Newly precise evidence of the trajectory of top incomes in the United States and around the world relies on shares and ratios, prompting new inquiry into their properties as inequality measures. Current evidence suggests a mathematical link between top shares and the Gini coefficient and empirical links extending as well to the Atkinson measure.…

Reflecting through the prisms of past, present ("the shape of things that are and were") and future ("the shape of things to come"), this paper discusses three challenges for sociology of education: the rise of populism and declining faith in 'experts'; inequities within and re/produced by the sociology of education; and how to…

This paper suggests that distributed leadership is a vital first step in making schools flexible enough to respond to new pressures. However, it is then argued that distributed leadership per se does not necessarily imply a commitment to a particular stance on issues of social justice, such as equality, but rather that this can only flow from…

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen an unprecedented shutdown of society. Among the various safety measures taken, much attention has been given to school closure as a non-pharmaceutical mitigation tool to curb the spread of the disease through ensuring "social" (physical) distancing. Nearly 1.725 billion children in over 95% of countries…

Teacher turnover negatively impacts educational quality. This study investigates whether schools' socioeconomic composition (SES), teachers' teachability perceptions, emotional exhaustion and teacher efficacy impact teachers' intention to quit and transfer schools. Through multilevel analysis on data of 1247 teachers in 59 Flemish schools, our…

This paper presents Paulo Freire (1921-1997), on the centenary of his birth in 2021, as a global icon in education, whose actions, reflections and writings, as well as dialogues and talks, occurred against the background of an ever globalising world. To quote Martin Carnoy on a text concerning globalisation, published two years following Freire's…

Rurality is known to be associated with a number of weaker educational outcomes, from lower attainment through to lower social mobility. This is why so much policy and practitioner focus has been directed at addressing the rurality gap in educational outcomes. In this paper, we use pupil-level data for Scotland to contribute to two dimensions of…

High school teachers often struggle to engage students who have little or no motivation to learn. We argue that improving students' perceptions of affective relationships with teachers may have the potential to positively influence their motivation, and vice versa. This study looks at reciprocal associations between students' perceptions of the…

To explore potential effects of disadvantage on engagement and attainment under different teaching and assessment regimes, the influence of pedagogic changes implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on attainment and engagement of students from different backgrounds were compared using a cohort-study design. Learner analytics and attainment data…

This international, phenomenological study involved marginalised individuals who completed higher education despite their socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. Two subsamples included first-in-family college graduates; 16 Roma professionals in the Czech Republic and 29 Native American academics across the United States. Due to the…

Non-parent mentoring relationships are important protective factors for first-generation college students. Previous research has focused on singular mentoring relationships measured at one time point, failing to capture the breadth and dynamic nature of social networks. The current study is a longitudinal investigation of first-generation…

Studies consistently show the detrimental effect of school absences on pupils' achievement. However, due to an accumulation of multiple risks, school absenteeism may be more harmful to achievement among pupils from lower socioeconomic status (SES). Using a sample of upper-secondary students from the Scottish Longitudinal Study (n = 3,135), we…

Known for decades but with minimal change, the underrepresentation of minority and low socioeconomic students in gifted programs has been a concern that needs to be brought to the forefront and addressed. Despite increasing diversity in schools and heightened attention to equity, the ongoing apprehension of underrepresentation remains. This…

How are Americans' perceptions of their economic lives related to their perceptions of their agency (internal efficacy) and institutional responsiveness (external efficacy) in the political realm? We use the American Voices Project data to listen to such perceptions using in-depth, holistic analysis of a subsample of cases. We find that…

This paper assesses equality in Irish post-primary education, focusing on the provision of state-funded education and specifically on the provision of schools not segregated by religion, gender, or the charging of fees. Using the concept of the educational landscape, it integrates a macro-micro perspective that combines an analysis of national…