6 - Social class and parental attitudes to education and career choices

Summary

Parental attitudes and support for education in the home are often posited as key factors in educational outcomes and access to higher education (Kirk et al, 2011). Moreover, since the late 1980s, there has been an increased outsourcing of educational learning to the home (Buckingham and Scanlon, 2003) and an expectation that working-class parents will take on responsibility for reversing educational inequality (Reay, 2017). International research has explored parents’ orientations to further and higher education and how the nature of parental involvement can vary significantly depending on socio-economic background (Ball et al, 2002a; Irwin and Elley, 2011 and 2012). In their research on ethnicity, social class and participation in higher education, Ball et al (2002a) found that college-educated parents are able to mobilise various forms of support and information and are directly involved in choice-making, for instance in making visits to universities and commenting on university application forms. Similarly, Crozier et al (2008) argue that parental knowledge and social networks contribute to a sense of ‘university entitlement’ among middle-class young people, which is largely absent in the case of their working-class counterparts (see also Evans, 2009). A number of studies indicate that while working-class parents value higher education and often have high expectations for their children, their efforts to support them are hampered by unfamiliarity with college requirements, concerns about affordability and limited awareness of financialaid opportunities (Ball et al, 2002a; Kirk et al, 2011). On the other hand, Irwin and Elley (2011), while acknowledging the links between social class and familial orientations to higher education, caution against overstating the internal homogeneity of middle-class and working-class experience. Studies in the US and the UK have highlighted the fact that parental orientations to education can vary within, as well as across, classes, and can change over time, in response to a number of factors (see Goldenberg, 2001; Mistry et al, 2009; Irwin and Elley, 2011 and 2012).

Bourdieu's model has been an influence on the analysis of differences in parenting styles between social classes. As sociologist and educationist, Annette Lareau (2011: 361), puts it:

Pierre Bourdieu provides a context for examining the impact of social class position

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