Teaching english literacy in the time of COVID-19 pandemic in higher education: A case study in Saudi Qassim university

This Special Issue was conceived and developed following a series of international conferences held in Asia, with a particular focus on critically reflecting upon higher education development in the region from broader social and political economy perspectives. Some of the papers in this Special Issue were selected from presentations in the East Asia Social Policy (EASP) Research Network Conference successfully held in Taiwan in 2018, while others were chosen from international events held at Lingnan University in Hong Kong presenting critical reviews and reflections on internationalization, marketization and graduate employment of higher education in Asia. This introductory article puts the discussions of the selected papers in this issue in context, with critical reflections on the key issues being examined in these papers. The Special Issue is published when the world is still confronting the unprecedented global health crisis resulted from the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic. This article discusses the higher education development trends in Asia through the massification, diversification and internationalisation processes in transforming the higher education system and examines how these development trends are affected by the COVID‐19 crisis.

The year 2020 is plagued with unprecedented problems that challenged the current global and national socio-political, economic, and educational landscapes. In the time of COVID-19 pandemic, the global education system is in the process of transforming and adapting to new and challenging situations which test the conventional learning process of classroom human interaction and capitalize in virtual and online education. This paper tries to elucidate how the higher education system of the Philippines experienced and responded to the challenge of providing alternative education and learning services in the time of COVID-19 pandemic. This case study is divided into three parts. The first part provides an analysis on the policies and guidelines implemented by the country’s Commission on Higher Education. The second part interrogates and reflects on the responses, challenges, and best practices employed by universities in implementing these guidelines. The last part provides general recommendations and argues that Philippine higher education institutions should form an Education Continuity Plan that outlines the procedures and instructions that should be followed in the face of a pandemic.

Interdisciplinary learning improves cognitive skills and increases motivation for learning and teaching in higher education. Interdisciplinary education, which requires the collaboration of different disciplines, contributes to the development of students by integrating disciplinary knowledge and providing a multidimensional perspective. Thus, interdisciplinary education has become an alternative approach to discipline-centered education in higher education. Interdisciplinary learning is necessary for postmodern life because it eliminates the limitations of disciplinary education. The complex nature of the problems posed by postmodern life requires the collaboration of many disciplines. Current political, economic, social, religious, and legal issues are too complex to be solved from the perspective of a single discipline. Discipline-centered education may not be sufficient to provide solutions to current problems or to equip students with problem-solving skills. For this reason, this study reveals that interdisciplinary learning, which is increasing in higher education, can also be applied to higher religious education. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the outcomes of interdisciplinary learning in higher religious education through a sample training. In the academic year 2023/2024, an interdisciplinary training was conducted on the common problems of theology and other disciplines, and the results were revealed through the views of 16 participants. The research was conducted as a case study by using the qualitative research method, and the research data were coded under four themes: (1) need for interdisciplinary learning in higher religious education, (2) disciplines associated with higher religious education, (3) outcomes of interdisciplinary learning, and (4) suggestions for interdisciplinary education. According to the research findings, the participants believe that courses in higher religious education have interdisciplinary content, that interdisciplinary education is necessary in higher religious education, and that interdisciplinary learning contributes to personal and professional development. It is recommended that studies be carried out using alternative approaches to improve higher religious education.

Emerald Studies in Higher Education, Innovation and Technology seeks to provide a multifaceted and interdisciplinary approach to these interconnected topics and invites proposals from all scholars working in these fields. The underlying purpose of this series is to demonstrate how innovations in education, educational technology and teaching can advance research and practice and help us respond to socio-economic changes and challenges. The series has a broad scope, covering many topics, including but not limited to learning analytics, open and distributed learning, technology enhanced learning, digital pedagogies, data mining, virtual and augmented realities, cloud computing, social media, educational robotics, flipped classrooms, active learning, innovation networks and many more.

PurposeThe article addresses the tension between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and the right to work in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, it explores the operation of corporations in adopting policies of mandatory vaccination and the role of the courts regarding these CSR patterns.Design/methodology/approachThe article examines court case studies of CSR practices regarding unvaccinated employees during the COVID-19 pandemic in Israel and the United States.FindingsThe findings show that the Israeli system adopted the regulating for individual discretionary CSR approach, whereas the American system adopted the regulating for ethical-public CSR approach. Adopting the latter infringes upon the right to work of unvaccinated employees. While in Israel, the possibility of compelling employees to vaccinate is denied, in the American model, mandatory vaccination is possible. As opposed to the American model, in the Israeli model, there is an obligation to consider proportionate measures to isolate the employees while allowing them to continue working.Originality/valueThe article introduces two possible notions of regulating CSR in times of the pandemic – regulating for individual discretionary CSR which is labor-oriented and regulating for ethical-public CSR which is focused on public aspects. While the former posits that corporations should advance individual interests of employees and their right to work, the latter claims that corporations should advance the public interest in health. Following the problems resulting from the Israeli and American cases, the article draws on the lines for a suggested approach that courts should embrace.

ABSTRACTCorona (covid-19) pandemic that was claimed from Wuhan, China at the end of 2019 has transferred to countries over the world at the beginning of 2020. This pandemic has brought significant changes in every aspect of human life, economy or commerce, social, health, and education as well. The President of the Republic of Indonesia, Mr. Joko Widodo declared all Indonesian citizenships to practice social/physical distancing. Indonesian government took some preventive strategies to minimize the outbreak of COVID-19. In education sector, Indonesian Education and Culture Minister, Mr. Nadiem Anwar Makarim ordered all students including university students to study from home. This study aims to investigate the use of the E-learning as the current phenomenon in teaching English in the time of COVID-19 pandemic. This research was conducted with a descriptive qualitative research. The result of the study suggests that E-Learning system is considered as the one and only relevant teaching-learning method in the time of pandemic. Teachers and students just accessed the internet from homes and they would be connected to the E-learning application that has been approved by the institutions or the lecturers. However, challenges in applying E-learning were also undeniable, for instances: the unavailability of internet access/ WIFI, learners feel unmotivated, poor levels of student engagement. The lack of actual social and psychological interactions between teachers and students in E-learning system seemed to minimize affective domains. The interactive teacher-student talk is not as effective as in normal classroom. Supports from institutions (colleges or universities) and government are needed for the success of E-learning, particularly in the time of COVID-19 pandemic.

Reviewed by: No Study Without Struggle by Leigh Patel Charles H. F. Davis III No Study Without Struggle Leigh Patel Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2021, 192 pages, $24.95 (cloth) Broadly speaking, No Study Without Struggle rigorously engages the systemic and structural entanglements of oppression and organized resistance within education and its social contexts. Bringing together historical records, oral histories, and contemporary case examples, Patel beautifully illustrates relationships of power through the analytical lens of settler colonialism. Moreover, the expressed intention of the text is to provide a sense of grounding for the reader about the longstanding symbiosis of study and struggle. As such, Patel provides compelling evidence to demonstrate the connections between higher education as a settler colonial project and the always already confrontations with settler colonial violence. This is noteworthy in that, until recently, the higher education literature has been largely deficient in its engagement with (de)colonization and (de)colonial studies. Yet, as Patel notes, many of the endemic and intractable problems confronting contemporary higher education find their roots in the stolen land and stolen labor and the exploitative and extractive nature of colleges and universities, which continue with their modern function as neoliberal enterprises. The book includes six chapters, each with a conceptual focus that altogether renders a comprehensive yet succinct analysis of higher and postsecondary education as a settler colonial project. Building from the offering of historian Robin D. G. Kelley's seminal essay "Black Study, Black Struggle," Chapter 1 provides Patel's argumentative basis for focusing specifically on settler colonialism as a framework. Whereas "naming the problem of racism in higher education is necessary but insufficient," Patel argues settler colonialism offers a more complete framework for understanding the relationships and distinctions between how marginalized and minoritized people experience various forms of what Mustaffa (2017) has described as educational violence. As a faculty member whose research and teaching broadly focus on systemic oppression in higher education and its social context, I find this particular critique to be as accurate as it is timely. Although the rhetorics of antiracism and decolonization have permeated postsecondary and institutional discourse in recent years, they have not necessarily been understood as complementary endeavors. Patel, however, reconciles these otherwise discrete categories of analysis in education research and practice by putting racism and settler colonialism in conversation as co-determinants that continue to shape endemic inequities in higher education and society. For contemporary students and emerging professionals in the field of higher education, this book provides an important primer for understanding postsecondary institutions as contested terrains in the advancement and retrenchment of social and political inequity. In Chapter 2, Patel describes settler colonialism as an ongoing process of three mutually dependent practices: (a) the theft of land/ resources, (b) Indigenous erasure, and (c) the theft of labor. In the context of postsecondary education, this is established by stating the accomplished fact that all US colleges and universities occupy stolen land, many of which were also built through stolen labor and [End Page 117] the profits therein. Further, Patel recasts the racialized experiences of minoritized students as concurrent transactions of cultural taxation and indebtedness. These transactions are presented as evidence of gift economies, a colonial structure in which the worthiness of the oppressed is determined by the benevolence of "gifting" opportunity or reprieve from their oppressors. Such framing is deeply instructive given how often postsecondary institutions and their agents purport to be solutions to otherwise inescapable problems, a point that has been widely challenged by critical scholars for decades (la paperson, 2017; Mustaffa, 2017). Chapter 3 interrogates the symbiosis of profit and debt, broadly conceived, in which the accumulation-dispossession paradox of resources (i.e., environmental, financial, and social) has shaped higher education since its inception. Noting sharp increases in tuition and the rising cost-share of attending college for students and families, Patel enumerates the consequences of steep declines in federal subsidies following the 2008 recession. Examples such as the racialized student debt crisis and the re-opening of campuses just months after the COVID-19 pandemic are used to thoroughly illustrate a "racial trade-off" between white beneficiaries (i.e., property, institutions, and people) and the proximal Black (and brown) communities...

The ten-year-old war in Syria has had a profound impact on all national sectors, including higher education. The damages inflicted on the sector were huge and enormous, ranging from losses of higher education infrastructure to higher education expertise; drop in teaching quality and disruption of the academic year; in addition to limited higher education funding, as funds were diverted to support other urgent priorities. In early 2020, as the Syrian higher education system was slowly recovering from the war, it was confronted with another major challenge, namely the COVID-19 Pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the largest disruption of education in history worldwide, impacting learning and teaching in institutions, ranging from primary to secondary schools, technical and vocational training institutes, and universities. In March 2020, to prevent the spread of the pandemic, the Higher Education Council (HEC) in Syria ordered a lockdown of all higher education institutions for a period that lasted more than two months. This caused a major disruption to the academic year and to the teaching and learning process across the board. HEC also encouraged higher education institutions to continue with online teaching during the lockdown to maintain students’ engagement. Many higher education institutions in Syria, especially large public universities, were unprepared to implement the HEC decree regarding online education. Many teaching staff did not have the proper training in these new methods of education delivery. Furthermore, from the students’ perspective, the absence of necessary equipment, limited internet access, and the lack of support for students to follow online programs have all proved to be a formidable and unsurmountable obstacle. This eventually led the Ministry of Higher Education, to abandon its decree and ask all higher education institutions to go back to face-to-face teaching and compensate for the lost courses once the lockdown was lifted. In this chapter, the status of the Syrian higher education system prior to the COVID-19 pandemic is highlighted, including the enormous challenges it was facing in the post-war era. The additional challenges caused by COVID-19 pandemic are also described as well as the measures taken by the Syrian Higher Education Council to mitigate and overcome these challenges. Case studies on how higher education institutions in Syria tried to cope with the pandemic are presented as well as a case study from a prominent UK university. A new vision and options on how to prepare the higher education system in Syria in the future to address such challenges is also presented and discussed.KeywordsSyriaWarCOVID-19Higher educationRecovery

IntroductionPerceived vulnerability to disease/PVD may influence psychological reactions to COVID-19 pandemic.ObjectivesTo analyse the role of PVD in psychological distress/PD during the COVID-19 pandemic, testing whether it is mediated by perceived risk of COVID-19, fear of COVID-19 and repetitive negative thinking/RNT.MethodsParticipants (N=413 adults; 69.2% women) were recruited from September until December 2020, via social networks. They completed the following self-report validated questionnaires: Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire/PVDQ; Perceived Risk of COVID-19 Scale, Fear of COVID-19 Scale; Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale. As women had significantly higher levels of PVD, COVID-19 perceived risk and fear, RNT, and psychological distress/PD, gender was controlled in mediation analysis (using PROCESS macro for SPSS; Hayes 2018).ResultsAll the variables significantly (p<.01), moderately (r>.20) and positively correlated. The serial mediation model 6 with the three sequential mediators resulted in significant total effect (c=.326, se=.0791, p<.001, CI:.1702-.4814), non-significant direct effect (c’=.111, se=.065, p=.087, CI:-.0162 to .2380), significant total indirect effect (.2149, se=.065, CI:.1079-.3278); most indirect effects were significant, including the indirect 7 (.0144, se=.0077, CI=.0017-.0320), that goes through all mediators (PVD->COVID19 perceived risk->COVID19 fear->RNT->PD), meaning full mediation.ConclusionsThe effect of PVD on psychological distress operates by increasing the perception of risk and the fear of COVID-19, which intensify related worries and ruminations in times of pandemic. People with high perceived threat, aversion and discomfort in situations associated with increased risk of infection should be helped to decrease dysfunctional cognitive contents and processes in times of pandemic.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Purpose: The major goal of this study is the identification and assessment of innovations in organic food distribution and their importance in times of pandemic and electronic economy in Poland, especially actions undertaken by special chain stores of organic food. Approach/Methodology/Design: A study of a selected chain store was carried out in 2021 by the Mystery shopper method in Warsaw, Wroclaw, Swarzedz and Poznan. It was comprehensive and of nationwide character. The results were compared with customers’ opinions in which way a comprehensive assessment was achieved. Additionally, the study presents information about the development of chain stores in Poland including those which sell organic foods. Characteristics of organic food customers in the time of pandemic and electronic economy have been presented as well as the concept and classification of innovation and innovative solutions implemented in similar chain stores abroad. Findings: Implementation of technological innovation was assessed for a selected specialist chain store. Innovative, 24 hour, phone application based customer self-service with no personnel present (24/7) meets customers’ expectations and is well rated by most of them (well and very well by 81%). Customers’ comfort and communication were best rated, time efficiency slightly lower, whereas reliability was given the lowest, though better than good, score. Practical Implications: The study provides clients with the possibility of doing shopping with assistance of a consultant when needed, and it offers a chance for an individual, unattended purchase with the use of an application for those who avoid direct contact with other people in the time of pandemic and want to choose the product by themselves. Such a system is an option between the traditional form of stationary retailing and online shopping. Originality/Value: The proposed solutions are to contribute to the development of organic food market and marketing in the studied area.

Although universities have undergone changes since the dawn of their existence, the speed of change started to accelerate remarkably in the 1960s. Spectacular growth in the number of students and faculty was immediately followed by administrative reforms aimed at managing this growth and managing the demands of students for democratic reform and societal relevance. Since the 1980s, however, an entirely different wind has been blowing along the academic corridors. The fiscal crisis of the welfare states and the neoliberal course of the Reagan and Thatcher governments made the battle against budget deficits and against government spending into a political priority. Education, together with social security and health care, were targeted directly. As the eighties went on, the neoliberal agenda became more radical—smaller state and bigger market—attacking the public sector itself through efforts to systematically reduce public expenditure by privatizing public services and introducing market incentives. At the

The duration of exile in refugee communities has grown immensely over the last two decades. Recent humanitarian reports have called for actors to create more coordinated global support for the refugee crises. In these recent calls, the desire to break a cycle of dependency between the refugee community and international aid has been a clear priority. Hence, education has emerged as a strategic action to foster refugee self-reliance, particularly higher education (HE) and technical and vocational education and training (TVET). There are many opportunities to use HE and TVET to benefit the refugee community, including: developing solutions to improve living conditions, enabling new opportunities for learning pathways, allowing refugees to contribute to the economy in hosting countries, or preparing them to rebuild their lives once they return to their home countries. However, the economic, political, and cultural complexities of refugee communities often add layers of challenges to typical formal HE and TVET programs. In addition, the existing literature in refugee education still lacks a coherent analysis of these factors and conditions for adoption of HE and TVET programs, especially for refugees living in camps. To address these gaps, this dissertation presents three studies that investigate an undergraduate introductory engineering course for refugees called Localized Engineering in Displacement (LED). Specifically, I draw on effective learning and policy frameworks to understand how to situate engineering education across HE and TVET and advance LED in refugee camps. The first study presents a case study examining the iterative processes of creation and implementation of the LED course in the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan. As a general outcome of my study, I describe the novel approach to teaching engineering design for learners in the Azraq refugee camp and its applications to other contexts. The second study examines the LED course implemented in the Kakuma refugee camp. The Kakuma refugee camp is situated in Kenya and considered the largest refugee camp in the world, thus providing a different context of refugee camps. I discuss the contextual challenges to transfer, develop, and implement to a new context and present the course outcomes and experiences based on the course participants’ reflections. The third study extends findings from the first and second studies by using a comparative case study to critically examine the development process and challenges of engineering education in refugee camps. Central to my analysis is the connection between the challenges identified in both camps and existing actors involved with refugee education. My research uses two case studies to underscore the complexity of the LED course development in the Azraq and Kakuma camps. I seek to foster a debate about the challenges that influence the development of higher engineering education programs in refugee camps and how different actors can collaborate to advance high-quality engineering education initiatives in refugee contexts. Overall, this dissertation clarifies some of the biggest challenges to implement engineering education in refugee settings, how different actors can collaborate to mitigate these challenges, and how these findings expose the misalignment between the international rhetoric and reality on the ground in refugee camps.

Higher education has an important role in contributing to the creation of prosperity and alleviate poverty in society by enhancing the quality of life of the students Past studies indicate that prosperity can be attained through the sustainability in security and development, in the sense which resources are effectively and efficiently managed for the state and its society The creation of the state's prosperity includes the development of human capital through the platform of education However, the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID- 19) pandemic outbreak had disrupted higher education sector In Malaysia, the Movement Control Order (MCO) or 'Malaysia lockdown' was declared by the authority starting from March 18, 2020, to curb the spread of COVID-19 The COVID-19 outbreak and MCO restriction disrupted the higher education stakeholders to ‘normally’ continue with their academic activities The disruption of the academic activities has affected the students’ well-being and welfare, especially those from the bottom billion families The main aim of the study is to obtain a preliminary understanding of the students’ experiences on their well-being and welfare during the MCO in times of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak The study was conducted during the first phase of the MCO period from 18 to 31 Marchusing multiple Phone Calls interviews Thirty-three (33) respondents from Bottom40 families participated in the study The study managed to gather twenty (20) variables clustered in the ‘Prosperity Quadrant for Sustainability in Security and Development during the MCO in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic' based on experiences highlighted by the respondents from B40 families The preliminary findings obtained in the study could provide valuable insights for the decision-makersof HEIs in prioritizing their strategic short, middle and long-term planning in a time of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak © 2020 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications All rights reserved

This paper highlights curriculum and policy reforms and innovations in a Higher Education (HE) institution in response to undergraduate student perspectives about the phenomenon of the COVID-19 restrictions imposed by the New Zealand government (2020–2022). The advent of the coronavirus pandemic precipitated unexpected and unprecedented changes in HE learning and in the pedagogy required for undergraduate students. Consequently, HE institutions have had to be agile, resulting in ‘emergency’ adaptations to curriculum practice and policy implementation. This paper discusses triggers for change, reactions to restrictions, strategic measures, and the emergence of a ‘new normal’ from an undergraduate student perspective. Local and global concerns about student participation in undergraduate study (in Sport and Recreation), sport, and physical activity during restricted periods prompted the researchers to investigate the challenges these young people faced. Student voice was collected through semi-structured interviews and focus groups, collected post lockdown periods. Research findings, elicited from lecturers using a collaborative auto-ethnographical method, along with interpretative analysis (hermeneutic phenomenology) of students’ perspectives about the four pillars of lifestyle, active lives, learning, and livelihood provide insights about the impact of unexpected curriculum and policy change for HE students in New Zealand. This research provides real-time data to inform recommendations on policy and practice in HE institutions, to enhance student wellbeing in times of crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the current context, the priority objectives to recover education affected by the Covid-19 pandemic are evident and in that sense, the soft skills of teachers and their digital skills become important, because they influence teacher professional development. To determine the levels of soft skills, the validated instrument of the article by Rodríguez (2020) was used, the levels of digital competences were used by the instrument of Tourón et al. (2018) and to establish the levels of teacher professional development, the validated instrument of Porras (2020) was used, whose research purpose for this study was to establish the incidence of soft skills and digital competences in teacher professional development in times of pandemic by Covid-19. It was concluded that soft skills and digital competence significantly affect teacher professional development in times of the Covid-19 pandemic, since Nagelkerke = 0.669, establishing that soft skills and digital skills affect 66.9% in teacher professional development; and of the predictor variables, soft skills predict teacher professional development, due to Wald = 80,193; p = 0.000 <0.05.