Faculty in Contemporary Kyrgyzstan: Reactions to Reforms

After Kyrgyzstan’s independence, reforms were implemented in higher education: new degrees, credit hours, private institutions, tuition in public institutions, and independent accreditation. However, faculty reactions to these reforms have not previously been studied. The authors conducted 57 interviews in four locations over three years. Our findings show that, first, interviewees discussed all kinds of changes in higher education and society. Second, participants were undergoing “concurrent stresses” (Anderson, Goodman, and Schlossberg, 2012) – their personal as well as professional lives were changing. Third, opinions differed. We analyzed these according to three of Schlossberg’s “4 S’s”: differences in faculty selves, situations, and support systems. However, few participants described strategies for dealing with the changes. Fourth, nearly all spoke of the reforms as something not under their control. Fifth, very few faculty members described the changes as unilaterally negative or positive. Most said, “I like this, but not that.”

Exploring the Relationships between Possible Selves and Early Teacher Identity of Turkish Pre-service Teachers

Pre-service teacher (PST) education at higher education institutions is pivotal to early teacher identity development. Possible selves theory presents a framework for understanding teacher professional identity, which is theoretically supported but not empirically tested sufficiently. This study set out to examine PSTs’ early teacher identity in the Turkish context and the expected and feared possible selves of PSTs as predictors of early teacher identity through structural equation modeling based on empirical data from 350 freshmen and senior PSTs. The results suggest that PSTs’ expected teacher possible selves have a medium level significant and positive effect on early teacher identity, while feared teacher possible selves have a low level significant and negative effect on early teacher identity. PSTs’ early teacher identity and possible selves were found as very high, which is also examined in terms of gender, grade, and department variables. The results are discussed, and suggestions are offered for pre-service teacher education.

The Mobility of Education Policy in the 21st Century: Lessons from Other Fields

The ways information about national education policies is exchanged and interpreted is a field of comparative education that is under-developed. What discussion and analysis there is seems to ignore the insights and models prevalent in other domains. We looked to fields like political science, and economic and social development for concepts to strengthen the analysis of education policy mobility between nations. We found an abundance of metaphors most of which fail to capture key elements of policy diffusion including the notion that ideas change as they cross cultural boundaries. We observe that policy transfer can be purposefully initiated by the host as well as a product of coercion or external incentives. Our principal conclusions are that common framings of traveling education policies are linear, one-directional and marked by an air of beneficence. They overlook the importance of context and the actions of sovereign nations in policy formation.

Seoul Destination: A Mixed-methods Study of a Korean University

The number of international students studying in the Republic of Korea has increased tremendously over the last 20 years, marking a change in regional student mobility trends. While most international degree students tend to originate in countries in Asia, signifying regionalization versus internationalization, exchange students are diverse by nationality/ region. This concurrent nested mixed-methods study sought to investigate the pull factors of a Korean university among exchange students. 564 students completed an electronic questionnaire and through on campus interviews. Quantitative results suggested that exchange students found characteristics about Korea attractive (e.g., K-pop) as well as wanting international and/or cross-cultural experiences, to be the most appealing. 10 students participated in interviews, and findings showed that students became interested in Korea by exposure to popular media, as well as wanting a diverse, international study environment. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of university inbound program promotion/marketing and program design/development for short-term mobility, along with areas for future research.

Let's Go Girls!: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Tutoring and Scholarships on Primary School Girls' Attendance and Academic Performance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

The Democratic Republic of the Congo continues to balance a commitment to education in general, and girls’ education more specifically, and additional challenges brought about through cyclical conflict. The Valorisation de la Scholarisation de la Fille project aimed to improve literacy and numeracy by providing scholarships, tutoring, and comprehensive professional development for teachers. Using a randomized control design (RCT), we tracked both the achievement and attendance outcomes of these girls over a period of three years. Several factors positively influenced student growth in reading and mathematics, including the proportion of female teachers in the school, girls’ perceptions of the school environment, receipt of a scholarship, and tutoring (math only). Household survey data suggest that the project minimized/reduced an already existing gap between enrollment in school for control and intervention communities; and school data suggest increased enrollment for girls in upper primary school. The findings suggest that programs designed to provide increased access to education may be the most successful in improving outcomes for students.

Compensating for Family Disadvantage: An Analysis of the Effects of Boarding School on Chinese Students' Academic Achievement

China implemented a policy to improve education equity through investing in boarding programs of public schools in rural and less-developed areas. However, this policy has not been informed by empirical research in the Chinese context. By using the nationally representative longitudinal data, this study investigates whether and to what extent boarding schools compensate for children's family disadvantages in terms of mathematics and reading achievement. The findings, drawn from multilevel logistic regression and hierarchical models, indicate that students from low-SES families or rural areas tend to board at schools. Boarding students performed better than day students in 8th-grade mathematics tests. Among students with essential needs, those residing at school during the week significantly benefitted in their school performance in both subjects. Overall, it appears that governmental investment in boarding programs can, to some extent, compensate for some family disadvantages.

In Search of a New Sympoiesis: A Review of Higher Education Admissions in Uzbekistan

Current comprehensive changes in the field of higher education in Uzbekistan have a potential impact on the overall enrollment in higher education. Rigid admission quotas in Uzbekistan are slowly conceding to a more market-based admissions and student recruitment to support reforms implementation. Cursory glance at the reforms fails to explain unprecedented growth of application numbers to higher education in 2019/20 or conjecture about future application patterns. Research presented in this paper aims to investigate the trends in higher education admissions in Uzbekistan through document analysis. It further draws on the effects of the government policy and legislation changes on the admission numbers in Uzbekistan and attempts to shed light on the future dynamics of student recruitment in higher education. The findings suggest that profound all-encompassing reforms in Uzbekistan have, firstly, precipitously increased relevant-age application numbers for 2019/20 academic year, but analysis suggests that this trend is unlikely to continue in the future.

The expatriate and transnational distance student phenomenon: A multicase study of western distance students in the Republic of Korea

A lack of differentiation among student conceptualizations and the use of homogenous labels has made descriptions of distance students in the literature difficult to parse. While students in an online class may share the same nationality or citizenship, they may not share the same nation of residence or status of sojourn. Similarly,

A Review of the Inclusion Process of Syrian Refugee Students in the Formal Education System of Turkey

The purpose of this study is to examine the opinions of classroom teachers, administrators, students and parents regarding the inclusion of refugee students in Turkey

Relationship between Students

The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of learning environment and achievement emotions of Turkish high school students in biology classes and to analyse the relationship among these variables. The sample consists of 2183 ninth, tenth and eleventh graders from 12 high schools in Turkey. Constructivist Learning Environment Scale and Biology Achievement Emotions Scale were, respectively used to identify the perceptions of constructivist learning environment and biology achievement emotions of the participant students. The results of the canonical analysis showed that when students perceive learning environment as comfortably to express their opinions about the lesson, they felt more joyful and proud and less anxious, angry, bored or hopeless. Moreover, a negative relationship was found between shared control and angry, anxiety and shame. The students who help their teacher to decide what activities or strategies organize his/her teaching, the less they will feel angry, anxious or shy.