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A review by shellbybranch
Miseducation: Inequality, Education and the Working Classes by Diane Reay
informative
medium-paced
4.0
The author is a Cambridge professor who grew up working class. She intertwines her personal experience with her research throughout the book, making compelling statements about the current state of education inequality. The rest of this review are my thoughts and quotes that I may want to reference in the future.
Chapter 1: education alone cannot make up for the economic system and all of the issues within the system. "...some of the working class still make enormous efforts to succeed educationally in an education system that holds little prospect of a positive academic outcome" (p. 15). The middle class interactions with schooling is characterized by their "degree of confidence and sense of entitlement" (p. 16). "Education cannot compensate for society because our educational system was never set up to do that, any more than it was established to realise working-class educational potential" (p. 26).
Chapter 2: TS Eliot's Definition of Culture (1948) that the function of schooling is "to preserve the class and select the elite." "The schooling of the working classes was always to be subordinate and inferior to that of the upper and middle classes..." (p. 31). "We have never had a fair education system. But now, in the 21st century, we are seeing the dissolution of a comprehensive system that was never fully comprehensive even at the onset, and its replacement by new elements that combine selection, elitism, and patronage under the guise of providing diversity and choice....there is only so much that educational institutions can do to improve social class inequalities, given the economic and social context in which they operate" (p. 43).
Chapter 4: "These young people were heavily invested in notions of the autonomous, self-reliant individual responsible for any future outcomes; we glimpse the ways in which symbolic domination works by making the individual responsible for their own success or failure, rather than recognizing that some things are just not possible if you have virtually none of the necessary resources" (p. 96). In what ways is social mobility abusive? Why do we hold on to our social class identities? "Almost by definition, working-class aspirations is pretentious, a hankering after 'the other' rather than an acceptance of the self. The powerful yearning that drives social mobility is never fulfilled; rather, it produces an individual caught between two worlds" (p. 108). "And there is shame in both belong and escape - shame in escape because it is about betrayal and desertion, but also shame in belonging because...a sense of belonging to the working class carries connotation of being less" (p. 115). Is social mobility linear? The elites make us believe that the path to social mobility must happen through the university, while simultaneously preventing access to higher education.
Chapter 6: What identities exist within social class and how does social class shape it?
Conclusion: what does the working class lose through social mobility?
Chapter 1: education alone cannot make up for the economic system and all of the issues within the system. "...some of the working class still make enormous efforts to succeed educationally in an education system that holds little prospect of a positive academic outcome" (p. 15). The middle class interactions with schooling is characterized by their "degree of confidence and sense of entitlement" (p. 16). "Education cannot compensate for society because our educational system was never set up to do that, any more than it was established to realise working-class educational potential" (p. 26).
Chapter 2: TS Eliot's Definition of Culture (1948) that the function of schooling is "to preserve the class and select the elite." "The schooling of the working classes was always to be subordinate and inferior to that of the upper and middle classes..." (p. 31). "We have never had a fair education system. But now, in the 21st century, we are seeing the dissolution of a comprehensive system that was never fully comprehensive even at the onset, and its replacement by new elements that combine selection, elitism, and patronage under the guise of providing diversity and choice....there is only so much that educational institutions can do to improve social class inequalities, given the economic and social context in which they operate" (p. 43).
Chapter 4: "These young people were heavily invested in notions of the autonomous, self-reliant individual responsible for any future outcomes; we glimpse the ways in which symbolic domination works by making the individual responsible for their own success or failure, rather than recognizing that some things are just not possible if you have virtually none of the necessary resources" (p. 96). In what ways is social mobility abusive? Why do we hold on to our social class identities? "Almost by definition, working-class aspirations is pretentious, a hankering after 'the other' rather than an acceptance of the self. The powerful yearning that drives social mobility is never fulfilled; rather, it produces an individual caught between two worlds" (p. 108). "And there is shame in both belong and escape - shame in escape because it is about betrayal and desertion, but also shame in belonging because...a sense of belonging to the working class carries connotation of being less" (p. 115). Is social mobility linear? The elites make us believe that the path to social mobility must happen through the university, while simultaneously preventing access to higher education.
Chapter 6: What identities exist within social class and how does social class shape it?
Conclusion: what does the working class lose through social mobility?