Past research into the consequences of tracking mainly documented on the impact of attending different tracks on students' achievement and behavior. Less attention has been paid to the impact of track positions on teachers' perceptions and expectations regarding students. By means of multi-level analysis of data of 6,545 students in 46 Flemish…

Understandings of resilience which primarily focus on the individual are of limited applicability unless we recognise the historical, economic and political factors in which social life occurs. To explore the social foundations of resilience is to chart the ongoing influence of these factors. An appreciation of this context is pivotal to any…

This study examined peer crowds in the Singapore context. A total of 598 Secondary 1 and 2 adolescents were asked to identify the crowds they perceived to exist in their schools and to describe these crowds' characteristics. The adolescents had no difficulty identifying crowds, generating a total of 1,534 crowds. Among the crowds identified, seven…

The use of structured ability grouping is increasing in English primary schools and is regularly seen in primary mathematics classrooms. Ability is a normalised discourse with beliefs that some individuals are "born to do maths" permeating society and infiltrating school practices. In this article, observation and interview data…

Recent social policy discourses in Aotearoa New Zealand focus on vulnerable children's well-being and the detrimental, long-term and costly impacts of child poverty. The discourse pervading much of the policy labels children and young people as "vulnerable" or "at risk" or "in crisis", a view, which we argue, is both…

This volume recognises how many researchers across the social sciences, and in comparative and international education in particular, see themselves as insiders or outsiders or, more pertinently, shifting combinations of both, in the research process. The book revisits and problematises these concepts in an era where the global mobility of…

Young people in Irish schools are required to choose whether to sit secondary exam subjects at higher or ordinary level. This paper draws on a mixed methods longitudinal study of students in 12 case-study schools to trace the factors influencing take-up of higher level subjects within lower secondary education. School organisation and process are…

Using Judith Butler's theory of performative subjection, this paper examines the injurious attitudes of three staff members at an outer-metropolitan high school who are heavily involved in the enactment and monitoring of Senior Education and Training (SET) Plan interviews for the Queensland Certificate of Education. It is argued that teachers at…

This article describes the research project carried out with a blind student, who studied French at a public university. The pedagogical experience over three years began in a classroom when a foreign language teacher and educator felt herself "handicapped," as she had not been prepared for working with blind people. In order to put her…

This study explores how young people participate in the construction of their learning disabilities and how the experience impacts their self-concept. None of the interviewees in the study participated in the Identification Placement and Review Committee (IPRC) meetings conducted in Ontario. The interviewees did participate in a variety of other…

"Gifted and talented" has become the official way of referring to high-achieving, able school pupils. The author questions the validity and appropriateness of this label and calls for a more sophisticated and inclusive framework.

The context of Special Education is a privileged space to study participation. Most professionals and teachers have long assumed the participation and collaboration with families as a central tenet of their interventions. On the other hand, parents with children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) have also been described as being permanently…

Past research indicates that newspaper representations of developmental disability reinforce negative stereotypes. The aim of this study was to examine depictions of autism in British newspapers. A qualitative content and discourse analysis of newspaper accounts of autism was conducted over four 1-month time points, every 3 years, between May 1999…

Mood disorders typically materialise in young adulthood, a life-stage when many enter university. However, Padron notes that few studies have examined the experiences of students with a mood disorder. The current study offers a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with five university students who had personal experience of such a…

This article presents a qualitative study of Israeli Jewish youth who self-identify as "religious-lite"--intended to uncover the reasons youth choose to define themselves using a non-institutionalized, somewhat dissonant identity label. Eighteen participants aged 22-29 were administered in-depth interviews regarding their deliberations…