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Co-curricular engagement in postsecondary education provides students with a breadth of opportunity for leadership-focused developmental experiences. However, few studies have qualitatively examined in detail how alumni describe years later how formal co-curricular involvement contributes to their development. Such lack of attention has resulted in what we describe as a “hidden leadership curriculum” embedded in co-curricular engagement. To address this gap in the literature, we explored the leadership experiences of 25 recent alumni who were engaged within various co-curricular organizations, and the leadership lessons relevant to their professional success that they report learning as a direct result of their involvement. Findings from this study reveal how the inherent organizational challenges embedded within co-curricular engagements lead students to develop a more interdependent, relational conception of effective leadership behaviors. These conceptualizations place value on collective group engagement and decision-making, and help students recognize group needs over individual desires. In addition, many participants reported acquiring the value of generativity – building a leadership pipeline - within their respective co-curricular organizations. We discuss practical implications, such as the central role of challenging experiences within the co-curriculum, and suggest future research recommendations.

Researchers have found that curricular coaches have had an impact on student achievement by supporting classroom teachers in providing high-quality instruction. However, few studies examine the association between curricular coaches and teacher retention, especially in urban areas. Given the high cost of teacher turnover and the high percentage of early-career teachers who leave the profession each year, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the presence of curricular coaches in elementary schools reduces turnover among early-career teachers.

In this study, the authors analyzed the observational data from the 2007-2008 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). The SASS is a nationally representative cross-sectional survey that has been administered repeatedly to public and private kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers in the USA approximately every four years by the National Center for Education Statistics and the US Census Bureau.

The authors found that the presence of a curricular coach was associated with a substantial reduction in early-career teacher turnover. This finding suggests that curricular coaches could be a particular benefit to urban schools.

This study was national in scope; therefore, it does not examine causes of attrition specific to local contexts.

Curricular coaches may indirectly save urban school districts thousands of dollars because of their impact on reducing early-career teacher attrition.

In this study, the authors found a statistically significant and practically meaningful association between the presence of curricular coaches in schools and the retention of elementary teachers, especially in urban areas.

The model predicted that among early-career teachers, teachers in schools without curricular coaches are approximately twice as likely to leave the profession the next year compared to teachers in schools with curricular coaches.

This study focuses on extra-curricular start-up programs for students at higher educational institutions. It explores the social and situated learning experiences of students who participate in start-up programs, as well as how the processes and outcomes of entrepreneurial learning are potentially shaped by this context.

The study follows multiple cohorts of students who have participated in an extra-curricular start-up program managed by three collaborating universities in Greater Copenhagen. The data have been inductively analyzed using semi-structured interviews with students and project managers during and after the start-up program, complemented with project progress reports, observation notes and survey data.

The analysis generates a grounded, theoretically informed process model of entrepreneurial learning situated in extra-curricular start-up programs. The model depicts how the immersion, comprehension and co-participation in entrepreneurship as social practice subsequently enables students to expand knowledge structures and develop greater self-confidence in performing entrepreneurship. The model identifies three interconnected components that trigger entrepreneurial learning among students, which allow them to acquire two set of competencies: venture creation competencies and enterprising competencies.

The findings offer unique insights into how the social and relational environment influence and shape the learning experience of students, hence filling the research void on entrepreneurial learning in the situated context of extra-curricular enterprise activities. The findings also elucidate how individual learning experiences of students are potentially shaped by the immersion, comprehension and co-participation in entrepreneurship as social practice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent and type of extra‐curricular ESD‐related practice in UK universities and to record opinions about the utility of such work.

A postal questionnaire survey of all UK universities was undertaken in 2006. Over half (51 per cent) of the UK's 140 universities with degree‐awarding powers responded.

Extra‐curricular ESD‐related interventions were found to be widespread and in 31 per cent of cases were the primary approach to ESD. Respondent opinions highlight a paradox whereby the voluntary nature of extra‐curricular interventions can both extend and limit the reach of ESD.

The survey approach gathers impressions of UK practice at one point in time, only. Further case study research to look at the impact of such practice is now under way.

In the UK, much recent work to support ESD has focused on efforts to support curriculum change. The paper suggests that attention should also be directed at the extra‐curricular sphere in parallel.

This paper partly fills a gap in the literature, there being little empirical enquiry into extra‐curricular ESD in higher education.

This chapter acknowledges the current dearth of direct evidence of student learning and discusses the limited value academic and co-curricular transcripts (CCTs) provided to students, educators, and employers.

This chapter studies the myriad outlets in which students acquire useful academic and non-academic skills outside of the grade point system. Disadvantages in the arbitration and secular nature of the common transcript are also addressed.

Exploring and responding to the concerns from a diverse chorus of higher education constituents and calls for increased accountability and improved student learning in higher education, this chapter proposes the development of an outcomes-based CCT, as an extension of the traditional CCT, to take advantage of the rich and numerous learning opportunities within the living laboratory of co-curricular experiences where students repeatedly demonstrate and hone their skills and competencies throughout their collegiate experience.

The chapter discusses a number of examples and models of what such a program might look like and provides insights and suggestions as to how it could be implemented thoughtfully and effectively. It also explores several of the benefits and challenges associated with implementing an outcomes-based CCT.

Given the less mature homeschooling ecosystem in China, together with the similarity of purpose, the current study examined the lived experiences of curricular choice making in the USA and China and categories of respective families (homeschools), as a way of understanding curricular flexibility. In addressing these features, based on an updated model of curricular flexibility as it applies to homeschooling, the authors examined the aspects of who, what, when, where and how to see if this context offers new light. The authors then consider ways in which the model can be further updated for greater analytical clarity and accuracy. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

A descriptive case study was conducted in the Xi'an city of China and the Seattle metropolitan area of the USA. A survey and two rounds of semi-structured interview data were collected from ten homeschooling families in both contexts.

The study found families’ adjusted curricula for different motives, as they navigated differing societal contexts, and curricular flexibility in homeschooling contexts was theorized as standardization and structuring strategies and social dimensions, and family preference patterns were identified. Chinese homeschooling families had comparatively less variety of available resources and freedom to homeschools compared to American counterparts, and they operated with the awareness of a standard national curriculum and its social implications.

This study elaborates on a little-discussed topic – the overall curriculum of each homeschool and motives influencing changing curricular choices during the process of homeschooling. And it is the first paper to use the model to explicitly define curricular flexibility in the homeschooling context, thus extending the existing theoretical discussion of curricular flexibility.

The purpose of this paper is to present a model for curricular integration of information literacy for undergraduate programs in higher education.

Data are drawn from individual interviews at three universities in Australia and curricular integration working experience at a New Zealand university. Sociocultural theories are adopted in the research process and in the development of the model.

Key characteristics of the curriculum integration of information literacy were identified and an information literacy integration model was developed. The S²J² key behaviours for campus‐wide multiple‐partner collaboration in information literacy integration were also identified.

The model was developed without including the employer needs. Through the process of further research, the point of view of the employer on how to provide information literacy education needs to be explored in order to strengthen the model in curricular design.

The information literacy integration model was developed based on practical experience in higher education and has been applied in different undergraduate curricular programs. The model could be used or adapted by both librarians and academics when they integrate information literacy into an undergraduate curriculum from a lower level to a higher level.

The information literacy integration model was developed based on recent PhD research. The model integrates curriculum, pedagogy and learning theories, information literacy theories, information literacy guidelines, people and collaboration together. The model provides a framework of how information literacy can be integrated into multiple courses across an undergraduate academic degree in higher education.

Previous studies indicate that a college-student’s leader self–efficacy (LSE) enhances the ability to be an effective leader. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the college experiential factors that develop students’ LSE in Historically Black Institutions (HBIs). The purpose of this study is to adapt Astin’s input-environment- outcome (I-E-O) model to identify the effects of college experiential variables (environment) on student LSE development (output) while controlling for precollege variables (input). Pre- and post-data were collected from 200 freshmen studying at two Historically Black Institutions and analyzed using the hierarchical multiple regression (HMR). The findings suggested that precollege LSE and college co-curricular leadership experiences significantly influence students’ LSE development.

Student entrepreneurs account for a considerable number of start-up ventures derived from university settings. Nevertheless, there is little research that demonstrates how university entrepreneurship education (EE) directly influences students’ start-up activities. The primary purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of various types of university entrepreneurship activities (incorporate entrepreneurial courses, extra-curricular initiatives, and start-up support) on student start-up behavior. This quantitative research utilized questionnaire data collected from university students (n = 1,820) in southeast China and was analyzed with hierarchical Poisson regression in STATA procedures. Research results indicate that engaging in any type of university entrepreneurship activities positively predicts students’ start-up activities, yet this positive effect is contingent on students’ prior start-up experience and the overall university entrepreneurial climate. These findings advance our understanding of crucial elements within university entrepreneurial ecosystems and how various entrepreneurship activities within these ecosystems potentially impact students’ venture creation.

The aim of this chapter is twofold: first, it will discuss the roots and the aims of the curriculum reform launched in Portugal in 2017, suggesting that it shows the influence of international policy borrowing. Secondly, it aims to present and to discuss the trends that this reform is putting in place, highlighting some successful practices as well some misconceptions and controversial practices. To accomplish such aims, it follows the analytical framework that inspires this book, namely the approach that understands curriculum making as a dynamic process of interactions between different layers of the system, emphasizing the meso and the micro layers of curriculum decision-making. The focus on the experimental period that this chapter narrates is also an opportunity to analyse dynamics among the layers of curriculum making.