Based on the life and educational histories of sixteen high-achieving, working-class girls applying to high-tariff universities, this paper rekindles debates about the role of agency within the decision-making process of young people who might not otherwise be expected to apply to such institutions. It draws on Margaret Archer's theorising to…

This paper attends to the educational narratives of South Asian Muslim women who grew up in an inner city area. Using walking interviews, each individual took me around the neighbourhood where they grew up, identifying places of educational encounter on the way. There was a pertinent sense of a past that was in many ways, still present. Their…

Being lectured by a woman physicist can benefit students' performance, motivation, and engagement with physics. However, due to the severe underrepresentation of women physics faculty, these instances may be scarce. Through semistructured interviews with seven women physics lecturers, we used expectancy-value theory to understand the situative…

Researching ethically is an institutional requirement and cornerstone of good everyday practice in conducting research, adopting a mindful consideration for participants and resisting the temptation to use methodological approaches which may exploit participants or their trust in the research process or researcher. In the context of outdoor…

Children's Centres are an under-researched type of organisation, and leadership practices within Children's Centres are yet more neglected and unknown. This action research reveals how leaders of these Children's Centres understand and verbalise their leadership practices, which leadership practices are serving them well and can be levered for…

The internationalization of higher education results in 4.6 million students attending colleges and universities outside their home countries. In the United States and other countries, there is significant underrepresentation of women among inbound international higher education students. Gender equality in education cannot be achieved so long as…

A stated ambition for universities is to help all students develop meaningful career trajectories and make positive contributions to local, national and global communities. To achieve this ambition, universities need to reflect in depth on how approaches to assessment help develop global talent. The present article explores, from a…

Background: Despite breast screening in Britain being free to all women within the allotted age range, uptake of this service is often poor in women with intellectual disabilities. Reasons put forward are numerous, including poor knowledge, pain and difficulty travelling to the centre. However, what influences the decision to attend is rarely…

Menarche is a significant milestone for young women, representing an important juncture between girlhood and maturation. The limited literature that exists suggests that a mother's reaction to her daughter's first periods can shape her experiences and perceptions of menstruation which, in turn, may impact on her self-image and, consequently,…

Career decision-making research has focused primarily on occupation change as a discrete event and emphasised occupational mobility. Not all of those who consider changing occupation do so though, and this study explored the narrative accounts of nine female teachers who had considered leaving the profession, but remained teaching at midlife.…

In 1914 opportunities for working-class women's sports participation were limited and peripheral, but the 1980s, policy reforms resulted in the then Sports Council identifying women as a "target group". Subsequently the notion that barriers to women's participation are issues to be identified and resolved has become commonplace in…

This article is an analysis of middle-class rejection of higher education. The author uses accounts of the educational decision-making of three female students, all identified to be from broadly middle-class backgrounds, from within full-time vocational further education in the United Kingdom, as a means to consider two issues. First, the author…

Historically, there have been differences in the musical instruments played by boys and girls, with girls preferring smaller, higher-pitched instruments. This article explores whether these gender preferences have continued at a time when there is greater gender equality in most aspects of life in the UK. Data were collected from the 150 Music…

This paper examines the apparently paradoxical notion that women "choose" part-time work when it is consistently documented as being less preferential in employment terms, conditions and prospects when compared to full-time work. Forming a dialogue with Hakim's (2000) preference theory, it is proposed here that four dimensions--care…

The last decade has seen significant interest in research associated with outdoor education and outdoor learning in the UK. However, there has been little research into the perspectives of those staff, particularly women, who make available outdoor experiences to various groups in different situations and locations. The importance of understanding…