In the last 20 years, a reversal of the gender gap in higher education (HE) has been observed both in developed and developing countries. Nowadays, more women than men are studying HE. Nevertheless, averages tend to high disparities and gender gaps are still observed when indicators take poverty and ethnicity into account. This paper uses…

In a number of countries in Africa, young women who become pregnant are excluded from school. This article presents a critique of policy and practice in this area drawing partly on Diana Leonard's scholarship concerning the relational dynamic of gender, generation, social division, and household forms. Much of the policy prescription of large…

This paper builds on previous work (Black et al., "Educational Studies in Mathematics" 73(1):55-72, 2010) which developed the notion of a "leading identity" (derived from Leont'ev's concept of "leading activity") which, we argued, defined students' motive for studying during late adolescence. We…

Background: the belief that women and science, including mathematics and medicine, are incompatible has had a long and complex history and still often works to exclude women from and/or marginalise them in science. Purpose: this article will seek to explore gender and educational achievement through investigating how such gendered presumptions…

This study focuses on girl college students in a rural area of South West Bangladesh exploring the meaning and value they give to higher secondary education. By listening to their voices, the ethnography shows that unlike their younger counterparts, who stop studying in order to get married, girls who enrol at college develop more complex and…