Although more students have formally gained access to higher education, universities continue to present students with norms and ideals that can function as invisible barriers to them. This paper investigates how norms and expectations in Danish higher education pose certain challenges to mature students, who, due to their age and often different…

This paper draws upon in-depth interviews with 89 students from two UK universities to explore how students from Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) degrees describe the ideal as well as the typical student in their respective disciplines. We provide a comparative insight into the similarities and differences between…

This article focuses on students' experiences of psychosocial problems and how these problems relate to the ideas of 'good students' in higher education. The empirical basis of the article is a qualitative research project following Danish students with a range of psychosocial problems. Forty-seven students were followed for up to 2 years, in…

Since the expansion of higher education, many rural students in China managed to enter urban universities. However, migrating across layers of structural constraints, those rural students faced dramatic transitions and challenges in the urban university. Drawing upon 50 rural students' narratives about their educational trajectories, I find that…

Care experienced and estranged students encounter profound material inequalities throughout their higher education journeys which demand our attention. However, cultural discriminations also pose problems. Both operate as social injustices which preclude them from being included, valued or seen as 'ideal' students, contributing towards inequitable…

In scholarly research, disabilities are predominantly understood as something that obscures assessment rather than enriches it. In this study, I examine how research on assessment adjustments (e.g. extra time in tests and separate testing rooms) portrays disabled students. I discuss how this area of research plays a role in constructing an image…

In market-oriented higher education (HE) systems, fee-paying students are positioned as customers, and studying is juxtaposed with service use. In this study, we investigate how students position themselves in relation to the student-as-customer discourse in Finnish HE, in which only students coming from outside the EU and EEA areas are charged…

Students attain cultural knowledge to navigate college admissions, yet few studies investigate when and how students activate this knowledge in a relatively transparent system. Drawing upon 26 Taiwanese student interviews, this study unveils how students strategically use available information to illuminate each step of the admission process. I…

Young people's unemployment and social exclusion -- the so-called 'youth problem' -- is one of the main focuses in Finnish youth policies. We examine youth policies and youth support systems by applying a framework of policy analysis developed by Carol Bacchi. We ask (1) what kind of problematisations in youth policies and their implementations…

Arab teachers in Jewish schools (AJ) constitute a unique case of minority teachers. This mixed-methods study set out to examine the school experience of AJ (N = 101) in comparison with two groups: Arab teachers in Arab schools (AA; N = 76) and Jewish teachers in Jewish schools (JJ; N = 99). The questionnaire measured three aspects of the teachers'…

In this article, we show how collaboration between Danish municipal primary and lower secondary schools ("folkeskoler") and elite sports clubs to establish SportsClasses enables schools to set parameters that align student-athletes' attitudes and behavior towards school and academic performance. Using neo-institutional theory, we show…

Teachers' work in India is impacted by the ongoing restructuring of school education that incorporates simultaneous attempts at reform and regulation. Child-friendly assessment policy instituted by the local bureaucracy leads to intensification of teachers' administrative roles, drawing their attention away from critical pedagogic ones.…

This article argues for using French pragmatic sociology to explore tensions regarding teachers' work, by studying critique formulated by teachers themselves. Based on interviews with teachers in Swedish adult education it shows how teachers labour to reconcile 'what is' with 'what should be' by voicing critique. The findings suggest that, while…

This paper emerges from a seven-year, ongoing relational poetics between two poets and their former secondary English teacher. Organized by the world's urgencies, the three authors have studied the force of poetry throughout incidences of violence against Black lives close to home and across the United States. This practice began in the classroom…

In this article I compare two studies, one pre- and one post-COVID-19, to consider the ethics of researching with children, especially during uncertain times. I argue that ethics are entwined with assumptions about children, 'voice', relational dynamics and representation. To reflect upon those assumptions and their ethical implications, I draw…