Teaching Assistants (TAs) make important contributions to STEM teaching in higher education. While TAs often play both peer and authority figure roles, however, relatively little is known about exactly what students expect from TAs. To fill this gap, the first major goal of this study was to comprehensively understand these expectations from a large population of undergraduate engineering students. In addition, this study sought to understand how these expectations vary with students’ gender, race/ethnicity, and international status during distinct time periods associated with the recent COVID-19 pandemic (pre-COVID, during COVID, and post COVID). Student expectations were measured via a short-answer survey question in a cross-sectional dataset at a single, large institution comprised of sophomore to senior level students (n = 1,678) enrolled in engineering courses between 2016 and 2023. Thematic analyses were used to analyze student expectations and statistical, quantitative techniques were used to identify demographic differences. While no single majority theme emerged, many (42.9%) students thought that interactions were most important for TAs to emphasize while 37.6% believed TA preparation to be most important. A smaller but noteworthy percentage (7.61%) of students expected TAs to be caring and hospitable. Significant differences emerged in different time periods and across students’ race/ethnicity, international status, and gender. The results of this study indicate that students have a wide range of expectations of TAs and that these expectations are different for different times and classroom conditions. The results of this study can directly inform TA professional development as well as faculty guidance and supervision of TAs.

Teaching Assistants (TAs) make important contributions to STEM teaching in higher education. While TAs often play both peer and authority figure roles, however, relatively little is known about exactly what students expect from TAs. To fill this gap, the first major goal of this study was to comprehensively understand these expectations from a large population of undergraduate engineering students. In addition, this study sought to understand how these expectations vary with students’ gender, race/ethnicity, and international status during distinct time periods associated with the recent COVID-19 pandemic (pre-COVID, during COVID, and post COVID). Student expectations were measured via a short-answer survey question in a cross-sectional dataset at a single, large institution comprised of sophomore to senior level students (n = 1,678) enrolled in engineering courses between 2016 and 2023. Thematic analyses were used to analyze student expectations and statistical, quantitative techniques were used to identify demographic differences. While no single majority theme emerged, many (42.9%) students thought that interactions were most important for TAs to emphasize while 37.6% believed TA preparation to be most important. A smaller but noteworthy percentage (7.61%) of students expected TAs to be caring and hospitable. Significant differences emerged in different time periods and across students’ race/ethnicity, international status, and gender. The results of this study indicate that students have a wide range of expectations of TAs and that these expectations are different for different times and classroom conditions. The results of this study can directly inform TA professional development as well as faculty guidance and supervision of TAs.

Teaching Assistants (TAs) make important contributions to STEM teaching in higher education. While TAs often play both peer and authority figure roles, however, relatively little is known about exactly what students expect from TAs. To fill this gap, the first major goal of this study was to comprehensively understand these expectations from a large population of undergraduate engineering students. In addition, this study sought to understand how these expectations vary with students’ gender, race/ethnicity, and international status during distinct time periods associated with the recent COVID-19 pandemic (pre-COVID, during COVID, and post COVID). Student expectations were measured via a short-answer survey question in a cross-sectional dataset at a single, large institution comprised of sophomore to senior level students (n = 1,678) enrolled in engineering courses between 2016 and 2023. Thematic analyses were used to analyze student expectations and statistical, quantitative techniques were used to identify demographic differences. While no single majority theme emerged, many (42.9%) students thought that interactions were most important for TAs to emphasize while 37.6% believed TA preparation to be most important. A smaller but noteworthy percentage (7.61%) of students expected TAs to be caring and hospitable. Significant differences emerged in different time periods and across students’ race/ethnicity, international status, and gender. The results of this study indicate that students have a wide range of expectations of TAs and that these expectations are different for different times and classroom conditions. The results of this study can directly inform TA professional development as well as faculty guidance and supervision of TAs.

I examine the effect of the policing capacity of traditional authorities (TAs) on communal conflict. TAs of ethnic groups use distinct customary laws and dispute-resolution mechanisms. Their coexistence with national norms and those of other TAs results in parallel legal systems. I argue that this generates uncertainties about norms and vertical and horizontal jurisdictional conflict, which increases the risk of communal conflict. However, this effect can be dampened by state-level rules on norm collisions, which lead to a system of co-production and less violence. To investigate these claims, I use global georeferenced expert survey data on customary policing of TAs and data measuring their constitutional regulation. I show that customary policing can have an adverse effect on communal peace. More subgroups of the larger ethnic group with policing institutions increase the risk of conflict. State-level regulation moderates these relationships. Additional evidence suggests that policing increases communal conflict through vertical jurisdictional conflict but otherwise achieves its intended purpose of providing security.

Humans have been living on the continent of Australia (name derived from "Terra Australis"; Latin for "the southern land") for approximately 65,000 years, however population growth was relatively slow until the nineteenth century. Europeans had made some contact with Australia as early as 1606, however there was no significant attempt at settlement until the late eighteenth century. By 1800, the population of Australia was approximately 350,000 people, and the majority of these were Indigenous Australians. As colonization progressed the number of ethnic Europeans increased while the Australian Aboriginal population was decimated through conflict, smallpox and other diseases, with some communities being exterminated completely, such as Aboriginal Tasmanians. Mass migration from Britain and China After the loss of its American colonies in the 1780s, the British Empire looked to other parts of the globe to expand its sphere of influence. In Australia, the first colonies were established in Sydney, Tasmania and Western Australia. Many of these were penal colonies which became home to approximately 164,000 British and Irish convicts who were transported to Australia between 1788 and 1868. As the decades progressed, expansion into the interior intensified, and the entire country was claimed by Britain in 1826. Inland colonization led to further conflict between European settlers and indigenous Australians, which cost the lives of thousands of natives. Inward expansion also saw the discovery of many natural resources, and most notably led to the gold rushes of the 1850s, which attracted substantial numbers of Chinese migrants to Australia. This mass migration from non-European countries eventually led to some restrictive policies being introduced, culminating with the White Australia Policy of 1901, which cemented ethnic-European dominance in Australian politics and society. These policies were not retracted until the second half of the 1900s. Independent Australia Australia changed its status to a British dominion in 1901, and eventually became independent in 1931. Despite this, Australia has remained a part of the British Commonwealth, and Australian forces (ANZAC) fought with the British and their Allies in both World Wars, and were instrumental in campaigns such as Gallipoli in WWI, and the South West Pacific Theater in WWII. The aftermath of both wars had a significant impact on the Australian population, with approximately 90 thousand deaths in both world wars combined, as well as 15 thousand deaths as a result of the Spanish flu pandemic following WWI, although Australia experienced a significant baby boom following the Second World War. In the past fifty years, Australia has promoted immigration from all over the world, and now has one of the strongest economies and highest living standards in the world, with a population that has grown to over 25 million people in 2020.

Teaching Assistants (TAs) make important contributions to STEM teaching in higher education. While TAs often play both peer and authority figure roles, however, relatively little is known about exactly what students expect from TAs. To fill this gap, the first major goal of this study was to comprehensively understand these expectations from a large population of undergraduate engineering students. In addition, this study sought to understand how these expectations vary with students’ gender, race/ethnicity, and international status during distinct time periods associated with the recent COVID-19 pandemic (pre-COVID, during COVID, and post COVID). Student expectations were measured via a short-answer survey question in a cross-sectional dataset at a single, large institution comprised of sophomore to senior level students (n = 1,678) enrolled in engineering courses between 2016 and 2023. Thematic analyses were used to analyze student expectations and statistical, quantitative techniques were used to identify demographic differences. While no single majority theme emerged, many (42.9%) students thought that interactions were most important for TAs to emphasize while 37.6% believed TA preparation to be most important. A smaller but noteworthy percentage (7.61%) of students expected TAs to be caring and hospitable. Significant differences emerged in different time periods and across students’ race/ethnicity, international status, and gender. The results of this study indicate that students have a wide range of expectations of TAs and that these expectations are different for different times and classroom conditions. The results of this study can directly inform TA professional development as well as faculty guidance and supervision of TAs.

Demographics and lupus disease features.