This article explores the phenomenon of country houses repurposed as private schools. It investigates the population of English schools within the Headmasters and Headmistresses Conference and the Girls' Schools Association and finds that some 55 of these schools are partially housed within former country houses, with 19 in Grade I listed…

The way in which young people's post-school intentions and pathways reflect their social background has been the subject of a good deal of research. However, much less attention has been paid to social differentiation in the amount and kind of career guidance information received by young people and its role in reinforcing or ameliorating social…

A literature review published in 2008 outlined known relationships between gender, ethnicity, and academic attainment in UK higher education. In the period since this publication, many changes to the higher education sector have occurred, including raising tuition fees, an increased focus on widening participation, and an increasing interest in…

Highly selective higher education institutions (HEIs) are simultaneously mandated to enable access for populations which have traditionally been excluded ('equality'), and to ensure that admitted students have the potential to succeed in higher education ('excellence'). This article uses original empirical case study data from 2018, from nine…

The vocational and academic routes that make up the English education system have different purposes, for different stakeholders, with different outcomes; they can be complementary routes but are not analogous. Consequently, calls for parity of esteem belie the fundamental intention and importance of each. While these calls have persisted for over…

The enrolment of Chinese middle-class children in elite international kindergartens is a big education industry in China. Our paper is situated in the broader sociology of elite schooling which has yet to fully explore how middle and upper middle-class parents are increasingly sending their children to elite international kindergartens. We present…

This paper analyses the way in which 'international' is mobilised in relation to international student mobility (ISM), focusing on three areas in particular: its role in motivating students to undertake ISM; how it shapes experiences of ISM; and, finally, how conceptions of the international influence the impacts of ISM (in terms of students'…

With reference to a village in a predominantly tribal part of Rajasthan, this paper illustrates the increasing heterogeneity of the rural educational landscape and examines different patterns of enrolment within this. While the findings confirm those of more macro-level studies using the four official social categories, intra-category differences…

Despite a wide international literature on the effect of vocational and general education on school-to-work transition, relatively little is known about the role of having studied specific subjects in explaining inequalities in young people's labour market outcomes. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining differences in employment chances of…

The paper sets out to challenge the notions of "affordable" private schools in the context of South Africa. It is guided by one main question: "affordable private schools for whom?" It argues that, contrary to claims by its public and private proponents, affordable private schools in South Africa do not cater for poor children.…

This paper considers whether subject choice at 14-16 influences post-16 transitions, taking into account prior academic attainment and school characteristics, and if so, whether this accounts for socioeconomic, gender, and ethnic differences in access to post-16 education. We consider post-16 progression to full-time education, A-levels, and…

This paper reports on findings from a three-year ethnographic study of 24 young people in northern England who were classified as not in education, employment or training (NEET), or at risk of becoming so. Drawing on conceptions of opportunity structure and educational marginality, the paper discusses the processes leading to young people becoming…

There are large social class inequalities in educational achievement in the UK. This paper quantifies the contribution of one mechanism to the production of these inequalities: social class differences in school "effectiveness," where "effectiveness" refers to a school's impact on pupils' educational achievement (relative to…

The work of John Furlong on school and classroom ethnography is located in its context and its achievements celebrated. The paper focuses on class, ethnicity and gender issues as it explores the changes and continuities in the ethnography of education over the 66-year period covered. The qualities of a good ethnographer are playfully compared to…

This paper uses data from the 1970 Birth Cohort Study in the UK to explore the well-established link between "liberal" social values and education. Whilst the link itself is well-established, the underlying mechanism is not; the paper explores empirically mechanisms that have been proposed for this link. In particular it considers the…