The original article, published in 1983, applied Titmuss's framework of a three-tiered social welfare system. Based on new data and a more in-depth analysis, this article re-examines who benefits from and who pays for social, fiscal, and corporate welfare and concludes that all three systems continue to serve and favor the middle class, wealthy…

Explores the social class/parental agency relationship by analyzing findings of a qualitative research project exploring parental voice in British secondary schools. A typology of parental interventions illustrates differentials in parents' access to and deployment of social, cultural, and material resources. Occupational pathways and spatial…

Traditional American cultural narratives about hard work, self-improvement, and "success"--moving from "rags to riches"--play a very important role in shaping the thinking of most college students, and most other Americans too, of course, regardless of age, class, ethnicity, or gender. This article presents several narratives that will help shape…

This paper presents comments on Ceci and Papierno's article concerning advantaged and disadvantaged youth interventions. The author notes that while the article was more than welcome, the discussion was nevertheless still couched within a seriously culturally biased conceptual framework. Even though most psychologists accept this framework, it…

This investigation compares the computer practices of the Garza family, from the first study, with those of the Fuentes family, from the second study. As both families are of Mexican origin, they belong to an ethnicity that has been reported as falling on the "have-not" side of the "divide" (U.S. Department of Commerce, 1999);…

This report was undertaken to assess the state of civic capacity for education reform in Philadelphia. It challenges community and civic sectors of the city to put aside individual interests and work together to mobilize resources to pursue the collective good of public school improvement. The report demonstrates that many of the elements…

Teaching styles were investigated in 28 middle-class sibling dyads (older sibling M age = 8.2 yrs; younger sibling M age = 5.11 yrs) using two sets of block design tasks (five easy; five hard). Older siblings employed a greater number of strategies (i.e. physical demonstrations, scaffolding, corrective feedback) in the hard than in the easy tasks,…

This paper uses census data to investigate educational inequality in different types of residential areas in Athens, focusing on drop-out rates from secondary education, access to higher education and to particular degrees within it. The unequal socio-spatial distribution of educational attainment is linked to antagonistic middle class education…

Social class influences parent involvement in schooling. This book uses the case study method to compare family-school relationships in a working-class elementary school with those in an upper middle-class school, focusing on one first grade class in each school, and within the two schools, on 12 families, over the course of their children's first…

The author examines the popular notion that schools are negatively oriented towards children from the working classes. The results indicate that working-class children receive less than their share of teacher interactions in highly teacher-centered classrooms and more of their share in student-centered classrooms. (DE)

A nationwide poll of 600 working Americans indicated extensive support for increased child care programs and for government policies that support and expand child care for working parents. Responses suggested that (1) the greatest support for increased child care comes from middle-class families and workers; (2) the need for improvements and…

A study investigated the relationship between sex and social class in the spontaneous speech of 16 individuals from Newcastle upon Tyne (England). Specifically, the study examined the frequency of glottalized variants of three voiceless stops, and treated variation by sex as separate from, not a byproduct of, variation by class. Subjects were four…

One of the purposes of this study was to develop a coding scheme based on Wertsch's theoretical extension of Vygotsky's ideas for describing parent-child interaction during exploration. This scheme was then applied to identify the most common patterns of parent and child situation definitions, negotiations of shared definitions, and questions…

A total of 103 preschool children of lower and middle socioeconomic status families were observed in three preschool programs during 15 standardized free play periods for the purpose of investigating preschool children's preferences for different types of traditionally used play materials. The influence of age, sex, and socioeconomic status (SES)…

The consumer of educational tests is not being protected and reforms are badly needed. (JH)