Young children are faced with the challenges of collaborating with others usually for the first time as they enter preschool. They must learn to think beyond their own needs and recognize the needs and wants of other children. Most educators soon realize that the naturally occurring interactions among the children tend to establish hierarchies. A…

This article develops an agentic approach to activist learning and analyzes the interplay between agency and learning. The agentic approach derives from Alheit's concept of biographical learning and Emirbayer and Mische's concept of agency. The article builds on the case study of an activist's narrative to show that the development of agency is…

Internationally, assessment and the use of diagnostic data are recognized as critical capabilities for teachers. This is not a recent development, with assessment recognized for some decades as playing a significant role in informing learning and learners.This paper will examine whether teachers and members of the school leadership team utilize…

From the vantage point of present educational policy, it appears fairly straightforward to seek the solution to felt social and societal crises in education. Hence, on the basis of this statement, education can be considered as the most suitable tool to repair a perceived damage or the most effective medicine to cure a diagnosed sickness. Through…

This case study illustrates why a group of young adults from a working-class community in the UK choose not to participate in HE despite having the necessary qualifications. It highlights the impact that parents have on HE participation decisions, and the network of social connections participants are able to mobilise from their parents. It shows…

This article demonstrates how Bourdieu's field theory can be used to systematise ethnographic insights, establishing and validating connections between the micro-level of participants' experiences and macro-level contexts, whilst complementing and facilitating the reflexivity that has long been part of ethnographic traditions. Combining an…

Large-group (n > 8) co-located collaboration has not been adequately studied because it demands different conceptual framings than those used to study small-group collaboration, while also posing pragmatic constraints on data collection. Working within these pragmatic constraints, we use video data to devise an indicator of the current…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate students' social networking strategies based on learning values in the social context of Iranian universities. Design/methodology/approach: This research has used the case study method to investigate students' networked learning (NL) strategies among students of four different universities in…

This study presents an analysis of hidden elitism in music education through the free choice argument -- that individuals are fundamentally free to choose to study music -- as a meritocratic power structure. Qualitative Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is applied to understand music education as a social system with a special structure in which its…

In this article we introduce key concepts from critical psychology to explore their potential when operationalised in qualitative, empirically-based analyses of career guidance and counselling. Critical psychology is particularly concerned with understanding the concrete lines of action that can support generalised human agency -- a focus that is…

This article examines the different functions and further potential of a curriculum of career guidance in lower secondary school and bridge-year courses. With a focus on young adults following a nonlinear pathway to post-compulsory education in the Swiss Canton of Zurich, we answer the questions why bridge-year courses are attended (RQ1) and how…

School choice is expected to place pressure on schools to improve to attract and retain students. However, little research has examined how competition for students actually operates in socially embedded education markets. Economic approaches tend to emphasize individual actors' choices and agency, an undersocialized perspective, whereas…

On the island of Santa Cruz in the Solomon Islands, the Engdewu language is facing imminent language shift because of the increasing use of the lingua franca Solomon Islands Pijin in the community. In this article, I argue that this language shift is occurring because of changes to the social structure in Baemawz, one of the villages where Engdewu…

This study examines the development of secondary preservice science teachers' (PSTs') sociopolitical understandings in the context of a yearlong, masters-level, justice-oriented teacher education program. It articulates a theoretical perspective regarding teachers' conceptions of the work-of-teaching in terms of pedagogical and disciplinary…

Those who work with others to explore new and creative ways of thinking about community and organizational participation, ways of engaging with others, individual well-being and creative solutions to problems, have a significant role in a cohesive society. Creative forms of learning can stimulate reflexive practices of self-care and lead to…