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This study adopts a conversation analytic approach to present a close analysis of the sequential organisation of a parent-child homework activity in a Swedish-English bi-national family. Families formed within migration contexts are increasingly common in an ever-globalised world, but current research has not fully investigated how parent-child homework practices are affected by parents who possess differing levels of expertise in the societal language. This article examines a number of episodes where the progressivity of a homework activity is halted due to language-related epistemic issues. More specifically, these halts in progressivity are caused due to the homework tasks being written in Swedish in combination with the English mother's lack of language expertise in Swedish. The episodes exemplify how these epistemic deadlocks are resolved through the mobilisation of a more knowledgeable party, the Swedish father, who orients to translation as a trouble resolution tool which facilitates epistemic progression and the progressivity of the homework activity.

Barriers to higher education persist among the Latino population across the United States. This project (IRB approval 18-001240), framed within the Engagement and Outreach Scholars Academy at East Carolina University, aimed to identify the obstacles to accessing higher education faced by the local Latino community and evaluate some ways to make higher education opportunities more accessible for Latino students. Although cultural barriers are low, lack of financial resources and knowledge should be in the center of an intervention.

Parental engagement in special education promotes positive student outcomes and parent-school relationships. In order to promote engagement, parents must possess a basic knowledge and understanding of special education processes and parent and student rights. Little is known regarding parental knowledge about special education or how they learn about and access information on the special education process. This exploratory study surveyed 133 parents of students with disabilities to identify how they received special education related information, specific information received or searched across primary special education topics, and their perceived current and retrospective understanding of these topics as well as how these may differ based on specific parent and special education status characteristics. Findings indicate that parents gain the majority of information from personal communication (i.e., conversations with special education teachers, other parents), often independently search out additional information on key aspects of special education, and feel most knowledgeable about Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and least knowledgeable about the legal aspects of special education. Significant differences were noted on some family characteristics in areas of satisfaction with resources, overall special education knowledge, and ways in which parents obtain information (e.g., school or on their own). Limitations, implications, and future research are discussed.

This paper studies the current differences in educational expectations between urban and rural students and explores the mechanism from the individual/family and school/society perspectives. The results show significant differences in expectations between rural and urban junior high school students for going on to higher education. In addition, urban students' educational expectations are higher than that of rural and migrant students. These differences are caused by the students' cognitive ability, family background, and school environment, among which the influence of family background is larger than that of cognitive ability, while the effect of the school's hukou structure is the most important influencing factor. The results suggest that building a desirable school education atmosphere, alleviating hukou segregation in schools, and strengthening the integration of widely diverse school populations are important approaches to promoting educational and social equity in China.

Transfer payment is of great significance for poverty alleviation and balanced regional development. Based on the first-hand survey data from 18 key counties of 6 provinces in China's national poverty alleviation and development program, this paper uses propensity score matching to calculate the effects of transfer payment funds on the results of compulsory education in impoverished areas and uses Shapley value decomposition to decompose correlated factors. It finds that when the characteristics of students, families and schools controlled, transfer payment funds significantly lower student academic achievements in some subjects and aggravate the inequality of educational results, which may be the result of the reduction of local education funds caused by the "crowding out effect" of transfer payment. Suggestions are made in this paper to standardize the utilization of transfer payment funds, establish a linkage mechanism between the educational results of poor students and transfer payment funds, implement the assisting plan for teachers and students in poor areas, strengthen the "pertinent support for intelligence development", and unite multiple agencies to increase input in education, with the purpose of reducing the inequality of compulsory education in poor areas.

Purpose: This article presents the theoretical framework, research design, methodology, and main findings of the comparative measurement of ethical-moral competences of 15-year-old upper secondary students in Shanghai, under the ETiK-International-Shanghai project. Design/Approach/Methods: By dividing the ethical-moral competences into the categories of basic ethical-moral knowledge, ethical-moral judgment competence, and competence in developing ethical-moral action plans, a survey of 2,036 students was conducted, using a reliable and valid testing instrument. Findings: In general, 15-year-olds from homes with more educational resources perform higher in all three scales across all countries taken under consideration in our study. Furthermore, school practices, teaching, as well as quantity and quality of instruction play a very important role in the moral education process and especially in developing students' proficiency levels of ethical-moral knowledge, reasoning competence, as well as students' high abilities in developing moral action plans. When relevant educational background factors are held constant, Chinese students show lower average scores on basic ethical-moral knowledge and moral judgment competence. With exception of the tested Vienna students, all other European samples scored better than the Chinese students--also on the test for developing ethical-moral action plans. However, Chinese students are especially able to display outstanding empathy when dealing with suffering, misfortune, and sorrow, as well as in their willingness to help others. Originality/Value: The findings of this article can foster thinking about which topics should be further discussed to improve the ethical-moral knowledge and competences of Chinese students and highlight requirements for the further development of moral education in China at the levels of teaching, curriculum, teacher education, and research.

Purpose: This study examines the effect of sibling size on children's educational attainment in Indonesia. Design/Approach/Methods: To establish causality, it exploits the exogenous variation of sibling size caused by twin birth in families. Findings: Results of instrumental variable (IV) estimation support a traditional wisdom of quantity-quality trade-off, where sibling size is negatively correlated with the completed years of schooling, educational levels, and likelihood of school attendance. Building on this, the subsample analysis reveals that the negative effect is larger for Muslim children, children with less educated mothers, and children belonging to earlier birth cohorts. Originality/Value: These findings provide insights into both population and education policymaking in developing countries.

We examined the self-determination of English learners with disabilities in secondary school, based on a secondary analysis of the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 (NLTS 2012). Self-determination characteristics of English learners with disabilities differed significantly from those of other students with disabilities, and of English learner students and students who are not English learners in the general population, including their being less likely to act autonomously or report empowerment-related or self-realization-related behaviors. Multivariate analyses identified several student and family characteristics associated with variations in aspects of self-determination, including age, gender, and postsecondary expectations. Implications for practice and research are discussed, including the importance of considering these factors when selecting, implementing, and evaluating self-determination interventions for English learners with disabilities. [For the grantee submission, see ED610146.]

School instruction and service delivery changed dramatically amid disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Children receiving special education services were especially vulnerable to the impact of reduced or eliminated school services as part of their Individualized Education Programs. Caregiver perspectives regarding the changes in school service delivery amid the pandemic were evaluated using qualitative methods. Caregivers reported reduced or eliminated services, inconsistencies in service delivery, challenges with distance learning, increased stress and advocacy efforts, and varying perceptions of student engagement and teacher efforts. The implications of school services changes are discussed.

Debate continues on the effects of the global proliferation of private higher-educational institutions, especially for-profit institutions. We examine two related questions for Peru using mixed methods: Who attends private institutions and what are their perceived advantages/disadvantages? Longitudinal quantitative data suggest higher-educational segmentation starting early in life, whereby young people from wealthier households attended private institutions and those from poorer households attended public ones. Interviews with teachers, students, and staff provide insights on perceived strengths and drawbacks of higher-educational marketization and highlight the importance of family background in higher-educational choices, governmental regulation, and close monitoring of higher-educational quality.

Family background has been shown to be a strong determinant of educational attainment, yet relatively little is known about the role that family background plays in PhD attainment or in the selection into academic careers. In this study, we estimate sibling correlations from Finnish full population register data to comprehensively assess the importance of family background in selection into academia. Our results show that family background accounts for over a third of the overall variation in becoming a PhD and subsequently an academic -- a share which is up to four times as large as implied by conventional comparisons by parental education. However, we did not find evidence that family background would be an exceptionally strong determinant of doctoral outcomes when compared to other educational outcomes. Our findings further suggest that sibling similarities in PhD attainment and academic careers may largely be attributed to sibling similarities in prior educational achievement rather than to other family background characteristics.

Dramatic growth in the homeschool population in recent decades has coincided with an increase in the methods used to educate homeschooled children. However, researchers tend to treat homeschooled children as a uniform group without accounting for vastly different homeschooling arrangements. In this study, we examine the prevalence of four types of homeschool arrangements by pooling three cross-sectional waves of nationally representative data on American homeschool families (n = 1,468). Results indicate that most homeschool families supplement home education with cooperative instructors and private tutors, online education, and brick-and-mortar schooling. Families who do not use these resources are declining. They are also more likely to be White, less educated, and residing in the South region. Homeschool families whose children attend brick-and-mortar schools part-time are less likely to be White and more likely to reside in urban areas. Future research is needed to explore outcomes across different homeschool arrangements.

Background: Although research on mathematics learning programs has taken off in recent years, little is known about how different person characteristics are related to practice behaviour with such programs. When implementing a mathematics learning program in the classroom, it might be important to know whether students with specific characteristics need more encouragement to make use of this learning opportunity. Objectives: Using a supply-use model, we analysed the predictive power of students' cognitive characteristics (prior mathematics knowledge), personality traits (conscientiousness), motivational-affective characteristics (mathematics self-concept and mathematics anxiety), and family background characteristics (socioeconomic status and migration background) for practising with an adaptive arithmetic learning program. Methods: We used longitudinal data from 203 fifth graders from seven non-academic-track schools in Germany. Practice behaviour, measured by completed tasks in the learning program, was recorded weekly for every student over a period of 22 weeks. Results and Conclusions: The results of our multilevel analyses showed that mathematics anxious students practised less with the program. We did not find any relationship with the other characteristics. Takeaways: Our results suggest that mathematics anxious students need more encouragement when practising with a mathematics learning program; otherwise, they do not get the chance to benefit from the use.

Early intervention (EI) teams can use Implementation Science to choose, implement, and sustain the use of evidence-based strategies and programs. Smith et al. (2014) described Implementation Science as "the study of the processes needed to bring new practices into widespread use" (p. 4). Programs work through four stages: exploration, installation, initial implementation, and full implementation (National Implementation Research Network [NIRN], n.d.). Implementing an innovation effectively can lead to improved child outcomes (Cook & Odom, 2013). Culturally responsive evaluation (CRE) can also be used to choose, implement, and sustain innovations. CRE is the act of incorporating culture and context within an evaluation with the goal of matching a program's values and beliefs (Hood et al., 2015). CRE helps to acknowledge and value the voices of underrepresented groups, increasing the validity of an evaluation and promoting equity and social justice (Frey, 2018; Greene, 2011; Hood et al., 2015). CRE requires evaluators to use the context to shape the evaluation, select culturally relevant methodology, and involve diverse stakeholders to generate results and solutions (SenGupta et al., 2004). Although much is written about CRE, there is limited literature surrounding its use in education, especially in EI and early childhood special education (ECSE) (Acree & Chouinard, 2020). As the field of EI/ECSE strives to advance equity, it is imperative to explicitly include historically marginalized populations in the selection and implementation of any innovation. This article will illustrate one example of how embedding CRE within Implementation Science can assist in improving outcomes for all children and families.

Parental self-efficacy (PSE) is an essential predictor of parenting practices and child development. The content-specificity of PSE is not well understood: Previous studies are based on either measure of general parental self-efficacy or task-specific parental self-efficacy but not measures of both constructs. Thus, we do not know how both constructs are related. With data from the "AQuaFam" study, we compared four-factor models to investigate the structure of PSE. It was a priority whether (1) task-specific and general PSE could be assessed separately or (2) be mapped in a hierarchical model with task-specific PSE factors and a superordinate factor of general PSE. A Chi-square test shows no significant model improvement, which indicates general and task-specific PSE being separate dimensions. US studies suggest that low-income parents, migrants, or parents with a lower educational status experience lower PSE. To adequately support these parents, we need to know whether differences according to families' background characteristics occur in task-specific and general PSE beliefs. We tested general PSE and PSE in four parenting tasks for differences according to families' background characteristics. Parents with a university degree they were self-efficacious in communicating responsible media use than parents without a university degree. Parents with a non-German family language they were self-efficacious in communicating a responsible media use, caring for a sick child, and in their general PSE compared to parents with German as a family language. The results of the group differences are discussed in the context of how to support different parent groups.

Emerging research suggests that adolescents at high-achieving schools (HAS) in Western societies are at elevated risk for problem behaviours. This cross-sectional study explored whether adolescents attending HAS in a non-Western setting show similar risk patterns and if contextual (school-, family-, and peer-based) factors typically associated with the excessive pressures to achieve predict these problems. Participants were 237 adolescents (14-18 years old), and one of their parents, who were recruited from high-achieving private schools in Hong Kong. The parent-child dyads completed questionnaires on youth internalizing and externalizing problems and perceived stressors. Multiple linear regressions were conducted to test whether academic demands, parent-related stressors, and social status among peers were associated with youth problem behaviours, after controlling for age and gender. The study found that nearly half of the female adolescents and over a third of the males met borderline-clinical levels ([greater than or equal to] 86%ile) of internalizing problems; moreover, more females than males met clinical criteria ([greater than or equal to] 98%ile) for self-reported externalizing problems and parent-reported internalizing problems. Academic demands, parent-related stressors, and social status among peers predicted youth-reported internalizing problems; and the latter two factors contributed parent-reported internalizing problems. However, only parent-related stressors significantly predicted youth- and parent-reported externalizing problems. The findings provide preliminary indication that HAS adolescents from Hong Kong may be an "at risk" group, highlighting the need for increased awareness and targeted interventions.

The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of media addiction and its associated factors in elementary school children based on the problem behavior theory. This cross-sectional study was a secondary data analysis using national data from the 10th Panel Study on Korean Children 2017, which included 1,078 families of third-grade students (8-9 years of age). Descriptive statistics were used to examine the prevalence of media addiction, and logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify factors associated with media addiction. Prevalence of media addiction was 22.91% in this sample. Media addiction was significantly associated with general characteristics (gender, education level of mother, and time spent without parents), socialization (media use time), factors in the personal system (happiness), and factors in the perceived-environment system (parenting style). More comprehensive, tailored education may prevent elementary school children's media addiction. In addition, parents should participate in media addiction education with their children.

While the challenges experienced by parents during Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings have been well documented, limited research has examined parent satisfaction with the IEP document itself and which factors are associated with greater satisfaction. Using 1,183 responses from a national survey, we addressed the following research questions: (a) How satisfied are parents with their child's current IEP? and (b) What characteristics of the parent, child, family-professional partnership, and IEP meeting predict greater parent satisfaction with their child's IEP? Approximately 40% of parents reported some degree of dissatisfaction with their child's IEP. Several child characteristics were associated with the most extreme levels of satisfaction. Results of a regression analysis indicated that, for this sample, parent, child, family-professional partnership, and IEP meeting characteristics significantly predicted parent satisfaction, with characteristics of the IEP meeting among the strongest predictors. Implications are discussed, including the need to replicate these findings with a more representative sample.

The learning gap between urban and rural areas is a persistent problem in many sub-Saharan African countries. Previous studies have found that the urban-rural learning gap is attributed to the fact that student characteristics and school resources are different in urban and rural areas. Our study updates this finding by using the latest dataset and further examines the changes in the attributed sources over time. Using 15 educational systems in sub-Saharan Africa, we examined 4 potential sources of the gap: student, family, teacher, and school characteristics. Our results reveal that the urban-rural learning gap in recent years is attributed mostly to differences in school and family characteristics. We also found that the attribution remains the same over time from 2004 to 2011 and that the attribution to family characteristics' differences became slightly greater than the one to school characteristics' differences.

Family is the foundation stone of society. Education is very important for the health of the family and therefore society. A value-oriented family education program is designed to support families. The aim of this research is to determine the basic education needs of families for a value-oriented family education program. The study group of the research consists of 205 families who enrolled in 4 kindergartens in the city center of Gümüshane in the 2020-2021 Academic Year. In the research, "Family Education Needs Assessment Form" and Personal Information Form given to families during registration were used as data collection tools. This study, which was carried out in accordance with the descriptive scanning model, was analyzed by document analysis method. Percentage and frequency distributions were used in the analysis of the data. In the research, it is important to determine which issues families attach more importance to in value-oriented family education, what they need and to create the program content accordingly. Subjects such as communication with the child, child-rearing attitudes and positive discipline methods, adjustment and behavioral problems observed in pre-school children, school-family cooperation, sexual education, teaching basic habits, books and children's books, play, preparation for primary school, television-internet and their effects on the child have been examined and it has been determined which of these the families need more in terms of family education. It is also seen that most of the families want to receive education in the morning and twice a week on weekdays. In addition, it was determined whether the educational needs of families differ according to the age of the child, the age of the mother, the age of the father, the education of the mother, the education of the father, the profession of the father, the family togetherness and the family income level.

Students from minoritized backgrounds, who disproportionately face higher poverty rates, are more likely to encounter risk factors, which tend to undermine individuals' broader well-being by compromising self-regulatory processes. Yet, sociocultural theory highlights the presence of minoritized families' cultural wealth. Consistent with a focus on assets, it is notable that college enrollment rates have increased among Black and Latino students in the U.S. Using a mixed methods approach, the current study integrated asset and risk frameworks, in order to advance knowledge on the context of minoritized teens' college preparedness, defined here as making decisions and taking action steps toward college. Participants included low-income, predominantly Black and Latino families with adolescents (n = 344). First, drawing from the voices of families, we examined responses to open-ended questions about aspirations, supports, and challenges. Salient themes included social-emotional and social-cultural factors. Indicators of cumulative contextual risk and cumulative individual risk were based on the qualitative data. Second, we tested whether the linkage from cumulative risk indices to teens' college preparedness occurred via various dimensions of self-regulation (i.e., lower impulsivity, more cognitive control, and better organization skills), net of background characteristics. Adolescents' organization skills were a significant mediator. Possible next steps for research are discussed.

Taking the school bus has long been an integral part of the school experience in the U.S. However, not much is known about how school transportation relates to getting to school each day, particularly for students with disabilities. This study used ECLS-K: 2011 to explore two issues. First, we examined what characteristics are associated with taking the school bus, comparing students with and without disabilities. Second, we evaluated the link between taking the school bus and absenteeism for these groups. In the first set of findings, school bus taking is differentiated by student and family characteristics, as well as by urbanicity. We find no major differences in characteristics associated with taking the bus between students with disabilities and students without. As for the second set of findings, students with more common disability diagnoses had fewer absences compared to both students without disabilities as well as those with lower incidence diagnoses, suggesting that taking the bus is related to better attendance behaviors for some students with disabilities. Implications are discussed.

This study identified changes in Korean and heritage language proficiencies across five waves (2011-2015) and examined the association between linguistic acculturation trajectories and adjustment (2016) among Korean adolescents with immigrant family backgrounds (N = 1441; 51.21% female; M[subscript age(baseline)] = 9.97). All adolescents were from multiethnic families with 91.65% comprising a non-Korean Asian mother (e.g., Japan, Philippines, China, Thailand) and Korean father. Parallel process latent class growth modeling and multivariate regression analysis were conducted to estimate the trajectories of linguistic acculturation and their effects on adolescents' future adjustment. Linguistic acculturation trajectories were classified into three latent groups. Bilingual adolescents demonstrated better adjustment over adolescents in other trajectories. Findings highlight the importance of considering patterns of change in linguistic acculturation for understanding Korean multicultural adolescents' adjustment.

Rurality is an identified point of disadvantage in measures such as the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) and school resourcing models. However, socioeconomic disadvantage is commonly used as an explanation for lower average student achievement in rural locations. Thus, policies are often directed towards reducing disadvantage associated with socioeconomic status, and rurality is overlooked. This research tests the validity of these assumptions using a matched study approach. We examine data on New South Wales (NSW) students, schools and courses to investigate how the English and Mathematics achievement levels of students in their final year of secondary school are associated with family and school characteristics across locations. The findings show that socioeconomic variation does not fully account for differences in achievement in rural locations. Instead, rurality appears to mediate other effects on student achievement in a complex interplay of factors contributing to lower average results. This highlights the need to consider the specificities of rurality in schooling, particularly the role of rural knowledges and perspectives in schooling and student achievement.

The advantages and disadvantages of single-sex schooling continue to be a source of policy and public debate. Previous empirical evidence is somewhat ambiguous, with some studies finding a positive impact of single-sex schooling on education achievement and others finding no differences across school types. The relationship between single-sex schooling on academic outcomes is typically problematic to examine, as in most countries single-sex schools are selective and the numbers attending them are relatively small. In Ireland, a high proportion of secondary school children ([approximately] 1/3) attend a single-sex school. In addition, these schools are largely state-funded and non-selective but differing in composition compared to mixed-sex schools. For this reason, the Irish educational system provides an interesting setting for exploring the outcomes of single-sex schooling. In this context, this study utilises the 2018 PISA data for Ireland to examine the relationship between single-sex education and mathematics, reading and science literacy performance for boys and girls, respectively, as well as differences across gender in these outcomes. We find significant raw gaps in reading, science and mathematics scores between females in single-sex and mixed-sex schools and in mathematics scores for males across the same school types. However, after controlling for a rich set of individual, parental and school-level factors we find that, on average, there is no significant difference in performance for girls or boys who attend single-sex schools compared to their mixed-school peers in science, mathematics or reading. In terms of heterogeneous analysis, this finding is consistent across the performance distribution.

Using three-wave longitudinal data, this study tested the potential mediating roles of teacher-student relationship quality and teachers' career support efficacy in the association between Chinese adolescents' family socioeconomic status (SES) and career development (N = 1410). Results showed that adolescents' family SES at Wave 1 was negatively associated with their career ambivalence at Wave 3 via positive associations with both teacher-student relationship quality and teachers' career support efficacy at Wave 2. Moreover, adolescents' family SES at Wave 1 was positively related to career adaptability at Wave 3 via its positive association with teachers' career support efficacy at Wave 2. This study highlighted the important role of teacher-student interaction in adolescents' career development.

Problem behaviors have often been associated with poor learning in preschool children. However, most of these studies have mainly been situated in Western contexts. The current study, based on a single case study of a Malaysian preschool, explores the link between problem behaviors and early literacy skills of preschool children aged between 4 and 5 from a non-Western context. Fifty-two boys and forty girls were recruited for the study. The Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was used to assess children's problem behaviors via teacher reports. Literacy skills were obtained through pupil progress reports. Family background and home literacy environment information were provided by the primary caregivers using a survey instrument. Findings indicated that only attentional difficulties were associated with early learning in young children. Other problem behaviors such as emotional, conduct and peer problems did not predict early literacy skills. This study added new knowledge to the discourse used in a non-Western context. The findings bear important practical implications for optimizing the early learning experiences of preschoolers. Educators should consider children's specific behavioral challenges and formulate early interventions such as Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs to be integrated into preschool programs. More importantly, policies should make developing good attentional skills a priority in the early years programs.

This meta-analysis examines the effects of sorting secondary students into different tracks ("between-school" tracking) or classrooms ("within-school" tracking) on the efficiency and inequality levels of an educational system. Efficiency is related to the overall learning achievement of students, whereas inequality can refer to "inequality of achievement" (i.e., the dispersion of outcomes) or "inequality of opportunity" (i.e., the strength of the influence of family background on student achievement). The selected publications are 53 analyses performed in the period from 2000 to 2021, yielding 213 estimates on efficiency and 230 estimates on inequality. The results show that the mean effect size (Hedge's G) of tracking on efficiency is not statistically significant (G = -0.063), whereas it is significantly positive (G = 0.117) on inequality. We further set out to explain variation in effect sizes by (a) policy characteristics, (b) the operationalization of main variables, (c) the research design, (d) the set of control variables included in the statistical analyses, and (e) the quality of the study, year of publication, and publication status (peer reviewed or not peer reviewed).

The purpose of the present study was to examine the association between Chinese preschool children's home numeracy experiences and their mathematical abilities. The parents of 515 4- to 5-year-old preschool children reported their frequency of participation in home numeracy activities, and the children were assessed on their math ability. The results revealed that the parents engaged in both formal and informal math activities at home. Family socioeconomic status showed significant positive correlations with number game and number application activities. Parental involvement in number skills activities positively predicted young children's formal and informal math ability, while number application activities positively predicted young children's informal math ability. These results suggest that parents should pay attention to both formal and informal activities in support of their children's math learning at home.

This article examines degree completion among students with an immigrant background who enrolled in professional bachelor's degree programmes in early childhood or teacher education, nursing, or social work. By using the high-quality Norwegian register data covering national cohorts of students enrolled in higher education between 1990 and 2014, the analysis indicates that immigrants and native-born descendants of immigrants were less likely to complete these study programmes, compared with native majority students. Explanations for this could be linked to ethnic minorities being inadequately integrated--socially and academically--in these study programmes and therefore less able and/or motivated to stay enrolled until graduation. In all four professional study programmes, students with an immigrant background had comparatively higher probabilities of transferring to other study programmes or dropping out of higher education altogether. On the positive side, minority-majority gaps in degree completion were considerably smaller for those who achieved academically well in these professional study programmes, measured as high first-year GPAs. However, it is quite alarming that immigrants and immigrant descendants who achieved poor academic results were substantially less likely to complete a degree than native majority students with correspondingly poor results.

This paper is based on the ethnographic multiple case study of four refugee background youths from Burma at four different schools in a midwestern urban school district in the US. My research finds that the normalization of English constructed the focal youths' language-related identities. I also argue that through this normalization, language difference between school and home became a difference that marginalized the focal youth in their class and racialized their subjectivity.

Using Gyeonggi Educational Panel Study data on 4051 Korean students (N = 4051; 1967 female, 2084 male) from 63 middle schools, this longitudinal study investigated the growth trajectory for second/foreign language (L2) achievement and associations with various L2 motivational factors by using a multilevel latent growth curve model in M"plus" 8.4. Because of the hierarchal data structure, the predictive factors were sorted into three student-level subcategories: individual characteristics; L2 classroom engagement components; and family background. At the school level, school SES and teacher efficacy were specified. Results indicate that global and L2 self-efficacy affected the high initial scores; however, no effect was observed on the growth rate. Unexpectedly, L2 interest was found to have no effects, which suggested a possible engagement mediation effect. Finally, of the L2 classroom engagement factors, L2 class comprehension was found to have a strong explanatory power for the initial L2 achievement scores, but exhibited no impact on the growth rate. These findings have second language acquisition implications for practice and interventions.

This study provides an empirical investigation into the lives of kindergarten-aged left-behind children (LBC) who could not migrate with their parents in rural China. Two research questions are answered as follows: (1) What are the characteristics of the LBC in kindergarten and at home? and (2) How does family cultural capital influence the LBC's behaviors in kindergarten and at home? The study employs Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, with a qualitative case study approach based on interpretivism being adopted. It was found that the LBC present different characteristics in kindergarten and at home and that their particular form of family cultural capital/environment is not supportive of their school-based development in China. The data on the LBC in the study provide insight into practices for policymakers and academics.

The COVID-19 disruptions to children's education have been a major issue for families. This study examined how demographic, family, and mental health characteristics of 375 low-income children and their mothers from the City of Toronto were associated with children's educational experiences at home during COVID-19. Many mothers (82.3%) reported that they and their children (80.0%) experienced challenges related to children's education at home during the pandemic. However, a small percentage of mothers (1.1%) reported that this mode of learning was better for them and their children (4.3%). The most frequently reported challenges faced by mothers was taking on the role of a teacher (43.7%) and balancing their children's remote learning with other responsibilities (19.4%). The most frequently mentioned challenges faced by children was that children lacked both motivation (21.1%) and socialization (21.1%) and had difficulty focusing (26.9%). White mothers from households with higher income and with a higher number of adults in the home reported that their children experienced higher levels of challenges related to their education at home. Maternal and child challenges with children's education at home were also related to higher levels of maternal and child mental health challenges. Our findings suggest that the online educational experiences set up following the onset of the pandemic were difficult for many children and mothers to implement in the home. Given the significant associations of these challenges with child and maternal mental health, we encourage educators to provide flexibility, empathy, and support with learning from home to both children and mothers.

While parent involvement has been shown to have positive academic outcomes for their children, for structural changes to be made, parents have to go from being active to taking on a more activist role, thus "stoking the flame" of the norm. Parent advocacy and empowerment groups play a vital role in the transformation of parent activists, yet their contributions are often overlooked in the literature on parent involvement. Using Yosso's Community Cultural Wealth Framework, findings from this qualitative study examine how a parent empowerment group embraced the cultural assets and strengths of Black parents, served as the spark to engage them in the educational reform process, and built a platform for them as activists. This research expands conceptualizations of parent involvement to include activism and asserts parent advocacy and empowerment groups as vital stakeholders in educational change.

Despite some gains, women continue to be underrepresented in many science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Using a national longitudinal dataset of 690 participants born in 1991, we tested whether spatial skills, measured in middle childhood, would help explain this gender gap. We modeled the relation between 4th-grade spatial skills and STEM majors while simultaneously accounting for competing cognitive and motivational mechanisms. Strong spatial skills in 4th grade directly increased the likelihood of choosing STEM college majors, above and beyond math achievement and motivation, verbal achievement and motivation, and family background. Additionally, 4th-grade spatial skills indirectly predicted STEM major choice via math achievement and motivation in the intervening years. Further, our findings suggest that gender differences in 4th-grade spatial skills contribute to women's underrepresentation in STEM majors.

Research has consistently indicated that children of naturalized citizens from refugee backgrounds lag in most indicators of development. The disparities are more nuanced in contexts with limited educational resources, such as the sub-Saharan region of Africa. However, that is not the case with children of naturalized citizens from refugee backgrounds of Burundian origin living in Tanzania. The early learning attainment of these children is comparable to children from more advantaged urban majority groups. In this article, I discuss the role of the home learning environment and families' socioeconomic status in children's development of early math and reading skills by linking global and local perspectives. Challenges facing children from this group in Tanzania include issues related to curriculum, cultural practices and parental beliefs, mastery of Kiswahili, and the quality of teachers in the early grades. In light of the evidence, I argue for improvements in learning experiences and recommend research to inform policy and improve practice.

Across continental Europe, educational research samples are often divided by 'migrant background', a binary variable criticized for masking participant heterogeneity and reinforcing exclusionary norms of belonging. This study endorses more meaningful, representative, and precise research by offering four guiding questions for selecting relevant, social justice oriented, and feasible social categories for collecting and analysing data in psychological and educational research. Using a preregistered empirical example, we first compare selected social categories ('migrant background', family heritage, religion, citizenship, cultural identification, and generation status) in their potential to reveal participant heterogeneity. Second, we investigate differences in means and relations between variables (discrimination experiences, perceived societal Islamophobia, and national identity) and academic motivation among 1335 adolescents in Germany (48% female, M[subscript age] = 14.69). Regression analyses and multigroup SEM revealed differential experiences with and implications of discrimination for academic motivation. Results highlight the need for a deliberate, transparent use of social categories to make discrimination visible and centre participants' subjective experiences.