To gain deeper insight into the factors behind support for homeschooling in Czechia, we used representative survey data collected in February 2024. Analysis of the public opinion data suggests that homeschooling in Czechia is not tied to religious conservatism or populist distrust of elites, nor is it related to mistrust of the state or its political representatives. Instead, homeschooling appears to function primarily as pragmatic 'escape route' for children whose needs are not met in mainstream schools, for example due to poor educational quality, psychological distress, or academic failure, and it reflects a context-specific negotiation between parental autonomy, institutional regulation, and broader socio-cultural transformations in a post-communist society.
This study examines long-term changes in public attitudes toward girls' higher education in Turkey, a context shaped by both modernization and enduring gender norms. While access to higher education has expanded significantly since the 1990s, it remains unclear whether societal support for girls' university education has advanced at the same pace. Using nationally representative survey data from 10,489 respondents spanning the mid-1990s to the late 2010s, we apply probability regression models to estimate the likelihood of disagreeing with the statement: 'University is more important for a boy than for a girl'. Demographic predictors such as gender, age, education, and marital status, are analysed to identify shifts across subgroups. Surprisingly, support for girls' university education declined during this period, despite rising household wealth and increased educational attainment. These findings challenge assumptions that economic and educational progress naturally drive more supportive attitudes, emphasizing the importance of addressing cultural and ideological barriers alongside structural reforms.
The study examines the silencing of dropouts' voices. Specifically, this study investigates their perspectives on leaving school and how they navigate societal views, highlighting the influence of social and psychological factors on their experiences. Using ethnographic methods, the researcher immersed himself in the community as a participant-observer to gather insights into the central issue: how dropouts navigate schooling and the conditions that shape it. Findings reveal that: 1. The stigma around school dropouts stems from deeper structural inequalities and a history of marginalization. 2. Their identity centers on valuing practical over academic knowledge, which acts as a distinct form of cultural capital. The decision to drop out is deeply influenced by psychological and sociocultural factors. The study concludes that these dropouts' voices emerge from complex psychological, social, geographical, and political conditions they navigate as they construct their identities and occupy the margins of the educational system.
Using the data from the US Education Longitudinal Study (ELS: 2002), this paper links students' emotional capital and perceived school climate when they were in 10th grade to their eventual educational attainment a decade later. Conceptualizing motivation, grit, and self-efficacy as emotional capital, we incorporate the emotional dimension into the sociological framework on educational inequality. Higher motivation and grit in 10th grade were associated with a higher likelihood that a student attained BA or above, net of students' and schools' demographic characteristics and students' previous math and reading scores. Perceived school safety and positive teacher-student relationships were associated with a higher likelihood that a student attained bachelor's (BA) or above, however the association between teacher-student relationships and educational attainment lost significance once emotional capital measures were added to the model. The findings highlight the need for investing in students' emotional capital alongside their cognitive skills for post-secondary transition.
The number of private K-12 'international schools' delivering a curriculum wholly or partly in English outside an English-speaking nation reached 15,000 in July 2025, showing a rise of 45% over the previous decade. However, there has been very little empirical insight into the long-term advantages and implications of attending such a school. Our paper aims to help fill this gap, reporting on a study of 15 alumni aged 25-30 who attended a well-established international boarding school in Switzerland. The alumni graduated with the International Baccalaureate's Diploma Programme (IBDP). The findings revealed a detachment from the local/nation alongside an inter-connectedness to a diverse international community. This 'corporate cosmopolitan bubble' continued into the university sphere, whilst the alumni expressed a strong sense of solidarity and confidence in navigating the global labour market. Overall, the schooling experience provided a form of cultural and social capital accumulation that might signify 'Global Middle Class' formation.
This paper presents the original theoretical concept of resigned habitus to explore how working-class students in DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) designated disadvantaged primary schools in Ireland navigate an educational system that privileges middle-class norms. Drawing on Bourdieu's theoretical concepts, the research investigates how systemic school practices influence students to suppress their identities to achieve habitus-field congruence. This adaptation, while enabling conformity, has affective consequences - producing feelings of inferiority, anxiety, and disengagement. The paper draws from a narrative inquiry study with 41 pupils (aged 11-12) from three DEIS Urban Band 1 primary schools, using interviews and drawings to capture their lived experiences. Resigned habitus offers a deeper understanding of how class is experienced in disadvantaged primary schools, and how the internalisation of symbolic violence in everyday school interactions prompts an embodied affective response that sees some children hanging their habitus at the school gate.
Given the significant proportion of female students in Iran's higher education system, this study explores the experiences of women who balance the demands of mothering and studying. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 student mothers recruited through purposive sampling from a major state-run university in central Iran. Thematic analysis of the data revealed four main themes: (1) Between duty and dreams; (2) Embodied costs of structural barriers; (3) The unwelcoming structure: Mothering on the margins; and (4) The resourceful response: The art of balancing. The findings indicate that student mothers face multiple challenges, as their efforts to manage traditional gender roles imposed by both families and universities subject them to a double burden and significant pressure. These challenges extend beyond the university and family as gendered organisations and are deeply rooted in the sociocultural and political contexts of Iranian society.
This study aims to investigate how gifted students define and defend their status as a privileged category. Education systems often perpetuate categorical inequalities through mechanisms such as tracking, grading and labelling, for example, 'gifted' programmes. While previous research has explored various meritocratic beliefs among academic elites, less is known about the experiences of gifted students who are institutionally labelled and afforded educational privileges. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 39 Taiwanese gifted high school students and 22 parents, this study identifies common self-presentation patterns. Overall, by emphasising their advanced competencies and downplaying the social privileges from which they benefit, gifted students affirm meritocratic beliefs in a subtle manner. By employing multiple techniques to explore how interviewees position themselves, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of meritocratic beliefs and their complexities.
