Reay - Miseducation: inequality, education and the working classes

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by

Policy Press University of Bristol 1-9 Old Park Hill Bristol BS2 8BB UK Tel +44 (0)117 954 5940 e-mail

North American office: Policy Press c/o The University of Chicago Press 1427 East 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637, USA t: +1 773 702 7700 f: +1 773-702-9756 e:

Policy Press 2017

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ISBN 978-1-4473-3065-3 paperback
ISBN 978-1-4473-3066-0 ePub
ISBN 978-1-4473-3067-7 Mobi
ISBN 978-1-4473-3064-6 ePdf

The right of Diane Reay to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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A trenchant portrayal of class processes in twentieth and early twenty-first century England. a must-read for all those interested in educational opportunities, the global economy, and the ways in which working-class individuals and collectivities construct and live under conditions of massively intensifying inequalities.

Lois Weis, State University of New York, University at Buffalo, USA, Author of Class Reunion: The Remaking of the American White Working Class

No one has done more than Diane Reay to confront the complex emotions in living class inequalities in education. Her heartbreaking volume bears damning witness to neoliberalisms contributions to the injuries of class.

Lynne Layton, Harvard Medical School

Miseducation is both intellectually compelling and inspiring in the way it systematically exposes the myth of meritocracy in economically unequal societies. It will inspire those who read it to work cooperatively for social justice both in education and society.

Kathleen Lynch, University College Dublin, School of Education

This searing critique of how schools and universities fail the working class and reproduce inequalities should be at the heart of contemporary debates on education.

Andrew Sayer, University of Lancaster

This book is dedicated to Emily Smart, my grandmother and the most positive influence on my childhood. She defied poverty and a lack of education to become a lay Baptist preacher, despite being a cleaner and the wife of a coal miner. She cared about everyone she met, shared what little she had and never judged. It is also dedicated to my grandchildren, Scarlett Saitowitz, Max Saitowitz, and Cato Gokita-Reay. I write because of the past but also because, above all, I want you to live in a fair, socially just world where all children are loved, respected and able to develop their potential regardless of creed, race, class and gender.

What are the 21st century challenges shaping our lives today and in the future? At this time of social, political, economic and cultural disruption, this exciting series, published in association with the British Sociological Association, brings pressing public issues to the general reader, scholars and students. It offers standpoints to shape public conversations and a powerful platform for both scholarly and public debate, proposing better ways of understanding, and living in, our world.

Series Editors: Les Back, Goldsmiths, Pam Cox, University of Essex and Nasar Meer, University of Edinburgh

Forthcoming titles in this series:

Making sense of Brexit by Victor J. Seidler

Snobbery by David Morgan

Whats wrong with work? by Lynne Pettinger

Money by Mary Mellor

Diane Reay grew up in a working-class coal-mining community before becoming an inner-city primary school teacher for 20 years. She is now Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge and visiting Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, with particular interests in social justice issues in education, and cultural analyses of social class, race and gender. She has researched extensively in the areas of social class, gender and ethnicity across primary, secondary and post-compulsory stages of education.

My thinking has benefited from the ideas and insights of many people. Firstly, the colleagues I have collaborated with on research projects over a period of 20 years: Louise Archer, Madeleine Arnot, Stephen Ball, Phoebe Bedell, Jackie Brine, John Clayton, Gill Crozier, Miriam David, Fiona Jamieson, Becky Francis, Val Hey, Sumi Hollingworth, David James, Cath Lambert, Carole Leathwood, Helen Lucey, Heidi Mirza, Caroline Oliver and Katya Williams.

I have also benefited greatly from conversations with Kathleen Lynch, Jessica Gerrard, Christy Kulz, Karin Doolan, Garth Stahl, David Pomeroy, Sophie Wee, Derron Wallace, Mona Jebril, Cora Xu, He Li, Lucy Howson, Birgland Magnsdttir, Jessie Abrahams and Sol Gamsu.

More specifically in relation to this book I owe a debt of gratitude to the two people who read my draft and gave me feedback. Les Back commented on my first full draft, while Julian Meteyard, as always, provided honest, unflinching reflections throughout the writing process.

The biggest debt though, as always, is to the parents and young people who gave so generously of their time and expertise. I hope I have done them justice.

Education and the Working Class a much broader web of social relationships, including those of life style, educational experiences and patterns of residence. As will become evident throughout the book, the lived experiences of the working classes whom I am trying to portray are also lived relationships both with their class others as well as with those who share the same class.