In the last two decades, higher education institutions have invested significant resources to internationalise, due to economic, political, academic and cultural pressures. Students play a dual role in this process: as customers, selecting institutions based on respective reputations (including the international dimension) and as outputs of…

Sociological work on high ability is framed by social constructionist theorising and/or takes a social justice approach, and hence particular analytical intellectual traditions are foregrounded. Whilst these approaches have contributed the main critique of essentialist psychological understandings of high ability, they can eclipse normative…

Gifted education is leading an interdisciplinary paradigm shift moving education out of its historic role of entrenching systemic inequities. It is a crucible for pioneering investigations of optimal human development and provides a vehicle for increasing social equity. We review changing conceptions of intelligence, motivation and creativity, and…

This paper proposes the development of an enhanced sense of social responsibility in the use of talents and the creation of programmes and services that focus on the promotion of these traits among a wider student population. Selection of students for these offerings should not mirror the rigid identification of academically or intellectually…

This paper offers a conceptual analysis of ability discourse using the theoretical lens of critical whiteness studies and the methodological framework of critical discourse analysis. From its origins in the Progressive Era to contemporary debates on tracking, the concept of giftedness has been formed through racial projects throughout US history.…

This study aims to contribute to the fields of sociology of education and Canadian sociological teaching. English and French Canadian sociology of education course outlines were systematically analysed in order to assess how national context, language and internal divisions influence the undergraduate teaching of sociology of education. The…

The growth of surveillance in UK schools in recent years has resulted in the development of what can be labelled as the surveillance curriculum. Operating through the overt and hidden curricula, contemporary surveillance practices and technologies not only engage students in a discourse of control, but also increasingly socialise them into a…

This article explores the contribution of sociological scholarship to understanding and analysing the notions of "special educational needs" and "disability" and the ways in which the two notions have been reconfigured and theorised as "public issues" rather than "personal troubles". Barton's contribution is signified both in terms of his…

This paper draws on an ESRC-funded study of policy enactments in English secondary schools (RES-062-23-1484) based on case-study work in four similar "ordinary" schools. The study has two main objectives; to develop a theory of policy enactment and to explore empirically the differences in the enactment of policy in similar contexts. Taking these…

Based mainly on my own ethnographic research, which is committed to uncovering the constructed or "practiced" nature of social life, I seek to demonstrate the ways in which Australian school teachers, administrators, students and parents are engaged in a re-productive process that simultaneously reinforces and reinvents schools and schooling. Set…

This paper suggests that, in contrast to the great reports such as Crowther, Newsom Robbins and Plowden, recent government papers relating to education in England pay little attention to values that should shape the standards to be achieved, the knowledge to be transmitted and the virtues to be nourished. Whilst legislation over the past 60 years…

Higher education within the USA is increasingly perceived to be in a state of crisis. This crisis exposes the USA and its citizens to risks that spell out disaster whether it is from a loss of national global competitiveness, a reduction in the standard of living and/or deep challenges to social cohesion. The suggested remedy to this condition is…

This article is concerned with some of the theoretical and methodological complexities of collecting young people's preferences for sexuality education content and using them to inform educational practice. Data are drawn from focus groups and questionnaires undertaken by 16-19-year-olds. Participants' suggestions often reflect dominant discourses…

This article analyses the new educational mandate for Latin America, exploring its repercussions on the design and development of certain educational policies. In particular, it concentrates both on the anti-poverty educational agenda (at a global level) and on targeted educational policies (at a regional, national and local level), analyzing, on…

Following the resumption of Chinese sovereignty in 1997, the Hong Kong Government has introduced a new national education project which aims at building nationalism and patriotism. With an active involvement of the state and civil society in promoting national education in recent years, there have been certain drastic changes in the school…