Amid concerns about the skewed socio-demographic composition of England's elite universities, this study sought to better understand what undergraduates from under-represented backgrounds found supportive in the process of them gaining an offer of admission from a prestigious university, and their social and academic experience of higher…

The secondary school transition is considered a critical life event by practitioners and researchers alike, and the challenges presented by the pupils during this transition continues to be high-profile in educational, social and political contexts. This study focused on Year 7 pupils aged 11 to 12 years old in their first year of secondary…

This paper describes a small-scale study conducted in England with a group of adult migrant and refugee ESOL learners. The study explores how participants conceptualised integration, and their perceptions of the relationship between learning English and integration. The findings highlight that the extent to which a person feels integrated, for…

Current youth policy in England and Wales utilises "transition" as the major framework for understanding young people's movement from "youth" to "adulthood". Underpinning this are developmental assumptions about who young people are and who they "should" become, especially with regard to sexuality.…

In this study of two hundred and thirty 8- to 13-year-olds, a new "Silent Films" task is introduced, designed to address the dearth of research on theory of mind in older children by providing a film-based analogue of F. G. E. Happe's (1994) Strange Stories task. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that all items from both tasks loaded…

This paper tells of the social experiences of three four-year-old children with learning disabilities as they negotiate their daily lives in their homes and early education settings in England. We apply a social model of childhood disability to the relatively unexplored territory of young children and use vignettes drawn from video observation to…

The research reported here was funded by the UK Department for Education and Skills to consider the influence of the school on the decision by young people to participate in learning on completion of compulsory schooling. A national sample of 24 schools across England participated in this study. Research methods included focus group interviews…

Memory of preschool children (four years of age) for companions was investigated by comparing interview data using a picture sociometric technique with observational data on actual play companions. Subjects were 15 boys and girls. (Author/MP)

Reviews letters and occasional writings of numerous British travelers to America and examines the informality of American life. Compares it to life in England. (RK)

Examined the academic and social integration experiences of English and Irish first-year preservice teachers. Survey data indicated that students in both countries were committed to their courses, satisfied with their choice of courses, and planning to continue the next year. They had high academic aspirations. English students appeared better…