Recontextualising graduate employability in support of pedagogical reform in public universities in the Kurdistan Region‐Iraq
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12712448 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Victoria Whiteside (0000-0002-3044-0977, University of Liverpool United Kingdom, corresponding author), John Cross (Cross Cultural Management Sarbasti Park Erbil Iraq), John W Cross (Lebanese French University) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 355-368 |
| Publication date | 2023-11-29 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1473-8481 • E-ISSN: 1754-9469 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/sena.12407 |
| OpenAlex | W4389146907 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 21 |
In light of the high graduate unemployment rate and migrant crisis, graduate employability in the Kurdistan Region – Iraq is an ever more pressing issue. Reducing the issue of graduate employability to a skills gap between Kurdish graduates and the private sector labour market is too simplistic and dismisses other sociocultural and structural factors that are external to graduates and higher education institutions (HEIs), and which impact the former’s employability. Through a qualitative study and using Bourdieu’s (1977) habitus as an explanatory framework for the analysis, this article aims to recontextualise graduate employability by exploring five stakeholders’ perceptions of what impacts graduate employability in the region. The findings uphold previous labour market reports that there is a skills gap, but also reveals other sociocultural and structural factors that also impact graduate employability. The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MHESR) has introduced a programme of pedagogical reform in KRI’s public HEIs and is in the process of training its academic practitioners in the tenets of Freire’s (1970) critical pedagogy. This article supports the implementation of Freire’s critical pedagogy in KRI’s public HEIs as a critical pedagogy can address the skills gap while also creating spaces for students to explore, question, analyse and evaluate the sociocultural and structural factors that impact graduate employability in KRI
Coaching · Cultural capital · Economics · Employability · Habitus · Higher education · Management · Pedagogy · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Higher Education and Employability
Graduates' employment and the discourse of employability
Producing New Workers
Habitus
Thematic Analysis
Outline of a Theory of Practice
Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis
The Kurds as parties to and victims of conflicts in Iraq
One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis
The quality of higher education in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq
The spoils of peace in Iraqi Kurdistan
The degree is not enough’
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Employability in a Knowledge-driven Economy
An Invitation of Reflexive Sociology
The Extended Case Method
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |