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The Programme for International Assessment (PISA) is an important cross-national study of 15-year olds academic achievement. Although it has traditionally been conducted using paper-and-pencil tests, the vast majority of countries will use computer-based assessment from 2015. In this paper, we consider how cross-country comparisons of children’s skills differ between paper and computer versions of the PISA mathematics test. Using data from PISA 2012, where more than 200,000 children from 32 economies completed both paper and computer versions of the mathematics assessment, we find important and interesting differences between the two sets of results. This includes a substantial drop of more than 50 PISA test points (half a standard deviation) in the average performance of children from Shanghai-China. Moreover, by considering children’s responses to particular test items, we show how differences are unlikely to be solely due to the interactive nature of certain computer test questions. The paper concludes with a discussion of what the findings imply for interpretation of PISA results in 2015 and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is widely recognised that addressing inequality in tertiary education is a complex and multifaceted issue. Studies involving students from lower socio-economic backgrounds consistently show that educational disparities exist at the post-secondary education level, with these students' encountering obstacles in both accessing and completing tertiary education compared to their wealthier counterparts. Understanding how widening participation interventions may influence young people's post-compulsory education is an important part of addressing the participation gap. This paper investigates longitudinal data from 227 students in Dublin, Ireland, who were attending post-primary schools located in areas that have low progression to tertiary education. The paper examines the extent to which students' post-secondary plans, formulated in their final year of secondary school, are realised six months after graduation. The paper continues to examine the influence of external interventions provided by an Irish university's widening participation (WP) programme on secondary school students' progression to post-compulsory education. Taking into account contextual factors (e.g., gender, ethnicity, school type, parental education, parental support), this paper examines how WP programmes in secondary school impact post-school progression. Programme engagement (guidance outreach activities) was associated with 4.91-greater odds of post-secondary education once other contextual factors had been controlled for. Participating in mentoring programmes did not have a significant influence on post-secondary progression. Findings in relation to these are discussed, and recommendations for how practitioners and policy makers can approach widening participation outreach programmes with secondary school students are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on the effect of private supplementary tutoring has not yet reached a unanimous conclusion. In the context of the marketization of educational resources in China, this paper uses data from the Chinese Education Panel Survey (CEPS) and employs the two-stage least squares method (TSLS) to investigate the causal impact of private supplementary tutoring participation on junior middle school students' academic achievement. After addressing the endogeneity issue of private supplementary tutoring participation, the results show that private supplementary tutoring significantly reduced the overall standardized scores of junior high school students, as well as their standardized scores in Chinese, mathematics, and English. Heterogeneity analysis shows that students attending lower-ranked schools are more adversely affected by private supplementary tutoring. Further analysis shows that the more academic pressure students face, the greater the negative impact of private supplementary tutoring on their academic achievement. Therefore, for students with heavy homework, blindly participating in private supplementary tutoring could exacerbate the academic achievement gap among students, which is detrimental to the balanced development of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper studied the impact of educational inequality on child mortality in the states of southern region of India during the period 1991 to 2019. The study applied the Gini coefficient technique to investigate the education inequality in each state of the region. The paper observed the highest educational inequality in Andhra Pradesh while the lowest in Kerala among the states. However, such educational inequality is highest in the rural areas as compared to the urban areas in each state. The improvement of the average years of schooling contributed to the reduction of education inequality in the region. The study observed that the reduction of education inequality leads to the growth of per capita NSDP in each state of the region. Similarly, the expansion of education sector leads to reduction of child mortality rate in each state of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of shadow education as a contributor to educational inequality in South Korea. Using data from the Korean Educational Longitudinal Study (KELS), this paper analyzes the effects of private tutoring at 10th and 12th grade level on College Scholastic Aptitude Test (CSAT) scores. We reduce biases in prior research by using multi-time measures of private tutoring and instrumental variables approaches. Our findings show that shadow education increases the CSAT scores. We also find that shadow education significantly contributes to educational inequality even after controlling for various socio-economic characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Vocational decisions made at school have significant long term impacts on young people's life chances, their opportunities for securing decent jobs and economic growth for themselves, their families and communities. In the short term, their aspirations dictate the decisions they make about educational pathways in post-compulsory years of schooling and vocational and higher education. For young people from already marginalised backgrounds, the quality of support they have in making these decisions is crucially important. This paper examines a rapidly expanding vocational education program specifically designed for students with refugee backgrounds that was codeveloped between a state education authority and a community service provider in Sydney, Australia. Through an ecological understanding of individuals as nested within interrelated networks, this paper explores the perspectives of stakeholders ranging from the educators, careers teachers, employers, civic partners, and, crucially, the young people themselves in order to determine whether and through what means key program elements meet the needs of students from a refugee background and where gaps in the program ecology need to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unequal access to university and the decision processes that give rise to it are important factors in the accumulation of educational inequalities. In this paper, we investigate a specific aspect of such decision processes by focusing on those students who change their original plans to start a (nontertiary) vocational education and decide to pursue a tertiary degree instead. In doing so, we find that more than one-fifth of the students in our sample who originally planned to pursue a vocational education change their original decision in this way. Moreover, while students from a more advantaged background are more likely to go to university in the first place, those among them that initially opted for a vocational education are also more likely to change their decision and go to university instead. We also find that parental preferences for tertiary education play an important role in the process of changing one's mind, even for adult children. Moreover, we find that differential parental preferences contribute to both the emergence of social background effects and—as a result—the perpetuation of educational inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaged in longstanding debates over the impacts of education tracking on educational inequality, this paper aims to examine whether senior-secondary vocational tracking has contributed to socio-economic inequality in student educational performance in Taiwan. Furthermore, this paper goes one step further to compare if there is any difference between education tracks in the level of socio-economic inequality in student performance. Methodologically, ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regressions, together with bootstrapped Sobel tests, are adopted to study the research questions, based on the data derived from the Taiwan Education Panel Survey (TEPS). This paper finds that vocational tracking could reinforce the influence of family socio-economic backgrounds and contribute to socio-economic inequality in student performance. In addition, compared to the vocational track, family socio-economic backgrounds are found to have larger impacts in determining student performance in the academic track. Such a track difference might be partially explained by the divergent pattern of parenting practices between tracks, including parent discipline and parental investment in private tutoring. To reduce socio-economic inequality in student performance, this paper proposes several policy suggestions that are tailored to the different circumstances of the two education tracks of Taiwan’s senior-secondary education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do some students learn more than others because they attend School A instead of School B? Or is educational inequality generated elsewhere, from common processes within schools, or outside of formal schooling? Within these paradigmatic questions, this study investigates the social determinants of school-to-school differences in STEM course-taking experiences, a key component of Opportunity to Learn (OTL), in a cross-national setting. Drawing on an internal-development model and social stratification theories, we examine whether observed school-to-school differences in OTL can more clearly be attributed to functional or dysfunctional sources, using a large cross-national sample from TIMSS with 278 observations across 67 countries/regions, dating from 1995 to 2019. Results from Generalized Multilevel Linear Models indicate that variation in school-level OTL comes primarily from variation in school readiness in a given country. Yet, we also observe evidence that supports conflict forces of differentiation. This paper contributes to existing cross-national studies of educational inequality by tracing the fundamental origins of inequality in OTL, locating potentially dysfunctional sources of OTL between schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational outcomes from traditionally underrepresented groups are generally worse than for their more advantaged peers. This problem is typically known as the awarding gap (we use the term awarding gap over 'attainment gap' as attainment places the responsibility on students to attain at equal levels) and continues to pose a challenge for educational systems across the world. While Learning Analytics (LA) dashboards help identify patterns contributing to the awarding gap, they often lack stakeholder involvement, offering very little support to institutional Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) leads or educators to pinpoint and address these gaps. This paper introduces an innovative EDI LA dashboard, co‐created with diverse stakeholders. Rigorously evaluated, the dashboard provides fine‐grained insights and course‐level analysis, empowering institutions to effectively address awarding gaps and contribute to a diverse and inclusive higher education landscape. Practitioners notesWhat is already known about this topic Traditionally underrepresented groups face educational disparities, commonly known as the awarding gap.Underachievement is a complex multi‐dimensional problem and cannot be solely attributable to individual student deficiencies.LA dashboards targeting this specific problem are often not public, there is little research about them, and are frequently designed with little involvement of educational stakeholders.What this paper adds Pioneers the introduction of a dashboard specifically designed to address the awarding gap problem.Emphasises the significant data needs of educational stakeholders in tackling awarding gaps.Expands the design dimensions of Learning Analytics (LA) by introducing a specific design approach rooted in established user experience (UX) design methods.Implications for practice and/or policy Insights from this study will guide practitioners, designers, and developers in creating AI‐based educational systems to effectively target the awarding gap problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since a nationwide reform of pre-primary education in 2010, Ethiopia has experienced a massive expansion of pre-primary enrolment that increased tenfold in six years. Our paper aims to assess the distribution of early literacy outcomes between children who attended preschool and those who did not and explore how that distribution has changed throughout the reform and by factors such as gender, location, and parental literacy. We find an overall increase in the achievement gaps associated with pre-primary participation between 2010 and 2016. There are also differential patterns in the learning gaps over the reform, with a particular disadvantage for rural students and a relative advantage for students with parents who are not literate. This study suggests that understanding a fuller picture of learning inequality is critical to designing policy to leave no one behind aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the persistent, growing popularity of Canadian French immersion (FI) programmes. Critics charge that FI programmes are elitist, diverting already limited resources from other areas of the education system. We begin with a brief overview of the benefits of FI in Canada and enrolment trends. Next, sources of FI-related inequality – lack of access, transportation costs, funding issues and types of learners most likely to enrol in FI – are scrutinised. Then, available evidence is weighed for and against the charges of FI elitism. Lastly, demand for FI is viewed through a Bourdieusian social reproduction lens to understand the persistence of socio-economic status (SES) inequalities. The paper concludes that higher SES parents are more likely to have the inclination (parentocratic habitus) and resources (economic, social, and cultural capital) to enrol their children in, and benefit from, FI. The paradox of publicly funded FI education in Canada is that as long as demand outstrips supply the benefits will continue to be unequally distributed. The result is a stalemate between proponents and critics, with each camp's solution – whether it be making FI universally available or removing it completely from the public purse – bound to meet with stiff opposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the openings for educational change enabled by framing inequality through the concept of rights, considering how variations of this framing have emerged historically and in current debates. Taking as our starting point the 1970 publication Rights and Inequality in Australian Education, we suggest that it is important to pay attention to the ways in which rights gain force within social action and through demands made by differently constituted publics. In the 1960s and 1970s, a right to educational equality garnered greater recognition, prompting moves towards needs-based funding and curriculum diversification, led by the Commonwealth Schools Commission. These moves were responsive to social movements that helped to shape new publics. In a second and more politically conservative moment, rights and inequality were increasingly separated in policies influenced by neoliberalism. We argue that the strategies currently adopted by Indigenous scholar-activists are promoting a return to a rights-based perspective, which is distinctive in casting inequality as ontological and epistemic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes inequalities in using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for educational activities outside school by social origin, immigrant background, and gender. It examines whether these inequalities just work additively or whether certain combinations of these groups are associated with specific advantages or disadvantages and which factors drive these differences. Data from the EU sample of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 are used for the empirical analyses. The results show that male students with immigrant background and highly educated parents have the highest frequency of educational ICT use, while native female students with less educated parents show the lowest frequency. However, the group categories also interact: An academic family background is more advantageous for students with immigrant background and for boys than for native students and girls. The male advantage can be attributed to a general higher frequency of boys using ICTs in their free time, while the advantage of an academic family background is mainly due to a better endowment with educational resources at home. Implications for research and practice are discussed. IMPACT SUMMARY a. Prior State of Knowledge: Inequalities in students' (offline) educational activities according to their social origin, immigrant background, and gender are well known. Differences in students' ICT usage have been documented as well. However, the two literatures have hardly been combined so far. b. Novel Contributions: The paper examines whether inequalities in adolescents' ICT use for educational purposes outside school exist according to social origin, immigrant background, and gender. It also analyzes how far these inequalities interact and which factors drive these inequalities. c. Practical Implications: As some social groups were shown to be less familiar with educational ICT use at home, all students should be supported in acquiring familiarity in using ICTs for educational purposes, e.g., by strengthening the inclusion of ICTs at school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people who are either at risk of disengaging or disengaged from mainstream education in Ireland are often supported by what is termed 'out-of-school' or the 'alternative education' sector. A recent review of out-of-school education provision (Department of Education. 2022. Review of Out-of-School Educational Provision. Dublin: DE, Social Inclusion Unit.) was the first attempt to recognise this hidden educational sector. This paper aims to build upon and expand the typology describing out-of-school alternative education provision developed by Department of Education (Department of Education. 2022. Review of Out-of-School Educational Provision. Dublin: DE, Social Inclusion Unit.) to further explore the meaning of alternative education in Ireland. Based on findings from the first-of-its-kind evaluation of Rethink Ireland's Education Fund, we propose a tentative typology of alternative education based on three clusters of Awardee projects. Three critical criteria, positionality toward the mainstream schools, learners' age, and focus of projects' work, were used to distinguish between the clusters, identified as (a) life-long learning/social inclusion programmes, (b) curriculum reform/diverse pathways to adulthood programmes, and (c) alternative centres of education/based outside the mainstream schools. We show how alternative education providers offer a much broader range of programmes, operating both inside and outside of the mainstream schools, use innovative approaches to teaching and learning, support the overall well-being of students and tackle structural inequality within education in Ireland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a disconnect between theoretical depictions of educational upward mobility (EUM) and empirical evidence. Although the Origin‐Education‐Destination (OED) triangle, a functionalist model in its ideal meritocratic state, posits education as the key mediator between one's origin and destination, efforts to address inequality through higher education have not always proven successful across regions and generations. This paper proposes an adapted theoretical model of EUM, drawing on critical theoretical analysis from multidisciplinary perspectives—including the functionalist perspective of education, Bordieuan critiques of social reproduction, and the ecological‐transactional theory of human development—to capture the interplay of developmental processes and structural inequalities. Departing from the original linear mediation approach of OED, the new model attempts to account for research findings of how origin factors moderate the E‐D association, and how educational institutions and programmes can moderate the O‐D relationship by leveraging social reproduction theory and the ecological‐transactional framework. The transactional developmental lens adopted by this article illuminates EUM as a dynamic, fluid process of human development involving ongoing, dialectic transactions between individual agency and the ecological context across life courses. A critical review of existing psychological and sociological theories in the domain of EUM highlights the need for more fine‐grained longitudinal data and diverse approaches to change the status quo by considering individual differences, micro‐relational dynamics and macro structures across the ecology and across development. The article also acknowledges, however, the methodological, theoretical and contextual limitations of the integrated model, calling for future studies to account for cultural, societal and generational variations to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the underlying processes in order to guide future policy and programmatic directions. Context and ImplicationsRationale for this study: Education is often held up as the great equaliser, yet despite efforts over decades by governments to prioritise higher education as a tool to break the intergenerational inequality, we have seen limited success in educational opportunity driving reduction of the linkages between origins and outcomes.Why the new findings matter: To effectively push forward our understanding of the systems change and policy interventions necessary to meaningfully move the needle in educational upward mobility will require a conceptual model that can effectively contend with the dynamic developmental nature of these processes in context.Implications for researchers and policy makers: This critical review reveals the complicated, fluid nature of the role of education in upward mobility. Changing the inertia, or event backslide in upward mobility, will necessitate scholars and policy makers amplifying their collective agency by considering the dynamic transactions of individual differences, micro‐relational dynamics, and macro‐structures in their academic, practical and policy efforts toward addressing inequality. Through pushing our thinking on upward mobility toward a more developmentally informed model, our science will more fully elucidate the underlying complexity across levels of the ecology that either facilitate, or serve as barriers to, increasing opportunity and broadening the possibilities for all youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Choice is a key part of the culture of the United States. Americans believe deeply in the personal and social usefulness of being able to make many choices. Hence, all sorts of efforts have been made to increase students' options, whether by creating many different kinds of schools and colleges, offering a great array of majors and degree programs, or allowing multiple modes of attending higher education. However, this proliferation of choices reproduces social inequality in two crucial ways. First, the provision of many options produces social inequality: people often make choices that do not serve their interests as well as they might wish, particularly if they are faced with many options and do not have adequate information. Second, the provision of many choices legitimates social inequality: the more one thinks in terms of choices in the context of a highly individualistic culture such as that of the United States, the easier it is for dominant groups to blame nondominants as creating their own troubles through feckless choices. Purpose: This paper focuses on one particularly important realm of choice—higher education—because it has come to play a central role in the transmission and legitimation of social inequality. Four higher education choices are of particular interest: whether to enter higher education, which college to attend, what major to choose, and what modality to attend college (for example, part time versus full time or in person versus online). Analyzing this choice-making process, the paper focuses on the impact of inequitable access to high-quality information. Beyond analyzing how choice proliferation and information inequity join to produce and legitimate educational inequality, the paper lays out detailed recommendations for what can be done to reduce this inegalitarian impact. Research Design: The paper draws on a wide variety of social science literatures including sociology of education, critical race theory, behavioral economics, and cognitive and social psychology. More particularly, the paper synthesizes sociology of education research inspired by Pierre Bourdieu and work drawing on critical race theory. Although there are major tensions between these two bodies of work, they can be fruitfully combined to both illuminate and overcome the ways information inequity produces and legitimates educational inequality. Recommendations: To reduce the role of information inequity in producing and legitimating educational inequality, the paper recommends four strands of change. One strand involves providing high-quality information more equitably through restructured and much more pervasive school counseling and other forms of information provision during middle school, high school, and higher education. A crucial component of this more equitable information provision is drawing on the community cultural wealth of nondominant communities. Second, it is important to design an "architecture of choice" that simplifies choice making and nudges students toward better choices by such means as simplifying the financial aid process, improving credit articulation for community college transfer students, and building guided pathways through college. A third strand involves reducing the harms of suboptimal choices by creating the means to monitor student progress and intervene when students might or actually do go off course. Finally, because suboptimal choices will still occur, it is important to enlighten student choosers and their observers about how choice making under conditions of information inequity produces and legitimates social inequality and to empower them to combat that stratified and stratifying process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses longitudinal data from England to examine the medium-term impact of a means-tested conditional cash transfer programme, Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), on higher educational participation and attainment. Combining regression modelling with entropy balancing, this paper finds that two-year EMA recipients are more likely to participate in higher education than non-recipients. Moreover, the impact of EMA is more substantial for male students, those with higher prior academic attainment, and students whose parents have higher educational qualifications. These findings suggest that even though EMA is a costly programme, it will benefit young people over a longer time frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issues that social researchers study and policymakers address are partly determined by how they think about the world around them. Their view of the social world often depends on their position within it. What their research reveals and their policies propose are, in part, a reflection of where they choose to look and how they interpret the world they identify. The result can be a myopic view of the social and a distorted explanation of how social relations work. In this paper, we argue the need to widen the aperture of the lens that social researchers and policymakers use to investigate and ameliorate educational disadvantage. In particular, in matters of education equity, beyond measuring opportunities and outcomes of target groups, we argue the need to consider the substantiveness of opportunities as well as the subjective conditions and objective contexts that mediate how people transform their resources into outcomes. Drawing on the work of both Bourdieu and Sen, we propose an expanded evaluative framework that outlines five spaces for assessing educational disadvantage: position and disposition, capital interaction, capability expansion, conversion ability, and conditioned choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the impact of commodity exports on educational inequality. Using data from 33 Latin America and the Caribbean countries over the period 1965 to 2010, the empirical analysis shows that export expansion of commodities leads to higher levels of educational inequality. The results are shown to be robust to the consideration of many control variables, different measures of commodity exports, and endogeneity of export expansion in commodities. Given the importance of educational inequality for economic growth, our results suggest a potential role for policy intervention in balancing the trade-off between promoting the aggregation production of education and increasing export growth in low-skill sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A paradox exists between capital accumulation and corporate philanthropy: a record number of 'generous' donations and historic levels of social inequality. In education, tech companies are directing significant investments to shape public schools. Many efforts to support Latino boys are aligned with these goals, as interventions aim to prepare students for the 'new economy.' Few studies consider the experiences of high-performing Latino boys in relation to tech companies. This paper examines how the Bay Area tech industry, gentrification, and displacement impact the lives of high-performing Latino boys. We draw from an ethnographic study conducted by the first author in the Bay Area of Northern California. This paper shows the way students develop an understanding and actively protest their racialized predicament (i.e. resistance logics), while learning skills to acquire jobs in the tech economy that often appears to perpetuate this racialization (i.e. market logics). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people’s perspectives on social and educational inequalities got little attention from broader social theory and have not been prioritised by childhood and youth studies. Similarly, secondary school students’ voices and qualitative experiences with education and education inequality have been missing, particularly in an Irish context. Educational inequality has persisted in Irish education since the state’s independence. The Irish government has partially addressed the issue by introducing the Delivering of Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) Plan. Despite some positive outcomes of this policy, students attending DEIS schools still experience lower educational outcomes than their peers from non-DEIS schools. DEIS schools encounter different levels of disadvantage, and they cater for a higher percentage of people with intellectual disabilities and often rely on the support provided by charities and philanthropies [Cahill, K. (2021). Intersections of social class and special educational needs in a DEIS post-primary school: School choice and identity. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 28, 7, 977–991; Fleming, B., & Harford, J. (2023). The DEIS programme as a policy aimed at combating educational disadvantage: Fit for purpose? Irish Educational Studies, 42(42), 381–399]. The context of this study is set as an all-girl post-primary school in the wider Cork area, which receives financial and study support from an external alternative education programme exposed to a broader evaluation conducted by UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, University of Galway. Focus groups and photovoice were introduced to seek students’ experiences with the alternative education programme in the post-primary DEIS school context. Common findings emerging from the data are (a) social inequality and educational opportunities, (b)study and financial support provided by the alternative education programme, and (c) enhanced mental health and well-being. These findings contribute to a further understanding of young people’s experiences with educational inequality in an Irish DEIS school context and emphasise the role of external educational support programmes in tackling such challenges. Students' experiences with educational and broader socio-economic inequalities in Ireland, as presented in this paper, call for system change and policy reform in post-primary education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of developing students' reading skills has been extensively discussed in the scientific literature. The statements are diverse—from the conviction that Bulgarian students do not read enough or do not have sufficiently developed skills, to the opposite opinion that reading has not been ignored, but the approach, patterns, and ways in which it is carried out have changed. The article presents data from a qualitative study on five group interviews, with six students participating in each. The data obtained are heterogeneous. Factors such as family environment, type of school, family reading practices have a significant impact on students' attitudes towards reading and their reading practices. Differences are observed in terms of students' motivation to read and educate themselves, in terms of the type of school, in attitudes towards reading. The data show that students do not prefer fiction, but choose short texts with more visual content associated with easy to perceive and process information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acknowledging the reproductive function of schools, this paper explores three pivotal periods of Irish second-level education over the past century and considers how these periods were influenced by the political context at that time. The analysis shows that an insular nationalistic period that used schools as a vehicle for social and cultural reproduction was replaced from the 1960s to the present with an economically outwardly looking period that used schools as a vehicle to advance economic development while maintaining their reproductive function. Throughout this time, a meritocratic rhetoric dominated that downplayed continuing educational inequalities. The paper highlights how the political backdrop to these changes goes some way to explaining the nature of the policies and practices implemented and argues for greater attention focused on the political backdrop to education policy in general. With the fragmentation of the political homogeneity that once dominated Irish politics and in the context of a rise in populism globally, the paper raises questions about how this changing political climate is likely to influence future educational policy, particular policies focused on educational disadvantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines educational segregation in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro through the lens of a multifaceted centreperiphery relationship involving geographical, racial and historical dimensions. The paper first situates Brazilian racial inequalities historically, drawing on decolonial theory, before examining student enrolment patterns in Brazil's second-largest metropolis. Although Brazil is often held to be a racially integrated society, the analysis shows sharp racial and social divisions between a 'peripherally' oriented mass public school system, a 'centrally' oriented private sector, and selective public schools run by the federal government. The selective public sector is undergoing a period of transition, driven by affirmative action policies, and provoking tensions that are examined through the experiences of two politically-engaged teachers. The findings point to the importance of political mobilisation in effecting change and the need for further affirmative action policies, along with a revised funding model for public schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Panel Survey of Chinese University Students, this paper systematically analyzes the effect of family background on the human capital accumulation of college students. This study finds that family background has little influence in elite universities, where the selective elimination effect is a determinant. In nonelite universities, however, family background and cultural reproduction mechanisms have significant influence, although individual efforts also factor in the process. In vocational colleges, neither cultural reproduction nor meritocracy is significantly effective. The universalization of higher education has caused divergence in different types of institutions, sorting college students into different competitive fields with different rules. Both the cultural reproduction mechanism and the selective elimination hypothesis can be identified in all kinds of colleges, but their effect varies in relation to institutional types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Economía (Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán) is the property of Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan, Facultad de Economia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Theo-Web is the property of Universitat Wien, Evengelisch-Theologische Fakultat, Institut fur Religionspadagogik and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the face of Hong Kong's high grade-retention rates, this study aimed to investigate how Hong Kong secondary schools' grade-retention composition is associated with student performance and socioeconomic inequality in student performance. As the research questions involved analysis at the school and student levels, this study employed hierarchical linear modelling to analyse the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 data. While grade retention was often suggested to have a negative impact on repeaters' performance in studies using the same-age comparison strategy, this study found that a higher proportion of retained students at school was not associated with a reduction in students' performance. However, greater socioeconomic inequality in student achievement was found in schools with higher retention rates. In addition to providing plausible explanations for these findings, this paper discusses the potential role of the government's retention policies in these respects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With educational inequalities intensively studied through empirical and academic research over the last few decades, there is now a growing recognition that an intersectionality perspective is necessary for a better understanding of vulnerabilities. This paper underlines the importance of intersectionality for policy analysis and policy making by using findings from PIONEERED, a project funded by the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. The paper demonstrates that intersectionality is increasingly recognized in scholarship regarding educational inequalities of the nine PIONEERED countries, and slowly taking root among stakeholders in these countries. A review of education policies highlighted that while in all analysed countries the policy perceptions of educational vulnerability have become increasingly complex over time, acknowledging the multitude of disadvantages and vulnerabilities that contribute to education inequalities, nevertheless in most cases, policies do not explicitly incorporate the intersectional framework. Considering the limited inquiry into the topic, this study uniquely addresses the extent to which education policy documents are cognizant of different axes of inequalities and intersectionality in defining vulnerable groups.

University Adult Education previously played an important role in enabling nontraditional adult students to access third level study. Renewed government efforts in the United Kingdom to tackling educational inequalities focus primarily on schools, although the widening participation strategy places an onus on universities to play their part. This paper highlights research with learners engaging in university Adult Education and examines their learning journeys. The paper argues that resourcing universities and colleges to provide educational pathways for adults to re-engage with education has wider long-term and inter-generational benefits for families and communities and thus makes an important contribution to tackling educational inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]