ABSTRACT
There are established interdisciplinary bodies of work on the theorisation of race/ ethnicity, gender and social class. These mostly undertake a detailed focus on social divisions as separate entitites, i.e. focusing on either gender, or social class or race/ ethnicity. Some writers actually argue against addressing all three aspects and suggest instead that either there is confl ation between social categories, or that they fall into hierarchies of importance. For example, Lynch and O’Neill (1994) argue that social class is qualitatively different to other indices of social difference, particularly in relation to education, and should thus be addressed separately. However, in this chapter – and indeed in the book as a whole – we want to argue for the utility and importance of addressing race/ethnicity, gender and social class as integrally related issues that need to be collectively theorised if we are to understand pupils’ identities and achievement in schools. We feel that this is important, not just at a theoretical or conceptual level, but also in social terms, as a prerequisite for social justice approaches to educational policy and practice.
