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This paper explores the role of family trajectories during childhood in explaining inequalities by maternal education in children's math and reading skills using harmonized, longitudinal, and nationally representative surveys, which follow children over the course of primary and lower secondary school in four high‐income countries (England, France, Germany, and the United States). As single parenthood and family transitions are more likely among less educated parents and are associated with fewer resources for children, we explore whether growing up outside a stable two‐parent family mediates educational inequalities in math and reading scores. Results show a strong educational gradient in family trajectories in the four countries, but this varies by child age and by country. Children who experience a family transition record lower test scores, although the magnitude differs by the type of postseparation arrangements. Overall, family trajectories are strongly associated with children's math and reading scores but, because of the importance of selectivity in family trajectories, they play only a modest role in explaining the skills gaps by maternal education, considerably less than determinants such as income. The penalties associated with not living within a stable two‐parent family are always larger in the United States and England than in France and Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing interdisciplinary literature examines the role of hair textures and styles in Black and mixed‐race women's identity performances. Through an analysis of travel narratives, this paper extends and complements research on the context‐dependency of racialized identity performances. This paper presents an analysis of 24 qualitative interviews with Black and mixed‐race women in England and Germany. The question it seeks to answer is: 'How do changes in context alter Black and mixed‐race women's hairstyling practices as a performance of identity?' Navigating a novel context could lead the women to (1) conform to local standards of beauty and femininity, (2) resist external expectations, (3) try out novel performances and (4) negotiate the complex performance of belonging. All in all, this paper shows that Black and mixed‐race women dialogically re/negotiated and performatively re/created how they identify and how they are identified by others as they moved from one context to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Childcare policy responses towards Covid-19 differed in European welfare states. • Policy responses cause informalization of childcare to different degrees. • Informalization of childcare is mainly connected with social risks for women. • Cultural and institutional differences help to understand varying policy responses. The closure of extra-familial childcare facilities by European governments in 2020 was an important part of interventions against the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. One consequence was that childcare was provided by parents at home, mainly by women. As a result, women mainly experienced financial and employment risks related to this "informalization" of childcare. The childcare policies of European welfare states differ in the extent to which they include measures to reduce the social risks related to informalization. Against this backdrop, this paper asks: How should one understand cross-national differences in childcare policies during the pandemic? We are also particularly interested in the effects of childcare policies on the social risks connected with the informalization of childcare and what these mean for the gendered division of paid work and care. Differences in childcare policies during the pandemic are commonly explained in terms of the path dependence of such policies. Using the theoretical approach of "care arrangement," this article introduces a broader theoretical framework that considers the role of cultural and institutional factors for understanding the cross-national differences in childcare policies during the pandemic. We introduce the findings of a comparative empirical study of childcare policies in three European welfare states—Denmark, Germany and England—that represent different types of care arrangements. This paper uses policy and media documents, quantitative data on childcare and women's employment, cultural ideas and secondary analysis of empirical studies. We find that governments did not per se respond to the pandemic based on institutional path dependence regarding childcare policies, while the integration of culture into the theoretical framework allows for a more comprehensive understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the link between young people's well‐being and the creative arts is strengthening, there is a lack of research which focuses on the roles that artists play to help teachers and parents engage young people in the creative arts. This paper explores the benefits of and barriers to artists working in education in six European countries (England, Iceland, Germany, Greece, Italy and Austria). Using the '5A's model of creativity' and a view of professional development taking place within 'landscapes of practice', the data were analysed in order to explain how creativity is operationalised in the different contexts. Our study highlights the need for policy at a national and transnational level to value the creative arts in order to help teachers cross boundaries and utilise the full potential of the creative arts in schools. Our study also highlights that further research is needed into how artists shape teaching and curriculum and how schools engage parents in the creative arts in order to build an evidence‐base relating to young people's positive mental health that can affect policy at these levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carl Schorlemmer (1834-1892), the first professor of organic chemistry in the Owens College, Manchester (and in England), was the prominent Anglo-German chemist and historian of chemistry of the second half of the 19th century. He studied the constitution of paraffinic hydrocarbons. The purpose of this paper is to familiarize readers with the important events in the life of Schorlemmer and his research activities and writing, in particular some of his experimental results, as well as his selected publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where young people's upper-secondary education spans work and institutional domains, questions arise about learning across both spheres and its guidance. Theoretical accounts of 'boundary crossing' have explored how vocational teachers can integrate learning across domains by drawing on extended concepts and theoretical knowledge to solve workplace problems; whilst empirical accounts have validated the role of vocational educators by describing the workplace and schools as equally valid, complementary spheres. Different understandings, described here as 'integrative', 'complementary' and 'implicit', appear to reflect different national patterns of vocational education. The paper reports a qualitative study conducted around two case studies, located in Germany and England, of the way vocational teachers' understandings of facilitating learning across domains are constructed. Vocational teachers working in Germany's 'dual training' claimed to provide advanced knowledge that they compared to practical work skills, reflecting 'implicit' or 'complementary' approaches to learning across domains. Teachers in England, where workplace learning elements are more unevenly developed and lack institutional foundations, nevertheless described colleges and workplaces as distinctive, little-connected spheres. These differences suggest that teachers' approaches are less shaped by the potential or necessity for 'integrative' approaches than by the way different systems enable or constrain their conceptualisation of 'possible futures'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Survey respondents had their first suicidal thoughts, on average, at 13.6 years. • Forms of suicidal thoughts were passive, active and chronic suicidal ideation. • During and after leaving care, suicidal thoughts can re-occur and intensify. • English and German samples show similar occurrences of suicidal thoughts. • English participants judge their care experience to affect their attitude towards life. This paper investigates the range of suicidal ideation among people with care experience. People who grew up in care have an elevated risk of suicidal ideation, behavior and dying by suicide compared to people without care experience. However, a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of when suicidal ideation occurs and how care-experienced people experience suicidal thoughts, especially when leaving care in England and Germany, is currently not available but would help to inform suicide prevention tailored to care-experienced people across different ages. Aiming to address this gap, the current study applied a mixed-methods approach, combining an online survey and semi-structured interviews with young adults with care experience from England and Germany. The survey included 45 adults with care experience, age 18–40, and interviews were conducted with 13 care-experienced young adults from both countries. Descriptive statistical and significance tests were conducted to analyze the survey data with SPSS. Framework analysis was used to analyze the interviews. The findings show that many participants experienced suicidal thoughts from a young age and at different times up to adulthood. A range of suicidal thoughts and trajectories are identified with an increased risk of suicide for young people with care experience, especially during transitions such as when leaving care in early adulthood. The study underlines the need for a stronger recognition of suicide prevention in social work and the (leaving) care system across different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]