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The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of local labour market conditions and pupil educational attainment as primary determinants of the post-compulsory schooling decision.

Through the specification of a nested logit model, the restrictive independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) assumption inherent in the multinomial logit (MNL) model is relaxed across multiple unordered outcomes.

The analysis shows that the factors influencing schooling decisions differ for males and females. For females, on average, the key drivers of the schooling decision are expected wage returns based on youth educational attainment, attitudes to school and parental aspirations, rather than local labour market conditions. For males, higher local unemployment rates encourage greater investment in education.

The contribution of this paper to the existing literature is threefold. First, a nested logit model is proposed as an alternative to a MNL. The former can formally incorporate the structured and sequential decision-making process that youths may engage with in relation to the post-compulsory schooling decision, as well as relaxing the restrictive IIA assumption inherent in the MNL across multiple unordered outcomes, an issue the authors discuss in more detail in the Methodology section below. Second, the analysis is based on extremely rich socio-economic data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, matched to local labour market data and administrative data from the National Pupil Database and Pupil Level Annual School Census, which provide a broad set of unusually high-quality measures of prior attainment. The authors argue that such high-quality data and an appropriate model specification allows identification of the determinants of the post-compulsory decision in a more detailed manner than many previous analyses. Third, the data have the scale necessary to consider whether the determinants of post-compulsory schooling decisions vary by gender, a particularly important issue given the differential education participation rates of males and females (e.g. in this cohort, females are about 10 percentage points more likely to go on to higher education in the UK than males), and the gendered choices of occupation (see, e.g. Bertrand, 2011). The work will, therefore, provide recent empirical evidence from England on gender differences in the determinants of education choices.

This study is designed to identify the policy shift on migrant children's11There are various definitions of migrant children in urban China. In this research, migrant children refer to the children from rural areas who have resided with their parents at the urban areas for at least six months without local household registration status. education at national level in urban China22With the rapid socioeconomic development and urbanization in China, the definition of urban China is changing. In this research, urban China refers to the major cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Chongqing, and so forth. during the past decades. Meanwhile, it is expected to explore the policy limitations reflected by the practice at school level regarding accommodating migrant children's education.

This study is conducted through policy review regarding education for migrant children and analysis of data collected through questionnaires and interviews at one public junior high school in Beijing.

This study identifies a positive change of involving migrant children in urban public schools. However, there is a need for flexible mechanism that can fully accommodate various needs regarding migrant children's education in urban public schools.

The study argues the necessity of a multipartnership for establishing a sustainable public education system for accommodating migrant children education in urban public schools.

Being different from other research on the same issue in urban China, this study leads a new round of discussion on the quality education for migrant children.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the experiences and challenges brought about by subject-specific mentoring within a distinctive learning environment, namely, mathematics for English as a second language (ESL) classes for 16-18-year-olds. The reflection is carried out over the stages of the mentoring process during an academic year within a college of further education in England with the purpose of adding to the store of knowledge on mentoring mentees who are specialists in mathematics.

The author employs an auto-ethnographic methodology.

Amongst its conclusions, the author argues that through a mentor demonstrating specific numeracy methods and techniques to mentees, and making them aware of language issues facing ESL learners relating to terminology used in mathematics, mentees are more able to develop their learners’ numeracy skills and relevant language skills, hence facilitating their adaption and integration into the English education system.

Research on the pedagogy of mathematics teaching, as well as language issues relating to terminology used in mathematics, needs to be considered during the mentoring of teacher trainees who are specialists in mathematics. In addition, specific language issues need to be considered for those mentees who are likely to have ESL learners in their classes.

In challenging some of the conventions of mathematics teaching, the paper addresses issues of inequality through identifying strategies designed to improve the educational opportunities of 16-18-year-old ESL learners.

The originality of the paper lies not only in its focus on the nuances of subject-specific mentoring, within the context of a particular target group, namely, 16-18-year-old ESL learners studying functional skills mathematics in a college of further education, but in its attempts to address the challenges that can arise when contesting, through theory and practice, education conventions.

Sustainable leadership as a concept is both in its infancy and also under researched, with much of the previous work in the area concentrating solely on the compulsory sector. Lambert (2011) argues that existing models are not entirely appropriate for further education due to the landscape in which colleges operate. This paper presents the findings of empirical work which sought the views of principals of general further education colleges (equivalent to United States Community Colleges) in the south east of England and London, UK, as to whether they are in agreement with the component aspects of the framework of sustainable leadership for further education colleges suggested by Lambert (2011).

Examines the current rhetoric surrounding the Australian government policy of “creating a clever country” and developing a “multiskilled workforce”. An outcome of the policy is the drive to increase student numbers in what are traditionally known as technical and further education colleges. Deconstructs the taken‐for‐granted use of the term vocational education and training and the language being used to speak of the implementation of competence‐based education, in order to explore the expectations and limitations of its use. Considers the possible role for education within the present trend towards the provision of education which is driven by industry demands.

Young people are widely known to have poorer outcomes, social status and political representation than older adults. These disadvantages, which have come to be largely normalized in the contemporary context, can be further compounded by other factors, however, and are particularly amplified by coming from a lower social class background. An additional challenge for young people is associated with place, with youth who live in more remote and less urban areas at a higher risk of being socially excluded (Alston & Kent, 2009; Shucksmith, 2004) and/or to face complex and multiple barriers to employment and education than their urban-dwelling peers (Cartmel & Furlong, 2000). Drawing upon interviews and focus groups in a qualitative project with 16 young people and five practitioners, and using Nancy Fraser’s tripartite theory of social justice, this paper highlights the various and interlocking disadvantages experienced by working-class young people moving into and through adulthood in Clackmannanshire, mainland Scotland’s smallest council area.

This paper seeks to illustrate how interventionist education reforms shape dis/trust-building processes and their impact on teacher professionalism in vocational education and training (VET) across national contexts. Using trust as the object of analysis, we discuss the affective mechanisms of becoming a professional in a standards-based neoliberal environment.

Through an analysis of VET teacher narratives in England and Austria, the paper draws attention to the ways in which policy instrumentalism has created a culture of distrust in VET. Drawing upon foundational work on system trust developed by Niklas Luhmann, we illustrate how conditions for trust sit at symbolic thresholds, which set the conditions for professional recognition within VET.

Our analysis revealed that attempts to standardise VET strategy are fuelled by the need for existential security and predictability, leading to tensions in the cultivation of system trust. Conditions for professional recognition across both contexts were based on practices of documentation and subordination, narrowly defining modes of legitimate self-expression in organisations. This constitutes a crisis of trust in VET teacher professionalism, which undermines pedagogical autonomy and integrity.

We seek to highlight the impact that reduced trust in the governance of VET can have on issues associated with teacher motivation, well-being and retention. The consideration of trust is therefore essential both for policy design and implementation in VET organisations.

The application of trust theory offers a distinctive lens through which to understand the impact of accountability, performativity and governance processes upon teacher subjectivity within VET across national contexts.

This paper aims to provide an overview of education system reform in China since 1978, and its practical implications.

Data were collected from literature review and interview. An overview of education system reform and its practical implications was found through data analysis.

There has been two types of education system reforms in China since 1978. The first type is school education system reform, and the second is education management system reform.

A point arising is how to reform the education system at the national level.

This is the first time the researcher has studied education system reform and its characteristics in China since 1978, and it can help people to understand education system reform in China systematically.