What is the most significant factor for explaining why some individuals are more successful than others – genetic inheritance, privileged background or luck? Although conventional approaches stress the prime importance of one of these, Tyler argues that such theories fail to deal adequately with the complexity of educational inequality and suggests that Boudon’s model of opportunity and mobility would provide us with a more productive explanation. By applying this model to post-war British education he shows how we might effectively think our approaches to the ‘cycle of deprivation’, comprehensive reform and educational spending.
Editor’s Introduction. 1. The Causal Structure of Educational Inequality. 2. Education and Jobs – the ‘tightening bond’ examined. 3. The School Environment: Does it Matter? 4. Genetics and Inequality: The IQ Debate. 5. Social Background and Attainment. 6. Fairness and Merit: A Reappraisal of Educational Policy. References and Indices.
Biography
William Tyler
