Political Economy of the 'Virtual' Internationalisation of Higher Education to Foster Glocal Sustainable Development

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic challenged the higher education institution's face-to-face education. Higher education institutions have overcome this challenge through enhanced virtual education which has provided further opportunities to the higher education institutions. One of these opportunities is the 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education which enables higher education institutions to reach more students globally. Purposes: This paper aims to investigate the 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education's role in glocal sustainable development and how to enhance its use to support glocal sustainability and sustainable development. This paper emphasises importance of political economy of the 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education to support glocal sustainable development and environmental policies. Methodology/Approach: The aim of this paper is achieved based on an in-depth literature review. Findings: This paper highlights effective, strategic and successful 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education's role in competitiveness of higher education institutions. This paper highlights political economy of the 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education and provides recommendations and key success factors for the 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education to enhance glocal sustainable development and sustainability as well as environmental policies. This paper emphasises importance of considering the 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education in countries' sustainable development plans, strategies and policies. Discussion: Effective and strategic 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education can support higher education institutions' competitive advantage globally. They can support higher education institutions' success in getting intelligent students from all over the world. This can further contribute to their competitiveness. Furthermore, this can enable them to employ, in these 'virtual' internationalisation of higher education programmes, globally competitive and competent academic staff from all over the world. This paper can be useful to academics, policy-makers and researchers in the relevant field.

Bouncing around in a Turbulent Teaching Environment: Teaching and Researching Resilience for Public Administration

The COVID-19 pandemic forced surprised governments worldwide to act fast and decisively, often revealing lack of preparation for this kind of situation. However, such crises are expected to occur far more frequently than ever before. To keep societies prospering, governments, administrations, and civil servants will have to adapt quickly and effectively--and hence need to develop the required capabilities (e.g., appropriate policies, strategies, knowledge, skills). To deepen our understanding of appropriate action in face of crises, resulting consequences for stability and required, demanded or enforced behavior of people, we propose the concept of resilience. Resilience, we argue by way of five propositions, helps articulating the underlying dynamics in society and its administrative systems in order to allow for a sustainable incorporation of the long-term perspective in the short-term strategy, particularly in times of disturbances and temporary perturbations.

Policy, Practice, and Parenthood: A Study of Teacher Mothers

This phenomenological study extends the current research on working mothers to teacher mothers. Themes highlighted include work/life enrichment, support for motherhood role, challenge to find balance, challenging cultural norms, financial challenges, and strategies for managing multiple roles. Findings reveal and highlight challenges and opportunities that exist at the intersection of the field of education and motherhood. Also provided are suggestions for advocacy efforts for norms and policies that support teacher mothers. Implications of this work are particularly relevant in the contemporary era, wherein the roles of motherhood and teacher are intensified by "the shift to online learning" as a result of the pandemic.

Rethinking future uncertainty in the shadow of COVID 19: Education, change, complexity and adaptability

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 threw the world into an unexpected turmoil;schools were closed, exams cancelled, and educational systems were forced to react to deep and unexpected changes. In educational policy, however, the idea that we should prepare for an unknown, uncontrollable and risky future has been widely accepted long before the outbreak. Building on insights from complexity theory and the study of dynamic systems, the article critically examines how the standard educational response to future unpredictability, which focuses on enhancing adaptability, fares in a time of crisis. It is argued that the emphasis on adaptability in response to a world that is increasingly becoming volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous is often uncritically embraced in educational policy. We suggest that furthering adaptability through education could be suited for tackling everyday uncertainty, yet is an ill-suited response to crisis situations because it hinders transformative change. The article also points to some additional difficulties with striving to further adaptability. Instead, it is argued that developing a vision might prove to be instrumental in guiding an adequate educational response. It is acknowledged that relying on a vision might raise some difficulties, but it is maintained that these can be, at least partially, avoided.

Taking Stock: The Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on University-Community Engagement

This article examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on university-community engagement (UCE) as an academic mission. The aim of the work is to outline the ways in which UCE has been functioning since the turbulent onset of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. The study undertakes a systematic review of the UCE literature to identify major trends, raising important questions regarding ongoing scholarly discussions and managerial/policy debates on the subject. The results show seven distinct types of engagement responses by higher education institutions (HEIs) across the globe. In addition, the review identified that HEIs faced difficulties in either adapting existing engagement practices or while establishing new ones, especially regarding the efficient use of digital technologies. In terms of implications, the findings suggest that the pandemic has resulted in new debates about the societal role of HEIs, with medium- and long-term implications for policy and management.

Hybrid Education and Institutional Readiness

Progress is unidirectional by default. The global irreversible shift witnessed in the education sector with the COVID-19 pandemic left teaching and learning far from the same. The current study aims to consider global trends in hybrid education by exploring existing hybrid study models and recognizing institutional readiness by means of hybrid initiatives successfully adopted by institutions. Being conceptual research, the methodology of the current study is based on an extensive review of literature, related to hybrid education, selected carefully from the wealth of academic publications comprising scholarly articles, research journals, webpages, conference proceedings, dissertations, thesis, and authentic material related to the study. A conceptual framework represents the relationship between the research variables. Founded on the qualitative analysis of the data gathered, the study concludes that, while integration of technology in teaching is important, it does not imply total restructuring of what and how we teach. Flexibility in teaching, learning, and testing must become the basis for current pedagogy in meeting the goals of hybrid education. The implications of the current study are proffered to all stakeholders in education along with the recommendations for future research. © 2023 IEEE.

Challenges and outcomes in remote undergraduate research programs during the COVID-19 pandemic

In the summer of 2020, as COVID-19 limited in-person research opportunities and created additional barriers for many students, institutions either canceled or remotely hosted their research experience for undergraduates (REU) programs. The present qualitative phenomenographic study was designed to explore some of the possible limitations, challenges, and outcomes of this remote experience. Overall, 94 interviews were conducted with paired participants;mentees (N=10) and mentors (N=8) from six different REU programs. By drawing on cultural-historical activity theory as a framework, our study uncovers some of the challenges mentees faced while pursuing their research objectives and academic goals. These challenges included motivation, limited access to technology at home, limited communication among REU students, barriers in mentor-mentee relationships, and differing expectations about doing research. Despite the challenges, all mentees reported that this experience was highly beneficial. Comparisons between the outcomes of these remote REUs and published outcomes of in-person undergraduate research programs reveal many similar benefits, including student integration into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics culture. Our study suggests that remote research programs could be considered a means to expand access to undergraduate research experiences even after COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted.

Socioeconomic disparities in the reopening of schools during the pandemic in Chile.

The COVID-19 pandemic produced the most significant disruption in education in history. More than 190 countries suspended in-person instruction, affecting an estimated 1.6 billion students. The reopening of schools has been unequal. Schools in more affluent areas reopened sooner than poorer ones, exacerbating preexisting inequalities. There is limited research about the reopening processes in Latin America, where schools were closed for extended periods. Using a rich administrative dataset, we investigate the gaps in the resumption of in-person instruction in Chilean schools across socioeconomic groups in the fall of 2021. Schools with lower socioeconomic status were significantly less likely to offer in-person instruction. Disparities in reopening decisions were associated with administrative factors rather than economic or local epidemiological conditions.

The Role of Student Beliefs in Dual-Enrollment Courses.

Access to dual-enrollment courses, which allow high school students to earn college credit, is stratified by race/ethnicity, class, and geography. States and colleges have begun using multiple measures of readiness, including non-cognitive measures of student preparedness, in lieu of strict reliance on test scores in an attempt to expand and equalize access. This practice was accelerated by COVID-19 due to disruptions in standardized testing. However, limited research has examined how non-cognitive beliefs shape students' experiences and outcomes in dual-enrollment courses. We study a large dual-enrollment program created by a university in the Southwest to examine these patterns. We find that mathematics self-efficacy and educational expectations predict performance in dual-enrollment courses, even when controlling for students' academic preparedness, while factors such as high school belonging, college belonging, and self-efficacy in other academic domains are unrelated to academic performance. However, we find that students of color and first-generation students have lower self-efficacy and educational expectations before enrolling in dual-enrollment courses, in addition to having lower levels of academic preparation. These findings suggest that using non-cognitive measures to determine student eligibility for dual-enrollment courses could exacerbate, rather than ameliorate, inequitable patterns of participation. Students from historically marginalized populations may benefit from social-psychological as well as academic supports in order to receive maximum benefits from early postsecondary opportunities such as dual-enrollment. Our findings have implications for how states and dual-enrollment programs determine eligibility for dual-enrollment as well as how dual-enrollment programs should be designed and delivered in order to promote equity in college preparedness. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11162-023-09740-z.

Two Years Later: How COVID-19 Has Shaped the Teacher Workforce

The unprecedented challenges of teaching during COVID-19 prompted fears of a mass exodus from the profession. We examine the extent to which these fears were realized using administrative records of Massachusetts teachers between 2015–2016 and 2021–2022. Relative to prepandemic levels, average turnover rates were similar going into the fall of 2020 but increased by 17% (from 15.0% to 17.5%) going into the fall of 2021. The fall 2021 increases were particularly high among newly hired teachers (31% increase) but were lower among Black and Hispanic/Latinx teachers (5% increases among both groups). Gaps in turnover rates between schools serving higher and lower concentrations of economically disadvantaged students narrowed during the first 18 months of the pandemic. The same holds true for gaps in turnover between schools serving higher and lower shares of Black and Hispanic/Latinx students. Together, these findings highlight important differences in teachers' responses to the pandemic across subgroups and the need to improve early-career retention to ensure long-term stability within the teacher workforce.

Lifelong learning policy responses to global crises impacting the Bologna process in the context of Scotland

This chapter provides a qualitative discussion on the role of social justice mechanisms as a response to alleviate stressors within neoliberal frameworks. Lifelong learning (LLL) has various models and goals, inclusive of social justice. It establishes flexible learning modes and environments to expand educational opportunities to include disadvantaged or marginalised individuals (Armstrong, 2014;Yang, Schneller, & Roche, 2015). Further, LLL has the capability to assess new events and use methods to effectively implement strategies that manage negative educational and economic impacts (Sharma, 2004). Within the Bologna Process (BP), LLL continues to be evaluated, and interestingly, LLL operates within this system that aims to create universalised and standardised practices across participating countries. As a result, there is a dynamic relationship of flexible learning within a structured framework. This chapter addresses the issue of whether and how LLL has been responsive to major social and economic crises that have impacted the BP and inevitably learning processes. To determine LLL responses and possible contributions, a case study examination of policy and implementation in Scotland is presented through the lens of two major global crises. The two crises are the 2008-2009 Global Recession and the 2019-present day COVID-19 pandemic, which have impacted the planning and provision of education across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Analysis is drawn from national government documents, academic and international organisation research papers, an interview and articles from relevant years. Challenges in LLL provision are also presented in the analysis. And although we cannot forecast with certainty the next global crisis to impact our educational system, this chapter concludes with points on how future impacts may be mitigated through LLL. © 2023 by Emerald Group Publishing Ltd..

Changing Teacher Educational Contexts: Global Discourses in Teacher Education and Its Effect on Teacher Education in National Contexts

Teacher education has gathered interest globally and nationally among teachers, educators, researchers and policy makers. Madalinska-Michalak, O 'Doherty and Assuno Flores (2018) observe that regional/ national, social, economic, political and historical factors impact upon teacher education and 'it is also impacted by global problems and tendencies' (pp. 567). This paper builds on these debates and examines the effects of global discourses of teacher education in the national contexts of developed and developing countries, for example, Guyana, Japan, South Africa, United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK). This includes consideration of teacher education and training before and during the current global COVID-19 pandemic (UNESCO, 2020). The paper concludes that teacher education continues to be under scrutiny due to global and national expectations, the demand of and how they are positioned in preparing teachers for the 21st century. Notwithstanding, as globalisation becomes more integrated in societies globally teacher education curricula not only has to retain its emphasis on standards, but equally its agility to ensure that the needs of all learners are met.

The Long-Term Solvency of Teacher Pension Plans: How We Got to Now and Prospects for Recovery

The COVID-related financial market decline and economic recession have raised new concerns regarding the financial sustainability of retirement plans for state and local government employees, the largest group of whom is public school teachers. Using data from the Public Plans Database and the National Income and Product Accounts, I analyze teacher pension plans over the 2001–2019 period, seeking to answer questions regarding teacher pensions' funded status, investment decisions and returns, adequacy of contributions, and generosity of benefits. These data show that teacher pension funding peaked at the beginning of the 2001–2019 period due to the tech bubble's inflation of asset values, but then it declined thereafter due to investment returns that significantly underperformed assumptions, failures by sponsoring governments to consistently make full contributions, and increases in the generosity of pension benefits. School districts will face substantial funding challenges in the post-COVID period, as investment losses are factored into contribution rates, government revenues available to make contributions shrink, and education funding from state governments comes under pressure. I outline several policy alternatives that policymakers may consider, but none would make restoring teacher pensions to full funding a painless process. © 2022 AERA.

Re-examining the education for all agenda in "apocalyptic” times

This chapter aims to re-examine the Education for All agenda in "apocalyptic” times. In so doing, it explores how the global pandemic has provided opportunity for alternative perspectives to approach and engage with education in more equitable and inclusive ways. While a shift to online learning was intended to support educational inclusion, it simultaneously served to marginalize some of the most vulnerable learners globally. This chapter proposes a collective responsibility to scrutinize how inclusion and exclusion can be reimagined in order to rebuild education systems that are fairer and more accessible for the learners to which they account. What the global pandemic has evidenced is that there remains great provision to reconsider how education can be enacted in increasingly unpredictable and unstable times. This is no more opportune than as the world begins to emerge from a global pandemic. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

How Did Colleges Disburse Emergency Aid During COVID-19? An Implementation Analysis of the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund

To address the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Congress authorized the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF I) in March 2020 with over $6 billion allocated for emergency financial aid. In this paper, we utilize the administrative burden framework to analyze HEERF I implementation for a stratified random sample of colleges, focusing on the implications for equity. We find that disbursement policies varied along two dimensions: (1) whether they imposed burdens on students by requiring applications and proof of hardship and (2) whether they targeted needy students and varied the amount of aid according to need. When we examine sectoral differences, we find that private for-profit colleges were more likely to place higher burden on students, whereas public and minority-serving institutions were more likely to reduce burden. © 2023 AERA.

State Education Agency Governance, Virtual Learning, and Student Privacy: Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic

The rapid transition to emergency remote teaching in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic altered public education as schools closed across the United States. Eighty percent of teachers reported interacting with students online, often utilizing free technology like Zoom and Google Workspace for Education. This article provides a comprehensive overview of state education agencies' recommendations for emergency remote teaching during the COVID-19 school closures in early 2020. Reviewing 337 publicly available documents from 50 state education agencies reveals a fragmented response: state education agencies relied on nongovernmental organizations to do the work of governance. © The Author(s) 2023.

The "problem” of teacher quality: exploring challenges and opportunities in developing teacher quality during the Covid-19 global pandemic in England

Teachers and teacher education are often presented as "problems” to be solved, with policy solutions that focus on ways to make teachers "better” and improve teacher "quality” by introducing prescriptive strategies. We investigate the ways Covid-19-related changes to university and school-based facets of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in England influence teacher quality in relation to both student teachers and early career teachers, working in secondary schools. Drawing on 34 interviews with school leaders, school mentors and ITE tutors, we critically explore the ways in which teacher quality was developed through key aspects of teachers' pedagogy and practice during the pandemic crisis when schools were closed and teaching moved online. Our findings show that the pandemic crisis has highlighted the different facets of teacher quality which arguably disrupt narrow and prescriptive understandings of what constitutes "quality” in policy terms. Although there were many instances of challenge in the development of new and student teachers, our data also shows how ITE tutors, school mentors and leaders responded creatively to the crisis. Participants highlighted the opportunities afforded by the pandemic to develop diverse and innovative pedagogies and practice, enhance students' subject knowledge, as well as overcome some of the challenges in other areas of pedagogy and practice. Furthermore, the study shows that teacher quality was not substantially reduced despite the challenges arising from the pandemic and concerns that pre-service teachers would not be ready and prepared for a career in the classroom. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Rethinking the educational ecology in the wake of COVID: Intellectual solidarity, teacher prestige, and educational humanization

In this conceptual article, the authors examine changes to the United States educational ecology during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article draws on contemporary and historical research to critique how K–12 school policies and educational leadership decisions are made amidst a crisis. As schools and districts continue to navigate a shifting educational context, teachers are often left out of the discussion. The authors set out to argue that teachers should be at the center of any plan to move forward and that support for teachers and humanizing approaches to teaching and learning should be at the forefront of any change. Drawing on theories of an educational ecology, the authors investigate how this moment of rapid change might be leveraged, through their exploration of future-oriented educational policies. In doing so, they highlight key areas of the educational ecology with the most potential to (re)humanize teachers' work and support the well-being of students. These include creating policies and systems of preparation and support for historically marginalized groups of teachers, advocating for a more human-centered curriculum, and taking a cautious approach to the presence of technology for instructional and pedagogical purposes. The authors conclude with a call for intellectual solidarity, increases in teacher prestige, and new visions of accountability, ideology, curriculum, and human exchange. © The Author(s) 2022.

Every Tool in the Toolbox: Pursuing Multilevel Institutional Change in the DeLTA Project

For decades, educators and policy makers have called for reform in higher education, yet now the urgency is palpable. The COVID-19 pandemic and heightened attention to systemic racism have highlighted the fact that outdated teaching practices can stunt student learning and trust of science, maintain systemic biases, and prevent equitable education. Promoting change to outdated teaching practices requires fundamental shifts at each level of a university--among faculty, departments, and the institution as a whole. The Departmental and Leadership Teams for Action (DeLTA) project at the University of Georgia pursues transformative shifts in policies and practices related to undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. This article provides examples of how DeLTA applies various change perspectives to shift thinking, practices, and policies related to evaluating teaching.

Policies, Practices, and Protocols for the Implementation of Technology Into Language Learning

Many research studies show that the use of technology inside and outside classrooms makes teaching and learning more engaging and motivating. Technology can provide learners with endless opportunities and can improve the learning experience, simplify access to educational resources, enhance autonomous learning, meet individual learning needs, and prepare the learners for future career success when using it to foster 21st-century skills. However, the range and number of technologies currently available can yield challenges for educators if they do not know how to effectively integrate them into their teaching pedagogy. "Policies, Practices, and Protocols for the Implementation of Technology Into Language Learning" discusses the skills necessary for successful technology use in education and examines technology tools that assist in teaching different languages with a focus on English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Covering a range of topics such as reading, writing, and integrated language skills, this book is ideal for instructors, policymakers, administrators, researchers, practitioners, academicians, and students.