The present study ascertains the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and students' science self-efficacy using data involving 509,182 15-year-old students and 17,678 school principals in 69 countries/regions who participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015. Hierarchical linear modelling results show…

There is considerable evidence that parents/guardians play an important role in their children's education. The supportive behaviours of parents have important implications for children's learning. However, most research in this area has focused primarily on the perspectives of school leaders, teachers and parents. One area that thus remains…

James Callaghan's speech at Ruskin College, Oxford in October 1976 is widely considered a pivotal moment in modern English educational policy. Whilst it is not our intention to challenge this fundamental point, the paper will critically interrogate some long-held assumptions about the motivation that led Callaghan to deliver his speech at Ruskin…

This paper explores how participants in a Swedish secondary school do gender talk with comics. Swedish schools are tasked with working with gender, but this can be a challenge for many teachers, and finding materials to work with gender aspects can be difficult. Meanwhile, literary research on comics has shown them to be a potential tool for…

The education systems of the four UK nations are diverging, and the education system in Wales is undergoing major reform with substantially increased emphasis on health and wellbeing. Understanding the implementation of major policy and system reforms requires an understanding of system histories and starting points. This study aimed to explore…

There is a growing consensus that existing arrangements for policy making in education are far from optimal. This paper is about policy making and the roles of--and relationships between--elected officials, civil servants and academics in the making of policy. It aims to open up a conversation about new ways of making education policy that make…

Although self-assessing one's knowledge is an integral part of a teacher's professional development, little is known about the accuracy of teacher candidates' self-assessments. In particular, not much attention has been paid to their self-assessment accuracy assessed on an individual level. Using measures from research on metacognition, we…

This study presents some of the current methodological issues regarding the analysis and comprehension of educational policy transfer, with particular emphasis on the issue of structure and agency. It suggests some shortcomings of current educational policy transfer research in dealing with the complex interaction between structure and agency. To…

Education is key to the structural integration of immigrants and their children. While research indicates that educational inequalities by migration background are a serious issue, relatively little is known about when, how and why they develop. The current paper adds to the literature by investigating to what extent achievement gaps by migration…

The growth, internationally, in professional doctorates over the last 25 years has been well documented, as are the forms, fields and disciplines that such doctorates embrace. Yet relatively little is known about the professional tensions teachers encounter, in relation to their positionality, when carrying out doctoral research in the schools…

Many countries have introduced flexibility in their admissions equivalents for tertiary education, allowing students to apply with vocational rather than academic qualifications at upper secondary level. However, entrants with vocational qualifications are generally less likely to succeed at university. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are…

There have been significant increases in the number of children sent to non-maintained special schools in recent years. To assess the extent of this trend and its probable consequences, Freedom of Information requests about spending on private special schools were sent to a stratified sample of 24 local authorities in England. The responses…

As food supply practices must adapt to the reality of limited natural resources, alternative solutions must be found to meet the dietary needs of a growing world population. Edible insect consumption represents a sustainable substitute to that of conventional meat. Psychological barriers are largely responsible for dictating Westerners' aversion…

In recent years, as evidenced in the transnational proliferation of codified competence frameworks for teacher education purposes, we have seen the increased politicisation and regulation of the task of teaching and what it means to be a teacher. Making the case for an ethico-political conceptualisation of teacher identity and, using a…

Higher education institutions in England, Scotland and Wales have an obligation under the 2015 Counter Terrorism and Security Act to protect students from being drawn into terrorism. This legislation has proved controversial, with concerns about the securitisation of education, as well as fears of over-reporting which could stigmatise individuals…