Virtual labs (VLs) are increasingly transforming education, replacing or supplementing traditional labs in response to technological advances and remote learning demands. This study explores how adopting 3D VLs, Ward Design in our case, affects lecturers' teaching and students' learning experiences, focusing on areas like engagement, contextual learning, and collaborative learning. In this study, we draw on Dalgarno and Lee's model for virtual learning environments (VLEs) as the framework for our analysis. Qualitative research methods informed our exploration. Findings reveal VLs' positive impact on diverse 'Learning Benefits'. VLs can significantly enhance student engagement by offering an interactive and self‐paced learning experience. Additionally, VLs provided opportunities for contextual learning, enabling students to apply skills in realistic, virtual settings. However, limitations in replicating collaborative learning and organic, real‐world exploration within virtual environments were noted. The study also highlighted various challenges associated with cognitive load, such as the unfamiliarity of the technology, technical difficulties, and discomfort with VR tools, all of which at times hindered the learning experience. Our findings suggest that combining VLs with physical field trips could optimise the learning experience, addressing these limitations. This study contributes to the understanding of VLs' potential and challenges in education, informing their effective implementation to enhance teaching and learning.

In the global context, immigrant youth face multifaceted challenges when transitioning from school to the workforce. These hurdles include language and cultural barriers, social exclusion, disengagement from education, local job market discrimination, and cultural detachment from their extended families and heritage. This study explores the careers education of immigrant students in Aotearoa New Zealand, from the viewpoints of parents and careers advisors, using the Systems Theory Framework (STF) for data analysis. Immigrant families in New Zealand, marked by cultural distinctions and limited knowledge of the local education system, impact their children's transitions significantly. This study offers insights into the complex dynamics of parental involvement in immigrant students' careers education. The findings may serve as information for educational institutions, careers advisors, and policymakers, guiding them in the development of inclusive and supportive environments for immigrant youth and their families. By mapping these interactions, STF reveals how macro-level racism (environmental-societal system) permeates micro-level career socialization (individual/family systems) a recursive relationship most career theories ignore. This aligns with critiques that Western models neglect oppressive structures while demonstrating STF’s utility in centering systemic inequities within career development research.

School peace, or Schulfrieden, is often portrayed in German education as a neutral condition enabling learning. Yet this study interrogates how peace itself becomes a tool of governance, selectively policing who can safely occupy the classroom. Examining the Berlin Senate’s October 2023 directive, which banned symbols showing solidarity with Palestine, we show that school peace is less about conflict resolution than about shaping affective hierarchies. Fear, anticipation, and symbolic association circulate to mark some bodies as threats while leaving others unexamined. Through the lens of Sara Ahmed’s affective economies and Zembylas’s affective ideology, we argue that the directive transforms political expression into a site of emotional correction, preemptively disciplining marginalized students and rendering their solidarity politically suspect. Peace, in this framing, is primarily rule and order: it secures institutional comfort while curtailing engagement with global injustice. The classroom becomes a laboratory of anticipatory governance, where ethical awareness is unevenly distributed, and dissent is contained before it emerges. By tracing how school peace operates affectively, the study reveals the subtle mechanics by which liberal education reproduces racialized hierarchies under the guise of neutrality.

In this research, we draw on Das Gupta’s theory of immigrants’ negotiation of transnational rights and borders. Specifically, we follow the two key notions of her work, place-taking and space-making , to explore secondary school immigrant students’ engagement with work experience as part of their school curriculum and their transition from school to work or tertiary education. While work experience is widely recognised as critical for school-to-work transitions, immigrant youth often face systemic barriers. This research asks: How do parents and career advisers act as place-takers or space-makers in enabling or constraining these opportunities? We explore whether parents and career advisers function as place-takers (reinforcing barriers) or space-makers (creating opportunities), and how their roles intersect with systemic inequities. Through semi-structured interviews with 16 immigrant parents and six career advisers, we find that parents often prioritise academic achievement over workplace learning, reinforcing place-taking norms, while economic pressures (e.g., pandemic-related instability) occasionally compel space-making adaptations. Career advisers, meanwhile, identify structural barriers (e.g., employer bias, language gaps) but rarely challenge them. We argue that systemic inequities persist because key stakeholders—intentionally or not—uphold dominant narratives about immigrant youth’s employability. The study concludes with recommendations for policymakers and educators to foster inclusive pathways, including parent outreach programs and employer partnerships.

Few would deny the increasing effects of climate change on society today. Clear signals warn of the inevitable impacts for future society if further actions are not taken seriously. As a consequenc...