At present, there has been a gradual increase in the number of migrant students in schools in Western societies, in which Muslim students are one of the largest groups. Their inclusion has become the main goal for governments and schools. However, this group sometimes face different barriers to their inclusion, which limit their educational experiences, and prevent or hinder their access and participation, promoting their marginalisation. Research on migration and education generally focuses on specific cases or communities, so it is interesting to analyse from a broader perspective what recurrent forms of inclusion and exclusion occur at the global level in schools. This systematic review aims to determine the barriers to inclusion faced by first and second generation Muslim migrant students at different stages of their formal education. It followed PRISMA guidelines and a PEO research strategy, conducted in two databases, Boolean as well as truncators were used for specific terms. It included assessments of methodological quality and validity. A total of 24 articles met the selection criteria. The study finds socio-cultural, linguistic and discrimination barriers as well as barriers produced by educational policy and the availability of resources and training. There are barriers in the pedagogical practice too. Furthermore, those barriers had a greater or lesser impact according to the generation or the educational stage the students are in. This not only favours the identification of barriers, but also the search for measures and solutions to reduce or eradicate them at both the micro and macro levels, by promoting the development of policies, the provision of resources and the creation of working networks in interculturality.
The impact of globalisation and neoliberalism on education – in the form of a globalised knowledge economy and an increasingly corporatised university sector – continues to affect English teaching (hereby called English studies) in Indonesian higher education. In this context, English should be understood as linguistic capital, a significant part of cultural capital, that can be accrued then transformed by exchanging it for a respected position or another form of symbolic recognition. This article evaluates how English studies in Indonesia can enable Indonesians to navigate these global trends. Considering this system of interactions, each university should seek to increase students’ capital by ensuring that English proficiency is emphasised in university life so that students become familiar with it. Through this balanced practice of consecration, Indonesians can accrue legitimate English (linguistic) capital, which is valued highly in the global world – and which may have been overlooked by policy makers and curriculum developers.
This manuscript presents a study exploring students' agentic engagement in science in an early-childhood classroom with a goal of examining how open-ended pedagogical structures mediate and shape children's possibilities for agentic actions. The study was conducted with a class of 17 plurilingual 4- to 6-year-olds as they participated in a five-week unit exploring worms, guided by sociocultural theoretical frameworks. Analysis demonstrates the role of open-ended structures for creating spaces for children's agency, and highlights how open spaces provide opportunities for children's learning in ways that go beyond adults’ expectations. Microanalysis of children’s interactions highlights how open-ended structures supported children’s science engagement and meaning making in multi-layered and creative ways. Implications for teacher education and research are discussed.
This study examined the impact of an English talent (ET) program on the English language growth of college students in China. Using mixed methods, the researchers found that the ET program had a statistically significant impact on participants’ English proficiency scores across all subtests (i.e., listening, reading, and writing/translation) compared to those of a group of students enrolled in traditional English courses. ET teachers’ reflections indicated that the program improved their students’ listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills and prepared them to compete in national English competitions. The study highlights the effectiveness of ET programs in English language education at the college level.
This article explores the external factors that have influenced the university success of graduates with invisible disabilities and the recommendations they make to universities to encourage students with disabilities to stay and successfully complete their degrees. This qualitative study involved interviews with 15 graduates from eight Italian universities. The results identified family, peers, faculty, and disability offices as the main factors that influenced their continuation with university studies. Recommendations included the need to provide more information to both students with disabilities (about the services that universities offer to support them) and faculty (about the students with disabilities they have in their classrooms and the necessary accommodations). These factors can be seen as levers for inclusion that benefit the whole university community.
This paper compares the longitudinal effect of instructional tasks on algebra learning that used a Standards-based curriculum [Connected Mathematics Project (CMP)] to that of classrooms that used a traditional curriculum (non-CMP). CMP was developed based on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards and can be characterized as a problem-based curriculum. CMP teachers were more than three times as likely to implement high-level instructional tasks than non-CMP teachers. Increases in the cognitive demand were associated with enhanced growth rates in problem solving, computation, and equation solving. Notably, when controlling for the cognitive demand of the instructional tasks, the advantage of the CMP curriculum over the non-CMP curricula on students’ growth in problem solving disappeared. However, non-CMP curricula had an advantage on students’ growth over the CMP curriculum after the cognitive demand of the instructional tasks was controlled.
The digital divide between urban and rural schools challenges efforts to promote technology integration in education, and contributes to growing educational inequity in many contexts. Using the most current version of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA 2020), we identified and extracted 36 articles and conference papers on the use of technology in rural schools from the Scopus and Web of Science databases. We used Critical Interpretive Synthesis to identify the challenges and solutions involved in integrating technology in rural schools. The analysis revealed 29 challenges, which were categorized using the framework of the ecological perspective into macro level, meso level, and micro level challenges. The analysis also identified solutions to the challenges discussed in these studies. By focusing on the challenges and proposed solutions at different contextual levels, this review is intended to identify what constitutes good practices when integrating technology in rural schools. Future research should focus on factors which facilitate the use of technology and how the integration of technology impacts students’ learning experiences and achievement in rural schools.
In multilingual settings, selecting a medium of instruction (MoI) has been widely debated. While proponents advocate for using the official MoI, others support using the mother tongue or adopting bilingual/multilingual MoI. Despite the potential for each MoI model to contribute to learning inequalities among students, there needs to be more evidence regarding the specific categories of students and contextual factors involved. This study focuses on fourteen French-speaking Sub-Saharan African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Guinea, Madagascar, Niger, Senegal, and Togo) to investigate disparities in learning outcomes between students exposed to the official MoI and those exposed to a bilingual/multilingual MoI. Leveraging data from PASEC 2019, the study employs Residualized Quantile Regression (RQR) as its analytical method. The findings indicate that each MoI model may result in learning outcome disparities, with the extent of inequality varying according to students' performance levels (low, average, or high achievers). Additionally, these disparities are influenced by factors such as the student's urban or rural residence and the specific characteristics of the educational system in place. These findings underscore the importance of developing language-in-education policies that consider students' characteristics (e.g., ability) and contextual factors.
Understanding the mechanisms underpinning the transmission of educational inequalities is fundamental for fighting social injustice and promoting social mobility. Towards this aim, the paper proposes an extension of the synthetic theoretical framework of Sen-Bourdieu, incorporating the key sociological concepts of classification and framing and the corresponding rules of recognition and realization, as elucidated by Basil Bernstein. By elaborating on the complementarities of the adopted theoretical frameworks, the purpose of the paper is the development of a conceptual model capable of better unravelling the complex processes that influence educational choices and outcomes within contemporary educational systems. Τhe practical possibilities of the suggested theoretical model are demonstrated through its application to a topical issue of educational policy, namely the nexus between school choice and inequality. In this context, the role of educational policy is construed as facilitating individuals’ educational paths by eradicating restrictive factors and establishing emancipating ones..