212 pages
228mm x 145mm
ISBN-10: 1 85856 330 5
ISBN-13: 978 1 85856 330 5
April 2005
'I readily identified with the life stories told here and would recommend Degrees of Choice to all involved or interested in going beyond government rhetoric to widen participation in H.E.' - Studies in the Education of Adults
'This excellent book provides a rich and exiting set of theories and evidence which are a valuable addition to this under-researched field. It also provides a highly informed and complex framework for understanding choice in higher education, and the significance and power of ethnicity and racism in educational settings'. - Ethnic and Racial Studies
This eloquently written and thoroughly researched book…..should be essential reading, not only for all those in the field of widening participation and higher education (including government ministers and policy advisers), but also anyone with an interest in the persistence of class and other inequalities. I thoroughly recommend it.
- Gender and Education
Degrees of Choice provides a sophisticated account of the overlapping effects of social class, ethnicity and gender in the process of choosing which university to attend. The shift from an elite to a mass system has been accompanied by much political rhetoric about widening access, achievement-for-all and meritocratic equalisation.
This book gives a full and different picture, drawing on qualitative and quantitative data to show how the welcome expansion of higher education has also deepened social stratification, generating new and different inequalities. While gender inequalities have reduced, those of social class remain and are now reinforced by racial inequalities in access. Employing perspectives from the sociology of education and particularly Bourdieu's work on distinction and judgement, the book links school (institutional habitus) and family (class habitus) with individual choice making in a socially informed dynamic.
The contradictions and tensions arising from attempts to expand student numbers rapidly are vividly brought alive through the narratives of prospective applicants to higher education. Students are seen to confront vastly different degrees of choice that are powerfully shaped by their social class and race.
This rich empirical study of 500 applicants to higher education draws on an award winning enquiry funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. It will be essential reading in sociology, social policy and education, and important to higher education providers and careers teachers.
Dr Diane Reay is Professor of Education at London Metropolitan University.
Dr Miriam E. David is Professor of Policy Studies in the Department of Education at Keele University and author of Personal and Political (Trentham 2003).
Dr Stephen Ball is Karl Mannheim Professor at the London Institute of Education.
