The Zombie Stalking English Schools: Social Class and Educational Inequality

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reclaim social class as a central concern within education, not in the traditional sense as a dimension of educational stratification, but as a powerful and vital aspect of both learner and wider social identities. Drawing on historical and present evidence, a case is made that social inequalities arising from social class have never been adequately addressed within schooling. Recent qualitative research is used to indicate some of the ways in which class is lived in classrooms. The article also raises concerns about the ability of the education system to positively address social class in the classroom when contemporary initial teacher training rarely engages with it as a relevant concern within schooling.

Profitable portfolios: capital that counts in higher education

“…While there are examples of productive participation, the pattern of collective trajectories of this group differs sharply from that of traditional entrants (Reay 2006). The onus falls largely to students to adapt to established practices which remain strongly oriented towards traditional white middle-class populations (Read et al 2003, Burke 2005).…”

‘Let the Right Ones In!’: Widening Participation, Academic Writing and the Standards Debate in Higher Education

“…For example, the link between lower academic achievement at A Level and lower socio-economic status is well documented (Reay, 2006;Ball, 2008). Not surprisingly, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) report, Education at a Glance 2011: OECD indicators (2011), reveals that, in the UK, young people in affluent areas were five times more likely to go to (any) university than those in poorest areas.…”

“…(2010, p. 23) However, student choice is not and never can be 'sovereign', as access to many universities is highly competitive; places are over-subscribed and entry is conditional on qualifications gained within a deeply unequal, often distorted school system, (Chitty, 2002;Ball, 2006). Countless studies, (Reay, 2006;Allen & Ainley, 2007;Ball, 2008), have shown that the poor are often the poorly educated. As such, they have no clout as educational consumers in a cut-throat knowledge economy where funding, already scarce, is being cut further.…”

Exploring Community Philosophy as a tool for parental engagement in a primary school

“…Whilst the word 'partnership' is often espoused, one side of the partnership, the school, has more influence than the other. (Reay, 2008;2006;Vincent, 1996; Vincent and Tomlinson, 1997; Westergård and Galloway, 2010).…”