Chapter 4: Beyond Reproduction Theory: A Multi-Level Explanation of Inequality/Difference in Education

Is it possible to develop a satisfactory theory that will account for differences in educational attainment between social and cultural groups? Inequalities in educational opportunity—referred to here as inequality/ difference—have been a persistent feature of all school systems for generations. It will be argued, in a necessarily brief and schematic form, that a realist framework for the sociological explanation of group differences in educational attainment can be made. The first step must be to show that research into inequality/difference requires not quantitative, multivariate, theoretical models, but quantified, multi-level, explanatory narratives. These crucial distinctions must be elaborated through a scrutiny of the standard approaches adopted by the sociology of education.