Levelling the playing field and promoting social mobility through education

Research Review

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Britain today is a divided nation. We see those divisions taking many forms: family income, social class, race, gender and across our regions. For too many young people - especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds - educational inequalities are barriers to social mobility which mediate against their achieving their full potential. Recent government reports (DfE, 2017) and research findings (EPI, 2017; Jerrim et al., 2018; SMC, 2017) show that despite some progress, the educational attainment gap between children from wealthy families and their more socially-disadvantaged peers remains stubbornly wide. For this article, I will draw on Francis and Wong’s (2013) definition of social mobility. These writers define social mobility as movability based on individual merit and ability where anyone can go up the social ladder according to their achievements. For me, this expresses exactly the power that social mobility has to enrich lives for some young people, and how limiting it can

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This article was published in April 2019 and reflects the terminology and understanding of research and evidence in use at the time. Some terms and conclusions may no longer align with current standards. We encourage readers to approach the content with an understanding of this context.

References

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Levelling the playing field and promoting social mobility through education

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