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Article
Publication date: 2 December 2020

Lee Elliot Major and Jennie Miles Weiner

The purpose of this paper is to argue that current ways school systems have addressed social mobility is misguided at best and, at worst, hurts social mobility. Instead, we call…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to argue that current ways school systems have addressed social mobility is misguided at best and, at worst, hurts social mobility. Instead, we call for a focus on investment in teachers' professional capital as a primary lever for enhancing the likelihood they can effectively prepare and develop all children to lead successful lives after school. These arguments have become even more pertinent with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

Using contemporary research, and grounded in our collective decades of research in these areas, we define social mobility and document how the aim of improving it has become a central tenet of our governments' stated ambitions and the yardstick by which school systems' success is measured. We then show how the application of market-based approaches to schools and teachers' work has hindered social mobility and offer a new path forward.

Findings

After 50 years of neoliberal policies incentivising individualistic and competitive behaviours, it is time to move towards policies that enhance professional capital and promote high quality collaboration between teachers. We call for a new path forward: a re-orientation to invest in teachers' capacity to realise the potential of education to improve the life prospects for all children, irrespective of their background.

Originality/value

As with so many issues, the COVID-19 pandemic has shone an intense light on the role of educators in society. There are credible concerns that economic and educational inequalities resulting from the crisis have the potential to trigger a fall in future social mobility levels. Yet this should also be seen as a new dawn for renewed thinking in which we seriously consider a shift away from neoliberal to professional capital policies to create an education system that nurtures teaching professionals, promotes collective behaviour and helps rather than hinders efforts to improve social mobility.

Details

Journal of Professional Capital and Community, vol. 6 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-9548

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 September 2022

Ying Ma and Ewan Wright

This study aims to interrogate and expand on the flexible citizenship framework by illuminating students' emergent identities and imagined future mobilities in China's expanding…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to interrogate and expand on the flexible citizenship framework by illuminating students' emergent identities and imagined future mobilities in China's expanding international school sector.

Design/methodology/approach

In-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with international school students and their parents in Shenzhen, covering their motivations for overseas higher education, experience with international schooling, self-perceived identities and imagined futures.

Findings

The participants aspired to overseas higher education for both symbolic capital attainment and embodied cultural cultivation to thrive in a globalised world. They expressed confidence that international schooling experiences prepared students for mobility to Western higher education and cultivated globally-oriented identities while not undermining their Chinese roots. They imagined their futures in terms of considerable flexibility, with a rising China viewed as an attractive and feasible option for career development.

Research limitations/implications

This research provides an enriched understanding of a new generation of globally mobile Chinese students. The participants held distinctively different outlooks, aspirations and attitudes than depicted in the flexible citizenship framework, which emphasised a one-dimensional and instrumentalist portrayal of Chinese international students. This study discusses cross-generational changes in the desire for overseas education and a global-national outlook among young people in the context of significant social transformations in urban China.

Originality/value

The originality of this study is in expanding the flexible citizenship framework with reference to the emergent identities and pathways of students in the international schooling sector in China.

Details

Social Transformations in Chinese Societies, vol. 19 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1871-2673

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1994

Gail Tom and Laura Elmer

Investigates the effect of alumni ownership of university insignia goodsand related alumni contribution behavior. Two distinct measures ofalumni contribution behavior‐willingness…

1974

Abstract

Investigates the effect of alumni ownership of university insignia goods and related alumni contribution behavior. Two distinct measures of alumni contribution behavior‐willingness to give and actual contribution behavior‐were used in this study. Willingness to give is a measure of the desire or sentiment to contribute. Contributions are behavioral manifestations of that sentiment. The results of the study indicate the importance of alumni identification with the university both to alumni willingness to give and donor behavior and suggests that identification with the university results in ownership of university insignia goods. Discusses programmatic strategies to increase alumni contributions stemming from the findings of this study.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 March 2017

Ken Roberts

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether European sport has been damaged or adapted during the austerity in public sector and consumer spending that has followed the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether European sport has been damaged or adapted during the austerity in public sector and consumer spending that has followed the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

Design/methodology/approach

Review of literature and data.

Findings

Sport has adapted successfully.

Research limitations/implications

The overall conclusions will not apply to every sport in every country.

Practical implications

Sport flourishes when it adapts to historical trends.

Originality/value

Updates all previous reviews.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 37 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 March 2017

Minna Säävälä, Elina Turjanmaa and Anne Alitolppa-Niitamo

School is an institution that provides an opportunity to improve children’s equity and wellbeing and to bridge the potential disadvantage related to ethnic- or language-minority…

Abstract

Purpose

School is an institution that provides an opportunity to improve children’s equity and wellbeing and to bridge the potential disadvantage related to ethnic- or language-minority backgrounds. Information sharing between immigrant homes and school can enhance school achievement, support positive identity formation and provide early support when needed. In this paper, the perspectives of immigrant parents, school welfare personnel and school-going adolescents are analysed in order to understand how they see their respective roles in information flows between home and school. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

The data consist of qualitative group and individual interviews of 34 representatives of school personnel, 13 immigrant parents and 81 young people who have experienced immigration, in the metropolitan area of Helsinki, Finland.

Findings

Despite general goodwill, school personnel may fail to secure the flow of information. Due to structural power imbalance, school personnel are often incapable of engaging the parents in dialogical discourse. Young people of immigrant background in turn try to manipulate the information flow in order to protect their family and ethnic group and to cope with pressures from parents. The patterns of information flows in school as a social field reproduce immigrant homes as subaltern. Adolescents act in a strategically important juncture of information flows between immigrant home and school, which indicates that home-school interaction is actually a triad.

Social implications

Awareness building among school personnel is vital for equity and wellbeing of children of immigrant families.

Originality/value

This triangulated analysis of patterned information flows in school as a social field provides a fresh perspective to those working with children of immigrant families.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 13 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 February 2018

Erika L. Paulson

The purpose of this study is to examine social mobility. Social mobility has traditionally been thought to result in a divided habitus. However, recent work has suggested that for…

1864

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine social mobility. Social mobility has traditionally been thought to result in a divided habitus. However, recent work has suggested that for the socially mobile, habitus may become blended or even that individuals can choose their habitus in a strategic fashion. Each position has received empirical support, raising two questions. First, does the experience of social mobility result in a habitus that is more divided or strategic? Second, what factors affect this outcome?

Design/methodology/approach

These questions are investigated by conducting depth interviews with people who have experienced social mobility.

Findings

The direction of social mobility determines what effect social mobility has on the habitus. For the downwardly mobile, the habitus appears to remain rooted in one’s former class. This is because downward movement is devalued, and so there is less incentive for those who experience it to change their thoughts, feelings or behaviors to match their new position. For the upwardly mobile, the habitus changes slowly. The trajectory and the subjective experience also affect the outcome. Two strategies respondents use to deal with social mobility are noted.

Research limitations/implications

Bourdieu’s notion of the divided habitus is reconsidered and compared to newer incarnations, and the importance of the direction of social mobility is underlined. This work explains why upward and downward mobility result in different changes in the habitus.

Practical implications

Investigating the experience of social mobility is particularly important given the frequent, dynamic nature of mobility in European countries. Two strategies used to manage downward mobility are identified.

Originality/value

This work reconsiders Bourdieu’s notion of the divided habitus and newer incarnations and explains why upward and downward mobility result in different changes in the habitus. Such a finding is not only an invitation to expand on the notion of habitus but also works to draw attention to other factors that play a role in habitus and strategies used to manage change.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 52 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 October 2019

Audrey Addi-Raccah and Noa Friedman

Parents’ collective involvement in their children’s education takes the form of holding leadership positions in schools. Employing the concept of liminality, which is used in…

Abstract

Purpose

Parents’ collective involvement in their children’s education takes the form of holding leadership positions in schools. Employing the concept of liminality, which is used in anthropological and sociological approaches, the purpose of this paper is to explore the features of parent leadership in schools (PLS).

Design/methodology/approach

Interviews were conducted with 18 individuals: 11 chairpersons and 7 members of the parent leadership of 11 primary schools in Israel attended by students of high socioeconomic backgrounds.

Findings

Data analyses disclose PLS as a liminal framework, which constitutes both formal and informal dimensions, whether these be its in-school limited activities or out-of-school actions in introducing change and supporting the institutions. PLS’s functions are restricted by school principals, but simultaneously enhance school principals’ position.

Practical implications

The study’s findings carry implications for school collaboration with external entities. School principals need to support PLS and keep encouraging entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation. There is a need for acknowledging the value of PLS’s contributions whereas policy makers must provide more guidelines and support to parent leaders.

Originality/value

The study focuses on exploring the position of collective parental involvement in schools. This issue is of significance in a time where parents gain more responsibility over their children’s education and schools support more collaborative relationships with external agencies. The study highlights the benefits of parents in leadership positions for school benefits and for school principals’ legitimacy, from the approach of liminality.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 58 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 August 2014

Mary Jane Kehily

This paper aims to consider the increased commercialisation of motherhood and particularly the consumer practices of women as they prepare for the birth of their first child. The…

1148

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to consider the increased commercialisation of motherhood and particularly the consumer practices of women as they prepare for the birth of their first child. The commercial world appears omnipresent in the lives of new mothers in Western societies.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a five-year study of motherhood in the UK, the paper focusses on women’s relationship to the marketing and consumption of everyday maternity and baby products made available to them through readership of pregnancy magazines and mainstream commercial outlets.

Findings

Documenting how consumer culture features in the lives of mothers-to-be, the study identifies age and socio-economic status as key features in shaping the maternal experience and consumer “choice”.

Originality/value

The paper explores the significance of consumption as preparatory work in the transition to motherhood.

Details

Young Consumers, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-3616

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 December 2023

Shahid Rasool, Hasan Aydin and Jingshun Zhang

The purpose of this quantitative study was to fill the knowledge gap and to investigate relationships between cultural background and various demographic factors influencing…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this quantitative study was to fill the knowledge gap and to investigate relationships between cultural background and various demographic factors influencing parental involvement behaviors that prompt them to engage in their children's academic activities.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative research method was used to collect data to answer research questions and explore relationships between variables (Fraenkel et al., 2015). The researchers created the survey on Qualtrics and conducted a pilot study to improve the survey based on the recommendations of the pilot study's participants. Some items were reworded suggested by an expert committee to finalize the instrument. This survey mainly consisted of two sections to collect data on participants' demographics and cultural background. The participants used multiple-choice options to answer items pertaining to family demographics. They were asked to use a 5-point Likert scale: very often = 5, often = 4, sometimes = 3, rarely = 2 and never = 1 to respond to survey items regarding cultural background and parental involvement behaviors.

Findings

The correlation coefficient showed a statistically significant relationship between parents' expectations, educational level and their involvement behaviors in children's academic achievement. However, parents' income and cultural background had no statistically significant relationships with parental involvement in their children's academic achievement.

Research limitations/implications

The results of this study have potentially broad implications for educational leaders, policymakers, educators and parents to develop policies for diverse students to enhance their educational achievements.

Originality/value

The researchers reviewed extensive literature and found the gap in regional studies particularly related to one of the fastest-growing, financially stable and highly educated ethnic groups in the country. The researchers developed a brand new instrument on Qualtrics and distributed a survey via online and direct administration to collect primary data from 200 participants.

Details

International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2396-7404

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 March 2021

Nirma Sadamali Jayawardena

The present study is a systematic review that identifies future research avenues on culture and discipline in secondary schools in a cross-cultural context.

Abstract

Purpose

The present study is a systematic review that identifies future research avenues on culture and discipline in secondary schools in a cross-cultural context.

Design/methodology/approach

The literature, as published in top management, education and psychology journals, was reviewed around culture and discipline in secondary schools. This systematic literature review (SLR) used several preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and categorised the studies published during the period 2014–2020.

Findings

The author identified six major themes: (1) punishment, (2) restorative practices (RPs), (3) racial disparities, (4) competitiveness, (5) school climate and (6) secondary school student discipline in a cross-cultural context. Further, the author suggested several future research avenues under these emerging themes.

Research limitations/implications

The scope of this study is limited to culture and discipline in a secondary school context. The findings provide a solid foundation for researchers in the areas of culture and discipline in secondary schools.

Originality/value

To the best of the author's knowledge, this study can be considered as the first SLR conducted using PRISMA guidelines to identify several under-researched areas in the field of culture and discipline in secondary schools in a cross-cultural context. The study provides several future research insights.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 35 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

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