The purpose of this paper is to report on the state of knowledge in education related to the concept of the "digital native" and affiliated concepts, as well as on how the literature was identified, analyzed, synthesized, and reported. To address the research aim, an integrative literature review was performed. In all, 355 articles (both qualitative and quantitative) published between 1991 and 2013 were reviewed. On the basis of the findings, the literature review revealed 46 terms related to the notion of this "new generation" of students, some similar, others quite different, and many redundant. The three most common terms in circulation are: digital natives, net generation, and millennials. The author recommends moving beyond the superficial dichotomy of "natives" and "immigrants", focusing on the implications of being a learner in a digital era, and taking into account factors such as age, gender, education, culture, experience, institutional context, learning design, social inclusion and exclusion, subject discipline, and socio-economic background.
This article aims to compare two aspects of the education systems in two East European countries. As the political history of the Czech Republic and Poland in the past fifty years is similar, the authors compare the countries' development in tackling educational inequalities and attempt to evaluate their policies and reforms from the beginning of socialism to date. Despite many similarities and identical outcomes in the past (no effect in lowering levels of educational inequalities), these countries undertook two different approaches to the transformation of higher education after 1989. The specific current developments in higher education in the Czech Republic and Poland have been caused by conservative and reserved legislation in the former and the creation of new, very liberal rules for establishing non-state higher education institutions in the latter. As there emerged a considerable difference in the number of higher education institutions in each country, the authors show the negative impact on educational inequalities and the social consequences of the enormous increase in the number of students and private universities. Despite different approaches, the countries face many similar problems, such as quality assurance, a shortage of staff, and information asymmetry. These problems seem to be sharper in Poland, but it is only a matter of time for the Czech Republic.
Renowned international experts in higher education financing have argued that, owing to large government deficits, tertiary education will not be able to open up and meet growing demand unless cost-sharing principles and efficient student financial aid programmes are introduced. Opponents of cost-sharing in higher education object that introducing tuition fees will raise inequality in access to higher education. Drawing on OECD data, and focusing on college expectations, the authors argue that the effects of ability, gender, and socio-economic background on college expectations are primarily shaped by the characteristics of secondary education systems, such as the degree of stratification and vocational specificity of secondary schools, while the principal characteristics of the tertiary education system, such as enrolment rates and the model of financing, play a much less important role. The results clearly show that, after controlling for the effects of secondary school system characteristics, cost-sharing, as such or by degree, does not affect the formation of college expectations by ability, gender, and socio-economic background as much as the selectivity of the secondary school system does.
This article examines learning transfer as an alternative framework for investigating transitions of students between higher education and the workplace. It highlights some of the shortcomings of the current framework provided by human capital theory and employability concepts and describes the learning transfer model as an alternative that focuses on the transition and continuity of students' work-placements experiences. Drawing on the findings of an empirical study that gathered qualitative data from interviews, observation and written reflections of undergraduate students during and after their one year work-placement, this paper draws attention to the problems of narrow views of learning transfer and the limitations of human capital theory to explain current professional paths.
The needs of the market and of knowledge society, combined with democratic ideals, have justified policies that encourage the adult population to continue their studies. Portugal has been following this political movement, which in turn drives non-traditional students to higher education. In order to uncover the reasons that lead these students to enter higher education and the challenges it poses to them, research was conducted using biographical narratives. These narratives revealed the existence and effects of intrinsic motivations related to the satisfaction of learning and to the pleasures of taking part in stimulating activities and of achieving or overcoming something. They also showed the importance of having strategies to combat dispositional, situational, and institutional barriers in order to prevent non-traditional students from dropping out.
This article looks at the status attainment process of young Hungarian graduates, devoting special attention to the impact of social origin, defined as the education and occupation of parents. The authors' estimates show that graduates from high status families enjoy notable advantages in the labour market, even when type of education, field of study, and a range of labour market experience factors are held constant. The greatest wage-premium for coming from a 'good' family is measured for men, occurring four-to-five years after graduation. Patterns of status inheritance are found to be gender-dependent, with women being more influenced by their social background at earlier phases of their careers. The authors argue that the substantial growth in the number of graduates and the increasing variety of jobs they occupy contribute to a social-selection process, moving further up from the educational ladder to the labour market. The authors describe possible mechanisms driving the direct inheritance of social advantages, but further research is needed to explore them in detail.
This article addresses a perceived gap in higher education literature: there is very little writing that successfully combines the issues of individual learners who dropped out and then returned to higher education – the adult returners. To address this problem, the article draws upon data from the qualitative part of a larger research project that deals with non-traditional students in the Czech Republic. This article analyzes data from eight subjects with drop-out experience chosen from the initial corpus of thirty non-traditional students. The results indicate that adult learners have to deal with three central identities and with potential identity struggles as they interact: student identity, work identity, and familial identity. The final result of the interaction between these identities can be either the integration or the disintegration of identities, whereby one of the possible consequences of identity disintegration is to drop out from higher education.
This paper discusses a study of senior academics' perspectives on internationalisation in three higher education systems: Czech, English and Australian which utilised a critical event narrative inquiry method. It gives a brief background on the origins of the current focus on internationalisation in higher education. It outlines the trends and dimensions. Further, it explains the research method utilised in this study – a critical event narrative inquiry method. The paper outlines the different types of critical events drawn from interviews conducted with senior academics in the three higher education systems. And finally, the overall findings of the research study are summarised drawing out general/common (not specific to any one HE system) and culture-specific (unique to an individual HE system) aspects/issues within their higher education contexts of internationalisation highlighted in the critical events described by academics.
This study examines quality of academic worklife in Czech public universities to assess the extent to which the global drive towards marketisation in higher education has affected Czech academic staff. A total of 2229 academics (men = 57.1%) completed a survey measuring their job satisfaction, job stress, and work environment perceptions. Findings revealed high levels of overall job satisfaction (83.6% satisfied with their jobs) and relatively low levels of stress (13.7% regularly stressed). Most academics reported positive features of their work environment including autonomy and quality, role clarity, influence over academic work, and a strong social community. Negative features included dissatisfaction with pay, poor leadership, and pressure to produce. Job satisfaction was significantly associated with traditional academic values (focus on quality, involvement in decision-making, commitment to the workplace, recognition), while stress was linked to market-related aspects (pressure to produce, quantitative work demands, job insecurity). The study highlighted relatively high levels of well-being among Czech faculty, which can be attributed to the continued prevalence of a traditional, professor-oriented academic system based on autonomy and collegiality. Despite recent market-oriented changes within Czech research policy, the negative effects of marketisation are not yet pronounced in the quality of academic worklife in public universities, except for the increasing pressure for productivity.
The article presents different approaches to the relationship between higher education and sustainable development. Its purpose is firstly to provide an overview of four main approaches to this relationship and their key conflicts. Secondly, it argues that the approach "lifelong learning skills for a resilient life" is beginning to establish itself as part of a main conflict with the approach "necessary knowledge for a secured life." That is to say that these two approaches to the question of the relationship between higher education and sustainable development are in conflict with each other and with understanding of higher education, in casu with the curriculum and assessment activity of the university, as well as with sustainable development. This gives rise to very different conditions for future forms of life and learning inside, as well as outside, higher education.