Option blocks that block options: exploring inequalities in GCSE and A Level options in England

Abstract

Despite the expansion of the UK higher education (HE) sector, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds remain less likely than their advantaged counterparts to apply for or be offered a place at university. Whilst attempts to widen access have tended to revolve around raising aspirations and attainment, this article makes a case for the consideration of differential access to subjects seen as directly ‘facilitating’ university entry. Through exploring opportunity structures in three secondary schools in England (one private, one state in a wealthy area and one in a socio-economically disadvantaged area), this study highlights inequalities in the GCSE and A Level options presented to pupils. Whilst some schools provide a wide landscape of opportunities and support with constructing subject ‘packages’, others are left to work within timetable blocking systems which restrict subject options. Overall it argues that young people’s academic portfolios must be viewed in the context of the opportunities presented to them.

Keywords:

• Inequality
• school
• options
• higher education
• access
• social class

Acknowledgments

The author would like to acknowledge Professor Ann-Marie Bathmaker and Professor Rachel Brooks for their helpful comments on a first draft of this paper. The author would also like to thank all pupils and careers advisors for their open and honest insights and to all schools for allowing access and enabling the research to take place. Thanks is also due to Professor David James, Dr Sin Yi Cheung, Dr Nicola Ingram, Professor Diane Reay and Professor Louise Archer for their support with the development of this research. Finally the author would like to acknowledge and thank the two anonymous referees for their engagement with this paper and their helpful comments.

Notes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Some schools, such as private schools, have flexibility over this.

2 All schools and participants have been given Pseudonyms.

3 Exact figures have been disguised to protect the anonymity of the schools.

4 NS-SEC (National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification) is the official scale used in the UK to classify occupations. It is most commonly used in a condensed form with groups 1–8 (1 being professional and managerial and 8 being long-term unemployed). Categories 1–3 are typically used to indicate ‘middle-class’.

5 IMD is an index used in the UK to measure and classify the deprivation of an area. It combines various indices of deprivation including income, employment, health, education, crime and more.

6 Sponsor-led academies are state-funded schools which are established and managed by government approved ‘sponsors’ (including businesses, ‘high performing’ schools, elite universities). They are often established to replace local community schools closed down by Ofsted as ‘failed schools’.

7 Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) is the inspectorate and regulatory body for government funded education and children’s services in the UK.

8 Whilst these subjects are not always essential requirements for Architecture, according to the Informed Choices document (Russell Group 2015), some courses require an arts/science mix. They also list maths, design technology (product design is the ‘equivalent’ at Eagles), physics and art as ‘useful’ subjects for this degree pathway.