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The metaverse is rapidly reshaping our understanding of education, yet identifying the public's beliefs, emotions and sentiments towards its adoption in education remains largely uncharted empirically. Grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Digital Diffusion Theory (DOI), this paper aims to fill this gap using a big‐data approach and machine learning to scrape comments made by social media users on recent popular posts or videos related to adopting the metaverse in education from three prominent social media platforms. The cleaning process narrowed down 11,024 comments to 4277, then analysed them using thematic, emotion and sentiment analysis techniques. The thematic analysis revealed that adopting the metaverse in education evokes a complex range of public beliefs: (1) innovative learning methods; (2) accessibility and inclusion; (3) concerns about quality and effectiveness; (4) technological challenges and the digital divide; (5) the future of work and skills; and (6) privacy and security concerns. Integrating these themes with emotion and sentiment analyses reveals a landscape of a significant portion of neutral sentiments that corroborates enthusiasm attenuated by caution. This careful consideration stresses the urgent need for a balanced approach to adopting the metaverse in education to ensure that resulting educational advancements benefit all learners equitably. As one of the first studies to offer a multidimensional view of the public's beliefs about metaverse education using big data, this research not only contributes to TAM and DOI but also provides critical insights that could inform policy, enhance educational practices and guide future scholarship in this emerging field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores modes of expectation among care‐experienced young people when navigating educational success. Luhmann's theoretical framework is used to conceptualise experiences of educational success and the role of uncertainty. We identify three modes of expectation: trust, risk and danger. To illustrate these modes, we draw on selected examples from an interview study with 28 care‐experienced young people focusing on their experiences of support and aftercare while transitioning out of care. The trust mode of expectation is based in a confidence that the future entails a positive outcome—in the case of this study, regarding educational success. This expectation is characterised by the young person's feelings of belonging, underpinned by a safety net of unconditionally supportive caregivers. The risk mode of expectation is characterised by the young person's feeling of being overwhelmed and burdened by the complexity of the educational system in combination with unknown future circumstances when leaving care. The battle against child welfare services to keep supportive measures increases levels of uncertainty. The danger mode of expectation emerges when educational success is disrupted by the interference of child welfare services. The system is seen as unpredictable and powerful, making the young person withdraw from formal support. We conclude that educational success for care‐experienced young people is closely linked to their mode of expectation with regard to managing the uncertainty of the future and that their mode is highly dependent on their social, institutional and biographical contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children adopted from care become part of a hidden, but no less vulnerable, group in the education system and may be overlooked for allocation of additional support and guidance. Adoption is a relatively unique experience and adds layers of complexity, difference and vulnerability to young people's lives that are poorly understood and under‐researched. Adopted adolescents face significant challenges in social, emotional and behavioural aspects of school life. An attainment gap persists throughout their educational career. Adoptees are strikingly absent from many conversations regarding care‐experienced young people yet their needs and challenges are comparable with those of their peers remaining in the care system. Assumptions are made about adoptees' opportunity and capacity to recover, concealing challenges faced in adjusting to adoptive life, including education. The impact of adoptees' early experiences could lead to complex identity formation processes during adolescence, with potential implications for education experience and performance. This paper explores the potential of applying a narrative adoptive identity perspective to answer questions about how adopted children and young people experience school as an adopted person, i.e. how does their lived experience as an adopted member of a school community impact on their engagement with school, schoolwork and peer networks? The concept of 'communicative openness' is used to illustrate the vital role the school community plays in enabling adopted children to transition into and thrive in school. Taking a narrative adoptive identity approach may enable teachers to better meet adoptees' specific learning and teaching needs as dictated by their unique experiences and enhance opportunities for better educational progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The percentage of care‐experienced young people in England progressing to university by the age of 19 currently stands at around 12–13% with a further 10% of care‐experienced adults attending university during their 20s and 30s. This figure remains lower than both the general population and other groups of disadvantaged learners. It is well established that the educational attainment of care‐experienced young people can be impacted by a range of barriers to learning. Existing research often focuses on the importance of key adults and their role in supporting young people in care. A small number of studies examine the reflexive capacities of the young people themselves through the lens of sociologist Margaret Archer's model of modes of reflexivity and internal conversations. Archer's theory can be utilised to understand how care‐experienced young people navigate their circumstances. The notion of the internal conversation offers a way to understand how some young people growing up in care develop more stable modes of reflexivity, namely autonomous, communicative or meta‐reflexive. Here we contribute to new knowledge by considering care‐experienced young people who develop communicative and autonomous aspects to their day‐to‐day life functioning. This paper draws on findings and analysis from interviews conducted as part of the first author's PhD (2020) which considered the reflexive capacities of care‐experienced young people who self‐identified as higher achievers. We utilise Archer's modes of reflexivity to explore participants' internal conversations and to develop our understanding of the relationships, experiences and personal skills that underpin successful educational journeys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]