The Zombie Stalking English Schools: Social Class and Educational Inequality

1. The Zombie Stalking English Schools: Social Class and Educational Inequality Gabrielle Sherry

2. Aim • To reclaim social class as a central concern within education, not in the traditional sense as a dimension of educational satisfaction, but as a powerful and vital aspect of both learner and wider social identities.

3. Introduction • 19th century horizons of experience. Inequalities of social stratification not only persist but are growing. • The poor in Britain are substantially poorer than the worst off in more equal industrialised societies.

4. Dates and figures • In 1979 the richest tenth of the population received 21% of total disposable income. This rose to 29% by 2002-3. • In the late 1990s relative poverty was twice the level of the 1960s and three times the level of the late 1970s. • The need to reinvigorate class analysis not bury it.

5. New cultural analysis of social class • Re-working of class analysis that is more subtle than those previously suggested. • Focus on class processes and practices • Bourdieu’s work heavily influenced these new ideas • To date these new understandings have had little impact on educational policy and practice.

6. Pierre Bourdieu • Pierre Bourdieu was a French sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher. • He developed theories of social stratification and claimed that how one chooses to present one’s social space to the world, depicts one’s status and distances oneself from lower groups. • He believed these dispositions are internalised at an early age and guide the young towards their appropriate social positions, towards the behaviours that are suitable for them, and an aversion towards other behaviours,

7. Education • It is seen and believed that those from a wealthy background seem to be able to send their children to the better and more ‘prestige’ schools, which leads to the question of do those with money end up better off in schools? Are private schools and those prestige schools going to get better results and lead to better futures for those children lucky enough to attend them?

8. Education • As stated in the article, The Times newspapers reported that the gap between rich and poor children has grown. • Social reproduction will continue on unless changes are made. The social reproduction theory argues that schools are not institutions of equal opportunity but mechanisms for perpetuating social inequalities.

9. Ideas and thoughts • Working-class education is made to serve middle-class interests. • It is thought that those from a working-class background are made to feel somewhat inferior to those from middle-class, this can even be to the way in which people speak and pronunciation. • Views of parents are different in the sense that those middle-class parents are sometimes seen as lazy, ignorant, uninterested and impossible to work with. However this is not the case as many of those middle-class families actually take more interest in their child's education and you can see how much they want to push their children in order for them to flourish.

10. Conclusion • ‘Social class remains the one educational problem that comes back to haunt English education again and again and again.’ • Although things are changing as stated in the article they just seem to stay the same • Could this be due to social reproduction? And as it seems to be that way is there actually ever going to be changes made?