and 85 unique implementers. The analysis finds the overwhelming majority of girls' and women's initiatives were concentrated in India, as were the domestic and regional private foundations. Overall, the networks of private foundations, cofunders, and implementers are incohesive. The majority of private foundations with the most influence on girls' and women's education financing activities were international private foundations. Finally, while the majority of cofunders were private companies/corporations, network actors with the most influence were private foundations.

This paper examines the link between decentralisation in school management and student achievement levels in secondary schools in India. It employs observational data from two school surveys conducted as part of the Young Lives project in the southern Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to create a measure of decentralisation as a latent construct. The relationship between decentralisation and students' abilities in mathematics and English is measured using linear mixed effects models. Contrary to the expectations in much literature, we find a negative association between decentralisation and students' scores on Maths and English assessments, even when controlling for a variety of individual and school characteristics. The results from the analysis therefore problematises decentralisation initiatives such as school-based management to improve student achievement.

Understanding how today’s children will act in the future is essential to education supporting sustainable development. This study investigated how students in three contexts in Nepal, Peru and Uganda understand environmental, epistemic and transitional justice. It used a tablet-based app to present students with scenarios that illustrates different attitudes, experiences and intended actions with respect to these three forms of justice and analysed responses to focus on factors related to intended actions. The analysis suggests that both attitudes and experiences are important in shaping intended actions in the future. Thus, education systems should not only develop attitudes to support sustainable development, but also exemplify and embody socially justice practices, providing students with experience of social contexts that support sustainable development.

Information sharing is a frequently discussed yet divisive suicide prevention strategy in universities. This study aimed to investigate which students are most and least likely to opt-in to university permission to notify an emergency contact if there are serious concerns about their mental health. Routine cross-sectional data were obtained from 29,799 students in 2020 and 31,998 students in 2021 within a UK university. The proportion of students opting-in to a 'consent to contact policy' across years was summarised descriptively. Multiple logistic regression models examined the odds of students opting-in dependent on student characteristics (probable clinical depression, age, gender identity, sexuality, ethnicity, home/international student status, disability, study mode and level of study). Most students opted-in to the policy in 2020 (91.2%, n = 27,146) and 2021 (90.4%, n = 28,912). Probable clinical depression (OR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.54 to 0.72) and gender identity different from sex (OR = 0.63, 95% CI = 0.44 to 0.90) had the strongest associations with not opting-in in 2020. Identifying as male, lesbian/gay/bisexual, Asian ethnicity, declaring a disability, and being a taught postgraduate student were also predictive of not opting-in. These results were replicated in the 2021 dataset. Some of the most vulnerable students appear least likely to opt-in. Insights are offered about potential gaps in universities' access to emer-gency contacts to prevent serious harm or loss of life. Further research is required into why the groups identified in this study are less likely to opt-in and what additional support they may require.

The rise of international mobility is particularly apparent in higher education, where the movement of faculty, researchers and students This chapter discusses the drivers and impacts of academic mobility in international higher education. It considers mobility broadly as an integral part of international education and contemporary higher education, including mobility of students, faculty, and researchers. We argue that although mobility has been a longstanding and rapidly growing dimension of international higher education, a re-thinking of both policies and practices is paramount given the increasing inequalities, changing geopolitics, and growing environmental impact of academic mobility. We begin by discussing international student and faculty mobility, including current trends and drivers. We then turn to recent developments and their potential impacts on academic mobility, including shifting geopolitical powers and relationships, the rise of populism and associated racist and xenophobic movements, and the existential challenges of the climate emergency, discussing how the benefits of physical mobility might be considered in a world that is increasingly driven by virtual interactions.

The rapid growth of international student mobility has attracted much research on the many benefits it offers to students, higher education institutions, and societies in general. However, studies on the costs and potential tribulations caused by mobility are comparatively rare, despite increasing evidence of such costs inherent in the marketization of higher education. Furthermore, the few existing studies are predominantly framed in terms of consumerism and the commodification of education, but they give less attention to mobility in the context of wider social issues. The climate crisis is foremost among such social impacts, with the extensive air travel inherent in global mobility patterns causing significant damage, combined with curricula, pedagogies, and institutional strategy that are either ambivalent or contradictory on the climate crisis. This paper examines international student mobility in European higher education to better understand how the environmental costs of higher education can be conceptualized in policy and practice. It contrasts policies and practices that promote international student mobility in Europe-in which mobility has aspects of what are commonly referred to as "public goods"-with initiatives that promote mobility to Europe, which illustrate a historic and ongoing entanglement between European colonialism, higher education, and climate change. It concludes with reflections on possibilities for greater sustainability in international student mobility in Europe.

Comparative and international education (CIE) claims to be an interdisciplinary field embracing a diversity in methodologies and theoretical perspectives. Over the years, there has been an expansion in the range of theoretical perspectives employed in scholarship, as new scholars bring with them interests, expertise and positionalities. Our analysis maps the development of theoretical perspectives in doctoral theses in CIE at North American universities since 1990. We find that theory has changed considerably in this time, with a greater emphasis on critical perspectives and standpoint theories and a declining interest in economically focused perspectives. We also note that the role of doctoral advisors is primarily in terms of theoretical perspective, rather than context or methodology. These findings improve our understanding of the field in North America and potentially hold relevance to scholarship in other parts of the world.

This paper presents a social network analysis of partnerships in refugee education and shows how relationships between organisations change in response to multiple crises, including political and economic crises, disaster, and COVID-19. We draw insights from an original database of 440 state and nonstate entities engaged in Syria refugee education in Lebanon (2018-2021). We find that partnerships in refugee education comprise a complex web of global, national, and local actors. The policy network arising from these partnerships reflects power inequities wherein international organisations hold most influence. Moreover, crises impact the network, which expands to include new private actors. While the COVID-19 pandemic is thought to accelerate localisation, our analysis suggests the durability of global power hierarchies in refugee education response.

Both innovation and quality assurance are prominent concerns in higher education institutions but research is ambiguous with respect to the relationship between quality assurance and innovation. Specifically, it is unclear whether quality assurance supports innovation or, conversely, acts as a hindrance. As a relatively new innovation, massive open online courses (MOOCs) yield insights into the relationship between quality assurance and innovation in higher education institutions. This article explores how quality assurance is adapted to accommodate MOOCs based on case studies in five universities in the United Kingdom. Our findings suggest that quality assurance does not support innovations such as MOOCs because most universities use a relatively superficial approach that focuses on technical requirements rather than academic quality. The study provides suitable empirical evidence to support a cogent argument that universities should evaluate MOOCs through quality assurance, both to identify strengths and to expose weaknesses that need to be developed.

This handbook surveys the central theories in comparative and international education (CIE). Each chapter includes an overview of the theory including its history and development, references to examples where the theory has been applied in CIE research and practice, and suggestions for further reading. Written by leading scholars from the USA, the UK, China, Canada, Germany, Australia, Denmark, The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Sweden this is must-have reference work for those studying CIE.The handbook includes chapters on: Structuralism, Colonialism/Imperialism, Marxism, Modernization/Human Capital Theory, World System Theory, Post-Colonialism, Post-Modernism / Post-Structuralism, Post-Socialism/Post-communism/Post-authoritarianism, Feminism/Gender, Post-Foundationalism, Neo-Colonialism and Southern Turn Theory, Neo-liberalism, Neo-Institutionalism, Neo-Marxism, Neo-Realism, Policy Borrowing and Lending and Educational Transfer, Peace Theories, Human Rights, Critical Pedagogy, Transitologies, Actor Network Theory, Communication Theory, Social Network Theory, Capabilities Theory, Cultural Political Economy and Regime Theory.