The More Things Change. : Educational Research, Social Class and 'Interlocking' Inequalities

Professor Ball addresses a set of issues involved in how social class gets done in various sites; how it gets done in the day-to-day processes of social reproduction within families, how it gets done in the influences on and becomes embedded in discourses of public policy, and how it gets done in the routine practices of social institutions.

He looks at how different social classes maintain boundaries, defend trajectories and resources and ensure social advantages. He is interested in the pro-active tactics of certain families–as a way of understanding success rather than failure, and the making-up within families of the successful educational subject.

The lecture begins with a very brief foray into history and biography and looks at the beginnings of the sociology of education and highlights some continuities and differences between early and recent sociology of education. In doing so, the author talks about the significant role of the Institute of Education in the history of the sociology of education, and says something about his role in this history.

Ball then moves on to outline a particular set of interlocking inequalities, which form a complex interlocking between educational policy, institutional orderings, and family actions. He suggests that, at this point in time, educational policy and institutional orderings are particularly potently classed and that in a number of respects they reflect and enhance the social and economic interests and concerns of the middle classes.

He concludes his lecture by illustrating some of the values, actions and strategies of middle-class families in and towards the education system.

Stephen Ball is Professor at the London Institute of Education.