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Integration is a fundamental mandate of schooling in democratic and differentiated societies. This chapter analyzes the consequences generated by an increase in number of students without Italian citizenship in Italian schools, and the development of multiethnic classrooms. When non-Italian pupils comprise >25–50% of the pupils in classrooms, it’s worth questioning: Are these classrooms segregated? Which factors affect school integration and for whom? The chapter presents the results of the first survey on classrooms with a “high density” of students with an immigrant background carried out in Italy. This study is based on a sample of 1,040 students enrolled in lower secondary education in Lombardy. We use statistical indicators related to two dimensions of integration: (a) the institutional dimension (school access and achievement), and (b) the relational dimension (well-being and absence of conflicts among peers). Data analysis included indexes and a correlation matrix between indexes, regression analysis, and cluster analysis. Results demonstrate a positive correlation between the rate of non-native students in the classroom and low degree of integration, but also the complexity of factors at stake such as gender imbalance and the high concentration of students whose families have a low Socio-Economic Status (SES), independently from citizenship. These results enabled us to de-construct the concept of school integration, identifying a plurality of integrative factors and providing suggestions for intervention.

The spirit of our times is uncertain with scholars and practitioners agreeing that complex problems need more innovative multifaceted solutions. Now as we witness the potential demise of the political classes in the chaos that is Brexit, the challenges in the North East are unprecedented, unpredictable and difficult to untangle. It’s time for a different way of leading, managing and even thinking.

This chapter advocates a stronger Entrepreneurial Leadership for the development of bespoke North East strategies and argues we need to build capacity through collaboration across sectors to achieve better results in the decade ahead. This chapter presents a view of how the agenda for SME growth and development needs to change in the region in the period ahead. It suggests a stronger collaboration between the North East and northern universities could help to build a better Brexit strategy and more appropriate interventions.

This chapter focuses on testing optimal capital structure theory: The role of intervening variable debt to equity ratio (DER) on the influence of the financial performance, Ownership Structure of Independent Board of Commissioners (IBCO), Audit Committee (ACO), and Institutional Ownership on Firm Value. The research design was explanatory research using path analysis. Using purposive sampling, 61 manufacturing companies, observation period from 2014 to 2018 with 286 N samples. The research novelty empirically can prove the role of intervening variable DER on the effect of return on assets (ROA) on firm value and shows the market response to the ROA is fully reflected by DER, indicating the existence of an optimal capital structure. The role of DER on the effect of ROE and IBCO on firm value is a partial mediation with the inverse direction. This phenomenon shows that the mechanism of forming a balance between the responses of investors and creditors relates to debt financing.

Generally, theory and research investigating the effectiveness of mentoring has offered little resounding evidence to attest to mentoring programmes being a strategic initiative that make a real difference in reducing the educational inequities many minority students endure. In contrast to this existing research base, the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) has often been cited as one of the most successful mentoring initiatives within Australia. It is the purpose of this chapter to examine how AIME may impact on the educational aspirations and school self-concept of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

A series of multi-group analyses were centred around Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling techniques that sought not only to explore the psychometric validity of the measures utilized within this study, but also to identify how the measures may be related after accounting for background variables (e.g. gender, parental education).

The results found that the measures utilized held strong psychometric properties allowing an increased level of confidence in the measures used and the conclusion that may be drawn from their use in analyses. Overall, the results suggested that AIME is an effective tool for increasing not only the educational aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students but also their levels (and utility) of School Self-concept and School Enjoyment.

The implications suggest that not only is AIME an essential tool for closing the educational gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal students, but also our understanding of mentoring must be extended well beyond simplistic notions of role-modelling.

Through the example of a “regulatory ranking” – an index produced with the aim to regulate the pharmaceutical market by pushing companies in the direction of providing greater access to medicine in developing countries – this chapter focuses on indexing and ranking as infrastructural processes which inscribe global problem spaces as unfolding actionable territories for market intervention. It foregrounds the “Indexal thinking” which structures and informs regulatory rankings – their aspiration to align the interests of different stakeholders and to entice competition among the ranked companies. The authors detail the infrastructural work through which such ambitions are enacted, detailing processes of infrastructural layering/collage and patchwork through which analysts naturalize/denaturalize various contested categories in the ranking’s territory. They reflect on the consequences of such attempts at reconfiguring global topologies for the problems these governance initiatives seek to address.

Along with the other Nordic welfare states, Norway has achieved relative gender parity as measured by the Gender Gap Index of the United Nations (Hausmann, Tyson, & Zahidi, 2006) and is therefore looked upon by many as a model in minimising gender gaps in the society. With a 47 per cent share of the active labour force in the country, Norwegian women have had a high level of labour market participation since the late 1980s. In addition, Norway ranks among the top countries in the world in terms of offering women and men equal access to education at all levels, equal access to leadership positions in the workplace and in politics and generous parental leave benefits. Although gender parity in education at all levels as well as in labour market participation is a reality in Norway, there are significant gender differences vis-à-vis in career aspiration among students and the Norwegian labour market is characterized by gender segregation (Foss, 2005) which results in a gender gap in pay where women earn less than men.

In 2003, Howard surveyed African Americans with emphasis on academic identities and college aspirations. This investigator interviewed African-American students at two urban high schools to gain insight relative to their college ambitions, educational capabilities, and academic identities. According to the students interviewed one specific area that affected their academic identity and college aspirations was perceived racism and discrimination, including counselors’ and teachers’ perception of their intelligence, unfair placement in special needs courses, and teachers’ attitude and behavior toward students (Howard, 2003).