Informed by Bourdieu's conceptualisation of habitus and its relation with social class, this study explores the construction and negotiation of middle-class identity among a group of urban overseas returnees in China. Using ethnographic interviews and online observational data, the study found that participants built a compliant identity…

This article presents an explanation to the paradox of why increased household incomes in rural areas in China are accompanied by decreased motivation for consumption. The empirical analysis shows a reduction in rural residents' consumer spending with the exception of spending on medical treatment and education. This effect is stronger in poor…

Research on men's literacy practices, particularly their writing practices, is sparse. The purpose of this study was to examine the writing practices of adult men by focusing on why and how men write autobiographical comic zines and perzines of prose, poetry, and cartoons reflecting online and offline hybridity. A theory of writing as meaning…

Many studies have stressed the key role played by competitive sports in the socialization of boys, particularly in middle-class families. This article looks at the minority group of boys from this social class who dislike competition and participate in few, if any, sports. We present case studies of six boys and their families, interviewed on…

This article discusses the extent to which middle-class Christians, many of whom were progressive liberals, involved themselves in the Moral Instruction League (MIL) to intervene in 'improving' the moral character of the English working class. It considers how they reconciled their motivations and underlying theology with secular goals that sought…

This paper presents findings about teachers' and parents' perceptions of homework in a middle-class, primary school setting in Ireland, from a qualitative study that aimed to provide an insight into the neglected area of homework from the perspectives of two of the main stakeholders in the process. In-depth semi-structured interviews were…

This article adds to the literature on smart girlhood by exploring the topic through Karen Barad's theory of post-human performativity. We focus on the transcripts of two participants from a larger study on girls and academic success in Canada in order to highlight the material, discursive, embodied, and temporal entanglements that co-produce the…

The question of why we need to think about how we research race demands a conceptualization of race that captures both its social construction and its temporal evolution. We need both an understanding of race and clarity about how we talk about it in our design and conduct of research, and in how we interpret and apply it in our findings. As a…

In this study, we revisit the status of English relative to the African languages in South Africa by analysing new national data on the main language spoken outside the home. These data, which derive from the General Household Surveys of 2017 and 2018, complement commonly collected data on the main language spoken within the home. Our analysis…

Despite increasing consensus around strengthening school choice regulations to reduce its segregating effects, policy changes and research in this direction are scarce. In that context, this article tackles the recent equity-oriented reform introduced in the highly marketised Chilean school system. Based on in-depth interviews, we explore the…

This longitudinal study draws on family language policy (FLP) research to examine a group of Chinese parents' ideological beliefs, practices, and management efforts related to their children's learning of multiple languages, including Chinese, English, and Spanish in an international boarding school in China. Based on data analysis, including…

This study explores views on social fragmentation amongst participants from public and private high-achieving high schools in Mexico City. Whilst issues relating to social fragmentation have recently received more attention in Mexico, there is a lack of research in relation to the existing divisions amongst both school types. The paper aims to…

Educational transitions are crucial sites of social selection. Whereas social bias in teacher recommendations is well-established, less is known about teacher guidance in the process preceding the actual choice. Bridging the literature on social class and educational choice and home-school relations this study explores classed patterns in the…

As part of neoliberal reforms, evidence-based practice is increasingly influencing teachers' work. In Norway, the American programme 'School-Wide Positive Behavioural Intervention and Support' (SW_PBIS) has been implemented in a great number of schools. One school experienced an intense conflict with parents, so that eventually it opted out of the…

In this memoir, I accounted several episodes of my childhood of a middle class family in early 1990s in a Chinese urban city. Two major discourses permeated my account: the nationalism and socialism discourse and the upward social mobility discourse. While my family and I cherish the comfort and joy of everyday life enjoyed in the era of…