International Journal of Educational Research最新文献

{"title":"Analyzing the impact of input factors on early childhood education quality using explainable machine learning","authors":"Xun Zhang ,&nbsp;Yan Yan ,&nbsp;Yuanfang Guo ,&nbsp;Kejian Li","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102966","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102966","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>China has recently increased investment in early childhood education (ECE) to improve its quality. However, whether these inputs effectively enhance ECE quality remains unclear. This study employs explainable machine learning to explore the relationship between eight input factors and ECE quality, using data from 177 preschools selected via stratified random sampling across regions of varying economic development. Among several models, Random Forest showed the best predictive performance. SHAP analysis was used to interpret model outputs and determine feature importance. Results indicate that facility costs and fixed asset investment are the most influential factors. Notably, fixed asset investment has the strongest effect on both high- and low-quality preschools, while facility costs play a more significant role in moderate-quality ECE. These findings contribute to international discussions on effective resource allocation and provide actionable insights for ECE policy-making in both developing and developed contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 102966"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189537","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":"Becoming-with-others: Young people's aspirations for social change in the context of community","authors":"Anneleis Humphries ,&nbsp;M. Toscano ,&nbsp;S. Arndt","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102927","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102927","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Young people today are in a constant state of becoming, yet in an individualised world, their complex interactions with peers are often overlooked. This paper draws on the concepts of hope, being-in-progress, and Othering to illuminate the relational and collective aspects of young people’s agency and actions, challenging the individualised focus of previous research into youth aspirations.</div><div>This paper examines the aspirations and sense of agency for societal change of 80 students aged 12 to 15 across three Australian schools (rural, semi-rural, and urban). Examining these schools as a microcosm of society, this research examines the reciprocal relationship between young people and their school environments, highlighting its effect on young people’s engagement with social change.</div><div>Workshops combining individual reflection and collective dialogue enabled participants to explore how they might collaboratively enact societal change, offering insights into their sense of agency and strategies for navigating challenges. Findings reveal that young people's aspirations for societal change are inseparable from their conceptualisations of society, their relationships with others, and their evolving sense of self. This dynamic interplay between identity formation and collective agency drives societal change and is explored using a unique theoretical dialogue between hope, being-in-progress, and Othering.</div><div>This paper argues cultivating participatory cultures within the school community can support both collective agency and individual identity formation, offering fresh insights for educators and policymakers to nurture young people's agency and support youth-led initiatives in their local and global communities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 102927"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145883961","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":"Collaboration in education research from Africa","authors":"François Van Schalkwyk ,&nbsp;Elvira González-Salmón ,&nbsp;Nicolas Robinson-Garcia","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102992","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102992","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper investigates the dynamics of collaboration by education researchers from Africa to understand better how they navigate competing expectations and prevailing asymmetries in the production of new scientific knowledge. Using OpenAlex data, the study analyzes collaboration types and the author positions of African researchers in the field of education. The results show that single authorship is most common, followed by institutional and international collaboration, with national collaboration being the least frequent. All collaboration types have increased over time. The data show that education researchers from Africa do not frequently occupy the most valued positions when they publish collaboratively (they are increasingly occupying middle author positions) and that collaboration with researchers from peripheral countries in the global science system has become more common than collaboration with core country researchers. The study concludes that, based on the data, African education researchers are likely to making more marginal contributions to education research when collaborating with international peers.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"138 ","pages":"Article 102992"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147544974","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":"Academic Stress Among Built Environment Students: An Examination of Key Stressors and Coping Mechanisms","authors":"Hayford Pittri ,&nbsp;David Wireko Atibila ,&nbsp;Godawatte Arachchige Gimhan Rathnagee Godawatte ,&nbsp;Mavis Acquaah Agyekum ,&nbsp;Deborah Gyamfua Agyemang ,&nbsp;Seth Kyong-ire ,&nbsp;Kofi Agyekum","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.103009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.103009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Academic stress remains a significant challenge for students in practice-oriented disciplines, where intensive academic demands intersect with applied learning requirements. This study investigates the key stressors and coping mechanisms among built environment students in Ghana, with the aim of identifying the most critical factors shaping their stress experiences and adaptive responses. A quantitative survey of 314 students was analysed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, and fuzzy synthetic evaluation. The findings reveal that academic workload and institutional pressures constitute the most significant sources of stress, followed by performance-related anxiety and financial constraints. At the individual level, coursework overload and fear of failure emerge as the dominant stressors, underscoring the high-stakes nature of professional education. In response, students predominantly adopt proactive coping strategies, particularly planning, time management, and task structuring, alongside attention to physical wellbeing. Notably, religious practice aligns with proactive coping, highlighting the influence of cultural context on coping behaviour. The study further demonstrates that stress experiences are structured across distinct but interrelated dimensions, with varying levels of criticality. These findings provide important implications for universities and policymakers seeking to design targeted, context-sensitive interventions that enhance student wellbeing and academic performance. While grounded in a single institutional context, the study offers transferable insights for similar practice-oriented educational environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"138 ","pages":"Article 103009"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147850159","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":"Adaptation and validation of a questionnaire on teacher-student interaction in Ethiopian primary schools","authors":"Canmei Xu ,&nbsp;Daniale Tekelia Ekubagewargies ,&nbsp;Karla Van Leeuwen,&nbsp;Dieter Baeyens","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102923","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102923","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Accurate assessment of teacher-student interaction (TSI) requires instruments that are culturally appropriate, yet no validated tool has been available for Ethiopian primary education. This study therefore aimed to culturally adapt and validate the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) for Grades 4–6 students in Ethiopia. Using data from 393 students, the adaptation procedure involved translation and back-translation, cognitive and expert review, item revision, and pilot testing. A series of validation analyses, including (multi-group) confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), were conducted. The results supported a four-factor structure that was partly consistent with the original theoretical framework; cultural adaptations resulted in the inclusion of culturally sensitive items, the removal of some items, and corresponding changes to factor names. The confirmed factors were: Leadership and Helpfulness/Friendliness, Understanding, Short-Tempered and Impatient Teaching, and Dissatisfied and Uncertain. Multi-group CFA was conducted to examine measurement invariance across groups. After partial measurement invariance was established, latent mean comparisons revealed distinct and contextually meaningful patterns: Female students reported more positive interactions than male students, while public school students reported more negative interactions than their private school peers. This study provides a culturally sensitive and psychometrically sound tool for assessing TSI in Ethiopian primary school settings, offering a foundation for future research and educational assessment. The study underscores that the original Western conceptual framework of the QTI may not generalize across cultures, emphasizing the importance of context-specific validation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 102923"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146090394","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":"Negotiating informal partnerships between universities and international schools for social and global justice; what role do PGCEi tutors have on this journey?","authors":"Jalpa Ruparelia,&nbsp;Juliet Thondhlana","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102959","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102959","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>How can university-school partnerships be navigated through students on an M level programme globally? In this paper, we discuss the purposes of University-School partnerships and the challenges of managing these when there is no formal arrangement to establish these partnerships. The Postgraduate Certificate in Education international (PGCEi) attracts students who are employed at various educational establishments globally and want to develop their understanding of educational concepts and theories. We explore the challenges of supporting their PGCEi journeys when there is no formal University-School partnership in place, and evaluate the role of PGCEi tutors as they progress through the course. PGCEi tutors play a critical role in navigating the space between the student and the School’s expectations. We question the students on the purposes of teaching in international schools and challenge them to consider how knowledge and power are connected as part of a decolonial approach to learning and teaching. The process is grounded in the concept of epistemic dependence in which PGCEi students and tutors can co-create a space to develop a decolonial approach as part of a broader focus on social and global justice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 102959"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146189027","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":"Practicing defending in virtual reality: A feasibility study among primary school children","authors":"Daniek H.J. Joosten,&nbsp;Bram Orobio de Castro","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.103061","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.103061","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Most children say they want to help peers who are bullied, but in real bullying situations, they often remain passive bystanders. Existing anti‑bullying programs have led to modest improvements in defending, but they typically provide limited opportunities for children to practice defending in realistic, emotionally charged bullying situations. Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) may offer a promising tool to let children rehearse defending in controlled ways in such scenarios. This practice might be particularly helpful for children who experience stronger inhibitions to defend because they are shy. This feasibility study examined whether a brief VR-based training could strengthen defending behavior and defending self-efficacy in bullying situations, and explored whether children who are more shy would benefit in particular<em>.</em> Participants were 22 children aged 6 - 10 years (<em>M_age</em> = 8.41, <em>SD</em> = 0.96; 77.3% boys), from two Dutch primary schools and an after-school care. In a within-subjects pre-post design, children completed two VR bullying scenarios with individualized coaching in between. Observed defending behavior in VR was coded, and children reported defender self-efficacy, tension, VR experience, shyness, and perceived bullying in their classroom. Children showed a substantial increase in observed defending from pre- to post-training, alongside a significant increase in defending self-efficacy, while reported tension remained stable. Shyness did not moderate observed defending at baseline, nor defending improvements. However, more shy children showed a larger gain in defender self-efficacy than their less shy peers. These findings, obtained in a small, age-heterogeneous sample, suggest that immersive VR can be used to elicit measurable changes in defending behavior and perceived defending ability among young children, and that children with higher levels of shyness may be especially responsive in terms of self-efficacy, but they require replication in larger, age-stratified samples<em>.</em> The study, thus, initially illustrates the potential of VR as a tool to study how bystander defending develops and how children’s defending behavior in perceived socially risky situations can be supported.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"140 ","pages":"Article 103061"},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148559646","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impact of age and prior knowledge on performance and perceived task difficulty: The role of perceived competence and self-efficacy","authors":"Christoph Helm ,&nbsp;Loredana Mihalca ,&nbsp;Cornelia S. Große","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102951","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102951","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The study aimed to examine whether perceived competence and self-efficacy are empirically distinct constructs, and to test their mediating effects for the relationship between age and prior knowledge on the one hand, and performance and perceived task difficulty during post-test on the other hand. Furthermore, the effects of different types of instructional control on these relationships were investigated. A sample of 261 high school and college students participated in a pre-post-test experimental design with four instructional control conditions (full learner control, limited learner control, adaptive program control, and non-adaptive program control). Results indicated that perceived competence and self-efficacy are distinct constructs and both mediate the relationships between learner characteristics (age, prior knowledge) and outcome measures (performance, perceived task difficulty during post-test). However, no significant differences were found in these relationships across different instructional control conditions. These findings emphasize the importance of distinguishing between perceived competence and self-efficacy in educational settings and highlight their specific mediating roles in the relationship between learner characteristics and outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 102951"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978875","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":"Negotiating intellectual space: Academic freedom in Tanzania from the Magufuli era to the present","authors":"Ambrose T. Kessy","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102945","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2026.102945","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article examines a decade of changes in academic freedom in Tanzania, highlighting the impact of legal frameworks and executive appointments on university life. Employing an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, the study integrates disaggregated Academic Freedom Index (AFI) time-series data (2014–2024) with twenty purposively sampled interviews, forty-two statutory instruments, and a log of campus incidents. Quantitatively, Tanzania’s aggregate AFI decreased from 0.46 in 2014 to 0.26 under President John Magufuli, before rising to 0.31 during the initial three years of President Samia Suluhu Hassan. This recovery is inconsistent: scores for institutional autonomy and campus integrity remain nearly unchanged, indicating the persistence of an “architecture of constraint” established through the Cybercrimes Act, the amended Statistics Act, licensing fees, and sporadic security interventions. Qualitative evidence elucidates the fragility of these headline gains. The presidential appointment of vice-chancellors, council chairs, and deputies centralizes decision-making, transforming senate deliberations into the transmission of government directives. Academics respond with anticipatory self-censorship, topic avoidance, and offshore data analysis - adaptations not captured by cross-national indices. This configuration aligns with V-Dem’s concept of a hybrid “floating regime”: modest liberalization of expression coexists with entrenched informal coercion. The article contributes to competitive-authoritarianism theory by illustrating that aggregate freedom scores can increase while organizational autonomy remains stagnant. It concludes that enduring improvement necessitates two structural reforms: (i) constitutional entrenchment of academic freedom, and (ii) the establishment of an independent higher-education ombudsman. Implemented together, these safeguards could transform Tanzania’s tentative opening into a resilient rights architecture and provide replicable templates for East Africa.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"137 ","pages":"Article 102945"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145978851","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":"Educating for hope: University-kindergarten -community partnership","authors":"Hadar Kimchi-Yahav ,&nbsp;Or Perah Midbar Alter ,&nbsp;Dorit Roer-Strier ,&nbsp;Edith Blit-Cohen","doi":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102922","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102922","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the relationship between the The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the \"Diversity Kindergarten\", a kindergarten located on its campus. It explores how collaboration between these two institutions influences their practices and creates shared spaces for innovation, inclusion and mutual growth. Using qualitative methods such as interviews, focus groups and participatory approaches, the study captures the voices of 40 participants, children, parents, kindergarten staff, students and university staff.</div><div>The findings highlight three central themes: (1) participants’ views on the concept of a community of concern, (2) the negotiation of power relations, conflict and diversity, and (3) participants’ perspectives on the partnership between the kindergarten and the university. These thematic insights were accompanied by tangible outcomes, such as policy changes that recognised children as community members; intercultural practices, including celebrating different holidays, fostering inclusion and mutual learning; and ongoing dialogue between the kindergarten and the university that reshaped attitudes toward diversity and collaboration.</div><div>The findings also reveal that the context-informed model (Roer-Strier and Nadan, 2020), which focuses on understanding the contexts affecting community life, particularly among marginalised populations, serves as a framework for supporting local and indigenous contexts while building a community of concern. While the collaboration highlights significant opportunities for innovation and inclusion, it also reveals challenges such as cultural differences and unequal power dynamics. This study provides valuable insights into the potential of university–school–community partnerships to promote sustainable, inclusive and transformative educational experiences.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48076,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Educational Research","volume":"136 ","pages":"Article 102922"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145840866","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}