The purpose of this study was to understand how White students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds (operationalized as students who are both low income and of the first generation in their family to attend college) experience and navigate social class during college. This was a qualitative research study employing a phenomenological research…

Between the 1940s and 1960s across Western Europe a spirit of reform along comprehensive lines manifested itself in secondary education, aiming at a reduction of the existing social inequality of educational chances. These reforms are said to be rooted in new policies and in new approaches in educational studies. This article explores the…

After 25 years of intense scrutiny, social capital remains an important yet highly debated concept in social science research. This research uses data from youth and mentors in several chapters of Big Brothers/Big Sisters to assess the importance of different mentoring relationship characteristics in creating positive outcomes among youths. The…

This paper provides a critique of recent Bourdieusian research into the higher education (HE) choice process. Specifically, Ball et al. (2002) maintain that class-related differences in students' psycho-social dispositions in Years 12 and 13, the "landscape of choice", shape their intentions or "decisions" to participate in HE and their selection…

Although long-term social change is challenging to study, it is theoretically important because its effects are not immediate and it is not usually powered by major social institutions. Another challenge is that individuals are often only vaguely aware of long-term social changes and do not fully consider how they might be affected personally. As…

Rooted in sociological models of educational transitions and tracking, this study examines patterns of stratification in the educational trajectories of low- and high-socioeconomic (SES) students. Utilizing longitudinal data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, this study describes differences in students' choice sets based on a number…

Based on a four-year ethnography and informed by poststructuralist theories of identity and language, this article examines how, through lived settlement experiences in Canada, a young man from Mainland China gradually became an immigrant in the folk sense of the term. Though he was considered a success in terms of the diaspora community, he was…

This report summarises evidence on progress towards the seven Closing the Gap targets agreed to by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), along with an analysis of the underlying key drivers of change. The COAG targets are set out in the National Indigenous Reform Agreement (NIRA) between the Australian Government and the state and…

This review of 10 years of qualitative research with disadvantaged children in the UK shows that despite some gaps in the knowledge base, there is now a substantive body of evidence exploring children's lives and experiences from their own perspectives. The review reveals that poverty penetrates deep into the heart of childhood, permeating every…

Over the last 45 years, two major trends have characterised French educational policies: a voluntary move towards widening access to upper secondary school and a related diversification of the diplomas available at the end of it, especially through the creation of the technological "baccalaureat" in 1968 and the vocational "baccalaureat" in 1985.…

This article provides a description and evaluation of a service-learning juvenile justice course designed to broaden university students' attitudes toward diversity issues. Diversity service learning integrates academic learning with community service by providing students with opportunities to learn about social disparities associated with…

This paper presents the results of a case study looking at the views of teachers and other educational professionals pertaining to the academic progress and general integration of immigrant schoolchildren in multicultural schools in the province of Huelva (Andalusia, Spain). It is organised into three sections: first, the geographical and social…

This article explores a hitherto neglected issue: the significance of nature in the learning lives of marginalised young people. Drawing on both post-human and sociocultural perspectives, it develops a theoretical analysis of this important subject. It uses research with 114 young people in jobs without training in rural South-west England to…

This paper illustrates how critical use of Basil Bernstein's theory illuminates the mechanisms by which university knowledge, curriculum and pedagogy both reproduce and interrupt social inequalities. To this end, empirical examples are selected from the findings of the ESRC-funded project "Pedagogic Quality and Inequality in University First…

This research attempted to reveal the existence of digital divides, their relationships to users' socio-demographics, and the Internet adoption and usage patterns. It was a longitudinal investigation targeted to the adults eighteen years or older in the household setting from the nation-wide surveys conducted in the United States between 2000…