In this book Diane Reay, herself working class turned Cambridge
professor, brings Brian Jackson and Dennis Marsden's pioneering
Education and the Working Class from 1962 up to date for the 21st
century. Drawing on over 500 interviews, the book, part of the 21st
Century Standpoints series published in association with the British
Sociological Association, includes rich, vivid stories from working
class children and young people. It looks at class identity, the
inadequate sticking plaster of social mobility, and the effects of wider
economic and social class relationships on working class educational
experiences. The book addresses the urgent question of why the working
classes are still faring so much worse than the upper and middle classes
in education. It reveals how we have ended up with an educational system
that still educates the different social classes in fundamentally
different ways, and vitally - what we can do to achieve a fairer system.