Online learning has been widely adopted in higher education but there is a need to better understand the nature of student engagement with online courses. For example, there are questions about whether students engage with courses as educators intend and what features of online courses engage students to enhance learning. Bringing together student and educator perspectives, this article reports on a study that identified ‘pedagogical touchpoints’ – opportunities within online courses for student engagement – to ascertain whether a better understanding of these could improve online course design and student engagement. Data were collected across three undergraduate online courses. Data analysis produced three key findings: mapping pedagogical touchpoints against dimensions of engagement reveals patterns that may inform enhanced course design, students’ engagement with pedagogical touchpoints varies according to their learning needs and desires, and mapping pedagogical touchpoints can inform course design at both conceptual and practical levels. Discussion of the findings highlights that purposeful design of online courses, including strategic planning for pedagogical touchpoints, can maximise the potential for student engagement and consequent learning.

Online learning was initially introduced to support face-to-face learning, but now represents a dominant pedagogical approach in Higher Education. The rapid shift from face-to-face learning to online platforms has left many academics feeling pedagogically unprepared. In this research, we initially sought to understand and enhance online student engagement in three undergraduate teacher education courses through the mapping of ‘pedagogical touchpoints’ – encounters students had with their online learning environment – to better understand their needs, preferences and behaviours as online learners, with a focus on recognising what students valued and identified as ‘engaging’. While seeking insight into the student experience through a range of data, including course feedback, survey data, interviews and researcher critical reflections, we noted that they approached their studies with a diverse range of needs and preferences for engaging in online learning, and that some aspects that were valued most highly were not necessarily identifiable or ‘measurable’, but represented less definable, but importantly – engaging qualities that students highly valued. These ‘unmeasurable’ elements were found to be related to the exercising of pedagogical care, not just in interactions between teacher and students, but an overall online pedagogy of care that permeated all aspects of course design and delivery. The research thus contributes an important insight into effective and engaging online pedagogy that forefronts the value of pedagogical care, and what this may look like when facilitating online learning.

Every year, significant resources are devoted to the professional development of educators, warranting a closer evaluation of whether professional development is effective and where it can be improved. Focussing on professional development in intercultural and multicultural education, this article presents a scoping study of relevant literature to identify factors that have been highlighted as helpful and hindering for educators. Peer-reviewed journals from the last two decades were scoped for articles about professional development aimed at Pre-K–12 educators. A literature search of four academic databases identified 159 relevant articles which were then qualitatively coded with NVivo. A numerical analysis identified areas of research concentration and those needing research attention, while a thematic analysis yielded four broad areas of results: teacher capacities and dispositions, features of professional development, professional development activities and professional development topics. Discussion is concentrated on the overall state of the field, particularly on features specific to inter/multicultural professional development such as educator resistance and reluctance, content organisation, the under-utilisation of technology, and safe opportunities for discussion, criticality and meta-cognitive reflection. The article presents results that may inform the design of inter/multicultural professional development in education along with suggested areas for future research.

In many parts of the world, there is a visible increase in the numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse students entering compulsory education. To explore the preparedness of teachers for responding to this diversity, this article reports the findings of an ethnographic study which had a specific focus on Samoan students. In semi-structured interviews, teachers of a south-east Queensland primary school described initial challenges they encountered, as well as their opinions about the professional development they had received for intercultural education. In talanoa (Pacific Island-style discussions), parents in the school community shared their concerns about the cultural and linguistic responsiveness of the teachers compared to their previous experiences. Analysis of the findings revealed that teachers experienced “culture shock” in highly multicultural classrooms perhaps related to the lack of opportunities for professional learning about teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students. Too few opportunities for teachers to develop and sustain positive dispositions towards intercultural education may have factored into the school staff’s focus on the “how” of intercultural education, rather than the “why”. A scarcity of professional and human resources in this area was also identified. The article concludes with ideas for future research.

For intercultural education to impact learners and, in turn, wider society, teachers must turn intercultural perspectives into actions in their professional contexts. This article examines why teachers who hold positive intercultural views might not be compelled to teach to these in their classrooms. Focusing specifically on education for culturally diverse learners, this article presents a critical ethnographic study of two teachers working in a multicultural Australian primary school. It analyses the tensions that complicate teachers’ work for intercultural education, and suggests that competent, well-intentioned teachers might be discouraged from responding pedagogically to their students’ cultural or linguistic backgrounds because of perceived constraints in the contemporary neoliberal educational environment. This prompts our recommendation that future research seek ways to open up new conditions of possibility for teachers to act on their perspectives including opportunities for increased cross-cultural engagement and dialogue.