This paper is based upon a collaborative research project with a group of eight second-year students studying on an Early Childhood BA at a Midlands (UK) University. The empirical research project emerged as a response to the concerning levels of disengagement demonstrated by this group post-pandemic. Because the focus of their module was research…

This literature review systematically analyses publications and articles up to mid-2023 related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the field of HE, specifically identifying pressures that students are experiencing. The aim of the review was to identify insights into the tensions faced by students in HE following their experiences of educational…

Building on the recent intensified calls to decolonise the curriculum in higher education in the UK and beyond, and on my modest initiatives amongst some colleagues, this paper explores the impact of the dominant Eurocentric curriculum on minoritised ethnic students, and their perspectives of our decolonising initiatives, with the aim of refining…

Much of Western media has promoted the idea that we are facing an epidemic of mental illness and psychiatric emergencies in contemporary Western society and worldwide, and that young people are a particularly vulnerable group. Schools have become a prominent site of concern and focus for this discourse as mental health problems are said to start…

This paper is a systematic review of the UK Widening Participation (WP), Higher Education (HE) student demographic. It argues that the presence of traumatic emotional experiences in WP student populations connected to psychosocial and academic trust alienation theory contributes to engagement barriers in HE. Using PRISMA guidelines, 43…

This article examines (im)obility in the global visa regime through the experiences of a Global South academic working in the Global North. Drawing on an autoethnographic account of a visa application, this article outlines the ways in which the global visa regime negatively affects a Global South academic's life. Visa regulations constitute a…

Pervasive digitality reveals us as analogue creatures that are unprepared for a world and a logic generated increasingly through automation. Promulgated by capitalism, digitality has created a new form of alienation, one far more powerful and comprehensive than that envisaged by either Marx or Lukács in the analogue-industrial age. Digital…

This article discusses the challenges faced teaching the promotion of 'British values', especially for trainee teachers. The advancement of these 'British values' as set out by the Department for Education is confusing, contradictory, and appear to exclude a sizeable minority of pupils of minority backgrounds from the current historical narrative…

This article reports the findings of a longitudinal study exploring the process of learning to teach modern languages in the changing landscape of teacher education. It employs a postmodern critical ethnographic methodology to examine the experiences of a group of student teachers over the course of a one-year postgraduate teacher education…

Much has been written about why students engage in academic studies at university, with less attention given to the concept of disengagement. Understanding the risks and factors associated with student disengagement from learning provides opportunities for targeted remediation. The aims of this review were to (i) explore how student disengagement…

Since the London bombings of July 7, 2005, the threat of terrorist violence in the United Kingdom has not abated. In the face of increased public fears about homegrown terrorism, the UK government has responded with a counter-extremism strategy known as Prevent. From its inception in 2003, the scope of the Prevent strategy has repeatedly been…

Young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) are construed by policy-makers as a pressing problem about which something should be done. Such young people's lack of employment is thought to pose difficulties for wider society in relation to social cohesion and inclusion, and it is feared that they will become a "lost…

The British Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 appears to have drawn universities into the security apparatus of the state. Academics and administrators have been compelled to comply with measures aimed at monitoring the activities of mostly Islamic student societies. While it is not inconceivable that universities are exploited as sites for…

Recently, the "Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency" (2012) have funded programmes designed to advance European citizenship and citizen competences through education. This paper reports on the findings from one project, Creative Connections, designed to encourage the "voices" of young people in exploring European…

This paper presents a review of the literature relating to hard-to-reach families which has been published over the last 12 years in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. The purpose of the review was twofold: to gain insights to understandings of the term "hard-to-reach" within these services--education, health and social--which might be…