This study examines the nature and extent of extracurricular activities in the Palestinian Arab, Jewish Religious and Jewish Secular educational sectors (Israeli education system also includes the Ultra-Orthodox sector with its own management, monitoring and governance apparatus.) in Israel, in order to characterise the contextual variables that…

In the course of educational expansion, student populations have become more diverse. This paper represents an international literature review on the topic of first-generation students (FGS), i.e. students whose parents have not obtained a higher education qualification. On the basis of more than 70 research articles and reports on FGS from…

The article analyses the main benefits of a Portuguese programme, launched in 1996, which was designed to support schools in segregated districts (TEIPs). The first part of the article presents a theoretical framework, before moving on to the main features of the TEIP programme in contemporary Portuguese society and education. An explanation of…

This paper examines the theoretical perspectives I utilised in my doctoral research to uncover the role of class and gender in my respondents' stories and experiences of their career success. I argue that adopting an economic model for conceptualising the influence of social class and gender in the respondents' stories and experiences of their…

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…

This paper presents a critical analysis of the transnational interplay of cultural, educational and economic forces that culminated with the establishment of a Chinese language and cultural centre in Peru, the Confucius Institute. Confucius Institutes are government-sponsored cultural centres devoted mainly to Chinese language education around the…

This paper's topic is the educational upward mobility of members of the working class. It seeks to find out what makes educational success possible and aims to build a theory of educational upward mobility. Data have been collected through biographical-narrative interviews of Austrian graduates from working-class backgrounds. Their narratives have…

This article explores the influence of relationships on student achievement by examining empirical evidence and by adopting a social psychological theory. Initially, the issue is addressed from a national, Swedish context. Thereafter, two general questions are raised: (1) What is the influence of relationships on student achievement, according to…

This paper examines three recent accounts of what has allegedly gone wrong with the school curriculum in England in recent years and their prescriptions for remedying these ills--all three accounts sharing strong proposals to reinstate "knowledge" at the heart of the curriculum. These analyses, despite some significant similarities, come from very…

This paper analyses the educational attainment of Tajikistani adults born between 1947 and 1989. Adults in the oldest cohorts completed school during the educational expansion of the Soviet period and the youngest cohorts completed their education in the post-Soviet period, which was marked by educational contraction. To date, there is not a clear…

This paper presents some of the findings that emerged out of a national survey carried out in the school year 2005-2006 in various parts of Greece. The main aim of the study was to explore the effects of various "family" factors on the "student performance" in the (national) higher education entrance examinations. From the analysis of data it…

In this paper, I first examine how the dominant view of children as incompetent is constructed in the field of sociology, highlighting the constructions of them as playful, vulnerable and passive. Then, I deconstruct these dominant constructions and argue that they do not do children justice. To restore justice to children through reconstructing…

The paper reflects upon the principles and practice of an alternative educational system operating in rural Mexico in the light of Bourdieu's theory of cultural and social reproduction. Bourdieu's theory seeks to explain processes of reproduction of power relations within schools and society; whereas alternative educational systems seek to expand…

It is widely recognised that higher education is crucial for socio-economic growth in developing countries. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is lagging behind in this regard in spite of a strong expansion of universities in the last decades. However, this growth may have led to a deterioration of the quality of higher education. There is no dearth of…

The publication of "Trading in Futures" and "When Schools Compete" helped give empirical support to the view that choice policies increased differences between schools. However, dispute about this research and changes in policy mean that our understanding of the impact of school choice policies in New Zealand remains partial. This paper aims to…