Peers may both promote conformity and discourage ambitious choices when students make educational decisions. Low socioeconomic status (SES) students may be more sensitive to outside influence than high SES students when making educational decisions. Considering the case of choosing between an academic track and a vocational track in Danish…

Accumulating evidence indicates that students' sense of school belonging has a substantial positive effect on educational attainment. At the same time, life course and life span developmental theories suggest that the benefits of a sense of school belonging could be weakened by the channeling effects of education systems that assign students to…

Sweden has a long tradition of comprehensive upper-secondary education. This began in the early 1970s. It culminated in 1994 with all the programmes having a core curriculum that gave general eligibility to higher education. Conservative and liberal governments have introduced several neoliberal school reforms, which the subsequent social…

In Switzerland, the baccalaureate school is an important pathway to university education, and the aspirations of families and students to enter baccalaureate school have grown. However, vocational education and training (VET) remains the predominant educational pathway and has a strong lobby. We investigate how in this context, the transition from…

Based on the educational hierarchical reproduction theory and the MMI and EMI hypotheses, this paper discusses the impact of the tracking of general and vocational education at the secondary level on higher education opportunity equity among social classes. The study finds that increasing gross enrollment rates of both general high schools and…

In this article we introduce key concepts from critical psychology to explore their potential when operationalised in qualitative, empirically-based analyses of career guidance and counselling. Critical psychology is particularly concerned with understanding the concrete lines of action that can support generalised human agency -- a focus that is…

This study examines how access to the academic curriculum creates patterns of inequality in Australian schools. Examining students' access to the academic curriculum gives an indication of how schooling is structured to support students in pursuing higher education opportunities. To date, little research attention has been given to the…

This qualitative phenomenological study was designed to understand the factors that contribute to college persistence and completion for Black and Latinx students in the northeastern United States. Additionally, the researcher aimed to understand how high school and college preparation structures and policies contribute to college completion rates…

Previous research on the implications of early-tracking education systems has not specifically focused on how studying in academic and non-academic tracks shapes the features and characteristics of shadow education (private tutoring) that students are involved in. The study compares the scale and features of private tutoring and the underlying…

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the effect of different educational orientations at the upper-secondary level on labour market outcomes across European countries. The study separates safety net effect and the diversion effect of Vocational Education and Training (VET). Using PIAAC data, we show cross-national differences in the early…

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is critical for preparing students for college and career success. Integrating SEL into academic instruction in meaningful ways supports students' SEL development. The Aspen Institute National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development (2019) identified three important elements for supporting…

This article examines how girls and boys choose their tertiary field of study and how the different factors driving their choices contribute to gender segregation in higher education (GSHE) in France. We present seven theoretical explanations for GSHE, review the relevant literature and discuss their applicability to the French context. Using rich…

This study examined the performance of English learners (ELs) taking the ACT® test with testing supports, as compared to ELs and non-ELs taking the ACT without supports or accommodations. Contextual factors were also explored, including high school experiences and demographic characteristics such as low-income and first-generation college student…