Chapter 4: Mathematical Marginalisation and Meritocracy: Inequity in an English Classroom

In this chapter I explore the structuring of English children into learning and life trajectories and the part that mathematics has in this process. Using case reports of two ten-year olds in their final year of primary school education, I examine how broader family social milieu impact upon mathematics learning trajectories. Stacey and Edward live not far from one another in a city in the midlands of England and have been in the same class from age 5 to 11 yet their social distance is considerable. Through the mobilisation of various classed and classifying responses to school mathematics they have developed two very different perspectives on the value of mathematical study. This examination of mathematical marginalisation and misrecognised meritocracy raises questions about the extent to which teachers can disrupt such processes.