Despite the fact that precarious modes of employment have become increasingly common in academic careers, studies have shown that precarious contracts are often hidden and masked within higher education structures. This has important implications for the identities of those on such contracts. This paper uses Goffman's work on stigma, 'spoiled…

Schools have a duty of care to children that extends beyond educational performance to include wellbeing and welfare. Yet, research has highlighted the tensions that arise when 'care' and 'learning' are treated as binaries, especially when schools operate within unequal socio-­economic conditions. Extended COVID-19 school closures brought these…

This article contributes to the sociology of education and technology by providing a cultural analysis of scepticism towards new technologies in school, using reactions to the telepresence robot 'AV1' as its case. AV1 is designed to connect 'homebound' students with their 'school-based' teachers and classmates. Despite its idealistic purpose, the…

This paper explores the ways in which white monolingual and monocultural English teachers articulate racial issues and conceptualise the racial identities of multiply-marginalised students in the classroom context. Drawing on the work of Charles Mills, this contribution aligns with an understanding of white supremacy as a means to historically…

This article reports findings from a small-scale research project which explored the professional identities of early career teachers working in primary academies in England. During interviews and focus groups, these new teachers resisted identifying as 'academy teachers,' constructing academy status as an unimportant feature when deciding where…

This paper examines how critical thinking is perceived and transmitted in higher education (HE) classrooms using two Vietnamese undergraduate programmes as case studies. The analysis of semi-structured interviews with teachers, supervisors and institutional leaders from both programmes reveals transmission of critical thinking is impacted upon by…

Using data from the Millennium Cohort Study, this article contributes to research on disproportionate special needs identification of ethnic and language minority students in England. It addresses the reasons behind such disproportionalities. By considering a comparatively broad set of indicators on students' abilities, behaviours and exposure to…

Some Indonesian teachers have entangled alternative versions in their teachings on the 1965 affair, a controversial vicious and political event in Indonesia, to counterbalance or even contest the communist coup narrative in the history lesson curriculum and school textbooks. Employing the sociological tools of Margaret Somers, this paper dissects…

This paper draws upon Foucault's problematisation of "governmentality" analysis to explore teacher interviews from Australian secondary schools, where student voice was 'enacted' within a teacher assessment reform strategy. By bringing teacher voices into relation with theory, it illustrates how the current 'sociality of performativity'…

This article, based on Basil Bernstein's theoretical framework, aims to contribute to the sociological analysis of the impact of space on the formation of the pedagogical practices of the teachers who teach Arts in Primary education. Data were collected using the research methods of observation and interview on a sample of 20 Art teachers in…

The use of zero-hours contracts (ZHCs) has been associated with the transfer of risk away from corporate employers and towards individual employees. In universities increasing numbers of teaching staff are employed on such contracts. Academics from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds (BME) are disproportionately more likely to be employed on…

This paper presents a case study of a Spanish university that sheds light on the precarious nature of many academic posts. It looks at how women academics build their careers in the current neoliberal university, which measures scholarly output through the indexing metric. Application of this yardstick renders many academic careers all the more…

This article offers new insights into our understanding of the formation, textual mediation, and reproduction of perceptions of children's 'school readiness' in kindergarten and its consequences for teachers' assessment of minority-language children's 'readiness'. Building on Danish Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) teachers' accounts of…

Following Bourdieu's tradition of examining the reproduction of the class structure, this article seeks to fill gaps in research on the class differentiation and educational situation of Polish communities in the UK. The article treats Polish post-accession migration to the UK as a social laboratory. Such an approach facilitates examination of…

This article explores how conceptions of responsible parenting are re-negotiated in present-day Singapore. It discusses how policy changes in the pre-school area have affected parental practices and notions of morally worthy parenting. Pre-school reform promoting children's holistic development and less intensive parenting is part of a wider…