Laura Perry PhD

This study proposes a more nuanced understanding of the elements constituting refugees' cultural and social capital to help education providers and policymakers develop a non-deficit view of refugees. Such an understanding, informed by empirical research, ought to shape the type of support that is offered to this cohort to facilitate successful participation in higher education. This paper deploys the concepts of cultural and social capital, habitus and field as articulated within Bourdieu's theory of practice. The findings of this study favour an 'asset view' of refugees within the higher educational context. Using a qualitative research design, 20 participants who come from a refugee background were interviewed. It was found that cultural identity and embeddedness within community has a varied influence on the higher educational experience of people from a refugee background in Australia. Additionally, diverse learning environments and, even, generic support structures, help provide a positive higher educational experience for refugees. These findings complement current research suggesting that people who come from a refugee background possess a range of cultural and social capital which can be assets to their higher educational endeavours.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has become the world’s largest comparative assessment of academic achievement. To integrate the extensive number of studies that have investigated factors influencing math achievement across countries, we conducted a systematic literature review to present a comprehensive overview of factors influencing math performance in PISA. Guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 and Bronfenbrenner’s theory of human development, we searched peer-reviewed journal articles in five databases, quantitatively and qualitatively synthesized the 158 articles. Over 140 factors were identified and categorized into five categories, namely: individual student, household context, school community, education systems and macro society. The analysis uncovered some factors, such as family socio-economic status, student-centered instruction, teacher and general staff shortage, Confucian culture and long-term orientation, that are consistently associated with math achievement. The explanatory power of most other factors, however, varied cross-nationally. The findings indicate that policy makers and stakeholders need to be cautious of national context when borrowing education practices and policies from other countries or regions.

Since 2000, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has directly and indirectly led to educational reforms and policy changes in many countries. PISA 2022 will focus on mathematics, with 38 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries and probably over 50 non-members participating in this cycle. With the increased attention being paid to PISA results, extensive research has been conducted to investigate which factors contribute to high PISA math performance. This presentation will present the first comprehensive, systematic literature review on the factors that shape PISA math performance. Informed by an extensive understanding of these factors, the presenter will then utilise qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), an innovative method in education research, to further analyse the driver of high performance. Using the most recent math scores available from 65 countries, I will introduce my research design, share some preliminary results, and discuss pathways for further research.

Since 2000, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has directly and indirectly led to educational reforms and policy changes in many countries. PISA 2022 will focus on mathematics, with 38 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries and probably over 50 non-members participating in this cycle. With the increased attention being paid to PISA results, extensive research has been conducted to investigate which factors contribute to high PISA math performance. This presentation will present the first comprehensive, systematic literature review on the factors that shape PISA math performance. Informed by an extensive understanding of these factors, the presenter will then utilise qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), an innovative method in education research, to further analyse the driver of high performance. Using the most recent math scores available from 65 countries, I will introduce my research design, share some preliminary results, and discuss pathways for further research.

No studies have examined the perspectives of elite school alumni about the value and disadvantages conferred upon them by an elite private education. This project sought to establish whether elite alumni's school experiences positively affected their post-school lives and what wider patterns or themes about elite education could be found. The study was guided by Bourdieu's concepts of cultural and social capital, used to understand the benefits, limitations and opportunities afforded by elite private schools. In-depth interviews were conducted with eight participants, three male and five female, then transcripts coded in Nvivo. Preliminary results showed the long-term value of social capital first acquired at school differed by gender. Some participants credited their elite schooling with steering them away from drug-taking and poor decisions about sexual behaviour, and towards university; they felt this would have been reversed had they attended a public school. The benefits of social capital that were found could easily be acquired at non-elite schools. Also, when compared with their parents, participants were either at about the same or of a slightly higher socio-economic status. Given these limited long-term benefits of elite schooling it could be timely to reconsider the utility of continued government subsidisation of private schools.