At a time when the public sector and state education (in the United Kingdom) is under threat from the encroaching marketisation policy and private finance initiatives, our research reveals white middle-class parents who in spite of having the financial opportunity to turn their backs on the state system are choosing to assert their commitment to…

Tony Blair's period as Head of the Labour Government from 1997 until 2007 has been heralded as a period of increased parental power and growing choice within education. However, beneath the rhetoric, Blair's legacy has been one of consolidating and re-inforcing previous Conservative policies that stressed parental responsibilities whilst operating…

In this article, I argue for a closer read of the daily "class work" of teachers, as posited by Reay, 1998. In developing exploratory class portraits of four teachers who occupy distinctive social positions (two from working-class homes now teaching upper-middle-class children and two from upper-middle-class homes now teaching poor children), I…

English has always occupied the most privileged position in the South African economy, yet legislative and material provision emphasised bilingual or trilingual education prior to political change in 1994. Educational changes since this time have been accompanied by ambiguous stances towards languages other than English in the classroom. Whilst…

A number of countries, including Ireland, have experienced a recent growth in the prevalence of "shadow education", that is, paid private tuition outside the schooling system. Previous international studies have indicated that such tuition can enhance academic performance and facilitate access to tertiary education. However, such studies…

This study charted the development of gendered personality qualities and activity interests from age 7 to age 19 in 364 first- and second-born siblings from 185 White, middle/working-class families, assessed links between time in gendered social contexts (with mother, father, female peers, and male peers) and gender development, and tested whether…

Across the nation, policymakers are paying increasing attention to the latest research on early childhood development--from brain development to cost-benefit analyses to longitudinal studies--and they are coming away with one conclusion: high-quality pre-kindergarten programs make the most of young children's immense learning potential and give…

This article analyses the impact of social class on the process of school choice in Spain from the viewpoint of middle-class families. This practice must be seen in the framework of the new social context generated by the information society. The article begins by briefly describing changes in school choice policies in Spain. For a wider…

This paper reports how students talk about their aspirations in regard to higher education (HE) and their mathematics, what "repertoires" they use to mediate this discourse, and how students' predominant "repertoire style" relates to their cultural background. Our analyses draw on an interview sample (n=40) of students selected…

This paper examines the impact of gender on white middle-class parents' anxiety about choosing inner-city comprehensives and their children's subsequent experiences within school, particularly in relation to social mixing. Drawing on interview data from an ESRC funded study of white middle-class parents whose children attend inner-city…

Students come from different socioeconomic levels in society. Thus, they do not come to school with equivalent background experiences. Students from upper and middle class socioeconomic communities do better in test results as compared to those who come from poverty homes. By viewing mandated test results, it is quite obvious that money assists in…

In February 1899, the Committee of Physical Culture of the Chicago Public School Board approved an intensive "anthropometric" study of all children enrolled in the city's public schools. The study was a detailed attempt to measure the height, weight, strength, lung capacity, hearing, and general fitness of Chicago's student population.…

The development of early childhood education (ECE) in Europe and beyond is inextricably linked with women's roles and power in society. Towards the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century in a context of urbanisation and industrialisation the need for some sort of public childcare became apparent in many countries. Whereas…

This report marks the inaugural edition of a regular summary report in Brookings' "State of Metropolitan America" series. It focuses on the major demographic forces transforming the nation and large metropolitan areas in the 2000s. In this sense, it previews what people will learn from the results of the 2010 census, as well as supplements those…