{"title":"College experiences and outcomes of undergraduate major switchers in China","authors":"Hongjiang Zhai , Qiaoling Huang , Ping Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103340","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103340","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In China, most universities restrict students from freely switching majors, implementing a selective major-switching policy that permits only high-achieving students to switch their majors. This policy provides a unique opportunity to examine the potential impact of switching majors on high-achieving undergraduate students. Utilizing data from the China College Student Survey of University A, the study compared the differences in college experiences and outcomes between major switchers and general students to assess the impact of switching majors on high-achieving students' learning. The results indicate that major switchers exhibited enhanced academic emotions and engagement both inside and outside the classroom, and did not face significant challenges regarding interaction with students and teachers. Although some students experienced a decline in grades after switching majors, their overall academic performance remained at the forefront. In conclusion, the impact of switching majors on high-achieving students is more beneficial than detrimental, as it enhances students' learning emotions and engagement without bringing other negative consequences. Therefore, it is recommended that universities further increase the proportion and opportunities for major switching, allowing more students to switch to their preferred majors, while providing comprehensive and effective support for the academic and social adjustment of students who switch majors.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48004,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Development","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103340"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144471832","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reversing brain drain to brain gain: Examining the drive of educated Sudanese migrants to return and contribute to their home country","authors":"Chiemi Kurokawa , Tatsuya Kusakabe","doi":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103342","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103342","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study aims to provide a fresh perspective on educated migrants’ drive to return and contribute to their home country, introducing a holistic approach that challenges the traditionally separated concepts of brain drain and brain gain. Our conceptual framework integrates return and contribution motivations, avoiding oversimplifications that arise from analyzing these motivational factors separately. Through a qualitative analysis of 36 migrants and refugees from Sudan, a low-income African country, we identified five motivations for educated migrants to return and contribute to their home country: a social framework of mutual help (<em>takaful</em>), role-driven contributions, a sense of belonging, a drive for betterment, and being inspired by others. While previous studies have emphasized macro-level factors such as economic development and incentive programs to promote brain gain, the motives identified in this study are rooted in individual agency and experiential learning shaped by migrants’ connections to their home country. Moving beyond the dependency-based framework of brain drain and brain gain, our findings highlight that community-driven empowerment and locally relevant learning serve as key motivators for fostering brain gain.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48004,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Development","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103342"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144471833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bora Ly , Romny Ly , Bunhorn Doeur , Sokhom Ma , Nat Son
{"title":"Unlocking the power of leadership and reputation in Cambodian higher education: A comparative of public and private organizations","authors":"Bora Ly , Romny Ly , Bunhorn Doeur , Sokhom Ma , Nat Son","doi":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103345","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103345","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study critically examines the relationships among responsible leadership (RL), institutional reputation (IR), and faculty satisfaction (FS) in Cambodian public and private universities. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from 379 faculty members across various universities in Cambodia, and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) and Multi-Group Analysis (MGA) were employed to analyze the relationships. The results indicate that responsible leadership directly affects faculty satisfaction at public universities. Nonetheless, this effect is insignificant in private institutions, where institutional reputation plays a critical mediating role. However, institutional reputation significantly influences faculty satisfaction in public and private institutions, highlighting its importance across the higher education spectrum. This study adds critical value by providing context-specific insights into the Cambodian education sector, challenging the assumption that leadership universally influences satisfaction across institutional types. The findings emphasize the mediating role of reputation, particularly in private universities, where the impact of leadership is more indirect. These insights contribute to theory and practice by suggesting that leadership strategies should be tailored to different institutional contexts to enhance faculty satisfaction effectively.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48004,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Development","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103345"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144365757","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Online tutoring reduces by half the learning loss due to school closures: Evidence from a randomized experiment in Kenya","authors":"Matthieu Chemin , Jeremy Schneider","doi":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103332","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103332","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We evaluate the effects of an online tutoring program that started in 2016 and continued during the pandemic despite the schools being closed for 9 months in Kenya. Using videoconferences, volunteer students from a Canadian university tutored grade 6 students (12 years old) in a rural school in Kenya, on the topics of Maths and English. We implement a randomized experiment to test the effects. We find no effect when the schools are open, but a large effect when the schools are closed (0.4 SD increase in exam scores in the treatment group versus control group). Since we have data from before the pandemic, we are able to quantify the learning loss due to COVID-19: 0.8 SD. We conclude that online tutoring compensates half of the learning loss.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48004,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Development","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103332"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144298594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Monique Kwachou , Ian Russell , Francisca Adom-Opare
{"title":"Where one ends, the other begins: An African-feminist interrogation of the discourses and realities of Social Change and Reproduction through education","authors":"Monique Kwachou , Ian Russell , Francisca Adom-Opare","doi":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103337","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103337","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite extensive scholarship demonstrating that education alone cannot achieve systemic change without broader social and economic reforms, international development agencies and policymakers continue to present it as a panacea for poverty reduction, gender equality, and economic mobility. This paper strengthens critiques of education's positioning as a primary driver of social transformation in development discourse by revealing how such framings neglect both the structural conditions that constrain education's impact and the complex relationships between education, power, and inequality. Through empirical research from Cameroon and Ghana, the authors demonstrate how education not only fails to fulfil its promised empowerment of women and people with disabilities but can actually reinforce their marginalisation. The paper distinguishes itself from conventional critiques that focus primarily on education quality issues by applying African-feminist perspectives to challenge the fundamental neoliberal assumptions that emphasise individual empowerment while ignoring systemic forces of social reproduction. By integrating insights from social reproduction theory and African-feminist thought, the authors establish that even high-quality education cannot guarantee social change given the deep-rooted influences of colonial histories and neocolonial presents. This work advances critical debates on education and development by advocating for decolonial frameworks that provide more nuanced, contextually grounded, and decolonial approaches to understanding education's role in social transformation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48004,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Development","volume":"117 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144291282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
David Baidoo-Anu , Christopher DeLuca , Amanda Cooper , Saad Chahine
{"title":"Understanding the diverse ways teachers approach classroom assessment in an examination-oriented educational system","authors":"David Baidoo-Anu , Christopher DeLuca , Amanda Cooper , Saad Chahine","doi":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103336","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103336","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study is part of a larger dissertation that examined the assessment culture within Ghana’s education system. Specifically, this paper explores the diverse ways teachers approach assessment in an examination-oriented educational system. Using a survey design, 427 K-12 teachers in Ghana participated in the study. The teachers responded to the abridged version of the Approaches to Classroom Assessment Inventory (ACAI; version 3.0). The results of the study showed that, despite having the same educational system and policies, Ghanaian K-12 teachers have varying ways of approaching classroom assessment. Through latent profile analysis, three distinct groups of assessors were identified among teacher participants: <em>improvement-accountability oriented assessors</em>, <em>teacher-centred assessors</em>, and <em>accountability oriented assessors</em>. The study found that teachers’ demographics (e.g., years of teaching experience, age, assessment education, school division, class level, and school location) significantly impacted their approaches to assessment. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48004,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Development","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103336"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144280950","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Radicalisation through education in Afghanistan: A critical inquiry and implications","authors":"Arif Sahar","doi":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103320","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103320","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article scrutinises radicalisation through education (i.e., the system of formal schooling of all children), emphasising how education is/was being utilised to radicalise young people in Afghanistan. It reports the views, perceptions, experiences, and insights on how violence has left education prone to interferences by a range of Islamist-extremist armed and socio-cultural groups in Afghanistan. These groups include the Taliban, Hizb-ul-Tahrir, Jamiat-e-Eslah, and Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) militias. The article investigates how these groups influenced many aspects of community life, including education amid a state fragility in the 2001 – 2021 years. It analyses the tensions, negotiations, and compromises associated with how state, non-state, and anti-state actors competed for control over education, including both formal institutions, as well as social and cultural discourses about learning. The article argues that the infiltration of educational spaces by these groups was strategic and constituted a systematic indoctrination of education processes with their political and religious ideologies with a view to shaping new generations of the Afghanistan citizens.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48004,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Development","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103320"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144271051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Leticia Sam , Emmanuel Dorsah , Samuel Yaw Ampofo , Richard Asumadu
{"title":"Preservice teachers’ personal values and their teaching effectiveness in Ghana","authors":"Leticia Sam , Emmanuel Dorsah , Samuel Yaw Ampofo , Richard Asumadu","doi":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103333","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103333","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The study examines the relationship between preservice teachers’ personal values and their teaching effectiveness in Ghanaian Universities. The study employed a correlational cross-sectional survey design with a quantitative approach, involving 387 final-year preservice teachers. The study used a questionnaire to collect data from respondents. Means, standard deviations and Pearson product-moment correlation were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that preservice teachers demonstrate a high level of teacher-related behaviour, relational expertise and subject matter expertise that make their teaching effective. Again, the results showed that preservice teachers possess universalism, security, stimulation, and confirmatory values, and these values help them achieve better results in the classroom. Finally, it was revealed that preservice teachers’ personal values have a positive and significant relationship with their teaching effectiveness (r = .62, p < .01). It is recommended that educators should take-in steps to foster and cultivate all facets of positive values among preservice teachers during their preparatory programs to achieve effective teaching in the classroom.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48004,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Development","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103333"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144263116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The impact of China's “Double Reduction” policy on primary school students' subjective well-being and academic achievement","authors":"Jinyan Zhou , Aiai Fan","doi":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103321","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103321","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>China's \"Double Reduction\" policy, launched in 2021, seeks to reduce academic pressure on students in compulsory schooling. Using a two-wave logitudinal survey data (Sep 2021 to Jun 2023) from 1402 fourth- to fifth-grade students in a Beijing district and applying a first-difference approach with Lasso control for causal estimation, this study examines how three key policy initiatives —reducing homework, regulating private training institutions, and requiring schools to provide after-school services—impact students' subjective well-being and academic achievement. Our estimations find that reducing homework time and providing school-based after-school services improve students’ subjective well-being without compromising their academic performance. In contrast, while regulating private tutoring institutions increases subjective well-being, it decreases academic achievement among low-SES students. This research highlights the complex, and potentially inequitable consequences arising from the \"Double Reduction\" policy, emphasizing the critical trade-off for future policy adjustments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48004,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Development","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103321"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144263662","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Invited essay: An urgent lesson plan to fix international education aid","authors":"Nicholas Burnett , Robert Jenkins","doi":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103331","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijedudev.2025.103331","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>International aid for education needed reform prior to the recent donor cuts. Reform is even more urgent now, as progress in education continues to be off track and the level of resources remains severely constrained. This essay proposes a different approach to systems change by recommending that support to countries' educational development be channeled through regional and/or peer pooled funds.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48004,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Development","volume":"117 ","pages":"Article 103331"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144241335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}