An Account of the Sociology of Education: II

Abstract

THE analyses of sociologists and their recommendations have been in the direction of expansionist and egalitarian educational policies. As already argued, expansion would facilitate personal opportunity, and so hasten a more just society. Also it would pro­vide more trained, skilled manpower as demanded by the needs of the economy. The ‘pool of ability’ would be further tapped to provide personal and public advantage. At the same time, interventionist programmes could assist those whose social environment did not facilitate educational opportunity and educational success. In many Western societies a great deal of the publicised educational efforts of the 1960s was devoted to policies which would implement such purposes. Yet, by now, there is a disillusionment with such policies and a growing questioning by sociologists of the basis on which they have been established. The expansion of systems of higher education and the proliferation of qualifications have not readily brought greater equality, nor have existing elite groups been challenged by those with new educational qualifications. As Giddens has noted,

the educational qualifications associated with recruitment to elite groupings still tend to be very much those associated with a background of material privilege. What influences elite recruitment is not that the aspirant possesses a degree in physics or in engineering, but that the degree is conferred at Oxford or at Harvard … it is everywhere true that ownership of wealth and property continues to play a fundamental part in facilitating access to the sort of educational process which influences entry to elite positions.¹