Drawing upon the mutually constitutive notions of possible selves and agency, this study illuminates how maintaining a future orientation in doctoral education acts to supply candidates with a pivotal sense of direction and drive their experimentation with disparate pathways to realise their academic career aspirations. In-depth analysis of two…

Given its close links to student success, universities are heavily invested in how they can positively influence their students' sense of belonging. One approach to this is through social belonging interventions, where universities attempt to develop student agency. This study takes a quasi-experimental approach by evaluating the impact of a newly…

The aim of this article is to achieve greater understanding of the relationship between professional teacher identity and agency. From our perspective, agency is a necessary consequence of the process of construction and development of professional teacher identity. On this basis, we conducted a qualitative study involving analysis of the…

The digitalisation of education has accelerated the transition toward heutagogical approaches, particularly in postgraduate education, fostering learner autonomy and self-directed learning. This study investigates how Master's degree students perceived and engaged with the principles of Education 3.0 and Education 4.0, focusing on their awareness,…

This study aims to describe and interpret the critical aspects of the development of PhD candidates' professionally relevant, practice-near research competence in the fields of health, welfare and education. To provide knowledge regarding their development, a qualitative research design and phenomenological hermeneutic approach were used. Ten PhD…

This paper outlines evaluation of practitioner research into a writing development intervention used with a group of international students studying at Masters level in a UK university. The research was motivated by our understanding that academic writing is a task which provokes significant anxiety for students. Our methodology was informed by…

Many countries in the world have regarded the cultivation of learner autonomy as one of the important goals of language teaching. During the past fifty years, researchers and scholars have explored the connotations of learner autonomy, and carried out some empirical researches in different contexts. There are more and more researches on learner…

Sociocultural theory (SCT) is a powerful basis for exploring and guiding L2 (second/foreign language) learner development. For the most part, however, the focus of classroom SCT-L2 has been on single activities, for example, teacher mediation of learners' writing process or peer scaffolding. In this paper, we expand on these studies, building on…

This study explores the way in which secondary schools can accommodate student-led, community-based pedagogies within the formal education system. The study identifies benefits and drawbacks associated with different strategies. Through such projects, students can develop their agentic power, that is, an ability to bring about change which is seen…

This research explores the acquisition of soft skills in a service learning project in the Complutense University of Madrid's library and information science undergraduate program. Reaching its fifth edition in 2021-22, the project aimed to integrate older persons into the social fabric of a residential enclave of Madrid known as "Parque…

Chinese higher education institutions would be more effective in assisting college graduates to meet the requirements of an increasingly complex society if they had a better understanding of Chinese college student development. Self-authorship theory, which was initially developed for use in the USA, is relevant to contemporary Chinese society's…

This study explored how agency is expressed when undergraduate students cross curricular boundaries to learn software development by realising affordances enabled by resources on online platforms. The study employed a qualitative research design based on individual stimulated recall interviews with 27 computer and software engineering students.…

Academic integrity concerns related to students' use of technology have renewed calls for teaching, assessment, and learning best practices, including those that involve and empower students. Empowerment is a benefit of developing students' assessment literacies, or how students contextually understand, plan, and undertake assessment and use…

Reflection has been increasingly used to enhance student development in higher education, in both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. Learner autonomy is essential on reflection, particularly on how learners interpret their learning experiences. The learner has to take initiatives in making meaning of their learning by examining their…

The growing complexity of doing a PhD necessarily demands candidates to robustly exercise their agency in navigating the doctoral journey. However, the conceptualisation of how students use their agency across multiple facets of their studies has yet to receive due scholarly attention. Drawing on the subject-centred sociocultural view on agency,…