ABSTRACT
Introduction MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN about the demise of social class and other meta-narratives such as gender and nationality. The advent of consumerism and globalization and the decline of Marxism as a political and intellectual force worldwide have at the very least complicated the view that our social positions, identities and affiliations are governed by conventional material differences. Similarly within education, the conventional view that children of different class backgrounds are mapped on to different class trajectories as they move through the school system has been challenged by an educational establishment committed to raising the standards of all children and ensuring that at least half of all young people have access to higher education.
