Making Sense of Mass Education

This chapter argues that while we all have a pretty good idea what is meant by the term ‘social class’, it is far from being a straightforward matter. After all, there is only tenuous agreement about exactly what it is, how prevalent it is, how it organises the life opportunities of our citizens and how best to study it. To make it more difficult still, this is a subject that many feel uncomfortable discussing, let alone applying to themselves or anyone else.

In attempting to better understand the relationship between social class and education in Australia, this chapter will ask questions about just how equal Australian society actually is, how schooling success might be more likely for some than others and why money isn’t everything. In doing so, it will trace important changes in the way the social sciences have tried to explain this phenomenon. Most notably, these changes involve a shift away from a focus on economic and structural aspects of social class to a greater emphasis on issues of cultural practice.