This paper uses reports from 13,000 Grade Nine pupils in five countries to examine issues such as whether they were treated fairly at school, trust their teachers and adults in wider society, are willing to sacrifice teacher attention to help others, and support the cultural integration of recent immigrants. Using such reports as "outcomes" in a…

This paper re-considers some of the evidence for low and declining social mobility in Britain, showing that one study based on a re-analysis of cohort figures appears to have had an impact on policy-makers out of all proportion to its scale and rigor. The study claimed to show that the income of parents and children were more closely related for…

In "British Journal of Sociology of Education" Volume 29 number 3, 2008, Connolly presented what he termed a "critical review" of some of our previous work on the relative attainment of male and female students in UK schools. He proposed three general areas for criticism--our use of attainment gaps, our consideration of outcomes other than at…

There is a misconception among social scientists that statistical analysis is somehow a technical, essentially objective, process of decision-making, whereas other forms of data analysis are judgement-based, subjective and far from technical. This paper focuses on the former part of the misconception, showing, rather, that statistical analysis…

This paper is based on 1001 home-based interviews with UK adults. It describes their varying patterns of participation in lifelong learning and their use of technology for learning and leisure. It finds that 37% of all adults report no further education of any kind after reaching compulsory school leaving age. This proportion declines with each…

Focuses on two general groups of methods that can be used to calculate achievement gaps between groups of students. States that the methods produce radically different results. Considers both of these methods and related problems in the calculation of achievement gaps in solving the contradiction between the two methods. Includes references. (CMK)