Higher Education Equity Literature Database

Context: Refugee-background African Youth (RAY) in Melbourne, Australia - set against negative media landscape (African gang narrative)
Aims: To investigate aspirations for, opportunities and experiences of higher education for two groups of RAY; responds to RQ: "What is it that explains the differences in the aspirations between those RAY who have transitioned to HE and those who have not?" (p.7)
Theoretical frame: Capability approach to social justice in education (Sen), specifically adaptive preferences, agency freedom, and conversion factors.
Methodology: Qualitative case study approach; research with two groups of RAY (n=10): those who transitioned into university (n=6) and those who did not following high school (n=4). Participants from from Ethiopia, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ghana, Liberia, Somalia and Tanzania; most arrived in Australia in late 90s/ early 2000s
Findings: 4 themes presented: shared educational optimism, differences in navigational capacities, the stress of racism, and evidence of resilience, condensed into two themes: responsive aspirations and lived-experiences.
Responsive aspirations: "individuals with responsive aspirations are disposed to adapt to evolving social arrangements and emerging possibilities" (p.6).
Shared educational optimism = strong theme in data was value ascribed by participants to education, and shared high career aspirations: "Some of the participants
reported that they are eager to realise self-worth, status, and success in society" (p.6) - optimism and motivation to move past current/ past hardships. Economic opportunities from education mentioned by most participants. Educational aspirations are not necessarily nurtured at home because of parents' own educational disadvantage.
Differences in navigational capacity: students in university had received guidance on pathways/ the job market (for some RAY it was due to school). 5/6 uni students entered via an alternative pathway. Awareness of university = raised by university outreach activities. The four not in university did not report strong navigational capacity to find a way into higher education. Author claims this is linked to differences in priorities - 3 of the 4 were expected to work so as to support extended family (because of collectivist culture - p.8): "intra-group comparison shows that those RAY who are well informed about flexible pathways to HE were able to convert the opportunity to go to university into an achievement of attending university courses of their choices" (p.9). Responsibility lies with secondary schools to ensure RAY are fully informed of options and opportuntiies.
Lived-experiences
Stress of racism: RAY are racialised in media discourse in Australia; participants were all aware of negative stereotyping and had experienced racist microagreesions in their educational experiences. "The stress of racism stems from this awareness of what others think about one's racial group; and has inhibiting effects on how the latter interact with members and institutions of the dominant group" (p.10) - "I don't fit in" - pushing RAY to develop alternative dispositions that erode self-efficacy and confidence. Racism = 'deprivation of recognition' (p.11), which author defines as "being accepted for who they are as they name themselves, and becoming worthy members of society" (p.11).
Evidence of resilience: experiences of marginalization and racism can make RAY 'antifragile' (Taleb, 2012)
Core argument: Capability approach to equitable education = recognises intersections between agency freedom and social arrangements (e.g. distribution of resources). To achieve this = important to remove/ reduce structural barriers, and facilitate transferral of opportunity into achievement. In case of RAY, structural barriers, institutional systems and interpersonal gaps create series of 'unfreedoms' (Sen, 2002). Racism exacerbates this and creates conditions for self-exclusion from further study.
Not all negative = there are examples of agency and resilience to counter the dominant focus on challenges.
"Antifragility of refugee youth can be fostered through making available relevant opportunities that activate responsive educational and career aspirations. Specific systemic and institutional measures may aim at widening access to education, creating a safe learning environment, making relevant information necessary for education decision-making, and designing targeted support mechanisms that address challenges specific to the equity group in focus" (p.14).

Context: Educational inequality and destinations and aspirations of school leavers in Australia (NSW), and their parents and teachers, in context of increasingly marketised education system. Study on which article is based found that 50% of secondary school students enter university/ bachelor-degree level study
Aim: To "examine the linkages between individual agency, teacher values, the role of student aspirations and motivations, SES and the importance of the differentiated curriculum and post-school transitions" (p.7).
Theoretical frame: Bourdieu (habitus and capital, where student's cultural capital = mediated by teacher values and school/ subject hierarchies) habitus as : ; Boudon: (gains in educational opportunity must
be matched by gains in occupational opportunities to have any real effect on inequality, p.4); Nussbaum (adaptive preference formation for student aspirations)
Methodology: Quantitative; 4 data sources: students (n=5819), parents/guardians (n=2501), teaching staff (n=3098), BOSTES records.
Findings: Post-school destinations on p.8 (Figure 1); destinations = stratified and clear SES patterns (see Figure 2, p.9)
Teacher expectations for students to go to university = lower than student and parent expectations (irrespective of region, school sector or socio-economic quartile) - see also Marks et al., 2011. Gap between teacher expectation and student/parent = higher/ bigger gap for low SES
Also looks at 'curriculum hierarchies', exploring maths = highest/ upper middle SES = most likely to have taken highest maths (Maths Extension 1 and 2); students who took Maths Ext 1 and 2 = most likely to go to university = see p.13.
Boudon = rational choice argument; Nussbaum's adaptive preference idea moves beyond rationalist analysis; Bourdieu = capital and habitus = in dialogue with/ mediated by teacher expectations
Core argument:
- Strong links between post-school destinations and SES
- Students' capacity to construct own identity and pathways = "bound by their understanding of the hidden and informal rules which govern access to different spaces within the curriculum offered in their schools as well as access to the range of post-school destinations" (p.2)
- "The task of navigating post-school transitions becomes more important as minimum education levels rise. It also becomes more complex with increasing reliance of education markets" (p.2).
- Bourdieu (1966) argues "that if teachers treat all students in the same way - what we might call formal equality - we can end up justifying indifference to real inequalities in terms of what is required to address the problems. Similarly, market-based policies designed to realise individual preferences can simply entrench existing inequalities (Nussbaum, 2000)" (p.15).

Context: Examines notion of Australia as a fair and egalitarian society through education system in modern times.
Aim: To draw together information on the opportunities being provided to young Australians as they negotiate the various stages of education and training (Executive Summary, p.iii). Education conceived as four milestones: early years (children who as 'developmentally ready' at start of school), middle years (Year 7 children), senior school years (completers of HSC/ Year 12), early adulthood (24 year olds in education, training or work) = measured across five domains: physical health and wellbeing, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, and communication skills.
Methodology: Statistical/ quantitative analysis
Findings:
- On average, 78% of students 'succeed at milestones' and a quarter do not.
- Boys are more likely than girls to miss milestones (by 1.82 times) - this is largely due to social and emotional dimensions of readiness
- Indigenous students are 2.07 times more likely to miss out on milestones
- Low SES students = 2.08 times more likely to miss out on milestones (mostly in terms of school readiness) = strongest effect
At each milestone, children are succeeding but some are missing out: "insufficiently prepared to take on the challenges of the following stages of their lives" (Executive Summary, p.iii). Data suggests that 6 out of 10 children start with academic and social skills needed at all four milestones. Approximately 10% are not developmentally ready and remain behind in all milestones = these people are "not gaining the preparation needed to take up later opportunities in life" (p.iii). 1/6 students fall behind somewhere after Year 7 and fail to complete Year 12, and a similar proportion are not fully engaged in work or education at 24. Disadvantage = significant: "Success at each stage varies by Indigenous status, language background, region and gender, and markedly by the socio-economic status (SES) of students" (p.iv). However, students can recover ground (but this is easier for high SES students).
Early years
- Learners = more likely to meet milestones the earlier they engage with education system
- Communities with higher levels of children who do not meet milestones tend to have lower quality early childhood education and then schools with 'low standards of performance'
Middle years
- According to NAPLAN data, 28.4% of learners have not developed 'core skills'
- Boys are more likely to be below benchmark with reading but more likely than girls to meet numeracy benchmark
- By Year 7, Indigenous learners = 2.32 times less likely to meet milestone
- Children whose parents did not complete Year 12 = 3.72 times more likely to miss out. Plus low SES students = more likely to go into government school
- Learners behind at Year 7 milestone = lower levels of self-efficacy
Senior school
- 26% of young people do not complete Year 12/ Cert III equivalent by age 19
- This can partly be explained by geographic/ remoteness (especially location)/ population differences: "
- Remote and very remote communities have high numbers of young people not completing - 56.6 per cent and 43.6 per cent respectively" (p.vi)
- SES = very significant. 40% of lowest SES quartile do not complete Year 12 or equivalent; similar figure for Indigenous - all in comparison
- Girls = more likely to complete school
- LBOTE = more likely to complete school but with average lower educational attainment - but differences between language groups (Southeast Asian languages = higher achievers)
- Only 56% of young people get an ATAR
Early adulthood
- 24% = not fully engaged in education or work; "This represents a significant loss of economic opportunity for the nation as well as vulnerability for the young people themselves" (p.vii)
- Young people missing out at this point = disproportionately female, low SES, from regional and remote locations and Indigenous.
- Not completing Year 12= good indictor of not achieving later outcomes
- University = very important for making transition from school
- 50% of women enroll in university compared with 40% of males
- SES = important: 2/3 high SES go to university compared to _ of low SES students; urban students = more likely than regional/remote
- By 24, 50% of young Australians = enroll in VET; 36% complete studies
- VET and apprenticeships = important pathway for early school leavers
Core argument: No longitudinal tracking data to make comparisons across lifecourse or with US data.
"The challenge of helping young people who are falling behind to catch up and take advantage of opportunities over later stages is no easy task, because those missing out are far more likely to have disadvantaged backgrounds" (p.90).
Need to ensure better quality of early childcare for low SES areas = currently 'game of chance' because it serves needs of parents rather than meeting right of child to learn and be supported
At school, governments should fund accordingly to ameliorate intergenerational disadvantage - funding increases have been targeted disproportionately at non-government schools. Policies need to consider contextual/ environmental factors.
"Australian school leavers are caught in a difficult position, between an increasingly constrained labour market, which pushes young learners (especially women, who have lower uptake of apprenticeships) towards tertiary education, and competitive thresholds for university entrance. The squeeze at this critical transition point has severe consequences for learners who have not stayed on track throughout their schooling, and who are thereby disadvantaged in relation to their peers in accessing tertiary study and employment" (p.92).

Context: Explores educational outcomes of indigenous students using two sets of LSAY data. Literature review synthesises research that shows indigenous educational outcomes have improved since 1967 (but so have all other groups and indigenous students consistently have lower scores in NAPLAN at all ages, leading to lower participation rates in university)
Aim: To examine:
- Size of gap between indigenous and non-indigenous students from PISA dataset (and investigate SES)
- Look for improvements (if any) across two cohorts for indigenous students
- Examine the extent to which educational outcomes are affected by final years of school (using NAPLAN data from age 15)
Methodology: Uses LSAY data from 2006 and 2009 (when produced = first opportunity to explore full data for 2006 and 2009 cohorts). Models series of educational outcomes, on basis of analysing individual characteristics and 'school quality' (see p.:
- School dropout and year 12 completion
- Intention to attend University
- ATAR request
- University participation
- VET participation
Findings:
- There are significant ("very substantial") differences between indigenous and non-indigenous students at age 15 based on academic performance (PISA/NAPLAN data) = partly due to SES/ partly due to school attended - but sizable gap = unexplained
- There was a modest improvement between 2006 and 2009
- There is no significant difference between indigenous and non-indigenous after controlling for academic achievement (PISA/ NAPLAN scores)
- Indigenous students less likely to attend VET
- At age 15, average reading score for indigenous students = level 2, compared with level 3 for non-indigenous (and indigenous are over-represented in lower levels)
- There are big differences in school drop out rates (Ind= 29.4%/ non-ind= 14.2%) and Year 12 completion (ind=60%/ non-ind=80%). Also big differences in requests for ATAR and intention to go to university (ind=30.2%/ non-ind=46.7%) = all figures = 2009
Core argument: Best possibility for improvement in educational outcomes for Indigenous students post-school comes from improved educational performance during the early and middle levels of school (p.2). Need to focus on improving academic achievement at age 15 for indigenous students. Initiatives to improved indigenous educational outcomes/ ameliorate inequality should be targeted much earlier in system (before final years of schooling)

Context: Challenges faced by students from refugee backgrounds in navigating pathways into higher education. Literature review scopes the challenges that refugees face (internationally) in gaining access to higher education (only 1% of the world's refugees have access to higher education). Article set against decades-long history of demonising Africans in Australia as 'unable to fit in', which is perpetuated in deficit perceptions of African students in education
Aim: To argue for the concept of educational resilience in context of transitioning into tertiary education; to offer "the narratives of displaced African students, highlighting their educational trajectories and the factors influencing their educational resilience" so as to "open space for situated and embodied understandings of the broader resettlement experience for refugee background students" (abstract). Discussion responds to this question: "What makes students with a refugee background educationally resilient in the face of adversity?" (p.139)
Conceptual frame: Draws on work that has explored refugee resilience, particularly Hutchinson & Dorsett's (2012) 2 major factors impacting on resilience: personal qualities, support, religion. Author argues that educational resilience is "multifaceted and linked to several support systems, such as institutional support, family support, individual support, faith and religion" (p.131)
Theoretical frame: Postcolonial theory and critical race theory
Methodology: Uses a life history narrative methodology. Offers case studies of himself and two other African students "who are focused, resilient and looking forward to challenging the assumptions that group them into a single category" (p.124), while juxtaposing those cases with autoethnographic experiences.
Findings: Author offers three vignettes of each participants' background, primary, secondary education experiences, and experiences of education in Australia. Author presents factors that impact on a person's educational resilience:
Family influence - persistence through not just having family members with them, but also memories of family (e.g. Francine remembering her father's encouragement)
Community influences - stigmatising impact of labels like 'refugee' can "drain refugee background students' natural resilience, ensuring they are always on guard to defend themselves in the event they are discriminated against" (p.141), but also community members (of church, of a class) can also offer important sources of motivation and support
Teachers' influence - identified as "promoters of educational resilience" (p.141) - but counterstories needed to contest ignorance of refugee experiences to resist stereotyping and to diminish racialization
Peer influence - significant (see community influence) but author notes that "refugee background students often lack both peers with university experience and adult role models, which may impact their educational resilience" (p.143)
Influence of faith and religion - Common statement in participants' talk = "By God's grace I was able to..." - faith can create/ sustain hope (see Hutchinson & Dorsett, 2012).
Students responded in different ways at different times to challenges (some rejuvenated, some collapsed), "leading to the argument that collapse and breakdown are also built-in phases in the development of resilience and necessary for renewal and ongoing growth" (p.145).
Core argument: "students with a refugee background are strong, respond dynamically to situations and circumstances, have a high capacity for adaptability and cannot be reduced to their past(s)" (p.145).

Context: Proposes a 4-part model of educational resilience as the shared responsibility of students, educators, institutions and communities to promote resilience/persistence and prevent attrition, specifically with indigenous online/distance students. Offers critique of educational resilience: "Framing resilience in terms of either a personal attribute or deficit without considering the context and communities within which that distance learner is embedded is flawed, as an individual's responses cannot be dissociated from the context within which they are located" (p.14). Compares non-indigenous people to indigenous (90% of non-ind = live on coast = 2.2% of Australiasian continent, compared with the 90% of Indigenous Australians who live in 23% of the continent = rural/remote areas). Author scopes literature that unpacks the multiple disadvantages that Indigenous people face in higher education. Discussion of 'block mode' (33% of Indigenous students enrolled in this mode) = mixed-mode (part online, part intensive residential on-campus) - however, other research has noted that there are issues at play with this mode in terms of access to IT and internet, lack of tech support, lack of confidence (e.g Reedy, 2011). Scopes emergence of resilience discourse in education - notes that it is often used to indicate individual attributes and is thus vulnerable to deficit views. Indigenous distance learners = doubly 'at risk'
Aim: To develop a "holistic framework [that] addresses the question of how capacity can be built for the educational resilience of indigenous students participating in flexible, distance, online, or blended formal education" (p.18)
Theoretical frame: Resilience as social/community concept (resisting individualised approach)
Methodology: Offers case study of 'Denise' - aboriginal, UG health, block mode, lives in remote NSW, single, mature age, low SES, left school after Year 10, FinF/ FinComm (part of earlier research project which included 35 online learners)
Findings: Barriers to participation for students like Denise = "overcoming low educational attainment and accompanying academic literacy and information literacy skills, access, costs, being the first in the family to participate in higher education, and social isolation" (p.19). Issues for educators: "include connectedness, providing timely communications, flexibility, considerations in the learning design (including learning styles), and scaffolding the necessary skills" (p.20). Connectedness = particularly important for Indigenous people. Also need to consider literacies, practices and knowledges that cannot be assumed - one 'invisible fence' (O'Rourke, 2008) = English language. Multiple, culturally sensitive and explicit (easy to find online) forms of support need to be on offer. Also, staff- student ratio needs to be considered.
Community in quadripartite model = peers, sociocultural and local community
Core argument: "Educational resilience-successful participation, retention, and outcomes in distance higher education in spite of any adversity, equity issues, or 'invisible fences' distance learners face-is a key consideration in any education sector" (p.22). A 4-part framework of resilience "may also contribute to consideration of building capacity across all stakeholder groups and/or provide the basis for further applied research" (p.23)

Context: American. Exploration of educational transitions, trajectories, pathways - seeking to conceptualise. Transition = phenomenon + "determinant of subsequent outcomes throughout the life course" (p.165). Notes sociology's preoccupation with social mobility and shifts in thinking once scholars moved beyond fixed temporal notions of schooling and moved towards life course models = age/aging = analytic concepts.
Aim: To examine study of 'well-travelled pathways', pathways and trajectories
Theoretical frame: Sociology of education from dominant foci: time, age/aging, stratification + social mobility
Methodology: Essay
Discussion:
Pathways = related to careers: "well-traveled sequences of transitions that are shaped by cultural and structural forces" (p.168; cites Elder 1985). Trajectory = "attribute of an individual, while a pathway is an attribute of a social system" (p.168) = earlier work placed individual in foreground/ opportunity structure in background, this has now subverted. Pallas argues considering both individual agency + social structure = "more complete accounting of status attainment" (p.168) - school systems = sorting systems (connection to status attainment), which opens and closes particular pathways to particular people.
Identifies 8 features of educational pathways that structure educational trajectories (see p.169):
1) scope
2) selectivity
3) specificity
4) mobility
5) curricular differentiation
6) electivity
7) stigma
8) institutionalisation
Until recently, sociologists = interest = adolescence to adulthood, with normative markers (e.g. leaving school, getting married). Age= becoming less important in educational journeys (through sociological lens) = 'non-traditional' students. Lifecourse perspective = "implies that educational trajectories ought not to be studied in isolation from other social institutions and from other social roles associated with participation in those institutions, because such roles are intertwined in complex ways" (p.170), resulting from prolonged schooling, different modes of parenting, more accommodation of interruptions (also gender = significant)
Pallas problematizes 'vertical differentiation of education status' (e.g. 14 years of schooling = prepared for university when 2 year college degree nominally does the same; see p.171). Other systems rely more on horizontal differentiation (between institutions/ different locations in same institution).
Discusses CASMIN classification (p.171-2)
Offers overview of different analytic approaches on educational attainment + social mobility (ordered sequence based on binary choices) = critiqued and 'multnominal logit model' = suggested as better for more realistic models
Research into 'shape' of educational trajectories (and discussion of Matthew effect; see p.174)
Diverging pathways = see Kerckhoff (1993) = British tracking study of birth to 23 = able to measure individuals' positions at multiple points [and in multiple spaces/ positions]

Context: Describes same research as Devlin & O'Shea (2011). "To achieve the successful participation of LSES students, the collective understanding and practice of effective university teaching in the Australian context will
need to evolve to incorporate their particular needs" (p.386). Paper focuses on participant responses regarding teachers and teaching
Aim: "to determine student views on what factors had contributed to their retention and to their progress through their course. The central aim of the research was to uncover and highlight strategies, initiatives and knowledge that contributed to success and document these" (p.386)
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Adopts 'success-focused' methodology: 'what works'. Research with 53 'later-year' low SES UG students examining strategies for success and overcoming barriers.
Findings:
Most significant/ helpful factor = available and enthusiastic teachers. Teachers' 'communication skills' = third most common factor, including range of aspects of communication 'skills', such as "from making learning fun to integrating conceptual material with ' real world' examples and otherwise making effort to communicate about the material with students" (p.391) - particularly with clarity of assessment criteria
Core argument: 3 main foci: "unpacking academic discourses and expectations; high quality interpersonal interactions about these expectations; and ensuring high standards are necessary for effective teaching of students from LSES backgrounds" (p.394-5)

Context: University of Oxford, admissions, social background and 'cultural capital'. Oxford University (as with Cambridge) do not follow conventional UK admissions procedures and use Oxbridge admissions tutors to act as gatekeepers. This practice has been questioned with relation to extent admissions/ offers are made on basis of social class/ whether there is bias against state schooled applicants (issues of gender, race/ethnicity = less contentious). Taps into debates about merit/ social mobility and engineering/ exam results as indicators of aptitude. Notes debates about access to HE = connected to credential creep and anxiety about falling standards of school testing. Oxford interviews candidates for range of subjects (unlike most English universities) and other disciplines use tests to short-list applicants
Aim: To answer these RQs:
1 How do Oxford applicants vary in their cultural participation and cultural knowledge, according to parents' education, social class, gender and ethnicity?
2 Does cultural capital predict acceptance to Oxford?
3 If so, does its effect remain once we control for examination performance?
4 Is cultural capital more important for admission to the arts and humanities faculties than to the sciences?
5 To what extent does cultural capital mediate the effect of social class, parents' education, private schooling, ethnicity and gender?" (p.653)
Theoretical frame: Bourdieu - cultural reproduction/ capital ("including certain forms of skill and knowledge which are rewarded in the education system", p.651-2), whereby participation in cultural activities is less important than the forms of cultural and linguistic capital that it permits access to, to discuss admissions practices in University of Oxford. Cultural capital = includes 'beaux arts', reading at home and cultural knowledge = used "to assess which cultural attributes, activities or resources are linked to success in the competition for a place at Oxford" (p.652), but doesn't include embodied aspects of social class (such as clothes, appearance).
Methodology: Multivariate analysis (notes Bourdieu's dismissal of what it can tell us about reproduction). Data collected drawing on Oxford Admissions dataset (n=1700 applicants who applied in 2002). Variables = academic attainment, cultural capital, social background (see p.654 for detail). Ethnicity collapsed into larger categories of South Asian, Other and Ethnicity missing.
Findings:
No statistically significant relationship between admissions and parents' educational level (perhaps due to lack of variability in the sample = most had graduate parents).
Parents' social class background = significant: 43.6% of applicants with two professional class parents were admitted, compared to 33.9% with parents in managerial class. Insignificant 'working class coefficient'
40% = male applicants admitted compared to 34.1% of females
38.8% = white applicants admitted compared to 22.4% South Asian
Scores relating to cultural capital = lower for applicants without graduate parents; strong link between social class and cultural knowledge and participation: those with two professional parents = strongest link and significantly different from applicants with one professional parent, "thus emphasizing the importance of homogamy in consolidating class advantage" (p.655)
Ethnicity = significant (scoring lower on all measures of cultural capital than white peers)
Private school students = scored higher than state school students.
Table 2 = binary logistic regression of arts and science subjects: controlling for academic achievement.
Observation: negative effect of not having 2 professional parents - more in arts than science
Females = disadvantaged despite academic achievement
For arts = negative effect of having attended private school: "In other words, prior academic attainments being equal, selectors for arts subjects at Oxford exhibit a preference for state school students over private school students" (p.658).
Score on cultural knowledge test = most powerful measurement of cultural capital; therefore "cultural capital explains some of the lower success rate of non-professional class applicants and South Asians" (p.658)
Core argument: Cultural knowledge test = "High scores were associated with having graduate parents, with
two professional class parents, private school attendance and white ethnicity" (p.659). However, parents' education had no impact on getting an offer on its own.
- Participation in beaux arts = not related to success in gaining a place at University of Oxford
- Cultural knowledge = significant predictor of admission for arts
- Reading habits = significant predictor of admission for science (and there may be more direct discrimination against women and South Asians)
Article offers example of quantifying Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital

Context: Set in post-Bradley Australian higher education context (targets for expansion; greater attention to experiences of non-traditional/ equity students. Looks specifically at students' experiences of library services. Discussion of measurement of SES; adopts postcode method. Scopes literature on low SES students; discusses barriers, cultural mismatch. Draws on literature that argues best site for integration help = curriculum and argues that a similar argument can be made about library support [but: LMS and curriculum are not the same thing]. Discusses issues with LMSs (potential to hide library information / make less visible); discusses increase of online students
Aims: Examines impact of embedding library services into LMS on experience of low SES students
Theoretical frame:
Methodology: Mixed methods: surveys with students (Year 2, UG health studies) and interviews with library and academic staff. Most students = female; participants = online and on campus; 67% = alternative pathways/ 'non-traditional'; 25% = low SES. Surveys = evaluation of embedding library information/ support into course LMS = conducted start/end of course. Survey 1: n=17; Survey 2: n=23
Findings: Data suggests that students felt more confident/ aware of/ satisfied with library services (easier to use/ easier to find) - measured between start and end of course. Decline in not being aware of additional services. Level of confidence in using eBooks = remained same
Staff perceptions = better visibility of materials and services and conversations with students about information literacy. Library staff benefitted from strengthened relationships with academic staff. Based on success of evaluation, whole of institution roll out of embedding library services within LMS
Core argument: In on online form, libraries and their services can become less visible; "The development of information literacy is too important to be left to chance encounters with the library - particularly for students at risk. Embedded librarianship, through the LMS, provides an effective means for equitably facilitating these encounters" (p.248).
Limitation: Only one trimester; no focus on outcomes beyond perceptions (e.g. future research could look at impact on assessment results)

Context: Increasingly globalised world/ increasingly diverse higher education student body: "This has meant that, for students studying through the medium of English, a proportion have neither the language proficiency necessary to successfully negotiate the demands of their study programmes nor sufficient conversancy in the literacies required to experience successful learning outcomes" (p.1296). Authors also note that more students (need to) work - in context of increased tuition fees etc. - and universities are participating in discourses around employability and graduate outcomes (which get written into mission statements). Student diversity = fewer assumptions can be made about what students can do/ bring with them. Authors argue that responsibility for developing students' disciplinary academic literacies lies with the institution: "responsibility lies with receiving institutions to provide the necessary opportunities for students to acquire a working understanding of the literacy practices pertinent to their particular disciplines" (p.1297). Authors argue that students/ institutions need to recognize the pluralistic concept of academic literacies put forward by Lea & Street (1998) - contrasting with 'study skills' approach (see p.1298).
Authors scope literature on study skills, then embedding academic literacies (p.1299-1300).
Aim: To "describe a holistic, whole-of-institution approach to the development of academic literacies adopted at a university in Australia and which involved the embedding of academic literacies in programme curricula. In
doing so, we detail the process employed in what was widely regarded as a quite ambitious project, along with some of the challenges its implementation presented" (p.1297)
Theoretical frame: Academic literacies (Lea & Street, 1998)
Methodology: Reports on trial of embedding academic literacies at UniSA (?) - discusses the cross-division model (Teaching and Learning Committee membership/ representation from each division and programs within them) - had senior executive (DVCA) support - and teams of language experts and disciplinary teachers: "It was important that language tutors collaborated with academic staff to identify the genres relevant to the discipline, how language was used to communicate meaning in those genres, the targeted learning outcomes, and the types of assessment that could measure the extent of any learning" (p.1301).
Description of process = p.1302-1304; Challenges = p.1304-1306 (including lack of buy-in from middle managers/ heads of school = limited uptake and investment).
Core argument: "The case study described here illustrates vividly that, no matter how theoretically well informed it may be and how great the need for it, bringing about curriculum change is invariably a challenging process, particularly where it implies change not merely to the what of teaching but also the how" (p.1306).

Context: Students readiness for transitioning from vocational education to Bachelor of Hospitality Management at Holmesglen Institute (dual sector; in partnership with Uni Canberra) and need for academic support. Students transitioning into BA with Diploma or Advanced Diploma of Hospitality. Large number of students = CALD or international; decision was made to develop 'just-in-time' support. LASS program designed as partnership between BHM course leader, academics, academic from academic skills unit and a librarian, and also consulted with counsellors to check the LASS met students' needs. LASS = 2-hour, weekly class, linked to other content in the BHM
Aim: To analyse the effectiveness of the Learning Academic Skills Support (LASS) program, designed to support students into undergraduate level study.
Methodology: Evaluation (survey completed by 61% of LASS students)
Findings: Majority of students (70%) = international students; most had completed lower level qualifications at Holmesglen Institute.
LASS introduced students to plagiarism software but 37.5% still thought it was OK to cut and paste directly from sources into assignment.
37.5% of students thought they would have a chance to resubmit assignments until competent (not the case in BHM)
LASS students underestimated the amount of time/ effort needed to complete BHM studies. In terms of differences/ difficulties:
59% reported challenges with level/quality of work
40% reported difficulties with assessment tasks
30% reported challenges with level of research required
Overall, students rated the LASS course positively. Biggest improvements self-reported = academic writing (81%), research (52%), referencing (50%) and reading (40%)
Core argument: "The underlying objective of the LASS program is to support and empower students as independent learners within the HE space, strongly scaffolding articulating students during their first semester, but its long-term success depends on those same students going on to succeed autonomously in successive semesters. So too, building research capabilities amongst practitioners helps to develop a culture of questioning and knowledge sharing that pushes tertiary education forward, enriching a body of knowledge that comes from its heart" (p.127)

Context: US higher education/ Psychology course; personal reflection of being at a crossroads with her Students of Colour (SoC) as a white teacher.
Aim: To "contribute to the literature on caring in the context of teacher education and, in particular, in teacher education classes that seek to critically address issues of race, class, gender, and other forms of diversity" (p.40). Author's analysis was prompted by 5 prompt questions:
"(1) What experiences do I have working with students from traditionally marginalized groups?,
(2) What are my beliefs about working with students/adults from these groups?,
(3) What difficulties have I faced?,
(4) What mistakes have I made?, and
(5) How do I define racism?" (p.46)
Theoretical frame: Embodied care/ relational teacher educator practice for social justice. Author interprets her experience with Noddings' ethic of care, Hamington's (2004) notion of embodied care (caring knowledge, caring habits, and caring imagination), and Kitchen's (2005) relational teacher education theory/ seven-characteristic framework:
1. understanding one's own personal practical knowledge,
2. improving one's practice in teacher education,
3. respecting and empathizing with pre-service teachers,
4. conveying respect and empathy,
5. helping pre-service teachers face problems,
6. receptivity to growing in relationship, and
7. understanding the landscape of teacher education
Methodology: Personal narrative of a critical incident; analytic journal entries + field notes; interviews with 5 students (f-f/ by email)
Discussion:
Critical incident: Author reflects on teaching a new class that was her first comprised of majority SoC. Author describes how one student led a discussion (invited to do so) on a racialised issue relating to disadvantageous education policy in their local school district. Author describes moving from pre-class nerves to "in-class anxiety" because she had never spoken "substantively about race with a group that was not majority White, and yet I was part of the establishment that many of the students were describing as racist" (p.41), and she was not familiar with the policy being discussed = cultural disconnect. Author noted "My preparation as a teacher educator had not prepared me for this" (p.42).
Second day: she asked for students' help to redesign the course to better suit their needs. They decided on individual inquiry-based projects, working around mandated teacher professional requirements.
Interpretation: Initially she thought building caring relationships = most important, but through analysis she realized the embodied toll of the incident. Her analysis created a new awareness, but she reflects, "I struggled to find words in the English language beyond emotion and feeling, neither of which captured what I was trying to convey" (p.47), but that Hamington's theory of embodied care helped her to understand the physical-affective elements of her experience. Author analyses reflections of the first day with Noddings' notions of motivational displacement (where she had 'sidestepped her motivations' to open and continue space for the discussion to unfold), confirmation (not blaming students; looking for ways to shift the dynamic), and reciprocity (sharing space). Author also notes critiques of Noddings' work (it's colour-blind, it ignores community/ cultural influences on teacher care) and how they had not made practical sense until this incident. Author discusses relevance of her learnings for longer term/ social justice advocacy (following from Walker & Greaves' 2016 argument for 'emancipatory care') - looking beyond dyadic care, and renewing a "commitment to intentionally seek out experiences through which to gain caring knowledge and counter systemic forces of oppression in teacher preparation programs" (p.52).
Core argument: "Cultivating and maintaining relationships in teacher education is multifaceted work" (p.53)

Context: Discursive psychology, which the author notes sits well with the study's enquiry, particularly because of its focus on the constructed and constructive nature of discourse, and 'that discourse is action oriented and socially situated' (Moss 2008). Further, discursive psychology favours naturalistic materials/data from real-life encounters.
Aim: To answer the research questions at the heart of the study: (1) In what ways do students' make (strategic) use of emotion in written requests for study concessions? (2) What are staff views of students' tactical use of emotion? in order to 'contribute to improved understandings of staff-student interactions in an increasingly competitive and changing HE climate' and to 'lead to recommendations for student and staff induction programmes, and provide a more general basis for reflecting on, questioning and understanding social behaviour in HE'.
Theoretical frame: Various psychological and sociological studies of emotion including the development of emotional skills and the mapping of emotional responses within higher education (HE). The paper draws on understanding emotion as 'a way of talking' (Edwards 1999), which is linked to a discursive psychology approach (Wilkins 2013) and suggests an analysis of emotive discourse can be used to investigate 'ways of accounting for the self and the sociolinguistic activity of affirming and validating particular constructs of reality'. While other studies have understood this as emotional bargaining, Bartram labels this centrality of emotions in bargaining situations as 'affective strategising' (AS) and acknowledges the very many perspectives within the field around emotions, conceding that this variety 'perhaps serves to illustrate that educational institutions, as Gillies observes, "have an uneasy relationship with emotions" (2011), and that affect is strongly embedded in multi-faceted ways and relationships in HE'.
Methodology: Qualitative - case study based on analysis of student emails and staff interviews.
Findings: Staff either acknowledged student AS as a typical aspect of their working lives or as a growing tendency. Staff members also understood some student AS to be both flattering and threatening. Bartram groups the staff-perceived reasons of student AS intro 4 areas: student-related factors, factors relating to pre-university education, HE-related factors, broader socio-cultural factors.
Core argument: AS is a fairly common occurrence in this particular HE environment, and is perceived by staff to be deployed strategically. Bartram posits a connection between the university's mission to widen student participation amongst non-traditional populations to a student population that may have more complex or complicated social situation than the 'average' university student, thus contributing to the frequency of student AS. Bartram also suggests understanding AS as a social practice in HE more openly, increasing 'open discussion and awareness-raising as part of staff and student induction programmes may provide a useful platform for reconsidering the nature of staff-student interactions and the pressures and issues that bear on these'.

Context: Non-traditional students' transitions into elite higher education, specifically the role of emotions in choice-making process. Notes neo-liberal shifts producing "a fundamental shift in the way universities go about the business of educating (young) people to degree level" (p.124) - resulting in policy directives that contributed to massification of system due to push for individual investment and arguments about national knowledge economies. Such ideological/political change has shifted the way that transition is viewed - moving from notion of transition as linear to a focus on capturing multiplicity: "Indeed it is now de rigeur to claim that there is a discernible shift to more complex life-patterns and a balancing of a range of personal
priorities and interests in explaining comparative youth transitions" (p.124). Briefly scopes literature (scant) on emotions and summarises that for non-traditional students, "the transition to university is an intensely emotional process, because it brings with it conflicting and paradoxical feelings of ambivalence and contradiction about 'fitting in' to student life, and their aged, classed and gendered identities" (p.125).
Aim: To "investigate the powerful emotional component underpinning the transitions that young people make to university" (p.123).
Methodology: Paper draws from study on experiences of 12 x young (25 or younger) non-traditional students in two pre-1992 universities in Scotland in mid-2000s (2nd and 3rd year students, n=27). All students had previously attended an access course, none had parents who had attended university, all had attended schools where university was not a given, one = ethnic minority) = significant because "the students' unfamiliarity with the landscape of higher education rendered them more likely to convey the complex emotions that underpin the transition to university" (p.126). Semi-structured interviews conducted.
Findings: Place = significant (all participants lived at home which constrained pathways, but had access to 4 universities in local city)
Becoming a student: infrastructure, agency and emotion: Decision-making = in different 'transition infrastructure' than that experience by previous generations (i.e. leaving school and going to work is no longer the norm). Middle class discourses about value and ritual aspect of going to higher education = pervasive. Emotions play out in two ways: 1) in trust in transitions infrastructure; 2) anxiety about making wrong choices
Trust in transitions infrastructure - students expressed strong belief in relationship between HE studies and future employment (beyond 'ordinary jobs') and a 'head start', but this excitement/ belief = matched with anxiety ('fear and nervousness') about consequences of passing over opportunity to go to university or getting trapped in 'dead end jobs' (p.128)
Agency and infrastructure: fear of failure: need to craft personal sales pitches/ awareness of the risks of going to university: "this individual responsibility weighed heavily on the students' minds and making the 'right' choice, whether about going to university or about leaving home, was fraught with worries and anxieties. Although they had bought into the discourse of labour-market fulfilment, they were conscious of the risks they took in going to university" (p.129). Students' anxieties = both risk (money, choices made, future currency of studies) and losing connections with home and family/friends. Interesting comments from participants about perceptions of going to post-1992 university and wasting time/ lacking value (see p.130).
Experiences of non-traditional students (compared with accounts of middle class students) suggests
"discrepancies between the idealised model of student life and the reality of the lives of the 'new students'" (p.131) and emotional dislocation - viewing themselves as 'day students' (see also Christie, Munro & Wager, 2005), whereby studying = modification to existing life (rather than transforming lives wholesale) = doing not being
Hidden injuries of class: students' narratives suggested that they feared the students who could 'be' students: "University was experienced as a space of difference where patterns of consumption were central to the process of othering" (p.133) = clothes, cars, lifestyle. Students typically adjusted for class injuries by positioning themselves as morally superior to richer peers
Core argument: Emotions = classed and important for students' success and transitions. Going to university = "emotional process" (p.135): "The capacity to 'be' a student is class specific, mapping out a landscape that the middle classes inhabit and from which the working classes feel excluded. The evidence presented here points to the real emotion work that many non-traditional students undertake to justify and defend their right to be at university even when their level of achievement entitles them to a place. While these conflicts and anxieties were experienced and managed on a personal level, it is important to be aware of the structural level at which they are produced and played out" (p.134).

Context: Welsh school context - examines "micro-practices through which gender structures the development of young people's emotional subjectivities" (abstract) in context of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), which emerged out of research into well-being and emotional literacy/ emotional intelligence (see Goleman, 1996; Gillies, 2011). In school context, these have been implemented as strategies to help children to develop 'skills' to overcome undesirable emotional states for individuals (thus promoting deficit discourses and concealing "social, cultural and material discourses that inform the meaning and expression of emotional experiences" (p.185). Moreover, gender = elided in evaluations of SEL interventions and dichotomous emotional subjectivities normalized (e.g. aggression/ violence = male). Teachers are expected to offer/ be proficient in 'emotional pedagogy' (see Gillies, 2011) but very little training provided.
Discusses how inclusive pedagogy needs to promote difference (noting how success can only operate in relation to failure; how accepting difference erodes this project of desired student). Gender = organizing and crude binary to organize differentiation of students ('gendered hierarchical schemas'; see p.187). SEL reinforces gender binary: "Students' positionality is determined by their performance of appropriate emotional repertoires, but also, somewhat ironically, by their capacity to empty this educational experience of emotion" (p.187)
Aim: To examine underexplored role of teachers in SEL delivery and 'latent assumptions' that may lead to gendering of SEL; to explore "the range of gendering strategies performed by educational professionals in the delivery of a SEL intervention, and how they introduce differential learning opportunities for boys and girls, potentially giving rise to new forms of educational inequalities" (p.186)
Theoretical frame: Critical sociological perspective = examines micro-practices of gendered hierarchies and assumptions with emotional pedagogy
Methodology: Data collected from 4 x state schools (co-ed) in post-industrial town in Wales (3 = predominantly white and working class; 1 = white and more middle class in smaller town). SEL intervention = Student Assistance Programme (for managing 'challenging behaviour'), which offers student support group run by two trained members of staff for 8-12 students (referred) over 8 weeks. Data collection = participant observation + focus groups with students and individual interviews with staff (n=8).
Findings: Gendered emotional pedagogy: although staff are supposed to be passive recipients in the 'safe space' of the group, teachers in study were more demonstrative and encouraging of contribution. Observation = staff were more encouraging with girls - asking them to 'have a go' (students = mostly reticent to speak out). Interviews suggest that staff considered the girls more willing to speak up. Similarly, staff appeared to valorise boys' passivity, "with compliance and docility being perceived as an adequate and sufficient marker of success" (p.191) - see example of Matthew on p.191-2.
Spatial and temporal dimensions of groups = significant. Time in class time suggested equal value to academic/subject time; space used (empty classroom/ library) added to fraught performances of students: "Resonance with the classroom context ensured that the intervention became a microcosm of students' everyday world, replicating relational dynamics and endorsed cultural and social norms. Manifestation of facilitators' gendered assumptions only served to reinforce awareness of the permeability and fragility of the 'safe' space. Hence, before the intervention had even commenced, students were clearly socially positioned, trying to carve out their own place within an emotional space not of their making" (p.195). Treating group as a confessional = problematic because of sense that participants would not keep the sharing within the group and would use it as currency against sharers. Students = critical of one teacher's "repetitive, unimaginative and disinterested interactions" with group (p.196); she was contrasted with male youth worker (but he was also criticized for taking holiday rather than attending group
Core argument: Gendered hierarchies = reified by teachers/ emotional practitioners and played out in particular ways: docile male and female bodies = interpreted differently: "The coercion of girls to perform emotion only served to amplify the apparent estrangement of boys from SEL" (p.199). Emotional pedagogy needs to reject the feminine/ masculine analytic categories in order to open up emotional spaces. SEL, if not undertaken carefully, can "introduce new forms of inequalities that only serve to exacerbate the existing and seemingly intractable disadvantage that many young people experience" (p.199). Wellbeing agenda should not be accepted as "a panacea for existing problems with the educational system, without acknowledgement of its potential to exacerbate disadvantage through the inscription of additional indices of difference" (p.200).

Context: Increased attention to student well-being/mental health in higher education, and formal acknowledgement that university study is an incredibly anxious experience for many. Increased number of student suicides in higher education in England and Wales, and increase in student debt for higher education degrees. Research questions guiding the article:
- Does the transition into HE affect levels of anxiety in students?
- If student emotions change within the first semester of the first year, what happens?
- What factors influence student emotions in response to the HE transition and how can institutions and practitioners help mitigate negative outcomes?
Aim: To "draw on the experiences of students in one HE-in-FE institution, which engages with student[s] who hold widening participation characteristics all of whom are commuters and from diverse socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds" in order to measure two types of anxiety: "'trait anxiety (a personality characteristic more or less permanent) and state anxiety (a temporary emotion felt at a particular moment in a given situation)' (Ellis 2008, 691)" and to "investigate potential causes of student anxiety in one HE-in-FE institution, drawing on qualitative and quantitative data alongside practitioner experience, and to use this illustratively to shed light on the factors that help mitigate student anxiety during the transition period in order to suggest recommendations for good practice in addressing potential barriers" (2).
Theoretical frame: Student transition into HE, primarily the link between adjustment during transition and emotional intelligence "(Porche 2016; Caruso, Mayer, and Salovey 2004), and self-efficacy (Watson and Watson 2016), as well as an individual's ability to cope with stress (Aspinwall and Taylor 1992; Van Rooijen 1986)" (3). Student ability to cope with transition also is "of fundamental importance to the institution as much as it is to the individual. The failure to make a satisfactory transition into university life, shaped by meeting the new academic and social demands this entails, often results in student under- achievement, or more seriously, student drop-out (Cook and Lowe 2003; Bradley 2017)" (3). Current discussions of students' mental and emotional wellbeing particularly during the immediate periods of transition into higher education studies (ie first semester) and differences between intrinsic and extrinsic sources of anxiety.
Methodology: Opportunity sampling method with the inclusion criteria for the research being all first-year students enrolled on a degree programme at the institution at Level 4. Voluntary participation - two questionnaires distributed at the beginning and end of semester one:
- "The first questionnaire (see Appendix 1) was made up of two parts: a Y-6 self-evaluation and the GAD-7 (which asked students to reflect on the last two weeks in their responses). The second questionnaire comprised the Y-6 item along with three open questions asking participants to elaborate on their emotions and experiences, including identifying factors (see Appendix 2). This captured qualitative data to enhance the quantitative analysis" (6).
Findings: Students were found to be less anxious at the end of semester one than at the beginning, but overall "there is no single emotional response to the stages of transition with results indicating a complex range of emotional responses" (8). The two most common factors increasing anxiety were assignments and deadlines, whereas one-on-one meetings with tutors served to decrease anxiety.
Core argument:
- Engage with student health and wellbeing from the point of enquiry and cultivate honest conversations regarding the challenges, fears and anxieties about the student experience
- Provideclearguidanceandsignposttherangeofsupportservicesavailabletostudents
- Support students to develop emotional intelligence skills and coping strategies that build capacity to process negative feedback or experiences and develop resilience and resourceful- ness, as appropriate to the demands of HE study
- Embedacademicskillsintothestudenttransitioninordertode-mystifyjargonandunfamiliar terminology
- Ensure all students have a one-to-one tutorial with course tutors within the first few weeks of the semester
- Academic staff should be offered training and development in supporting student wellbeing and emotional intelligence skills
- Ensure relevant assessment skills support is provided at the right time in the first semester and beyond

Context: Emotions and confidence in 6 different (higher education) teacher profiles (identified in Postareff et al., 2008). Authors argue that scholarly interest in teaching in higher education can be split into two categories: 1) teachers' conceptions of teaching; 2) teachers' approaches to teaching. Emotions have not featured strongly in these two broad fields of inquiry. Authors cite Sutton & Wheatley (2003), who found in their study that researchers know little about emotions in teaching/ most research into emotions and teaching is in the field of teacher education; Sutton & Wheatley argue "that the role of emotions in teaching might be neglected in research due to the irrational
tone of emotions. Emotions are often thought of as out of control, primitive and childish. These images are incompatible with the civilised nature of the academic world" (authors' words; p.800). Authors also cite Sadler's (2009) research with beginning university teachers; Sadler found that confidence is connected with perceived expertise/ mastery of content knowledge, meaning that a fear of taking risks/ being vulnerable is associated with negative emotions/ low self-concept with regard to teaching.
Aim: To explore "the role of emotions and confidence within six different teacher profiles, and analyses the emotions that arise during participation in courses on university pedagogy" (p.801).
Theoretical frame: Emotions = "viewed as a fundamental factor of human mental operations, along with motivation and cognition" and resulting from/ in dialogue with social context (p.801). Six teacher profiles explained as: "Some of the teachers' profiles were clearly and systematically either learning- or content-focused, making their profiles consonant. On the other hand, the profiles of some of the teachers consisted of combinations of learning- and content-focused approaches or conceptions, making their profiles dissonant. Three types of dissonance were identified. Some teachers used both learning- and content-focused expressions when describing their teaching conceptions and strategies, and their profiles were categorised as being systematically dissonant" (p.801)
Methodology: Interviews with university teachers at the University of Helsinki (n=97; see p.802 for details). Content analysis of interview transcripts
Findings: Authors had previously found patterns with regard to profiles and discipline areas:
"Teachers whose profiles were consonant and learning-focused more often represented soft sciences than hard sciences, but teachers whose profiles included dissonant elements, or were systematically content focused, more often represented hard sciences than soft sciences" (p.802)
- 92/97 teachers discussed emotions in some way
- Half = narrow description of emotions
- Reference to positive emotions = more frequent than reference to negative emotions (2/3 to 1/3)
- Most common positive emotions = enjoyment of teaching and enthusiasm, although the enthusiasm = most restricted to teacher's own research area
- Empathy/ respect mentioned by 1/3 of teachers
- 1/4 of teachers regarded teaching as rewarding/ exciting
- Few = view teaching as relaxing
- Few = prefer teaching to research
- Few = don't like teaching (viewing themselves more as researchers)
- Most common negative emotion = not enjoying/ reluctance towards particular forms of teaching (lecturing in particular, but also group work or student-centred methods)
- Low confidence = more related to teaching rather than content knowledge
Teacher profiles:
- Consonant learning-focused profile = more likely to describe enthusiasm for teaching/ be more explicit about emotions when talking about their teaching + described strong empathy with learners
- Contextually varying profiles = mostly described teaching in terms of enthusiasm and enjoyment; these teachers described varying levels of confidence - depending on context - but "quite often they admitted that they did not have the tools to teach their students, or that they were unsure about how they should teach their students", and were generally under-confident in adopting more student-centred/ interactive approaches (p.806).
- Systematically dissonant profiles = more likely to describe negative emotions, reluctance and general lack of confidence
- Consonant content-focused profiles = few/ no feelings towards teaching; all described preference for research over teaching. All had high level of confidence with regard to content knowledge
Core argument: "It seems that when teachers perceive that they have a good level of content knowledge, confidence tends to be high" (p.811).