This paper explores linguistic life-histories from five participants in a larger interview study with U.S.-based adults. These five interviewees were middle-class White women from monolingual English-speaking families who pursued multilingual learning trajectories in young adulthood. Having previously attained proficiency in one language through…

In this article we describe evolving educational aspirations and practices of female high school students and their families in the context of rapidly changing education and employment markets in Kolkata. We interviewed 35 families of girls attending two government high schools. The families are from lower middle-class and lower income…

This article is an analysis of middle-class rejection of higher education. The author uses accounts of the educational decision-making of three female students, all identified to be from broadly middle-class backgrounds, from within full-time vocational further education in the United Kingdom, as a means to consider two issues. First, the author…

A study explored changing family patterns among married middle and upper middle class women students over thirty with family intact. Eighty-seven homemaker-students enrolled at the Universlty of Maryland, College Park campus, during the spring semester, 1975, responded to a written questionnaire regarding their family patterns of decision making…