The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt by both male and female students in Open and Distance e-Learning (ODeL) and contact-based learning institutions in South Africa. However, young female students have been the most affected group. Societal norms that reinforce cultural practices which favour male students hinder the academic…

Drawing upon the theoretical framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study investigates the influence of cultural context on how students interpret and respond to their teachers' actions and classroom dynamics, which contribute to either need satisfaction or frustration. The research underscores the importance of understanding students'…

The present study explored LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other non heterosexual/cisgender identities) engineering students' navigation of engineering educational contexts and reported the impacts of the engineering educational culture on LGBTQ+ students' well-being. Drawing from a sample of ten LGBTQ+ university students…

This systematic literature review synthesizes empirical evidence to comprehensively examine factors driving international students' choice of Australia as their preferred destination for tertiary education. Deductive analysis of findings from the 46 selected studies, framed within the push and pull framework, identified 27 factors that revealed…

Food has multiple roles within individuals' lives, with the potential to bridge gaps between different groups and enhance belonging. This project sought to explore through food-related images submitted by staff and students, the themes and values identified, and explore whether taking part enhanced belonging at university. Data were collected…

The purpose of this study was to illuminate how and to what extent Black women's developmental processes have influenced their success within their respective U.S. college environments. Crenshaw's three dimensions of intersectionality guided our analysis. We synthesized 38 peer-reviewed articles and interpreted five themes: (a) navigating the…

The creation and enforcement of a cisgender binary throughout the history of the United States has led to the establishment of trans* identities as "deviant" or "deficient" others--mentalities that bleed into the policies, practices, and pedagogical environments of higher education institutions. Often, these understandings lead…

This qualitative study employed portraiture methodology and the analytical tool of thinking with theory to comprehend how gay Latino men enrolled at a four-year university experienced heteronormativity in different settings (e.g. with family and at college) and how these influenced their connections to love. Using stories from five participants,…

This paper is a critical discussion about how the curriculum contributes to the sense of belonginess within Higher Education (HE), and how the ongoing aim of decolonisation needs to incorporate a more consistent intersectional lens with the curriculum within psychology. Psychology as a discipline has been criticised for its focus on primarily…

Despite significant cultural attention on the phenomenon of school shootings, one of the most predictive dimensions of these tragedies is under-analyzed: gender. Men commit 98% of mass shootings, but robust discussion and research on this relationship is lacking. This dissertation investigates the relationship between masculinity and gun violence…

LGBT students continue to be vastly invisible in the international higher education literature and often face hostile learning environments, both in the classroom and in the larger university environment. This study follows a narrative inquiry approach to explore and document the experiences of "tongzhi"--the most widely embraced…

The constructivist grounded theory (CGT) explored how queer Muslim college students integrate their religious and sexual identities. By using intensive interviews concurrent with an iterative analytical scheme, the study identified a cycle of identity integration. Findings suggest that queer Muslim college students navigated identity gatekeepers…

This dissertation answers the following research question: How does Christian hegemony influence sense of belonging for students of minoritized religions on a college campus? Institutions of higher education claim to be secular and inclusive spaces for their students (Jacobsen & Jacobsen, 2012; Joshi, 2020; Jun et al., 2018; Lang &…

Assignment outsourcing is an intractable challenge for higher education. While various academic and legislative approaches have sought to explain/respond to this problem, recent media, community, and government concerns suggest students are increasingly outsourcing assessments. This paper reports on the qualitative findings of an international…

This article seeks to extend our understanding of how American Indian college students' success is crafted from their lived experiences and ancestral understanding to create community on a college campus. Using a methodology of portraiture, the Cherokee concept of gadugi is explored as a formidable concept to indigenize spaces on a primarily white…