The Perils of Meritocracy and investing in Social Mobility

Diane Reay

University of Cambridge

‘A programme for destroying collective structures which may impede the pure market logic’.

(Pierre Bourdieu)

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They are tested again and again … If they have been labelled ‘dunce’ repeatedly they cannot any longer pretend; their image of themselves is more nearly a true, unflattering reflection’

(Michael Young ‘The Rise of the Meritocracy, page 107).

Tracey: I think even now, at night times I think about my SATs and I think I'm going to get them.

Diane: You think about your SATs at night time?

Tracey: Yeah, lots. When I'm in bed, because I've got stars on my ceiling, I'm hoping and I look up and I go, 'I know I'm gonna get there'. And my mum goes, 'Who's talking in there?' And I goes, 'Nothing mum'.

Diane: So what are you hoping?

Tracey: Um, I think about a three. I dunno. I don't think I'll get a five. I'm hoping to get a five. When I look at the stars I hope I'll get a five.

Jackie: Our teacher’s saying if we don't like, get good things, in our SATS, when we grow up we are not gonna get good jobs and...

Terry: Be plumbers and road-sweepers...

Tunde: But what if you wanted to do that?

Diane: Instead of what?

Terry: Footballers, singers, vets, archaeologists. We ain't gonna be nothing like that if we don't get high levels.

Diane: And does that worry you about your future?

Jackie: Yeah.

Lewis: Yeah.

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And I’ve been hearing that if you don’t get into any of the good schools they send you to one of the rubbish schools. In school I’ve been hearing everyone saying ‘I hope I don’t go to Chiltern’ and stuff like that. So I then thought that was really awful because all the kids there are bad and no good at learning.

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(George, white English, working class)

Deerpark is still going to be rubbish when it’s changed… because there are still the same students and the students are crap.

(Teyfik, Turkish, working class)

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Well, I wouldn’t say this in front of other people, but there’s no one here whose going to it, I think Chiltern is good for the not so intelligent people, but for the intelligent people it’s not good enough (Alex, white middle class)

They [the lions] think they are better than us. They think they are good at every single thing and the second group, Tigers, there are some people that think they are good and more important than us. And one of the boys in giraffes he was horrible to me and he said ‘get lost slow tortoise’ but my group are monkeys and we are only second to bottom.

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Satvinder: Right now, because I'm in the bottom set for everything I don't like it, because I'm only doing the foundation paper, and I don't … I really don't want to do that. Because from Year 6 when I left I went I'm going to put my head down, and do my work, but I never did. And then it … like, every year I say it, but I never do it. […] I haven't even done it this year either. […] Yeah, I could have, like, gone to a better higher place, and then I could have done everything I was hoping to.

Diane: And now?

Satvinder: There is no hope.

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Atik: I think I failed proper badly in the tests and that’s why I’m in a proper bad set now … I can just answer the questions really easy because there’s like no really smart people and they behave quite bad as well and they influence me … So I’ve just become rubbish.

Diane: If you had a choice what would you choose to learn?

Jason: Nothing.

George: Nothing.

Andy: No idea.

Paul: Definitely nothing!

Some kids they just can’t do it, like they find the work too hard, or they can’t concentrate because too much is going on for them. Then they are put like as rubbish learners and put in the bottom set, and no one cares about them even though they are the ones who need the most help. They should be getting the most help.

Today only 4 per cent of doctors,

6 per cent of barristers

11 per cent of journalists are drawn from working-class backgrounds.

Friedman and Laurison’s research found that individuals with parents who are doctors are 24 times more likely to be doctors than those whose parents did any other type of work, while people with parents who are lawyers are 17 times more likely to go into law.

National Audit office June 2021

1.2% average real-terms reduction in per-pupil schools block funding between 2017-18 and 2020-21 for the most deprived fifth of schools, compared with an increase of 2.9% for the least deprived fifth of schools

‘Schools would not segregate the like but mingle the unlike; by promoting diversity within unity, they would teach respect for the infinite human differences which are not the least of mankind’s virtues. Schools would not regard children as shaped once and for all by nature but as a combination of potentials which can be cultivated by nurture”.

(Michael Young, The Rise of the Meritocracy)