Class Talk: Discussing Social Class with English Undergraduates and Sixth-Formers

Abstract

The research described here draws upon a qualitative study of 120 final-year undergraduates to understand the way these students perceived concepts of social class and to explore their understandings of the relationship between social class and education. In addition, sixth-form A-level Sociology students essayed A Logical Approach to Social Class. In conclusion, the chapter reflects on the effectiveness of the pedagogical approaches adopted that aimed to engage students with sociological concepts of social class. In a context in which there has been a recent revival of interest in class and class analysis in England, along with suggestions that sclerotic class divisions in the country are at last changing or have changed, the student accounts retailed in this chapter offer insights into how younger people, growing up in this situation, understand standard academic and other social class schemes. Their conceptions of class and classlessness are contrasted with those of their mainly older teachers who, according to this account, may have grown up in a different class reality. This only adds to the inherent confusions between class of origin and class of destination that were also discussed with the students in the context of the prevailing ideology of social mobility through education. However, it is suggested that even the rejection of social class ascription by a minority of students can be seen as a form of class consciousness, particularly when this is conjoined to conspiracy theories. Misconceptions of individualism are also shown to be influenced by some students’ religious beliefs, as well as to the sociological paradox of a society of individuals. However, most participants’ place themselves in the middle – ‘between the snobs and the yobs’, as it has been said – whether they also see themselves as ‘working class’ or not, and this further indicates the influence of prevalent contemporary political discourse.