This paper examines the effect of birth order on educational attainment in the United States and the underlying mechanism producing these effects. Using a family fixed effects model, we find negative birth order effects on educational outcomes. However, this effect varies depending on the household's income, being the strongest for households with…

Purpose: The significance of digital literacy in online social capital accumulation and surviving the contemporary society is widely recognised. Despite that the current generation is regarded as "digital natives", their levels and nature of digital literacy vary. To generate educational insights, this study investigates the type(s) of…

In 2018 the UK government launched a £50 million scheme to fund the expansion of existing grammar schools provided that they increase efforts to attract more pupils from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. This initiative assumed that grammar school attendance boosts the educational attainment and the higher education progression rates of…

Previous studies discussed the relationship between parental engagement and different forms of capital, such as cultural or social capital. The current study takes a step further by referring to digital capital. It examines the direct and mediating effects of parents' digital capital on their engagement in their children's learning. The study also…

In the digital age, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has enabled learning to happen everywhere, leading to a shift of schooling to the home field and strengthening parents' educational responsibilities. Meanwhile, it may also cause the digital divide and digital reproduction, thereby exacerbating educational inequality. Against this…

While interest in career optimism has grown steadily in the last 15 years, most of its investigations rely on cross-sectional convenience samples that prevent exploring how earlier optimism matters for later educational and vocational outcomes. To address this issue, I use structural equation modelling to assess measurement invariance and the…

Disruptive events such as economic recessions, natural disasters, job loss, and divorce are highly prevalent among American families. These events can have a long-lasting impact when experienced during childhood, potentially altering academic achievement, socioemotional well-being, health and development, and later life socioeconomic status. Much…

Although undergraduates from all class backgrounds work while attending college, little is known about how students approach finding work and the benefits they reap from different on-campus roles. Drawing on interviews with 110 undergraduates at Harvard University, we show that in the absence of clear institutional expectations surrounding…

The current study was designed to identity if and to what extent differences in motivation exist between high school students, for whom school is mandatory, and undergraduate students in tertiary institutions, who make an active choice to study in an academic institution. This study also explores whether and to what extent motivation affects the…

In this paper we explore perspectives of academically successful students from low socio-economic status (LSES) backgrounds in an Australian university regarding their success. In response to initiatives arising from the Australian Government's 2008 "Review of Australian Higher Education," university cohorts have increasingly…

This work examines the choices of individuals with respect to higher education in the Czech Republic and Canada. Specifically, how do the students' socioeconomic backgrounds influence their study decisions. Data from the Czech edition of "The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions" survey and the "Canadian Survey…

One consequence of the widened participation in higher education (HE) is that the social demarcation line that once existed at the entrance to HE has moved inside the HE system. This study investigates how students experience social friction when demarcation lines are crossed and how such friction develops over time. This was achieved by repeated…

According to UNESCO, educating all children in the same classrooms, with adequate support and taking into consideration their different needs, provides benefits for everyone. However, public opinion about inclusive education is rarely uniform and often unsupportive. While public support for placing pupils with special needs in regular classes is…

Programming and creative thinking are important skills for the twenty-first century. A large body of evidence suggests that a playful approach to learning helps children engage deeply with programming, improves their creative thinking skills, and shapes a positive attitude towards programming. However, such research has rarely considered how…

Several decades of research has found that early education and care can have a positive effect on children's cognitive, behavioural and social outcomes, particularly if it is of high quality, and particularly for disadvantaged children. However, less is known about the optimum number of hours, including whether this differs by socio-economic…