This article explores STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) student associations of assessment with individual achievement, becoming part of a discipline or profession, or developing an orientation towards society. This perspective is based in Frankfurt School critical theory, which argues for the inter-relation between…

Recent changes to the law in England require all primary schools to teach Relationships Education and all secondary schools to teach Relationships and Sex Education (RSE). Our focus in this article is on the voices of teachers and other educational professionals in relation to this change. Discussion in three focus groups held with 16 educational…

Drawing on a mixed-methods cross-cultural study undertaken in five locations in Argentina, Denmark, Hong Kong, England and the United States in 2018, this paper explores how children (aged five and seven) conceive of playfulness. Following a card-sorting task, 387 children selected familiar activities that they felt were most representative of…

Of the increasing number of initiatives setting out to challenge heteronormativity in education, the "No Outsiders" project has arguably been one of the most influential. Conducted across 15 primary schools in England, "No Outsiders" sought to disrupt heteronormativity through critical pedagogy, gaining widespread academic and…

Aspirations in the educational context have been a topic of interest for researchers, practitioners and policy makers for many decades. This is not surprising as aspirations function as motivators and young people who develop ambitious but achievable aspirations are more likely to achieve positive outcomes. Some evidence does indeed suggest that…

This study quantified changes in self-reported sexual orientation from adolescence to early adulthood, and whether childhood gender nonconformity (GNC) predicted sexual orientation changes. Youth (2,678 boys and 3,359 girls; 96.09% ethnically White) from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) were included. Self-reported…

This article reports findings from a week of enrichment placements framed around 'diversity' within a secondary Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme in England. The authors outline the demographics of the county -- a largely rural, White county in the East Midlands of England -- and describe the challenges this presents for ITE. A…

This paper presents an exploratory study of English and Swedish teachers' perspectives on the role of homework in year-one children's learning of number. In order to ensure cultural integrity, data were analysed independently by two colleagues in each context. Analyses yielded three broad but cross-culturally common themes reflecting culturally…

Educational success is often measured using short-term metrics such as exam results and league tables. While these offer snapshots in time, they also provide an incomplete and misleading picture. Success is about more than short-term achievements -- it's also about individuals' long-term goals, career success, personal fulfilment and contribution…

Research suggests that intimate relationship violence and coercive control are prevalent in young people's relationships. Furthermore, young people often fail to recognise such behaviour as abuse. While such findings indicate the normalisation of controlling and coercive behaviours amongst young people, there is little focus on how these…

Background: Using Personal-Disclosure Mutual-Sharing (PDMS) with students transitioning to Higher Education (HE) has yet to be researched in education. Aims: In two studies, we aimed to explore the immediate effects of a Coping Oriented Personal-Disclosure Mutual-Sharing (COPDMS) intervention on first-year undergraduate students' relational and…

In this paper we argue that school toilets function as one civilising site [Elias, 1978. "The Civilising Process". Oxford: Blackwell] in which children learn that disabled and queer bodies are out of place. This paper is the first to offer queer and crip perspectives on school toilets. The small body of existing school toilet literature…

This article reviews transition from primary to secondary school over the period from the 1970s to the present day. It first considers the evidence from the earlier period and then at the time of the millennium before reporting on a recent investigation undertaken in four secondary schools. Using the 'five bridges model' of transfer, it compares…

This case study tells the story of two educators at the University of Plymouth (United Kingdom) who reconsidered the fundamental purpose of their curriculum in light of the United Nations Sustainable Development agenda. This resulted in the development of a new community-engaged applied practice module during the final year of the Theatre and…

The research in this paper is the first large-scale quantitative study to look at teacher autonomy and its importance for retention in England. It finds that teacher autonomy is strongly correlated with job satisfaction, perceptions of workload manageability and intention to stay in the profession. It also finds that the average teacher has a…