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Research has long demonstrated the exclusion and Othering experienced by young people with disabilities in education. This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study conducted in an 'elite' sixth-form college in England, set against the backdrop of a shifting social, political, and cultural landscape, where neo-liberal discourses of dis/ability and healthism--centring on mental health and wellbeing--are becoming further embedded in educational policy. Drawing on theoretical work by Bourdieu and Foucault, we demonstrate how the students in this study appeared able to re-make disability as a liberal intellectual identity marker and use it as a form of capital within the bounded college sub-field. However, we argue that these empowered disabled subjectivities were strongly "middle-classed" and "precarious." The findings have implications through advancing current understandings of young people's complexifying relationships with disability in education, of enduring inequalities around disability, and how social class is implicated in this.

Over the past two decades, there has been increasing international concern over the prevalence of mental health difficulties amongst children and young people. In the English context, particular concerns have been raised about the "state" of girls' and young women's psychological health. Figuring highly in both academic and media debate is the impact of school pressures and the performance demands placed on girls in relation to academic achievement. In this systematic review, we map the reported achievement-related factors affecting girls' mental health emerging from the peer-reviewed qualitative literature. Five databases were searched for literature published from 1990-2021. Additional search strategies included forwards and backwards citation chasing and hand searching. Eleven texts met our inclusion criteria. The themes of fears for the future, parent/family-related pressures, competitive school cultures, and gendered expectations of girls' academic achievement emerged from the located texts. It was when pressures were "imbalanced" and felt in the extreme that mental ill-health/anxiety was more likely to be experienced. We go on to introduce the theoretical model of the "mental health/achievement see-saw" and argue for its use as a conceptual tool to engage with deep-rooted complexities around the relationship between gender, mental health and academic achievement. We contend that the "see-saw" model has potential utility to academics, educational practitioners, and policy-makers, and might be usefully translated into practice in the form of biopsychosocial interpositions in schools that move beyond more surface-level attempts at mental health promotion and that seek to empower, de-pathologise and challenge entrenched structural inequalities.

The concept of capital has risen in prominence within educational policy and practice in the UK since Ofsted introduced cultural capital into its inspection processes in 2019. At the same time, fractured discourses exist across different types of capital -- one of which concerns capitals that are negative in constitution and/or impact. This paper addresses both through: (1) A systematic literature review of these negativities (in social, economic, and intellectual capital) and a thematic analysis of these papers, leading to the derivation of a definition of negative capital; (2) An evaluation of the merit of negative capital via its compatibility with Bourdieu's concepts of social field, social field homology, habitus, and hysteresis; and (3) The application of negative capital to a range of examples from educational practice and theory, including a challenge to Ofsted's use of cultural capital.

This paper adds to a growing body of literature which views global citizenship education as part of a broader social and cultural process of subjectivity production. Rather than focus on global citizenship in relation to pedagogy or curriculum content, as much of the previous research literature has done, this paper examines it in relation to the practice of travel. Drawing on data generated in ethnographic fieldwork in two UK schools, the paper explores the way in which the young people in these settings used travel to position themselves as successful, mobile, global citizen subjects. The paper argues that these subjectivities were negotiated as part of a dynamic process: one which took place across multiple spaces, in a myriad of different relationships, and in the deployment of a number of different power relations. The paper concludes with some thoughts about the practice of school travel and how it might effectively be focused upon in future research.

A small number of attempts have been made to take stock of the field of gender and education, though very few have taken methodology as their explicit focus. We seek to stimulate such discussion in this article by taking stock of the use of visual methods in gender and education research (particularly participatory and image-based methods). We undertake this exercise by looking at the claims researchers have made about the ways in which visual methods have advanced gender and education research, and by examining how these methods have been employed in research. We argue that the visual has become somewhat invisible in accounts of gender and education research. We conclude by considering different ways in which we might develop image-based research in the future.

In this paper we offer a unique contribution to understandings of schooling as a site for the production of social class difference. We bring together the rich body of work that has been conducted on middle-class educational identities, with explorations of the centrality of the feminine in representations of class difference from the field of critical girlhood studies. This is done in order to explore how young femininities mediate the representation of class difference in the environment of the private girls' school. Drawing from our two research studies, located in private girls' schools in Australia and the United Kingdom, we argue that the notion of "disgust", commonly used in recent engagements around class, has only limited purchase in understanding the representation of class difference in these schools. It is the inconsistencies and complexities in how class and class relations are produced that we wish to illuminate.

Background: In cosmetic dermatology, lasers and lights treat a variety of hair and skin conditions, including some that disproportionately affect people of color. Aims: Our systematic review aims to understand the representation of participants with skin phototypes 4–6 in cosmetic dermatologic trials studying laser and light devices. Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted using search terms "laser," "light," and multiple laser and light subtypes in the PubMed and Web of Science databases. All randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published between January 1, 2010 and October 14, 2021 that studied laser or light devices for cosmetic dermatologic conditions were eligible for inclusion. Results: Our systematic review included 461 RCTs representing 14 763 participants. Of 345 studies that reported skin phototype, 81.7% (n = 282) included participants of skin phototypes 4–6, but only 27.5% (n = 95) included participants of skin phototypes 5 or 6. This trend of excluding darker skin phototypes persisted when results were stratified by condition, laser of study, study location, journal type, and funding source. Conclusions: Trials studying lasers and lights for the treatment of cosmetic dermatologic conditions need better representation of skin phototypes 5 and 6. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decade it is young women who have come to be widely understood as the bearers of educational qualifications. It is girls who are now seen to have "the world at their feet" and to be able to attain the glittering prizes of academic success associated with elite universities and top occupations. And it is upper-middle-class girls, in particular, who appear to be achieving the most; a "super class" of pupils who are supposedly able to effortlessly succeed in everything that they do. Drawing on ethnographic data generated during a research project in a single-sex, selective girls' school this paper will explore what it meant for one group of elite girls to achieve and succeed in school. The paper will examine the different versions of success made available to the girls in this school, the girls' differing relations to these discourses and their intersection with other relations of power. The paper will question the popular post-feminist picture of the smart, sassy and successful "top girl" who is able to "have it all" and in the conditions of her own choosing. The paper will suggest that, even for the girls in this school, success was not easy to perform or "own" for oneself. Despite attending a school where success was openly celebrated, the paper will demonstrate the ways in which many girls still felt restricted to perform success in narrow and competitive ways that clashed with dominant discourses of femininity.

Drawing on recent ethnographic research in one single-sex, private primary school, this paper will explore what it meant for the girls in this setting to embody the discourse of the "lady". The paper will propose that classed and gendered discourses of respectability featured strongly in the girls' lives, as they were expected to behave like "proper" upper-middle-class ladies. However, the paper will also suggest that these discourses were being reworked through post-feminist, neo-liberal notions of modern girlhood, meaning that the girls also felt compelled to make themselves as heterofeminine "girly" girls; as sassy, sexy and successful, as well as respectable and upper-middle-class(y) enough. By exploring the clash between these two sets of discourse, the paper will specifically seek to examine the lived embodiment of intersections of class, gender and sexuality and to explore the relevance of Judith Butler's heterosexual matrix for these upper-middle-class girls. (Contains 8 notes.)

The present paper interrogates the ways in which school is produced as a particular bounded place (or collection of places) where sexuality, and particularly non-heterosexuality, is carefully policed by these boundaries. Drawing upon data generated in primary schools during a nationwide action research project ("No Outsiders"), we focus on three very different school places: the classroom, the staffroom and a school-based after-school art club. Our analysis engages with the contingency of place-making to show that place is neither a unitary experience nor a neutral stage upon which social relations are enacted. The three vignettes analysed offer insights into the critical potential of consciously and persistently working across (apparently) boundaried spaces within and beyond schools. (Contains 5 notes.)

This paper refocuses attention on and problematizes girls' experiences of school achievement and the construction of schoolgirl femininities. In particular, it centres on the relatively neglected experiences and identity work of high achieving primary school girls. Drawing upon ethnographic data (observations, interviews, and pupil diaries) from a broader study of girls' and boys' perceptions and experiences of schoolwork and achievement from two contrasting primary schools in a city in South Wales (UK), the paper will explore the gendered subjectivities of high achieving girls from diverse social and cultural backgrounds. Three narrative case studies are re-presented and analysed to explore the feminization of success and thus the tensions and contradictions as girls negotiate the pushes and pulls to be both "bright" (i.e. succeeding academically) and "beautiful" (succeeding in "doing girl"). Of key interest are the possibilities, costs, and consequences of girls producing ambivalent femininities and the rearticulation and transgression of normative ways of "doing clever" and "doing girl" in 21st century primary schools. (Contains 6 notes.)

Purpose: In response to rising prevalence of sexually transmitted infection (STI) among teenagers, this study was designed to examine teenage perceptions of sex education, access to services, and attitudes relevant to STI. Design/methodology/approach: A focus group study was conducted in three schools to discuss the sexual health needs of teenagers. Four single sex groups of 14-15 year olds (two male and two female) comprising six to nine participants met for two one-hour sessions. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed by two researchers. Findings: Sex education was reported to vary considerably in quality and content both between and within schools. Participants felt that this was due to some teachers being embarrassed, resulting in didactic delivery and lack of discussion. Most participants had received very little information about STI, including how it could be avoided or what to do if infection was suspected. Many felt that it would be useful to have an organised visit to a sexual health/contraceptive clinic as part of the curriculum and that it would also be helpful if clinic staff contributed to their sex education. Research limitations/implications: Teachers selected participants based on their maturity and willingness to take part, which may have resulted in failure to include those in greatest need of sexual health services. Practical implications: Teenagers need more comprehensive sex education at an earlier age, delivered by individuals who are expert in the subject and comfortable in its delivery. Information alone is not enough but should be linked to accessible user-friendly services for contraception and general sexual health. Originality/value: This paper provides information on teenage sexual health needs in general and to the field of STI in particular.

Feminist scholars have long been concerned with privileged women's activism and engagement with feminist politics and how acts of resistance from privileged subjects might best be understood. In the current moment, we are seeing a reinvigoration of interest in feminist activism particularly from young women, but not necessarily focusing on young women who are positioned as privileged. Simultaneously, there is attention in the sociology of elite schooling to the question of social justice politics in privileged spaces. In this article, we contribute to both of these scholarly conversations by reporting on the feminist activism of three young women attending an elite school in Australia. We argue that these young women's activism/feminist politics need to be understood as a complex entanglement of resistance and reproduction with regard to gender, race and class, and that drawing on recent theorisations influenced by post-humanism in feminist educational research produces fresh insights into researching gender/race/class reproduction by young women in elite educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds on Delamont’s strategies for fighting familiarity, particularly her argument that ethnographers need to revisit educational ethnographies of the past. (Delamont, Atkinson and Pugsley 2010) The article argues that wider historical accounts, from both inside and outside of education, can also cultivate the sociological imagination in this way. Inspired by feminist historical inquiry the author will demonstrate how she has used history (historical research and feminist autobiography) to make the ‘familiarity’ of contemporary girlhood ‘strange’. The article will draw on examples from the author’s own experience of interpreting and representing the lives and experiences of girls in elite educational settings, to show how this subject, which was once considered strange, can become all too familiar and thus prey to historical amnesia. An argument is made here for the need for strategies which help us fight familiarity in our interpretations and theorisations of the lives of those we study. The article suggests that historical accounts represent one way in which we can bring an openness and playfulness to this process, in order to question the self-evidence of what we see. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- To consider how knowledge about social class is produced in research and how it can become obscured from view through certain empathic practices of representation. Methodology/approach -- A number of data extracts, generated through participant observation and focus group interviews, are reflexively (re)considered in the chapter. These are drawn from an ethnographic study, previously undertaken by the author with a class of 25 young women in one private, selective girls' school in the United Kingdom. Findings -- Social class was found to be silenced in the accounts which resulted from the research. This relative neglect is considered to have resulted from the primacy given to gender in a feminist project; to an over-emphasised sense of empathy and due to the desire to build and maintain respect and rapport. Strategies of empathic identification and representation should not be evaded altogether, but they need to be carefully considered (how and why are they used and to what effect?) and not taken up too readily, so that researchers don't inadvertently reinscribe the inequalities they are seeking to eliminate. Originality/value -- The chapter argues that greater attention needs to be paid to the class-making practices which researchers and participants engage in during and after fieldwork. Social class is brought to the foreground in the analyses presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss the issue's taking stock of gender and education theme which involves the process by which a person thinks about a situation or event and then forms an opinion about it, and it mentions research regarding gender and women's education.

The practice of using participatory visual methods in research with young people is one that has come under scrutiny in recent years. Many scholars have examined these practices in order to question the singular and simple notions of voice that are often represented in these accounts. Taking up the challenges laid down by these scholars, this paper attempts to critically disturb some of the claims that have been made about this supposedly inherently collaborative and empowering practice. Drawing on research with a group of privileged young people the paper will argue that there is a real need for researchers to examine the ways in which different subjectivities are performatively produced in the participatory research process - to explore the ways in which the methods themselves may work to constitute difference and to position young people as powerful or powerless in this process. A call is also made for researchers to inspect their own practice and use of visual methods, in order to recognise the particular knowledges, subjectivities and truths that are constituted as a result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper highlights an emergent form of gender inequality within schools, set against the backdrop of a perceived mental health “crisis” amongst young people in popular and media narratives. We present interview data collected in a qualitative study with students and staff in secondary schools in England. Through a Foucauldian analytic lens, we interrogate the discourses participants mobilised when discussing girls’ and boys’ experiences of mental ill/health. We demonstrate how girls are paradoxically celebrated for their emotional openness and maturity, yet simultaneously positioned as unfairly advantaged and likely to receive “more” mental health support. In contrast, boys are understood as likely to mask their emotional distress through silence or disruptive behaviours, with fears that their needs might be missed and that boys are an “at risk” group. We also illustrate how girls’ manifestation of emotional distress (e.g. crying, self-harm) becomes feminised and diminished. We ultimately call for increased awareness of gendered discourses surrounding mental health in education and resultant inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]