As part of a wider study into the educational attitudes and experiences of white, working-class male pupils in the north of England, this paper explored the ways that male pupils in years 10 and 11 navigated and experienced the six-level (A-F) academic banding system present in their British mainstream secondary school (Ayrefield Community…

Global education policy discourse is based on an unshakable belief that more and improved skills will promote economic prosperity, global competitiveness and social inclusion. In England, the Further Education and Skills sector (FES) has emerged as the vehicle to deliver these skills. However, the portrayal of FES as focusing primarily on…

This article explores how a small sample of working-class mothers encounters the field of education. In the management of family and their children's schooling, mothers bring to bear and replicate ways of knowing that are embodied, are historical and that offer many-sided insights into profoundly stratified societies. Here I draw on Bourdieu's…

Using data from in-depth individual interviews, this article discusses the educational experiences and ambitions of two young working-class full-time female students. The two studies are derived from a wider investigation into student post-16 educational experiences and decision-making, based on a sample of students and staff of an Advanced…

Despite an increase in higher education uptake in the UK, participation rates for working class students remain low. When working-class students attend university, they are often attracted to lower status universities to enrol in new subject areas, such as media studies. This study uses Bourdieu's theory of stratification, and its reproduction via…

Drawing on a study of a Swedish secondary school with a heterogeneous intake, this article provides an analysis of the social relations and segregation within an individual school. As shown in the analysis, young people from different socio-economic backgrounds were largely separated in school, differently positioned and in conflict with each…

This essay examines the formation, operation, and social effects of adult education classes in France during the nineteenth century. These classes were created and operated prior to the formation of France's national education system and were part of the expansion of primary schooling for the working class, or more generally for "the…

Scandinavian welfare states are developing a growing new middle class and a growing marginalized, poverty-threatened underclass, reproducing the societal duality caused by labor market structuring. Tightening labor markets, increased dependency on welfare benefits, and substantial decreases in public transfers have combined to create a growing…

Examines the ways in which schools facilitate and reproduce structured social inequalities in Australian society. Shows that curriculum variations in state and private secondary schools produce graduates with radically different cultural orientations to school, scholarship, and social and occupational life beyond academe. Lists 35 references. (MLH)

Concerned about working-class failure, argues that recent (British) government policies have insufficiently considered sociological studies on how social class affects educational success or failure. Social-inclusion policies must address forms of middle-class self-exclusion from mainstream public education as well as working-class social…

Explores whether England is developing an American-style underclass and argues that England faces transforming changes in the near term similar to that of the United States but faster and possibly more politically volatile. The author addresses the likely effects of the revolution on English society and comments on the political context in which…

Discusses a study of the effects of material incentives and institutionalized values upon the expansion of secondary school systems in France. Reports that class was more important than gender in determining expansion because state policies placed greater emphasis on emphasized class in determining supply. Concludes that state policy reinforced…

The English educational system is still being organized along social-class lines. Working classes have historically been "found out" in education--discovered to be inferior and less cultured and clever than middle classes. Findings from studies on higher education choice, secondary school transitions, and primary assessments underline…

In France, the sociology of pupils has focused on studying inequalities related to teacher expectations. Greater proportions of working-class students in secondary schools and colleges have forced a change in researchers' perspectives. Pupils are now defined by how they, as individuals, make sense of their school experience. (Contains 22…

Criticizes the conservative movement's dismissal of class inequities in the British school system. Maintains that any critical analysis of social democratic alternatives to the current system must address the ways that class identities and social destinies are reproduced through state schooling. Doubts the efficacy of managerialist technically…