Education and Equality: Myth or Reality?

The acquisition of higher levels of education is often seen as the main route through which people can escape from the social disadvantage they are born into and climb the social ladder. However, whether education is the great social equalizer is a disputed issue. What does the evidence tell us? Is Scotland a meritocratic society? Based on research which used large-scale quantitative data, this talk will discuss the extent to which family still matters for people’s education and labour market outcomes, and the diversity of pathways that people from different social origins follow.

For as long as there have been schools there have been pupils who don’t behave as teachers would like. How we understand the reasons for that behaviour shapes how we respond to it and how we respond to it has consequences. In this talk, explanations for disruptive behaviour from different disciplinary perspectives (sociology and psychology) will be introduced. Then current research will be shared, still at the data collection stage, which aims to explore why some young people move down a medicalisation route whilst others with similar behaviour do not, and what difference it makes to their experiences.