Positioning and the Discourses of Urban Education: A Latino Student’s University Experience

Based on data collected from a year-and-a-half-long qualitative research project, this case study examines the early college experiences and identity negotiations of one urban-schooled Latino participant as he navigated a predominately White state university in his hometown. Recognizing the university as a figured world, this study highlights two emblematic personal encounters that positioned him in inferior ways. It also offers a counter-example of a rhetoric professor who positioned him in positive ways and contributed to his academic success. Implications are framed in an argument for the inclusion of identity studies and positioning theory in order to better contextualize urban-schooled Latina/os’ early college experiences.     

Student Veterans’ Outcomes by Higher Education Sector: Evidence from Three Cohorts of the Baccalaureate and Beyond

We use nationally representative survey data from three cohorts of bachelor’s degree recipients to examine military veterans’ student loan debt at graduation and their employment and earnings 1, 4, and 10 years after graduation, relative to observably similar graduates. We also examine whether the effects of veteran status depend on college sector. Using propensity score weights with covariate adjustment, we find employment and earnings premiums for veterans 1 and 4 years after graduation, and an employment penalty but earnings premium (conditional on employment) 10 years after graduation. We find no clear evidence of a for-profit employment or earnings penalty among bachelor’s degree recipients, including veterans. We do find that veterans are as likely as similar non-veterans to graduate with debt, and that graduating from a for-profit institution yields markedly higher debt amounts, especially for veterans, despite the availability of Montgomery GI Bill benefits for these cohorts.     

China’s Strategy for the Internationalization of Higher Education: An Overview

Over the past decades, the internationalization of higher education in China has had considerable achievements, and has contributed to the current transformation of the Chinese system into one of the largest and arguably most promising ones in the world. Setting the Chinese experience in an international context, this article assesses the latest developments. It argues that China’s internationalization of higher education is part of a much larger process of cultural integration between China and the West. From this perspective, it concludes that although China’s recent developments deserve to be noted, China has a considerable distance to go before its aspirations to create truly world-class universities are fulfilled.     

Justice in the Higher Education Classroom: Students’ Perceptions of Unfairness and Responses to Instructors

We investigated college students’ perceptions of instructor unfairness and their emotional and behavioral reactions to perceived injustice. Results obtained from 397 undergraduates from three universities in the United States indicate that anger and dissent were the strongest emotional and behavioral responses to injustice. Furthermore, disgust mediated the influence of injustice on student behaviors most damaging to professors—taking action, expressing verbal aggression, and dissenting to authority. Stress mediated the effect of injustice on the most constructive student behaviors—changing their approach and engaging in the class. We discuss the implications of the results of our study for the student-instructor relationship and learning in the contemporary higher education environment.     

Market-Based Higher Education: Does Colorado’s Voucher Model Improve Higher Education Access and Efficiency?

In 2004, Colorado introduced the nation’s first voucher model for financing public higher education. With state appropriations now allocated to students, rather than institutions, state officials expect this model to create cost efficiencies while also expanding college access. Using difference-in-difference regression analysis, we find limited evidence that these outcomes occurred within the 4-year sector; however, the policy increased cost efficiencies among community college and reduced college access for some underrepresented groups. The paper discusses the challenges of applying market-based reforms to public higher education.     

Academic Mentoring in College: The Interactive Role of Student’s and Mentor’s Interpersonal Dispositions

This study examined the interaction between college students attachment orientation and mentors relational style in the prediction of students behaviors and perceptions in academic mentoring and of their subsequent academic achievement. Ninety college students were administered the Adult Attachment Interview and their professors-mentors completed the Attachment Style Questionnaire. Students displayed more adaptive behaviors and perceptions in mentoring and earned higher grades when their attachment orientation was in contrast to their mentors relational style. Implications for the practice of academic mentoring in college are discussed.     

An Empirical Analysis of the Development of China’s Higher Vocational Education

Abstract

After more than 20 years of practice and construction, China’s higher vocational education has developed into an important educational category and become an important force in the development of China’s higher education. But in the course of this development, higher vocational education is facing problems such as excessively fast development, weak content building, severely inadequate investment, and uneven regional development. Therefore, the government must create a policy environment suitable for the equitable development of higher education, establish fair education spending policies, strongly promote the balanced development of regional higher vocational education, and strive to strengthen basic capabilities for quality projects.     

Applying the Science of Learning to the Learning of Science: Newton’s Second Law of Motion

Science teaching and learning require knowledge about how learning takes place (cognition) and how learners interact with their surroundings (affective and sociocultural factors). The study reported on focussed on learning for understanding of Newton’s second law of motion from a cognitive perspective that takes social factors into account. A cognitive refinement instructional approach (CRIA) was used to organise and sequence learning activities, while students were engaged through inquiry and group work. Students’ real-life experiences were used as starting point of the learning sequence. The efficiency of the sequence was determined with the aid of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) and complemented with the students’ reflections on the sequence, showing their epistemological preferences. The results indicated that a CRIA aided in constructing more coherent scientific knowledge and enhanced understanding, while reducing misconceptions on the topic. In their reflections, the students acknowledged that experiential and experimental evidence, as well as guided formation of a scientific explanatory framework, are foundational for a deeper understanding of the challenging topic.     

Mothers’ Perceptions of the Climate of Their Children’s Schools: Covariations With Children’s Academic Adjustment in Families of Mexican Origin

Although Latinx parents’ perceptions of the climate of their children’s schools may play a role in their children’s academic adjustment, research examining this idea is sparse. Every 2 years beginning when children were in fifth grade (M_age = 10.86 years) until they were in 11th grade, Mexican-origin mothers (N = 674) reported on their perceptions of the climate of their children’s schools; information on children’s academic adjustment was collected from children and mothers. Multilevel modeling indicated that when mothers had more positive school climate perceptions, their children valued school more and performed better in school, but did not necessarily hold higher educational expectations. The findings suggest the importance of schools in creating welcoming environments for Mexican-origin parents.     

The Assessment of Student Teachers’ Academic and Professional Knowledge in School‐Based Teacher Education

The aim of this study was to scrutinize the assessment of teacher knowledge in a school‐based course at one Swedish pre‐service teacher education program. In a general education school‐based course, teacher educators visited the student teachers at their school placements and met them and their school mentors in student‐teaching conferences to assess their teacher knowledge. The findings primarily show that the assessment procedures are influenced by teacher educators’ organization of the school visits and conferences. Secondly, the organization of the school visits and conferences influences who the potential and actual assessors at the conferences can be and are. Thirdly, the assessed student teacher knowledge at the conferences is described as procedural knowledge in a knowledge‐in‐practice perspective, almost exclusively in the area of relational, emotional, and caring learning objectives and aspects of teaching activities. Fourthly, the findings show that propositional knowledge in a knowledge‐for‐practice perspective is hardly mentioned or assessed.     

Higher Education and the Graduate Labour Market: The ‘Class Factor’

This article reviews the literature on the experiences of working‐class students at different stages of the student life cycle. It examines the factors influencing their participation rates in higher education (HE), their ability to adapt to university life, and their success in the graduate labour market. The article argues that without radical policies that fundamentally change the relationship between social class and pre‐HE qualifications, significant progress in widening participation is unlikely.     

Relating Higher Education with the Labour Market: Graduates’ expectations and employers’ requirements

The paper takes into discussion the issue of quality of higher education services, from the perspective of graduates and employers as main beneficiaries of higher education services, by putting face to face expectations of students at graduation with employers’ requirements. In the two surveys conducted in 2006 in Romania, both graduates and employers have been asked about skills and abilities developed through higher education programmes and the extent to which these correspond to their expectations and requirements. The discussion is relevant to the vast literature presenting the skills debate, employment and graduates transition to the labour market, as well as to the literature presenting students’ expectations from higher education.

     

Relating Higher Education with the Labour Market: Graduates’ expectations and employers’ requirements

The paper takes into discussion the issue of quality of higher education services, from the perspective of graduates and employers as main beneficiaries of higher education services, by putting face to face expectations of students at graduation with employers’ requirements. In the two surveys conducted in 2006 in Romania, both graduates and employers have been asked about skills and abilities developed through higher education programmes and the extent to which these correspond to their expectations and requirements. The discussion is relevant to the vast literature presenting the skills debate, employment and graduates transition to the labour market, as well as to the literature presenting students’ expectations from higher education.