Status transmission theory argues that leading educational institutions prepare individuals from privileged backgrounds for positions of prestige and power in their societies. We examine the educational backgrounds of more than 2,900 members of the U.S. cultural elite and compare these backgrounds to a sample of nearly 4,000 business and political…

Contradictory evidence of the relationship between education funding and student achievement could reflect heterogeneous effects by revenue source or student characteristics. This study examines potential heterogeneous effects of a particular type of local revenue--bond funds for capital investments--on achievement by socioeconomic status.…

Research shows that college students choose majors for a variety of reasons. Some students are motivated by potential economic returns, others want to take engaging classes, and others still would like opportunities to help people in their jobs. But how do these preferences map onto students' actual major choices? This question is particularly…

Debates in education policy draw on different theories about how to raise children's achievement. The "school competition" theory holds that achievement rises when students can choose among competing schools. The "school resources" theory holds that achievement rises with schools' resources per student. The "family…

Asian migrant students are typically considered as educational paragons in the West. They have been shown to surpass other students in standard indicators of educational success. However, viewing this success with a purely ethnic framework is inadequate and essentialising. It conflates the experiences of various groups into a homogenised 'Asian'…

LGBT students continue to be vastly invisible in the international higher education literature and often face hostile learning environments, both in the classroom and in the larger university environment. This study follows a narrative inquiry approach to explore and document the experiences of "tongzhi"--the most widely embraced…

The expansion of higher education through the privatisation of funding sources raises a question regarding socioeconomic inequality in participation in higher education. To explore mechanisms of educational inequality, this study examines how different indicators of socioeconomic background work together to influence both participation in higher…

During Xi Jinping's presidency, the increasingly repressive political control over Chinese universities has had a significant impact on academic research. Yet, little is known about how Chinese academics navigate such a climate. Drawing on interviews with 11 gay academics in China, this article explores their motivations and strategies for…

The academic advantage associated with having a university-educated parent may be intrinsic to that condition or depend on the proportion of university-educated parents in a society. If the latter, the expansion at university level will bring about a decrease in the average performance of children from university-educated families. I capitalize on…

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…

China has become a main host country for international students, but its international programmes for higher education still need improvement. This study aimed to examine the academic challenges that international postgraduates in China face based on Luc Boltanski's idea of ordinary critique. A qualitative research approach was adopted, and data…

Against the backdrop of teaching being downplayed in higher education, this study unravels how the university faculty members' implementation of teaching excellence is influenced by the interplay of objective structural conditionings and subjective internal deliberations, drawing upon Margaret Archer's social realist framework and her distinction…

This paper tells a story of Israeli male high schoolers who spend their adolescent years preparing for service in elite military units in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). They dream of serving in special units and begin training at 15 or 16 years old. After years of taxing preparations, at the age of 17 they arrive at the grueling military exams.…

This article provides a Bourdieusian analysis of middle-class parents' investment in private schooling and shadow education (tutoring support) in India, thus contributes to the scholarship of class-based educational advantage. It unveils parents' aspirations for their children's education and investigates how these aspirations shape the demand for…

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…