Social Class and Quality of Education

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One of the concerns regarding social justice in education is that there are marginalised groups within society do not having equal access to the learning and life opportunities that they deserve. The concept of social justice stresses that every individual within society is entitled to have equal rights and opportunities. This means that an individual from a lower class background deserves the same opportunities as a person from a wealthier background. It is about becoming aware and recognising that there are certain situations where the application of the same rules to unequal groups can sometimes lead to imbalanced results. It is therefore crucial that the government create a curriculum that can empower every student regardless of their social background and that they can easily identify the groups of people that are facing such inequalities. In a time where we are living in an uncertain globalized economy it is vital that the government take appropriate actions to minimise such inequalities. Even in today’s society, social class still remains one of the strongest indicators of educational achievement in the UK, where the social class gap for educational achievement is one of the most significant, illustrating both the extent of wider social inequality in the UK, and an impediment to meritocracy and social mobility.

The national curriculum is a piece of legislation that was implemented by the government in 1989 as a guide to schools to define what students were expected to learn and how the information was to be delivered. Learning is therefore something that is planned and guided as it has to be specified in advance what we are seeking to achieve and how we are to go about it. John Kerr defines curriculum as, 'All the learn...

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...one to achieve, to excel, to prepare for life.’ This begs the question as to whether a school is successful in teaching a class. Anyon has shown that the process of learning is tailored differently depending on the individual’s social class. Even though the students’ are equipped with the necessary tools to become functionally literate within their community the quality of education is unequally distributed which means it is very hard for working class children to acquire the correct grades and knowledge needed to work in higher paying jobs and prestige companies.

Works Cited

Kelly, A. V. (1983; 1999) The Curriculum. Theory and practice 4e, London: Paul Chapman.

Blenkin, G. M. et al (1992) Change and the Curriculu,, London: Paul Chapman

Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work JEAN ANYON (From: Journal of Education, Vol. 162, no. 1, Fall 1980.)

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