Rethinking the employability of international graduate migrants: Reflections on the experiences of Zimbabweans with degrees from England

The last decade has seen the rise of literature focused on the rapid expansion of international students in higher education globally and the growing policy discourse around improving graduate employability. However, both, inevitably, have limitations. Together, they tend to homogenise international learners and see them narrowly as simply economic actors. More recently, however, there have been signs of important new developments in both literatures, drawing on interactive employability and capability accounts that stress both agency and structure in more satisfactory ways. We seek to further the development of an account that bridges the new wave of student mobility research and capability–employability research. In doing so, we offer two further elements to the literature. First, we aim to bridge the gap between accounts of international higher education and those of migration and diasporic studies. Second, we deliberately focus on a group that is marginal to the mainstream discourse but who are migrants that have engaged in international higher education in order to improve their labour market prospects, amongst other motivations. We do this through examining the stories of five Zimbabweans who embarked on additional higher educational studies in England after migrating to the country. Through this unique approach, we offer an important new perspective on how the debates on international higher education, employability and migration can be taken forward through closer articulation between these accounts.     

American Public Education,Jewish Education and International Understanding

This article presents an empirical study of a seventh-grade Talmud class in a religious boys' school in Israel. This case study touches upon and attempts to elucidate aspects of several broader areas. It is fundamentally an example of the transmission of culture, values, and culturally valued text in a schooling context, which exists within a larger societal framework. Using ethnographic methods, and informed by discourse analysis in general and classroom discourse in particular, the study reflects upon the relationship between schooling and its surrounding society and the constraints put into place by the very structures of the institution of school on the study of Talmud.     

Sustaining professional learning communities: Case studies

The purpose is to document the ongoing development of two schools in becoming professional learning communities and the effects of meaningful collaboration on teacher learning. The question that guides this research is: How does a school become a sustainable professional learning community? The theoretical framework is based on the work of Senge, Hord, Fullan, Hargreaves and Fink, and Stoll, McMahon and Thomas and includes the areas of professional learning community, change and sustainability. Finally, the study addresses the relationship between professional learning community and school culture. The methodology involves a qualitative case study approach designed to gain information regarding two emerging schools in their journeys toward developing learning community cultures. Findings reveal the stories of each school as they evolved as PLCs and the similarities and differences that emerged. Knowing that sustaining the culture of a PLC is complex, and not to be achieved without determination and growth, we look ahead at challenges to be addressed and further research to be conducted. Finally, we offer some concluding statements and attempt to relate findings to the literature on PLCs. The intent is to identify some of the intricacies in building cultures of learning for adults and students. As we have learned through these two stories, many things happen simultaneously, to greater or lesser degrees, at varying points in time over a period of years that seem to influence the development of a PLC. Such development seems so complex that to be able to describe discrete steps or stages is unlikely. Still we are beginning to see that some categories of activities and issues must be developed before others can emerge.     

Interrupting the Way Things Are: Exploring new directions in school/university partnerships

During the Australian National Professional Development Program (NPDP), 1994-1996, a large action-research project, Innovative Links between Universities and Schools for Teacher Professional Development, was undertaken. The project involved a consortium of 14 Australian universities working with over 100 schools (government and non-government) across all States and the Northern Territory. It was structured around the concept of Roundtables, whereby teachers engaged in school-based projects in conjunction with an academic associate from the partner university. The role of 'academic associate' demanded a rethinking of the role of university teacher educators in relation to teacher professional development. Six 'academic associates' and two teachers from the Murdoch University Roundtable formed a collaborative research group to investigate issues arising from their work with the project. The research was a self-reflective study of the work of the participants by those participants themselves. This paper relates the insights regarding collaborative work between academics and schoolteachers that emerged from the study.     

Knowing and doing vocational education and training reform: Evidence,learning and the policy process

Much of VET policy internationally draws on a toolkit that has been seriously questioned for its logic, international relevance and effectiveness by considerable amounts of academic research. Reflecting primarily on our experiences of leading a complex, multi-country policy study, we develop an account that seeks to explore ways in which the apparent incommensurability between academic and policy knowledge can be addressed. This leads on to a broader discussion of key issues of contestation in the debates about knowledge for policy as they relate to international education and development more generally. We consider three key turns in the discourse of international education policy and research: to “governing by numbers”, “what works” and policy learning, and ask what happens when these discursive trends travel to Southern and VET contexts. We suggest that this analysis implies that policymakers need both to be more modest and reflexive in their expectations of what knowledge can be mobilised for policy purposes and more serious in their commitment to supporting the generation of the types of knowledge that they claim to value. For international and comparative educators, we stress the importance of being clearer in seeking to shape research agendas; more rigorous in our approaches to research; and better in our external communication of our findings. Given the particular focus of this special issue on VET, we end by reiterating the particular challenge of reawakening research on VET-for-development from twenty years of slumber.     

Normative Considerations in the Aftermath of Gun Violence in Schools

Gun violence in American and Canadian schools is an ongoing tragedy that goes substantially beyond its roots in the interlocking emotional and behavioral issues of mental health and bullying. In light of the need for effective policy development, Dianne T. Gereluk, J. Kent Donlevy, and Merlin B. Thompson examine gun violence in schools from several relevant perspectives in this article. The authors consider the principle of standard of care as it relates to parents, teachers, and community members in a particular school's context. They posit that normative principles may provide a procedural mechanism appropriate for policymakers and practitioners when contemplating and implementing heightened security measures. Finally, they propose Rawlsian reasonableness as an effective and deliberative democratic process that reduces emotional, reactive responses to school shootings. Through these overlapping concepts, the authors advocate for purposeful discussions regarding gun violence in schools based on the unique pragmatic, educational, social, political, and contextual circumstances of individual schools and their surrounding communities.     

Regarding the Dead: A Model for Anatomical Gifting Outside the Traditional Medical School Setting

In 2017, Elon University became one of very few universities in the United States without a medical school to have an in-house Anatomical Gift Program (AGP). The program accepts first-person-consenting individuals only and within 2.5 years has become self-sufficient, supporting anatomy curricular needs of its physical therapy, physician assistant, and undergraduate biology and anthropology programs (n = 21 donors annually). This paper describes the timeline, costs, and benefits of developing an in-house AGP at a university without a medical school. Policy development, public outreach, equipment needs, and cost benefits are discussed. Within 2.5 years of program opening, the AGP Director delivered 161 educational outreach presentations at 86 different venues across the state providing information on anatomical gifting. The program registered 320 individuals (60% female, 40% male) and enrolled 41 deceased donors (69% female, 31% male; average age of 74.6 at time of registration and 74.8 at donation). During the first seven months of the program, donor preparation costs (with outsourcing for transport/donor preparation/document filing/serology testing/cremation) averaged US$ 2,100 per donor. Over the past 23 months, donor preparation has been completed on site, lowering the cost per donor to US$ 1,260. Other costs include personnel salaries, legal fees, and outfitting of the anatomy laboratory and preparatory room. Program benefits include support of anatomy education on campus, assurance that all donors have given first-person consent, and faculty/student access to donor-determined health, social, and occupational information. Faculty, staff, and students contribute to the daily operations of the AGP.     

Computerized Adaptive Testing With Different Groups

How does the use of computerized adaptive testing affect the performance of students from different groups? How consistent were the results of computerized adaptive and “conventional” tests? What did the students think about the test experience? What advice do the authors have for test developers and users?