ABSTRACT
What are the usual social purposes of elite schools? The sociological research about such schools in England (Walford 1986), the USA (Khan 2011; Gaztambide-Fernández 2009; Howard 2010), France (Bourdieu and Passeron 1997; Bourdieu and Passeron 1977/2000) and Australia (Connell et al. 1982) indicates that their purpose has primarily been to serve dominant social groupings within the nation state and, to some extent, in the process also to provide an avenue of social mobility for ‘deserving’ members of subaltern populations. Their purpose has been to advantage the advantaged across the generations and, in so doing, to adapt to ensure that the schools keep pace with changing social conditions and groupings in order to stay ahead of the game. This is the conventional, and usually undisputed, wisdom.
