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,…

This paper examines post-primary school choice processes in the urban Irish working-class community of Portown. Here, there is an awareness of hegemonic neoliberal ideals and how school choice becomes a significantly classed space characterised by market ideologies and structural inequality. This critical ethnography explored the world through…

This paper presents new findings on the experiences of Indian mothers in the roles they play in their daughters' higher education (HE) subject choices. Whilst there are existing studies on White British mothers and parents more generally in terms of parental involvement in education, and a growing number of papers presenting results on Bangladeshi…

Recently, a range of educational theorists have explored and extended upon popular currents in political theory through articulating "open" and "unknowing" pedagogies. Such contributions represent a radical turn away from the presumed "universals" found in proclamations of justice and emancipation and, ultimately, the centering of class analysis.…

Although social inequality is critical to the study of sociology, it is particularly challenging to teach about race, class and gender inequality to students who belong to privileged social groups. Simulation games are often used successfully to address this pedagogical challenge. While debriefing is a critical component of simulation exercises…

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…

This report shares the perspectives and aspirations of 17 low-income and working-class students based on interviews the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) conducted over two semesters of their college journeys. The report identifies opportunities for policymakers and institutional leaders to support all students through completion,…

English teachers, especially those in the field of basic writing, have long debated how to teach writing to students whose home language differs from the perceived norm. This thesis intervenes in that stalemated debate by re-examining "elaborated codes" and by arguing for a type of correctness in writing that includes being correct…

In 2008, Denise Bradley and colleagues published their "Review of Australian Higher Education." A key point of the Bradley Review was to highlight the long-standing under-representation of working-class people at Australia's universities. Working-class people represent 25% of Australia's general population; however, they represent only…

This article explores policy development for under-fives and its implementation in nursery schools in the first two decades of the twentieth century and draws parallels with current policy initiatives such as Sure Start and the "Troubled Families" programme. It interrogates how discourse on British racial health shaped policy and…

Although working-class boys' disengagement with education continues to be a major public concern, the focus of educational research has been on anti-school, hyper-masculine so-called "laddish" masculinities and their salience within learner identities. What tend to be forgotten are the areas in which low-achieving boys actively engage…

This paper reports on data drawn from an "Economic and Social Research Council"-funded project investigating the experiences of UK-based students training on level-2 and level-3 childcare courses. We focus on the concept of emotional labour in relation to learning to care for and educate young children and the ways in which the students'…

Most new students experience school to university transition as challenging. Students from backgrounds with little or no experience of higher education are most vulnerable in this transition, and most at risk of academic failure. Emotion appears implicated in the differential way in which first-generation students and students with family…

There is widespread international concern about post-16 participation rates in science, with women's under-representation constituting a particular issue. This paper contributes to these debates through a novel, critical examination of the role of masculinity within boys' negotiations of science aspirations. Drawing on a UK longitudinal study of…

This case study narrative examines the circumstances underlying problems of residency in an affluent Midwest suburb experiencing an unexpected influx of working class African American students. Dilemmas engender a cultural mismatch between teachers and students and discomfort with African-American males. In a controversial climate where students…