Publishing is a critical avenue for scholars and a significant challenge for Chinese doctoral students. This study employs online ethnography to examine discussions on academic publishing anomie in the 'Graduated Group', including interviews with 10 doctoral students to explore the dynamics of academic misconduct. Under the high-pressure…

This article aims to address the research question of which educational strategies are employed by upper milieus to establish or maintain the 'structure of distances' in the field of higher education in late modernity. Inspired by Bourdieu's theory of social reproduction and conflict, the study examined 95 qualitative interviews conducted with…

While students of immigrant origin often face difficulties during their school career, their educational aspirations and expectations have been found to be relatively high. Less is known, however, about the aspirations and expectations of students of migrant descent in more recent countries of immigration. Furthermore, occupational expectations…

Chinese student mobility has diversified with the rise of educational hubs in Asia. However, the literature primarily focuses on student mobility to Anglophone universities. This study conceptualises Chinese students studying in South Korea as participating in a positional competition, wherein the concepts of middling mobility and emerging…

Precipitated by a recent policy focus on diversifying Ireland's homogeneous teaching profession, there is an emerging research base focused on the experiences of teachers from under-represented groups. However, the life stories of teachers from lower socio-economic groups remain underexplored. Responsive to the mostly atheoretical nature of…

Although women are increasingly entering male-dominated careers, they remain strongly underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) occupations. While previous explanations emphasize the importance of individual preferences or family socialization, less is known about how the school context contributes to these…

Despite the overwhelming focus on young people who are at either end of the educational or social spectrum in policy and research, vast numbers of young people do not reside at these extremes. Consequently, there have been calls to focus more closely on young people who reside in the 'middle.' This paper considers the utility of the concept of a…

Transnational distinction is highly relevant in an age when western degree inflation intersects with harsh gender expectations for Chinese women student migrants, a significant group of players in the scene of UK higher education. Drawing on participant observation and interview data and building on existing theories of cultural capital, this…

This article provides a critical sociological examination of how Hong Kong youth's relationship towards Chinese identity and China is negotiated vis-a-vis schooling, language policy, and the broader Hong Kong postcolonial condition, and how this mediates these students' aspirational imaginations regarding possibilities of studying and working in…

This article examines how girls and boys choose their tertiary field of study and how the different factors driving their choices contribute to gender segregation in higher education (GSHE) in France. We present seven theoretical explanations for GSHE, review the relevant literature and discuss their applicability to the French context. Using rich…

This project investigated the postsecondary education aspirations of 27 secondary school-aged students living in greater London, England and greater Boston, Massachusetts, USA. An innovative research design was implemented to support a technology-facilitated international focus group allowing for exchanges between the US and English students.…

This paper examines the importance of "self-determination" and "hard work" found within interviews with a group of young people in Manchester, England. The author suggests that moments of apparent contradiction within the interviews have much to offer, particularly when analysed in relation to discussions of inequality and…

The long-standing relationship between social disadvantage and poor educational outcomes continues to preoccupy educational policy-makers, with teachers at the front line of the ongoing struggle. Across the range of equity concerns, gender may be noted as either qualifying disadvantage or compounding it, but the meaning of gender as a simple…

This paper uses Raymond Boudon's model of educational expansion to examine the relationship between education and social mobility, paying particular attention to post-compulsory education--an important site of social differentiation in England. The paper shows how Boudon focuses explicitly on the consequences of educational expansion, and argues…

This paper provides a critical appraisal of approaches to reflexivity in sociology. It uses data from social network research to argue that Archer's approach to reflexivity provides a valuable lens with which to understand how people navigate their education and career pathways. The paper is also critical of Archer's methodology and typology of…