Class inequality and denied ambition in our schools
03/20/24 • 54 min
Jessie Abrahams' new book reveals the extent of class inequality in schools in the UK.
By telling Jessie's story and that of one of the young people in her research, this episode untangles the role aspiration plays for young people in school and the significance of the different choices that are available to different pupils in different schools.
Jessie puts forward ideas for changes that we can make, despite the limitations of what is a fundamentally unequal system.
Jessie Abrahams is Lecturer in Education and Social Justice in the School of Education at the University of Bristol. Follow her on Twitter: @AbrahamsJJ.
The full transcript of the podcast is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2024/03/20/podcast-class-inequality-and-denied-ambition-in-our-schools/
Resources:
Find out more about the book: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/schooling-inequality
Read Jake's story for free: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/asset/12446/jacks-story-schooling-inequality-abrahams.pdf
Learn more about the Paired Peers project: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/projects/paired-peers
Explore the Russel Group’s Informed Choices: https://www.informedchoices.ac.uk/
Discover the facilitating subjects: https://successatschool.org/advice/subjects/what-are-facilitating-subjects/204
Timestamps:
01:58 – Jessie’s story and how she came to write the book
05:37 – It’s about resources given to schools, not individual teachers
08:24 – Jake’s story
22:04 – Aspiration and the surprising difference between working and middle-class children
30:39 – Blocking and the GSCE/A Level options available at different schools
40:19 – The missed chance to level the playing field during COVID
45:12 – Where can change be made?
Intro music:
Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax
Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
Follow the Transforming Society blog to be told when new articles and podcasts publish: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/follow-the-blog/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jessie Abrahams' new book reveals the extent of class inequality in schools in the UK.
By telling Jessie's story and that of one of the young people in her research, this episode untangles the role aspiration plays for young people in school and the significance of the different choices that are available to different pupils in different schools.
Jessie puts forward ideas for changes that we can make, despite the limitations of what is a fundamentally unequal system.
Jessie Abrahams is Lecturer in Education and Social Justice in the School of Education at the University of Bristol. Follow her on Twitter: @AbrahamsJJ.
The full transcript of the podcast is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2024/03/20/podcast-class-inequality-and-denied-ambition-in-our-schools/
Resources:
Find out more about the book: https://policy.bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/schooling-inequality
Read Jake's story for free: https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/asset/12446/jacks-story-schooling-inequality-abrahams.pdf
Learn more about the Paired Peers project: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/projects/paired-peers
Explore the Russel Group’s Informed Choices: https://www.informedchoices.ac.uk/
Discover the facilitating subjects: https://successatschool.org/advice/subjects/what-are-facilitating-subjects/204
Timestamps:
01:58 – Jessie’s story and how she came to write the book
05:37 – It’s about resources given to schools, not individual teachers
08:24 – Jake’s story
22:04 – Aspiration and the surprising difference between working and middle-class children
30:39 – Blocking and the GSCE/A Level options available at different schools
40:19 – The missed chance to level the playing field during COVID
45:12 – Where can change be made?
Intro music:
Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax
Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
Follow the Transforming Society blog to be told when new articles and podcasts publish: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/follow-the-blog/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
Emotions and the ‘truths’ of contentious politics
In this episode, Richard Kemp speaks with Anna Durnova, one of the guest editors for the Emotions and Society special issue on 'Emotions and the ‘Truths’ of Contentious Politics: Advances in Research on Emotions, Knowledge, and Contemporary Contentious Politics'.
They discuss the weaponisation of truth, the important difference between being told you are safe and feeling you are safe and the need to bring the harnessing of emotions back to democracy.
Read the special issue: https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/view/journals/emsoc/5/3/emsoc.5.issue-3.xml
Intro music:
Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax
Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Should we be aiming to improve prisons, or abolish them?
In this episode, George Miller talks to the author of What are Prisons for?, prison inspector and visiting professor of law at Oxford Hindpal Singh Bhui, about why we lock so many people up.
Prison populations have increased hugely in the past fifty years and vast sums of money are spent to keep over 11.5 million people behind bars, so you might think there is overwhelming evidence that prison ‘works’.
However, hard evidence for this claim is lacking. ‘If we are to understand more about the purpose of prisons,’ Hindpal Singh Bhui argues, ‘we need to look much further and deeper than official statements and dominant narratives.’
Dr Hindpal Singh Bhui OBE is an Inspection Team Leader at HM Inspectorate of Prisons and a Visiting Law Professor at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford.
The full transcript of the podcast is available here: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/2024/04/10/podcast-should-we-be-aiming-to-improve-prisons-or-abolish-them/
Timestamps:
1:50 - What was your earliest impressions of prisons?
4:34 - What is your current role?
5:51 - What are prisons for day in and day out?
11:43 - Who gets sent to prison and why they get sent to prison?
16:15 - Do you think that the abolitionist position helps take the debate forward?
20:12 - How do you begin to have a mature debate about change?
24:36 - Are prisons a sort of epiphenomenon on top of deeper, wider social problems?
27:28 - Were there any things that you discovered where you came upon something surprising or enlightening?
30:10 - What is an example that you think is inspiring or points in a positive direction?
Intro music:
Cold by yoitrax | @yoitrax
Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
Follow the Transforming Society blog to be told when new articles and podcasts publish: https://www.transformingsociety.co.uk/follow-the-blog/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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