tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/social-mobility-8223/articlesSocial mobility – The Conversation2023-09-18T14:54:04Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2122182023-09-18T14:54:04Z2023-09-18T14:54:04ZShops and restaurants can help blur class lines but interactions may not be meaningful enough to boost social mobility<p>Titanic, James Cameron’s 1997 multi-Oscar-winning movie, focused on the tragic love story of itinerant artist Jack and upper-class socialite Rose. Among their other on-board adventures, they dined in the first-class section of the ship before joining revellers dancing in the third-class quarters. Their exploration of the ill-fated vessel represents a transgression – not just of public boundaries, but of class ones too. </p>
<p>More recently, mobile phone location data is being used to track such interactions across class boundaries. Understanding class segregation matters because, as economists like Raj Chetty <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04996-4">point out</a>, interaction or “economic connectedness” between low and high-income groups is a key predictor of how likely people are to be able to move up the social ladder. </p>
<p>This is crucial at a time when, in the UK, social mobility is at a low. People now find it much harder <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/inequality/intergenerational-mobility-in-the-uk/">to out-earn their parents</a>, according to think tank Institute for Fiscal Studies.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-youre-less-likely-to-get-rich-these-days-if-your-parents-arent-already-wealthy-194321">Why you're less likely to get rich these days if your parents aren't already wealthy</a>
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<p>Had the Titanic’s passengers had access to mobile phones in 1912, the data generated by examining the proximity – and therefore potential interaction – of passengers would have given the impression the Titanic was a sort of utopia for social interaction. </p>
<p>People from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds were seemingly thrown together on board – from the poorest European migrants seeking better lives in the “New World”, to the wealthiest of Edwardian socialites, shuttling from the salons of London and Paris to New York and Philadelphia. Of course, accommodation on board was highly segregated, as shown in the movie, but the whole spectrum of the Edwardian era was represented on the one ship.</p>
<p>But, as with today’s data, the reality was very different. Nothing shows the entrenched social gradient that travelled with the Titanic’s passengers more than <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0277953686900419?via%3Dihub">the statistics on deaths</a> after the ship sank: just a quarter of third-class passengers survived compared to 62% of those in first class. </p>
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<p>The experience of the Titanic’s passengers points to the challenges and opportunities that still exist today when trying to understand social interaction and mobility.</p>
<h2>Big data doesn’t reveal real interactions</h2>
<p>When studying class interactions, demographers and statisticians have traditionally been largely limited to static and infrequently updated tools such as <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/census">a census every ten years</a>. But residence is a blunt instrument when trying to understand class segregation. Domicile has always been just one aspect of the lived reality of segregation – even if it might be the defining feature. In the most segregated of spaces, most people spend their daily lives elsewhere: studying, shopping, working or pursuing leisure activities. </p>
<p><a href="https://maximmassenkoff.com/papers/RubbingShoulders.pdf">Recent US research</a> illustrates the potential for teasing out some of this complexity using <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/big-data.asp">“big” data</a> about people’s locations and movements. Because so many of us own smartphones, researchers can track people as they work, rest and play. This can offer rich new insights into how people from different class backgrounds interact across the course of the day. </p>
<p>The US analysis leads the study’s authors to some important insights, most notably that it is the wealthiest, not the poorest, fraction of society that is, statistically speaking, most socially “isolated”. </p>
<p>This echoes the work of urban geographers and sociologists on this side of the Atlantic. They have identified groups of the very richest in society who have adopted strategies of “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X15598323">limited exposure</a>”. For example, people might use tactics such as “verticality” – using <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/52-vertical">high-rise penthouses</a> or subterranean “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2021.1934628">billionaire bunkers</a>”) to evade the gaze of the masses. </p>
<p>Perhaps more controversially, the recent US paper also concludes: “places that contribute most to mixing by economic class are not civic spaces like churches or schools, but large, affordable chain restaurants and stores”. The researchers specifically mention US eateries Olive Garden and Applebee’s. Policymakers should therefore “pay attention to the role of firms in shaping class mixing”. </p>
<p>While revealing in many ways, this kind of data can tell us nothing about how meaningful these “interactions” in the market actually are. The people captured in such studies may have simply shared the same commercial spaces for an hour or less, without even speaking. </p>
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<img alt="Outside shot of Olive Garden restaurant with a sign that says We're all family here ... we're all in this together." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547279/original/file-20230908-29-2ge0m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547279/original/file-20230908-29-2ge0m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547279/original/file-20230908-29-2ge0m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547279/original/file-20230908-29-2ge0m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547279/original/file-20230908-29-2ge0m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547279/original/file-20230908-29-2ge0m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547279/original/file-20230908-29-2ge0m7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Casual restaurant chains, like US eatery Olive Garden, tend to attract a really varied clientele.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/gwinnett-county-ga-usa-05-25-1781880452">Billy F Blume Jr/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>A ‘new snobbery’</h2>
<p>We also have to consider the idea of <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/265557/social-class-in-the-21st-century-by-savage-mike/9780241004227">“knowingness” in consumption patterns</a>. This is something I, along with my colleagues, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/13/social-class-21st-century-mike-savage-review">drew attention</a> to back in 2015. If they have the means, more people can now access the same goods or services. This lessens past distinctions between groups like those illustrated by the conspicuous consumption of the Titanic’s first class passengers, for example. </p>
<p>Instead, our research revealed a “<a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/265557/social-class-in-the-21st-century-by-savage-mike/9780241004227">new snobbery</a>”: the self-awareness that some people consciously eat or shop “down”, perhaps as part of an ironic desire to experiment with different and diverse class spaces. In his book on snobbery, sociologist David Morgan gives the example of <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/snobbery">unhealthy food choices</a> – what is excused as a guilty pleasure for the middle class can conversely be presented as evidence of profound moral failure among the working class.</p>
<p>Big data offers exciting granularity on practices and preferences but still can only tell us a little about the persistent, subtle and pernicious class prejudices and exclusions that can lie beneath the numbers. Understanding more, not just about where people interact, but where the blurring of economic class lines is most likely to occur, could help us to address some of today’s concerns about falling social mobility and stagnating living standards.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london?utm_source=MP+L23+Conversation&utm_medium=Article+feature&utm_campaign=HTLGI+London+2023&utm_id=The+Conversation">HowTheLightGetsIn</a>’s theme for London 2023 is <a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london/the-big-ideas">Dangers, Desire and Destiny</a>. The two-day festival on September 23-24 covers everything from politics, science, philosophy and the arts and attracts a host of speakers including Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer prize-winners, political activists and world leading thinkers.</em></p>
<p><em>Alongside the Conversation’s curated event <a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/events/the-common-good-16017">The Common Good</a>, expect to see Alastair Campbell, Rory Stewart, Ruby Wax, Michio Kaku, David Baddiel, Carol Gilligan, Martin Wolf and more lock horns over a packed weekend of debates, talks and performances. <a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london/programme?utm_source=MP+L23+Conversation&utm_medium=Article+feature&utm_campaign=HTLGI+London+2023&utm_id=The+Conversation">Explore the full programme here</a> and don’t miss out on <a href="https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/london/festival-passes?utm_source=MP+L23+Conversation&utm_medium=Article+feature&utm_campaign=HTLGI+London+2023&utm_id=The+Conversation">20% off tickets using code CONVO23</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212218/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Niall Cunningham does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To really understand social interactions, researchers need to look beyond figures like mobile phone location data.Niall Cunningham, Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Human Geography, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2110142023-08-10T13:44:13Z2023-08-10T13:44:13ZGrayson Perry: exploring what it is to be human with humour, irreverence and excess<p><a href="https://www.edinburghartfestival.com/event/grayson-perry-smash-hits/#:%7E:text=National%20Galleries%20of%20Scotland%3A%20National&text=Smash%20Hits%20is%20the%20biggest,sharp%20wit%20and%20social%20commentary.">Smash Hits</a>, the new Grayson Perry retrospective at Edinburgh’s National Galleries, spans the 40-year career of the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66039396">recently knighted</a> artist. It’s an exhibition packed with scrutiny of the entanglements of self and society, as Perry casts up snippets of the institutional landscapes that formed him: family, England, the art world.</p>
<p>Perry’s artistic journey began with evening classes in pottery. His <a href="https://www.englandgallery.com/artists/artist_work/?mainId=101&groupId=none&_p=8&_gnum=&media=Ceramics">Kinky Sex plate</a> (1983) shares the chunkiness of his recent ceramic <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/jul/24/grayson-perry-smash-hits-review-english-self-mockery-without-insight-or-depth">English Wanker</a> (2023). This makes a satisfying contrast with the highly polished style of his vases and the intricacy of his prints and tapestries.</p>
<p>Everything is beautifully made. Perry operates in a realm serviced by elite fabricators, while the exhibition text notes that all his pots are made with the <a href="https://ceramike.com/how-to-make-a-coil-pot-a-guide/#:%7E:text=Coil%20pottery%20was%20practiced%20in,had%20not%20yet%20been%20invented.">coil method</a> (one of the oldest techniques used to make pots): “Perry has never used a pottery wheel.” </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/01/social-mobility-prospects-for-young-people-disappearing-says-research">social mobility</a> central to Perry’s life and to which he often refers (see <a href="https://collections.craftscouncil.org.uk/object-2016-18">2015’s A Perfect Match – the Life of Julie Cope</a>) has collapsed in the UK since the artist’s rise from 1980s working-class upstart to art-world darling 40 years later.</p>
<p>Access to adult education, arts funding and affordable housing – some of the conditions that helped make Perry – have all been eroded. It is <a href="https://createlondon.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Panic-Social-Class-Taste-and-Inequalities-in-the-Creative-Industries1.pdf">hard to imagine</a> the young artist of <a href="https://charlessaumarezsmith.com/2021/10/29/grayson-perry-2/">Sales Pitch</a> (1987) growing up on a council estate and achieving such success now. </p>
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<h2>Sympathetic heretic</h2>
<p>For all his astonishing success, Perry is likeable because he casts a critical eye on himself as much as others. His brand of self-mocking “iconclasm” is on parade in the print <a href="http://visualarts.britishcouncil.org/collection/artists/perry-grayson-1960/object/map-of-nowhere-perry-2008-p8194">Map of Nowhere</a> (2008). This depicts Perry “as a God … A heavenly light shines out of my anus onto a mountaintop shrine”. For a clue on how seriously we should take this divinity, Perry adds: “Doubt [is] the essence of civilisation.”</p>
<p>A mixed-class couple I chatted to in front of one of six engrossing tapestries in the series <a href="https://www.victoria-miro.com/exhibitions/429/">The Vanity of Small Differences</a> (2012), described Perry as “cutting but kind, judgy but not”. This carefully crafted role embodies Perry’s attention to the complexity and contradictions of being human. These lie at the heart of his work and are named in his discussion of his transformation through therapy.</p>
<p>The couple recognised themselves in the signifiers of class, status and aspiration in which the artist deals: Aga, Le Creuset, Penguin mugs. A jar of jam labelled “Allotment organic homemade local” sums up the way that food, along with clothes, furnishings and behaviour, crystallise class structures. </p>
<p>Across seven galleries that present a chronological medley of his life’s work, Perry is often right on the money with his stock-in-trade deconstructing and remixing of the foibles, hypocrisies and contradictions that lurk within institutions and psyches.</p>
<p>His success is encapsulated in the trajectory from <a href="https://www.infoceramica.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Pies-de-foto-y-cr%C3%A9ditos.pdf">Early English Motorcycle Helmet</a> (1981) – his mash-up of Anglo-Saxon relic and his obsession with motorcycles – and the triumphantly garish <a href="https://thevintagent.com/2011/12/14/grayson-perry-at-the-british-museum/">Kenilworth AM1</a> (2015), Perry’s two-wheeled “popemobile” and performance-art prop.</p>
<p>Kitsch, elegance and laughs mix with pathos and irreverence. This emotional palette contrasts with the virtue signalling he calls out in the colour woodcut <a href="https://entergallery.com/products/selfie-with-political-causes-ar20347">Selfie with Political Causes</a> (2018) or his comment on “the puritanism of woke culture”. The sight of Perry’s iconic <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTm4HtNbOnM">Claire’s Coming out Dress</a> (2000) lit spectrally in an alcove feels earnest and playful. It is moving to read Perry learn that: </p>
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<p>Being a transvestite wasn’t about pretending to be a woman. It was about me putting on the clothes that gave me the feelings that I wanted.</p>
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<h2>Made in Britain</h2>
<p>The retrospective focuses on English tropes and travails and the homogenising force of “Britishness”. One exception is Two Old Guys Wearing Check Skirts (2023) a ceramic showing “Alan [Measles] in his Tam O'Shanter cap and kilt and Claire in Balmoral drag”, with Perry noting that, “Scotland suffers from tourist clichés as much if not more so than England”. </p>
<p>Another is the embroidery <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artwork/18913/Grayson-Perry-Britain-is-Best?lang=en">Britain is Best</a> (2014) which depicts five men crammed on one horse, based on interviews with Unionists in Northern Ireland for his television series <a href="https://www.channel4.com/press/news/grayson-perry-who-are-you">Who are You?</a>. “They seem to be holding out for an imagined Golden Age,” Perry muses.</p>
<p>His retrospective comes in a year of strikes that echo the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137316516_16">mass uprisings of the 1980s</a>, and it is clear Perry is interested in workers. The large ship sculpture <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/grayson-perry-tomb-unknown-craftsman">The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman</a> (2011) considers the fact that “a minority of the millions of artefacts in the [British] museum had makers attached to them”. In <a href="https://paragonpress.co.uk/works/death-of-a-working-hero">Death of a Working Hero</a> (2016), Perry reflects on the annual Durham Miners Gala, which <a href="https://www.durhamminers.org/gala">celebrates</a> the vibrancy of “community, international solidarity and working-class culture ” today. </p>
<p>In Edinburgh, a city that epitomises privilege and the extremes of uneven wealth, Perry’s show follows the group exhibition <a href="https://www.fruitmarket.co.uk/poor-things/">Poor Things</a> at the nearby Fruitmarket Gallery. Reflecting practices shaped by diverse working and lower-middle class backgrounds, the artists shared Perry’s view that art can be powerful and funny.</p>
<p>But their show’s insightful closing talk offered a starker exposé of how the brutality of the class system limits opportunities in life, including the arts. Some critiqued art world expectations that working-class art be defined by hardship, which their playful artworks and the humour and excess of Perry’s art defy. </p>
<p>Imagination, depicted as a river in Perry’s wonderful <a href="https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/a-map-of-days">A Map of Days</a> (2013) uproots oppressive states, inner and outer. It is common to us all, but our ability to exercise it is linked to our basic material security and the opportunity to have the time, the freedom and the means to live a full life: key demands of strikers. The absence of these conditions cuts us off from fulfilling our potential; it alienates us. </p>
<p>Smash Hits epitomises Perry’s journey from alienation to self-fulfillment. It shares captivating art and hard-won lessons about life. But to understand how the many might join him and thrive, rather than merely survive, we must look beyond the maps that Perry provides.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211014/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Louise Bacon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Britain’s most famous iconoclast presents a show of humour, beauty, and irreverence that reflects the complexities and contradictions in being human.Julie Louise Bacon, Lecturer in Art Edinburgh College of Art, The University of EdinburghLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2024162023-06-19T14:57:28Z2023-06-19T14:57:28ZThe shift from grammar schools to comprehensives had little effect on social mobility in England<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531345/original/file-20230612-26322-dhjbxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C15%2C4652%2C3387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/male-high-school-student-working-desk-1297777537">Air Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-of-the-nation-2022-a-fresh-approach-to-social-mobility/state-of-the-nation-2022-chapter-2-mobility-outcomes#mobility-outcomes-in-the-future">Research shows</a> that in the past 50 years, social class mobility – how a person’s occupation, social class or income compares with that of their parents – has either increased or stayed static in the UK. </p>
<p>But social mobility chances vary substantially depending on where you grow up and move to later in life, as <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-4446.12885">our research</a> has shown to be the case in the England and Wales.</p>
<p>The UK government has <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/523546/bis-16-265-success-as-a-knowledge-economy-web.pdf">often relied on</a> <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/221007/HMG_SocialMobility_acc.pdf">education policy</a> to try to <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/668111/Social_Mobility_Action_Plan_2017_schematic.pdf">improve these geographic inequalities</a>. This is often based on the fact that those with better education have improved life outcomes, including occupation, salary and health. </p>
<p>There’s also a looser, intuitive sense that education simply must be the right tool. What better way to counter social stagnation than to improve children’s education? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927537123000118">Our research</a> has examined the effect on social mobility of one of the biggest education policy shifts of the 20th century in England: the move away from the grammar school system towards comprehensive schools.</p>
<p>We found little evidence to support the idea that either selective or comprehensive schooling improved overall social mobility outcomes. This shows that it cannot be assumed that education policy will boost social mobility. </p>
<h2>The grammar system</h2>
<p>Between 1945 and the 1970s, England and Wales had a selective schooling system where primary school pupils were allocated to an academically focused grammar school if they passed an ability test taken at the age of ten or 11. If they did not pass they would instead attend a secondary modern school or technical college. </p>
<p><a href="https://consult.education.gov.uk/school-frameworks/schools-that-work-for-everyone/supporting_documents/SCHOOLS%20THAT%20WORK%20FOR%20EVERYONE%20%20FINAL.PDF">Grammar schools</a> were intended to pick out the best and brightest at an early age, regardless of their social background. But they have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-34538222">also been criticised</a> for reinforcing social division, because wealth <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/apr/13/grammar-schools-dominated-by-the-wealthy-dfes-own-data-shows">appears to be</a> a strong driver of grammar school attendance. </p>
<p>This system was eventually phased out in favour of mixed-ability education in comprehensive schools, and this shift occurred differently in different areas. By the early 1980s only a few local authorities maintained some form of selectivity. Today, <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn07070/">163 grammar schools</a> remain. </p>
<p><strong>Average school selectivity by local education authority over time</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three maps of England and Wales map showing an ever decreasing proportion of selective schooling percentages in local education authorities" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526200/original/file-20230515-19-5pfn46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526200/original/file-20230515-19-5pfn46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526200/original/file-20230515-19-5pfn46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526200/original/file-20230515-19-5pfn46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=222&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526200/original/file-20230515-19-5pfn46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526200/original/file-20230515-19-5pfn46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526200/original/file-20230515-19-5pfn46.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Average School Selectivity by Local Education Authority.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Buscha, F., Gorman, E. and Sturgis, P. 2023. Selective schooling and social mobility in England. Labour Economics. 81 102336.</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We looked at the social class mobility of a representative sample of more than 90,000 people over five decades. We found that the abolition of so many grammar schools in the 1960s and 1970s did little to change overall social mobility levels. Social mobility levels did rise during this period, but our analysis found no link to the rapidly changing nature of the school system. </p>
<h2>Other factors at play</h2>
<p>When comparing education and earning outcomes of young people educated in grammar schools to those educated in comprehensive schools, <a href="https://ffteducationdatalab.org.uk/2019/06/long-term-outcomes-do-grammar-schools-make-a-difference/">analysis has found</a> some better outcomes for those attending grammar schools. But other factors, such as parental education, family income and the area where the family lives, are difficult to account for and may have had a role in these better outcomes.</p>
<p>Because our study looked at variation in school system both across areas and over time, we were able to use statistical techniques which can account for such factors and the effects of broader societal trends over time. This provides more credible results.</p>
<p>For the purpose of education policy, the key question should be about how to design the broader school system for the benefit of all pupils – rather than a narrow focus on outcomes for those who do gain a place at a grammar school. The outcomes of those who missed out on a grammar school place are important too. Our research addresses this by studying the effects of the schooling system as a whole.</p>
<p><a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-4446.12138">Past research</a> by one of us (Franz Buscha) looked at a similarly important change in education – the raising of the school leaving age in 1972 from 15 to 16. This changed also showed little statistical effect on social mobility. This means that taken together, the two most powerful educational interventions in the 20th century did not result in significant changes in social mobility. </p>
<p>This raises questions about the broader societal impact of education policy more generally. We are not saying that education is not worth investing in, or has no prospects to improve life outcomes. But for these specific policies, we might have expected large effects – and did not find them. </p>
<p>Designing effective education policy is difficult, but important. Education affects our social, emotional and cognitive skills, as well as our earnings and employment. But role of education in driving social mobility is complex, and education cannot be focused on in isolation – as factors such as early life circumstances and socioeconomic status are also crucial in shaping life outcomes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202416/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Franz Buscha received funding from the ESRC via grant ES/R00627X/1. The authors do not have any conflicts of interest to disclose. The permission of the Office for National Statistics to use the Longitudinal Study is gratefully acknowledged, as is the assistance provided by staff of the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information & User Support (CeLSIUS). CeLSIUS is supported by the ESRC under project ES/V003488/1.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma Gorman received funding from the ESRC via grant ES/R00627X/1. The authors do not have any conflicts of interest to disclose. The permission of the Office for National Statistics to use the Longitudinal Study is gratefully acknowledged, as is the assistance provided by staff of the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information & User Support (CeLSIUS). CeLSIUS is supported by the ESRC under project ES/V003488/1.</span></em></p>It cannot be assumed that education policy will boost social mobility.Franz Buscha, Professor of Economics, University of WestminsterEmma Louise Gorman, Senior Research Fellow, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2040972023-04-28T12:46:41Z2023-04-28T12:46:41ZHow the US military used magazines to target ‘vulnerable’ groups with recruiting ads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523264/original/file-20230427-22-8gas0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C3840%2C2132&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ad agencies developed distinct ads for the U.S. military to reach different demographics over the years.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-military-cadet-enjoys-classroom-training-royalty-free-image/1004304340?phrase=military%20recruiting&adppopup=true">SDI Productions via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In his forthcoming book, “Tactical Inclusion: Difference and Vulnerability in U.S. Military Advertising,” Jeremiah Favara, a communication scholar at Gonzaga University, examines military recruitment ads published in three commercial magazines between 1973 – when the federal government ended the military draft – and 2016. The three magazines are Sports Illustrated, Ebony and Cosmopolitan. In the following Q&A, Favara explains the rationale behind his book and discusses some of its key findings.</em></p>
<h2>Why did you decide to look at these ads?</h2>
<p>I chose to look at these three magazines because they allowed me to explore ads designed to reach different groups, namely white men, Black people and women.</p>
<p>Scholars have argued that content in Sports Illustrated – known for its racy swimsuit editions – has long been <a href="https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/The-Swimsuit-Issue-and-Sport2">designed to appeal to straight white men</a>. My own research for the book and other scholarship has found that straight white men have consistently been portrayed in recruiting ads as <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/enlisting-masculinity-9780199842827?cc=us&lang=en&">ideal service members</a>.</p>
<p>Ad agencies J. Walter Thompson and Bates Worldwide developed recruiting plans that singled out Sports Illustrated as one of the most effective publications for reaching a high concentration of potential recruits because of the magazine’s popularity with male readers.</p>
<p>Advertisers contracted by the military viewed Ebony as crucial for reaching Black recruits. That’s largely because Ebony sought to balance content focusing on <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315586861-4/presenting-black-middle-class-john-johnson-ebony-magazine-1945%E2%80%931974-jason-chambers">Black middle-class life</a> with content covering the fight for racial inequality in American society.</p>
<p>Recruiting plans for the Marine Corps and the Navy all sought to place ads in Ebony, especially as part of efforts to recruit more Black officers.</p>
<p>Since the 1960s, Cosmopolitan has played a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/016344399021003004">key role for advertisers</a> in reaching self-sufficient working women as a consumer market. The desired reader of Cosmo – young, straight white women seeking independence – was also an ideal target of military advertisers, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s.</p>
<p>Following President Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, the military sought to <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Women_in_the_Military.html?id=Ea8MAAAACAAJ">decrease the numbers of military women</a> – an effort now known as the “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt19gfk6m.10?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents">womanpause</a>” – and recruiting ads published in Cosmo tapered off. </p>
<h2>How were the ads in each magazine distinct?</h2>
<p>In the course of looking at more than 1,500 ads published in the three magazines between 1973 and 2016, I discovered interesting distinctions. Some themes – how much money you could make in the military, the educational benefits you could access, the sense of purpose the military could provide – were similar across the different magazines. But what was really distinct was how different ads portrayed different people as service members. </p>
<p>For instance, in the 1970s, the Army and Army Reserve placed ads in Cosmo that depicted the military as a way for young women – mostly young white women – to find careers and gain financial independence. The ads used headlines like “Did the last good job you wanted go to a man?” and “The best man doesn’t always get the job.” Text detailed the equal treatment – the same salaries, educational opportunities and chances for promotion – that military women would find in the military. The idea was to portray the Army as a unique site of opportunity for women. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Advertisement with four women wearing different military uniforms on the left." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An ad in a 1973 edition of Cosmopolitan presents the military as a place where women can get a fair shot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cosmopolitan, August 1973</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, in the 1970s, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23337486.2018.1463759">ads published in Ebony</a> portrayed the military as a site of equal opportunity for Black men. A series of Navy ads talked about a “new Navy” where Black men had opportunities they wouldn’t have had 20 years prior.</p>
<p>In more recent decades, Ebony ads were less likely to use such explicit language of equal opportunities. Instead, they celebrated Black History Month by highlighting the accomplishments of exceptional Black service members from the past, such as the <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/who-were-the-montford-point-marines/">Montford Point Marines</a> and the <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/blackwings/tuskegee.cfm">Tuskegee Airmen</a>. </p>
<h2>Were the magazine ads effective?</h2>
<p>While there is no way to know if the magazine ads – and not TV ads or other methods of recruiting – were directly responsible for increasing enlistments, my research for the book found that the publication of ads targeting Black recruits and women corresponded with high <a href="https://www.cna.org/pop-rep/2016/summary/summary.html">rates of enlistment</a> from those groups. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cna.org/pop-rep/2016/summary/summary.html">Between 1973 and 2016</a>, the percentage of military women increased sevenfold, <a href="https://www.cna.org/pop-rep/2016/appendixd/appendixd.pdf">from 2.2% in 1973 to 15.57% in 2016</a>. In the same time frame, Black recruits were consistently overrepresented in the military compared with their share in the civilian population. For example, in 1980, 1990 and 2000, <a href="https://www.cna.org/pop-rep/2016/appendixd/appendixd.pdf">between 19% and 22% of new enlistees were Black</a> compared with roughly 12% to 14% of the civilian population.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Advertisement with two men to the right, one with his arm around the other man and his hand on the other's chest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An ad that appeared in a 1976 edition of Ebony presents the Navy as a way for Black men to get ahead.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ebony magazine, 1976</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To me these demographic changes show how, as recruiting ads were being designed to reach women and Black recruits, the military itself was becoming more diverse. </p>
<p>I am interested in exploring how ads created a certain vision of the military as what I call a tactically inclusive institution. By that I mean an institution that has been selectively inclusive of different groups but ultimately exploits the vulnerabilities of potential recruits and perpetuates state violence.</p>
<h2>What does it mean to be ‘vulnerable’ to military ads?</h2>
<p>The term is not one that I or other scholars initially decided to use to describe what the military does. It comes from J. Walter Thompson, an advertising agency that has been creating Marine Corps ads since 1946. In a 1973 proposal for an integrated research program for the armed forces, housed in the <a href="https://guides.library.duke.edu/jwt">J. Walter Thompson Co. archives</a>, one of the first stated objectives was to identify “vulnerable target groups.” </p>
<p>The agency considered those vulnerable to military recruiting as people already inclined to join the military and those who might have reservations but were seen as persuadable. Ad agencies and the military used the term “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X9902500304">propensity</a>” to describe these two groups. Propensity refers to the likelihood that individuals will serve in the military, regardless of whether or not they really want to join the military. </p>
<p>Drawing on an array of different scholars, such as <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-right-to-maim">Jasbir K. Puar</a>, <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/death-beyond-disavowal">Grace Kyungwon Hong</a>, <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/aberrations-in-black">Roderick A. Ferguson</a> and <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/normal-life-revised">Dean Spade</a>, I think of vulnerability as being at the center of military recruiting. One is deemed vulnerable to military service because of a lack of opportunities, resources, support or cultural capital that the military can promise.</p>
<h2>Is your book pro-military, anti-military or neutral?</h2>
<p>The book argues that military inclusion is a form of power that furthers state violence. I am interested in studying military inclusion and recruitment advertising in order to challenge and resist the violence of the military. However, there were moments that made me think of military inclusion in a more complicated way. During an event at the <a href="https://www.fulcolibrary.org/auburn-avenue-research-library/aarl-eresources/">Auburn Avenue Research Library</a> in Atlanta, Georgia, I heard a panel of Black women veterans talk about their experiences in the military. They spoke about how the military provided them with financial stability, a chance to see the world and the opportunity to buy a home. </p>
<p>Despite the violence of the military, it is also one of the best avenues for upward mobility for many Americans. It is this tension, between seeing military inclusion as an opportunity and as a risk and form of exploitation, that I grapple with in the book.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204097/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremiah Favara does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The US military’s switch to an all-volunteer force in 1973 led to a series of magazine ads that sought to portray military service as a way for women and people of color to move up in society.Jeremiah Favara, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Gonzaga UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1997712023-02-13T19:12:20Z2023-02-13T19:12:20ZSuccess in life is tied to parental education. That’s why we need to track intergenerational school performance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509678/original/file-20230213-515-wswk59.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C478%2C4500%2C2250&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The notion of the “fair go” is meant to be central to Australia’s national ethos.</p>
<p>It’s not easy to define, but most of us would agree it means the chance to reach your full potential, regardless of your background. This doesn’t necessarily mean equality, but it does imply social mobility, where you can do better than your parents based on merit. </p>
<p>Education is a major driver of social mobility, with research showing educational attainment explains up to 30% of the transmission of economic advantage between parents and children.</p>
<p>But a <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/school-agreement/report/school-agreement.pdf">Productivity Commission report</a> published last month shows the education system is not doing well in correcting for the disadvantage students face in the classroom. </p>
<p>For example, Year 3 students whose parents did not finish secondary school are an average of 1.3 years behind in numeracy, compared with those whose parents have a bachelors’ degree or higher. By the time these students reach Year 9 this gap widens to almost four years.</p>
<p>The Productivity Commission report was commissioned under the Morrison government to review the 2018 National School Reform Agreement between the federal and state governments to improve student outcomes. The deal came with A$319 billion in extra funding. But after five years, the report concludes, this has so far failed to make any difference in results. </p>
<p>Given the magnitude of the funding, this is troubling on its own. The broader implications for social mobility in Australia are even more concerning. </p>
<p>The commission’s report highlights the need for better data on educational attainment and social mobility. This will enable better analysis of the links between the two – and ultimately more effective education policy. </p>
<p>If policymakers don’t know what works, especially for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, they will spend money on the wrong things.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-degree-promises-a-better-life-but-social-mobility-has-a-downside-too-150535">A degree promises a better life but social mobility has a downside too</a>
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<h2>The importance of longitudinal data</h2>
<p>As children from less educated families perform significantly worse than the children of the more educated, it is far less likely their relative economic situation in adulthood will exceed that of their parents.</p>
<p>Unravelling the links between education and social mobility requires longitudinal data – tracking the same individuals over decades.</p>
<p>The best example of longitudinal data in Australia is the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, conducted by the Melbourne Institute at the University of Melbourne. </p>
<p>Since 2001, HILDA has tracked a nationally representative sample of about 18,000 Australians, asking them about things such as income, employment, health and wellbeing. By surveying the same people, researchers can use this data to understand influences on people’s lives over time.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hilda-survey-reveals-striking-gender-and-age-divide-in-financial-literacy-test-yourself-with-this-quiz-100451">HILDA Survey reveals striking gender and age divide in financial literacy. Test yourself with this quiz</a>
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<p>The Australian Taxation Office’s <a href="https://alife-research.app/info/overview">ALife dataset</a>, an anonymised sample of 10% of all Australian taxpayers also provides significant insight into intergenerational income mobility.</p>
<p>By following individuals over decades, researchers can observe and compare the labour market outcomes of parents with those of their children as they grow into adults.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="By Year 3, Australian students whose parents did not finish secondary school are 1.3 years behind in numeracy compared with those whose parents have Bachelors' degree or higher." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509685/original/file-20230213-28-jdrqo7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509685/original/file-20230213-28-jdrqo7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509685/original/file-20230213-28-jdrqo7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509685/original/file-20230213-28-jdrqo7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509685/original/file-20230213-28-jdrqo7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509685/original/file-20230213-28-jdrqo7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/509685/original/file-20230213-28-jdrqo7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By Year 3, Australian students whose parents did not finish secondary school are 1.3 years behind in numeracy compared with those whose parents have Bachelors’ degree or higher.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, University of Technology Sydney researchers Tomas Kennedy and Peter Siminski have used HILDA and other survey data to conclude about <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1475-4932.12641">two-thirds of Australians aged 30-34</a> have higher incomes than their parents at the same age. </p>
<p>Australian National University researchers Nathan Deutscher and Bhashkar Mazumder have used ALife to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0927537120300658">conclude</a> about 12% of Australians born into the bottom 20% of family income join the top 20% between the ages of 29 and 35. If a family’s wealth at birth had no bearing on a child’s wealth as an adult, that number would be 20%.</p>
<p>Deutscher has also <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/app.20180329">used</a> ALife to follow individuals over 25 years and calculate the effect of where they lived as a child on their income in adulthood. Where a child grows up has a causal impact on their adult outcomes. This typically matters most during the teenage years.</p>
<p>The question is how much of this relates to their school.</p>
<p>To answer this and other questions, researchers need more comprehensive longitudinal data that enables linking things such as child-care attendance, test scores, and school choice across time and with other data sources. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-top-1-of-income-earners-is-an-increasingly-entrenched-elite-170445">Our top 1% of income earners is an increasingly entrenched elite</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Unique student identifier</h2>
<p>One important policy initiative of the National School Reform Agreement is the introduction of a “unique student identifier” (USI) to track individual student performance over time. This will enable data on educational outcomes to be more easily linked with other data held by state and federal governments, and provide researchers with a clearer picture of how educational outcomes shapes social, economic and health outcomes later life. </p>
<p>However, the Productivity Commission report notes the rollout of this initiative is well behind schedule.</p>
<p>The USI offers more than mere standardisation. Once in place, researchers will also be better able to evaluate the impact of education policy interventions by conducting randomised control trials, similar to those used by in medicine to assess the efficacy of new drugs and treatments. Such trials are crucial for assessing whether a particular education policy reform, for instance a new teaching method, has a causal impact on learning outcomes. </p>
<p>To date, the dearth of randomised control trials in education policy has held back the Australian education evidence base. </p>
<p>As noted in the University of Newcastle’s Teachers and Teaching Research Centre’s <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/347609/subdr084-school-agreement.pdf">submission</a> to the Productivity Commission, the use of randomised control trials in evaluating education policy is hampered by the expense of collecting data from students via surveys. Better data linkage can help solve this problem.</p>
<p>Building a more effective education system to support, maintain and improve social mobility requires the right tools. Without better integrated data and a more reliable education evidence base, taxpayers are far less likely to see a return on the billions being spent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199771/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s education system is not doing that well in correcting for the disadvantage students face in the classroom.Robert Breunig, Professor of Economics and Director, Tax and Transfer Policy Institute, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityMatthew Taylor, Director of the Centre for Independent Studies Intergenerational Program and PhD candidate at, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1931842023-01-04T11:59:37Z2023-01-04T11:59:37ZDisabled young people have less upward social mobility than their peers – and class background makes this worse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501868/original/file-20221219-26-sjxyml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6715%2C4480&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/hearing-impaired-woman-working-laptop-talking-1583332936">Monika Wisniewska/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We know very little about the inequalities experienced by disabled people in the UK today. My research finds that disabled young people lag behind in employment compared to young people who are not disabled. Not only that, but it’s also likely that disabled young people will end up in jobs with worse pay and conditions than their parents: they have downward social mobility.</p>
<p>Intergenerational social mobility compares the social position of an individual with that of their parents. It tells us who gets ahead and who is held back. As such, it is widely regarded as a measure of societal “fairness” and “openness”. </p>
<p>Together with colleagues, I conducted <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-4446.12974">research</a> to look at the role disability plays in social mobility. We analysed data from a nationally representative <a href="https://nextstepsstudy.org.uk/">longitudinal study</a> – research which collects information from the same people at multiple points of time. This research covered 16,000 students from English schools who were born in 1989 and 1990. </p>
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<img alt="Quarter life, a series by The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/451343/original/file-20220310-13-1bj6csd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/quarter-life-117947?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">This article is part of Quarter Life</a></strong>, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.</em></p>
<p><em>You may be interested in:</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-last-two-recessions-hit-young-people-hardest-heres-how-you-can-protect-yourself-for-the-next-one-184783?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">The last two recessions hit young people hardest – here’s how you can protect yourself for the next one</a></em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/entrepreneurs-know-that-failure-is-sometimes-necessary-heres-what-we-can-learn-from-them-192438?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=UK+YP2022&utm_content=InArticleTop">Entrepreneurs know that failure is sometimes necessary – here’s what we can learn from them</a></em></p>
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<p>Looking at this data allowed us to document social mobility patterns by disability status. We looked at the social class of young people’s parents when the young people were 14. We then compared this to the young people’s own social class at age 25. </p>
<h2>Stark inequality</h2>
<p>Our study found that disabled young people are more likely to be unemployed at age 25: 35% of 25-year-old disabled people in the study were unemployed, compared to 18% of people who were not disabled. </p>
<p>They are less likely to experience upward mobility – that is, to end up in jobs with better pay and conditions than their parents. In fact, it is most likely for disabled young people to be downwardly mobile, with jobs with worse pay and conditions than their parents.</p>
<p>But our analysis also reveals another important inequality that has gone unnoticed in earlier studies. Disabled young people from a low social class background fare much worse in the labour market. Of the disabled young people who were unemployed at age 25, a disproportionate number came from a low social class background. A far smaller proportion of disabled young people from intermediate and high social class backgrounds were unemployed at this age. </p>
<p>To better understand the patterns highlighted in our study, we launched another piece of research, a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13645579.2022.2049517">qualitative longitudinal study</a>. This is research that regularly collects in-depth information through interviews. We worked with disabled young people from the age of 16 onwards. This allowed us to start tracing the social processes that lead to social disadvantage, with a particular focus on differences by social class. </p>
<h2>The impact of social class</h2>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00380385221133710">Our research showed</a> the discrimination by class that disabled young people face in mainstream school settings in England. Drawing on interviews with 35 young people, we found that most of the young people in our study found it difficult to receive appropriate support when they were at school. </p>
<p>But it was mostly young people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds that experienced increasing barriers to learning over time, with consequences for their educational progress and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00380385221133710">overall schooling experience</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young woman in wheelchair at desk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501870/original/file-20221219-18-erj3u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501870/original/file-20221219-18-erj3u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501870/original/file-20221219-18-erj3u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501870/original/file-20221219-18-erj3u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501870/original/file-20221219-18-erj3u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501870/original/file-20221219-18-erj3u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501870/original/file-20221219-18-erj3u2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social class has a strong impact on young disabled people’s employment status.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/african-disabled-woman-sitting-wheelchair-table-1518601526">AnnaStills/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Young disabled people from upper and middle-class families benefited from parental resources and strategies to overcome ableist barriers in the educational system. This included, for instance, entry to a school with exemplary special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision, the option to homeschool and the ability to pay for additional private tuition. Parents from more well-off families may be able to use legal means to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00380385221133710">challenge schools</a> over discriminatory practices.</p>
<p>In contrast, those from working-class backgrounds had limited means to challenge school authorities to secure young people’s right to support at school. </p>
<p>People who experience structural discrimination and stigmatisation are likely to lag behind in education and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953613004449">employment</a>.
We think that class differences in the school experiences of disabled young people may partly explain class differences between disabled and non-disabled people in the workplace later in life.</p>
<p>Social mobility inequalities may also be related to discrimination in hiring practices, lack of reasonable adjustments in the workplace, and limitations that are specific to the young person’s disability. However, we focused on the school experiences of disabled young people. This is because education has a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463113519068">very strong influence</a> on socioeconomic trajectories and social mobility.</p>
<p>Our research shows the powerful influence that social class has on the life chances of young people – and disabled young people in particular.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193184/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stella Chatzitheochari receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust.</span></em></p>Disabled young people from a low social class background fare much worse in the labour market.Stella Chatzitheochari, Reader in Sociology, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1887612022-08-18T15:50:14Z2022-08-18T15:50:14ZThe UK education system preserves inequality – new report<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479638/original/file-20220817-3562-i9o1lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4814%2C3665&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kindergarten-students-sitting-on-floor-717768667">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Your education has a huge effect on your life chances. As well as being likely to lead to better wages, higher levels of education are linked with better health, wealth and <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.25.1.159">even happiness</a>. It should be a way for children from deprived backgrounds to escape poverty.</p>
<p>However, our new <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/inequality/chapter/education-inequalities/">comprehensive study</a>, published as part of the Institute for Fiscal Studies <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/inequality/">Deaton Review of Inequalities</a>, shows that education in the UK is not tackling inequality. Instead, children from poorer backgrounds do worse throughout the education system. </p>
<p>The report assesses existing evidence using a range of different datasets. These include national statistics published by the Department for Education on all English pupils, as well as a detailed longitudinal sample of young people from across the UK. It shows there are pervasive and entrenched inequalities in educational attainment. </p>
<h2>Unequal success</h2>
<p>Children from disadvantaged households tend to do worse at school. This may not be a surprising fact, but our study illustrates the magnitude of this disadvantage gap. The graph below shows that children who are eligible for free school meals (which corresponds to roughly the 15% poorest pupils) in England do significantly worse at every stage of school.</p>
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<img alt="Graph" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479605/original/file-20220817-12-8n8c3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479605/original/file-20220817-12-8n8c3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479605/original/file-20220817-12-8n8c3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479605/original/file-20220817-12-8n8c3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479605/original/file-20220817-12-8n8c3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479605/original/file-20220817-12-8n8c3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479605/original/file-20220817-12-8n8c3h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Attainment gaps between students eligible and not eligible for free school meals at different stages of the education system, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IFS Education inequalities report</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even at the age of five, there are significant differences in achievement at school. Only 57% of children who are eligible for free school meals are assessed as having a good level of development in meeting early learning goals, compared with 74% of children from better off households. These inequalities persist through primary school, into secondary school and beyond.</p>
<p>Differences in educational attainment aren’t a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1475-5890.2004.tb00099.x">new phenomenon</a>. What’s striking, though, is how the size of the disadvantage gap has remained constant over a long period of time. The graph below shows the percentage of students in England reaching key GCSE benchmarks by their eligibility for free school meals from the mid-2000s.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Line graph" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479606/original/file-20220817-11-t57qqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479606/original/file-20220817-11-t57qqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479606/original/file-20220817-11-t57qqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479606/original/file-20220817-11-t57qqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479606/original/file-20220817-11-t57qqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479606/original/file-20220817-11-t57qqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479606/original/file-20220817-11-t57qqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">GCSE performance by children’s eligibility for free school meals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IFS Education inequalities report</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the past 15 years, the size of the gap in GCSE attainment between children from rich and poor households has barely changed. Although the total share of pupils achieving these GCSE benchmarks has increased over time, children from better-off families have been 27%-28% more likely to meet these benchmarks throughout the period. </p>
<h2>Household income</h2>
<p>While eligibility for free school meals is one way of analysing socio-economic inequalities, it doesn’t capture the full distribution of household income. Another way is to group young people according to their family income. The graph below shows young people grouped by decile. This means that young people are ordered based on their family’s income at age 14 and placed into ten equal groups. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Graph" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479607/original/file-20220817-25-qgbmhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479607/original/file-20220817-25-qgbmhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479607/original/file-20220817-25-qgbmhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479607/original/file-20220817-25-qgbmhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479607/original/file-20220817-25-qgbmhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479607/original/file-20220817-25-qgbmhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479607/original/file-20220817-25-qgbmhl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">GCSE attainment by decile of household income at age 14.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IFS Education inequalities report</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The graph shows the percentage of young people in the UK obtaining five good GCSEs, and the share obtaining at least one A or A* grade at GCSE, by the decile of their family income. With every increase in their family’s wealth, children are more likely to do better at school. </p>
<p>More than 70% of children from the richest tenth of families earn five good GCSEs, compared with fewer than 30% in the poorest households. While just over 10% of young people in middle-earning families (and fewer than 5% of those in the poorest families) earned at least one A or A* grade at GCSE, over a third of pupils from the richest tenth of families received at least one top grade.</p>
<h2>Inequalities into adulthood</h2>
<p>The gaps between poor and rich children during the school years translate into huge differences in their qualifications as adults. This graph shows educational attainment ten years after GCSEs (at the age of 26) for a group of students who took their GCSE exams in 2006. </p>
<p>The four bars show the distribution of qualifications at age 26 separately for the entire group, people who grew up in the poorest fifth of households, those who grew up in the richest fifth of households, and those who attended private schools.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Bar graph" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479608/original/file-20220817-1692-yp8qd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479608/original/file-20220817-1692-yp8qd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479608/original/file-20220817-1692-yp8qd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479608/original/file-20220817-1692-yp8qd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479608/original/file-20220817-1692-yp8qd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479608/original/file-20220817-1692-yp8qd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479608/original/file-20220817-1692-yp8qd7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Distribution of highest educational attainment among 26-year-olds in England by socio-economic status, 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IFS Education inequalities report</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is a strong relationship between family background and eventual educational attainment. More than half of children who grew up in the most deprived households hold qualifications of up to GCSE level or below. On the other hand, almost half of those from the richest households have graduated from university. </p>
<p>The gap between private school students and the most disadvantaged is even more stark. Over 70% of private school students are university graduates by the age of 26, compared with less than 20% of children from the poorest fifth of households. </p>
<p>Young people from better-off families do better at all levels of the education system. They start out ahead and they end up being more qualified as adults. Instead of being an engine for social mobility, the UK’s education system allows inequalities at home to turn into differences in school achievement. This means that all too often, today’s education inequalities become tomorrow’s income inequalities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The IFS Deaton Review of Inequalities is funded by the Nuffield Foundation.</span></em></p>Children from poorer backgrounds do worse at every stage of the education system.Imran Tahir, Research Economist, Institute for Fiscal StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1807132022-04-26T15:02:47Z2022-04-26T15:02:47Z‘I didn’t feel as if I fitted in at all’: the real life challenges of social mobility<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/458195/original/file-20220414-1352-xi2u0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=61%2C114%2C5829%2C4477&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Going up?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/large-diverse-group-people-seen-above-676495477">Shutterstock/Arthimedes</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The benefits of social mobility seem to be widely agreed on. The idea that a person’s opportunities and earnings should not be defined by their background is supported across the political spectrum. </p>
<p>Despite this, attempts to make society more mobile and to equalise opportunities have proved to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-resigned-from-the-social-mobility-commission-because-of-the-british-governments-dismal-record-88813">frustrating</a> and complex. And nor is it easy for the people who do achieve this goal. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09500170211041304">Our research</a> suggests that people who move away from their roots can find the experience challenging. This is especially true if colleagues and employers are not supportive. </p>
<p>Employees across a range of occupations spoke to us about their experiences of social class during childhood, at work, and at home. Those who had “benefited” from social mobility said they often found it difficult to adjust.</p>
<p>Some felt under pressure to change mannerisms, adjust their accents and conceal behavioural habits to fit into a workplace where class differences were prominent. As one person in our study told us: “The [work] culture is very middle class, where it might be that you can quote Latin, that you drink wine rather than beer, that you socialise in a certain way.” </p>
<p>Others who had been socially mobile described instances at work where they had been ridiculed for background, had their professionalism questioned, and regularly suffered discriminatory microaggressions. One participant recalled: “[A colleague] made a formal complaint about me, saying I was unprofessional, and he actually used the words, ‘How can she meet anyone speaking like that?’”</p>
<p>Another explained: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I get mocked. it’s not a regular thing, but I don’t hide the fact I’m [working] class. There’s kind of a joke that I have progressed quite a lot from [where] my class suggests I should be.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a result, some said they tried to conceal their background by avoiding social situations, staying quiet in meetings, and even leaving their roles. One explained: “I didn’t feel as if I fitted in at all. I felt completely uncomfortable there, as they were a different type of people totally.”</p>
<p>She added: “I felt very lonely and just couldn’t face working there any longer, so I resigned”</p>
<p>We also found that the socially mobile encountered similar problems in their social and personal lives. Some felt the need to hide their social mobility when at home by adjusting their accent and vocabulary or avoiding discussions of work. </p>
<p>One explained: “If I’m home, then I’m speaking differently, and I do it because I’ve got a lot of friends who probably didn’t get the [same opportunities] and I want to melt back in with them.”</p>
<p>One participant told how he had even detached from family relationships because of his social mobility. “I don’t think I fit in with my dad’s family anymore,” he said. </p>
<p>“They just don’t understand my job so I can’t communicate with them because they don’t understand what it feels like […] so I just don’t go and see them that often.” </p>
<p>Many socially mobile employees felt they had to act all the time, constantly shifting their behaviours to fit in at home and work. One admitted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You feel insecure and a little bit at sea. I just thought, ‘I’m inadequate’. It’s tarring because you’re aware of it and looking out for it and you’re never utterly secure in any situation, including the one you left.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Authenticity</h2>
<p>In comparison, we found that people who had remained within the social class of their childhood found the process of moving between work and home reasonably effortless. They felt more secure and authentic in both environments. One commented: “I don’t conceal my background or social class as I think I can just speak how I am.” Another agreed: “I’ve never felt uncomfortable about my background.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Glass of red wine next to glass of beer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459754/original/file-20220426-26-9kam5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/459754/original/file-20220426-26-9kam5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459754/original/file-20220426-26-9kam5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459754/original/file-20220426-26-9kam5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459754/original/file-20220426-26-9kam5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459754/original/file-20220426-26-9kam5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/459754/original/file-20220426-26-9kam5d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Different tastes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/red-wine-glass-light-beer-215871109">Shutterstock/Slawomir Fajer</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While our research suggests numerous difficulties for socially mobile employees, we also found that their range of life experiences provided them with important skills. One participant remarked:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think I’m quite a social chameleon in the fact that I’ve got a very working-class background, but I went to a grammar school and university. I do find that useful, that I’ve had those different bits in my life which means I know how to talk to people.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Employers who recognised the interpersonal skills that socially mobile employees bring to the workplace, and encouraged them to be themselves were perceived as more supportive. Some even provided opportunities for staff to build connections with people from similar backgrounds. </p>
<p>So although levelling up can be quite a stressful experience, employers and colleagues who celebrate class differences can go a long way to improving the situation. As one participant, who said their employer valued competence over class told us: “I’m good at the job I do and I don’t need to conceal my class because I have other attributes, rather than being well-spoken, which can get me progression.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180713/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Climbing the ladder is not a simple process.Samantha Evans, Lecturer in Human Resource Management, University of KentMadeleine Wyatt, Reader in Diversity and Inclusion, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1679192021-09-16T15:10:21Z2021-09-16T15:10:21ZWhy it makes good business sense to attract more employees from working-class backgrounds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421366/original/file-20210915-25-1le5jhp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C180%2C5655%2C3827&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-sunset-view-on-business-modern-310935740">Shutterstock/dade72</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The business world has made <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/04/business-case-for-diversity-in-the-workplace/">some progress</a> in tackling entrenched barriers of gender, ethnicity and sexuality in the work place. But inequalities related to income and education continue to attract much less attention. </p>
<p>Yet the social and economic position of a person’s family remains a key factor when it comes to <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Social-Mobility-in-the-Workplace-An-Employers-Guide-Updated-1.pdf">career opportunities</a>. Fairer employment is about access – and this is where employers can make a difference.</p>
<p>Plans recently announced by accountancy firm KPMG to make sure 29% of its senior staff are <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58485825">from a working class background</a> are therefore welcome. It is a bold move which recognises that social class is a root cause of inequality – and that big companies have an important role to play in addressing social mobility.</p>
<p>That role will involve being aware of the many challenges and entrenched practices which have so far impeded progress.</p>
<p>To begin with, education is the single most important factor that can help people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The home learning environment has an important impact on development, and on readiness for school <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/28344/1/CASEreport60.pdf">from an early age</a>. </p>
<p>Access to education depends on the material and social resources of the family, including their ability to develop networks (related to job opportunities, for example, or other forms of influence). Research has shown that social class differences in identity, feelings, and behaviour make it <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5901394/">less likely</a> that working‐class families can benefit from educational and occupational opportunities to improve their material circumstances. </p>
<p>Employers can address some of the worst effects of this structural imbalance. They could, for instance, set up mentoring programmes in secondary schools. And they could strive to become more accessible by providing role models within firms or avoiding jargon in communication with young potential employees. </p>
<p>Employers should also explain that numerous career paths are available for people from poorer backgrounds. Offering alternative routes into an organisation for skilled individuals is valuable for all concerned. To make things fairer they could also start by recruiting from a wider pool of universities, rather than primarily targeting <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272164028_What_is_preventing_social_mobility_A_review_of_the_evidence">Russell Group members</a> in the UK. </p>
<p>And they should also be mindful that there are higher levels of debt aversion among poorer families, so students from low-income backgrounds are <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/education-40112033">less likely to go to university</a> in the first place. Employers could step in to sponsor student placements through university and work with job centres, providing internships and routes to part-time degrees. </p>
<h2>Creativity and insight</h2>
<p>Another important issue concerns workplace inequalities that are ignored. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320013984_Paradoxes_of_Diversity">Research shows</a> how conversations around diversity can even neutralise potential gains. For instance, upbeat talk about diversity can actually <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/Assets/PubMaterials/978-0-8223-5236-5_601.pdf">downplay many of the problems</a>, if the focus is on assimilation rather than considering and embracing difference. </p>
<p>In this way, good intentions to address discrimination can end up seeing others as inferior and in need of help, with the expectation that they will eventually adjust to the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1350508418812585">existing hierarchical order</a>. It is also important to consider the ways unspoken norms and discrimination patterns are <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319989167">deeply rooted in some organisations</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="KPMG offices in London." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421569/original/file-20210916-23-c8ka3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421569/original/file-20210916-23-c8ka3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421569/original/file-20210916-23-c8ka3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421569/original/file-20210916-23-c8ka3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421569/original/file-20210916-23-c8ka3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421569/original/file-20210916-23-c8ka3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421569/original/file-20210916-23-c8ka3x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Breaking glass ceilings?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-england-oct-12-kpmg-uk-118068757">Shutterstock/Gordon Bell</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rightly, KPMG says it intends to monitor its workforce data in terms of social mobility, to track the improvement that needs to be addressed. It is to be hoped that other large companies seeking to attract the best talent follow their lead.</p>
<p>Firms which take a long-term strategy on recruitment and staffing will be the ultimate winners if they actively seek to attract people from disadvantaged backgrounds. They will also do well to consider the root causes of socio-economic inequality and what they can do to tackle it.</p>
<p>Put simply, this is because diversity is <a href="https://www.unstereotypealliance.org/en/resources/diversity-and-inclusion/2020/12/diversity-wins-report-by-mckinsey#:%7E:text=Originally%20publishetrying%20to%20increase%20the%20diversity%20of%20their%20staffd%20by%20McKinsey.%20Diversity%20wins%20is%20the,likelihood%20of%20financial%20outperformance%20has%20strengthened%20over%20time">good for business</a>. Diverse groups of people learn from one another, leading to improvements in creativity, knowledge, insight, and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-business-case-for-equality-and-diversity-a-survey-of-the-academic-literature">ultimately success</a>. But there is also broader moral imperative, which will hopefully see more companies take on this approach – working towards the fair treatment of all members of society is just the right thing to do.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marianna Fotaki does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Accountancy firm KPMG’s plans for greater social balance should be applauded.Marianna Fotaki, Network Fellow, Edmond J Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University and Professor of Business Ethics, Warwick Business School, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1599792021-04-29T05:01:29Z2021-04-29T05:01:29ZBiden gives Congress his vision to ‘win the 21st century’ – scholars react<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397735/original/file-20210429-21-1i0v7ql.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=99%2C52%2C3408%2C2283&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Biden laid out an ambitious agenda to Congress with a historic backdrop.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APTOPIXBiden100DaysCongress/89c3887ce769430ab763e0872afaf0a1/photo?Query=biden&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=47875&currentItemNo=0">Melina Mara/The Washington Post via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-28/biden-to-make-call-to-action-in-first-congressional-address?srnd=premium&sref=Hjm5biAW">President Joe Biden spoke to Congress</a> April 28, 2021, with a historic duo flanking him: two women, one of them African American. Vice President Kamala Harris called the proceedings to order; Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made the formal introduction of Biden to Congress. We asked three scholars to provide reactions to Biden’s speech, which began with a recounting of his administration’s accomplishments during its first 100 days and ended with his plea for unity so that America can “deliver on its promise.”</em></p>
<p></p><hr><p></p>
<h2>A return to normalcy</h2>
<p><strong>Karrin Vasby Anderson, Professor of Communication Studies, Colorado State University</strong></p>
<p>The visual backdrop to Biden’s address to Congress highlighted what was unusual and extraordinary this year, from the masks and social distancing that signaled the continuation of the pandemic, to the two women flanking the president. </p>
<p>“Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President. No president has ever said those words from this podium … and it’s about time,” he said. </p>
<p>The rest of his address was designed to further return a sense of normalcy to presidential communication that was often absent from Donald Trump’s freewheeling – and sometimes rambling and abusive – <a href="https://qz.com/965004/rhetoric-scholars-pinpoint-why-trumps-inarticulate-speaking-style-is-so-persuasive/">rhetorical approach</a>. </p>
<p>Communication scholars <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo5759249.html">Karlyn Kohrs Campbell and Kathleen Hall Jamieson explain</a> that presidents’ annual addresses to Congress usually do three things: promote values; assess issues; and propose policy. </p>
<p>Biden promoted familiar values of American optimism, success and exceptionalism. He assessed a long list of issues facing Americans, from the pandemic to jobs, the environment to foreign policy. And he proposed a slate of policies arguably more ambitious than anything promoted from the presidential platform since Lyndon B. Johnson stumped for “<a href="https://www.history.com/topics/1960s/great-society">The Great Society</a>.”</p>
<p>Using antithesis – where two opposites are used for contrast – to draw a distinction between himself and his predecessor, Biden urged that America “is rising, choosing hope over fear, truth over lies, and light over darkness.” He also peppered his speech with alliteration, heralding “100 days of rescue and renewal,” after emerging from an “abyss of insurrection and autocracy, pandemic and pain.”</p>
<p>Biden explicitly invoked a famous presidential address: Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “<a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/12/roosevelt-arsenal-of-democracy-speech-213483">Arsenal of Democracy</a>,” in which FDR tried to coax a reluctant nation to care about Adolf Hitler’s march across Europe. For Biden, the COVID-19 vaccines are part of America’s 21st-century arsenal enabling a peaceful return to international dominance.</p>
<p>In fact, many of the policies of care outlined in Biden’s speech were couched in the language of competition. He noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping was “deadly earnest” about China becoming “the most significant and consequential nation in the world,” and he urged that for the U.S. “to win that competition for the future,” a “once-in-a-generation investment in our families and our children” is needed.</p>
<p>The language of international competition is particularly well tuned to American ears. Even most of the Republicans in the audience rose to their feet when Biden concluded with the refrain that “it has never, ever, ever been a good bet to bet against America.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397676/original/file-20210428-17-16yp0ys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman and young boy in a kitchen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397676/original/file-20210428-17-16yp0ys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397676/original/file-20210428-17-16yp0ys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397676/original/file-20210428-17-16yp0ys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397676/original/file-20210428-17-16yp0ys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397676/original/file-20210428-17-16yp0ys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397676/original/file-20210428-17-16yp0ys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397676/original/file-20210428-17-16yp0ys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Biden’s proposal aims to help families with a range of programs, from child care to food assistance and universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Hunger%20In%20America/7ff5283b6cdf41aab51f7ec792287159?Query=American%20AND%20families&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=7549&currentItemNo=194">AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p></p><hr><p></p>
<h2>More money for Pell Grants, HBCUs and Tribal Colleges</h2>
<p><strong>Ivory A. Toldson, Professor of Counseling Psychology, Howard University</strong></p>
<p>Biden mentioned historically Black colleges and universities, also known as HBCUs, as well as tribal colleges and other minority serving institutions, signaling that they are a significant part of his agenda. These colleges and universities have been shown to <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/186362/grads-historically-black-colleges-edge.aspx?g_source=CATEGORY_WELLBEING&g_medium=topic&g_campaign=tiles">improve outcomes for students</a> who have been traditionally underrepresented in higher education. </p>
<p>Biden also mentioned increasing Pell Grants. President Obama used a similar strategy when striving to provide funding to institutions of higher education that serve underrepresented students. Although <a href="https://www.jbhe.com/features/65_pellgrants.html">most students at HBCUs are eligible for the Pell grant</a>, Pell grants can be used at any institution of higher education. For this reason, some leaders of minority serving institutions consider it disingenuous to see increases in Pell grants as a unique benefit to minority serving institutions. </p>
<p>Biden’s spirit and tone suggested that he considered himself to be a champion of institutions of higher education that serve low-income and historically underrepresented students. He noted that these institutions have smaller endowments but nevertheless have talented students. He also noted his wife’s affiliation with a community college. The Biden and Harris ticket is the first Democratic ticket since 1984 <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/11/biden-harris-to-be-first-democratic-ticket-without-an-ivy-league-degree-since-1984.html">without an Ivy League grad</a>.</p>
<p>Before the speech, President <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/04/28/biden-proposes-free-community-college-18-trillion-plan">Biden released his budget proposal</a>. The proposal calls for US$109 billion for two years of free community college and $39 billion to cover the cost of tuition for students at HBCUs, tribal colleges and universities and other minority-serving institution. This is similar to President <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/81197/">Obama’s 2015 budget proposal</a>. Universal higher education is necessary to achieve educational equity in the United States, so this is a proposal that I hope will gain traction.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397662/original/file-20210428-23-1j7hgw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sea of faces in graduation caps and gowns" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397662/original/file-20210428-23-1j7hgw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397662/original/file-20210428-23-1j7hgw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397662/original/file-20210428-23-1j7hgw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397662/original/file-20210428-23-1j7hgw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397662/original/file-20210428-23-1j7hgw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397662/original/file-20210428-23-1j7hgw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397662/original/file-20210428-23-1j7hgw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Graduation at Southern Maine Community College, in South Portland, Maine, includes newly minted firefighters and others with associate degrees and professional certifications.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/southern-maine-community-college-held-its-69th-annual-news-photo/534287678">Gabe Souza/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p></p><hr><p></p>
<h2>Restoring the American dream</h2>
<p><strong>Veronika Dolar, Assistant Professor of Economics, SUNY Old Westbury</strong></p>
<p>The U.S. has long prided itself on providing opportunities that help Americans climb the economic ladder and earn higher incomes than their parents. Some call it the “American dream,” but to <a href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=GyTN5PYAAAAJ&hl=en">economists like me</a>, it’s known as upward social mobility. </p>
<p>Social mobility in the U.S. has been slipping for decades. While the vast majority of Americans born in the 1950s and 1960s <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/social-mobility-upwards-decline-usa-us-america-economics/">earned more than their parents did</a>, barely half of millennials can say the same – <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/11/politics/millennials-income-stalled-upward-mobility-us/index.html">the first generation in U.S. history</a> for whom that’s true. </p>
<p>Biden’s <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bidens-american-families-plan-is-coming-whats-in-it-11618943914">$1.8 trillion American Families Plan</a> aims to reverse that, primarily by <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/04/28/joe-bidens-speech-congress-read-full-transcript/4883244001/">making what he called</a> in his speech a “once-in-a-generation investment in our families and our children.”</p>
<p>One big part of that is $200 billion for universal preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds. Research shows that <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w22993">childhood programs</a> targeting disadvantaged families have substantial beneficial impacts on children’s health, future wages and education levels. This not only makes them more socially mobile but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-044894-7.01226-4">also boosts</a> the broader economy.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Biden also <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bidens-american-families-plan-is-coming-whats-in-it-11618943914">wants to spend $225 billion</a> to provide workers 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave.</p>
<p>The U.S. remains one of <a href="https://www.worldpolicycenter.org/policies/is-paid-leave-available-to-mothers-and-fathers-of-infants/is-paid-leave-available-for-mothers-of-infants">only a few countries</a> without any national paid family leave policy. <a href="https://equitablegrowth.org/the-economic-imperative-of-enacting-paid-family-leave-across-the-united-states/">Just 17% of U.S. private-sector workers</a> have access to paid family leave through their employers, and it’s even less for low-income workers. </p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/how-children-benefit-from-paid-family-leave-policies/#ixzz6tNRut0Dd">myriad health and other benefits</a> for children whose parents receive paid family leave, primarily stemming from the increased regularity of baby checkups, higher immunization rates and more years of school. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/679627">A study found</a> that after Norway introduced four months of mandatory paid leave, high school graduation and college attendance rates climbed, and children’s future earnings increased. Gains were greatest for children with less educated mothers.</p>
<p>The plan also includes $225 billion for <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1377/hpb20190325.519221">more affordable child care</a>, which studies show can improve children’s health and <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/effects-child-care-subsidies-maternal-labor-force-participation-united-states">increases the labor force participation and employment rates</a> of low-income mothers. </p>
<p>The price tag is high, and it will take time to see a return. But <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337144224_A_Literature_Review_of_Human_Capital_and_Economic_Growth">numerous studies</a> have shown <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2677725?seq=1">these types of investments are the best way</a> to promote long-term economic growth and social mobility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159979/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ivory A. Toldson was affiliated with the White House Initiative on HBCUs under President Obama.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karrin Vasby Anderson and Veronika Dolar do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Three scholars examine President Biden’s rhetoric, the symbolism and the several ambitious plans he proposed in his first address to Congress.Karrin Vasby Anderson, Professor of Communication Studies, Colorado State UniversityIvory A. Toldson, Professor of Counseling Psychology, Howard UniversityVeronika Dolar, Assistant Professor of Economics, SUNY Old WestburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1505352021-03-01T19:10:10Z2021-03-01T19:10:10ZA degree promises a better life but social mobility has a downside too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380999/original/file-20210127-23-73wo8g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C1060%2C5515%2C3668&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/student-studies-hard-get-graduation-262296563">alphaspirit.it/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Higher education has long been associated with the promise of a good life. Participation, however, has no guarantees. </p>
<p>Former prime minister Gough Whitlam <a href="https://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/1972-gough-whitlam">argued</a> that Australia’s higher education system was not straightforwardly a “great instrument for the promotion of equality”. Instead, it mainly functioned as “a weapon for perpetuating inequality and promoting privilege”. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/44228347/The_Persistence_of_Inequality_Education_Class_and_Cultural_Capital">Scholars</a>, too, have demonstrated how the rewards of higher education are unevenly distributed: it matters who you know, where you go to university and what you study. It also matters where you live.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/young-australians-prospects-still-come-down-to-where-they-grow-up-102640">Young Australians' prospects still come down to where they grow up</a>
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<hr>
<p>My <a href="https://www.whitlam.org/publications/2021/2/23/whitlam-western-sydney-and-the-promise-of-university">research</a> (soon to be <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/series/understanding-student-experiences-of-higher-education/">published with Bloomsbury</a>) reveals the experience of upward social mobility can be emotionally costly too – particularly for graduates from the working class. </p>
<p>Moving up and becoming different from one’s family and friends can involve losses, not just gains. </p>
<h2>How do graduates see a good life?</h2>
<p>Young people today, particularly those from underrepresented groups, are <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/higher-education-participation-and-partnerships-programme-heppp">encouraged</a> to participate in higher education. </p>
<p>My small-scale qualitative research focused on the experiences of one of these underrepresented groups: working-class students and graduates who were the first in their family to attend university. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/odds-are-against-first-in-family-uni-students-but-equity-policies-are-blind-to-them-155647">Odds are against ‘first in family’ uni students but equity policies are blind to them</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>I interviewed six current students and 20 graduates from Cranebrook and its surrounding suburbs in the Penrith area of outer Western Sydney – a region known as Australia’s manufacturing heartland. </p>
<p>I was interested in how class and place shaped their experiences before, during and after attending university. </p>
<p>I was also interested in the “existential” dimensions of the mobility experience: how university becomes a means to a good life and what constitutes a good life.</p>
<h2>University isn’t necessarily about escaping</h2>
<p>For the research participants, going to university was not necessarily about class escape and escape from place.</p>
<p>“Doing well” involved finding suitable employment close to home and staying put in Penrith – a region not conventionally seen to be the site of a good life. Some outsiders imagine it to be a place of stagnation that lacks opportunities – <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Out-West/Powell/p/book/9781863735032">the “other” Sydney</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-planning-strategies-for-western-sydney-jobs-but-do-they-add-up-139386">3 planning strategies for Western Sydney jobs, but do they add up?</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p>For the research participants, Penrith was instead a place of community, familiarity, security and possibility. Here was somewhere they could live out their version of the Australian Dream. </p>
<p>Of the 26 participants I interviewed, 20 continue to live in Penrith. Of the six who live elsewhere, four expressed a desire to return to Penrith. </p>
<p>The participants enjoyed the spaciousness of suburbia, as well as being close to family and friends.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"425537043548995584"}"></div></p>
<p>Small-scale class distinctions that operate in Cranebrook, the wider Penrith region and Western Sydney also shaped their visions of a good life. “Doing well” sometimes involved degrees of social mobility in place: moving to a “better” house, a “better” street, or a “better” neighbourhood. </p>
<h2>The pull of home limits social mobility</h2>
<p>Not all graduates, however, were able to achieve their version of a good life in Penrith. Western Sydney lacks graduate opportunities. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/1782930/where-are-the-jobs-report-part-1.pdf">Phillip O’Neill’s research</a> has highlighted how Western Sydney is home to a growing population of degree holders – a quarter of Sydney’s total – yet the region remains disadvantaged, particularly in terms of work opportunities for graduates. These jobs are concentrated in Sydney’s east, not west. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jobs-deficit-drives-army-of-daily-commuters-out-of-western-sydney-139384">Jobs deficit drives army of daily commuters out of Western Sydney</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p>O’Neill’s research, like my own, reveals Western Sydney’s graduates are “staying put”. </p>
<p>For ten of the 20 graduates in my study who stayed put in Penrith, this involved long periods of waiting for graduate employment, or reorienting careers and finding work in non-graduate roles. </p>
<p>Elise, for example, has a Bachelor of Communications and works for a marketing agency in Sydney’s CBD. She described the three-hour commute to her workplace as difficult and said her colleagues often made wounding jokes about Penrith. </p>
<p>Rather than move closer to the CBD, Elise was on the lookout for a new job in Penrith, “even like admin”, work that does not necessarily use her qualifications, but is closer to home – a move that also involves effacing class and geographical differences. </p>
<p>The pull of home can, indeed, work to curb the experience of upward social mobility. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="View of the M4 bridge crossing the Nepean River at Penrith" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381000/original/file-20210127-21-1tw6oap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381000/original/file-20210127-21-1tw6oap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381000/original/file-20210127-21-1tw6oap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381000/original/file-20210127-21-1tw6oap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381000/original/file-20210127-21-1tw6oap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381000/original/file-20210127-21-1tw6oap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381000/original/file-20210127-21-1tw6oap.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rather than commute to the CBD, some graduates prefer to take on work that doesn’t make use of their qualifications but lets them stay close to home in Penrith.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/scenic-views-nepean-river-penrith-foreground-1318924232">Leah-Anne Thompson/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>‘Moving up’ has emotional costs</h2>
<p>Even for those who were able to live their version of a good life in Penrith, the experience of upward social mobility, and small-scale degrees of mobility within the area, could be emotionally unsettling. </p>
<p>It was for Pat. He grew up in Cranebrook’s pocket of social housing, works as an HR professional and now lives in one of Penrith’s more affluent pockets. </p>
<p>“Moving up” has meant Pat has lost those embodied aspects of the self that connected him to his friends in Cranebrook.</p>
<p>For example, Pat’s professional mentor encouraged him to have elocution lessons and he now speaks differently to his working-class friends. Pat described feelings of class difference in his middle-class workplace too. He finds himself floating, not quite fitting into either milieu. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-the-way-we-speak-affect-our-future-23503">Does the way we speak affect our future?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young man changing his identity through education" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381011/original/file-20210128-21-1uo12kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381011/original/file-20210128-21-1uo12kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381011/original/file-20210128-21-1uo12kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381011/original/file-20210128-21-1uo12kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=283&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381011/original/file-20210128-21-1uo12kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381011/original/file-20210128-21-1uo12kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381011/original/file-20210128-21-1uo12kr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Upward mobility can leave some graduates feeling they don’t quite fit in with either their original communities or middle-class workplaces.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/career-growth-education-concept-ambitious-young-1386446048?irclickid=QvHU5TWlxxyOTZKwUx0Mo3kyUkERsg3nYQriUk0&irgwc=1&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=TinEye&utm_source=77643&utm_term=&c3ch=Affiliate&c3nid=IR-77643">pathdoc/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Pat’s experience led him to question if the journey was worthwhile:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There’s been times, you know, where honestly I think some days I would be happier still living in Cranebrook on the dole, you know? Living that lifestyle. Like there’s a lot of days where I think I would be happier doing that. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The experience of upward social mobility can be tinged with what sociologist <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=1275">Pierre Bourdieu</a> calls <em>la petite misere</em>, or ordinary suffering. </p>
<p>University is a means to a good life, but it’s a class-differentiated good life that is embedded in place and can become a site of personal and social tension.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150535/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Coleman receives funding from Whitlam Institute, Western Sydney University. </span></em></p>The experience of upward social mobility through education can have unexpected emotional costs – particularly for graduates from the working class.Alexandra Coleman, E.G. Whitlam Research Fellow, Whitlam Institute, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1515262021-01-08T16:16:45Z2021-01-08T16:16:45ZWhat’s the purpose of university? Your answer may depend on how much it costs you<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376410/original/file-20201222-17-ofo6nr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C6923%2C3586&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/diversity-students-friends-happiness-concept-514148989">Rawpixel.com?Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the university sector under greater scrutiny. In some cases, this has prompted new conversations about the purpose of higher education. These have included the extent to which universities are upholding their <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-are-losing-sight-of-higher-educations-true-purpose-73637">commitment to public service</a>, and whether the current institutional adjustments in universities will change the way <a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/future-higher-education">higher education is delivered</a>. </p>
<p>But what do students themselves think about what university is for? In 2017-18, my colleagues and I asked 295 students across six European countries – Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain – about what they believed to be the purpose of university study. Their <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07294360.2020.1830039">responses</a> shed light on the possible future of higher education in Europe. </p>
<p>This research, which forms part of the <a href="http://eurostudents.net/">Eurostudents project</a>, investigates how undergraduate students understand the purpose of higher education. We found that for many students, it serves three particular functions: to gain decent employment, to achieve personal growth, and to contribute to improvement in society. </p>
<p>But there were interesting variations in students’ views, which often corresponded to how much they had to pay for their studies. </p>
<h2>The career ladder</h2>
<p>The most common purpose of higher education that students spoke about was to prepare themselves for the labour market. Some students stated that a degree was essential to avoid having to take up a low-skilled job. However, many students believed that an undergraduate degree was insufficient for highly skilled or professional employment. </p>
<p>Here, we see a shift from a conception of higher education as an investment to help move up a social class to viewing it as insurance against <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13676261.2018.1535174?casa_token=xIxZlR9Cw7AAAAAA:NmpgIZJDa30yGaqNdRigIAQ-IWpAQoWtAxJClRaEV1bFQ1VRIXM8jxQ4SenKRAPKxNVBfKKgBe5p">downward social mobility</a>. </p>
<p>As a student in England said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t really think there’s much of an option. If you want to get a decent job these days, you’ve got to go to university because people won’t look at you if you haven’t been.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There were some differences across countries. Emphasis on the purpose of university education being preparation for the job market was strongest in the three countries in our sample where students had to make <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/na101/home/literatum/publisher/sage/journals/content/sroa/0/sroa.ahead-of-print/1360780420973042/20201222/images/large/10.1177_1360780420973042-table1.jpeg">greater personal financial contributions</a>: England, Ireland and Spain.</p>
<h2>Personal growth</h2>
<p>The students in our study also discussed ideas of personal growth and enrichment. This was the case in all six countries, including in England where the higher education sector is <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/everything-sale-marketisation-uk-higher-education-roger-brown-helen-carasso/10.4324/9780203071168">highly marketised</a>. This means it is set up as a competitive market, where students pay tuition fees and are protected by consumer rights legislation, while metrics such as league tables encourage competition among institutions.</p>
<p>Some students emphasised how they were “growing” through the knowledge they were gaining. Others placed more emphasis on aspects of wider learning that they had experienced since embarking upon their degree. This included interacting with a more diverse group of people than they had previously, and having to be more independent.</p>
<p>Students in Denmark, Germany and Poland talked about this kind of growth – which happened outside formal classes – more frequently than students in the other three nations. Notably, in these countries, students make <a href="https://www.studyineurope.eu/tuition-fees">less of a personal financial contribution</a> to the cost of their university study. When this purpose was mentioned by English students, it was associated particularly with learning how to live independently. </p>
<h2>Societal development</h2>
<p>Students in all six countries talked about how higher education could improve society. This was brought up most frequently in Denmark, Germany and Poland – where students receive greater support from the government and make less of a personal financial investment to their university education than in the other countries in our sample. </p>
<p>Students tended to talk about their contribution to society by attending university in one of three ways: by contributing to a more enlightened society, by creating a more critical and reflective society, and by helping their country to be viewed more competitively worldwide. </p>
<p>A Polish student said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[University education is critical to] shaping a responsible and wise society … one which is not blind, which will do as it is told.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Meanwhile, a Danish student commented:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’re such a small country, we have to do well … we have to do better because there are so many people around the world … we have to work even harder to compete with them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Only Danish and Irish students spoke about national competitiveness in this way. This is likely to be linked to specific geo-political and economic factors, particularly the relatively small size of both nations when compared to some of their European neighbours and the structure of their labour markets.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young man with rucksack walking alone up steps to modern building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377587/original/file-20210107-20-1xkaev3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377587/original/file-20210107-20-1xkaev3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377587/original/file-20210107-20-1xkaev3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377587/original/file-20210107-20-1xkaev3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377587/original/file-20210107-20-1xkaev3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377587/original/file-20210107-20-1xkaev3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377587/original/file-20210107-20-1xkaev3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Students talked about how university helped them gain independence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/rear-shot-unrecognizable-afro-american-male-635434436">WAYHOME studio/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is unsurprising to find that many students across Europe believe that a key purpose of university study is to equip them for the job market, as this is often the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057925.2019.1604118">common message given by governments</a>. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, as shown here, many students have broader views. They see the value of higher education in promoting democratic and critical engagement, while also furthering collective, rather than solely individual, ends. </p>
<p>The national variation we found also suggests that the enduring differences in funding across the continent may affect on how higher education is understood by students.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>We are grateful to all students who gave up their time to participate in our focus groups. We would also like to thank the European Research Council for awarding Professor Rachel Brooks a Consolidator Grant, which funded this study (EUROSTUDENTS_681018). </span></em></p>Students viewed going to university as insurance against downward social mobility, as well as a chance to become more independent and contribute to society.Achala Gupta, Research Fellow in Sociology, University of SurreyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1469112020-10-30T12:48:07Z2020-10-30T12:48:07ZFrom Trump to Trudeau, the escalator is a favorite symbol of political campaigns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364298/original/file-20201019-19-13chrxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=123%2C82%2C2361%2C1511&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Donald Trump rides an escalator to announce his candidacy for the U.S. presidency at Trump Tower on June 16, 2015, in New York City.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/business-mogul-donald-trump-rides-an-escalator-to-a-press-news-photo/477321340?adppopup=true">Christopher Gregory/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In June 2015 Donald Trump rode an escalator into the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City to announce his candidacy for president – an escalator ride that quickly became famous.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/06/14/donald-trump-campaign-announcement-tower-escalator-oral-history-227148">Politico</a> called it “the escalator ride that changed America,” and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/13/donald-trump-presidential-campaign-speech-eyewitness-memories">The Guardian</a> spoke of “the surreal day Trump kicked off his bid for president” with a “golden escalator ride.”</p>
<p>The escalator has <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2020/urban-job-escalator-stopped-0708">long been a symbol of social mobility</a>, of the ease with which Americans have been able to <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/social-mobility-upwards-decline-usa-us-america-economics/">rise to the top of the social and economic hierarchy</a>. For this reason, it has featured in a range of recent political campaigns.</p>
<p>For decades the escalator has been a ready symbol in debates over economic inequality and globalization. For many it captures how the economy used to work, how it no longer seems to work and how it might work again. The escalator’s political meaning has shifted over the years – but it’s never gone away, and candidates on both the right and the left love to invoke it.</p>
<h2>Justin Trudeau’s ascension</h2>
<p><a href="https://colostate.academia.edu/PeterErickson">In my work on the cultural history of the escalator</a>, I have been struck by its persistent use in recent years. </p>
<p>During Justin Trudeau’s 2015 campaign to become prime minister of Canada, a television ad featured the candidate <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-escalator-ad-commercial-twitter-1.3212676">climbing an escalator the wrong way</a>. Trudeau remains in place until he reverses the escalator’s direction and uses it to propel himself upward. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-wYJ-xNeEe4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Campaign ad for Justin Trudeau: “Harder to Get Ahead”</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For Trudeau’s Liberal Party, the escalator served as a metaphor for how upward mobility had languished under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper. </p>
<p>The ad symbolically replaced the 18th-century economist Adam Smith’s metaphor of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/invisible-hand">an “invisible hand”</a> – coined to describe the way that prices seem to rise and fall of their own accord in a capitalist economy – with an escalator. Trudeau’s liberal politics, his campaign promised, were like a “master switch” capable of redirecting the escalator’s flow.</p>
<p>For Trudeau’s leftist critics in the opposition New Democratic Party, though, the escalator ad <a href="https://twitter.com/ndp/status/647876755823333376">symbolized everything that was wrong with Trudeau’s politics</a>, because it asked voters to trust that globalization and <a href="https://prospect.org/economy/corporate-welfare-hurts/">corporate welfare</a> would bring wealth and social mobility. “Stop the Escalator” became <a href="https://twitter.com/ndp/status/647876755823333376">a progressive rallying cry of the 2015 campaign</a>.</p>
<p>Donald Trump’s television series “The Apprentice” was likewise obsessed with the politics of social mobility. At the end of each episode, contestants were sent <a href="https://splinternews.com/what-i-learned-about-donald-trump-from-binge-watching-t-1793854444">either “up to the suite – or down to the street.”</a> To be important is to have access to the corporate boardroom and the penthouse.</p>
<p>For Trump, riding the escalator is a symbol of social mobility and power. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Ye6e_VxM00kC&q=escalator#v=snippet&q=escalator&f=false">In “The Art of the Deal</a>,” Trump boasts about how expensive it was to install.</p>
<p>The fact that Trump rode down the escalator, rather than up it – as if he were condescending to come down, rather than inviting us to come up – turned the symbol on its head.</p>
<h2>Criticism of globalization</h2>
<p>The political right around the world has often targeted the escalator. The objection is precisely to its accessibility – that anyone can ride it.</p>
<p>In 2014, during the United Kingdom’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/britains-brexit-divorce-is-here-but-the-bickering-over-alimony-payments-and-who-gets-the-house-is-only-beginning-130663">Brexit referendum</a> over whether to leave the European Union, the populist U.K. Independence Party ran an advertisement depicting an escalator built over the White Cliffs of Dover. The slogan read: “No Border, No Control.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360330/original/file-20200928-16-1knk56d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360330/original/file-20200928-16-1knk56d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360330/original/file-20200928-16-1knk56d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360330/original/file-20200928-16-1knk56d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360330/original/file-20200928-16-1knk56d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360330/original/file-20200928-16-1knk56d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360330/original/file-20200928-16-1knk56d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pro-Brexit Advertisement for the U.K. Independence Party (2014)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360332/original/file-20200928-14-1igcpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360332/original/file-20200928-14-1igcpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360332/original/file-20200928-14-1igcpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360332/original/file-20200928-14-1igcpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360332/original/file-20200928-14-1igcpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360332/original/file-20200928-14-1igcpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360332/original/file-20200928-14-1igcpco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UKIP Escalator Advertisement (2015)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The word “control” here suggests not only an unprotected border, but a broader sense of social disorder, symbolized by the way that the escalator, a mechanical contraption, is depicted invading a pastoral landscape.</p>
<p>When Trump announced his presidential run after riding down the escalator into the lobby, he focused on issues of mobility and borders. He complained, infamously, that Mexico was sending America <a href="https://time.com/3923128/donald-trump-announcement-speech/">its rapists and drug dealers</a> – that the United States had entered an era in which working-class Americans were stuck in place while migrants, terrorists and drug dealers had become mobile.</p>
<p>Implicitly, Trump in 2015 questioned whether America’s engine of social mobility was working for the “right” people. </p>
<h2>Escalation versus de-escalation</h2>
<p>The escalator has shaped political rhetoric more generally. When we refer to the way a conflict escalates, we are using a metaphor that <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/escalate">originated with the escalator</a>.</p>
<p>The term is of incredibly recent origin. It first emerged in the 1920s as a verb for <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/escalate">riding an escalator</a>. And it took on its present meaning only in 1959, in the context of the Cold War.</p>
<p>To “escalate” in the context of the Cold War was to take the conflict to the next level. It was not to commit a single act of retaliation but to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_warfare_in_South_Vietnam,_1963%E2%80%931969">initiate a new sustained level of violence</a>. “Escalation theory” was <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/On_Escalation.html?id=0No5uIPpD8AC">intended to slow conflict</a>, <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691650463/escalation-and-nuclear-option">to avert an immediate turn toward nuclear war among the global superpowers</a>. </p>
<p>Since then, however, “escalation” has mostly served to rationalize never-ending, low-level forms of conflict. Violence, in this way, is ratcheted up and down, escalated and de-escalated, but it never ceases. </p>
<p>Modern American politics is characterized by unending escalation. One can cite the wars in <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/On_Escalation.html?id=0No5uIPpD8AC">Vietnam</a> and, now, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057%2F9781137428561_3">Afghanistan</a>. There’s the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2013/11/21/246602362/filibuster-vote-marks-escalation-in-d-c-s-partisan-wars">partisan rhetoric</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2019/09/13/why-political-brinkmanship-from-both-parties-could-be-ruinous-to-the-economy-stock-market-and-your-job/#56cfd3bf78a4">political brinkmanship</a> over Senate procedures and Supreme Court appointments. There’s <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/police-reformers-push-de-escalation-training-jury-effectiveness/story?id=71262003">police violence</a>. </p>
<p>Much of the public debate around these issues is preoccupied with finding “de-escalation” strategies – ways to slow America’s seemingly uncontrollable cycle of conflict and violence.</p>
<h2>Why escalators</h2>
<p>The escalator has become such a powerful and pervasive symbol in both politics and speech perhaps precisely because it is a machine. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>It operates mechanically, “on its own accord” and without human input, making it a ready symbol for undemocratic, technocratic policymaking that occurs without input from the general public.</p>
<p>Trudeau was unfazed by these associations. But the growing popularity of the escalator, as a symbol, on the political right reflects <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the-danger-of-deconsolidation-the-democratic-disconnect/">a growing cynicism about democratic governance</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This article was made possible by a fellowship from the Center for the Study of Origins at the University of Colorado, Boulder.</span></em></p>Candidates from both the right and the left use the escalator as a metaphor for the economic perils – and perks – of upward social mobility.Peter Erickson, Assistant Professor of German, Colorado State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1426872020-07-22T16:19:21Z2020-07-22T16:19:21ZWhy nursery schools are a secret weapon in the fight against inequality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348878/original/file-20200722-30-1nziqk5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C0%2C995%2C703&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/nursery-children-playing-teacher-classroom-1235911417">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>State-funded nursery schools occupy a unique position in education. Serving children from two to four years old, they are disproportionately located in areas of deprivation – in 2015, 64% were in the 30% <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmeduc/1006/100605.htm">most deprived areas</a> in England. They also support higher-than-average proportions of <a href="https://www.early-education.org.uk/sites/default/files/Nursery%20Schools%20-%20The%20hidden%20benefits.pdf">children with additional needs</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://tactyc.org.uk/new-occasional-paper-15/">Our research</a>, conducted with four nursery schools, shows that the part they play in their local communities has expanded over the past decade. They now fill significant gaps in welfare provision in England. </p>
<p>Before the coronavirus pandemic, they provided support to children and families which ranged far beyond their educational role. Now, they are likely to be more vital than ever.</p>
<h2>Filling the gaps</h2>
<p>In recent years, there has been an increased focus on <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01425692.2016.1202748">measuring the effectiveness</a> of the youngest children at schools in England – from when they start in reception in the September after their fourth birthday. This has raised the stakes for all schools, who are required to meet national attainment standards. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Little girl playing with toy at nursery" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348881/original/file-20200722-16-bl5non.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348881/original/file-20200722-16-bl5non.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348881/original/file-20200722-16-bl5non.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348881/original/file-20200722-16-bl5non.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348881/original/file-20200722-16-bl5non.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348881/original/file-20200722-16-bl5non.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348881/original/file-20200722-16-bl5non.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nursery schools play a vital role in preparing children for their education journey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/education-play-kindergarten-747301111">Marko Poplasen/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Without high-quality early education, children who struggle stand little chance of meeting these attainment standards and catching up with their more advantaged peers. This is the vital service provided by nursery schools.</p>
<p>The purpose of nursery schools is to deliver high-quality early education to children before they enter primary school. The aim is develop their numeracy, literacy and social skills in particular. They are led by a head teacher and employ other qualified teachers. In July 2019 there were <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/845080/SCEYP_2019_Main_Report_Nov19.pdf">36,500 state nursery</a> school places available in England.</p>
<p>Our research found that nursery schools are indeed a critical provider of quality early years experiences for the most vulnerable children and those with special educational needs and disability. They make an important contribution in readying all children for school. One teacher in our study commented:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If there aren’t state-funded nursery schools, those children will not go anywhere. If they haven’t got the home life to support them, then that’s it, they’re always behind.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Above and beyond</h2>
<p>Our work also confirmed that nursery schools now provide substantial assistance to children and families beyond their role in education. This can range from providing clothing to support with completing social benefit forms. One manager told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s more than supporting a child, it’s supporting the whole family and hopefully the community around the school too. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the past, the most disadvantaged families were supported by <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/StopStart-FINAL.pdf">SureStart centres</a>, which provided healthcare and parenting advice, early education and other family services. However, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/05/1000-sure-start-childrens-centres-may-have-shut-since-2010">as many as 1,000</a> of these centres may have closed since 2010. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Nursery school children eating snacks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348887/original/file-20200722-24-1xh92k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348887/original/file-20200722-24-1xh92k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348887/original/file-20200722-24-1xh92k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348887/original/file-20200722-24-1xh92k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348887/original/file-20200722-24-1xh92k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348887/original/file-20200722-24-1xh92k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348887/original/file-20200722-24-1xh92k4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nursery schools have seen the services they provide increase.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teacher-pre-school-children-eating-healthy-342598889">SpeedKingz/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nursery schools have absorbed these additional areas of need, and staff have seen their role evolve and workloads increase. One nursery school teacher commented:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For children it’s not just about literacy and numeracy, it’s much more. There are lots of things that they often need support with, their physical development, their toileting, their feeding, their sleeping. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The expansion in the role played by nursery schools is directly linked to the <a href="https://imx07wlgmj301rre1jepv8h0-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Occasional-Paper-15.pdf">austerity policies</a> of the past decade. The reduction in funding for all areas of the welfare state has led to significant contractions in support available, especially in relation to the availability of housing and benefits for families out of work or struggling to make ends meet. </p>
<h2>Complex role</h2>
<p>The consequences of these changes are keenly felt by nursery school staff. They reported that their role has become increasingly complex, as they cater to more children with special educational needs and disabilities as well as recent migrants and children who speak English as an additional language. All four nursery schools in our study had seen a marked increase in demand for places for children in these groups.</p>
<p>Concerns among staff over whether these demands are sustainable led to tensions in the schools we visited. One of the nursery managers commented that in some instances, they have to provide children with one-to-one support:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is no funding for that at the moment. But we have to do it for that child, so we do, which obviously can put a strain on the rest of the nursery. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These efforts resulted in over-stretched resources, to the detriment of the staff and children. Furthermore, even these efforts are under threat, given the current <a href="https://www.early-education.org.uk/sites/default/files/Signed%20letter%20to%20Chancellor%20re%20MNS%20Feb%202020.docx.pdf">long-term funding uncertainty</a> facing nursery schools in England.</p>
<p>Our study confirms the vital role nursery schools play in local communities, and especially in supporting children from poorer or disadvantaged families. The aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic will only increase this, as unemployment is <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/economy-business/work-incomes/coronavirus-which-workers-are-economically-impacted/">disproportionately affecting</a> vulnerable and minority ethnic families. Nursery schools have <a href="https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/2020/07/17/calls-on-government-to-make-early-years-central-to-covid-fightback-with-a-new-best-beginnings-guarantee/">never been more important</a> to level the playing field.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142687/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate Hoskins has previously received funding from the Froebel Trust and Brunel University London's RDF fund.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Bradbury receives funding from Economic and Social Research Council and the British Academy, and previously from the National Education Union and the More than a Score campaign group. She is affiliated with More than a Score. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lewis Fogarty does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>State-funded nursery schools now fill significant gaps in welfare provision in England.Kate Hoskins, Reader in Education, Brunel University LondonAlice Bradbury, Associate Professor in Sociology of Education, UCLLewis Fogarty, Doctoral Candidate in Education, Brunel University LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1397032020-06-03T14:08:59Z2020-06-03T14:08:59ZKnow your place – poetry after the Black Death reflected fear of social change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339474/original/file-20200603-130940-8lrxik.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C53%2C17717%2C7001&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chaucer commended those who followed their societal roles and condemned those who didn't.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/g/morphart?searchterm=chaucer&sort=popular">Morphart Creation/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The sharp fall in population caused by the waves of plague which followed the arrival of the Black Death in 1348 led to one of the most <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=N6iODwAAQBAJ&pg=PT276&lpg=PT276&dq=By+1377,+the+population+was+around+only+a+half+of+its+pre-plague+level&source=bl&ots=qYKX8_xTdb&sig=ACfU3U37Lz2TvmZb80VFZbA9PzQDEgNUkA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQvtuctuXpAhUHUxUIHR4XBu0Q6AEwAHoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=By%201377%2C%20the%20population%20was%20around%20only%20a%20half%20of%20its%20pre-plague%20level&f=falsef">dramatic periods of economic and social change</a> in English history. By 1377, the population was around only a half of its pre-plague level but for those who survived there were new opportunities. </p>
<p>With a great deal of land now available, peasants could obtain larger holdings and rent them on more favourable terms. Likewise, those who worked for wages could take advantage of the labour shortage to obtain higher wages enjoy more varied diets – with more meat and dairy – and buy a wider range of manufactured goods. </p>
<p>The second half of the 14th century was thus a period of rising living standards, social mobility and increasing class conflict as the lower orders now sought to obtain improved terms from their landlords and employers.</p>
<p>The dramatic social changes of these years drew several responses from contemporary poets. In the medieval period, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/36688848/England_Literature_and_Society">imaginative literature</a> was often seen as having an ethical function by teaching virtue, which was defined as fulfilling the expected tasks of their social order. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4Vou9SZVHDAC&pg=PA498&lpg=PA498&dq=Modern+literary+critics+often+see+the+function+of+imaginative+literature+as+that+of+challenging+dominant+ideologies&source=bl&ots=vsIWZyjOuN&sig=ACfU3U3dyUYv2iWQBlHXmG4r0oMIVqvhHQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBgZvRtuXpAhXoUhUIHUE2DV8Q6AEwAHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=Modern%20literary%20critics%20often%20see%20the%20function%20of%20imaginative%20literature%20as%20that%20of%20challenging%20dominant%20ideologies&f=false">Modern literary critics</a> often see imaginative literature challenging dominant ideologies or providing a sanctioned space for the expression of social dissidence. By contrast, the work of poets in the post-plague era often sought to buttress the social hierarchy against the threats with which it was now confronted. </p>
<h2>Langland and Gower against the peasants</h2>
<p>Such sentiments are to be found in William Langland’s allegorical poem, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Mp7j_xqKQ9IC&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37&dq=cato:+to+%22bear+patiently+the+burden+of+poverty%22&source=bl&ots=sQ7keAyvp6&sig=ACfU3U3E64g6iMmh7bXW83moQK42fSSn5w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiXyKnJp-PpAhVPUBUIHeJgBiMQ6AEwAXoECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=cato%3A%20to%20%22bear%20patiently%20the%20burden%20of%20poverty%22&f=false">Piers Plowman</a> (B-version written c. 1380). Here, the poet expresses his sympathy for those who were genuinely poor or hard-working but echoes post-plague labour legislation and attacked those who, he believed, preferred to beg rather than work.</p>
<p>There had been frequent complaints in parliament about labourers who preferred handouts to work or who took advantage of the labour shortage to demand higher wages. In response, a series of laws were introduced to reduce labour mobility and freeze wages at their pre-plague levels. Langland also calls upon the knightly class to defend the community from those “wasters” who refused to work and criticised the labourers who impatiently demanded higher wages and refused to obey the new legislation. </p>
<p>Contemporary moralists complained about those who rose above their allotted station in life and so in 1363 a law was passed that specified the food and dress that were appropriate for each social class. In line with such attitudes, Langland railed against the presumption of labourers who disdained day-old vegetables, bacon and cheap ale and instead demanded fresh meat, fish and fine ale.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339487/original/file-20200603-130903-59gc95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339487/original/file-20200603-130903-59gc95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339487/original/file-20200603-130903-59gc95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339487/original/file-20200603-130903-59gc95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339487/original/file-20200603-130903-59gc95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339487/original/file-20200603-130903-59gc95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339487/original/file-20200603-130903-59gc95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Gower depicted as an archer in Vox Clamantis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/dsheh/heh_brf?Description=&CallNumber=HM+150">Berkley</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similar views are expressed in John Gower’s poem <em><a href="http://gowertranslation.pbworks.com/w/page/53690515/Vox%20Clamantis">Vox Clamantis</a></em> (the Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness) where the peasants are attacked for being idle and utterly wicked. The common people had fallen into an evil disposition in which they ignored the labour laws and were only willing to work if they received the highest pay. </p>
<p>When the lower orders refused to know their place, as in the Great Revolt of 1381 (also known as the Peasants’ Revolt), they were denounced by contemporary chroniclers as wicked, treacherous, and diabolical. In line with such criticism, Gower’s poem includes an allegorical account of the rising that portrays the rebels as farmyard animals rising up against their masters. They subsequently turn into monsters that attack humanity and becoming followers of Satan in their attachment to wrongdoing and slaughter. </p>
<h2>Chaucer’s difficult voice</h2>
<p>However, if Langland and Gower were openly hostile to the aspirations of the peasants and the labourers, Geoffrey Chaucer has proved more difficult to read. For many critics, Chaucer is a writer who prefers to <a href="https://www.academia.edu/12898557/Reading_Chaucer_Literature_History_and_Ideology">present his readers with questions</a> rather than providing them with stock answers. To them, his use of multiple voices and shifting perspectives pose a challenge to the accepted contemporary beliefs and exposes the kind of ideology found in the works of a Gower as partial and inadequate. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339486/original/file-20200603-130907-f5x96w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339486/original/file-20200603-130907-f5x96w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339486/original/file-20200603-130907-f5x96w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339486/original/file-20200603-130907-f5x96w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339486/original/file-20200603-130907-f5x96w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339486/original/file-20200603-130907-f5x96w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339486/original/file-20200603-130907-f5x96w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Instead of committing to a pious life of study and prayer, the monk pursued the pleasure of hunting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/g/morphart?searchterm=chaucer&sort=popular">Morphart Creation/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet for other critics, Chaucer is much more conservative or even, as the medieval scholar Alcuin Blamires puts it, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31198175_Chaucer_the_reactionary_ideology_and_the_General_Prologue_to_The_Canterbury_Tales">reactionary in his outlook</a>. After all, among the pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales, those who are presented as admirable are the ones who dutifully perform the traditional functions of their social estate. For example, the Parson is a good shepherd to his flock, the Knight is a chivalrous crusader, and the Plowman works hard and faithfully pays his tithes. It is those who fail in their duties or seek to rise above their station whom Chaucer satirises – as when the Monk prefers hunting to a life of study and prayer or when the Wife of Bath seeks female supremacy in marriage.</p>
<p>Certainly, <a href="https://sites.fas.harvard.edu/%7Echaucer/teachslf/parst-tran.htm">the Parson</a> offers us a socially conservative message when, at the end of the Canterbury Tales, he preaches that as part of the divinely arranged cosmic order, God has ordained that some people should be of higher social rank and others should be lower. People should, therefore, render honour and obedience not only to God but also to their spiritual fathers and their secular superiors. Nobody should lament their misfortunes or envy the prosperity of others but rather should endure adversity in patience in the hope of obtaining joy and ease in the next life. </p>
<p>Given that <a href="https://www.academia.edu/42900073/Ideology_from_P._Brown_ed._A_New_Companion_to_Chaucer_2019_pp._201-12">medieval literary theory</a> regards the ending of a text as being particularly important in conveying its meaning, we may perhaps regard Chaucer’s views as being in line with his Parson. If so, then Chaucer’s response to the social change of his day may have been rather closer to the views of Gower and Langland than many of his modern readers would like to admit. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339451/original/file-20200603-130917-1phwlgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/339451/original/file-20200603-130917-1phwlgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=150&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339451/original/file-20200603-130917-1phwlgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=150&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339451/original/file-20200603-130917-1phwlgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=150&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339451/original/file-20200603-130917-1phwlgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=189&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339451/original/file-20200603-130917-1phwlgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=189&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/339451/original/file-20200603-130917-1phwlgk.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=189&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/recovery-series-87523">Read and listen more from the Recovery series here.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/139703/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Rigby has received funding from ESRC, AHRC, Nuffield Foundation and British Academy. </span></em></p>Poets and the wealthy were angered by those who saw their opportunity to rise above their station after the plague.Stephen Rigby, Emeritus Professor of Medieval Social and Economic History, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1353912020-05-05T10:54:31Z2020-05-05T10:54:31ZIn praise of further education colleges: empowering students who have been written off<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331984/original/file-20200501-42918-1a28vax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C5070%2C3380&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teacher-student-sit-together-adult-education-388591597">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Education policy for schools in the UK has become more and more <a href="https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/the-education-debate">focused around performance</a>. The expectation is that students reach milestones of understanding and learning in each subject. This means that almost <a href="http://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/6805/">a third of young people</a> – those that do not meet these milestones – are effectively written off as also-rans at 16. </p>
<p>Further education colleges pick up the pieces of this overly rigid education system. They challenge the reductive assumptions that underpin it: that some students are academic and others will never be. Colleges help students to take agency and shape their learning in different ways. In doing this, they are a real engine room for social mobility and social justice.</p>
<p>Our recent research, the <a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/10385/Transformative_teaching_and_learning_in_further_education_july_2019/pdf/transformativeteachingandlearninginfurthereducationjuly2019">Transforming Lives</a> project, looks into how further education colleges can reconnect students to education as a meaningful and valuable part of their lives. </p>
<h2>Focus on individuals</h2>
<p>Teaching methods in further education colleges vary, but they all have a focus on the individual student, their background, their needs and their identities. College teachers recognise that one part of their role is to build students’ sense of themselves as someone who can learn effectively. Teachers then need to connect this educational experience to the wider world of life and work. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332291/original/file-20200504-83725-qi5746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332291/original/file-20200504-83725-qi5746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332291/original/file-20200504-83725-qi5746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332291/original/file-20200504-83725-qi5746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332291/original/file-20200504-83725-qi5746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332291/original/file-20200504-83725-qi5746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332291/original/file-20200504-83725-qi5746.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Talk and group work is encouraged.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/top-view-group-students-sitting-together-506137015">Jacob Lund/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We spoke to students at further education colleges as part of our research. Their stories showed that college courses provide routes to overcoming economic, social, political and cultural marginalisation.</p>
<p><a href="https://transforminglives.web.ucu.org.uk/2017/02/03/adams-story-inspiring/">Adam</a>, a 16-year-old who had previously been excluded from school, gave us a powerful example of the impact of labelling in school. He explained how he had internalised teachers’ views of him: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I used to think I was dumb all the time in school. I had no hopes at all. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Entering a further education college at 15 meant rediscovering that he could be successful as a learner. His interest in football was encouraged and he had plans and ambitions to coach as a result. </p>
<p>On his first parents’ evening at college, his mother sat and listened to an account of his progress for five minutes before asking: “Are you sure you’ve got the right Adam?” She had become used to receiving calls at work from Adam’s school asking her to come and take him home because of another outburst of temper. Finding success as a learner in college meant that not only his life was transformed, but his family’s was too.</p>
<p>Another participant, <a href="https://transforminglives.web.ucu.org.uk/2017/10/12/anita/">Anita</a>, in her thirties, talked about being put “in a box” at school, and how the social interactions she had with teachers were shaped by their judgements of her ability. Anita took a social work degree and is now working. She credited the further education teaching she recieved:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My tutors are the ones that got me here … They encouraged me. They never once doubted me. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Both Anita and Adam’s experiences of education were shaped by teachers’ negative judgements earlier in life. In college, both responded to teaching which focuses on building confidence as an essential ingredient. </p>
<h2>Building confidence</h2>
<p>Both Anita and Adam described how uplifting it was for someone to value them for who they were and recognise the obstacles they had overcome. Along with this recognition came validation. Both described how this empowered them and gave them a feeling of self-worth, inspiring them with confidence and hope for the future. </p>
<p>College teachers achieve these transformative effects by treating students with dignity, respect and care. They begin by focusing on students’ existing knowledge and interests, and encouraging them to share these. Desks are often arranged in groups, as teachers understand the value of on-task talk and group work.</p>
<p>The below chart shows teachers’ responses to the statement “In my teaching, I try to create a learning environment that fosters mutual respect”.</p>
<p>Teachers often focus on the social aspects of learning, as they build strong relationships and a positive atmosphere in a class. Project or task-based work that involves working across lessons and building to a presentation and/or sharing results is also important. </p>
<h2>A different approach</h2>
<p>Colleges are constrained by funding pressures and are subject to the same market pressures as schools <a href="https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/10385/Transformative_teaching_and_learning_in_further_education_july_2019/pdf/transformativeteachingandlearninginfurthereducationjuly2019">in terms of results</a>. But what many further education teachers understand is that they have to take a different approach to teaching and learning with young people if they are to be successful. The phrase that so often surfaced in our research across the country from students was that a particular teacher “believed in me”. We must never underestimate the power of a teacher’s belief.</p>
<p>College teachers encourage people who have left school feeling like failures so that they can become successful learners. These students can then harness education to plan a future driven by choice, hope and employment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135391/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Smith receives funding from UCU. I am a member of UCU. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vicky Duckworth receives funding from UCU. </span></em></p>Students who struggled at school can flourish in further education colleges.Rob Smith, Professor of Education, Birmingham City UniversityVicky Duckworth, Professor of Education, Edge Hill UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1269642019-11-25T15:55:09Z2019-11-25T15:55:09ZBritish people still think some accents are smarter than others – what that means in the workplace<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303435/original/file-20191125-74580-14esrrv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">British working class and ethnic accents still face the same negative bias they did 50 years ago</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-attractive-asian-indian-woman-interviewing-1026060247">mentatdgt/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you judge people’s abilities based on their accent? Do you think a person with a posh accent must be more intelligent or better informed than someone with a multicultural London accent or a northern accent, even if the words they say are identical? In short, do you care less about what someone said and more about how they said it?</p>
<p>These were the questions <a href="https://accentbiasbritain.org/">our team</a> set out to answer. We looked at attitudes to British accents among the general public but also among recruiters in an elite profession, namely law. We found good news and bad news. </p>
<p>The bad news: opinions found 50 years ago <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0013191700220301">in a survey by Howard Giles</a> remain today. In <a href="https://accentbiasbritain.org/results-labels">a new survey</a> of attitudes to 38 different British accents, we found that exactly the same accents continue to attract high prestige - received pronunciation, the Queen’s English, French-accented English, Edinburgh English, one’s own accent - and the same accents continue to receive low ratings, particularly ethnic minority accents (Indian) and historically industrial urban accents (Cockney, Liverpool, Essex, Birmingham). </p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-with-northern-accents-are-being-told-to-posh-up-heres-why-88425">Teachers with Northern accents are being told to 'posh up', here's why</a>
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<p>So <a href="https://theconversation.com/love-island-audience-reaction-shows-deep-snobbery-about-accents-98418">British working class</a> and ethnic accents still face negative bias half a century on. This has been the case since at least 1589, when George Puttenham warned in <a href="https://www.bartleby.com/359/19.html">The Arte of English Poesie</a> against following “the speach of a craftes man or carter, or other of the inferiour sort, though he be inhabitant or bred in the best towne and Citie in this Realme, for such persons doe abuse good speaches by strange accents or ill shapen soundes”.</p>
<p>But this finding doesn’t quite tell us how discriminatory people are. Someone may dislike an accent but never let that affect their judgement of a person’s competence at work. All we have seen so far is accent preferences, and social psychology has shown that we can’t expect people to be free of <a href="https://conceptually.org/concepts/cognitive-biases">such associations</a>. </p>
<p>All humans have biases – simplified ways of thinking when we need to process our thoughts quickly. Accent is no exception: we all have automatic associations with accents based on people we’ve met during our lives. It’s only when we rely on these simple stereotypes to judge unrelated traits, like intelligence or competence, that our cultural baggage becomes discrimination.</p>
<h2>What’s at stake?</h2>
<p>We see slightly better news when we look at whether accent stereotypes affect whether people think a person is professionally competent, especially when they hear a real voice interviewing for a job in an elite profession.</p>
<p>When we played real audio clips of job interview candidates to the survey participants, the differences people drew between accents <a href="https://accentbiasbritain.org/results-voices/">became smaller</a>, and people were more careful about letting accent biases affect whether they thought the person was a good fit for the job. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-your-foreign-accent-can-unfairly-destroy-your-credibility-125981">Here's how your foreign accent can unfairly destroy your credibility</a>
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<p>Our 1,014 participants heard five accents: received pronunciation (middle and upper class standard), estuary English (working or lower middle class, associated with traditional, ethnically white Londoners), multicultural London English (associated with young multi-ethnic working class Londoners), general northern English (middle class), and urban West Yorkshire English (working class). </p>
<p>Younger people didn’t judge accents differently at all. By contrast, those above the age of 40 judged speakers of the two working class London accents to be less competent and less hireable, even though all candidates gave exactly the same responses. (It’s tempting to interpret this age pattern as a decline in bias over time, but the same age pattern was found <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2007.00311.x">15 years ago</a>. This suggests that our attitudes become more conventional as we age.) Bias was also greater among people who grew up in southern England and were from a higher social class. </p>
<p>So we see stronger bias when people are simply judging the names of accents and weaker bias (but still some, and against the same accents) when a person’s career is at stake. </p>
<h2>The professionals</h2>
<p>Of course, the most important group to test for this question is those who actually hold the power: professional hiring panels. This is especially important in Britain, with its history of inequality in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038038515575859">elite university admissions</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/15/poshness-tests-block-working-class-applicants-at-top-companies">professional hiring</a>, and a parallel history of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180307-what-does-your-accent-say-about-you">accent prestige</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303436/original/file-20191125-74599-ucpj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/303436/original/file-20191125-74599-ucpj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303436/original/file-20191125-74599-ucpj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303436/original/file-20191125-74599-ucpj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303436/original/file-20191125-74599-ucpj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303436/original/file-20191125-74599-ucpj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/303436/original/file-20191125-74599-ucpj7a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Economists warn if employers avoid hiring underrepresented groups in their sector, this can lead to a vicious circle of continued exclusion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-diverse-people-waiting-job-interview-657215752">Andrey Popov/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>If British employers use accent to guess at a person’s abilities, this will limit the chances of candidates who are already socioeconomically marginalised. It also prevents that accent from becoming better represented in professional sectors, perpetuating bias. Economists have <a href="http://www.sas.rochester.edu/psc/clarke/214/Arrow98.pdf">long observed</a> that if employers don’t hire people because that group isn’t well represented in their sector, this can lead to a vicious circle of continued exclusion of atypical candidates.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/teachers-with-northern-accents-are-being-told-to-posh-up-heres-why-88425">Teachers with Northern accents are being told to 'posh up', here's why</a>
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<p>So we took our study further, and tested 61 lawyers in law firms. Again, lawyers were asked to rate how competent and hireable a candidate was. To test their ability to identify good answers regardless of accent, we made their task more difficult, with some answers subtly better than others in every accent. </p>
<p>The reduction in bias that we found earlier was even clearer <a href="https://accentbiasbritain.org/results-at-work/">here</a>: lawyers didn’t let accents interfere with how they evaluated candidates. Their assessment of how good an answer was corresponded to what the person said, not how they said it. </p>
<h2>A world of hurdles</h2>
<p>This doesn’t mean that lawyers have no biases at all. First, we only examined one factor in hiring. Discrimination can happen at many junctures along a career path. A person can be discriminated against before they even have a chance to speak. A <a href="http://www.natcen.ac.uk/media/20541/test-for-racial-discrimination.pdf">British study</a> found that CVs with ethnic minority names received significantly fewer replies from potential employers than identical CVs with typically white names.</p>
<p>Second, we only tested for the ability to ignore accent - we don’t know how widely professionals make that effort in practice (76% of employers admitted to discriminating against candidates by accent in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/careers/accent-hinder-job-prospects">one survey</a>). </p>
<p>Even if recruiters do make an effort to disregard accents during an interview, other things — how they respond to the candidate’s answers, their eye gaze, smiling, casual remarks, cultural references – can all subtly, often unconsciously, convey bias and undermine the confidence and performance of a candidate. </p>
<p>Finally, a working class or ethnic minority applicant may clear all of these hurdles and get that job, only to find that interactions in the workplace are a source of difficulty, impeding their ability to rise in seniority in the firm. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/job-recruiters-discriminate-against-muslims-and-it-doesnt-end-at-the-interview-stage-113884">Job recruiters discriminate against Muslims, and it doesn't end at the interview stage</a>
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<p>Lawyers themselves reported such issues to us. In informal feedback, one told us that he had been told at interview that he would need elocution lessons before he could be introduced to a client. Another said: </p>
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<p>I hate to admit it, but I’m sure that almost every week my assessment of people I have only just met is affected by their accent. I will assume that someone with a posh accent is better educated, more intelligent and reliable than someone with a less smart accent. I should emphasise that I don’t think it’s right to do this, it’s just one of a series of snap judgements I make about people I meet.</p>
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<p>Nevertheless, our work shows that, with awareness and training, people in positions of power can disregard their natural unconscious accent biases if they really want to. This offers hope to people from underrepresented backgrounds entering elite professions. </p>
<p>So to job seekers we say: a confident and expert reply in interview can override accent biases in a listener, so don’t feel insecure about your accent, focus on knowing your stuff. To recruiters we say: our study shows that you have the ability to disregard accent when listening for expertise and competence, the ball is in your court.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126964/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Devyani Sharma receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. </span></em></p>Examining current attitudes to accents in Britain, do the same biases hold true as they did 50 years ago and what does that mean when it comes to the interview process?Devyani Sharma, Professor of Sociolinguistics, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1275342019-11-21T20:58:03Z2019-11-21T20:58:03ZAlbanese promises a ‘productivity project’ in an economic vision statement harking back to Hawke and Keating<p>Anthony Albanese puts a “productivity project” at the centre of his economic agenda in the second of his “vision statements”, which seeks to further distance him from the Shorten era.</p>
<p>“Productivity is the key to economic growth, international competitiveness and, ultimately, rising living standards underpinned in large part by long-term, sustainable wage growth,” he says in an address to be delivered in Brisbane on Friday but released beforehand.</p>
<p>Albanese describes Australia as presently in a “productivity recession”.</p>
<p>“When Labor left office in 2013, annual productivity growth averaged 2.2%. Under the Coalition this rate has halved. In the last two quarters it has actually gone backwards.”</p>
<p>Albanese says he wants to pursue his “productivity project” in partnership with business, unions and civil society, but argues the focus should be much wider than just on industrial relations and work practices.</p>
<p>“I want to focus our productivity debate on managing the next wave of challenges.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unlocking-australias-productivity-paradox-why-things-arent-that-super-106350">Unlocking Australia's productivity paradox. Why things aren't that super</a>
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<p>These include increasing wages; population settlement and the management of cities and regions; climate change, energy and environmental sustainability; an ageing population, and entrenched intergenerational poverty.</p>
<p>“The priorities of our productivity renewal project will be to lift investment in infrastructure, lift business investment and invest in our people.”</p>
<p>He links the productivity agenda to Labor’s strong support for the superannuation guarantee’s legislated rise – which has become controversial - from its present 9.5% to 12%, saying an ALP government would partner with the private sector, including the superannuation industry, in investing in infrastructure.</p>
<p>The speech continues Albanese’s pitch to improve Labor’s relations with business. “I want to see business confidence restored and investment renewed,” he says.</p>
<p>One central theme of the speech highlights the importance of micro-economic reform. “I have long been a champion of micro-economic reform,” Albanese says.</p>
<p>“Labor’s productivity renewal project will restart the process of micro-economic reform and the forensic analysis of how economic activity is regulated and where changes have to be made”.</p>
<p>Lauding the Hawke-Keating record on micro-economic reform, Albanese says “through the sheer power of their actions, they reminded us all that there is a natural and central role for the state”.</p>
<p>“But we have now reached the limits of the Hawke-Keating reforms. And new challenges require new impetus.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-looks-to-boost-protections-for-workers-in-insecure-jobs-albanese-126025">Labor looks to boost protections for workers in insecure jobs: Albanese</a>
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<p>In the speech Albanese essentially paints himself as a fiscal conservative well removed from Bill Shorten’s approach of big spending and higher taxation.</p>
<p>He stresses the reform agenda must be complemented by sound fiscal policy.</p>
<p>“I want our economic framework to have a soft heart and a hard head,” he says. The speech is laced with references to his personal experience growing up in straitened circumstances.</p>
<p>“As the child of a single mother on the invalid pension, I appreciate the value of a dollar and the importance of managing money.</p>
<p>"And having grown up in public housing, I also know all too well the value and the big difference government assistance can make to the lives of struggling families.</p>
<p>"Prudence and mutual obligation are values I learned growing up and they are values that I will take to fiscal policy,” he says.</p>
<p>“Our fiscal priorities will be integrated with our long-term objectives to increase our productivity and, in turn, our living standards and social mobility,” he says, putting social mobility “at the heart of Labor’s mission”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127534/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In his second “vision statement” Albanese says he wants to pursue his “productivity project”, and paints himself as a fiscal conservative well removed from Bill Shorten’s tax and spend approach.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1140412019-10-21T10:31:55Z2019-10-21T10:31:55ZAre working-class students and academics avoiding top universities?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269357/original/file-20190415-147487-1siepi1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to university choices for both students and academics, it might seem like everyone wants to study and work in the institutions that top the <a href="https://theconversation.com/university-rankings-how-do-they-compare-and-what-do-they-mean-for-students-104011">league tables and the world rankings</a> – but research seems to indicate this isn’t the case.</p>
<p>As part of the background analysis for my new book <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Experiences-Academics-Working-Class-Heritage-Carole/dp/152753782X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2SKGSCMEWA4NT&keywords=carole+binns+book&qid=1566582669&s=books&sprefix=carole+binns%2Caps%2C163&sr=1-1">Experiences of Academics from a Working-Class Heritage</a>, I spoke with a number of academics from a working-class background about their experiences of working in universities. These interviewees were all employed in an institution that acquired university status several decades ago – and where both a culture of teaching and research is important. </p>
<p>But my findings suggest that despite being qualified to apply for academic posts advertised at <a href="https://theconversation.com/funneling-funds-to-elite-universities-wont-guarantee-world-ranking-success-51157">elite and Russell Group universities</a>, just under 80% of interviewees chose to stay at their current institution. And this was mainly because they didn’t want to work at “elite” universities. </p>
<p>None of the people I spoke with cited reasons such as location or domestic and personal commitments as being obstacles to working elsewhere. Instead, they mentioned how much they enjoyed working with their fellow workers, and that they felt settled in their current institution. </p>
<p>And for some, their previous negative experiences of working or studying at an elite institution had deterred them from working somewhere like that in the future.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gap-between-rich-and-poor-students-going-to-university-has-reached-record-levels-63967">The gap between rich and poor students going to university has reached record levels</a>
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<h2>The social mobility issue</h2>
<p>The fact that so many of the people I spoke with said they have chosen to work at, or to stay in, institutions that they perceive to be less elitist – and where they feel more at home – is particularly significant given that all of the interviewees identified themselves as being from a working-class heritage. </p>
<p>They were all employed either as a professors, readers, senior lecturers or lecturers. Some had junior roles, others had over 30 years experience. But all had experienced social mobility in terms of moving away from elements of their social class origins. They had been educated to doctoral level (just one interviewee didn’t possess a PhD) and they were employed in a middle-class profession – so had achieved “<a href="https://theconversation.com/social-mobility-is-in-your-genes-finds-new-study-81291">social mobility</a>”. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270402/original/file-20190423-175539-1de29q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/270402/original/file-20190423-175539-1de29q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270402/original/file-20190423-175539-1de29q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270402/original/file-20190423-175539-1de29q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270402/original/file-20190423-175539-1de29q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270402/original/file-20190423-175539-1de29q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/270402/original/file-20190423-175539-1de29q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Significant numbers of working-class children choose to avoid ‘elite’ institutions – despite having the grades needed to get in.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>The concept of <a href="https://theconversation.com/power-to-tackle-social-mobility-should-be-devolved-to-regions-103629">social mobility</a> relates to the migration of people in an upward or downward social trajectory. This can be facilitated by the accumulation of at least one of several variables, including levels of education, occupation, or financial wealth. So someone who might be the first in their family to go to university, and is later employed in a middle class profession, has socially mobilised in terms of their education and employment prospects. </p>
<p>A large proportion of the people I interviewed had published very widely, and over many years, and a few had been in the receipt of six figure <a href="https://theconversation.com/lack-of-women-professors-means-research-grants-are-skewed-towards-men-47239">research grants</a> – bringing research income into your home institution is not an easy task and is very often a reflection of one’s expertise and experience in the field. And yet rather than work at a more elite institution – and socially mobilise further by working at more prestigious universities – these qualified interviewees instead chose to stay where they were. </p>
<h2>Same pattern with students</h2>
<p>It could be easy to wonder what the issue is here. There is of course, nothing wrong with working in your comfort zone. If you are a productive achiever, then your university, colleagues and student cohorts will be beneficiaries of your success. And of course, this phenomenon is not uniquely peculiar to academics from a working-class heritage. I know of other scholars who also have no plans to move on from their current employer. </p>
<p>But on the flip side, it seems that this phenomenon is not unique to just academics. Some students, for example, are also choosing to attend universities where they feel more comfortable, rather than aiming for the those that are at the top of the league tables. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269358/original/file-20190415-147518-1fvi5uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269358/original/file-20190415-147518-1fvi5uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269358/original/file-20190415-147518-1fvi5uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269358/original/file-20190415-147518-1fvi5uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269358/original/file-20190415-147518-1fvi5uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269358/original/file-20190415-147518-1fvi5uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269358/original/file-20190415-147518-1fvi5uv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Academics from working-class backgrounds would rather stay put then work in an ‘elitist’ institution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Of course, there can be many reasons why students make the choices that they do. These include geographical location and the proximity to their parents and friends. But <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/newsarchive/least-quarter-access-gap-top-universities-due-academic-achievement-sutton-trust-research/">a report</a> published by the Sutton Trust reveals that the social class of a student might be linked to whether or not they apply and eventually study at a Russell Group university. This is regardless of academic ability and previous attainment. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/number-of-poor-students-attending-uks-leading-universities-falls-despite-millions-spent-to-encourage-a6879771.html">Higher Education Statistics Agency</a> has previously reported reductions in the numbers of students from <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-universities-lower-entry-grades-for-disadvantaged-students-97142">poorer backgrounds</a> studying at a selective university. This is particularly concerning given that the poorest school-leavers are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/dec/14/poorest-school-leavers-half-as-likely-to-attend-university-as-their-peers">already less likely</a> to attend university than their peers. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bright-poor-students-less-likely-to-get-into-elite-universities-28560">Bright, poor students less likely to get into elite universities</a>
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<h2>Not just the best</h2>
<p>It’s important that elite institutions don’t increasingly become places for the middle classes. And with this in mind, many universities are already reviewing their admissions policies to accommodate more students from different backgrounds – all of which is positive.</p>
<p>But it is also equally important that other universities are not seen to be the poorer cousins in terms of what they can offer prospective students. Because as my findings show, the best academics (in any field) are not always to be found at Russell Group and other elite universities.</p>
<p>So when it comes to university choices, rather than concentrating on admissions trends alone, students would also benefit from interrogating institutional staff lists and biographies before choosing where to study.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114041/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A co-founder of the newly formed Association of Working Class Academics</span></em></p>Like students, academics from working-class backgrounds may also prefer not to work at elite universities.Carole Binns, Lecturer in the Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences, University of BradfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1230862019-09-30T02:49:49Z2019-09-30T02:49:49ZDisability and single parenthood loom large in inherited poverty<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291455/original/file-20190909-109927-tod1tt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young Australians aged 18 to 26 are 1.8 times more likely to receive welfare if their parents ever received welfare.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australians like to think we live in a country of the fair go, where anyone with the talent and willingness to work hard can succeed.</p>
<p>But the evidence shows success is still partly inherited. Children with poor parents are more likely to grow up and be poor as adults.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-why-its-so-hard-to-say-whether-inequality-is-going-up-or-down-81618">Here's why it's so hard to say whether inequality is going up or down</a>
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<p>The latest biennial report of the <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/australias-welfare-2019-data-insights/contents/summary">Australian Institute of Health and Welfare</a> highlights the ways in which social and economic position is transmitted between generations. </p>
<p>Research points to several key factors in inherited disadvantage — notably parental disability, family structure and unemployment.</p>
<h2>Gender patterns</h2>
<p>Understanding the nature and extent of inherited disadvantaged in Australia has been aided by five significant research studies in the past five years. Four of them use data from the comprehensive Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The fifth used tax records to estimate the intergenerational mobility of people born between 1978 and 1982. </p>
<p>Among the results to come from these studies are estimates of the degree to which a 10% increase in fathers’ earnings affect their sons’ earnings. The studies offer a range of 1% to 3.5% – with a higher percentage meaning less social mobility.</p>
<p>One study highlights some interesting gender variations. It found a 10% increase in a father’s earnings associated with a 2% increase in sons’ earnings, but only a 0.8% increase in daughters’ earnings. A 10% increase in mothers’ earnings was linked to a 1.6% increase in sons’ earnings and a 1.5% increase in daughters’ earnings. This suggests girls’ earning trajectories are slightly less determined by their parents’ experience.</p>
<p>Other findings, however, point to certain types of disadvantage being most inherited by women. For example, those raised by a single parent receiving parenting payments are 2.2 times more likely to become a single-parent payment recipient themselves – and women make up <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/apr/19/its-soul-destroying-the-stress-and-stigma-of-being-a-single-parent-on-welfare">more than 80%</a> of single-parent payment recipients.</p>
<h2>Patterns of transmission</h2>
<p>The single-parenthood pattern was among those identified in research <a href="https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/11070">published in 2017</a> by myself, Sarah Dahmann, Nicolas Salamanc and Anna Zhu. The importance of family structure is underlined by the fact young adults are more likely to receive a range of welfare payments if they grow up in single-parent families.</p>
<p>The following graph shows the results of our research. </p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>Overall, we found young Australians aged 18-26 were 1.8 times more likely to receive welfare if their parents ever received welfare. That is, 58% of young people whose parents ever received welfare were also on welfare, compared with 31.8% of those whose parent were not.</p>
<p>Young people whose parents received unemployment payments while they were growing up were 1.6 times more likely to receive unemployment payments before age 22, and 1.3 times after age 22.</p>
<h2>Intergenerational disability</h2>
<p>But the strongest relationship in intergenerational disadvantage involves parental disability. </p>
<p>Our results showed young people whose parents received disability support payments were 2.8 times more likely to receive disability support payments. </p>
<p>Young people whose parents received the Disability Support Pension for mental health reasons were almost three times as likely to be receiving the mental health-related disability benefits as other young people. They were also more likely to need other social assistance payments</p>
<p>The intergenerational relationship between youth unemployment and parental disability, for example, and was just as strong as that with parental unemployment.</p>
<p>These findings do not imply that poor children would have been better off had their parents not received social assistance — only that poor children are more likely to need assistance than non-poor children.</p>
<h2>Stretching the rungs</h2>
<p>Social mobility is higher in Australia than many other developed countries (most notably the United States). But it remains lower than the Scandinavian countries, and is threatened by any increase in inequality.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-bureau-of-statistics-didnt-highlight-our-continuing-upward-redistribution-of-wealth-121731">What the Bureau of Statistics didn't highlight: our continuing upward redistribution of wealth</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p>A growing gap between richest and poorest grows pulls the the rungs of the socioeconomic ladder further apart, making it harder for disadvantaged Australian children to avoid becoming disadvantaged adults.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deborah Ann Cobb-Clark receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Parental disability, family structure and unemployment are key factors in transmitting disadvantage between generations.Deborah Ann Cobb-Clark, Professor of Economics, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1241112019-09-26T11:12:44Z2019-09-26T11:12:44ZAbolishing private schools is admirable, but won’t make choosing a state one any easier for parents<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294346/original/file-20190926-51434-jdmdua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=90%2C0%2C3935%2C2685&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/etonian-schoolboys-english-independent-boarding-school-1174007794?src=gsQnkNVbQ4elEAK3BQOSTA-1-0">Shutterstock/Bell Photography 423</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Labour has voted on plans to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-49798861">abolish private schools</a> by removing their charitable status and redistributing their wealth to the state sector.
At the <a href="https://theconversation.com/labour-party-conference-what-to-expect-as-party-debates-its-brexit-position-and-election-plan-123933">party’s conference</a> delegates approved a motion for this to be included in the party’s next general election manifesto.</p>
<p>The idea behind the move is that it will ensure every child gets the best education and start in life – helping to end inequality in the British school system. A system where the prospect of doing well is still significantly <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-britains-private-schools-are-such-a-social-problem-111369">shaped by a student’s socioeconomic background</a>. But the motion has not been taken well by private schools, which have <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/23/private-schools-threaten-sue-labour-plans-abolish/">threatened to sue Labour</a> over plans to abolish them.</p>
<h2>The problem with private schools</h2>
<p>Private schooling has inequality as a founding premise – with entry almost entirely dependent on the ability of parents to pay. Private schools perpetuate inequalities and maintain privilege. This can be seen in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/private-school-and-an-oxbridge-degree-remain-the-currency-of-british-politics-37189">over-representation of privately educated people</a> in better universities, and in key professional careers that shape society – such as journalism, law, politics and finance. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pN36jVSp1x0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>This dominance is achieved not only through the educational outcomes produced by the schools in terms of qualifications but also through what sociologists regard as the <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/newsarchive/creating-cultural-capital/">social and cultural capital</a> that can be gained in private schools. In this way, attending a private school gives students a ready-made network of similarly advantaged friends to help them in the future. </p>
<p>And pupils will also have learned ways of “being” and interacting, which can help ease the way through interviews for university, professional training and jobs. The <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/every-woman-should-part-old-girls-network/">“old boys” or “old girls” networks</a> thrive on a sense of entitlement, belonging and common cultural references.</p>
<h2>A question of choice</h2>
<p>In the meantime, the state schooling system has also become permeated by choice – a concept that was formalised by Margaret Thatcher in the <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/timeline.html">1980 Education Act</a> – and has remained key in education ever since. </p>
<p>The logic of the market and choice has led to a rapid increase of different types of state schools – including grammar schools, religious schools, academies and free schools. Meaning that parents – and occasionally young people – are increasingly seen as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0965975940020102">consumers of educational options</a>. </p>
<p>So rather than ideas of social welfare, there is a “parentocracy” made up of individual consumers. This is at odds with an education system <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230224018">that aims to reduce inequality</a> and provide good outcomes for children regardless of their family background. </p>
<h2>Impact on parents</h2>
<p>This concept of “choice” has led to secondary schools becoming larger and fewer in number – with government policy producing not more schools but an increase in different types of schools. And for parents, this had made choices at once more limited, but also more complicated. </p>
<p>Navigating the complex terrain of different kinds of schools with different entry policies has become a key part of being a “good” and “effective” parent. <a href="https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/11/why-are-the-middle-classes-so-obsessed-with-schools/">Media coverage</a>, and much <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30036294?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">academic literature</a>, might suggest that concern about this is a particularly <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2304/eerj.2008.7.2.176">middle-class anxiety</a>. But in an <a href="https://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719091155/">in-depth study</a> conducted in three areas of Manchester with different social-economic and ethnic profiles, I found that many parents are deeply ambivalent about the process of choosing schools. </p>
<p>Indeed, I found that at all parts of the economic spectrum parents are concerned and sometimes deeply anxious about making the right choices for their children. The study found that for parents, emphasis on choice can produce feelings of inadequacy. Both in terms of feeling there aren’t enough acceptable choices available, and in feeling that if there is only one school to (in practice) choose from, something is wrong – as no choice is being made. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294348/original/file-20190926-51401-8cep98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/294348/original/file-20190926-51401-8cep98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294348/original/file-20190926-51401-8cep98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294348/original/file-20190926-51401-8cep98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294348/original/file-20190926-51401-8cep98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294348/original/file-20190926-51401-8cep98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/294348/original/file-20190926-51401-8cep98.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The world-famous Eton College.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/windsor-england-26-may-2017-architecture-1006187545?src=gsQnkNVbQ4elEAK3BQOSTA-1-2">Shutterstock/Kurt Pacaud</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>For most of the people I spoke to, the option of attending a private school was a financial impossibility. And for many it was something they were also politically or morally opposed to. Many of the parents in my study assumed that a private education would be a better education. But many also felt their children would suffer in an alien social and cultural environment – where they would be made to feel economically disadvantaged. </p>
<p>I suspect then that many of the parents in my study would welcome the Labour Party proposal to abolish or withdraw state support for private schools – and would feel that it makes the education system more just. </p>
<p>That said, others might feel that it goes against the idea of choice – which has become so deeply embedded in the education system. That is to say even though such a choice is not available to most parents, the idea that – on an aspirational level at least – it is still an option may still be an important factor for some parents and pupils. So it may well be that Labour would have their work cut out to convince all parents that abolishing private schools really is a step in the right direction.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124111/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bridget Byrne receives funding from the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council). </span></em></p>Over the past few decades secondary schools have become larger and fewer in number. For parents, this had made choices at once more limited, but also more complicated.Bridget Byrne, Professor of Sociology, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1232972019-09-23T13:51:30Z2019-09-23T13:51:30ZRise and fall in the Third Reich: Nazi party members and social advancement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293358/original/file-20190920-50931-1t8w1by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>When people look to the past to try and make sense of the economic and political upheaval of the years since the 2008 financial crisis, they are regularly drawn to the events in the two decades running up to World War II. On the surface, the parallels are striking. The aftermath of a global economic crisis – the Great Depression – witnessed the rise of extreme political groups and a rejection of the previous liberal economic order in favour of nationalist and authoritarian policies. </p>
<p>We know the consequences of the economic and political events of the 1930s. The full consequences of current events are obviously still unknown.</p>
<p>Of course, history is not destiny and we should always be cautious about going too far in drawing comparisons with the past. The past is, as <a href="http://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/the-past-is-a-foreign-country/">L.P. Hartley put it</a>, a foreign country. But can we learn anything from the extremism of the 1930s? More specifically, can we understand how extremist groups emerged and developed and what kind of people became members?</p>
<p>Understanding what motivated millions of ordinary Germans to support the Nazi party (NSDAP) has been the goal of historians and political scientists for decades. Studies that highlight their popularity among certain social classes are probably the most venerable and persistent. And the sociologist Seymour Lipset was among the first to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/587800">describe the typical Nazi voter</a> in 1932 as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A middle-class self-employed Protestant who lived either on a farm or in a small community, and who had previously voted for a centrist or regionalist political party strongly opposed to the power and influence of big business and big labour.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Others, such as <a href="https://soca.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/adjunct-faculty/william-i-brustein">American historian William Brustein</a>, have tried to rationalise support for the Nazi party by highlighting <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Logic_of_Evil.html?id=n6I_FFX0YFsC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">economic self-interest</a>. Individuals whose material interests were aligned with the party’s platform would be more likely to become members. </p>
<p>But other studies argue that the Nazis drew support from the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1950834?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents">marginalised in society</a> or had a <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=WNFFAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&ots=77kNsOra-K&dq=Nazis%20gregor%20falter&lr&pg=PA92#v=onepage&q&f=false">mass appeal across the political spectrum</a>. Perhaps the only group for which there is a near consensus regarding support for the Nazis is Catholics: consistently, Catholics appear to have been <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajps.12328">less likely to vote for the NSDAP</a> or to become members of the party. So, who exactly were the Nazis?</p>
<h2>Climbing the ladder</h2>
<p>In our research we revisited this old question with new and more detailed data. We examined a unique dataset of about 10,000 World War II <a href="https://dbk.gesis.org/dbksearch/sdesc2.asp?no=8410&db=e&doi=10.4232/1.8410">German soldiers from the 1930s and 1940s</a>, which contains detailed information on social background such as occupation and education, as well as other characteristics such as religion, criminal record and military service.</p>
<p>We looked at membership of different Nazi organisations among these individuals, not just the political party, the NSDAP, but also the paramilitary SA (<em>Sturmabteilung</em>) and SS (<em>Schutzstaffel</em>) as well as the Hitler Youth.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Members of the SS marching in formation on Nazi Party Day, Nuremberg. Germany, September 1937.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Everett Historical via Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>We found that members of Nazi organisations – whether they were early joiners who signed up in the 1920s or those who joined the party in the 1940s – were more likely to come from high-status backgrounds and had higher levels of education, with people from a higher-status background almost twice as likely to join the Nazi party as someone from a lower-status background. We also confirmed that Catholics were less likely to be members of all Nazi organisations.</p>
<p>Such detailed data allowed us to dig deeper into the backgrounds of Nazi members. As we knew the social background of a person’s father from the records we were able to look at how far up the social ladder Nazi members climbed relative to those that did not join.</p>
<p>As expected, Nazi members appeared to have advanced further than non-members, for example moving up from occupations categorised as “skilled”, such as a tailor to a semi-professional job, such as teacher. What is most surprising, however, is that this advancement does not appear to have been driven by the party rewarding its members with higher-status positions. </p>
<p>By looking at the roles that these individuals were trained for early on in their careers, and not just their stated occupations, we find that social climbing was driven by early movements up the social ladder – Nazi organisations seem to have attracted upwardly mobile individuals.</p>
<p>Indeed this seems to have been the case not just for the Nazi party itself, but also the SS, SA and Hitler Youth. These were people who were already making their way in life. Although we cannot say from the data whether members benefited in other ways, such as through direct financial rewards or non-monetary benefits, the greater social advancement of Nazi members that we do observe does not appear to have been driven directly by membership.</p>
<p>What does this all mean for our understanding of the type of people that joined Nazi organisations? While it is impossible to uncover exactly what motivated people to join the Nazis, our findings suggest that many educated and ambitious people from the higher end of the social scale were attracted to the movement. </p>
<p>The study not only helps us to understand how the Nazi party emerged and came to power in the years before WWII but also gives us an insight into how extremist organisations can form and attract members more generally. It reminds us that we need to think beyond pure ideology when it comes to motivations for joining extremist groups and look at economic and social factors too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123297/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Research for this article was conducted with Matthias Blum from the German Medical Association. The paper this article is based on has recently been accepted for publication at the European Economic Review. </span></em></p>An in-depth study has shown that far from recruiting from the lower middle classes, the Nazi party attracted many people from high-status backgrounds.Alan de Bromhead, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1183882019-08-26T13:40:14Z2019-08-26T13:40:14ZThese college rankings focus on schools that help students get ahead<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/289129/original/file-20190822-170910-13k85vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=403%2C986%2C5122%2C2316&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some college rankings focus on how students fare after graduation.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/education-graduation-people-concept-group-happy-759772861">Syda Productions/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=171&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=171&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=171&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287050/original/file-20190806-84240-i26yzq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=215&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>The Abstract features interesting research and the people behind it.</em></p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Robert Kelchen, a scholar of higher education, oversees the college rankings at Washington Monthly. The magazine’s rankings are meant to provide an alternative to the more popular college rankings put out each year by U.S. News & World Report.</strong></p>
<p><em>When was the first time you encountered the U.S. News college rankings?</em></p>
<p><strong>Robert Kelchen:</strong> I was a graduate student in the late 2000s and started to pay closer attention to how higher education worked. I became fascinated with how colleges would send out celebratory press releases whenever they rose in the U.S. News rankings and then either ignore or criticize the rankings in the following year.</p>
<p><em>Why did you decide to study these rankings?</em></p>
<p><strong>Kelchen:</strong> As a graduate student thinking about dissertation topics, I was interested in learning about how college rankings developed. The U.S. News rankings were (and still are) the <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Ever-Growing-World-of/190437">best-known</a> set of rankings out there, but I was frustrated by how colleges could move up in the U.S. News rankings simply by <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings">spending more money</a>. This led me to write a chapter <a href="https://search.proquest.com/docview/1413311777">of my dissertation</a> about what college rankings would look like if they took both graduation rates and the cost of providing the education into account. The editorial team at Washington Monthly heard about my research in 2012, and invited me to take over the role of putting together the rankings. I have been responsible for the rankings ever since.</p>
<p><em>3. What distinguishes your college rankings from the U.S. News college rankings?</em></p>
<p><strong>Kelchen:</strong> The U.S. News rankings <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings">place a lot of weight</a> on selectivity, prestige and how much money colleges have. The Washington Monthly rankings give equal weight to a college’s performance on measures of what is known as social mobility, research and national and community service among students.</p>
<p><em>4. How you determine if a college is fostering upward mobility?</em></p>
<p><strong>Kelchen:</strong> Social mobility, or helping students move up the social and economic ladders, is one of the key goals of American higher education. There are enormous gaps in college graduation rates by both <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/10/25/a-look-at-pell-grant-recipients-graduation-rates/">family income and race/ethnicity</a>. These gaps are important to close because students who earn a college degree <a href="https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/publication/99078/evaluating_the_return_on_investment_in_higher_education.pdf">tend to do much better in life</a> than those who do not.</p>
<p>We look at a college’s contribution to social mobility in a number of ways. We look at whether an institution does a good job both enrolling and graduating students from lower-income families or who are the first in their family to go to college. We look at whether students are able to repay their loans, and also how affordable a college is for an individual student after all grants and scholarships are provided.</p>
<p><em>5. What other outputs do your rankings measure?</em></p>
<p><strong>Kelchen:</strong> We also consider how well colleges perform on research and service. Our primary research measures are the number of students who go on to earn Ph.D.s and the amount of research spending on campus, with research-focused universities also being ranked based on the share of award-winning faculty and the number of Ph.D.s they award. For service, we look at the share of students involved in the Peace Corps and the ROTC branches, and whether colleges use federal work-study funds to support community service.</p>
<p><em>6. Do you ever think the college rankings you oversee will become more popular than the U.S. News college rankings?</em></p>
<p><strong>Kelchen:</strong> It’s a harder sell to get status-conscious families to look at colleges that aren’t considered elite but actually do a better job of educating the students they have. If U.S. News evolved to a point where the Washington Monthly rankings were unnecessary, I would be a happy camper. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Until then, we will keep putting out the rankings every year, with the 2019 rankings being released on the <a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/">Washington Monthly website</a> on Aug. 26.</p>
<p><strong>The Washington Monthly College Rankings is supported by funding from the Lumina Foundation, which is also a funder of The Conversation.</strong></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118388/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Kelchen is the data editor for Washington Monthly magazine's annual college rankings.</span></em></p>A higher education scholar explains how he came to oversee a set of college rankings meant to take a different tact than the more popular rankings from US News & World Report.Robert Kelchen, Associate Professor of Higher Education, Seton Hall UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1218052019-08-14T13:13:34Z2019-08-14T13:13:34ZGet rid of private schools? We’d be better tackling inequalities between state schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287917/original/file-20190813-9431-43rsis.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/windsor-england-26-may-2017-architecture-1006187545">Kurt Pacaud/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is the 20th Etonian to become prime minister of the UK. Most of his cabinet is composed of privileged, privately educated people, with <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/research-paper/sutton-trust-cabinet-analysis-2019/">two-thirds</a> of his ministers among the 7% of the population who went to fee-paying schools. </p>
<p>With <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jun/25/britains-top-jobs-still-in-hands-of-private-school-elite-study-finds">more than half</a> of Britain’s senior judges, top civil servants and diplomats also privately educated – not to mention substantial numbers in the media, arts and sport – the UK continues to be a country run and dominated by a privately educated minority.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287923/original/file-20190813-9429-1dycwk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287923/original/file-20190813-9429-1dycwk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=678&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287923/original/file-20190813-9429-1dycwk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=678&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287923/original/file-20190813-9429-1dycwk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=678&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287923/original/file-20190813-9429-1dycwk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287923/original/file-20190813-9429-1dycwk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287923/original/file-20190813-9429-1dycwk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=852&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Old Etonian Boris Johnson.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-24th-july-2019-boris-1460208074">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>In the same month, Labour pressure group <a href="https://twitter.com/abolisheton?lang=en">Labour Against Private Schools</a> announced its intention to include <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jul/09/abolish-eton-labour-groups-aim-to-strip-elite-private-schools-of-privileges">abolishing private education</a> in the party’s next election manifesto. The #AbolishEton motion is calling for an election pledge to “integrate all private schools into the state sector”, and the withdrawal of charitable status. For many, private schools have long been regarded as sites of inherited privilege which stifle social mobility.</p>
<h2>Rich man, poor man</h2>
<p>Despite being presented as symbolic of the sector, Eton is not your typical private school. It is just one of 2,500 fee-paying schools across the UK and its enrolment of 1,200 pupils represents <a href="https://www.isc.co.uk/research/">less than 0.2%</a> of the 650,000 children in fee-paying schools. Best known for educating many public figures, such as George Orwell, Ian Fleming and Princes William and Harry, a year’s boarding at Eton costs around <a href="https://www.etoncollege.com/currentfees.aspx">£40,000</a>, while the average annual fee for private schools in northwest England (the lowest regional average) is under <a href="https://www.isc.co.uk/media/5479/isc_census_2019_report.pdf">£11,000</a>.</p>
<p>Arguably, most fee-paying schools are not dissimilar to the best-performing state schools, having little connection to the privilege and prestige of places like Eton. The gap between elite boarding and private day schools is perhaps larger than that between the private and state sectors.</p>
<p>There are also wide variations between state schools, linked to the socio-economic circumstances of their catchment areas. In <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/9/169">Scotland</a>, more than a fifth of state schools have fewer than 30% of pupils attaining at least three Highers, while the top 15% have more than 70% of their pupils achieving at that level.</p>
<p>Inequalities also exist for students when applying for university – often regarded as a means of increasing social mobility. At the top fifth of state schools (measured by exam grades) 73% of pupils applying to university apply to the leading institutions; among the bottom fifth, it’s 34%. This <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/research-paper/access-to-advantage-university-admissions/">compares</a> with around 88% for those from private schools.</p>
<p>Many of the leading state schools act closer to private schools than disadvantaged state schools. Schools in the most advantaged areas are <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/research-paper/appg-social-mobility-closing-the-regional-attainment-gap/">more likely</a> to have teachers with degrees in their subject area with students who <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/research-paper/making-a-statement-university-admissions/">produce better personal statements</a>, which is a key part of the university application process. </p>
<p>Characteristics and practices of state schools can partly explain these variations. Our <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/7/9/169">research</a> into the role of guidance teachers showed that schools in wealthy areas had many professional and graduate parents whom they could draw on for support and saw their roles as easing pupils into university while cultivating a CV that appealed to admissions offices. These are similar to the characteristics <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/9294.html">seen in private schools</a>.</p>
<p>By contrast, in the least wealthy areas, guidance teachers often described their role as increasing the aspirations of talented pupils. There was often little experience of university among parents and pupils had few role models in the local community promoting the benefits of higher education. Schools in disadvantaged areas, therefore, focused on trying to sell university to pupils, not the other way around.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288018/original/file-20190814-136213-80pc2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288018/original/file-20190814-136213-80pc2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288018/original/file-20190814-136213-80pc2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288018/original/file-20190814-136213-80pc2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288018/original/file-20190814-136213-80pc2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288018/original/file-20190814-136213-80pc2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288018/original/file-20190814-136213-80pc2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bringing private school pupils into the state system could see existing state pupils moving to less advantaged schools.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teacher-helping-female-pupil-line-high-1195675996">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Integrating private schools</h2>
<p>But the proposal for Labour to integrate independent schools into the state system risks increasing, not decreasing, the inequalities that exist in the educational system. Most privately educated children will live within the catchment areas of the most affluent schools, thus adding well-resourced parents, in terms of both knowledge and finances, to the already advantaged schools. Those schools would benefit and some existing pupils would be displaced, perhaps towards less advantaged schools.</p>
<p>Most of the pupils who get high grades and university places through private schools would achieve similarly through the top-end schools of the state system. The privately educated who would lose out would probably be those living in the poorest areas.</p>
<p>Abolishing private schools would not remove privilege. We would continue to see prime ministers appointed who otherwise would have gone to schools like Eton. It is not attending the school itself, but what underpins admission, where the real privilege exists. Those families would continue to network and cultivate the lifestyles and experiences that foster entitlement. “Entitlement coaches” would become a new parenting industry, replacing the unspoken benefits that elite boarding schools confer on their pupils who exist in a bubble of wealth and privilege.</p>
<p>Already there are <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/5320613/Private-school-grief-how-the-credit-crunch-is-closing-down-schools.html">many private schools closing</a>. A policy focus is needed to ensure that when these fee-paying schools return to the state sector the existing inequalities are not increased.</p>
<p>Some state schools are already seeking measures to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jul/23/state-schools-choosing-expensive-uniforms-to-exclude-poor-pupils-says-mp">exclude pupils</a> from poorer homes and recruit pupils from wealthy backgrounds. Ensuring that re-categorising schools does not create unintended inequalities is crucial.</p>
<p>Finding strategies for limiting the inequality between state schools should be a central policy focus. Integrating private schools into the state system is an ideological issue which offers few substantive or pragmatic benefits for helping socially disadvantaged young people thrive. And it fails to tackle the problem of inherited privilege.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121805/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Integrating private schools into the state system will offer little benefit to socially disadvantaged pupils. Addressing the inequalities between state schools should be the focus.Dave Griffiths, Senior Lecturer Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology, University of StirlingJennifer M Ferguson, Doctoral Researcher, Sociology, Social Policy & Criminology, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1186452019-06-18T08:48:18Z2019-06-18T08:48:18ZSocial justice won’t work without social mobility – and Labour knows it<p>Jeremy Corbyn has signalled that a new Labour government under his premiership would <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/08/jeremy-corbyn-to-drop-social-mobility-as-labour-goal">drop social mobility</a> as a policy goal and replace it with a focus on social justice. Labour said it would replace the current Social Mobility Commission with a Social Justice Commission, claiming the move would be a break from 40 years of political consensus around social mobility. </p>
<p>But Corbyn’s <a href="https://labour.org.uk/press/labour-put-social-justice-heart-everything-labour-government-will-new-social-justice-commission/">speech at an education policy event</a> in Birmingham in early June was part sense and part nonsense.</p>
<p>He argued that social mobility was the idea that “only a few talented or lucky people deserve to escape the disadvantage they were born into” and it had resulted in “the talents of millions of children being squandered.”</p>
<p>Yet pursuit of social mobility in policy and research has never just been about the opportunities of a few bright poor kids. Such an argument is like arguing that gender equality is merely about getting more women on the boards of FTSE 100 companies, or that racial equality is only about more black police officers. It is not merely an oversimplification but a gross misrepresentation. It is nonsense.</p>
<p>At no time in the past 40 years has the pursuit of social mobility just been about poor high achievers. New Labour’s efforts to improve opportunities for deprived children revolved around reducing child poverty, Sure Start children’s centres, expanded pre-school childcare, the <a href="https://www.ifs.org.uk/economic_review/fp193.pdf">New Deal for Young People</a> and its later incarnation the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/12771694/future-jobs-fund-decision-abandons-young-people">Future Jobs Fund</a>. </p>
<p>From 2010, the Conversation-Liberal Democrat coalition set targets for social mobility that were primarily about the educational achievement of all children on free school meals. Its main policy initiative was the <a href="https://theconversation.com/fact-check-is-the-pupil-premium-narrowing-the-attainment-gap-39601">pupil premium</a> – extra school funding aimed at improving the life chances for all deprived children. </p>
<p>The Social Mobility Commission – on which I used to sit <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-resigned-from-the-social-mobility-commission-because-of-the-british-governments-dismal-record-88813">until I resigned in 2017</a> – did highlight the fact that our top professions – including politics – are dominated by privately educated people and Oxbridge graduates. Alongside this though was a continuous drive to focus on the opportunities of the other half of the population that don’t go to university. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279127/original/file-20190612-32373-1fzhogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279127/original/file-20190612-32373-1fzhogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279127/original/file-20190612-32373-1fzhogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279127/original/file-20190612-32373-1fzhogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279127/original/file-20190612-32373-1fzhogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279127/original/file-20190612-32373-1fzhogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/279127/original/file-20190612-32373-1fzhogq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Social mobility isn’t only about high achievers from low-income backgrounds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The only exception to a broad policy focus on the opportunities facing all deprived children was Theresa May’s proposal to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/britain-the-great-meritocracy-prime-ministers-speech">introduce more grammar schools</a>. Grammar schools do take a few bright poor kids and propel them into top universities – but it is too few and the education open to the vast majority of deprived children is poor. The prime minister’s proposal was almost universally condemned, and prominently so <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/sep/07/grammar-schools-expansion-disaster-social-mobility-tsar-alan-milburn">by Alan Milburn</a> the then-chair of the Social Mobility Commission. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hard-evidence-do-grammar-schools-boost-social-mobility-28121">Hard Evidence: do grammar schools boost social mobility?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Corbyn does understand the breadth of what social mobility is about. In his speech he said Labour’s proposed Social Justice Commission would “measure our government’s improvements in social mobility for the entire population, not just the few”. So he knows social mobility is about the differences in life chances for all those born into deprivation versus affluence – but to emphasise his new proposal he turns a blind eye to the academic research and policy of successive governments.</p>
<p>The sense is in Corbyn’s proposal to expand the range of the Social Mobility Commission into a Social Justice Commission. Today’s Social Mobility Commission started out as a Child Poverty Commission under the Child Poverty Act of 2010. The coalition government changed its remit to the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission before the Conservative government <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/dec/20/fears-after-government-abolishes-civil-services-child-poverty-unit">ended</a> any official government recognition of child poverty in 2016. </p>
<h2>Inequalities of opportunity</h2>
<p>Corbyn is entirely right to say that inequality of opportunity cannot be addressed in isolation from the wider entrenched inequalities in British society. Countries with high income inequality, such as the US and the UK, also have <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/infographics/the-great-gatsby-curve-explained.html">lower social mobility</a>. The lower inequality in Scandinavian countries – which has actually <a href="https://www.norden.org/en/news/increasing-income-inequality-nordics">been rising lately</a> – is also associated with more mobility. Still, Canada and Australia have similar inequality to the UK, but greater social mobility. </p>
<p>Inequality of opportunity can be seen across genders, races and social background. Men and women have similar educational achievements, but women have <a href="https://data.oecd.org/earnwage/gender-wage-gap.htm">17% lower hourly pay</a> – and among those working full-time it is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/04/gender-pay-gap-figures-show-eight-in-10-uk-firms-pay-men-more-than-women">a little under 10% </a>. Those from ethnic minorities <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2018/dec/27/uk-black-and-ethnic-minorities-lose-32bn-a-year-in-pay-gap">earn between 10 and 17% less</a> than white counterparts with the same education. </p>
<p>Likewise, children born into more deprived families earn 20% (women) to 40% (men) less than those from affluent families with the same education level. For male graduates who did the same course, at the same university, at the same time and got the same degree result, those from the richest third of families <a href="https://academic.oup.com/oxrep/article/32/4/553/2236521">earn 20% more</a> than those from the poorest third. </p>
<p>These are all dimensions of inequality of opportunity and show very similar stories. Along with poverty and social exclusion they make up social justice. Addressing these collectively makes sense. Social mobility is one dimension of social justice and is not one that should have the pre-eminence that it currently does. Equally, you can’t have social justice in a society without social mobility.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118645/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Gregg receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. He is a former commissioner on the Social Mobility Commission. </span></em></p>A former member of the Social Mobility Commission on Jeremy Corbyn’s plan to drop social mobility as a policy goal in favour of social justice.Paul Gregg, Professor of Economic and Social Policy, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.