Disadvantaged students have struggled to find equal opportunities in STEM; thus, it is critical to challenge global society's structures so that all students have equal opportunities to learn and become proficient in STEM subjects. To even begin to address STEM equality issues, action plans and solutions must address all tiers of society. However,…

Studies on the emergence of effects of socioeconomic inequality typically report that socioeconomic background is positively associated with early cognitive abilities. However, studies on looking behaviour in habituation tasks rarely investigate this association, although such tasks are standard in measuring cognitive abilities in infants. The…

In England, after the 2021 COVID-19 lockdowns, funded residential outdoor experiences were offered to young people from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds, with the aim of supporting their wellbeing, connection to nature, and confidence in working with peers. This study evaluated the impact of outdoor residentials (2-5 days) via a mixed methods…

Purpose: The significance of digital literacy in online social capital accumulation and surviving the contemporary society is widely recognised. Despite that the current generation is regarded as "digital natives", their levels and nature of digital literacy vary. To generate educational insights, this study investigates the type(s) of…

In 2018 the UK government launched a £50 million scheme to fund the expansion of existing grammar schools provided that they increase efforts to attract more pupils from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. This initiative assumed that grammar school attendance boosts the educational attainment and the higher education progression rates of…

Previous studies discussed the relationship between parental engagement and different forms of capital, such as cultural or social capital. The current study takes a step further by referring to digital capital. It examines the direct and mediating effects of parents' digital capital on their engagement in their children's learning. The study also…

In the digital age, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has enabled learning to happen everywhere, leading to a shift of schooling to the home field and strengthening parents' educational responsibilities. Meanwhile, it may also cause the digital divide and digital reproduction, thereby exacerbating educational inequality. Against this…

While interest in career optimism has grown steadily in the last 15 years, most of its investigations rely on cross-sectional convenience samples that prevent exploring how earlier optimism matters for later educational and vocational outcomes. To address this issue, I use structural equation modelling to assess measurement invariance and the…

In this paper we explore perspectives of academically successful students from low socio-economic status (LSES) backgrounds in an Australian university regarding their success. In response to initiatives arising from the Australian Government's 2008 "Review of Australian Higher Education," university cohorts have increasingly…

This work examines the choices of individuals with respect to higher education in the Czech Republic and Canada. Specifically, how do the students' socioeconomic backgrounds influence their study decisions. Data from the Czech edition of "The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions" survey and the "Canadian Survey…

One consequence of the widened participation in higher education (HE) is that the social demarcation line that once existed at the entrance to HE has moved inside the HE system. This study investigates how students experience social friction when demarcation lines are crossed and how such friction develops over time. This was achieved by repeated…

According to UNESCO, educating all children in the same classrooms, with adequate support and taking into consideration their different needs, provides benefits for everyone. However, public opinion about inclusive education is rarely uniform and often unsupportive. While public support for placing pupils with special needs in regular classes is…

The nature play movement has gained global attention, as early childhood spaces have been transforming from manufactured playgrounds to incorporating nature-based play spaces with a focus on natural elements and features. Despite the growing evidence base indicating that nature play is beneficial for children's health and development, there…

Applying a Bourdieusian perspective, we investigate whether families' institutionalized cultural capital (parental education) and economic capital (family income) are associated with the duration of university studies in Finland. We use register data comprising 10,516 students enrolled in universities between 1999 and 2002 and Tobit modeling. The…

Purpose: This study examines the relationship of principals' systems thinking (PST) to student outcomes of academic achievement and school violence. The investigation relies on the contingency theory, according to which effective leadership is contingent on the nature of the situational influences to which managers are exposed. Specifically, the…