There has been a rapid global expansion of English instruction in the early grades in public school curricula. Particularly in so-called developing countries, the increase of and its shift from exclusively private to public education is linked to the idea that acquiring English promotes personal, social, and economic development. The author takes…

This collection brings together many of the world's leading sociologists of education to explore and address key issues and concerns within the discipline. The thirty-seven newly commissioned chapters draw upon theory and research to provide new accounts of contemporary educational processes, global trends, and changing and enduring forms of…

In general, the lower-class student has been considered scholastically inferior to the child of middle-class origins. More specifically, such a child has frequently been explicitly or implicitly denied the benefits of a foreign language learning experience on the basis of his/her inability to cope with the difficulty level assumed to be inherent…

Research into student experience in Higher Education has largely focused on students' role as learners. However, the student experience encompasses a much wider range of behaviours and beliefs than can be captured through a focus on teaching and learning alone. I report the findings of a research project which explored student experience in the…

RESEARCH ON THE DEVELOPMENTAL ORIGINS OF THE CHARACTERISTICS OF DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN IS NOT AS IMPORTANT FOR SCHOOL PEOPLE AS IS SCHOOL-BASED RESEARCH. SUCH STUDIES FOCUS ON A TASK ANALYSIS APPROACH WHICH WOULD MATCH THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A STUDENTS BEHAVIOR WITH INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURES. ONE SPECIFIC PIECE OF RESEARCH STUDIED THE EFFECTS OF…