Improving equity in higher education has been a longstanding policy goal in Australia. The Australian Universities Accord emphasises that increasing participation and outcomes for underrepresented groups is crucial to achieving its objectives. Educational disadvantage, driven by economic, sociocultural, geographical, and institutional barriers,…

Communicating tertiary graduate skills and knowledge to employers is a contemporary issue in Australian outdoor education. Threshold concepts have been proposed as a positive way forward to a shared understanding between Higher Education (HE) professionals, students, graduates, employers, and other outdoor education stakeholders. While threshold…

In recent years, countries including the UK and USA have seen advancements in the use of Randomised Controlled Trials in education, progress that has not been mirrored in Ireland. Ireland does not have a strong tradition of using experimental or quasi-experimental evaluation designs for monitoring and evaluation of education policy despite…

Athena Swan was established in 2005 with the goal of advancing the careers of women in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine) subjects in higher education. Since then, it has expanded its remit in various ways and has generated some controversy. This paper explains how Athena Swan operates as a policy-scoring scheme,…

This article addresses the question of how theatre interventions as elements of a participatory and action-oriented research design can contribute to justice-oriented Caring Community processes. Caring Communities are local initiatives that strengthen everyday solidarity through civic engagement and neighbourhood support, link informal and formal…

Extracurricular activities play a significant part in students' overall development, and the long-term mechanism is critical to extracurricular activities' educational efficiency. This paper describes Huai'an No. 1 Mountain Middle School's regular extracurricular events, which include four festivals and one party, as well as the tactics used to…

Support to improve teacher wellbeing is scarce in almost all contexts, but especially so in low- and middle-income settings in which teachers face both professional and personal challenges (Kirk and Winthrop 2007; Mendenhall, Gomez, and Varni 2018). In this field note, we discuss War Child's development of Coaching-Observing-Reflecting-Engaging…

The notion of what constitutes a high-quality work-integrated learning experience has received increasing attention in the literature, particularly over the past decade. To date, the definitions of high-quality work-integrated learning have been broad and there remains a need to understand how elements of quality can be operationalized,…

This method note presents Q methodology as a useful tool for evaluators to add to their practice toolbox. Q methodology, which involves both quantitative and qualitative techniques, can help researchers and evaluators systematically understand subjectivity and the communicability of opinions and perspectives. We first provide an overview of Q…

Research supervisors and their higher degree research (HDR) candidates -- including Master, Professional Doctorate, and PhD candidates -- make critical contributions to research and innovation. In addition to providing research training, research supervisors have traditionally also acted as the graduate employability practitioner for their HDR…

This article outlines the diversity of engineering leadership programs by comparing origin stories, definitions, program structure, instructional strategies, research, and program evaluation approaches of seven North American engineering leadership programs.

Gathering evidence on what works best is key to designing holistic guidance services for individuals and the labour market. Traditional learning and career pathways are being replaced by more dynamic, 'patchier' routes and shorter job tenures. Fast-changing and more complex learning and working contexts draw more attention to continuous learning…

Education systems today must prepare every child, everywhere, to thrive in an increasingly complex world. But despite huge increases in education spending over the past two decades, children are not achieving the desired outcomes. A lack of belief and investment has led to widespread demotivation of teachers and officials, as demonstrated by high…

Quality is a main issue when practices of validation are developed. In the Nordic countries, a model of quality assurance in validation has been introduced, to be applied in the development of validation practices. The model puts the individual at the centre and introduces eight factors for quality: information, preconditions, documentation,…

The world we live in today compels what Ruben Gaztambide-Fernandes describes as 'intensified encounters with difference' constituted by contradictory and paradoxical movements. A decolonial approach to constructing global imaginaries centres on reconfiguring human relations in ways that unmask complicity and denial and further healing, justice and…