ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the conceptual and empirical basis of rational action theories of educational decision-making. The fundamental assumption of these theories is that young people’s decisions must be understood in terms of their location within objective social structures. When averaged over large groups of individuals in similar situations, these decisions produce and reproduce structural patterns of inequality without requiring systematic class differences in the principles underlying them. Although class-based differences in educational performance are an important part of rational action theories, they are not the most important factor influencing attainment. More significant is the cumulative impact of educational decisions over an educational career, which progressively marginalizes disadvantaged young people or excludes them from education completely. The chapter begins by introducing the important distinction between inequalities in performance and choice, referred to by Raymond Boudon (1974) as the primary and secondary effects of social stratification (Boudon 1974). The main features of rational action theory in education are then outlined, particularly in relation to its formulation by Boudon (1974) and by Breen and Goldthorpe (1997). The chapter then discusses more recent developments, including attempts to test rational action theory empirically, and highlights some of the aspects confirmed – or otherwise – by these analyses. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role of class in rational action theories of educational decisions.
