The interest in educational and professional aspirations of students transiting to post-secondary education has gained prominence in academic debates and policy agendas internationally. Political interventions for raising aspirations quite often draw on narrow instrumental and rationalistic assumptions of individual decision-making that, as we…

Measured in per capita terms, Australia has one of the most generous refugee resettlement programs in the world. This paper investigates the extent to which refugee status is recognized as a category of disadvantage in Australian higher education. Drawing on a scalar view of policy work and Fraser's notion of misframing, the paper assesses the…

Math and science are for everyone. But unfortunately, many students, and especially Black and Latino students, don't receive that message or the resources needed to make it a reality. Even early on, many students are told they are not a "math person," or a "science person;" as such, Black and Latino students have long been…

Graduate enrollment patterns of students of color suggest that a gap in graduate enrollment persists between Black and Latinx students and White students despite an overall increase in enrollment. Graduate enrollment depends, in part, on student aspirations for graduate study, which is influenced by undergraduate student success and sense of…

Across OECD countries, individuals without tertiary-educated parents tend to be considerably under-represented among entrants to tertiary education. However, inequalities tend to accumulate throughout an individual's educational career. In particular, the period from starting upper secondary to entering tertiary education is critical in…

It's widely acknowledged that American parents from different class backgrounds take different approaches to raising their children. Upper and middle-class parents invest considerable time facilitating their children's activities, while working class and poor families take a more hands-off approach. These different strategies influence how…

What single factor makes for an excellent college education? As it turns out, it's pretty simple: human relationships. Decades of research demonstrate the transformative potential and the lasting legacies of a relationship-rich college experience. Critics suggest that to build connections with peers, faculty, staff, and other mentors is expensive…

This paper is based on research into the destinations and aspirations of school leavers in Australia. It investigates the relationship between the transition to university for different groups of students and their own and their parents' and teachers' expectations. It draws on Bourdieu, Boudon, Nussbaum and others to investigate the way young…

This paper offers a critical examination of the nature of inequalities in relation to education and the pursuit of social justice. It argues that assessment of educational resources and measures such as school enrolment and educational achievement are limited in what they tell us about the injustices learners may experience. It is proposed that,…

Written from the perspective of a disability practitioner and equity manager working in the Australian tertiary education sector for over twenty-five years, this paper reviews some of the significant social, equity, and education policy developments and associated legislation, which have influenced the inclusion of people with disabilities in…

Evaluating a school system requires benchmarks of success. In order to know whether it is successful we need to know not only what is happening, but what should be happening. This paper interprets, and comments on, the aims California has for its public school system, and offers ways of thinking about the evidence in the light of those aims, and…

We argue that place-based college scholarships, if designed intentionally and leveraged effectively, can foster local economic development. Since the introduction of the Kalamazoo Promise in 2005, a growing number of communities have applied the place-based approach to investments in human capital through the creation of college scholarship…

This paper reviews research and theory relating to aspirations for higher education as a cultural capacity. Understanding the social and cultural dimensions of aspirations for higher education is important as they are increasingly becoming part of social commentary and more recently educational policy, research and practice. This paper synthesises…

Employing a Weberian understanding of the centrality of a strong bureaucracy in the modern nation-state, this article examines the relationship between the state and elite education in France. Through a historical analysis and an examination of two current issues facing education--widening participation and pressures to internationalise--we…

Social inclusion in Australian higher education was high on the agenda of the recent Rudd/Gillard Australian Government. This paper offers an assessment of that agenda, particularly the extent to which it worked in favour of under-represented groups. It argues that the Government's widening and expansion policies and its equity and aspiration…