Holding students back when they do not meet a specific attainment level is common practice in a lot of countries. However, this practice is not without controversy and recent studies point at the negative effects of grade retention, especially in the long-term. The majority of these studies focused on grade retention in primary education. In our…

This article intends to identify the effects of school social capital on the educational plans of students, particularly those staying in school and obtaining an intermediate certificate. It is hypothesised that social capital helps to explain individual educational plans and differences between schools regarding the amount of students with…

In Ireland, policy on literacy now aims to expand the role that post-primary teachers of all subjects have in developing students' literacy skills. This paper draws on data from a wider research study carried out in secondary schools in 2010 and focuses on the classroom support with disciplinary literacy provided by subject teachers for…

In recent years, music at Leaving Certificate level has come under increasing focus in media and higher education discourse as an easy option. In particular, scant attention has been paid to the musical knowledge and skills needed in the transition to higher music education within the Irish context. This paper addresses the perceived gap in…

The article explores the Social Guarantee Programmes, one measure at attending to diversity within the Spanish educational system. It is an alternative measure that aims to break away from the organisational structure of Obligatory Secondary Education, seeking an organisational model and educational strategies that pursue satisfactory results…

This article explores the legacy of John Dewey, reconsidered and reconstructed within the challenging context of neo-liberal globalization. A free-market approach to the delivery of public education and other social services has come to dominate public policy, with increasingly well-documented and potentially devastating consequences. As prospects…

This paper presents findings from a comparative analysis of three similar secondary geometry texts, one critical unit, one standards-based reform unit, and one specialist chapter. I developed the critical unit as I took the tenets of critical mathematics (CM) and substantiated them in printed curricular materials in which to teach as part of a…

This essay presents the theoretical framework and main results of a research on intercultural mediation which has been performed in eight multicultural classrooms of Italian secondary schools. Intercultural mediation is conceived as a form of dialogic communication which should empower empathic and equal relationships between the participants by…

In this article, we use data from the Canadian Youth in Transition Survey (YITS). This survey has followed longitudinally the Canadian Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) students originally surveyed in 2000. The aim of this article is to look to what extent social factors (e.g. gender, parental education and socio-economic…

This study explains early school-leaving in lower secondary education in the Netherlands, taking into account background characteristics, family resources and school composition factors at the same time. We distinguish four groups of school-leavers: "dropouts" (those without any qualification), those who leave school with a diploma in lower…

This study focuses on the relationship between teacher education and graduates' intended and actual entrance into teaching. Moreover, it explores how this relationship differs for two types of initial teacher training for secondary education. A hypothetical model of graduates' entrance into the teaching profession comprising empirically grounded…

Education is for anarchism, and what can very broadly be termed "autonomism"--that is, the many different schools of non-Leninist Marxism--of paramount importance in creating a society worthy of humanity, but this is not a simple formula of countering the dominant mode of institutional indoctrination known as schooling with libertarian propaganda,…

This article discusses an empirical study on the use of history as a goal. A historical module is designed and implemented in a Danish upper secondary class in order to study the students' capabilities at engaging in meta-issue discussions and reflections on mathematics and its history. Based on videos of the implementation, students' hand-in…

Research has shown the importance of students' perceptions of a learning environment and the existence of discrepancies between students' and teachers' perceptions. Participatory design could be a helpful strategy to reduce such discrepancies and eventually improve the design of learning environments, as it has proven to be effective to optimize…

Despite a recent economic downturn, there is considerable political and industry pressure to retain or even increase the number of scientists in the UK and other developed countries. Claims are made that the supply of scientists (including engineers and mathematicians) is crucial to the economy and the health of the nation, and a large number of…