social mobility and education

what are the two types of social mobility?

• intra-generational mobility - during lifetime, short range movement more common

  • inter-generational mobility - from parents to children, more significant over time

why does social immobility exist?

• economic trends e.g. socialism and neoliberalism affects social mobility

• geographical disparities

• labour market

• education

bourdieu’s main points on social mobility

• it is shaped by unequal access to capital (economic, cultural and social)

• habitus - internalised dispositions and ways of thinking shaped by ones social background

  • people from working class backgrounds may internalise a sense of limitation due to their social posting - imposter syndrome

lawler and payne (2018) main points

• persisting myth that successful people have greater ‘abilities’ while immobile deserves their lower positions

• blocked mobility feeds dissolution and support for nationalistic political parties

what is nepotism?

• practice of favouritism to relatives or family

• common hiring mechanism in firms where families use their control to hire family members - therefore perpetuating family involvement (Chrisman et al., 2003)

• characterised as detrimental to society

what is the role of education in social mobility?

• fundamental aspect of society’s development

• seen as a source of ‘liberation’ (meritocracy)

negatives of the education system

it is shaped by social institutions and social forces

it also legitimates and reproduces inequalities

what were the previous class divides in schooling?

19th century ‘public’ schools were only available for the elite

churches provided basic sunday education to the working class

• fear of an insurgent highly educated working class

• but, industrial revolution made it desirable for workers to have some basic training

what are the current class divides

large divide between standard of education given to rich and poor

• by age of 3, poorer children are estimated to be, on average, 9 months behind children from wealthy backgrounds

• by 16, children receiving FSM achieve 1.7 grades lower at GCSE

what is the hidden curriculum

‘subtle presentation of political or cultural ideas in the classroom’

reproduction of values that tend to ‘exclude’ those from different backgrounds

(Macionis and Plummer, 2008)

what is the concept of inversion in education

‘class clowns’ act up in class to gain social capital

instead of engaging with learning, pupils create alternative forms of participations

can be seen as a coping mechanism for pupils struggling to conform with the standards of the learning or hidden curriculum

punishment in education

schools as disciplinary institutions (power)

not about correcting behaviour, but teaching conformity to authority (Foucault, 1975)

working class children more likely to face punishment because they lack ‘cultural capital’ (e.g. dress, speech)

myth of meritocracy in education

‘meritocracy is a convenient means of explaining and justifying how and why inequality and reproduction of privilege exist in a supposedly fair social system’ (Atkinson, 2015)

marxist view of education

reproduces the class system = richer people can give their children a greater education

the grading system puts the onus on the student for their grades

(Bowles and Gintis, 1979)

Lawler and Payne (2018)

• recent political discourse ignores the structural factors influencing mobility, and instead frame it as a matter of effort and merit

• the notion of mobility being a personal trait can lead to the stigmatisation of those who are ‘non-mobile’, as it doesn’t acknowledge systemic barriers

• caution against viewing social mobility as a solution to social inequalities, as this obscures the reproduction of privilege and the systemic nature of social stratification

key researchers

lawler and payne (2018), chrisman et al (2003), macionis and plummer (2008), foucault (1975), atkinson (2015), bowles and gintis (1979)