Despite suspicions concerning the global expansion of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) education, the teaching of Chinese is often a mainstay within global citizenship and elite education. With this paradox in mind, the paper draws on theories of classed selfhood and learner identities to explore the possibilities of CFL to influence the…

Sports participation and elite sporting success are fundamental to Australian culture and a prominent source of national pride. As sport is a major part of day-to-day living in Australia, it is not surprising that many young people aspire to careers as sportspersons. While such aspirations are often dismissed as fanciful and unattainable, the…

The University of Wollongong's (UOW) Outreach program was established in 2011. In 2017, through a National Priority Pool Grant, UOW piloted the regional and rural outreach program, "Rural In2Uni." The "Rural In2Uni" program enabled university students to "pay it forward" through a pedagogical model which places rural…

This article posits that when children are encouraged to aspire, they can become aware of a new world of choices and opportunities. Children should be supported to aspire in all areas of their lives. Of interest is children's capacity to aspire to attend tertiary education. Literature shows that children cannot aspire to attend higher education…

The early experience of commencing university students is an important precursor for retention and student success and involves a transformation in learning. This article reports the experiences of commencing students in an Australian Education (Primary) degree. Data were collected using a mixed methods approach, consisting of an online survey,…

The aim of this study to create a comprehensive overview of factors that may influence motivation of ethnic minority students from their own perspective. A systematic review was conducted in PubMed, ERIC, and PsycINFO to find studies in which the motivation of ethnic minority students was studied. The articles reviewed were qualitatively…

Indigenous students remain vastly under-represented within higher education in Australia. While aspirations have been a key focus of the widening participation agenda, the aspirations of Indigenous students have largely been overlooked. Drawing on survey data collected as part of a mixed methods longitudinal study conducted with students in Years…

Based on a sample of over 3000 primary and secondary school students located in regional and rural schools in Tasmania (Australia) this research had three aims: (1) to identify students' self-perceptions of schooling with a focus on high school completion (referred to as school retention); (2) to determine if gender, socio-economic factors, level…

Based on a sample of over 3000 primary and secondary school students located in regional and rural schools in Tasmania (Australia) this research had three aims: (1) to identify students' self-perceptions of schooling with a focus on high school completion (referred to as school retention); (2) to determine if gender, socio-economic factors, level…

Immigration is an example of global mobility to developed nations such as Australia. Each year thousands of migrants from different parts of the world move here. Using a sociocultural framework, this article reports on English as a Second Language (ESL) parents' views on the role and importance of English in the learning and lives of their…

The aim of this article is to explore aspiration in contemporary urban locations in the context of almost universal policy initiatives to raise aspirations of young people to participate in higher education. The article is based on a study of how children's career and further education aspirations are shaped over time in five schools in western…

Aspiration is currently a prominent concept in higher education policy debates. However, reference to this concept is often made in terms of low socio-economic status (SES) students simply lacking aspiration, which schools and universities must work to instill. In contrast to this potentially deficit view, this paper draws on Appadurai's notion of…