Introduction: a personal reflection -- Why can’t education compensate for society? -- The recent history of class in education -- Working-class educational experiences -- Class in the classroom -- Social mobility: a problematic solution -- The middle and upper classes: getting the ‘best’ for your own child -- Class feeling: troubling the soul and preying on the psyche -- Conclusion -- Epilogue: thinking through class.

"In this book Diane Reay, herself working class turned Cambridge professor, brings Brian Jackson and Dennis Marsden’s pioneering Education and the Working Class from 1962 up to date for the 21st century.

Drawing on over 500 interviews, the book, part of the 21st Century Standpoints series published in association with the British Sociological Association, includes rich, vivid stories from working class children and young people. It looks at class identity, the inadequate sticking plaster of social mobility, and the effects of wider economic and social class relationships on working class educational experiences.

The book addresses the urgent question of why the working classes are still faring so much worse than the upper and middle classes in education. It reveals how we have ended up with an educational system that still educates the different social classes in fundamentally different ways, and vitally – what we can do to achieve a fairer system." Taken from back cover.