Our research constructed school life histories with 23 'lower-attaining' primary school children in England. Previous research has often failed to focus on the social justice aspects of this group, and no attempt has been made to contextualise children's misrecognition experiences within their full school life history, nor to hear primarily from…

Education and parenting are popular topics on social media. In China, it is now common practice for parents to discuss and share education-related information in WeChat, a premier Chinese social media app. In order to understand parents' educational aspirations in WeChat and the way parents fulfil their parenting responsibilities, this research…

This article considers the professional work, identity and recruitment of head teachers (HTs) in Wales. Drawing on the sociology of professions, the article illustrates how intensive educational policy reform post-2011 has restricted HTs' professional agency and re-orientated the head teacher role towards organisational professionalism. Drawing on…

This article assesses the chances of entering the top 5% of earners for a British cohort currently in their 40s. We assess the difference made by a university degree from an elite (Russell Group) or non-elite university, and from different undergraduate fields of study. Our study uses rich longitudinal data from the 1970 British Cohort Study…

This article throws light on the space and range of education professionals and their interventions against deviants understood as the "problem child" or the "ineducable child". The article argues these interventions played a central role in successfully establishing schools as social administrators in England during the…

Pervasive socio-economic differences in relation to participation in higher education in the United Kingdom are particularly prominent in the most prestigious institutions. This study provides insight into why some individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds are successful in being admitted into one of these institutions. Underpinned by…

Human capital theorists perceive of educational expansion as beneficial to individuals, corporations and national economies, while social closure theorists have claimed that inflation of credential requirements maintains traditional status inequalities. In this paper I argue that status inequalities are not only maintained by credential inflation,…

This article draws on data from two recently completed Economic and Social Research Council funded projects in order to examine class differences and similarities in choice of school and choice of childcare. The authors argue that there is every reason to believe that in many circumstances, within its particular mechanisms and practices, choice…

In spite of research showing that pupils--particularly boys--tend to experience tension between high academic achievement and popularity with peers at school, some pupils continue to maintain simultaneous production of both. This article focuses on a sample of 12-13 year-old pupils, identified as high achieving and popular, to examine classroom…

Labour market outcomes of undergraduates' choice of subject are important for public policy and for students. Policy interest is indicated by the prominence of "employability" in public discourse and in proposals to concentrate government funding in England in supporting STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).…

The data in this article come from an ethnographic exploration into the construction of masculinities in three junior schools in the UK between 1998 and 1999. The author argues that the construction and performance of masculinity is inextricably linked to the acquisition of status within the school peer group, and he delineates the specific series…

This article is a theoretical and empirical study of the ways in which different South Asian groups, Bangladeshi, Indian, and Pakistani, achieve entry into the selective education system, taking into consideration the factors of social class, ethnicity and culture. In-depth interviews with 42 South Asian school pupils from three single-sex…