New book explores issues around social justice in education

A NEW book analyses the role played by social class in determining the quality of education received by young people.

Written by Dr Ron Thompson, a Principal Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield, it claims that: “Inequality of educational opportunity is the characteristic experience of young people in the United Kingdom and other countries, with structures of disadvantage and privilege maintaining wide disparities in educational experience and attainment”.

Titled Education, Inequality and Social Class, the book’s themes include the relationship between education and social mobility, and Dr Thompson argues that educational inequality is “a political issue as well as an intellectual challenge”.

The book reflects on the past half century of policy in the UK and overseas and Dr Thompson acknowledges that in Western liberal democracies the educational experiences and achievements of young people from working class and lower-middle class backgrounds have been transformed, so that they stay far longer in school and their chances of attending a university are many times greater.

However, he concludes: “Progress towards universal education has left many forms of inequality largely unchanged”.

Education inequality

The new book – which draws on international statistical evidence alongside educational and political theory – has been described by a leading educationalist as “essential reading for all those concerned about social justice in education”.  It is the latest product of a decade of research – resulting in a sequence of articles and two previous books – that Dr Thompson has carried out on social class in education, including work on youngsters who are often dubbed NEETs (not in education, employment or training).

Education, Inequality and Social Class includes an analysis of the UK’s state grammar schools and shows that a much lower proportion of their pupils are from disadvantaged backgrounds, said Dr Thompson.

“Even when you look at children with equal abilities they still remain disadvantaged, so the gap is not necessarily a gap of ability, it’s a gap of advantage – partly cultural and partly economic.  Parents might be able to help more with homework or might have a greater knowledge of the educational system, or might simply be able to provide more material advantages.”

However, Dr Thompson’s book points out that some of the most academically and socially selective schools in the country are state comprehensives, and private education does not have the major impact on inequality that might be expected.

“Even if you don’t have any private schools, desirable catchment areas are often colonised by middle-class parents,” said Dr Thompson.  “It is often a case of seeking out advantage and being able to exploit it, whether it is fee-paying or within the state system.”

The new book aims at a high level of objectivity, continued Dr Thompson, although it is also plain that he condemns educational inequality.

“To a certain extent, it is inevitable that if you have a class society you will have educational inequality.  But some of it has been promoted – particularly in the UK – by Government policies.  So there are things that can be done, although they involve difficult choices and conflict between rights, such as people saying that if they want to buy private tuition for their children, they are entitled to do so – even if this heightens inequality.

“But there are political choices that can be made and trying to reduce material inequality will help to reduce educational inequality.”

Dr Thompson has worked at the University of Huddersfield for thirty years, and is a former Reader in Education and Head of Division for Lifelong Learning.  He continues to research and write about education and social mobility, and since the publication of his book has been invited to join an international advisory board on the subject that has been convened by academics in Norway.

• Education, Inequality and Social Class is published by Routledge.