ABSTRACT
We saw in chapter 4 that much of British sociology in the early postwar stages was concerned with questions of values such as social justice. This had its origins in earlier poverty surveys which were concerned with achieving a fairer society by eliminating gross inequalities of life chances. One important aspect of injustice in our society which caught the attention of sociologists was inequality of opportunity in education. In this chapter I want to concentrate on one feature of that sociological discussion about inequality in education: the relation between social class, language and educational achievement.
