Chapter 1: Introduction

Focusing on the impact of social structure on educational learning, as well as on the traditional issues of equality of educational access, opportunity and outcomes, this collection aims to renew and reinvigorate debate concerning the sociology of school attainment, reassessing its significance in the first decade of the twenty first century.

It has as its central aims not only a reassessment, but also an opening up, and extension, of the intellectual and political lens through which scholastic learning and educational attainment are considered. In this context, the volume aims to present a reassessment of the work of writers such as Basil Bernstein and Pierre Bourdieu, as well as a critical re-examination of central themes concerning such issues as social class, language, school effectiveness and improvement, race, class and gender, as well as the impact of “newer” issues such as ICT, and various forms of “trauma,” as they impact on learning and attainment in educational contexts.