Utilising a social constructivist lens, this study explores how students from rural areas constitute and negotiate their identities in the context of an urban South African university. Much of the research on rurality in South Africa has focused on rural areas as places, and not on the people occupying them. This qualitative study employed a…

The study explored the psychosocial experience of distance learners at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife. Psychosocial experience refers to the aggregate outcome of events and feelings that define or affect a person's knowledge and perception of their prevailing social environment.…

Many developmental and proactive advising approaches used when working with students in academic difficulty emphasize the importance of students' behavioral change but rarely address societal and institutional barriers that contribute to their poor performance. With the lingering effects of a national pandemic, unstable economy, political…

The article presents the analysis of social and psychological component indicators of academic employees in the structure of higher education institution (university) image. As a part of comprehensive study we determined the internal structure of a higher education institution image according the results of factor and correlation analysis which…

Banter, a form of social communication, is perceived to enhance social cohesion between friends in online and offline contexts. A fine line between banter and bullying behaviours exists however, with some instances of banter perceived as bullying, cyberbullying, and relational aggression. Two qualitative studies explored university students'…

This article presents findings from a pilot study of postgraduate journalism students in Dublin and Amman. The study compared professional outlooks and social characteristics of students in both contexts and examined institutional settings. The study finds that journalism students in Dublin and Amman have very similar views on the profession,…

This paper examines the role that social characteristics play in determining the academic success of students who begin university with roughly similar entry grades. The data used were drawn from the administrative records of over 38,000 UK-domiciled undergraduate students from one British university between 1998 and 2009. Results show that the…

This autoethnography posits that my presence as a working-class Chicana obtaining an education in the United States consequently created a Thirdspace environment I recognize as Nepantla. Thirdspace allowed me to navigate urban schooling and elite institutions of higher education. Two narratives demonstrate opposing forms of acquired dominant and…

Researchers have attempted to untangle the complexity of a generation through four primary effects--time interval, cohort, period, and attitude--based on personal and societal attributes. The Millennial generation, born 1982-2000, has received considerable attention through the media, in educational institutions, and in the workplace. The seven…

Background/Context: A sense of belonging in school is a complex construct that relies heavily on students' perceptions of the educational environment, especially their relationships with other students. Some research suggests that a sense of belonging in school is important to all students. However, we argue that the nature and meaning of…

Previous research suggested that candidates from some black and minority ethnic groups were less likely to receive an offer of a place from an "old" university. These findings were disputed in a re-analysis carried out for HEFCE which found that only Pakistani candidates were significantly less likely to receive offers (from both…

Background: In the studies of acceleration conducted so far a multidimensional perspective has largely been neglected. No attempt has been made to relate social-emotional characteristics of accelerated versus non-accelerated students in perspective of environmental factors. Aims: In this study, social-emotional characteristics of accelerated…

In this article, the author argues that whiteness remains an overwhelmingly absent dimension in literacy teaching that addresses systems of power from a critical perspective. One way literacy teachers may bring this dimension more explicitly into the classroom is by facilitating critical conversations on whiteness with young adult literature. As…

This article focuses on the complexity of researching institutional culture and the ethical dilemmas posed in representing staff according to race and gender, drawing on three qualitative studies undertaken at a previously white South African university between 2000 and 2007. During the research process, issues of representation became a concern…

The focus of this study is to explore the lifestyle of international students and also the difficulties faced by them due to the language barrier (difficulty in learning the Chinese language) in Taiwan. Motivation for this study comes from the increasing number of international students, and the related educational policy settings of the…