Background: There is widespread agreement that participation in post-compulsory physics needs to be widened and increased, particularly among women and under-represented communities. This paper contributes to understanding of the processes that produce unequal participation, Methods: The paper undertakes a Bourdieusian analysis of longitudinal…

Female underrepresentation in postcompulsory physics is an ongoing issue for science education research, policy, and practice. In this article, we apply Bourdieusian and Butlerian conceptual lenses to qualitative and quantitative data collected as part of a wider longitudinal study of students' science and career aspirations age 10-16. Drawing on…

Currently, science in England is distinctive at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in comparison to most other subjects, in that there is a notable stratification of award routes. The most prestigious of these, "Triple Science" (the route for entry for three separate science GCSEs), is championed by English government and…