five - Social reproduction: issues of aspiration and attainment

Summary

‘I was talking with my wife the other day, and basically my gift to my children … you could say inheritance, what I pass on to them, is that they’ve all achieved a university education. If they’ve done that then I’ll feel I’ve done my bit as a parent.’ (Pakistani, male, Newham)

Introduction

Nowhere is the changing ethnic composition of East London shown more dramatically than in its schools. We discuss two key issues in this chapter – those concerning aspiration and attainment – which we introduced in the previous chapter. In this chapter, we focus on how they are operationalised, delivered and achieved on the ground in relationship to education and the schooling system. Our starting point is that there is a strong sense of aspiration among the middle classes, broadly defined, of East London, which is particularly marked among some minority ethnic groups for whom education is the key to upward social mobility and the realisation of often long-held aspirations, as outlined in the previous chapter. The problem is that the education system in London and particularly East London has long been characterised by low expectations and low attainment – partly, but not exclusively, as an outcome of its history as an area of long-term working-class settlement. There are important differences in educational attainment across London boroughs including in East London where some are top performers but the overall level is poor, thus reflecting the more general west–east division of advantage/disadvantage. Differences also exist in attainment according to ethnicity and social class. Ethnic segregation in schools is also a particular issue in parts of East London, while in other parts there is an unusual degree of ethnic mixing. The means of achieving educational aspirations are therefore mediated by class, ethnicity and geography.

In this chapter we draw on two main data sources to examine these issues: first, official educational statistics produced either by local education authorities (LEAs) or central government (the Department for Children, Schools and Families [DCSF], or its predecessors and successor) and, second, data derived from the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) and the related National Pupil Database (NPD) to which we were granted access for schools in our East London study area. In subsequent chapters we develop this analysis and draw extensively on our own survey and interview data to indicate the extent and different ways in which parents ‘strategise’ to achieve this.