The aim of this article is to problematize the ways class and gender are played out in adult students' narratives about their occupational choice and future. Drawing on Beverly Skeggs, we analyse how students think about future occupations, what motivates them towards these and how they are able to form their future in relation to them. Taking on…

This article examines the school choices of families who have recently experienced downward mobility during the economic crisis in Spain. Based on semi-structured interviews we analyse the educational strategies of the families in a Bourdieusian framework, focusing on how they cope with the loss of their perceived social status. Prior to the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider how working-class boys constitute themselves as subjects of "value" through a close examination of their occupational aspirations. The authors consider two significant influences on the aspirations of these young men: "space" and "place"; and neoliberal discourses…

This paper intends to show the processes and identity negotiations of white working-class boys surrounding their own learner-identity within a "raising aspirations" rhetoric. The current dominant neoliberal discourse, which prioritizes a view of aspiration that is competitive, economic, and status-based, shapes the subjectivities of…

The effects of neoliberal ideologies infiltrate all aspects of the teaching-learning environment, including academic practices of reading and writing. Writing, more than simply a demonstration of academic proficiency, represents a means of thinking--an opportunity to develop critical thought, build resistance to neoliberal individualism through…

Existing international research suggests that widespread performative pedagogy has contributed to producing educational inequalities for "disadvantaged" learners. There have also been calls for alternative pedagogies, which can be characterised as child-centred. This paper analyses pupils' hierarchical positioning in a contemporary,…

Research into literacy and school subject performance focuses overwhelmingly on identifying and addressing risk factors associated with underachievement. Strenuous efforts are devoted to diagnosing the causes of literacy failure that are patterned by ethnicity, social class, and gender. This study explores the possibility that equal, or even…

Background: Education researchers are paying increasing attention to student activism and to the social production of school spaces. Few studies, however, have brought these two concerns together to examine how student activists work to rebuild school spaces in line with their political commitments. In the present study, I address this gap at the…

Declining Catholic school enrollment rates coupled with increasing numbers of Latino Catholics (in the US) have prompted Catholic leaders to interrogate how they can best engage and meet the needs of the Latino community (Alliance for Catholic Education, 2009; Ospino, 2014). Much of this work focuses on how Catholic schools can attract Latino…

Guardians have been implicated in the development of children's academic self-regulation. In this case study, which involved naturalistic observations and interviews, the everyday practices of a working class family were considered in the context of self-regulated learning development. The family's practices, beliefs, dispositions and home…

While honesty is noticeably emphasized in Chinese childrearing practices, deception for the sake of collective good and maintenance of interpersonal relationship is widely endorsed by Chinese culture. This study examines how Chinese mothers negotiate between teaching honesty and helping their young children develop situational-appropriate…

There is a growing body of research focused on the mathematical experiences of Black males in the United States of America. This research has emerged to challenge the dominant narrative in mathematics education focused on Black males' low performance on international, national, and state standardized tests. There is very little research that has…

Stratification is a central issue in family research, yet relatively few studies highlight its impact on family processes. Drawing on in-depth interviews (N = 137) and observational data (N = 12), we extend Melvin Kohn's research on childrearing values by examining how parental commitments to self-direction and conformity are enacted in daily…

Previous research suggests that the quality of parents' relationships can influence their children's adjustment, but most studies have focused on the negative effects of marital conflict for children in White middle-class families. The current study focuses on the potential benefits of positive marital quality for children in working-class first…

Early language development was investigated in an observational study of three white 2-year-old infants of working class families in the inner city. In each family's living room, one hour videotapes were made of each infant's behavior at 3-week intervals over a period of 8 months. With the collaboration of family members, transcripts were made of…