Higher Education Equity Literature Database

Context: Under-examined area of caring teachers in higher education contexts. Authors argue that caring is fundamental to teaching, and is inscribed in professional standards: "as human concern, moral re-sponsibility, individual attentiveness and personal responsiveness" (p.66), but not so much in higher education contexts. Authors note that although other scholars have suggested caring 'exemplifiers' ("listen to students, show empathy, support students, actively support students' learning, give students appropriate and meaningful praise, have high expectations of work and behavior, and finally, show an active concern in students' personal lives", p.66), it's not clear which are most significant for students. Moreover, because many of the accounts of caring teachers have focused on local contexts/ particular groups, there is a lack of transferability in these studies. Authors also ask questions about "meaning and status of care as a mechanism to effect change, not just in pedagogic, but also social terms within education more generally" (p.67)
Aim: To theorise 'the caring teacher' in higher education; to develop a theoretical model of caring higher education teacher from teachers' perspectives
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Inductive, interpretive/ qualitative approach + grounded theory. Participants = 'reputational cases' (nominated as 'experts' by others) in Social Sciences school in UK university (n=15/72 who were nominated). All were selected on the basis of listening to students, empathy, supporting students, fostering active learning, giving appropriate feedback/ encouragement, having high expectations, showing active concern in students' lives. Sample questions from interview 1 (on being perceived a caring teacher) = "What factors do you think were commonly used in identifying you as a caring teacher? (Common factors will be shared with the participant). Do you recognize yourself in them? How?; Do you personally consider caring to be an intrinsic part of your teaching or academic work? How?; What differences, if there are any, could you identify in yourself according to your experience, between when you knowingly care about your students, and when you're not conscious of it?" Sample questions from interview 2 (being a caring teacher): "If I went into a typical class of yours, what might I expect to see you doing?; What does the way that you organize your classes say about your beliefs?". Sample questions from interview 3 (becoming a caring teacher): How did you become a university teacher?; Why did you choose university teaching over other sorts?" (all p.68). Final interview = reflection on process
Findings: Main themes: a relationship at the centre; compelled to care; caring as resistance; and caring as less than.

Relationship at the centre: "the participants showed the most explicit attention to relational matters and reflected critically on every nuance of their behavior if it could feasibly affect their stu-dents, their pedagogies being centered almost solely on under-standing the act of teaching as a principal causal means of making learning happen at a deep and sustained level" (p.69). Data suggests participants viewed teaching as sociocultural activity (various forms of engagement, relational negotiation, various forms of knowledge and practices.
Compelled to care: compulsion articulated as "individuals' naturally affective tendencies and preferences", related to personal beliefs, ideals, histories and visions. However, this 'compulsion' was also a challenge: "These expectations frequently caused confusion of roles however, and created inse-curity particularly when incidents relating to their care had seemed to expose the academics, in which case they resorted to different types of behavior and activity to somehow 'normalise' their caring" (p.71).
Caring as resistance: "conceptualization of dissonance in the institutional-personal nexus" (p.71) - resisting market imperatives to care despite of the system, not because the system demands it, demonstrating "an everyday moral resistance to the operationalization of policies that participants found to be allied to good business decisions rather than learning" (p.71). Other sub-themes included defence ("a mechanism in which caring individuals positioned themselves as buttresses against what was perceived as the steady infiltration of interpersonal values with operationalized processes from externally imposed values", p.71) and subversion ("participants perceiving themselves to be important instruments in maintaining what they imagine to be the core values of higher education that cannot be open to diminution", p.71).
Caring as less than: feelings of conflict between comments on caring and perceptions of being undermined, or that caring (through teaching) = 'less than' other work

(p.75)
Core argument: More research on caring in higher education is needed because "contingent and contextual factors impact upon these teachers' ability to practice this 'care', and when academics' personal beliefs become affected by students' behaviors and institutional policies, then integrating care into teacher-student relationships becomes intensely complex and problematic" (p.75).

Context: Examines staff perspectives on WP from two different UK universities (Northampton = post-1992 and OU = distance/open university). WP in UK = traced back to Robbins Report (1963) but has been particularly dominant in preceding 15 years (New Labour gov't). Equity groups [term not used in paper] in UK = BME, students with disabilities, 'disadvantaged social and economic backgrounds', FinF, OOHC, part-time, non-traditional qualifications. New universities in particular attracted higher funding during New Labour years; post-Conservative-Liberal gov't, funding = cut (e.g. EMA, increased student fees). Paper based on hypothesis that leadership perspectives on WP = "likely to be major determinants affecting how WP is conceptualised and translated into practice as part of the university's mission" (p.53).
University of Northampton = WP university; new VC in 2010 with strategic business plan to reposition uni in terms of research performance/capacity.
Open University = open access policy (no entrance requirements); majority of students = p/t and 70% also work f/t. OU student population mirrored demographic profile of UK in 2010. OU also got new VC (in 2009) with mission to expand more into international markets and move more to online environments
Aim: To report research that interviewed senior staff members on personal perspectives of "a passing 'golden age' of WP, in which generous resources flowed in support of a national strategy, and an emerging 'austere' age in which the architecture underpinning WP is being drastically dismantled and a very different business model of student fees is being introduced" (p.53)
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Research conducted in 2011 (between two major policy moments: acceptance that student fees could rise and HEFCE's 'drastic cuts' to teaching grants). 'Senior stakeholder interview methodology' used to study policy effects (from national/HEFCE to institutional policy), grounded in context of economic, political and organisational forces. Staff interviewed = VC, PVC and Deans of schools at Northampton (x8) and Unit Directors in OU (national, regional, WP, student services and Diversity and Equality staff; x9)
Findings:
Literature review illuminates 4 'connecting terms' with WP: diversity (synonymously used with WP), inclusion (used predominantly with disability in UK), equality (legislative context and equity (Australian context; see p.55) - see Thomas et al.'s (2010) analysis of themes in 129 institutional WP Strategic Assessments.
Widening Participation as conflicted discourse = number of different conceptualisations suggest sense of confusion, sometimes at level of mixing policy and personal/values-driven discourses (strategically?). Staff in professional areas = more definitively either pragmatic (about recruitment) or principled (based on ideas about social justice). Many participants articulated a sense of not knowing what WP is, particularly with regard to public phrases such as 'fair access' and 'social mobility'. For OU, WP = umbrella term to describe supporting students and widening access = focused on generating higher student numbers - but lack of central clarity (due in part to differentiated UK context). WP = "a conflicted discourse, an educational space in which contradictory impulses around pre-entry aspiration-raising and university-based support for learning are still not embedded in any coherent way into the strategic approach to WP" (p.61)
Widening participation = conceptualised and delivered in disciplines = At Northampton, WP = organised/conceived/ delivered at school level = interviews illustrated "clear customisation of the WP agenda" (p.62), e.g. activities based on gender imbalance; focus on access to Arts courses (less BME students). Preparedness of WP students = continuing challenge. All Deans identified the preparedness of some WP students for HE as a continuing challenge. (p.62). Issues with self-referral to generic support (less confidence= disadvantage) - WP funding = insufficient to support all interventions ideally needed. Many participants identified issues with greater inclusivity in curriculum = related to dominance of "anglocentricity and ethnocentricity" (p.63) and lack of diversity in staff.
Impact of WP: acknowledgement of difficulty of measuring impact; "the actual impact may be difficult to measure unequivocally because of the complexity of educational, economic, social and cultural factors involved, their interplay, and the long timeframes involved" (p.64). Recognition of individual journeys (rather than homogenous view of WP students) = suggests a "values-informed leadership role for universities in making social mobility a reality" (p.65). Interviewees recognised that quant metrics = important but is also important to include qualitative, student-centred measurements.
Danger of WP = becoming 'tired cliche' - Northampton changed name of WP department to 'Access and Achievement'; similar for OU: changed to 'Centre for Inclusion and Curriculum'
Core argument: Research highlights shifting notions of WP as universities changed strategic plans/ vision/ direction. Tensions exist between broad national target measurements and more student-centred measures. There is a lot of slippage between different/differing understandings of WP as policy discourse and enactments in practice. "The key message from senior stakeholders for WP practitioners is to adapt and evolve, or risk extinction" (p.69).

Context: Explores experiences of refugee youth and their pre-migratory experiences (of schooling or not) and the impact on their engagement in American school system and their aspirations for/ transition into/ participation (or not) in higher education. Paper situated in modern America post-GFC where school districts are being stripped of staff (especially key pastoral/ liaison roles) and other key resources: "As refugee students identify a hope in education broadly defined, they quickly realize they are underprepared and under-supported to embark on these narrow pathways. Educators champion postsecondary education pursuit within their schools, yet such a thinly imagined trajectory elides the traumatic backgrounds of these students, their functional illiteracies and truncated support in fiscally distressed schools" (p.2). Also set in context of neoliberal school reforms and note "few have considered how they come to bear on the lives of vulnerable populations like refugees" (p.5).
Aim: To explore how refugee students' pre-migratory experiences shape their aspirations, needs and capabilities; and to understand how their experiences in precarious (under-resourced) US schooling system influences their transitions and trajectories (p.3)
Theoretical framework: Draws on notion of precarity - often used in economic discussions but people "have rarely used it to describe the conditions that have come to texture global migration patterns in the contemporary moment" (p.3). Argue that 'refugee' = "an increasingly precarious political category" (p.3) - based in part on slippage/ 'collapsing boundaries' between use of terms 'migrant' and 'refugee' .
Also draws on Berlant's (2011) notion of 'cruel optimism' - based on the fantasy of 'the good life' but "In these schools, their aspirations meet a dramatically grim educational landscape of disinvested infrastructure, fiscal crises and weakened supports" (p.5)
Methodology: Draws on two longitudinal ethnographic studies of refugee youth in Philadelphia (one study = 70 Bhutanese/ Burmese youth aged 15-23; other study = 20 Iraqi youth).
Findings:
Students' experiences/ motivations:
- Note a 'moral obligation' on part of refugee youth to give back to those left behind (in home country/ refugee camps) as a 'chosen' "agent of their communities" (p.8) - explains common desire to be a teacher/ doctor = based (in part) on pre-migratory experiences.
- Financial precarity - need to support families here (especially with ill or elderly parents) - participants (in particular 'Samah' from Iraq) expressed intention/ desire/ responsibility to contribute to the survival/ betterment of the family, especially when separated from family members
- Notes lack of support in under-resourced sector (e.g. lack of ESL preparation for GED classes)/ inflexible system that places unreasonable demands (e.g. stripped of financial support 4 months after settlement; top age for high school = 21; not enough time to accrue credit for college application)/ lack of evidence of qualifications from overseas = puts young people in precarious position = inflexible and uncaring systems
- Lack of key liaison personnel = lack of guidance and support and information for students wanting to apply to/ go to college
- High cost of college/ inability to work for 4 years = makes college unattractive proposition: "Afraid to leave sick, ageing parents and or oftentimes dealing with chronic health problems themselves, many students like Devi felt bound to remain with their families to act as translators, bill payers, wage earners and navigators. Shakya et al. (2012) referred to these youth as 'resettlement champions' or critical supports to their families post-arrival" (p.13)
- Some students found it difficult to navigate websites/ didn't understand language and processes/ costs of application
"By using Lauren Berlant's notion of 'cruel optimism' we have therefore demonstrated an ubiquitous tension in the lives of refugee students looking to both realize the humanitarian promise of the 'good life' secured through educational attainment, while also encountering linguistic and foundational challenges in their classrooms. A tension exists between refugee youths' expectations for educational opportunity and the reality of narrowed pathways through which those opportunities are realized" (p.14)

Core argument: Using notion of hope/ cruel optimism, authors argue that education is held up to offer great (false) promise: "Whether in refugee camps, or areas of displacement and exile, refugee youth arrive in their places of resettlement expecting that educational attainment, particularly access to postsecondary education, will deliver them from a life of liminality and precarity" (p.6).

Researchers need to conceive of war and destruction as omnipresent in both refugees' pre-migratory histories and the neoliberal project to divest them of educational opportunity in their new contexts. While the first kind of war is painfully visible, this second is actually more pernicious as refugee youth and families come to understand that schools, as institutions that allegedly promise hope, are not what they seem" (p.15)

Context: Enabling programs are diverse which can limit research into and understanding of the enabling sector as a whole, and to what components are essential to an enabling curriculum. This paper focuses on the ways in which academic literacies and language (ALL) are present in these programs, and suggests that they should be an essential part of enabling education curricular. Current discourses surrounding academic literacies often obscure "the complex socio-cultural, identity-related and emotional aspects of the writing 'process'. As such the complex web of activities, ideologies and relationships that constitute it as a set of social practices reduce 'writing' to an assessed text" (p. 491). Discourses surrounding ALL then can act as a barrier that runs contrary to the enabling mission.
Aim: To explore the provision of ALL across enabling programs and the way in which it is conceptualised within curriculum and via practitioners.
Methodology: "Qualitative, interpretive methodology...which seeks to blend the emic (insider) view and the etic view of the researcher/outsider." (p. 492). 26/27 universities offering enabling programs (and 35 enabling programs in total including TAFE and sub-degree programs) participated in components of the research which included a desktop audit, telephone survey/interview, and review of curriculum documents. Data was analysed thematically, factually in order to develop key typologies of enabling programs and according to Ivanic__'s framework of six writing discourses (skills, creativity, process, genre, social practices and socio-political discourses.
Findings: There are 5 models for the position of ALL in enabling programs: 1. "ALL sits at the heart of the enabling course" and curriculum mapping ensures that it is threaded through core and elective units; 2. ALL exists as a distinct unit but is not mapped throughout, and this is the most common model; 3. ALL core unit sits alongside undergraduate credit bearing units; 4. ALL units sit alongside disciplinary units; 5. One program that includes ALL as part of the program. Argues in favour as Model 1 and potentially 5 as the optimal ways to incorporate ALL in enabling programs. "There is very little explicit support available for LBOTE students, and even less specific support for students from refugee backgrounds" (p. 495); there is also a general lack of differentiated provision for international and domestic LBOTE students. Using Ivanic__'s framework the general view of ALL in enabling programs is that "writing is a product and that academic writing is a genre of writing of which the characteristic linguistic features may be explicitly taught" (p. 497). When asked how they understood academic literacies participant responses revealed that they are "understood as a multi-faceted, complicated and expansive set of practices" (p. 497). They most commonly discussed writing, along with reading and critical thinking, which are umbrella terms for a wide range of other practices; however it may also suggest a more complex unpacking of what is meant by the term 'academic literacies'. The implications of this research relate to the needs to: 1. Gather an evidence basis to support models of ALL provision that work; 2. Arrive at consensus about what ALL entails and what practices matter in its provision across the enabling field; 3. Undertake curriculum renewal that positions ALL at the centre of enabling provision.
Core argument: ALL is often placed at the periphery of enabling curricula and are often understood simply as neutral skills or practices that can be transmitted to students. Students and teachers would be served by developing a shared understanding of ALL that sees it as at the centre of the enabling curricula.

Schlossberg's theory of transition/ transition model: = systematic framework for counsellors, social workers etc. Opens view of individual difference, but offers stable structure. Three major parts:
1) Approaching transitions: identification (what kind of transition/ how much change is anticipated) and processes (locates where person is in transition)
2) The 4 S system: situation, self, support, strategies
3) Taking charge/ strengthening resources (use of strategies)
Definition of transition: "a transition is an event or nonevent that results in changed relationships, routines, assumptions, and roles. Transitions have been placed conceptually within a developmental framework, described as turning points or as a period between two periods of stability" (p.39).
For some people, transition = crisis (makes reference to Chinese word for crisis (literal translation = opportunity riding a dangerous wind, p.39) = metaphor "for the unsettled yet perhaps excited feelings clients may be experiencing when they approach a transition" (p.39-40).
Transition requires coping: letting go of aspects of the self; letting go of former roles and learning new ones (p.40)
Cites Parkes (1971) = 'psychosocial transition" = a change that necessitates abandoning one set of assumptions and development of fresh set (see p.40)
"A transition is not so much a matter of change as of the individual's own perception of the change" (p.40).
Typology of transitions:
Anticipated transitions (e.g. birth of first child, getting married, child leaving home)
Unanticipated transitions (death of family member, divorce)
Nonevent transitions - when transition = anticipated but does not occur: "the realisation that the expected transition did not and will likely never occur alters the way they see themselves and might also alter the way they behave" (p.43)
"Many theoretical perspectives about transitions make assumptions that individuals are making transitions in optimal circumstances and that people have the capabilities and resources to make the transition" (p.42), but not always the case.
Perspective, context and impact (to everyday life) = significant factors; need to remember that difference is norm: "There is differentiation in the opportunities and obstacles that shape people's potential, across backgrounds, locations, birth eras, and countries" (p.44).
Transition as process
Developmental approach = series of stages, "with each stage relating to the next for adaptation and successful adjustment" (p.48).
Note Brammer's (1991) offers stages of transition (defined as 'journey through'): adaptation, renewal, transformation, transcendence (see p.50)
Bridges (2004) describes transitions as 'endings, neutral zones, beginnings
Hudson (1991, 1999) viewed transitions as normal and inevitable; a "natural process of disorientation and reorientation that alters the perception of self and world and demands changes in assumptions and behaviour" (1991: 96). In later work, he describes transitions as 'cycles of renewal', characterised by 4 phases: getting ready, launching, plateauing, sorting things out.
Lorenz (1993): chaos theory - disorder, unpredictability and lack of control = normal parts of transition [chaos theory = "is the fascinating idea that order and chaos are not always diametrically opposed. Chaotic systems are an intimate mix of the two: from the outside they display unpredictable and chaotic behaviour, but expose the inner workings and you discover a perfectly deterministic set of equations ticking like clockwork" : http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-chaos-theory-10620] = small differences have big effects. Bright & Pryor (2008) built a theory of 'shiftwork' on chaos theory (all activities for individuals to reinvent themselves continually, identify opportunities, recover from setbacks, find meaning, capitalize on chance opportunities) - in counseling context, clients = helped to see patterns in their complexity; important to be open and flexible as opposed to setting rigid/ fixed goals.
Brought together, authors developed integrative model of transition process (see p.56)

Transition framework
Adults = continuously experience transitions
Adults' reactions depend on type of transition/ perceptions to/ context within which/ its impact
Transitions have no end point = "process over time that includes phases of assimilation and continuous appraisal as people move in, through and out of it" (p.59)

Context: Measurement of teacher effectiveness/ representation of effectiveness via quantitative tools/ infographics + profound impact on how this shapes perceptions of teaching/ teachers. Teachers' caring labor described as "work that lives beyond the rubric-limited observations and test score algorithms of teacher and student evaluations" (p.643), particularly what is seen as 'women's work' (expected, unvalued), particularly with/for people who sit outside dominant policy subject (white, middle-class
Aim: To open a conversation about teachers' caring labour in broader context of neoliberalised education; to "expand our pictures of school care, and call out the mismatch between structural (white, middle-class) expectations of what teaching should look like, and the actual shapes and contour lines of urban teacher practice" (p.644)
Theoretical frame: Embodiment/ intersubjective bodily positioning
Methodology: Multimodal study with group of public school teachers/activists ('radicals': The New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE)) in New York, which was designed to explore teachers' perspectives of new statewide value-added teacher evaluation policy known as ' Advance', and its textual and visual representations of teaching/ teachers. Study generated 5 types of data: drawings/ images, interview data, post-workshop field notes, image-elicitation interview data, series of multimedia artworks made by author in collaboration with NYCoRE participants. Analysis: narrative analysis, Rose's (2016) multimodal 'sites and modalities' framework
Findings:
Mapping bodies/ embodying care: teachers invited to draw themselves/ draw their practice in relation to their bodies, with body maps helping to visibilise the invisible components of caring teaching practices. For example, 'Michelle' draws her morning, which includes buying food for her students - breakfast once a week and snacks two other days a week ('feeding the family'), which was initiated by her observation that students were sleeping, and wondering why. The author interprets as "the effort of making school a ' safe space' and a ' second home,' an effort comprised of all the countless large and tiny, often invisible, acts that mothers and motherers do to make a space feel cozy, predictable, provided-for, safe. It is work" (p.649). Also, Michelle's observation included questioning what else was going on in the student's life (was he working until 2am?). "Her investment of time, funds, mental and emotional work in her students, and her support of them with subtly-passed post-its and granola bars, are radical acts of love, care, resistance, and persistence." (p.649).
For Lee, the care manifests partly as cleanliness - "a ritual of professionalism" (p.650), because for Lee, "This cleaning care-work is a way of showing up authentically for them, communicating care, helping them to learn organization, and creating a daily visual demonstration of both their value and her commitment" (p.652)
Core argument: Re-visualising teachers' practices (including their care-work) helps to disrupt "dominant ' images' of value-added teacher ratings [which] portray teachers, students and schools in a disembodied ' god' s-eye-view' (Haraway 1988 ) constellation of decimaled-numbers, percentages, and demographics, the teachers depict situated, particular and profoundly human work" (p.652).

Context: Examines funding and patterns in enrolments in one enabling education program ('second chance education') in Australian higher education sector - makes connections between enabling education and welfare economies/ economics of education/ human capital theory and concept of 'merit goods'. Cites Hodges et al. = 35 universities offering enabling programs [different from finding in Baker & Irwin, 2015]. Cites DET data that suggests 320% growth in enabling enrolments between 2004 - 2014 [unclear if full time or part time enrolments] - notes Andrewartha & Harvey's (2014) comment that the effectiveness of enabling education is unclear, and authors also note absence from AQF
Aim: To examine archival data from 2001-2011 from CQU; to analyse enabling education through 'an economic lens'
Theoretical frame: Human capital theory; rationale = based on assessing value for money against students' articulation into undergrad studies: "Acceptance of the pathway notion means that economic efficiency of an Enabling Program can be evaluated by rates of completion and student's articulation into undergraduate study" (p.9).
Methodology: Case study; analysis of enabling program costs = post-2005 (since enabling loading was introduced)
Findings: Sharp increase in student enrolments from 2006 (2001-2005 = average 600 students per year). As student enrolments increased, so did attrition and incompletions (see p.11)
Analysis of government funding received over period: p.12
Analysis of cost per enrolment: p.13
Average cost per student from 2005-2011 = $2623 per student (peak = $3106 in 2009)
Average cost of completion = $7093 per student
Average cost of articulation to undergraduate studies = $6808 per student
Calculations = based on government funding only - not including institutional 'in-kind' contributions
Core argument: Increased government funding has increased enrolments but not increased completions or articulations into undergraduate study
Core Argument: "In the case of Enabling Programs more information collected by the university concerning the motives of the students prior to admission may allow for augmented teaching and management strategies to improve the completion and retention rates" (p.17).

Context: Reports on initiative to use Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in enabling education (UniSA), in context of widening participation to Australian university and post-intentions to deregulate student fees (Lib-Nat coalition policies in 2014). UDL = set of principles for curriculum development that recognises multiplicity: 1) multiple means of representation, 2) multiple means of action/ expression, 3) multiple means of engagement (offering flexibility), but needs significant curriculum reform. UDL = piloted on Foundation Studies enabling unit: Information Skills. Discussion of communication strategy (p.9-10): staff need to have access to professional development/ set clear expectations and make them clear to students
Aim: To outline the process of implementation and discuss 2 key principles: cultivation of trust through consultation with teaching staff, students and CTL support teachers, and effective use of technology
Methodology: Discussion
Findings: Communication: elements of program identified for adjustment, then workshop for teachers on UDL principles and intentions - information to be presented in multiple ways. Communicative strategies consistently employed via variety of modes, with regular feedback loops included.
Multiple means of representation: teaching materials (lecture, feedback forms) provided via multimedia (PPT, podcast, PDF) - assessment templates and models of successful work offered via MOODLE
Multiple means of action/ expression: interactive clickers in lectures, collaborative and discussion-based tutorials, online tools for reflection and movement between classroom and online discussion boards.
Multiple means of engagement: students asked to develop own research topics
Evaluation suggests UDL = useful for enabling programs (as seen through student grades and student satisfaction)
Core argument: UDL = "readily implementable, progressive cultural shift in HE pedagogies" (p.15) which can support inclusive teaching

Context: USA - access to college for 'migrant students' - transitory families rather than 'refugees' (mostly Latinos, moving around for seasonal agricultural work). Migrants = least likely to pursue college education. Migrant students = hindered by limited English, poverty, school mobility as well as "unsupportive, if not hostile, policies and climates that limit access to bilingual education support and public selective research universities" (p.227) - e.g, no bilingual education and 'non-affirmative action' = in context of anti-immigration discourses and policies. Discusses 'undocumented students'
Aim: To examine college access of migrant students over time (tracked and compared against equivalent group of students who did not participate in MSLI). To answer RQs:
1. What are MSLI graduates' pathways toward the California public higher education system?
2. What is the impact of program participation on MSLI graduates' pathways toward the California public higher education system, including enrollment in four-year public institutions?
Methodology: Quantitative. Longitudinal study of 'college-going behaviours' of migrant students who participated in 'Migrant Student Leadership Institute' (MSLI) at UCLA = 5 week residency summer program. Students who participate = nominated by schools throughout California on "basis of academic and leadership potential" (p.227). Draws on data related to SAT scores, admission rates, enrolment rates
Findings: Participating in MSLI = increased likelihood of applying to college (64% of participants compared to 37% of non-participants); most of participants applied to UCLA (56%) or Berkley (37%). MSLI = more likely to apply to high status colleges. 26% accepted to UCLA, 42% accepted to Berkley. At less selective colleges, MSLI students = more likely to be accepted.
Offers comparison of enrolment rates in 3 tiers of public university system (selective, less selective, community college)
Conclusions: "MSLI program participation positively influences migrant students' application to and enrollment rates in the most selective tier of 4-year public higher education in California- the UC system" (p.233) - more MSLI students likely to apply than non-participant migrant students.

Context: Time/ temporalities and learning technology/ digital technologies in higher education; postgraduate students in UK and their day-to-day engagement with digital technologies. Argues that time = "a crucial constitutive dimension of human life, rather than a neutral and unchanging backdrop against which action takes place" (p.141). In research into learning technologies, time is assumed to be a stable and separate element of context, rather than a fluid and processual element
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Two-year (funded) project on postgrad students' daily engagements with technologies. Data collection methods = qualitative interviews, focus groups, student-created multimodal journals
Findings: "student entanglements with devices and digitally mediated texts serve to pause, distribute, elongate and render simultaneous the temporal nature of their practices in complex ways which defy typological analysis" (p.142). Findings thematised according to temporal practices: slowness, intrusive technologies, technological/embodied action, making future time, constant entanglements.
- Slowness: impact of perceived speed of technologies, causing adaptations in practices
- Overload: too much literature, texts too long: "The theme of overload (like slowness) seems to have led to a sense of wasted time, impatience, frustration and loss of motivation" (p.147)
- Keeping up: keeping apace of new tech (anxiety, annoyance that things change)
- Intrusive tech: constantly 'plugged in'/ surveillance-like tech (e.g. Facebook), temptation of email
- Tech/Embodied Action: Where technology appeared to play decisive role in student's embodied action (interactions between tech and practices; e.g. not going to the physical library until the database has been searched)
- Making future time: using technology to pause or retain time for later engagement (e.g. echo recordings of lectures)
Constant entanglements: "Some student comments suggested a strong degree of constant copresence and intimacy with mobile networked devices in particular" (p.150)
Core argument: For postgraduate students, "dimension[s] of time is in complex, dynamic and contingent interplay with a range of networked devices and shifting material domains and practices, which are mobilised for textual engagement and production" (abstract). Students appear to experience time and create time through their use of technologies (and waste time)

Context: Authors open with discussion of the changing shape, purpose and mission of higher education (reflecting/driving the changing world of work), which includes their civic purpose of educating people to meaningfully participate in civic and social life, and help others and themselves to live well. The authors - drawing from Kemmis & Smith's (2008) definition -argue that this involves praxis (fostering a capacity for), particularly critical educational praxis - "reflecting critically on the mechanisms of social action and arrangements in order that people can emancipate themselves from manipulation and exploitation" (p.2). Authors outline the Hellenic origins of notion of praxis, based from Aristotle's three forms of knowledge (epist_m_ , techn_, and phron_sis) and associated actions (theoria, poi_sis, and praxis). Phron_sis is "the disposition to seek/know how to live a meaningful, happy, and worthy life together with others, that is, how to live a 'good life", and praxis is its form of action (p.4), with praxis being an end in itself/ the outcome.
Aim: To argue for creating an 'ecological niche' for critical educational praxis
Theoretical frame: Praxis ("a form of deliberate action in the social (and physical) world based on critical and reflective thinking. It is about acting in the world in a way that contributes positively and meaningfully to society, or acting in the interests of humankind. In praxis, the impacts and consequences of action are carefully considered" (p.2). The critical is also emancipatory/ empowering, concerned with resisting process of subordination/ marginalization, collective, transformational
Practice-ecological perspective: ecologies of practice (Kemmis et al., 2014): "To survive, a practice must have a proper niche in a living system" (p.7)
Methodology: Essay; article also based on Mahon's study of "how a group of seven academics' efforts to enact critical educational praxis in their educational work within a particular multi-campus, regional-based Australian university were enabled and constrained by the conditions within their setting" (p.8).
Findings: Critical educational praxis = necessary in contemporary higher education because of the results of neoliberalism/ marketization/ competition/ new public management. Knowledge from this dominant view = cognitive, economic, competitive, commodified: "a target of investment, and human ability to handle information is seen as the most important aspect of economic activity" (p.6)
Enablers for critical educational praxis:
1) time (for interrogating practice, for finding resources, for imagining)
2) space for creativity (requiring exposure to diversity)
3) space for autonomy/ flexibility (to have options/ choices)
4) positive, productive, trusting relationships: "positive and productive (i.e., fruitful and mutually-enriching) relationships based on respect, sharing, and caring can nurture and sustain efforts to enact critical educational praxis, particularly when conditions are challenging" (p.10) - based on solidarity, courage, trust
5) rigorous critical dialogue/ reflexive conversations (challenging taken for granted ideas, for "raising critical consciousness... cultivating phron_sis and a critical disposition", p.10).
6) opportunities for engagement in scholarly activities.
Constraints for critical educational praxis:
a) intensification of academic work (isolation, competition)
b) lack/diminishing contact time for teacher engagement
c) over-regulation of practice
d) promotion of particular constructions of pedagogical practice (connected to standardisation/ point c, and linked to the idea of 'teacher-proof' curricula, precarity and "the homogenisation of practices, reinforces the notion that pedagogical practice is little more than a technical exercise, p.14)
Core argument: "critical educational praxis in our view is needed in higher education in order to nurture the expression of a critical disposition and capacity for critical thinking, to overcome injustices and anti-educational practices in education, and ultimately to contribute, through education and knowledge generation, to the creation of a more just and sustainable society" (p.5).
Higher education = experiencing 'ecological imbalance', "characterised by a distorted emphasis on the economic function of universities, on aspirations to acquire ' external goods', and on the application of the logic of production (techn_) to many aspects of higher education" (p.14).
Time (or lack of) emerged as most important enabler/constraint

Context: Based on idea that "young people living in rural communities have been impacted in their school and post-school transitions by a weakening of traditional structures and pathways to work enjoyed by previous
generations, as well as by the significant lack of economic and cultural resources available in their communities compared to major urban centres" (p.544) - comparison is with metropolitan peers. Argues that dominant discourse of equality in discussions of rurality = liberal egalitarian but appropriated by neoliberal (rural disadvantage is individual issue; individual rather than social approach). Scope of the literature = lack of opportunities = main factor for leaving rural communities; also these communities can be socially/culturally isolated. Also impact of globalization on reconfiguration of rural spaces/places and identities within. Need to contest simple binaries (rural = disadvantage/ urban = advantage)
Aim: "to examine the ways in which young people make sense of and negotiate the challenges they encounter in their communities and in their post-secondary school goals and plans" (p.545). Late modernity society = impacts felt in rural spaces = important for education; "The weakening of traditional structures, institutions and post-school pathways has exacerbated the need for many young people to leave their communities. In this scenario of uncertainty, post-school education has become an important tool to adapt to the pervasiveness of risk for young people" (p.547).
Theoretical frame: Equality = strong organising principle for understanding inequalities faced by young rural people (social and economic) - critiques redistributive view of equality (creating a level playing field) and the neoliberal view of personal responsibility and taking risks (adopting prudential and entrepreneurial approachs; see p.546)
Methodology: Qualitative research: schools in rural Victoria. Paper based on case study of one school (2 focus groups with 10 students + 12 in-depth interviews) in last 3 years of school. Interviews asked questions around issues of social justice and equality, experience of living in rural places, post-school hopes and aspirations/goals. Rural area = relatively monocultural, agricultural, lower middle class with pop of 500. Town = example of 'production in decay' (p.548) = many traditional employment pathways are now closed to young people (have to travel to harvest/ farming is difficult)
Findings:
Participants = aware of barriers to post-secondary options - particularly with regards to distance and need to travel, shortage of teachers, breadth of curriculum ("The courses are sort of limited here", 'Emma', Year 12; see p.549), lack of networks, lack of resources (e.g. 'research books'). Limited options = both academic and vocational. Students recognised 'equality of opportunity' argument - pointing to need to distribute more resources (books, libraries, teachers): "They understand that availability or lack of these resources has a direct impact on their quality of education and on their possibilities for the transition from education into employment" (p.550-551), but from a social rather than individual perspective. Students define themselves primarily by place (their rurality).
All the participants described an intention to move away/ out of community when school finished because of a perceived lack of opportunity and perception that education = needed for full participation in economic/ social life. Students = strategies (e.g. moving to an urban centre where they had a family member or friend) and created discourse of 'self-reliance'. Participants = generally optimistic: "many of these students encountered structural barriers due to locality, socioeconomic status or gender, but they utilised a discourse of self-reliance and resilience as a strategy and coping mechanism to manage these barriers" (p.552). Participants espoused a neoliberal view ("it comes down to you", Stuart; see p.552) and in relation to structural inequalities (emphasis on self-reliance, individual choice and hard work) and a belief in the idea that everyone has the same chances. Cuervo cites work of sociologists who assert that becoming rational self-entrepreneurs = reaction to the risky and precarious situations as result of weakening traditional structures = investment in perception of increased opportunity [see 'cruel optimism' argument] resulting in: "When young people in this study project themselves into the future, the emphasis is placed on the individual rather than the social, highlighting a change from a collective identity to a personal autonomy with an increasing pressure to draw upon their individual resources" (p.553) and a shift towards merit conceptualisations based on individual effort and responsibility
Core argument: When at school, students are aware of the limitations they face as a result of their rurality; however, when looking forward, students appear to have adopted the self-reliance, individual effort/merit discourse (neoliberalism): "Faced with new challenges, students shift from the close environment of their community into a competitive and uncertain future favouring more individualised perspectives" (p.555). Cuervo argues this is problematic because "it has the potential to transform structural disadvantages into individual failures" (p.555). Cuervo advocates for a shift towards 'radical egalitarianism' = expanding issues of equality from what to whom (to expose roots of inequality and new ways to approach/resist)

Context: Teaching in US higher education. Authors open with claim that school education = feminised and higher education = masculine (p.1). Authors note the literature on care in education (Gilligan, Noddings, hooks), and review Roberts' (2010) theory of culturally relevant critical teacher care (CRCTC), which emerged from work with African American school students. In context of higher education, authors argue that the premise that higher education is masculine [or at least less maternal] is based on the self-directed/ autonomous nature of learning in the academy, and that the neoliberal, competitive ideological basis of higher education "complicates how care is conceptualized, enacted, and receive" (p.2). Higher education's relationship with the economy/ job preparation pushes a focus on quantifiable 'hard outcomes' and metrics, rather than 'soft outcomes' (e.g. teamwork, self-esteem; see Zepke and Leach, 2010), which makes some forms of care difficult to enact
Aims: To contribute to literature on care in higher education; to "investigate how three award-winning or otherwise highly regarded instructors at a large research-intensive university describe how they enact care in and outside of the college classroom" (p.2)
Theoretical frame: Ethic of care; care as relational
Methodology: Multiple case study approach; part of broader study on beliefs and practices of highly regarded lecturers ('instructors'); participants = all award-winning lecturers. Three lecturers in this article = "a black woman (Alyse) teaching a Special Education course to undergraduate students, a white woman (Rose) teaching in a Curriculum & Instruction doctoral program, and a white male (Chuck) teaching Chemistry to undergraduate students" (see p.5). Each participant interviewed four times (two focusing on beliefs and practices; two pre-/ post-observation) + course documents/ assessment outlines over one semester. Taxonomic analysis (see p.6)
Findings: Authors offer vignettes that exemplify three forms of care: "We name these types of care as critical maternal care, calculated care and neoliberal care. These cases reveal how a number of factors including one's institution, field of expertise, teaching experience, race, gender, and socio-economic status may contribute to instructors' enactment of care" (p.4).
Critical maternal care: combination of CRCTC + ethic of care; exemplified in case of Alyse. Foregrounds building of relationship (learning students' names, maintaining relationships beyond the class, showing an interest in students' lives; "Like a mother, Alyse takes ownership and responsibility for her students' learning and feels responsible for improving her teaching in order to help her students improve themselves and the world around them, thus embodying a critical maternal care" (p.6). Also, Alyse is clear to show/ support students to make a difference as future teachers. Alyse's identity as lecturer = bound up with her motherhood and her race. Alyse also demonstrates 'critical hope' (optimistic about the changes she can bring to students' lives) and has a strengths-based view of students.
Calculated care: based on case of Rose, who had a painful first experience of teaching which has shaped how she approaches her role/ care. Rose plans her identity (taking a public speaking course, working with a mentor to improve on her first experience of teaching where she felt she didn't know what she was doing. Rose talks about not caring, but giving the impression of caring to win over students; "In other words, to Rose, caring is necessary for learning. To be a good teacher, Rose had to give the impression that she cared even when that was not the case, thus making her enactment of care quite calculated" (p.8). Care is a performance for Rose, which she views as complicated by her gender (being female in a male-dominated space). Authors connect this to emotional work "with '"profit slipped under it"' in order to achieve '"customer contentment"' (Bolton and Boyd 2003, 292)", on p.8.
Neoliberal care: case of Chuck, who viewed his role as getting students to pass by (literally) using his manifesto for success (a 6-page document he required students to follow). This view of care (pass or not pass) = neoliberal, driven by metrics and individualisation/ self-management - Chuck worked with high: expectations of effort and time which he would match: "Care, to Chuck, must be enacted and performed in the same way he experienced and enacted care - through visible displays that could be quantified or observed" (p.9). Chuck tries to get to know his students to help mitigate his nerves about teaching/ feeling intimidated
Core argument: The different conceptions of care identified in the vignettes of the three lecturers = "are essential not only to understanding the ideologies that guide higher education but to understanding how college students perceive and learn from instructors who may enact different forms of care" (p.2).
Conceptions of care are not generalisable but instead are representative of the available subjectivities offered by a person's biography, identity/ies, context and personality (myriad factors).
Further research needed to create typology of caring characterisations

Context: Preparing teacher to teach CALD students; multiculturalism and multicultural policies, particularly in higher education settings that are predominantly white and middle class (both students and staff). Author writes of reductive 'good' and 'bad' notions of diversity that fail to recognise the historic, embodied, entrenched marginalisation that non-white people face in Australia, and which most people learning to be teachers/ teacher educators cannot personally relate to
Aim: To describe "the human dimension of teamwork as team members plan and implement a multicultural education course for undergraduate teacher education students at an Australian university" (abstract)
Methodology: 'Personalised narrative'
Discussion: Author deliberately convened a multicultural staff for the 'Diversity in Education' course that she was convening. All three members co-designed the course; each had an equal say in content, learning outcomes, assessment and delivery strategies. All three gave lectures and tutored; however, the author remained the convenor because she was a tenured staff member, and so she felt uncomfortable with that dynamic. Author offers example of how differences in cultural values played out between teachers (e.g. time keeping/ maintenance of student work). Author notes how tokenistic it is to compile a multicultural team if other deeper, more value-laden factors are not taken into consideration: "We also need to have enough flexibility to accommodate cultural commitments and personal crises in professional timetables which are designed as if such commitments do not exist" (p.380).
Core argument: "A culturally diverse teaching team is therefore not a token gesture of political correctness, but a necessity for effective education in a culturally diverse society. Our story shows that it can work, but that it is a non-stop learning experience for all concerned which needs constant re-evaluation" (p.383)

Context: 'Widening access' to 'day students' in /to elite university in Scotland. Scopes the policy concern with widening participation at the time. Scottish universities = devolved from central higher education policy (to charge students for partial costs of their studies) and had abolished tuition fees in 2001 for Scottish students + bursaries for students in need. Students still took out student loans for living costs. Attrition = major driver for continued policy attention; authors note almost double lowest quartile SES students dropping out (9% compared with 5% of highest SES students), leading to pathologising of working class students as 'problematic' and more likely to drop out. Discusses construction of 'new' student (aka, non-traditional; see Leathwood & O'Connell, 2003), resulting in more diversity of transitions into higher education.
Aim: To "unpack what factors help or hinder non-traditional students in making a successful transition to university life" (p.6)
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Research undertaken at two universities in Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt; participants were recruited via two WP programs (one= school-based outreach, the other = adult outreach/ access course). Interviews conducted with students from both WP pathways (n=27) in 2003. Most Uni of Edinburgh participants were female; Heriot-Watt = more male participants. All students had completed at least 2 years of study and all lived at home (hence 'day students') and commuted to university. Finances were tight for all students and all students viewed themselves as 'financially independent'. Reasons for staying at home = partially about economic rationality, partly about sustaining jome networks (local work/ social groups/ childcare support). Authors categorise these participants into 3 groups:
- Absorbed students: "firmly committed to the normative ideal of student life despite circumstances which meant they could not achieve this fully in practice", meaning that they felt they were missing out on 'being a student' (p.12). They privileged time/ relations at university over other aspects (e.g. prioritizing going out with uni friends over other friends).
- Pragmatists: "university was only one facet of their lives and could not be all-absorbing, whether because of work commitments or family responsibilities"- being a 'day student' = pragmatic response to competing demands on their time. None of these participants had children and priority = balancing work and study
- Separate worlds: mature students who distanced themselves from ideas about 'traditional' student and sought active separation between student life and home worlds. All females in this group had children (men did not disclose family responsibilities): "What divided the group was gender: women's role as mothers limited their access both to the academic structure of the universities and to the social side of student life, to the extent that aspiring to the normative ideal of student life was not on their agenda. In contrast, the men's evident displacement was manifest in their strong rejection of the normative model of student life and their consequent marginalisation within the university" (p.17). Particular tensions existed around the collection of children from childcare. Most students experienced 'deleterious effects' on their studies - due to tiredness/ time constraints/ lack of preparedness for study/ individualised. All these women = studying Arts (authors speculate that it would not be possible for these women to undertake full-time lab-based course). Many of these students did not feel the institution recognized the pressures on their lives/ time (see p.20).
Findings:
Core argument: Middle class "ideas about 'fitting in' rest on the notion that the 'middle-class' way of being a student is privileged and privileging" (p.6). Ideas about normative student experience and associated lifestyle discourses = challenged: "In many instances there is a conscious rejection of the assumed norms of a middle-class student life and a clear sense that they should have a right to establish a different way of being a student in the 21st century - and that the institution should provide more support for ['day students'] to do this" (p.23).

Context: The unequal nature of the student-lecturer relationship means that university lecturers are faced with ethical dilemmas in managing student learning.
Aims: This study sought to highlight the different ways in which lecturers manage ethical dilemmas in their teaching.
Methodology: Using an auto-ethnographic case study, the paper reported the views of newly appointed and more experienced academic staff, through two focus groups respectively.
Findings: Applying Forsyth's taxonomy of ethical ideology to the ethical dilemmas pertaining to marking of group assignments, suspected plagiarism, extension requests, and gifts from students, the findings suggested:
- Both groups emphasised the importance of following procedures and policies established within the university
- Experienced staff tended to argue for a 'situationist' position, in contrast with the 'absolutist' or 'exceptionist' stance adopted by inexperienced staff
- The more experienced staff discussed the complexities of dilemmas arising in greater detail in comparison with less experienced staff, and were more likely to negotiate solutions and use professional autonomy.
Core argument: The author argues that there is need for ethical responsibilities and challenges of practice to be more fully conceptualised and discussed, and that this is important for achieving a greater sense of professionalism among lecturers.

Context: 'Superdiverse' (Vertovec, 2010) student cohorts that have the potential to enrich the teaching-learning environment. Diversity driven by widening participation and internationalisation. The resulting diversity requires that "academic staff need to adopt appropriate attitudinal and pedagogical behaviours" (p.167), which requires institutions to train their teachers and offer professional development programs to foster intercultural competence of academic staff. Author cites the work of Byram, Nichols & Stevens (2001) which called for 'decentring' - seeing outside of yourself and your own perspective. Teacher training is clearly needed to help educators respond to diversity: "In a context where staff have traditionally been employed on the basis of qualifications, industry experience and professional reputation, but who often come with no formal teacher training and thus little awareness of the factors governing successful classroom management, interaction and learning, such professional development courses are seen as increasingly important" (p.169). Resulting diversity = "This increased heterogeneity of the student body brings with it particular challenges that require institutions and the staff they employ to have the wherewithal to deal deftly with diversity in a way that ensures a positive, supportive and affirmative student experience" (p.167).
Aim: To focus on linguistic dimension of diversity; to consider "how, as part of their intercultural repertoire, teachers - and by extension, students - can benefit from developing an understanding of language, and, in particular, the general principles governing how we mean in language and the lingua-cultural variability that impacts upon the process of doing so" (p.166).
Methodology: Essay
Findings:
Linguistic diversity: overview of importance of effective language use (in particular, social grammars); "Lecturers, of course, cannot possibly be expected to be conversant in the social grammars of all their students, and this can have consequences where the lecturer's social grammar does not align with that of the students" (p.170). Advice: we need to raise awareness "of those principles that apply universally across languages and enable us to mean and be understood and to present/project ourselves in whatever light we choose" (p.171).
Linguistic accommodation/ multilingual classroom: by raising awareness of languaging/ principles of language use, we can articulate more strongly the unconscious knowledge we hold about language and use that to be more cognisant of students' languages, thus empowering lecturers "to respond in a more insightful, sensitive, and nuanced way to students' language and behaviour" (p.171). Author offers series of question prompts to help lecturers consider assumptions about language and tone
Core argument: Increased student (and staff) diversity necessitates the unpacking of assumptions about language use and values, so as "to accommodate to their students rather than impose their own lingua-cultural values and associated expectations. As such, it needs to be a compulsory part of their training and development" (p.175).

Context: Works in conversation with SI on marketization and equity in education (Savage, Sellar & Gorur, 2013). Examines school sector (public, Catholic, private) in response to 'sector blindness' with regards to federal funding of schooling, as per comment by Peter Garrett (then Labor politician). Authors argue it is important to probe the role played by different school sectors in 'educational politics of distribution' and context of equity and markets.
Theoretical frame: Foucauldian genealogy of school funding (cite: Bevir, 2008; Nietzsche, 1887/2003; Foucault, 1975; Ball, 2013). Also: Laclau & Mouffe's (2001) 'thinking tools' of equivalence and difference
Methodology: Essay
Findings:
Genealogy of school funding: works from premise that funding and construction of school system = a ' historical and ideological construction' (see Kenway, 2013) and argues against reforms such as Gonski which tinker with funding of all sections of system and appears to have "taken the underlying system of government funding of private schools as a priori and immutable" (p.446). Rather, these are movable systems. Funding on 'non-government' schools (e.g. Catholic/private) = part of equity-based, needs-focused approach = sector blind but authors argue that contested notions of equity as 'fairness' now absent. Genealogical analysis suggests two pushes towards current status quo: push away from "collective well-being to promoting individual advancement" (p.446) and education as tool for economic growth/ employment. Historical genealogy: traces evolution of schooling in Australia from beginning of 19th century (church responsibility). Catholics initially involved because of large Irish immigrant population and Australia = welfare state = schooling was based on principles of equity, disadvantage and social/economic assimilation. Catholic schools began receiving small tax deductions for school fees in mid-1950s. in 1968, recurring grants for private schools began. Menzies saw this as vote winner, replicated by Whitlam in 1970s. In 1981, High Court ruled in favour of Commonwealth assistance to non-government schools. In 1987, progressive left Education Minister replaced by neoliberal economic rationalist Dawkins = turning point for Australian schooling (and higher education). Through subsequent economic rationalistic governments/ policies, "Australian society became more socioeconomically polarised, with an eroded middle class and growing class divisions" (p.450), resulting in greater uptake of independent schools in efforts to socially mobilise and gain positional advantage. In terms of funding, authors argue: "There has been a shift in emphasis in Australian education over the past 150 years, with primary and secondary schooling increasingly being seen as a positional good, as distinct from other broader purposes of education (such as democratic citizenry, nation-building and collective well-being)" (p.451). Post-Gonski federal (Labor) education policy = "deeply political in its support for the status quo" (p.453). Authors cite Connell (2013) who asserts that 'evidence-based' = emperor's new clothes in contemporary politics because "neo-liberal policy-making proceeds as if it already knows the answer to policy problems. (Connell, 2013: 284, on p.453). Sector blind/ colour blind: Gonski = only two mentions of ethnicity/ethnic (compared with 27 references to indigenous in first 64 pages). Ethnicity/race = occluded due to "obstinate refusal to consider ethnic diversity" (p.453) even though there is plenty of evidence to suggest it is a significant factor, thus "disregarding that students from different ethnicities are disproportionately overrepresented in the government sector, underrepresented in the private sector and segregated and racialised when conflated with different schools" (p.454). Authors argue that NAPLAN and My School = technocratic policy response to marketised education system - positioning all parents as market players (Gorur, 2013)
Core argument: Sector-blindness leads to a system that is "depoliticised with significant consequences both for individuals and for groups, and for society as a whole" (p.452). We all need to recognize that education is political and that educational imaginaries = limited by politics and policies