Is romance more important to women in college than grades are? Why do so many women enter college with strong academic backgrounds and firm career goals but leave with dramatically scaled-down ambitions? Dorothy C. Holland and Margaret A. Eisenhart expose a pervasive "culture of romance" on campus: a high-pressure peer system that propels women into a world where their attractiveness to men counts most.

Is romance more important to women in college than grades are? Why do so many women enter college with strong academic backgrounds and firm career goals but leave with dramatically scaled-down ambitions? Dorothy C. Holland and Margaret A. Eisenhart expose a pervasive "culture of romance" on campus: a high-pressure peer system that propels women into a world where their attractiveness to men counts most.

Eleven historical-ethnographic case studies examine the social and cultural projects of modern schools, and the contestations, dramatic and not, that emerge in and around and against them. These case studies, ranging from Taiwan to South Texas, build upon an original joining of anthropology, critical education theory, and cultural studies. The studies advance the concept of cultural production as a way of understanding the dynamics of power and identity formation underlying different forms of "education." Using the concept of the "educated person" as a culture-specific construct, the authors examine conflicts and points of convergence between cultural practices and knowledges that are produced in and out of schools.

What happens when people “achieve”? Why do reactions to “achievement” vary so profoundly? And how might an anthropological study of achievement and its consequences allow us to develop a more nuanced model of the motivated agency that operates in the social world? These questions lie at the heart of this volume. Drawing on research from Southeast Asia, Europe, the United States, and Latin America, this collection develops an innovative framework for explaining achievement’s multiple effects—one which brings together cutting-edge theoretical insights into politics, psychology, ethics, materiality, aurality, embodiment, affect and narrative. In doing so, the volume advances a new agenda for the study of achievement within anthropology, emphasizing the significance of achievement as a moment of cultural invention, and the complexity of “the achiever” as a subject position.

"Sociological research on the experience of first-generation college students has expanded significantly in the last decade, providing broad-ranging data about the ways that these students enter college settings and their comparative progress toward graduation. However, we still know little about differences among first-gen students. In this book, we problematize the notion that there is only way to be a first generation student, and we consider the implications that different routes into and through college have for post-college mobility. Drawing on interviews with 64 college students at one highly selective campus and national longitudinal survey data from 28 campuses, we found that rather than developing a sense of belonging on campus at large, first-generation students were located in one of four different smaller multi-dimensional niches, what we refer to as campus geographies"--

Two young women, dormitory mates, embark on their education at a big state university. Five years later, one is earning a good salary at a prestigious accounting firm. With no loans to repay, she lives in a fashionable apartment with her fiancé. The other woman, saddled with burdensome debt and a low GPA, is still struggling to finish her degree in tourism. In an era of skyrocketing tuition and mounting concern over whether college is "worth it," Paying for the Party is an indispensable contribution to the dialogue assessing the state of American higher education. A powerful exposé of unmet obligations and misplaced priorities, it explains in vivid detail why so many leave college with so little to show for it. Drawing on findings from a five-year interview study, Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton bring us to the campus of "MU," a flagship Midwestern public university, where we follow a group of women drawn into a culture of status seeking and sororities. Mapping different pathways available to MU students, the authors demonstrate that the most well-resourced and seductive route is a "party pathway" anchored in the Greek system and facilitated by the administration. This pathway exerts influence over the academic and social experiences of all students, and while it benefits the affluent and well-connected, Armstrong and Hamilton make clear how it seriously disadvantages the majority. Eye-opening and provocative, Paying for the Party reveals how outcomes can differ so dramatically for those whom universities enroll.

In the spirit of encouraging international dialogue between researchers and practitioners, often working within isolated traditions, this book discusses perspectives on science education for the gifted informed by up-to-date research findings from a number of related fields. The book reviews philosophy, culture and programmes in science education for the gifted in diverse national contexts, and includes scholarly reviews of significant perspectives and up-to-date research methods and findings. The book is written in a straightforward style for students studying international perspective modules on undergraduate, but especially masters and doctoral degrees in Science Education and Gifted Education. Gifted education has come to be regarded as a key national programme in many countries, and gifted education in science disciplines is now of major importance to economic and technological development. Despite these national initiatives and developments, there are very few discussions on gifted education in science from international perspectives. This will be a valued addition to the scholarship in this emergent field.