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…

'Enterprise' has increasingly become part of the United Kingdom's political grammar and efforts to develop entrepreneurial traits and activities in young people have been a key strand of this policy focus. As the 2008 economic recession saw a curtailed youth labour market, enterprise emerged as an appealing policy 'solution' to youth unemployment.…

This paper focuses on the ways in which five- to seven-year-old primary school children in a Black/African township in South Africa construct and experience 'free play' in the classroom. Findings highlight the gendered manner in which play is constructed and constantly policed by these young children during 'free play'. By foregrounding the young…

The purpose of this article is to examine how media-generated professional identities in the culinary sector are reflected in Danish male cookery students' narratives about their own identity, experiences and expectations about the trade. Hence, this study takes its starting point in studies that show how the broad popularity of the culinary…

Facilitators and barriers to recess physical activity are not well understood. To date, research on recess physical activity has predominantly focused on quantitative measures typically focusing on a narrow set of predefined factors, often constructed by adults. To really understand the factors affecting recess physical activity it is crucial to…

Using participant observation and interview data, the author explores interactional styles that men and women chemists-in-training (graduate students and postdoctoral fellows) use to navigate expertise within their research groups. The author finds that men are more likely than women to employ styles that feature their expertise when in group…

As America's K-12 student population continues to become more diverse, it is important that the ethnic background of the teacher population reflect this change. A crucial aspect of this diversification effort includes black male teachers. The purpose of this study was to explore and examine the experiences and perspectives of African American male…

Being a good teacher depends on many cultural and linguistic assumptions. Dominant definitions of a good teacher are often based on these implicit assumptions. Probing notions of a good teacher, we examine the endeavors of a Chinese international pre-service teacher, Ling, to become a "good teacher" through her encounters with…

Using ethnographic data from 10 months of observations in nine preschool classrooms, I examine gendered sexual socialization children receive from teachers' practices and reproduce through peer interactions. I find heteronormativity permeates preschool classrooms, where teachers construct (and occasionally disrupt) gendered sexuality in a number…

This paper reports an aspect of a larger study on literacy practices, needs and perceptions of artisans in a part of the South West region of Nigeria. Using an ethnographic approach to research, it identified a variety of literacy practices, events and mediums, thus confirming the notion of literacy as social practice. The study employed a…

Purpose: Waste management is a critical element of the campus sustainability movement in which Nigerian universities are yet to actively participate. The purpose of this study was to investigate prevalent waste management practices and the disposition of undergraduate students in a Nigerian University. Design/methodology/approach: Data collection…

The upper secondary school is in Sweden practically mandatory even though attendance is voluntary and today almost all students in Sweden continue their studies at upper secondary school. But not all of them leave this school with a complete certificate of schooling as a result of experiencing a range of difficulties which may be due to cognitive,…

This paper is based on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork in the periphery of Banjul, the capital of The Gambia. It explores relations between the gender roles of women with modest educational achievement and their uses of literacy and numeracy. The paper applied New Literacy Studies theoretical framework of literacy as a "social…

Critical theory and research has shown that subjects carry gendered meanings. Numbers opting for Religious Studies (RS) have remained skewed towards girls. Drawing from post-structuralism and masculinities theory, this article critically analyses data from interviews with a group of key stage four boys who had opted for Religious Studies in…

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in an Islamic teachers' college in Israel and interviews with women lecturers, this article explores how the women combine education and religion to create a revitalized self and sense of belonging despite lived experiences of structural racial, national, and gender inequalities. The women's experience is understood…