Despite the mass expansion of the higher education sector in the UK since the 1960s, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds remain less likely to enter university (and in particular, elite institutions) than their advantaged counterparts. This paper gives an overview of my new book Schooling Inequality (Abrahams, 2024) which explores the aspirations, experiences, and opportunities of young people from different social-class backgrounds in England against a backdrop of continuing inequalities in education and society. Schooling Inequality questions the political rhetoric which assumes that social class determines aspirations and that anyone can make it if they work hard enough, aim high enough and make the best choices. Rather, this work highlights how the everyday structures and practices of schooling render young people more or less able to pursue a desired career or higher education pathway despite high aspirations. This is done through a focus on three schools in one city in England. Grand Hill Grammar (an independent fee-paying school), Einstein High (a state-maintained school in a wealthy area) and Eagles Academy (a state-maintained school in a disadvantaged area). The fieldwork undertaken included a survey of over 800 pupils in years 7, 9 and 11 in each school, semi-structured interviews with 6-8 pupils per year per school and one careers advisor per school (n=60). Alongside considering young people’s personal narratives and experiences, the book adopts a Bourdieusian lense to focus in on the reproductive nature of the schools themselves (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1990); paying close attention to how pupils’ opportunities and aspirations are shaped relationally within the different institutional contexts.

This paper will give an overview of the research study and the book as a whole before delving into one specific chapter to provide an example of inequalities in action. Specifically, I will speak about Chapter 5 which looks at the opportunity structures in each school which serve to enhance or restrict pupils’ chances of fulfilling their aspirations. This is done through a consideration of the different General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) subject choice combinations available to pupils in each school and the implications of this in relation to the ‘value’ attributed to pupils. GCSE ‘option time’ is framed as a key moment in which young people make ‘life directing choices’ which will either open-up or shut-down future pathways. This chapter interrogates the concept of ‘choice’, highlighting how Eagles Academy pupils, as well as having a limited range of subject options, are faced with a timetable blocking system which further restricts their choices. In contrast, the Grand Hill and Einstein High pupils experience a wide and unrestricted landscape of subject options.

Choice is a key process in any student's educational trajectory (Ball et al., 2000). Current research has focused on comprehending the role that these transformative processes play in the increasing significance of reproducing social and educational inequalities among young people (Tarabini & Ingram, 2018; Tarabini, 2022). Its complex and multi-causal nature, involving structural, institutional, relational, and subjective factors, has been consistently underscored (Cuconato & Walther, 2015). Yet, despite the emphasis on its crucial role in students’ life opportunities and conditions, the notion of choice remains conceptually unclear, and its approach diverse and at times inconsistent.

The aim of this paper is to present a Systematic Literature Review examining how European research addresses the sense-making of students’ educational path choices. Specifically, the starting question driving this study is “How do students chose among educational paths?”. Employing a mixed approach, the review consists of two parts. On the one hand, it establishes a state-of-the-art analysis and draws up a mapping that seeks to characterise the main elements of the literature under consideration, including theoretical frameworks, methodological approach, techniques of inquiry and focus of the study. On the other hand, a critical content analysis is conducted to examine the explanations given for the phenomena and to identify the main gaps in the existing literature.

The results reveal an over-representation of English-speaking countries in the literature on educational choices, with a predominant use of theoretical frameworks centred on Theories of Practice or Theories of Agency, and a focal analysis on Upper secondary choices. As for the explanatory factors, there is a majority tendency to identify gender, ethnicity, and social class -especially the latter- as key elements in students' educational choices. Social identity and learner identity also emerge as central influences, along with the socialising agents in the student's environment, particularly the family and the peer group. Finally, within the educational field, the role of teachers, the school effect and the stratification of the educational system are emphasised as explanatory elements to be taken into account. The review concludes by pointing out the main gaps found in the literature.

The potential contributions of this paper involve identifying the main trends and, more importantly, the main gaps present in the literature on educational choice. Thus, the study allows us to point out the black boxes that are yet to be unravelled for future research on this phenomenon.

Within the context of this symposium, this presentation serves to outline the current research on educational choices. Its goal is to provide a comprehensive framework and elucidate how the other presentations can contribute to enhancing the existing knowledge on this subject, ultimately addressing and filling in the gaps that still need exploration.

Women’s entry into the early childhood workforce has been explored through the notions of redemption and morality (Vincent & Braun, 2010). As a workforce, early childhood is dominated by women who leave school with few other employment options (Andrew, 2016), raising the question of how far childcare as a career path can be considered a choice (Vincent, Braun & Ball, 2008). The neoliberal regulation of the workforce, and the deliberate policy incentives that maintain the continuation of women’s oppression, have prevented a rise in the status or pay of the sector (Brooks, 2023). This paper builds upon these notions, exploring how practitioners themselves view their ‘choice’ to enter the profession, and the level of skill they perceive their work involves. A neoliberal conceptualisation of choice is presented, in its promotion of individualism and accountability in career choices and also how it influences career success. The performance of compliance (Sims & Waniganayake, 2015) under this neoliberal regulation is explored in light of the data, highlighting women’s continued marginalisation within the workforce and how this is navigated by the practitioners themselves. Drawing on Bourdieusian conceptualisations of habitus, this paper explores the role of choice in women’s professional identities and the extent to which the women themselves consider their work skilled.

In 2010, a profound reform of higher education in Ecuador was initiated, which installed a single admission system based on a standardized exam. However, merit-based admission systems do not necessarily eliminate social inequalities (Alon & Tienda, 2007; Liu, 2011); they could instead reproduce entry barriers (vertical) or create inequality gaps based on hierarchies of prestige and quality between higher education institutions or careers (horizontal) (McCowan, 2016). This has been explained by the effect of socioeconomic origin and other forms of social exclusion on academic results and higher education choices (Hodkinson & Sparkes, 1997; Reay et al., 2001). At the theoretical level the study conceives choices as the outcome of a process of complex negotiations in which structural factors and individual agency interact (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990; Reay et al., 2001), beyond the conception where choices are understood solely from the perspective of rational adjustment of costs and benefits (Breen & Goldthorpe, 1997). In this sense, perspectives such as Glaesser and Cooper (2014) combine elements of both theories, arguing that choices are generated from rational adjustments within culturally delimited horizons of possibilities.

The research aims to identify how vertical and horizontal inequalities manifest in the current admission system to Ecuadorian higher education. This mixed methods study had a quantitative phase in which multivariate analyses were developed on 68,479 cases from the national database of applications for access to higher education. In the qualitative phase, 26 semi-structured interviews were conducted with first-year students enrolled in one of the largest and oldest public universities in the country.

The quantitative analysis shows the existence of vertical and horizontal inequality reproduction. Variables such as low socioeconomic level, life experiences associated with "non-traditional" students, and previous educational conditions of disadvantage determine lower application scores and lower probabilities of choosing highly selective institutions/careers, irrespective of their test score. Particularly, students benefiting from affirmative action policies, which grant them additional scores in their admission tests, even when they are in the top quintile of scores, choose highly selective institutions/careers in less proportion than non-policy applicants.

The qualitative phase explores the shaping of high and low selectivity career choices among affirmative action beneficiaries with high admission scores. It analyzes the symbolic, social, and material elements of social class in choices, extending beyond score-based adjustments. Results highlight the strong impact of conditioning factors like socio-economic origin, geographical location, family involvement, and preparation courses, consistent in both quantitative and qualitative phases.

Various adjustments or rationalities influencing low or high selectivity career choices are evident. Students make adjustments, including cost-benefit maximization, practical decisions, and high or low-risk choices. Arguments intertwine with scores, career preferences, and sociocultural determinants linked to social disadvantage. The study also reveals that academic merit alone fails to explain choices, as meanings like luck or fate are tied to university access.

These findings suggest implications for public education policy, emphasizing the need for measures beyond bonus scores. Mobility support, system information dissemination, public exam preparation, and financial assistance can be address inequality gaps.

This paper seeks to understand the conditions that enable French middle- and upper-class families to decouple their residential and school choices.

Residential segregation stands as a significant factor contributing to school segregation in France, where public education operates under a catchment zone system assigning students to nearby public schools. Despite this, students can secure exemptions, allowing attendance at alternate public schools, often for specialized programs. Additionally, private education operates independently of catchment areas, and 17% of French students are enrolled in relatively affordable private schools. While various researchers have explored French middle-class parents’ strategies to access different schools (van Zanten, 2009), fewer studies have examined how families select their houses to target specific schools, and existing research focuses on the Paris urban area (Oberti, 2007; Oberti & Ramond, 2020). Despite the centralized nature of the French educational system, variations exist in school geographies and housing markets across cities. Through a comparison of two urban areas with contrasting school offerings, this study aims to investigate how middle- and upper-class parents consider schools when selecting housing within French urban settings.

This study draws on a comparative analysis of Lille and Toulouse, two cities with different educational characteristics. In Lille, urban and school segregation rates are high and 45% of students attend private schools. Toulouse’s schools are less segregated and only 17% of students are enrolled in private education. I conducted 90 interviews with middle- and upper-class parents living in different types of neighborhood in the two urban areas.

Contrary to observations made by some sociologists regarding middle- and upper-class parents (Lareau & Goyette, 2014; Oberti, 2007), the vast majority of interviewees stated that they did not consider school offerings when choosing their house. Building on this observation, the paper seeks to understand the conditions that enable these families to decouple their residential and school choices.

What these families consider a good neighborhood to live are often places with good school options. However, the decoupling of residential and school choices is also driven by the perception of the housing market as more constraining than the school market. Many French families aspire to homeownership (Bugeja-Bloch, 2013), which makes selecting a house a long-term familial commitment and investment that implies considering numerous criteria. Therefore, there is little room to factor in schools.

Additionally, French parents are more concerned about the transition to secondary school than they are about primary school, which possibly explains why residential changes associated with children’s birth are not yet accompanied by concerns about school choice. The interviews suggest they do not imagine a situation with no alternative to their local schools, whether in Lille or in Toulouse, despite the uneven presence of private schools in the two cities. Overall, even though French education is based on catchment zones, the “unofficial school market” (Felouzis & Perroton, 2007) contributes to decouple housing and school choices in urban contexts.

Ultimately, families who considered school options when choosing housing were typically those who had another reason to relocate as their children approached secondary education.