VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Internationalization at home and undergraduate students’ international competence: A case study in China
Keywords: Multicultural environment
Mixed methods research
International competence
Case study
Chinese universities
Interviews
Questionnaires
HE
Internationalization at home
HE2021

As the participation of higher education and international mobility has been increasing during the recent 20 years, it is important for China, a developing country that has the largest population and the world’s second-largest economy, to reform the higher education system to train more talents. International Competence (IC) is the ability of talents to learn, work with people effectively in an international and multicultural environment, which has been developing as a hot field for the higher education system, especially in student training. Internationalization at Home (IaH) is a reformation that scholars have argued as having many advantages, and there have been several practices and research about the topic. However, there is a lack of research aiming to explore the experiences of IaH in a Chinese higher education context, and investigate the impacts of internationalized training on students’ IC.
This study explores the IaH and undergraduate students’ IC training in two schools at a Chinese university. This exploratory study collected and examined the experiences and views based on both qualitative and quantitative methods. In total, 345 questionnaires were collected and five interviews were held, supplemented by secondary data analysis of two schools at a case university in China. While two schools are in the same discipline, one school implemented internationalization at home strategies (the “internationalized school”) and the other follows the traditional education pathway (the “traditional school”).
Findings of the research revealed that students in the internationalized school demonstrate a generally higher level of IC than those in the traditional school. Besides, English is considered as an important part of IC and international courses, activities, internationalized teachers influence IC training.
Building on findings and discussions, this research contributes to the conceptual discussions on students’ IC, and has practical implications regarding the influence of COVID on IaH and the training of students’ IC.
Perceptions of ‘value’ in foundation year programmes
Keywords: HE
Integrated foundation year
Capability approach
HE2021
Widening participation
Higher education
Mixed methods research
Questionnaires
Semi-structured interviews
Value
Foundation year

Universities have developed Foundation Year programmes to widen participation and provide an alternative access route into higher education. Foundation Year programmes are designed to target students who have not met the A-level conditions needed to gain university admission and qualification. The provision of Foundation Year programmes has, however, been criticized by policy makers who argue that they are cash-cows for universities and exploitative of students. Drawing on data from Foundation Year programmes students and practitioners in England, this study aims to do two things: first, to investigate and assess the value of Foundation Year programmes from the perspective of students and of practitioners who teach on them; and second, to assess the role of Foundation Year provision and its place in higher education. I use the Capability Approach to evaluate Foundation Years, in particular how the programmes impact students’ ability to take advantage of opportunities. The findings reveal that students have a wide-ranging understanding of the value of Foundation Year programmes. Students express strong support for the continuation of Foundation Year programmes and reject the suggestion that they are exploitative and a poor investment. The data show that Foundation Year teaching methodology is suited to students’ individual circumstances and life contexts: the education is pluralistic and the programmes encourage students to think critically about their subject matter in relation to the wider world. The capabilitarian evaluation also reveals that the provision is highly valued by students and universities alike and serves as a valuable tools for Widening Participation.
Which family capitals aid rural and urban first-generation college students in China to realise intergenerational mobility in higher education?
Keywords: First-generation college students
Grounded theory methods
Mixed methods research
HE2021
Semi-structured interviews
Questionnaires
HE
Family capitals

With the growth of the gross enrolment rate in higher education in China, the number of college students whose parents have no higher education experience is also increasing. This group of students is known as the first generation of college students. This phenomenon challenges cultural reproduction theories’ view that it is difficult for children from disadvantaged family who lack the cultural capital to realise an intergenerational breakthrough in higher education. Many studies found that family capitals are the core factors to aid first-generation college students to realise such an intergenerational breakthrough. However, to date, numerous studies considered Chinese first-generation college students as rural students and ignored their first-generation urban counterparts. Furthermore, it is essential to establish the role of family capitals based on Chinese students’ experience. Therefore, this research aims to establish the family capitals aiding rural and urban first-generation college students to realise intergenerational breakthrough in higher education, and the differences as well as similarities in rural and urban family capitals.
Using grounded theory, seven family capitals were identified by coding the content of 30 interviews across three groups: rural students, urban students, and rural students whose parents worked in the urban areas. Family capitals consist of normative capital, family guiding force capital, family collaborative capital, emotional capital, Guanxi capital, economic capital, and information capital. In terms of the similarities between the groups, in all three cases these five capitals are present: normative capital, family guiding force capital, emotional capital, Guanxi capital, and economic capital. A difference is that family collaborative capital only exists in the urban group. There is information capital in two groups but not in the case of rural students. There are also differences in the categories and subcategories within the five capitals shared by the three groups. The study finds that the degree of parental involvement in children's learning increased with the average number of years of parental education. This research also provides four recommendations for cultivating first-generation college students: parents should steer children to study in elementary school and trust them adequately in high school; parents should provide role models; school should focus on rural students’ mental health; the establishment of an official, unified college selection information platform would assist students significantly.
Peer sex education in China’s higher education: A peer educator’s perspective
Keywords: CIE2021
CIE
Higher education
China
Peer sex education
Interviews

Peer sex education (PSE), as an effective approach to deliver knowledge and skills to young people, has been adopted in Chinese higher education institutions to complement the insufficient school-based sex education in China. Most existing studies in the field focus on university-led PSE in China’s higher education, while the contribution of student-led PSE has received little attention. To bridge the gap in literature, this qualitative study set out to examine PSE in China’s higher education, especially student-led peer sex education, through the lens of peer educators. Using semi-structured interviews with 14 peer educators from five Chinese higher education institutions, this study investigated peer educators’ ways of engagement in PSE, peer educators’ motivations, and the benefits and challenges of PSE in China’s higher education as perceived by peer educators.
The findings show that peer educators engage in PSE in China’s higher education by covering a comprehensive list of topics, including those not addressed in university-led PSE. By adopting participatory and learner-centred pedagogy, peer educators empower students through both formal and informal activities. Organised in the form of student associations run independently by students, student-led PSE has a strong community spirit and more freedom than university-led PSE. Peer educators are responsible for accessing resources, self-training, and evaluation by themselves. Results show that intrinsic motivations stemmed from personal experience and self-identity constitute the main driving force for peer educators to participate in PSE. Specifically, peer educators are motivated by their interest in sex education and the aspiration to improve sex education in China and promote equal rights for women and LGBTQ+. In terms of the benefits of PSE, evidence shows that both students and peer educators benefit from increased knowledge and skills and the community support brought by PSE, while peer educators also enhance their transferrable skills and have a sense of achievement. By accommodating LGBTQ+ students and raising the public’s awareness of equal rights, PSE also contributes to the overall sociocultural environment. Meanwhile, peer educators encounter challenges on the individual, organisational, institutional, and cultural levels. As noted by the participants, the limited capacities of peer educators and organisational issues can negatively influence the quality and sustainability of PSE, while strict control by the institution and cultural barriers largely restrict the scale and impact of PSE. The findings of this study imply that joint efforts by stakeholders in different sectors and the change in social attitudes towards sex education and relevant topics are required to ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of PSE.
What does success mean to you? Perceptions from across the English education system
Keywords: Participatory methods
Perceptions of success
Qualitative research
CIE
Grounded theory
Englans
Assessment
Interviews
Photo-voice
CIE2021

What it means to be successful, both in life and in education, is an essentially contested concept, characterised by diverse, varied and often conflicting definitions. Trying to prescribe a single idea of educational success is at best naïve and at worst damaging, both to individuals and to systems. In particular, overly prescriptive definitions of success, including those prescribed by systems of assessment and accountability, engenders a form of education which is not easily distinguished indoctrination.
This study explores the multidimensional phenomenon of educational success and its intersections with educational-assessment and identity-construction by examining how success is defined and determined. It investigates the diversity of individuals’ perceptions and examines the consequences of tensions and contradictions in these perceptions. The research was exploratory and participatory, consisting of a photo-voice project and intensive interviews with 30 participants from across the English education sector: 13, pupils, 7 teachers and 6 policy-makers. Data was analysed inductively, drawing on constructivist grounded theory, to construct two main themes.
The first theme examines the roles of systems of assessment and accountability as mediators of extrinsic and intrinsic definitions of success. It investigates how definitions of success vary at different levels of the education system and illustrates the controlling influence of externally defined definitions of success. The second theme explores the time-dependent nature of educational success as pupils co-construct their identities and negotiate their own definitions of success. This theme reveals the exploratory nature of becoming independent and emphasises the need for a degree of self-direction in education.
The thesis concludes by suggesting the importance of allowing an element of uncertainty in education as a fundamental aspect that enables education to be emancipatory rather than indoctrination.
The dynamic relationship to learner autonomy and control of high school teachers in Iran
Keywords: CIE2021
Teachers' perception
Interviews
Iran
Learner autonomy and control
Qualitative research
High school students
CIE

Different educational systems take different approaches to student learning. Some put the learner at the centre of education and define educational objectives based on their needs, while others condition students through controlling approaches to follow predetermined instructions and gain predetermined results.
These approaches are not absolute, and teachers who interact directly with students perceive and practice within a range of controlling and autonomy-supportive values. As qualitative studies show, teachers in different contexts, influenced by various institutional and behavioural factors, define and practice learner autonomy and control differently.
There is a need to develop a deeper understanding of how teachers balance learner autonomy and control within an educational system. In this study, I look at the ways teachers balance student autonomy and control by investigating aspects of their identities. I search for teachers’ personal opinions, their teaching strategies, and the external factors that impact their decisions, in order to identify how they balance learner autonomy and control.
For this purpose, I undertake semi-structured interviews with 24 female Iranian teachers, to gather in-depth information from their perspectives. Using a qualitative methodology allows me to successfully model the ways in which teachers balance student autonomy and control. I find six ways in which teachers strike this balance, by positioning their personal views against what others expect them in Iran's educational system. This study leads to a methodological contribution to the ways teachers interact with the power imposed from institutional factors in the broader macro system and the power they impose on students to balance autonomy and control.
Elucidating the cis-regulatory logic of Runx1 during developmental haematopoiesis
Keywords: cohesin
chromatin conformation capture
loop extrusion
CRISPR/Cas9
hematopoiesis
Runx1
tiled-C
CTCF

The study of dynamic gene expression during development utilises model differentiation systems. The haematopoietic system is one of the archetypal differentiation systems and many model gene loci used to shed light on basic mechanisms of transcriptional regulation are important haematopoietic genes. In this project I set out to uncover transcriptional regulatory mechanisms of the gene Runx1. Runx1 is a transcription factor important for the development and function of the haematopoietic system. In particular, Runx1 is required for haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) generation during embryonic development. HSCs are born during an endothelial-to-haematopoietic transition (EHT). Runx1 is expressed during, and is absolutely required for, EHT and the birth of HSCs. Previous work in the lab established that Runx1 exhibits complex transcriptional regulation during EHT; Runx1 has two alternative promoters and several haematopoietic enhancers have been identified.
Using cutting-edge chromatin assays I interrogated cis-interactions within the transcriptional regulatory domain of Runx1 when it was expressed at low and high levels. Capture-C showed that interactions between Runx1 promoters and the haematopoietic enhancers previously identified were more frequent in haematopoietic cells compared to undifferentiated mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). Increased Runx1 transcription was associated with an apparent increase in the hallmarks of loop extrusion, suggesting that the two might be causally related.
Next, I set out to investigate whether functional redundancy exists between the haematopoietic Runx1 enhancers. Distinct upstream regulators of the enhancers that were identified suggested that they might not have entirely overlapping functions. While using CRISPR/Cas9 in mESCs to delete endogenous Runx1 enhancers and test their functional requirements, I uncovered interesting caveats about common genome engineering practices. Functional characterisation of enhancer-deleted mESCs differentiated in vitro to haematopoietic cells indicated that partial enhancer redundancy may exist.
Finally, I investigated a potential mechanism of Runx1 alternative promoter choice involving CTCF/cohesin. I identified tissue-specific and ubiquitous CTCF binding sites in the Runx1 domain that were capable of acting as insulators in vitro. Cell type-specific binding of CTCF upstream of each of the Runx1 promoters was correlated to DNA demethylation and promoter activity. CTCF binding was seen upstream of a signifcant proportion of active promoters genome-wide, suggesting that modulating CTCF binding close to promoters, possibly via DNA methylation, may be a widespread transcriptional regulatory mechanism.
South African maths teachers’ perceptions about estimation, practice, and praxis
Keywords: Mathematics
High school
Estimation
CIE
South Africa
Mixed methods research
CIE2021
Focus Group
Semi-structured interview

This research project explores how the often-under-taught mathematical skill of estimation can be a useful tool in helping young South Africans grow into ‘future leaders’. The paper argues that in a socio-economic landscape which is defined by inequality and under-education, the skill of estimation, when taught well, has the potential to greatly benefit the lives of young and old. Serving as foundational research for further intervention studies, this research project explores nine maths teachers’ perceptions about the skill of estimation and their adapted teaching practice and praxis according to these perceptions. Inductive analysis of data from interviews, a WhatsApp group, and a focus group reveal that estimation is an undeniably important mathematical skill. Taught in maths classrooms, estimation is perceived to be a transferable life skill which can assist with problem solving and contextualisation of information. Findings from this research project further reveal that despite teachers’ uncertainty about estimation, they find it important to adapt their teaching practices to better integrate the skill into their classrooms. Teachers’ adaptive praxis is aligned with critical maths education literature and provides preliminary data for widespread teaching interventions in South Africa. These conclusions contribute to global dialogues about the importance of estimation and provide reasons to believe that South African teachers are willing to change their teaching praxis to better serve the ‘future leaders’ they teach. This research project aims to lay the foundation for further research and resultant interventions in South African maths classrooms.
Exchanging ginger for chilli?: The social ecology of a world bank-funded higher education project in Sri Lanka
Keywords: Social ecology
Funding
CIE
CIE2021
Interviews
Qualitative research
Higher education
World Bank
Constructivist grounded theory
Sri Lanka

Internationally funded education projects in the majority world are a rich field of study, which intersects multiple disciplines from education to economics to postcolonial studies. As a former colony, currently a low-middle income country, Sri Lanka has been at the receiving end of these funds – grants and loans – for years. While there is much criticism against such international funders imposing a new imperialism on the majority world, there is also literature that represents the international funders as helpful actors. In this dichotomy what is less present are the voices of those from the majority world countries and their narratives. This study explores the social ecology of academics working on a World Bank-funded project in the higher education field in Sri Lanka. Adopting a Constructivist Grounded Theory approach, it uses interviews to uncover theories emerging from the data. The emerging theories are two: one explores the concept of trust and notes that the lack of trust in one’s government, State, and State systems catalyse the academics to be open to help from international organisations like the World Bank; the second is based on the concept of obligation and identifies that associative political obligation to the education system drives the individuals, thus prioritising short-term practicalities over long-term ideologies. These two theories help both explain the social ecology of academics, as well as complicate the existing understanding of the internationally funded projects in the majority world. In situating these two emergent theories in the larger literature, this study suggests that the World Bank should be represented more dynamically; to truly capture the nature of the World Bank, this study suggests it be approached as an epistemic actor and/or a theorist, who permeates multiple facets of social ecology.
Can integration be achieved through schools?: School approaches to managing student diversity in the United States and Germany
Keywords: Assimilation
United States
Immigration
CIE2021
Germany
CIE
Integration
Language policy
Interviews
Qualitative research
Policy analysis

Given that a large proportion of immigrants today are school age, the public and governments alike assume that schools will be sites where integration will happen. However, how this integration will occur and whether education policies and school-level initiatives facilitate social cohesion is not yet clear. Focusing on California and Berlin as examples of politically left-leaning states that receive immigrants in substantial numbers, this international and comparative study seeks to determine whether schools are a site where integration of immigrants is taking place. Through 16 qualitative interviews with teachers in Berlin and California, this study examines school-level policies and initiatives aimed at facilitating integration using an original conceptual framework. The data provides insights into how teachers in Berlin and California reflect on school-level policies and initiatives in thinking about the potential of the school as a site for integration. This study reaches three primary conclusions: (1) school-level policies and initiatives consider diversity a positive, but do not extend so far as to facilitating a new culture that productively operationalizes the diversity of immigrant and non-immigrant students; (2) California and Berlin do not differ substantially in their goals for integration, as characterized by the conceptual framework; and (3) the integration process in schools is highly dependent on micro-interactions among teachers, school culture, and students, which are often not in alignment with state-level integration efforts.