Creating a fairer Britain
This enquiry explores how we judge and channel young people into certain schools, roles and careers based on perceptions about their social class?. It asks:
The Sutton Trust exists to widen educational opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. They say there is evidence that the UK has less social mobility than other developed nations. Social mobility is the extent to which an individual or family can move out of their social status (either up or down, but ideally up). Research shows that there is a big class divide in the UK in the ways that families and schools nurture children towards future careers. For example, middle class parents may be more able to arrange good work placements and help with university applications that will lead to ambitious goals. Working class parents may have to leave it to schools to arrange things such as work experience which may not raise aspirations in the same way. (For more about this research see section 5 of Social Mobility: A background review http://www.socialmobilitycommission.org/ippr-social-mobility.pdf)
A vicious circle happens where colleges and employers lower their expectations about young people who haven’t had the same opportunities to reach their full potential and develop their ambitions. This is combined with pressure from peers who reinforce ‘groupthink’, that is better to be passive about their futures.
Imagine that you run a college course in psychology that is very popular. There is one place left and you have to interview two students for it. First in is Miranda, who is confident, looks you straight in the eye and shakes your hand. You ask her why she is so keen to study psychology and she talks brightly about how she wants to understand what causes eating disorders and cure them. She has been taken to talks at the Institute of Psychiatry and has interviewed some of its academics, as her mother has contacts there and is trying to arrange a work placement. Despite this, she isn’t taking science A levels and only did really well in her creative subjects at GSCE. Next up is Kirsty, a very shy girl who went to an underachieving secondary school. She says she wants a place because it’s supposed to be a good course but she hasn’t had the opportunity to visit a university or do a work placement so knows less about what she would like to achieve in her career. Her reports show she is clever, with good GCSEs in sociology and maths. When you get her talking you see that she is interested in what makes people tick based on personal experiences of care for relatives and friends.
Who do you give the place to? Why? How is your group split in their decision?
Billingham is an artist-photographer from a very poor family background in the Black Country. He became well known when he was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2001, exhibiting some images of his elderly parents which were published in a book called ‘Ray’s A Laugh’. He paid tribute to his parents in these photographs, showing their humanity and humour despite their obvious deprivation. He has also made other series of photographs, for example a book inspired by his childhood visits to Dudley Zoo. He studied painting at two universities, in Birmingham then in Sunderland, and now lectures in Fine Art Photography at the University of Gloucestershire. More about the artist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Billingham
Although Abdu’Allah is a successful artist and photography lecturer he also chooses to work in an East London barber shop. He feels that doing a practical service job can be positive and enjoyable. His artworks are interesting for this topic because they explore how people express their family, clan or religious identity in visual ways. He explores the power of the group to shape and control you. For example, he photographed London’s white mafia bosses (Goldfinger, 2007). His most recent work, Chasing Mirrors is a merging of portraits of young Arabic people from Brent, Barnet and Ealing: http://www.npg.org.uk/about/press/chasing-mirrors.php. His main website: http://faisalabduallah.com/