The study explores whether physical activity (PA) in early adolescence limits the risk of internalizing and externalizing problems in youth with difficult temperaments, from low-income families, or exposed to impaired family functioning. Participants (N = 1312; 53% girls) were drawn from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development (QLSCD).…

Young people's perspectives are not always central to policy and practice in widening participation contexts. This article explores enablers and barriers to educational progression by considering factors that young people suggest influence how they envisage and act on their futures. The underpinning study asked students aged 12-23 in disadvantaged…

The institutional move associated with embarking upon post-16 study is part of the learner journey taken by many young people in England, including those from widening participation (WP) backgrounds. However, it can present a challenge, although one that has received comparatively little attention from researchers, practitioners and policy makers.…

This article advances a gender-conscious conception of relational education emanating from the Taking Boys Seriously longitudinal participatory action research initiative in Northern Ireland. The study is grounded in the voices and experiences of boys from disadvantaged communities who have been disengaged, disinterested, or excluded from school.…

The study explored the experiences of adolescent learners regarding drug abuse in previously disadvantaged townships in South Africa. A phenomenological research paradigm was employed, and an inductive research approach was implemented. The study followed a qualitative research design focusing on interviews and document analysis as data collection…

The notion of cultural capital, defined in its Arnoldian sense, of "the best that has been thought and said", has been at the centre of the Conservative government's education policy for the last few years in England. While it is clear that this version of cultural capital--different from the sense in which it was used by Pierre…

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a social service project for disadvantaged students through pretest-posttest study design and qualitative interviews. All students joining the service project were invited to participate in this study. Data on personal growth and academic performance (exam scores and class ranks) before and after joining…

This paper aims to examine the case for a focus on place-based drivers of inequalities in educational attainment among secondary school students in Scotland. Using desk-based sources, it provides an account of the post-2015 policy episode around improving educational attainment among children from disadvantaged areas. This started with the…

Many employers bemoan a lack of communication skills relevant to the workplace in their workforce, particularly with their younger intake. This report shows that providing young people who aren't confident communicators with structured oracy and writing activities as well as real-world opportunities to practise those skills with business…

This article investigates the awarding of scholarships to students from historically disadvantaged communities to attend elite schools in South Africa. Specifically, the article analyses the narrated accounts of former scholarship recipients who reflect on their experiences of entering an elite secondary school as scholarship students. Using…

This study aimed to compare key predictors of academic resilience in the distinctive socio-cultural contexts of South Korea and the United States, employing a machine-learning-based random forest technique. Using PISA 2018 data, we focused on students in the bottom 25% of family socioeconomic status, totaling 1,654 in South Korea and 1,175 in the…

The Programme for International Student Assessment, carried out every three years by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development across a large number of countries and economies, have shown that socioeconomically disadvantaged students are almost three times more likely than advantaged students not to attain the baseline level of…

Background: Internationally, young people experiencing poverty and related disadvantages do least well in school. These inequalities tend to be concentrated in places with high levels of poverty and poor outcomes across multiple domains. Although place-based initiatives are sometimes used by policymakers as a vehicle to improve outcomes, such…

The role secondary schools play in raising student aspirations for, and encouraging progression into, Higher Education through supported outreach is important but often overlooked by both colleges and universities alike. This article reports on our work within Uni Connect's 'Raising Higher Education Aspirations' programme in Lincolnshire which…

The aim of this review was to support the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), other funders, and developers and deliverers scaling-up interventions by undertaking, for the seven effectiveness trials that had been completed by 2019: (1) a quantitative comparison of effect sizes at the efficiency and effectiveness stages; and (2) a qualitative…