The uniformly positive view of social mobility in the United Kingdom overlooks the difficulties working-class young people have in reconciling a working-class background with the middle-class environments of the university and the professional labour market. But even more hidden are the subtle processes of exclusion and exclusivity that permeate…

"The Oxford Dictionary of English" defines authoritarianism as the enforcement or advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom, as well as a lack of concern for the wishes or opinions of others. In this paper I argue that there are growing signs of a move towards more authoritarian practices and structures…

This paper examines the relationship of working-class feminist academics to the Academy. Our paper interrogates tensions between resistance and submission from the perspective of four educationally successful working-class women who have become academics. The paper starts with an overview of the state of the Academy at the beginning of the…

Educational transitions experienced within a context of wide and growing inequalities such as England result in very different transition experiences to those experienced by young people growing up in relatively equitable societies with strong communal links. Transitions of working class young people in England are beset with competition,…

Through the case-study experiences of 24 White and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) working-class students from three very different universities, we aim to illuminate the often hidden struggle for recognition and respect for classed, 'raced' and gendered ways of being in the university. We discuss how the students perceive their identities…

This paper problematizes dominant discourses of social mobility. It begins by discussing social mobility from a philosophical perspective before examining current policies on social mobility in the United Kingdom, drawing on data from both recent mobility studies and the contemporary labour market. I then broaden out the discussion by exploring…

There are substantial reports on working-class student non-completion and the challenges of engaging or not with the teaching in higher education. The students in our study were all successful at university but the different universities provided different types of experiences for their respective students. In this paper we focus on the pedagogic…

Drawing on case studies of 27 working-class students across four UK higher education institutions, this article attempts to develop a multilayered, sociological understanding of student identities that draws together social and academic aspects. Working with a concept of student identity that combines the more specific notion of learner identity…

The white middle-class parents who chose to send their children to urban comprehensives largely rejected engaging in the usual competitiveness for educational success. Nevertheless the parents in our study still found themselves wittingly or otherwise captured by that same discourse. Their children are high achievers and are regarded as a valuable…

With reference to an ESRC/TLRP project conducted across two academic years with working-class students in higher education (HE), this paper explores the relationship between geographies of home and those of university at two UK HE institutions. It addresses how social relations inflected by class influence the experience of students as they adapt…

In the context of widening participation policies, polarisation of types of university recruitment and a seemingly related high drop-out rate amongst first generation, working class students, we focus on the provision offered by the universities to their students. We discuss how middle class and working class student experiences compare across…

Examines the experiences of 12 working class women attending an Access course at an inner city further education college. Risks and costs involved in transitioning to higher education were evident in the women's narratives. Material and cultural factors inhibited their access to higher education. The desire to "give something back"…

Describes a well-behaved, hard-working, poor, white, working class British boy trying to achieve academically in an inner-city boys' comprehensive school while simultaneously maintaining his standing within the male peer group culture, discussing possibilities of bringing together white working-class masculinities with educational success in…

The transition to secondary school is rarely conceptualised as an important influence in maintaining and contributing to wider processes of social exclusion in the inner city. This article argues that the seeds of social exclusion are sown in under-resourced, struggling inner-city schooling, and their germination is found in class practices,…

Adopts a genealogical approach to a small-scale study of Black supplementary schools, extra schooling organized by the African-Caribbean community in the United Kingdom. Finds evidence of a new female-centered social movement in the organization of the schools and of the effectiveness of parental involvement among the Black working class. (DSK)