Analysis of data on school leavers in Scotland points towards considerable inequality in access to higher education. This is highlighted in terms of participation in higher education by young people from lower-income households or identifying as first in their families to consider going to university. The situation is more acute in terms of access…

During COVID-19 lockdown precautions in Scotland, severe disruption occurred to collaborative working amongst speech and language therapists (SLT?s) and education authorities' staff meeting the needs of school pupils with language disorders. This was documented in surveys undertaken by the SLT UK professional body, and by Scottish child health…

Most research into parental involvement and engagement examines the perspectives of teachers and parents, but often not pupils. Additionally, the focus is commonly on younger children. This study addresses these gaps. A questionnaire was distributed to pupils in Primaries 5, 6 and 7 (ages 9-12), which, after data cleaning, resulted in a sample of…

Although there are no attendance or registration fees in the UK for publicly funded school education there are hidden costs in attending compulsory education. This article investigates one of the hidden costs: school uniform. We investigate the affordability of school uniform in Scotland, looking at what is required in school uniform policy (class…

In a contemporary society dominated by visual media, critical visual literacy (CVL) is a significant skill to inculcate, and yet, in some educational systems, its integration in teaching and education has not (yet) achieved enough recognition, especially in a context like Pakistan. As it is assumed that students will develop the necessary…

Under Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence, the health and wellbeing of school pupils is the 'Responsibility of All'. Mental health is included in this though the extent to which secondary teachers feel confident to deal with the many and varied issues which their pupils present with is less clear. This pilot study seeks to explore the potential…

Impairments of emotional awareness and regulation are recognised features of autism spectrum conditions and are known to impact school experiences and outcomes. However, most research in this field takes place within clinical settings, and there is a scarcity of literature describing how these difficulties are addressed within schools,…

This paper presents a qualitative case study which explores the perceptions of teachers who are responsible for students on the cusp of leaving compulsory education, and in particular, students who have been identified as having the propensity to fall out of education, employment and training. With a disproportionate percentage of young people…

This article examines the implementation of a programme of professional learning, designed to support understanding of school leadership in a school that sought to effect change through teachers' professional learning. Working with a university-based tutor who adopted a responsive approach, participants shaped the programme over a seven-month…

This paper focuses on racism in Scottish schools drawing on data from focus groups with secondary students of colour. The study explores racial inequity in schools through students' reflections on enactments of bias and privilege. Findings demonstrate that: (1) students of colour experience racism but race is being ignored or deflected in their…

This qualitative research study concerns mentoring primary education student teachers within the context of Scottish Initial Teacher Education. With reference to partnership in ITE, it focuses on understandings about relationships between local authority and school, and between school and university within the mentoring process. Within an…

This article describes what happened when a group of middle school teacher-researchers at the International School of Billund (ISB), Denmark, joined university-based researchers from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, to engage in a new qualitative methodology called "Playful Participatory Research" or PPR (Baker & Davila…

Focused on community play memories, the goals of this project were to: (1) uncover the variety and degree of playful learning memories; (2) ascertain whether community members would spontaneously share memories of play; and (3) appraise whether memories differed between low-income and mixed-income communities. Results indicated that although…

The concept of "Super-wicked" problems is attracting increasing attention and scrutiny through research and publication in wide-ranging interdisciplinary areas. The concept is being lionised in the literature to draw attention to the urgency that is required to act immediately on problems such as climate change and sustainability.…

Profound socio-environmental changes taking place at a planetary scale are threatening food security (Godfray et al., 2011), with food production located at a critical nexus between land-use, reduced availability of fossil fuels and the urgent need to reduce emissions (Harvey & Pilgrim, 2011). While debates on food security and energy…