Search results

This chapter is a retrospective commentary on the efficacy of teaching and learning in a higher education space that embraces the incredible diversity of delivery modes available in the post-Covid-19 era of “Smart Cities.” The current reality of widespread and leading-edge experimentation with online learning necessitates that existing brick-and-mortar institutions reimagine their places as providers of higher education in this new age of digital disruptions that will resonate with all stakeholders a future of endless possibilities. The authors, with four decades between them of practice and field research at leading universities and colleges in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, and UAE, advocate an approach to higher education that is personalized for learning effectiveness, industrial operations, and institutional evolution; that is, a higher education that is democratized. They warn that the wasted opportunities of meaningful digital transformation pre-Covid-19 have led to an urgency of transformation at the present time. While randomized control trials continue to be the “elephant in the room”; scholars, leaders, technocrats, and regulators must drive the quest for the growth and relevance of a diversified and learner-driven higher education in the years ahead. The platform of a “smart city” may just be the catalyst for such a radical innovation.

Supervisors play an important role in the educational life and progress of graduate students. Having a positive and supportive working relationship with one’s supervisor is important to student wellbeing and contributes to graduate students’ ability to thrive within higher education. In this chapter, the authors examine the impact of supervisors on graduate student wellbeing and thriving within the context of higher education. Students with highly autonomy-supportive supervisors tended to report higher thriving. Findings indicate that the quality of interactions, the type of support provided by, and the quality of student–supervisor relationships are important factors and considerations for graduate student thriving. This study advocates for the recognition of the critical role that supervisors play in the thriving and languishing of graduate students and calls for more structured and wide-reaching professional development programs that work to create an environment where autonomy-supportive and compassionate supervision are seen as the standard for graduate faculty.

In this introduction chapter, the authors first offer a brief overview of the theoretical underpinnings of the notion of wellbeing and flourishing from the positive organizational scholarship literature. The authors, then, provide an overview of the chapters in this handbook, guiding the readers through key aspects that each chapter contributes to the handbook’s collective perspective of efforts, initiatives, and programs that promote wellbeing in the higher education settings.

This chapter considers the modes and politics of refugee representation, and the function of art and literature as sites of resistance to, or the reinforcing of, dehumanising or idealised tropes of people seeking refugee protection. Specifically, the chapter addresses the connection between dehumanised representations of the imagined refugee and the violence and ‘logic’ of Australia’s offshore detention regime in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. In engaging with these issues, the chapter draws on Manus Prison Theory and its focus on who gets to represent refugee experience, and to generate knowledge about it and on what terms. It considers these questions through an examination of two contrasting art projects, which alternately raise and contest the idea of the ‘deserving refugee’. In exploring these questions, the chapter also engages with the temporalities of refugee representation and the role of crisis in generating ‘stock’ refugee representations. It ultimately argues that the politics of refugee representation are central to questions of refugee and migrant justice, and further, that we cannot separate contemporary forms and representations of violence against refugees from colonial and neocolonial acts of sovereignty and expulsion.

There has been limited work to solicit feedback and recommendations from international students concerning how their most significant problems might have been solved in a manner that adequately addressed the challenges they have faced. Drawing from research on select African international graduate students’ educational backgrounds, adjustment needs and challenges, and the host institution’s support programs and efforts, the author outlines ways to foster international students’ wellbeing and success using appropriate institutional support programs and strategies. This chapter offers recommendations regarding the institutional support programs and strategies to promote the wellbeing and success of international students.

While many factors contribute to peace, economic and governmental factors are considered essential litmus tests for determining peace levels. This study aims to examine the impacts of World Governance Index (WGI) variables on the Global Peace Index (GPI) which ranges from 0 (very high) to 5 (very low).

The GPI serves as a key indicator of peace levels. Valid data from two databases covering 161 countries from 2008 to 2022 were collected and analyzed by using a logarithmic panel data regression model. This approach ensures robust results, particularly when endogenous and exogenous variables have different measurement units.

According to the Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) estimators, five WGI components exhibit inverse relationships with the GPI (increasing WGI components leads to a decline in GPI, indicating an enhancement in peace quality). The most significant factor influencing peace is “Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism”, while the effects of “Voice and Accountability” and “Control of Corruption” are also noted.

Extant studies have largely overlooked the interaction between governance and peace, often relying on regional data (with neighboring countries) or case studies on local solutions. This paper, based on data from 161 countries, evaluates governance quality and its dimensions in relation to peace conditions on a global scale, providing more generalizable results for policymakers and scholars.

In recent years, investing with robo-advisors has gained momentum and is seen as a simplifying approach for individual investors to participate in financial markets. This chapter contributes to a better understanding of the concept of a robo-advisory and its implications for private investors by discussing its past, present, and future. It explores key issues, like cost-efficiency, historical performance, and automation levels, based on research and industry insights. Moreover, this chapter examines a robo-advisor's benefits, limitations, and challenges, like behavioral biases, regulation, and risk profiling. Finally, the importance of the ongoing megatrends of AI and green investing is examined concerning a robo-advisory.

Research indicates that children’s early experience of fire can influence what and how they learn about fire. In turn, early fire-learning can influence how people come to use it later in life, including whether they engage in maladaptive use, i.e. firesetting. Little is known about the underlying mechanisms of fire-learning, which was the basis for this study. The research question was: “how do adults educate children about fire in the UK/ Ireland”? The purpose of this study was to explore the child fire education process from an adult perspective.

Semi-structured interviews was conducted with 21 fire-educators who had regular contact with children. Data was analysed using abbreviated grounded theory. Steps were taken to ensure reliability and validity, including a Cohen’s Kappa calculation, indicating an agreement level of 0.9 between two raters.

Four core themes were identified: the fire narrative, enabling growth, risk management, and communication, from which the fire-learning process model (F-LPM) was formed.

The main limitation is the nature of the sample, in that it was diverse and self-selecting.

The findings are discussed, including how they offer support for social learning theory (SLT) perspectives on fire-learning.

The social construction of fire (i.e. the way fire is viewed by society as a whole in the UK/ Ireland) is discussed in depth, and cultural variability is highlighted. Suggestions are made for how the societal view of fire and, consequently, how adults convey this to young people, could be better balanced.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study in the UK/ Ireland to consider how adults educate young people about fire from a concurrent perspective. This is important given that research indicates early experiences of fire can impact how people later go on to use it (including maladaptive use in the form of firesetting).