Activating Sacred Vā Relationality in Higher Education

Since 2002 there has been strategic focus on inclusive tertiary provision as a means of addressing the issues of student groups who have historically not fared well in higher education. Equity groups include Māori, Pasifika and students with disabilities. This chapter charts the terrain of inclusive higher education in Aotearoa through the critical reflections of Kahurangi, a Māori student with a vision impairment. Despite a strategic focus on inclusive provision and Kahurangi’s success his experiences suggest that there is some way to go. The authors argue that given the limited ways in which inclusion and its underpinning theory of disability are theorised inclusive higher educational settings are unlikely to be realised.

In the context of ongoing global adoption of all forms of technology, e-learning has continued to evolve, informed by a growing body of research. Many schools, tertiary institutions, and other organizations are implementing a variety of e-learning initiatives, although frequently it appears the investment does not always equate to more engaged, knowledgeable, skilled learners. Tertiary education in Aotearoa, New Zealand covers all post-secondary education and is analogous to the term higher education in other countries. This chapter draws on the implementation of a large-scale blended, flipped learning project at a tertiary institution in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The project (within the Health Science faculty) was driven by a desire to improve student learning experiences and develop a common semester with a suite of interdisciplinary postgraduate qualifications. The discussion is based on personal reflections, which provide different perspectives of the initial phases, from three participants in the associated study (two of whom are also the authors of this chapter). During the project, two key prevalences were observed. The first was an ingrained set of beliefs, often unquestioned, that shaped overall expectations of what an e-learning experience might comprise. Interpretations and implications are discussed using the lens of mindsets to illustrate how beliefs of “self” fundamentally influence a person's ability to embrace—and thrive in—a period of change. The second prevalence was a familiarity with large-scale, “monolithic” e-learning developments, which translated into discomfort with an agile approach. The overall aim of this chapter is to provide sufficient detail to draw educators and administrators together to apply the recommendations offered, while providing support for “change agents,” as well as those ambivalent about reform. The authors are keen to highlight how ultimately rewarding, but also emotionally and physically demanding, the implementation of reform can be for those educators on the front lines.

In the context of ongoing global adoption of all forms of technology eLearning has continued to evolve, informed by a growing body of research. Many schools, tertiary institutions, and other organisations, are implementing a variety of eLearning initiatives, although, frequently it appears the investment does not always equate to more engaged, knowledgeable, skilled learners. Tertiary education in Aotearoa, New Zealand covers all post-secondary education and is analogous to the term Higher Education in other countries. This chapter draws on the implementation of a large-scale blended, flipped learning project at a tertiary institution in Aotearoa, New Zealand. The project (within the Health Science faculty) was driven by a desire to improve student learning experiences, and develop a common semester with a suite of interdisciplinary postgraduate qualifications. The discussion is based on personal reflections, which provide different perspectives of the initial phases, from three participants in the associated study (two of whom are also the authors of this chapter). During the project two key prevalences were observed. The first was an ingrained set of beliefs, often unquestioned, that shaped overall expectations of what an eLearning experience might comprise. Interpretations and implications are discussed using the lens of mindsets to illustrate how beliefs of ‘self' fundamentally influence a person's ability to embrace - and thrive in - a period of change. The second prevalence was a familiarity with large-scale, ‘monolithic' eLearning developments, which translated into discomfort with an agile approach. The overall aim of this chapter is to provide sufficient detail to draw educators and administrators together to apply the recommendations offered, while providing support for 'change agents' - as well as those ambivalent about reform. The authors are keen to highlight how ultimately rewarding, but also emotionally and physically demanding, the implementation of reform can be for those educators on 'the front lines'.

A Short-Run Demand Function for Higher Education in the United States

Whose Truth Matters? Reimagining Indigeneity Provision in Higher Education in Aotearoa

This article introduces global studies to an Aotearoa New Zealand audience with the goal of thinking through what human geographers might learn by comparing elements of global studies with their own discipline. It begins by reviewing global studies and its establishment at The University of Auckland and then considers how global studies relates to human geography. A number of areas of mutual benefit are identified. The relationship between global studies and human geography is important to consider during a time of change within higher education in Aotearoa, a point discussed in the conclusion.

Journeys into higher education for Māori students with impairments: Charting the terrain of inclusive higher education in Aotearoa

For Pacific early career academics (PECA) in Aotearoa, there is a tension between the Indigenous knowledges inherited from our Pacific ancestors and those we have been taught within the western education system. As Pacific educators teaching an increasingly Pacific student-body, we have sought to define our own spaces within the lecture theatre where we can prioritize our knowledges and counter standard didactic western pedagogical practices. This paper is a collaboration from six PECA who use as a framework of analysis Andreotti et al.’s [Andreotti, Vanessa de Oliveira, Sharon Stein, Cash Ahenakew, and Hunt. Dallas. 2015. “Mapping Interpretations of Decolonization in the Context of Higher Education.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 4 (1): 21–40.] Cartography of Decolonization to discuss their decolonizing pedagogies. It will explore the successes and challenges faced in making this pedagogical shift, including stories from PECA who have struggled due to disciplinary concepts of what constitutes ‘knowledge’. It involves critical reflection on pedagogical praxis, asking throughout what can be considered decolonizing and whether it is indeed possible within the system of higher education in Aotearoa.

The massive global growth of private sectors transforms higher education. It naturally sparks great interest and debate. But analysis lags far behind, as does cross-national documentation. Promoters glorify roles (e.g., access), while critics demonize roles (e.g., moneymaking). Policy makers tend to hold simple views of what private higher education does or what they want it to do, while participants tend to generalize from their own institution. Public discussion thus often revolves around narrow and misleading declarations. The gap is large between self-serving or ill-informed views and more complex reality. Private higher education is least understood where it has just recently become prominent—and that is in much of the world. A few decades ago, private higher education was absent or marginal in most countries. Today, it captures a major or fast-increasing portion of enrollments in Eastern and Central Europe, the Middle East and northern and sub-Saharan Africa, East and South Asia, and Latin America. Furthermore, new forms of private

The established link between higher education attainment and individual socio-economic prosperity explains to a large extent the continued increase in private and social investment in education. It is the driver of growth in established higher education institutions and in the number of students enrolled. Many research reports on the status of education reveal the intensity in efforts to address issues underlying the poor quality of education. It is generally agreed that universities are entrusted with the task of generating knowledge of appropriate quality, and to making this knowledge availability to a wide population in order to support national economic competitiveness. But the issue of forces driving demand for higher education and their capacity to distort access to opportunities stand out. As nations endeavour to expand access to higher education, challenges of inadequate resource provision constrain access to opportunities for students with certain unique attributes. Overall national socio-economic development requires that education provision be inclusive to cover students with unique characteristics including the marginalised. Participation of those with attributes defined vulnerabilities should be a pre-requisite to quality assessments. This paper therefore examines university education demand trends in Kenya and how they related to students’ characteristics. Descriptive survey designs were used. A sample of 524 respondents was drawn from among the twenty-two public and eighteen private chartered universities. Data was analysed using frequency tables and percentages, and means; hypotheses were tested using ANOVA, with all statistical tests done at α=0.05 level of significance. Results showed that overall demand for education was on the increase in public universities, but declining in private universities. Disparities in demand by gender were observed with more males accessing university places. Consequences of increased demand for university education included high workloads for lecturers, and congested facilities. These findings are important to educators, education planners, institution managers who are charged with devising mechanisms and processes that address issues of quality and equity in demand for university education.

Introduction This article seeks to present and illuminate empirically a model of policymaking in an area of emerging, if little appreciated, importance, namely, state policies affecting private (nonprofit) higher education. Further, it shows the interesting implications of this model and the associated empirical results for policy in this area now as many states enter an era of sharply increased demand for higher education but limited resources to pay for new capacity [65, 67]. The basic idea is that state policy postures toward private higher education can tend toward one of three nodes: * laissez-faire, in which state policies largely ignore the private sector; * central planning, in which state policies involve the private sector substantially, use private institutions to play carefully planned and enforced roles in the state system and pay for this involvement financially via such means as direct subventions to private institutions and aid to their students; * market-competitive, in which state policies also seek to take account of and utilize the private collegiate sector, but in which the state plays much less of a planning, allocative, and regulatory role than under central planning and instead employs market forces and signals (e.g., portable student aid grants, lower subsidies built into public institution tuitions, information policies) to guide allocation of programs, students, and resources. The analysis matches individual states' policies empirically to these constructs (or in some cases to hybrids of them) and then considers how well each policy set fits the circumstances of the states that employ it. The key broad conclusion of the empirical analysis is that the market-competitive constellation of policies is associated with the most attractive combination of policy outcomes: high participation rates in higher education, reasonable quality in public higher education, and a healthy private sector providing choice to students, all at only average levels of taxpayer spending (per capita) on higher education and well below-average levels of taxation overall. Assuming these associations are some guide to the future, then the market-competitive states seem to be well positioned to face the emerging era of rapid growth in demand for higher education that many states will encounter without depending solely on costly expansion of public colleges and universities. This conclusion squares with the common-sense idea that it should be cheaper to meet some part of large new enrollment capacity requirements by directing some students toward private higher education (even at some financial cost to the state) than to meet all the demand by expanding space in the public sector. The laissez-faire states, in contrast, though they also include a number of states that face rapid growth in demand for higher education, appear to be poorly positioned by virtue of their policy histories and current policies to cope with such a period of growth cost-effectively. These states have generally experienced rapid population growth in recent years but only slow growth in their private higher education enrollments (which tend to be relatively small, though in most cases not insignificant). Their spending on public higher education per student (a crude indicator of quality) and their overall participation rates in higher education tend to be near the national average, but it seems unlikely that these performances can be sustained in the face of strong demand growth, for this is both the poorest group of states and the one already making on average the highest overall effort. Yet these states also spend well above average per capita on higher education. Thus, the analysis suggests that these states need to rethink their higher education policies, particularly those affecting the private sector, if they are to cope effectively in the new era of increased demands and tightly constrained state tax revenues. …

Editorial

Despite the increasing number of international students in colleges and universities in the United States, there is a scarcity of research that informs higher education instructors on how to create a space for these students to share their challenges. This chapter illustrates how critical autoethnography serves as an empowering academic discourse for international students in higher education. Drawing from linguicism and transnational habitus, it elucidates how graduate students internalize and resist linguicism while also exercising teacher agency by using transnational habitus in language classrooms. By sharing their stories in relation to power imbalance in social interactions, this chapter illustrates ways in which university teachers can promote culturally and linguistically sustaining written discourse practices for international students, using a critical autoethnography.

Higher education for young people, including marginalised groups, is essential for equitable and sustainable development. There is limited research on refugees’ access to higher education, especially in developing countries. This article contributes to the literature on refugee education by raising awareness of the demand for education and issues surrounding refugees’ access to higher education in West and Central Africa (WCA). We consider changes in the population of young refugees as a proxy for shifts in their demand for education and map available opportunities and challenges. Our analysis of refugee youth demographic data indicates increasing trends in most WCA countries, signalling rapidly growing demand for (higher) education by refugees in their countries of asylum. Mapping these countries’ provision of refugee education opportunities and dedicated scholarship programmes for refugees, as well as interviews with refugee students promotes understanding of the conditions and challenges they confront in the transition to higher education in their host countries. The article highlights the urgency of the refugee situation in Africa and calls for immediate and practical action to facilitate and support refugees’ access to tertiary education.

This article discusses the cost- sharing experiences of 73 Tanzanian female undergraduates who took part in a 1997 study. It also integrated views and suggestions of the 2007 students from the University of Dar es Salaam and Sokoine University of Agriculture, Mazimbu campus. The University of Dar es Salaam was closed in 2007 because First Year students boycotted classes to protest the government’s policy that required them to pay 40% for their higher education. I advocate for partnership in student financing and the introduction of graduate tax for recovering higher education students’ loans. Cet article traite les expériences du partage des coûts de 73 tanzaniennes du premier cycle qui ont pris part à une étude en 1997. Il a également intégré les avis et les suggestions des étudiants de 2007 venant de l’Université de Dar es Salaam et de l’Université d’agriculture Sokoine du campus de Mazimbu. L’Université de Dar es Salaam a été fermée en 2007 car les étudiants de première année ont boycotté les cours afin de protester contre la politique du gouvernement qui leur a exigé de payer 40 % des frais pour l’enseignement supérieur. Je préconise un partenariat de financement des étudiants ainsi que l’introduction d’un impôt gradué afin de recouvrir les prêts des étudiants de l’enseignement supérieur.