Educational Choices, Transitions and Aspirations in Europe analyses educational choices and transitions in eight different European countries/regions and provides an engaging means of considering issues of inequality through international comparisons. The book is underpinned by explorations of theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches, which share the common goal of highlighting and challenging educational inequalities in relation to political imaginings and discursive constructions of notions of aspirations and choice. Beginning with an overview of the theoretical landscape, the book posits ways of understanding transitional experiences through both a social and a political lens. Comprising of chapters that explore these issues within the context of specific countries and at different stages of young people’s transitions, the collection examines the features of different European education systems and how they frame transitions and choices, before providing an overall analysis of systemic, institutional and subjective constraints on these processes. The book uniquely opens and develops an intellectual conversation about different education systems with similar educational challenges and outcomes. Assimilating key issues and solutions, this volume also makes general recommendations for policy and practice that would help to promote greater equity and social justice. The book covers a range of transition points and countries, which should make it essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students with an interest in international perspectives on education. It will be particularly useful for those working in education, sociology, social policy, geography, and politics.

Transitions to upper secondary education are crucial to understanding social inequalities. In most European countries, it is at this moment when students are separated into different tracks and faced with a ‘real choice’ in relation to their educational trajectory. Based on a qualitative driven approach with multiple research techniques, including documentary analysis, questionnaires and over 100 interviews with policymakers, teachers and young people in Barcelona and Madrid, this book offers a holistic account of upper secondary educational transitions in urban contexts. Contributors explore the political, institutional and subjective dimensions of these transitions and the multiple mechanisms of inequality that traverse them. Providing vital insights for policy and practice that are internationally relevant, this book will guarantee greater equity and social justice for young people regarding their educational trajectories and opportunities.

Drawing on the perspectives of scholars and researchers from around the world, this book challenges dominant constructions of higher education students. Given the increasing number and diversity of such students, the book offers a timely discussion of the implicit and sometimes subtle ways that they are characterised or defined. Topics vary from the ways that curriculum designers ‘imagine’ learners, the complex and evolving nature of student identity work, through to newspaper and TV representations of university attendees. Reimagining the Higher Education Student seeks to question the accepted or unquestioned nature of ‘being a student’ and instead foreground the contradictions and ‘messiness’ of such ideation. Offering timely insights into the nature of the student experience and providing an understanding of what students may desire from their Higher Education participation, this book covers a range of issues, including: Impressions versus the reality of being a Higher Education student Portrayals of students in various media including newspapers, TV shows and online Generational perspectives on students, and students as family members It is a valuable resource for academics and students both researching and working in higher education, especially those with a focus on identities, their importance and their constructions.

This volume introduces sociology as a foundational discipline of education. Education is a central structuring mechanism in shaping societies, making it a core focus for sociology. Sociologists study education in its broadest sense – as occurring within families, communities and provided by institutions. The purposes of formal education are contested and these contestations shape broader power relations locally, nationally and globally. Sociologists disaggregate processes within education to examine empirically and theoretically the various levels at which they operate. This allows them to describe and make sense of the ways that relations of inequality are developed, reproduced or unsettled and how these shape individual and group experiences and outcomes. About the Educational Foundations series: Education, as an academic field taught at universities around the world, emerged from a range of older foundational disciplines. The Educational Foundations series comprises six volumes, each covering one of the foundational disciplines of philosophy, history, sociology, policy studies, economics and law. This is the first reference work to provide an authoritative and up-to-date account of all six disciplines, showing how each field's ideas, methods, theories and approaches can contribute to research and practice in education today. The six volumes cover the same set of key topics within education, which also form the chapter titles: - Mapping the Field - Purposes of Education - Curriculum - Schools and Education Systems - Learning and Human Development - Teaching and Teacher Education - Assessment and Evaluation This structure allows readers to study the volumes in isolation, by discipline, or laterally, by topic, and facilitates a comparative, thematic reading of chapters across the volumes. Throughout the series, attention is paid to how the disciplines comprising the educational foundations speak to social justice concerns such as gender and racial equality.

This book analyses the role played by schools themselves in the high rates of educational exclusion and dropping out that affects many European education systems. The author frames the analysis according to three aspects of justice – redistribution, recognition and care – to explore both how teachers explain and react to the processes of educational failure and early school leaving, and how young people make sense and cope with the same failures. Using extensive qualitative data from schools in the Barcelona area, the author analyses the impact of school segregation, methods for managing diversity and teaching expectations: and subsequently how they can contribute to the production and reproduction of the risks of failure and ESL in contemporary education systems. This book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of educational exclusion, as well as school leaders.

This textbook explains the basic principles of sociology and how a sociological understanding is vital for understanding how ideas about education and schooling have developed over time and how these issues directly affect our own lives today. This fully updated second edition will encourage students to think critically about hotly contested debates in education and what has influenced different perspectives on these issues. New to this edition: · Two new chapters on early approaches to sociological research and social class and social mobility · A new case study feature throughout the book · Enhanced coverage of recent education policy, child poverty, political extremism and the politics of independent and grammar schools. This is essential reading for students on undergraduate Education Studies degrees, and for sociology courses covering educational issues.

It has been over a century since "Cooperative System of Education," a work-study programme for higher education, was initiated by Herman Schneider at University of Cincinnati in the United States. Today, it is known as "Cooperative Education" which is commonly included within the umbrella term of "Work-Integrated Learning" and broadly referred to by the World Association of Cooperative Education (WACE) as "Cooperative and Work- Integrated Education (CWIE)". Its development worldwide has been closely related to the socioeconomic background of the region. This book offers the first attempt to focus on the development of CWIE in Asia. To date, the development of CWIE in the Asia region has been slow compared to their counterparts. The analysis follows international comparisons of China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore on their educational history, vocational education, CWIE, and future issues. Although the level of development varies among them, there is no doubt that this region as a whole is experiencing a rapidly growing global demographic and economic prominence. CWIE can, and to some extent already does, play an important, supportive role as part of growth. The book goes on to conclude that in order to enable further successful expansion of CWIE, and improve its best practice, it is imperative to establish national and regional associations for CWIE, as well as establish collaborative research activities across the region with governmental funding support.