Processes of middle‐class reproduction in a graduate employment scheme

Abstract

Teach First is an educational charity that places graduates to teach in ‘challenging’ schools for two years. It is marketed as an opportunity to develop employability while ‘making a difference’. In this paper, I examine the process of class reproduction occurring in this graduate employment scheme through examining the discourses used in Teach First marketing and by Teach First participants. I begin by arguing that the Teach First participants interviewed as part of an evaluation were predominantly middle‐class, and possessed social and cultural capital which had facilitated their access to the Teach First scheme. I then illustrate three processes of middle‐class reproduction within Teach First. The first is the accumulation by participants of additional social and cultural capital. The second is the reproduction of middle‐class values and stereotypes of the working‐class other, and the third is the obscuring of middle‐class advantage through discourses of ‘natural ability’. I conclude that although well‐intentioned Teach First participants worked extremely hard to combat educational disadvantage, their actions were twisted by class forces, and resulted in the reproduction of middle‐class privilege.

Keywords:

• graduate employment
• middle‐class reproduction
• Teach First

Acknowledgements

My thanks go to everyone at the Institute for Policy Studies in Education at London Metropolitan University who was involved in collecting this data and who supported me in writing this article, in particular Jocelyn Robson and Merryn Hutchings who read and commented on earlier drafts.

Notes

1. This list of leading employers is compiled by asking more than 15,000 final‐year university students which organisations they feel offer the best prospects for graduates based on the training and development on offer, the quality of the employer’s recruitment promotions and its overall reputation.

2. During the course of the evaluation, the TTA became the Training and Development Agency, TDA.

3. We administered three questionnaires to the first cohort, and two to the second. The response rates were above 90% for all questionnaires, except the final questionnaire to the first cohort, where the planned distribution was affected by the London bombing on 7 July, and the response rate was only 51%.