Social mobility and post-compulsory education: revisiting Boudon’s model of social opportunity

Abstract

This paper uses Raymond Boudon’s model of educational expansion to examine the relationship between education and social mobility, paying particular attention to post-compulsory education – an important site of social differentiation in England. The paper shows how Boudon focuses explicitly on the consequences of educational expansion, and argues that his work helps us understand why widening access to post-compulsory education does not necessarily lead to higher rates of social mobility. We investigate Boudon’s key theoretical insights and assess the contemporary relevance of his model. The paper argues that the fundamental assumptions of Boudon’s model not only remain valid, but have been intensified by systemic changes in English post-compulsory education, and its articulation with the labour market.

Keywords:

• social mobility
• Boudon
• post-compulsory education
• positional theories

Notes

1. Odds are calculated by dividing the probability of an event occurring (e.g. someone from class C1 reaching educational level E1) by the probability of it not occurring. However, odds taken in isolation can be misleading – if educational opportunities increase for all, the odds of reaching a high level will also increase for all, but the odds of one class relative to another may not change to the same extent. An odds ratio is the odds for one class divided by the odds for a comparison class (Sullivan, Heath, and Rothon 2011). Large odds ratios indicate high degrees of inequality; if an odds ratio remains constant over time, this implies that any reduction in inequality is due to expansion alone.