Misrecognition of South African university students is at the heart of this article. "Misrecognition" refers in this article to the exclusionary institutional discourses and practices of this country's universities, which continue to prevent the majority of their (Black) students' from achieving a successful education. It is a conceptual…

The increased diversity in the student body resulting from massification poses particular challenges to higher education. This article engages the uncritical use of the "disadvantage" discourse and its effect on pedagogy. It explores some of the challenges of coping with student diversity, with particular reference to the South African…

Many students in Australia from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds have historically been alienated from learning and education because of the narrow definition of literacy and of what counts as legitimate texts. Consequently, traditional pedagogy, curriculum and assessment practices disengage many students. To address this issue, we…

There is research spanning the 20th century on student disengagement. Despite all the research, the problem remains. It is time to adopt a different perspective. This article attempts to make transparent the influences on disengagement in schools by applying Jean Gebser's (1985) empirical phenomenological study of cultural consciousness. What…

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) commissioned NatCen to conduct a project to explore why some young people disengaged from education and underachieved at KS4, assess the longer-term impact of such disengagement and underachievement and consider ways in which it may be prevented or countered. It involved an analysis of…

In response to several major curriculum reforms in Hong Kong since 2000, schools were required to initiate policies that catered for learner diversity. As well academic achievement, the reforms also emphasized the affective and social outcomes of the learning experience. A whole-school approach to learner diversity includes students with low…

Outlines the process by which students at Lawrence Central High School in Indiana improved academically through the teaming of two teachers in a particular subject area, and hence reducing teacher isolation. (JC)

This report describes a program for increasing student effort and achievement through the use of motivational strategies. The teaching staff at a high school in an upper-middle class urban area in Illinois noted that many students in a second-year high school Spanish class appeared unmotivated, demonstrated minimal academic effort, and earned poor…

Contends that a range of theories exists in the social science literature about the effects of family processes on the social and academic success of a family's offspring. Identifies major theoretical perspectives that have dominated the literature on families and minority student achievement. (CFR)

This study was initiated in response to perceived behavior problems of undergraduate law school students at a research university in Israel. It was found that increasing numbers of students stopped attending classes on a regular basis, were not reading assigned materials, avoided participating in discussions, studied only superficially for exams,…